Conan: Ran, I really am Shinichi, you have to believe me!

Page 174

After handing the case over to the police who came up the mountain the next day, Jiang Chengbei borrowed a private car from the police and prepared to drive it down the mountain.

Conan and Heiji Hattori still had some questions about the case and seemed reluctant to leave, wanting to stay and investigate further. However, the police already knew Jiang Chengbei's reasoning, and with the culprit, Kento Toba, confessing, they didn't want to cause trouble. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with the case and felt that Conan and Heiji were just making trouble, hindering their efforts to close the case and increasing their workload. So, seeing that Jiang Chengbei was about to leave, they kicked the two troublemakers out as well, threw them into Jiang Chengbei's car, and told them to get lost and stop causing trouble.

Since his colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department had asked Jiang Chengbei to take the two mischievous kids away, and Jiang Chengbei also had his own ulterior motive of not letting them find out the truth and cause him trouble, he and his colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department hit it off and drove Conan and Hattori Heiji down the mountain to go home.

The car sped along the mountain road for quite a while, but perhaps due to the overwhelming resentment of the two famous detectives, Conan and Heiji Hattori, it unsurprisingly broke down on the mountain road before reaching Tokyo and could no longer move.

Sure enough, the two detectives who were the main characters in the original series were filled with terrible resentment. They didn't want to go back like this, and their car broke down halfway home.

If it weren't for Conan and Heiji Hattori, Jiang Chengbei would have a hundred ways to get back, but now that they're both there, he can't use any of them.

Jiang Chengbei acted so cautiously, not using his superpowers, but Conan had no such concerns. After his car broke down and couldn't be driven, he immediately conjured up a chakra skateboard on the mountain road, leaving the ignorant and naive Hattori Heiji completely dumbfounded.

"Hattori, we're just a burden to you today. If it were just Jiang Cheng and me, we could have made it up the mountain to the Kanaya Inn or down to Tokyo on our chakra skateboards."

But now, with you, a mere mortal with only two legs, dragging us down, we can only stay here with you and wait for the police to come down the mountain. We're in a dilemma, what a tragedy!"

Heiji Hattori was completely stunned as he watched Conan, who was using some unknown power source to power his skateboard up the mountain and showing off his fancy skills.

Heiji Hattori was already shocked enough by Conan conjuring up a skateboard out of thin air, but now he could make the skateboard automatically glide from a low place to a high place. He felt like he had wasted his high school physics studies.

While Heiji Hattori was waiting for the police to finish their investigation and come down the mountain, and Conan was showing off his skateboarding skills on the mountain road, a screech of brakes finally rang out. Conan, who was performing acrobatics on the mountain road, was hit and sent flying by a passing car.

Conan was hit and thrown into the air. The driver in the car and Heiji Hattori, who was sitting on the side of the mountain road, were startled and very worried about Conan's health, fearing that Conan might have been seriously injured.

However, their worries were clearly unnecessary. Almost every night, Conan would sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to the moon. After training for so long, although Conan hadn't become a Saiyan, minor things like being hit by a car obviously wouldn't hurt him.

So, under the worried gazes of the driver and Hattori, Conan, who had been hit and thrown down the mountainside, quickly dusted himself off and stood up, even making a face at the worried Hattori and the driver.

After Conan explained many times that he was fine and didn't need to spend hours taking him to the hospital for a checkup, and even jumped around in front of them and did a few somersaults on his skateboard, Heiji Hattori and the driver who hit him finally believed that Conan was alright.

Seeing Conan's energetic appearance, especially his unharmed state after being hit by a speeding car, with his superhuman physique, Hattori Heiji and the driver looked on with envy and jealousy.

Of course, Jiang Chengbei, whose chakra cultivation efficiency is better and whose chakra is a level higher than Conan's, has no need to envy Conan's current physical qualities. After all, even without considering the bonuses from max-level wall-climbing and max-level swordsmanship, his physical condition is still a level higher than Conan's simply because of the improvement in physical qualities brought about by chakra.

