The Split-Actress in Conan's World

On the seemingly very flimsy paper door, flames were burning out three numbers.

Three, one hundred and seven, and eighteen.

The people outside the shrine looked down at their wooden signs, and most of them sighed with regret.

Ran Mao Li looked at the number 98 in her hand and felt a little disappointed.

"Xiao-Lan..."

Toyama Heye called her stutteringly, and when Mao Lilan heard the voice, she turned around and saw her holding the wooden sign in her hand, with a bright light in her eyes.

"I, I won!"

The wooden sign in her hand was number 18.

Mao Lilan felt happy for her and smiled.

Conan looked at the scene between the two girls, with a slight smile on his lips.

He looked around again and found that there were two people in the crowd whose lost expressions were out of place among the others.

One was the thick-lipped woman Naoko Kuroe whom they met in the gift shop. She was holding her wooden sign tightly and looking around vigilantly.

The other was the black-haired woman named Sumi Ebihara, whom she had met once at the shrine. She looked down at the wooden sign, then raised her head to look at the number on the paper door with some disbelief in her eyes.

It looks like these two are probably the two remaining winners.

After the crowd.

Adam looked at number 108 in his hand and fell into deep thought.

"Didn't you say that according to the algorithm, this number is the most likely to be selected?"

"It must be because Adam touched it, so it got the bad luck." Noah was still stubborn.

"...After a great defeat in the field of science, you turned to metaphysics."

It is indeed artificial intelligence.

Adam put away the wooden sign and turned to leave: "It looks like it has nothing to do with us. Let's go somewhere else."

However, Noah's voice in the headphones was neither hurried nor slow.

"Don't worry."

"Isn't Adam interested in this 130-year-old priest?"

Noah was patient and persuasive.

"Noah checked the priest out of curiosity."

“The results are very interesting.”

Adam stepped forward without hesitation: "Sorry, not interested."

"Hello?!"

Noah suddenly lost his composure and began to speak faster.

"Don't go, Adam. Stay with Noah and watch it. It's really interesting!"

Adam's pace quickened.

"Please Adam!"

Hey.

He paused for a moment, a pleased smile on his face.

"Call my brother to listen."

Noah struggled for a moment.

"...Adam bro...bro."

Hearing his brother's voice that sounded aggrieved and a little bit gnashing of teeth, Adam raised his eyebrows and returned to the shrine.

Today's victory or defeat——

Adam's victory.

No matter how high your IQ is, you are ultimately just a child who grows up alone.

Adam chuckled very softly.

"Tell me how interesting it is."

"The so-called priest who is over a hundred years old is actually just a role played by successive miko to create a gimmick and increase the attraction of the island's tourism industry."

Noah's voice was muffled, as if he was speaking with his head covered by the quilt.

But soon his words became clear again, as if he had poked his head out of the quilt.

"It turns out that this measure is indeed effective. In just less than 15 years, the island has developed from a feudal and backward village into a fairly developed semi-town."

"The older generation of villagers and successive generations of witches all know about this."

"But what's interesting is that this generation of shrine maidens is unaware of this and just continues to perform according to tradition and the last words of their mother, the previous shrine maiden."

"I remember that this island became famous for the mermaid legend three years ago, wasn't it?" Adam asked with some confusion.

"What made this island famous was indeed the sensational 'mermaid corpse' case three years ago, but its transformation into a cultural tourism industry began as early as fifteen years ago."

"As for the case three years ago, Noah actually found out a lot of things."

Noah controlled Adam's phone to vibrate.

"It has been sent to Adam's phone."

He took out his cell phone and saw an email in his mailbox.

That was an investigative report from three years ago.

Three years ago, a warehouse on the island suddenly caught fire. After the islanders spent a whole night putting out the fire, they found a charred body in the warehouse.

Based on the autopsy, it could be barely concluded that this was a middle-aged woman. Apart from that, neither the teeth nor the DNA could be obtained because the body was too badly burned.

The most bizarre thing is that the lower half of the corpse strangely did not have complete leg bones, as if it had been completely melted into one piece, while the upper half of the corpse still retained a basic human shape.

Then the legend of "mermaid" spread like wildfire.

However, the truth is that the female corpse was the former shrine maiden who played the role of the high priest, and the mother of the current shrine maiden Shimabukuro Kimie.

