Chapter 2169 - 2167: Lucky Cat Conan (It’s So Cold on the Heavenly Mountain Today, I’m All Curled Up)

When everyone stepped out of the shrine and felt the warm sunlight on them, the chill deep within their hearts finally dissipated somewhat.

"Heiji... I’m scared... Let’s not investigate this case anymore."

Kazuha tightly clutched Heiji’s arm and whispered, while Ran beside her also held onto Conan and shook her head.

"I am too, Shinichi... Conan, this should be just like what my dad said, merely an accident, right? Yes, it must just be an accident..."

Conan and Heiji did not pay much attention to their girlfriends’ reactions, instead continuing to quietly discuss the case.

"What do you think, Hattori?"

"I think... it’s hard to say."

Heiji Hattori also frowned, bewildered.

"To be honest, after hearing what Miss Kimie said, I think she had the motive to kill."

"That’s right, but it’s just a murder motive. If what Miss Kimie said is correct, then actually before she planned the murder, those three people were already dead."

Conan nodded as well, feeling somewhat puzzled by the development of the situation.

"But... a website?"

"Could it be that she hired someone to kill, then regretted it?"

"Sounds unlikely. If Miss Kimie hired someone to kill, she shouldn’t have said anything in front of us. And Hattori, did you notice? She was very cooperative with our inquiries, almost like..."

"Almost like she was seeking our help."

Heiji Hattori also understood Conan’s meaning. As high school detectives, they often encountered such situations. After all, sometimes people face difficulties that they are unsure of, and the police might not intervene, so seeking these high school detectives for solutions becomes a choice for them.

And Miss Kimie’s behavior was just like many of the clients they had encountered before.

Yet... she’s clearly a suspect!

"If you ask me, either she is extremely confident in her method of killing, believing we absolutely can’t solve the case and deliberately saying it to mislead us, or..."

"Or everything Miss Kimie said was true."

Conan also picked up from Heiji’s words, speechless.

"Indeed, she wanted to kill Miss Saori and the others, so once she found out the truth, the urban legend came to mind first. Yet at that time, perhaps Miss Kimie was merely venting..."

"Exactly, almost like pinning a scarecrow."

Heiji Hattori nodded, such scenarios were quite common actually. Many people appeared gentle outwardly, but they also had people they disliked, so secretly making small paper effigies and such was normal; as detectives, they had seen a lot of these things.

"But what Miss Kimie didn’t expect was the urban legend actually came true."

"Therefore, she’s afraid too."

"Hence she sought our help."

The two sorted out the whole relationship, but... this only made it harder to accept!

They would rather believe that Miss Kimie performed a perfect murder, felt assured she couldn’t be detected, and so openly challenged them, the detectives!

However, that wouldn’t logically add up, because that fire three years ago wasn’t an accident but intentional, known only by the three victims, and Miss Kimie learned the truth from Saori’s father about a week ago after he sold that arrow.

Meaning, unless Miss Kimie spoke up, they absolutely couldn’t find her murder motive...

But she told them directly...

"Why don’t we hear Mr. Fang Zheng’s opinion?"

"Right, Mr. Fang Zhen... huh? Where’s Mr. Fang Zheng?"

The two famous detectives from Kanto and Kansai thought hard for a while before turning their heads to realize that Fang Zheng, who had come with them, was nowhere to be seen. Upon hearing their inquiry, Ran and Kazuha, huddling together for warmth beside them, pointed towards the shrine. Only then did Heiji and Conan realize that Fang Zheng was standing at the gate, talking to Miss Kimie, who kept nodding.

Seeing this...

"Did Mr. Fang Zheng get her to confess?"

"Let’s go check it out!!"

At this point, Conan and Heiji also eagerly walked over. Their initial expectation was that Miss Kimie would see them coming, then would give a slight bitter smile, saying, "I didn’t expect you guys to uncover it after all, yes, I killed them," followed by the familiar criminal confession process...

Oh, that’s already been done previously.

Yet...

"Thank you very much, Mr. Fang Zheng."

"You’re welcome, just contact me after this matter is over, just using this phone number will do."

Heiji Hattori and Conan merely watched as Fang Zheng handed Miss Kimie a business card, nodded, turned and left, while Miss Kimie deeply bowed to Fang Zheng...

".............."

What kind of development is this?

"What are you guys doing?"

At this point Fang Zheng also noticed the nearby Heiji Hattori and Conan and curiously inquired. Conan blinked, looking towards Fang Zheng.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, what did you say to Miss Kimie?"

"Oh, nothing much, you see, now this Longevity Granny can’t be acted out anymore, it’s an open secret and continuing it would only increase suffering. So I talked with Miss Kimie about the future development of Mermaid Island; the mermaid legend can continue to spread, but as for the Longevity Granny rumor... Miss Kimie will discuss with the island’s residents and announce that the Longevity Granny has passed away. After all, a lady living to a hundred and thirty years, passing away is something everyone would consider normal."

"Then without the Longevity Granny, what about the festival?"

Now Ran and Kazuha also joined in and couldn’t help but ask upon hearing this.

"The festival can be held in a different way, and someone living to a hundred and thirty years, while not reaching the standard of immortality, would be enough to get people to aspire, right? People seek this Dugong Arrow initially for longevity and peace, who would really aim at immortal longevity."

"Uh..........."

Hearing Fang Zheng say so, everyone also exchanged glances.

Come to think of it, that kind of makes sense...

"But this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you, Mr. Fang Zheng, does it?"

Heiji Hattori also reacted at this point, indeed, the future of Mermaid Island is quite concerning, but it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Fang Zheng?

"Who said it doesn’t?"

Fang Zheng silently glanced at Heiji Hattori.