After confirming that Conan was alright, the driver and Jiang Chengbei quickly exchanged information and became friends on the road.

Upon learning that Jiang Chengbei and his companions' car had broken down, the driver immediately invited them to get in his car and stay overnight at his villa on the mountain. He promised to take them back to Tokyo the next day.

As introduced earlier, Jiang Chengbei and his group knew that the person who hit Conan with his car was named Horita Kousaku, the president of a mechanical engineering company. Today was his 58th birthday celebration at his villa in the mountains. With so many debuffs, he still dared to invite Conan and Hattori Heiji to his house to celebrate his birthday. He probably wouldn't live past tonight. His birthday would turn into his death anniversary. Seven days later would be his seventh day after death, five weeks later would be his forty-ninth day after death, and next year on this day would be his death anniversary.

Of those present, only Jiang Chengbei saw that Horita Kousaku was about to face a terrible disaster, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he quietly followed Hattori Heiji and Conan into the car and went to Horita Kousaku's deserted villa on another hilltop.

As always, as a wealthy man, he lives on a desolate mountain, surrounded by his villa, which is the only property within a few miles. There are no neighbors around, and once the phone line and mountain road are cut off, it becomes another snow-covered mountain lodge.

When Horita Kosaku brought Jiang Chengbei and the others to his luxurious three-room villa, Jiang Chengbei met Yamauchi Masahiro, the housekeeper, gardener, servant, and all-around worker in charge of the villa.

He also met his two sons, Koichi Horita and Ryoji Horita, and Koichi Horita's wife, Harumi Horita, during the meeting.

At first, nothing much happened. But when Jiang Chengbei and Conan finished touring the villa and started Horita Kōsaku's birthday dinner, they witnessed a good show: a story of internal conflicts within the Horita family, open and covert struggles between the sons, and their dissatisfaction with their father.

Jiang Chengbei, Conan, and Hattori Heiji originally thought that the conflict between the Horita father and son would be the highlight of today's birthday party. However, after they finished arguing and had nothing left to say, Horita Kosaku's other child, his only daughter Horita Fumiko, returned.

When Fumiko Hotta appeared, instead of calming down the internal conflicts within the Hotta family, she escalated them, causing an enraged Kosaku Hotta to overturn the table, bringing the family conflict to an irreconcilable climax.

During the first half of the family birthday banquet, Jiang Chengbei and his two friends were so engrossed in watching the drama unfold and enjoying the internal strife within the Horita family that they forgot to eat the abundant delicacies on the table. As a result, when they wanted to eat after the drama was over, the table had been overturned, and the delicious food was scattered all over the floor. Horita Kōsaku, who had overturned the table, left angrily, ignoring the three guests, Jiang Chengbei and his friends.

The Horita family members were arguing fiercely just now. They hated each other and didn't act like family members at all. They were enemies who had turned against each other because of money and feelings.

After Horita Kosaku overturned the table and left, they all stood up and walked away on their own, as if they would feel disgusted if they looked at their brothers and sisters any longer.

With the Horita family gone, Jiang Chengbei, Conan, and Hattori Heiji, who had originally planned to have a big meal, could only go to eat a simple meal with the resort manager, Yamauchi Masahiro.

What started as a lavish feast turned into a simple bowl of noodles. Jiang Chengbei ate it with a bland, tasteless flavor, his spirits completely gone. He wore a poker face, expressionless and lifeless, like a wax corpse, utterly devoid of vitality.

"Jiang Cheng, what's wrong?"

Hearing Hattori Heiji's words of concern, Jiang Chengbei, who was stirring his noodles with his chopsticks but didn't want to speak, remained silent even when answering Hattori Heiji's question. Instead, he was as still as a sleeping Kogoro Mouri, only making sounds from his collar.