Because the actor who plays the role of a short priest needs to fold his calves to his thighs and tie them up with ropes to create the effect of a short stature, the legs of the burned corpses would melt into one piece.

Almost all the elderly people on the island guessed the identity of the deceased based on this feature.

After several visits, the police also confirmed the identity of the deceased and found her relative, Shimabukuro Kimie, told her the unfortunate news, and asked her whether the police should conceal the news from the public.

In the end, Shimabukuro Kimie chose to keep it secret.

She took over her mother's duties as a shrine maiden and continued to play the role of the "immortal" priestess.

Adam looked at the photo of the "charred mermaid" in the email and couldn't help but fall silent.

Judging from the visual effect alone, this corpse can indeed satisfy people's imagination of mermaids.

It is no wonder that the dugong festival on this small island is so famous.

After a while, the flames on the paper door gradually went out, and the attendants on both sides gently closed the paper door, and the strange shrine was closed tightly.

"Well, everyone, the Dugong Arrow will be awarded in one hour."

The attendant folded his hands in front of him and bowed slightly.

"Everyone, please go to the Mermaid Falls and wait."

The so-called Mermaid Waterfall is actually just a two-meter-wide waterfall. The water flows slowly down the ten-meter-high rock wall, surging among the rocks, and then gathers into a small spring.

It flows along the narrow river channel towards the distant mountains and forests.

This is the part close to the low mountains of the island. It is the other extreme of the bustling commercial street that is almost a town. There is not even a wooden house and it is almost uninhabited.

Because Mermaid Island attaches great importance to tourism, it has not developed logging and hunting industries. For this relatively primitive forest, it has only symbolically set up a cordon and informed tourists at the dock not to enter by mistake.

At this time, people gathered in this open space and looked at the waterfall rushing out from the wild forest.

There were several bamboo poles standing on the open space, connected to each other by carefully woven nylon ropes, with sheng bells used for exorcism hanging on the ropes.

When an evening breeze blows by, the bells make crisp collision sounds, which play in harmony with the splashing sound of the waterfall.

Standing under the starry sky, looking at the wildly growing primitive forest not far away, with pleasant music playing in your ears, it is quite a unique experience.

Uncle Maori seemed to have washed away his restlessness and looked towards the altar with the fire.

The shrine maiden Miss Shimabukuro Kimie, whom they had visited during the day, was wearing her loose shrine maiden costume and gently waving the short flag in her hand, which was spinning to the sound of the clear sheng bells.

The tourists around held their breath, not daring to disturb this sacred scene, making the already lonely night even quieter.

As if it was agreed upon, the witch's steps became steady, the evening breeze stopped, and the sheng and bells fell silent.

All that was left was the waterfall behind, tirelessly washing the rocks.

The sacrificial dance is over.

"Then please ask the three lucky chosen ones to come forward."

Even though the ritual dance had just ended, Shimabukuro Kimie didn't seem to be catching her breath, and she shouted at the crowd with full energy.

"Yes!"

Yuanshan and Ye looked at the wooden sign in their hands excitedly, their delicate and fair faces flushed with excitement.

"This way, eternal youth and beauty will be mine!"

Hattori Heiji squeezed out a pair of dead fish eyes and poured cold water on her: "Forget it, longevity may not necessarily be a good thing."

"Don't worry, Heiji. I'll pick your bones when you die of old age."

Yuanshan Heye smiled at him and ran to the altar in small steps.

Conan looked at Naoko Kuroe who had a cold expression on her face and walked up to him, and he was sure in his heart.

Sure enough, I guessed it right.

Then the only one left is...

"What about the other one? Isn't the last one here?"

Shimabukuro Kimie shouted to the crowd again.

"It's me."

An unkempt old man with gray hair and a stubbled face was burping and his face had an abnormal flush.

Eh?

Conan was stunned.

Shouldn’t it be that Sumi Ebihara?

She was so happy in front of the shrine, looking like she had won a prize...

"Then the three winners are here. I will give you the dugong arrow, a symbol of beauty, under the blessing of the sun."

Shimabukuro Kimie carried out the festival process seriously, guiding the three people to raise torches and light the fire nearby.

Then they lit the fireworks in front of them.