"Umbrella plans to enter the tourism industry, and Mermaid Island’s transformation is just the right place to test the waters, the festival here is actually just a gimmick, the important thing is the environment for tourists, the seafood here is abundant, fresh, delicious, and cheap, isn’t that more attractive to visitors than some immortality nonsense?"

Upon hearing this, Conan was taken aback.

"So, you and Miss Kimie Shima just now...?"

"Yes, that’s right, I was discussing Umbrella’s investment in Mermaid Island with her."

Facing this answer, Conan and Heiji Hattori rolled their eyes in unison.

"But, she’s a suspect, Mr. Fang Zheng, what if she killed Monshaku Saori and the others..."

"She didn’t lie just now."

Before Heiji Hattori could finish, Fang Zheng interrupted him.

"I’m very sure about that, she’s not the murderer."

Of course, she’s not the murderer, Fang Zheng himself did it, alright.

Hearing this, Conan and Heiji Hattori were speechless to each other.

They like inviting Fang Zheng to solve cases not because of Fang Zheng’s reasoning abilities, as Fang Zheng himself said he’s not interested in reasoning, but because Fang Zheng’s accuracy in judging people is top-notch. If Conan and Heiji Hattori are two academic elites and the case is a practice question, then Fang Zheng is equivalent to the "reference answer" to the practice question, but like the answer to practice questions, he only provides the answer, not the process.

Solving the problem still requires Conan and these academic elites to figure it out themselves.

And Conan has another reason for inviting Fang Zheng.

To talk about it, it starts from when teacher Little Lily’s wedding almost got poisoned.

Back then, Fang Zheng directly saw through the groom’s plan, stopped his poisoning actions on the spot, which greatly shocked Conan.

Indeed, as a detective, Conan—or rather Shinichi Kudou is quite outstanding, he can notice the problems pointed out by the traces left by the opponent, unintentional actions, and other subtle details.

But there is a problem with this.

And that is what is called traces, often left afterwards.

Which means by the time he discovers them, people would already be dead.

No matter how brilliant the detective, he can only catch the criminal and avenge the victim.

But Fang Zheng is different, he can spot criminals early and stop them, preventing crimes!

That is a capability Conan and Heiji Hattori don’t possess.

Even though they occasionally realize the murderer is acting up before the crime, they can only be curious and puzzled, since they don’t possess the ability, they can’t tell from a ferocious gaze whether someone really intends to kill or just doesn’t like others.

Besides, Fang Zheng has demonstrated this ability before; during the Egg of Memories incident he focused on Scout, and later in the series of police killings, he was the first to spot the criminal, and even prevented the murderer from almost killing Officer Sato and Ran.

Honestly, now, rather than reasoning skills, Conan wishes he could have Fang Zheng’s ability to observe people’s hearts.

But he also realizes this ability is evidently hard to master, since evidence and clues observed by detectives are fixed, while Fang Zheng observes micro-expressions that might only change in one-thousandth of a second, it’s difficult for outsiders to truly master it, this is not a "self-taught domain".

Then Conan decided that if he ever encounters another invitation, he should also invite Fang Zheng along, after all, it couldn’t hurt to have him around in case?

Although Fang Zheng’s trick isn’t always successful, like Fang Zheng told him: unless the criminal is dumb enough to target someone right in front of him, he won’t be able to see it. After all, one can’t live with murderous intent twenty-four-seven a day. Just like that time at the Masked Mansion, everyone went to sleep when the enemy struck, how would he know they intended to kill?

Doesn’t he need to sleep?

But for Conan—or rather Shinichi Kudou, even if he can save one victim, it’s good!

This time too, although Conan didn’t expect the victim to be really unfortunate, already dead before Fang Zheng arrived.

Hmm... actually, it’s after Fang Zheng arrived that they died.

But Conan doesn’t need to know.

Now hearing Fang Zheng’s words, Conan and Heiji Hattori were speechless, since Fang Zheng, this "reference answer", confirmed Kimie Shima wasn’t the murderer, further reasoning is pointless for them.

"Could there not be any other possibilities?"

"Of course there are."

"Eh?"

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s words, both perked up.

"What possibilities?"

"It’s simple, if designed like novel storylines, then it would be Miss Kimie Shima actually having a double personality, her other persona did it, and her main persona knows nothing, so it’s normal I can’t see it..."

"........."

Upon hearing this, Conan, Heiji Hattori, Ran Mouri, and Toyama Kazuha all fell silent, while Fang Zheng shrugged and spread his hands.

"See, this setup is brilliant for novels."

Eventually, the police concluded the case according to Kogoro Mouri’s theory, closing it as an "accident". This was a rare highlight where "Sleeping Kogoro" didn’t sleep, didn’t overturn his reasoning, but successfully solved the case!

On their way back, Kogoro Mouri was proud, laughing heartily. As for Heiji Hattori and Conan’s faces, they were as dark as coal — oh, as for Heiji Hattori, he was already dark-faced.

As for Fang Zheng, he was also pleased, as he suddenly realized, Conan had an additional use aside from being a harbinger.

That is being profitable!

Knowing Umbrella needs to expand, more businesses need to be acquired, and most Japanese businesses are family-run, getting management rights from them is no easy feat. But now, with Conan, things are much simpler!

If he wants to acquire a company, if the opponent disagrees, Fang Zheng just brings Conan to the banquet, there will surely be deaths, usually the company president, with the assailant generally being the heir. Thus under the Grim Reaper’s aura’s cover, the entire company collapses, stock prices plummet, Umbrella seizes the opportunity, and buys in lots of shares... perfect!

Now Fang Zheng finally realized, Conan is not only a harbinger but also a lucky cat!