Chapter 13 The Roots of Tragedy

The old butler is very confident in himself.

But Conan didn't believe him. He only believed what he saw with his own eyes. And the fact was, that man kept appearing in front of him, but he never recognized him once.

Conan chuckled: "What about your master's new book? Since he was so excited about Kudo Yusaku's new work at the dinner table, and even compared it with it in his words, I guess his work is almost done, right?"

The old butler fell silent.

"Why don't you tell me?" Conan said sharply, "You've been trying to change the subject before, and now you're still trying to hide it. Is it that the book written by Nagakawa Usuke is not good... or is there something in the process of writing that you don't want people to know?"

The old butler felt suffocated, like an arrow shot more than ten years ago, it pierced through the darkness and now hit his throat. He opened his mouth, and before this fateful manipulation, he threw down his weapons and admitted defeat.

Conan left satisfied.

Dawn was about to arrive, and the fear brought by the night gradually faded from people's hearts. After making another phone call, Ikeda Yoshihiro breathed a sigh of relief. He patted his chest and said, "The police will be here soon. It's okay. We will be safe soon."

Hearing this, everyone in the hall visibly relaxed. As if sensing this atmosphere, Ikeda Yoshihiro made a small joke: "That murderer was also careless. When modern people commit crimes, how can they not cut off the communication first?"

Unfortunately, his joke failed to please everyone. Everyone looked at him coldly, and sweat began to break out on Yoshihiro Ikeda's face again.

"Brother Ikeda is right," Maori Kogoro laughed at the side, "Not banning the use of communications and underestimating the police are the biggest mistakes he made, but his bigger mistake was meeting me, Maori Kogoro," he put his hands on his hips and boasted with his head held high, "With just a little move from me, he'll be like a moth in a net... er, er, er..."

Kogoro Maori turned around exaggeratedly on the spot, then suddenly sat down, his head hanging down, silent.

Everyone present was very surprised. Ikeda Yoshihiro was the first to react. He showed extreme surprise on his face and screamed, "Could this be the famous scene in the legend..."

"Kogoro is sleeping." Another voice took over his words, "Click!" accompanied by the sound of a camera shutter being pressed. Ikeda Yoshihiro turned his head away, showing dissatisfaction: "You really know how to find opportunities. This time it will definitely be the headline of the news."

Shinji Inada smiled and touched his head without saying anything.

Luo Zhi Xingzi said impatiently: "Isn't it almost over? Why do you want to do something weird?"

Gao Siqiming tried to comfort him. He smiled gently and said, "Mr. Kogoro contributed the most to this incident. He may have a different opinion."

"Ah, is that so?" At this moment, Conan walked out from the back, holding a mobile phone in his hand, and kept talking to the person opposite: "I see, this is a big discovery, a very important clue, and very helpful in solving the case."

"Conan, who are you talking to on the phone?" Xiaolan forced herself to be alert and asked in confusion.

Pei Zhen looked at him curiously. It was really amazing. He paid the most attention to this little guy on the field, but when he was not paying attention, this guy disappeared somewhere. When he came out, Maori Kogoro had already "lay down".

"I'm on the phone with the police," Conan answered in a childish voice, "They found a small cabin on the mountainside. There are some things in it that will be very helpful in finding that person."

Pei Zhen sighed in his heart. He had never doubted whether Conan could solve the case. This was the confidence that more than a thousand episodes of anime in his previous life gave him. He just didn't expect that when he came here to complete a commission, he would be involved in a murder case in the dark night. That was fine, as he decided to become a detective, it was not impossible for him to lend his help in this matter. This way, he could let them see his abilities and return home as soon as possible... But on the night he arrived here, an ordinary card draw changed everything.

"What?" Yoshihiro Ikeda, who had just spoken, was confused. This was different from what he had just heard. Aren't the police still on the way?

Conan quickly slipped away.

"Ahem," "Mouri Kogoro" finally spoke up: "I was the one who asked them to search the mountain first. With search and rescue hounds, they should be able to find more than us."

"Then why..."

"It's so as not to alert the murderer!" "Kogoro Mouri" shouted coldly.

Everyone was shocked, Luo Zhi Xingzi hurriedly asked: "What murderer? Isn't he a murderer who is on the run?"

