The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Chapter 931: The Companion

"You guys came just in time."

Watching Hattori Heiji get off the motorcycle and lead Toyama Kazuha closer, Mori Kogoro curled his lips, glanced in the direction of Akechi Goro out of the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything.

It's easy to imagine that this is Osaka, their home ground, and the Suzuki family is cooperating with the Osaka police headquarters for security. Any disturbance here cannot be hidden from the son of the police chief's family.

"Sorry, sorry, this is a rare opportunity. Kaito Kid has hardly been to Osaka." Hattori Heiji waved his hand, "Besides, with all of you here, I should come and take a look."

As he spoke, he glanced straight at Xingchuan Hui who was standing aside with a smile on his face, and secretly exclaimed "Huh" in his heart.

Why is Goro Akechi so quiet today... This is not like his style...

Could it be that because there were people from the Suzuki Group in front of him, he needed to maintain his image and not reveal his sinister and mean side too much?

What a cunning guy.

Not knowing what the other party was secretly complaining about in his heart, Xingchuan Hui just watched him approach silently and involuntarily took half a step back.

It's not that he was timid, but facing these friends who were already on good terms with Tang Ze, he always felt uneasy that if he said too much, it would easily reveal certain information. If possible, he really wanted to shorten the duration.

Suzuki Sonoko had no idea about their private lawsuit. She just secretly expressed to Mouri Ran again that she thought Hattori Heiji was a handsome sporty guy, then she took her best friend's hand and led a group of people into the venue.

Standing in an art museum called the Museum of Modern Art, whose interior decoration style is not simple at all and can even be described as very gorgeous, Mouri Ran listened to Suzuki Sonoko introducing the venue and exhibits along the way. She was a little dazed and stared at her best friend's profile with a stunned look.

Although last time, around the Kisaragi Mine Water Painting Exhibition hosted by Kitagawa Yusuke, she had already begun to realize that Suzuki Sonoko had really worked hard to find her own path, and even earlier, when she accepted Karasawa's advice due to the case of her elementary school teacher and began to establish a public welfare aid foundation, she watched how Suzuki Sonoko went from complaining when she saw the financial statements to being able to attend some formal occasions in a proper manner...

She had been watching all of this happen, watching Suzuki Sonoko step by step towards the routine of a Suzuki child, but at this moment, watching her introducing the upcoming exhibition with a bit of excitement, as if she were the owner of the place, she clearly realized that Sonoko had really done it.

"That's amazing..." Mao Lilan couldn't help but praise aloud, "Sonoko is really amazing now."

"Not at all." Suzuki Sonoko was a little embarrassed by her sudden compliment and pushed her away, "You're exaggerating. I didn't participate in much of the work. At most, I went back and forth a few times to check the situation at the venue. Most of the things were still handled by Mr. Nishino and his team."

"Miss, you are too modest. The masters are also very satisfied with your work this time." Upon hearing this, Masato Nishino, who was one step behind her, quickly took over the conversation.

"You're probably just surprised that I actually want to do something serious now." Suzuki Sonoko waved her hand nonchalantly, "After all, I wasn't interested in these things before."

"No, it's really amazing, Sonoko." Mao Lilan held her hand and said seriously, "You should ask Kyogoku to come with you, or at least take some photos for him to see. He will definitely be more fascinated by you as a passionate and strong woman."

“Xiaolan…!”

"It's really unexpected." Looking at the two of them fighting, Conan retracted his gaze and commented, "Sonoko is a person who gets excited for only a few minutes, and she never even got excited for a few minutes about things like work and study."

Like Mao Lilan, even though he knew that his childhood friend had indeed entered a new stage, he had no clear idea of ​​what it was until he saw it with his own eyes.

"What Sonoko said is normal." Tang Ze, who has been involved in almost all of her career lines, shrugged. "She is not lacking in motivation, nor has she ever lacked enthusiasm. She just didn't have interest before. As the daughter of the Suzuki family, even if she has accomplished nothing in her life, as long as she has not violated the social order and morality, everyone will praise her as an excellent young lady. She just lacked interest in these things in the past because of these reasons."

Even if she is the eldest daughter of a chaebol family, it is in line with human psychology.

She must have heard a lot of praise before, and therefore, her threshold must be very high. She has long been accustomed to all kinds of positive responses, so of course she has no initiative to do anything to prove herself or develop her career.

After all, no one would be interested in doing something that would not get positive feedback. For her family, it would not be wrong not to do it. If she really started a business, she might lose all her family assets. So she certainly would not do such a thankless task that would reduce the risk of her own reputation.

Now, the operation of the foundation has brought her a lot of good reputation, and Kitagawa Yusuke's accident has made her very popular. She really feels this sense of accomplishment, so naturally, she will begin to seek progress.

"You think highly of her..." Conan couldn't help but look sideways when he heard him say that.

"Anyway, an ordinary chaebol lady wouldn't be such a good friend of Xiaolan." Tang Ze replied calmly, "She is indeed a very good person."

Xingchuan Hui, who was walking on the other side of him, withdrew his gaze from the surroundings and glanced at Tang Ze silently.

Conan and the others might be confused by this high evaluation, but as Tang Ze's teammate, he could guess the reason to some extent.