"It's nothing. I was just reminiscing about the feast that just fell to the ground and blossomed. If the plate hadn't broken, do you think we could still have caught it and eaten it?"

"Ha, even if the plate doesn't break, the food inside will definitely spill out. Don't even think about such a good thing."

Conan sneered, then picked up a clump of noodles and began to eat it.

Just as they were eating noodles in the kitchen, a loud "boom" was heard, and at the same time, the entire villa shook violently. Dust fell from the ceiling and landed in the bowls in front of Jiang Chengbei and the other three.

The noodles in the bowl were covered in dust. Conan and Hattori Heiji, who had just been eating with relish, these two pampered young masters who had never experienced hardship or hunger, immediately threw down their chopsticks and refused to eat the noodles.

At the same time, not only did they refuse to eat the noodles contaminated with dust, but without even discussing it, they all stood up and ran away, just like the thrifty Jiang Chengbei who wanted to stuff the dusty noodles into their mouths. They simply took off running and disappeared in an instant.

When Jiang Chengbei and the resort manager Yamauchi Masahiro, who had been eating noodles with them, found Conan and Hattori Heiji, they had already entered the room where the explosion had just occurred. The room was now a mess, and Horita Kousaku, who had been killed in the explosion, was lying on his back.

Accompanying Jiang Chengbei and the other man were Horita Kōsaku's son, daughter, and daughter-in-law, who had heard the explosion.

As soon as they arrived and were about to step into Horita Kousaku's room, Conan and Hattori Heiji immediately reached out to stop them, saying in unison:

"Protect the scene! You are not allowed to enter!"

Upon hearing Conan and Heiji Hattori's fierce orders, the Horita family members immediately stopped and obediently stood outside watching the two kids, Heiji and Conan, rummaging through the crime scene without gloves or shoe covers.

After standing outside Horita Kousaku's room for a while, watching Conan and Hattori Heiji rummage through the explosion and murder scene for quite some time, Jiang Chengbei belatedly slapped his thigh in realization:

Damn it, I'm the police officer. I should be the one going in to look for clues. What are these two brats rummaging through the body?

Thinking of this, Jiang Chengbei immediately took a step forward, preparing to enter the explosion site.

Jiang Chengbei had just taken a step when Conan and Hattori Heiji, who were intently examining the corpse, immediately became alert. They simultaneously pointed and said in unison once again:

"Get out! This is a murder scene. Who let you in?"

"Get out! We are investigating a case. Unauthorized personnel are not allowed in!"

"You're the ones who're just idlers!"

In response to Conan and Heiji Hattori's reaction, Jiang Chengbei first roared at them, then strode forward, stood in front of them, took out his police notebook and threw it at Heiji Hattori's face, then picked up Conan and threw him away.

After getting his face covered in Jiang Chengbei's police notebook, Hattori Heiji realized that Jiang Chengbei was the real policeman, while he himself was just a high school student in Osaka who could order the police around. Now that he was in Tokyo, he had lost his superpower of ordering the police around.

Realizing this, and seeing Conan being thrown out, Hattori Heiji then gave Jiang Chengbei an awkward, ingratiating smile:

"Brother Jiangcheng, I was wrong. You are the boss here. I will listen to you from now on. I will be your assistant. Just let me stay here and be your assistant to help you solve cases. Please don't throw me out like Conan."

After being flattered by Heiji Hattori, Jiang Chengbei demonstrated that he was the king here. After making Heiji Hattori and Conan distinguish who was the king and queen, Jiang Chengbei allowed them to join the murder investigation and ordered them to tell him everything they had found and the ideas he had deduced.

Standing on the shoulders of Conan, the shorty, and Hattori Heiji, the dark-skinned chicken, Jiang Chengbei didn't have much effort before concluding that the culprit was Yamauchi Masahiro, who was eating with them in the kitchen.

When Jiang Chengbei revealed that the culprit was Yamauchi Masahiro, Conan and Hattori Heiji, who had not yet found the culprit, were completely stunned.