The fuse of the firework burned slowly, and a bright beam of light shot up into the sky from the barrel, making a sharp and piercing sound.

call out--

Snapped! !

bang bang bang-

Brilliant fireworks exploded in the night sky, turning into a star shower that almost lit up the entire sky.

Yuanshan Heye looked at the beautiful fireworks and felt even happier.

"It's so beautiful..."

Under the illumination of these beautiful fireworks, whether it is the dark primitive forest or the calm sea, they are all illuminated without exception, as if it were daytime.

Under the shining of this blessed light, all the tourists who came to visit saw a figure in the rushing waterfall, which looked weak and boneless under the impact of the water.

Her body swayed deftly from side to side along the waterfall, like a bird swimming upstream...

Mermaid.

The crowd was like a lit firework.

After a long period of silence, there was a moment of excitement.

"Then, what is that?!"

"is that a lie?"

Some tourists with less tolerance have already covered their stomachs and vomited.

On the altar, the thick-lipped woman Naoko Kuroe also saw the figure hanging on the waterfall: "Wait, wait a minute, could that be..."

"Sume?" Shimabukuro Kimie also stood there in a daze, recognizing the body.

Yuanshan Heye clenched the dugong arrow in his hand helplessly, his breathing became rapid, and his pupils trembled violently involuntarily.

A strong hand grasped her shoulders firmly.

She looked back and saw Hattori Heiji standing behind her, looking at the corpse with a serious expression.

Conan reacted very quickly. He immediately grabbed Shimabukuro Kimie's hand and asked her clearly, "Sister, you should be familiar with the terrain of this mountain, right?"

"Can you take us there?" He pointed to the place where the waterfall fell on the rock wall.

"what?"

Before Shimabukuro Kimie could react, she was half-forcefully pulled away by him, and she had no choice but to take steps to keep up with him.

among the crowd.

Adam looked at the body hanging in the waterfall and marveled.

"A mermaid..."

"It's very romantic."

The dirt roads in the mountains are not easy to walk on, and because it has rained frequently in recent days, the roads are even more muddy.

Even with the guidance of Shimabukuro Kimie, who was familiar with the terrain, it took them nearly twenty minutes to climb to the ten-meter-high rock wall.

With the help of Uncle Mori and Fukuyama Rokuro who rushed over after hearing the news, Hattori Heiji took some effort to get the body down from the waterfall.

The corpse seemed to have been soaking in the waterfall for a while. The skin was abnormally pale, the temperature of the corpse had dropped to the lowest level, and the joints were very stiff.

A hemp rope was wrapped around the neck of the corpse twice as a cordon, tightly tightening it. The crowd followed the hemp rope and found a wooden stake rooted in the river.

"Did she commit suicide, or was she killed by someone..." Shimabukuro Kimie looked at the tragic appearance of the corpse and instinctively felt uncomfortable. Her face turned much paler and her voice was not as vigorous as it was at the previous ceremony. She looked much weaker.

"No, it's still unclear whether it was suicide or homicide." Fukuyama Rokuro looked at the wooden stake with mud on the tip.

"The other end of the rope wrapped around Sumi's neck was tied to a wooden stake, which was set up to prevent people from falling into the river."

Uncle Maori stroked his chin thoughtfully. "In other words, it is possible that Miss Sumi fell into the river in the dark, grabbed the rope in a hurry, but didn't want to struggle too violently and pulled out the stake that was stuck in the soil."

"While floating in the water, the rope gradually entangled my neck, and finally I ended up hanging on the waterfall..."

Fukuyama Rokuro also nodded slightly: "It has been raining for the past week, the water level of the river has been rising, and the land has become soft due to the rain, so the wooden piles will also loosen easily."

"wrong!"

Hattori Heiji overturned the two people's seemingly reasonable inferences.

He squatted beside the body, frowning as he examined the situation: "Don't you find it strange?"

"There's a festival going on next to the pool under the waterfall. What is she doing out in the wilderness at this time?"

The winner, Naoko Kuroe, who came with Shimabukuro Kimie, spoke in a low voice with a somewhat cold tone: "Is she here to look for the mermaid's grave?"

"What?" Hattori Heiji looked back at her in confusion.

Naoko Kuroe turned her head and looked at the extremely dark forest. She said in a cold voice: "The mermaid's grave is somewhere in this forest."

"The mermaid bones that were found when the shrine's warehouse caught fire on the night of the festival three years ago were buried in that grave."