For unknown reasons, although Suzuki Sonoko did not actually sponsor the Phantom Thieves, Karasawa would often praise Suzuki Sonoko for her generosity, especially when commissioning subway cleanup sites and when getting money from the organization in Kumail's name.

Tang Ze explained that "this is all thanks to the fortune shared by Suzuki Sonoko"...

Who knows why? It sounds a bit metaphysical, but this is how they understand Buddhism.

----

After showing them around, Suzuki Sonoko quickly took the elevator to the president's office on the top floor of the exhibition hall.

There, Suzuki Sonoko's father, Suzuki Shiro, was receiving several foreigners. He followed the footsteps in the corridor and looked towards the newcomers. When he saw his daughter, he immediately stood up with a smile.

"Mr. Mori, and Mr. Akechi, you are here. Welcome." Suzuki Shiro smiled and came over to shake hands with them. "Thank you for coming all the way from Tokyo. You've worked hard."

"Hello."

"This is it. Sorry to trouble you."

"Ah, there are also Xiaolan, Tangze and Conan." Suzuki Shiro nodded to them in the same friendly manner, and turned his eyes to the end of the team, "Who are these two...?"

"This is the famous high school detective from the west, Hattori Heiji, and Toyama Kazuha. He is also a very good detective, and comes from a police family, so he is very good at solving cases." Suzuki Sonoko introduced with a smile.

This was a euphemism for his deep police connections in Osaka.

Suzuki Shiro raised his eyebrows, immediately understood what she meant, and his attitude became more peaceful and humble when he extended his hand.

"You are young and promising. I am sorry to trouble you this time."

"Leave it to me, old man!" Hattori Heiji's greeting was also very personal.

"Hey...what an rude way to call someone..." Kogoro Mouri glared at him.

"It's okay. It's better to be friendly." Suzuki Shiro shook his head and took the initiative to introduce the people sitting on the sofa in the reception room. "Let me introduce you."

Tang Ze, who suddenly became alert, immediately raised his head and looked at the other people in the room.

The meeting he had been looking forward to for a long time was finally about to begin.

"This is the first clerk of the Russian Embassy, ​​Siluofu Chinikov."

The first person to be mentioned was naturally the one sitting on the far right, who was obviously the visitor with the highest status in the room.

Tang Ze listened to his Japanese pronunciation with some accent, silently observed his physical features for a while, and then turned his gaze to the next one.

"This is the art dealer Mr. Qian Jiangyi, who I specially invited." Suzuki Shiro spoke a little faster this time. It was obvious that he had a general impression of the second guest. "And this one..."

Tang Ze's gaze finally stopped concealing itself and naturally turned to the woman sitting there with a dignified posture as he introduced her.

This is a very typical Slav. Her skin color is obviously lighter than that of the yellow people. Her flaxen hair, gray eyes, and deep eye sockets fully demonstrate her ancestry.

However, she was wearing a light blue cheongsam, which was incongruous. The slim cut showed off her body curves which were completely different from those of Asians. Following Suzuki Shiro's introduction, she slowly stood up, even in a somewhat pretentious tone.

"This is Pu Siqinglan, an expert scholar specializing in the study of the Romanov dynasty."

Pu Siqinglan lowered her head slightly and uttered two Chinese characters in a very standard accent: "Hello."

No one else present reacted to her action, but Tang Ze, who knew what real Chinese people were like, took some effort to control his expression and not let anything look too obviously strange.

You're saying that her Chinese is really not good at all, but what she said was actually standard Mandarin, which was more authentic than what Tang Ze thought he would hear.

But precisely because it is too authentic, it has a strong ABC flavor, half broadcasting accent and half non-broadcasting accent, which is far from the normal Chinese spoken accent.

Tang Ze was evaluating the real thief who sneaked in with a fake identity. Suzuki Shiro was naturally unaware of this and naturally introduced the next one.

"And this is Mr. Ryu Kankawa, a freelance photographer who applied to take photos of the collection."

The man holding the camera turned around and nodded at them perfunctorily.

"We are discussing the Egg of Memory." Shiro Suzuki saw that everyone had finished the initial greetings and took the initiative to bring up the topic of their current discussion. "After all, we only discovered by accident that this artifact was actually one of the Emperor's Easter Eggs..."

"To put it simply, it's assessing the value." Qian Jiang kept speaking frankly, "Even if it's the Suzuki family, if they want to apply for insurance for a new exhibit, they have to know its basic price, right?"

"Oh, so, have you discussed and reached a conclusion?" Kogoro Mouri glanced at the photos spread out on the table and asked half curiously and half tentatively.

He probably knew the price that Suzuki Sonoko paid to invite Goro Akechi this time. Even if it was just the advertising fee, it was a bit too high.

If this exhibit was not so valuable, it would have lost its luster as the most eye-catching protagonist of this event.

"Eight hundred million yen." Pu Si Qinglan lowered his head and whispered a number.

"Eight hundred million?!" Maori Kogoro repeated in a slightly cracked voice, "Is it that expensive?!"

"That's because it's not inlaid with precious gems. Otherwise, the price of a single piece might be more than 15 billion..." General Qian waved his hand, pretending to be regretful, "Anyway, now I can only offer million. But if you are willing to give it up, the price can be further negotiated..."