Just like the two stunned detectives, the three mentally challenged children of the Horita family, who were arguing and accusing each other of being the murderer, were also stunned.

In their minds, their father must have been killed by one of their two brothers or sisters. If they could just identify one of them as the murderer and send him to prison, then the family inheritance they were to receive would be reduced from one-third to one-half.

Now they've run into this policeman from Jiangchengbei, who mindlessly assumes that the resort manager, Yamauchi Masahiro, who has absolutely no connection to their family's inheritance, is the murderer. Are they kidding me?

Of course, Yamauchi Masahiro also denied Jiang Chengbei's accusations, saying that the box of red wine that killed Horita Kosaku in the explosion was a gift from his eldest son, Horita Koichi, and had nothing to do with him, the manager of the resort.

Chapter 240 I can't die before I've finished killing everyone!

When Jiang Chengbei led everyone to the room of the resort manager, Yamauchi Masahiro, and found traces of him using fertilizer, charcoal, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and other substances to make bombs, Yamauchi Masahiro was speechless.

Although the remaining members of the Horita family didn't understand what Jiang Chengbei was saying—that these things could be used to create a small bomb that could be placed inside a wine box and kill Horita Kōsaku—they still believed him since he spoke with such confidence.

Although no motive for Yamauchi Masahiro's murder has been found, evidence of his bomb-making has been found, so he must have killed that person. No matter how he tries to deny it, he cannot escape being the murderer this time.

After finding evidence of Yamauchi Masahiro's bomb-making, Jiang Chengbei and his team arrived at the garage. Unfortunately, apart from an old car that hadn't been used for a long time and could still be started and driven with difficulty, all the other cars had been tampered with and couldn't be driven at all.

Now that we've entered the "locked room mystery" scenario, it means the killer wants to commit more murders, and among the remaining members of the Horita family, there's still Masahiro Yamauchi as a target.

At the same time, unlike other murderers who had completed their killings, Yamauchi Masahiro did not kneel down in repentance and weep bitterly. Instead, he insisted that he was innocent, which suggests that he may still have goals to achieve and needs to remain innocent to continue killing.

As for the possibility that he was framed by Jiang Chengbei and was not the real murderer, that's impossible.

Previously, when Jiang Chengbei's chakra substitute doll was eating noodles with Yamauchi Masahiro and Conan in the kitchen, his real body was hiding next to Hotta Kousaku. After witnessing and touching Hotta Kousaku's explosion, he received 1 kill coin and learned from the system message that the culprit was Yamauchi Masahiro.

Knowing that the murderer was Masahiro Yamauchi, all that was needed was to follow the clues and work backward, and Jiang Chengbei recalled a lot of evidence.

Previously, when he visited this large villa in the wilderness with Conan and the others, he saw fertilizer bags and other chemicals used in making bombs in the room where Masahiro Yamauchi worked and rested.

Having realized that these things could be used to make bombs, and that Horita Kosaku died from a bomb, and also knowing that Yamauchi Masahiro was the murderer, Jiang Chengbei felt it was his duty to come out and catch Yamauchi Masahiro, the murderer, in order to have a chance to transform.

None of the cars in the villa had been tampered with or damaged. Only one old, assembled car in the garage could still be started and driven. So Jiang Chengbei put the refusing-to-confess Yamauchi Masahiro into the car, preparing to take him back to the Metropolitan Police Department that night for a thorough interrogation.

The evidence has been found, but the murderer is still stubborn and refuses to confess. Such a strong mentality and tenacious will are something I've never seen before in Jiang Chengbei's Conan world.

Seeing that Jiang Chengbei was about to drive his beat-up car back to the Metropolitan Police Department overnight, Hattori Heiji tried to dissuade him:

"Jiang Cheng, it's so late. It's not safe to drive on the mountain roads at night. Why don't we wait until dawn to go back to the Metropolitan Police Department?"

"Black Chicken, haven't you figured it out yet? Today's situation is like a blizzard in the mountains. This time, the murderer didn't intend to kill just one person; he wanted to kill more."

"If we leave this murderer here, I'm afraid you won't be able to control him. He might kill a few more people right under your noses, and then you'll be back to where you only find evidence to prove he's the killer after he's finished killing his targets. There will be more innocent souls in this world."

After Jiang Chengbei said that, Conan and Hattori Heiji immediately felt embarrassed. Although they were both famous high school detectives, stopping murderers and preventing murders were not their forte. They were only good at finding evidence to prove the murderer's crimes after the murder and making sure the murderer received the punishment he deserved.

Jiang Chengbei now deduces that Yamauchi Masahiro still wants to kill, while also looking down on their ability to stop the murders.

Although Conan and Hattori Heiji were very indignant at Jiang Chengbei's contempt, it was, after all, a human life, and they couldn't joke about someone else's life. So in the end, they could only watch helplessly as Jiang Chengbei took the suspect, Yamauchi Masahiro, down the mountain overnight, while the two of them stayed behind to protect the safety of the remaining few surviving members of the Horita family.

Despite his many attempts to resist, he couldn't escape being taken down the mountain in this broken-down car by Jiang Chengbei. The way Yamauchi Masahiro looked at Jiang Chengbei now was one of despair, as if he wanted to kill him on the spot.

System message: Masahiro Yamauchi has murderous intent towards you. System reward: 1 Kill Coin.

After Jiang Chengbei led Yamauchi Masahiro down the mountain, he suddenly received a system reward of 1 kill coin, which replenished Yamauchi Masahiro's 2 kill coins.

At first, Jiang Chengbei didn't understand why Yamauchi Masahiro suddenly wanted to kill him, but when the car entered a continuous downhill road with several sharp turns ahead and a cliff on one side, Jiang Chengbei finally understood why Yamauchi Masahiro wanted to kill him.

As Jiang Chengbei sped down a steep slope and made a sharp turn with a cliff in front of him, he stepped on the brakes a few times. When he discovered that the brakes had suddenly failed, he finally understood why Yamauchi Masahiro had refused to get on this vehicle.

I heard that this broken-down car was repaired by Masahiro Yamauchi, who tampered with the brakes, intending to use it to kill a second target. That makes sense.

Knowing all along that the car's brakes were faulty, and seeing Jiang Chengbei slamming on the brakes to no avail, with the car still hurtling towards the cliff ahead, Yamauchi Masahiro, who was prepared, opened the car door and jumped off the road leading to the cliff at great risk.

Masahiro Yamauchi rolled a distance on the road, almost falling off the cliff on the other side of the slope. After a near-death experience, he finally survived, but his eyes were glazed over as he stared ahead, unable to stop or slow down around the bend. He went straight off the bend and flew through the air like a car.

"idiot!"

This was the method he used to kill Hotta Fumiko, but it almost killed him instead, and also killed a meddlesome policeman. Yamauchi Masahiro was filled with hatred!

If Jiang Chengbei hadn't been so meddlesome, he believed he could have used this car to kill that bitch Horita Fumiko. Now it's too late, impossible. He was filled with regret.

Thinking that his revenge was incomplete and that that bitch Hotta Fumiko was still alive, Yamauchi Masahiro gritted his teeth, struggled to his feet despite his injuries, and then staggered up the mountain.

Although the simplest way to kill Fumiko Hotta had failed, and his crimes had been exposed, Fumiko Hotta was still alive, so he would not give up. Therefore, even if it cost him his life, he would grit his teeth and go back. Even if it meant exchanging his life for hers, he would kill Fumiko Hotta.

After walking and climbing the mountain all night, Masahiro Yamauchi, who was injured after jumping off the vehicle and was not in good condition, finally reached the top of the mountain and returned to the Horita family's mountaintop villa at dawn.