Pei Zhen glanced at him and didn't see anything wrong. Finally, he looked under the table to the side. The hanging tablecloth blocked his view.

"That person is that person, and the murderer is the murderer. The two must not be confused." Conan hid below, holding the butterfly voice changer in his hand, and said solemnly: "If you regard them as the same person, then you have fallen into the murderer's trap!"

Luo Zhi Xingzi choked and looked unhappy, but she didn't know what to say.

"What did the police find?" Gao Si Qiming pushed his glasses.

"The body." Conan said coldly, "The body of Tian Shouren. This gardener and driver of Changchuan actually died the day before we arrived."

"What?!" Yoshihiro Ikeda was shocked again, and his expression also represented the expressions of others. The butler even closed his eyes.

"Why did they kill an old servant?" Inada Shinji lamented, "and they even covered up his disappearance."

"Then we have to ask the housekeeper of our Nagakawa family." "Mouri Kogoro" did not move his head. "Something that only they know, like the fall from the building more than ten years ago and the beheading on the moonlit night this time, at least one thing is exactly the same between them!"

The old butler's figure swayed.

Without waiting for him to hesitate, Conan said mercilessly: "That is, they are all stories from Nagakawa Usuke's book!"

Everyone was confused and shocked. Xiaolan reacted faster: "You mean, this time, it actually came from Nagakawa Usuke's story? No, no, it was the same last time. That's not right. Didn't the book say that Nagakawa Usuke wrote the book out of his longing for his deceased wife?"

"He's confused," Conan said, "He didn't write the book because of his wife, he got a wife because he wanted to write the book!"

This reversal of the order of events gave people a creepy feeling for no reason. The old butler sighed, his eyes dimmed: "Yes, Mr. Maori is right."

He looked dazed, as if he was recalling a scene from many years ago. Nagakawa Usuke's face was full of excitement under the lights of the night. There were countless messy papers scattered on the ground. As if he had grabbed the last straw, he shouted loudly: "Yes, this is the only way to suppress Kudo Yusaku. Who does he think he is? He just wrote about a sneaky person in the dark night, and he can get such a crown!"

The old butler at the side was very shocked: "But, Master, this is really too much..."

Nagakawa Usuke turned around, his face, which had never looked as old as it does now, was filled with a kind of madness, "So what? They are just fantasizing in their minds. Only I, only I can completely and totally put the truth on the pages of the book. If I don't succeed, who will?!"

“Hahahahahaha!”

That night, Master Changchuan's crazy laughter occupied the old butler's entire mind and gave him nightmares for a long time. And then, all plans were put into practice.

After hearing the old housekeeper's confession, everyone at the scene found it hard to accept. Xiaolan even trembled and said, "Are you saying that Mrs. Hasumi's death was actually planned by Nagakawa Usuke?"

The old butler turned his face away. Maori Kogoro's tone became even colder: "More than that, all the tragedies actually originated from that man's selfishness and greed. He regarded himself as God and this villa as his stage. Everyone here is a puppet on his strings, and everything is done to make a book he wrote."

"Xiao Lan," he suddenly shouted, "Do you still remember who the murderer was in the book "Moonlight Celebration"?

Xiaolan was stunned, and then said helplessly: "I, I haven't finished reading it yet..."

"The murderer is 'me' myself," Pei Zhen sighed in silence, "Don't be fooled by how tragic the previous description was, it was all 'me''s disguise. He had actually long been tired of his wife and had found a new love outside," he paused, shook his head slightly and said, "Some people say that the more realistic situation is that he imprisoned that woman, and regarded abuse as love and her happiness. But later, the woman fell ill and her beauty was gone, and he fell in love with someone better, so he killed her."

"To describe one point of possessiveness as ten points of love, the 'I' in the book can be described as an insatiable beast." This is true both in the book and outside of it.

Ikeda Yoshihiro wiped his sweat and said in disbelief: "Then he wrote it at the end, isn't he afraid..."

"If he had found out, why would he still be out there?" Luo Zhi Xingzi said sarcastically. With trembling hands, she wanted to take out a cigarette and smoke: "Ha, that's it... actually..."

"He reproduces the story in the book in reality, and writes the sequel of the story through the interpretation of real people," Conan said calmly, "He uses these to inspire his inspiration and repair the discord in his book, so as to achieve his success."

"As for the injuries suffered by other people, he didn't want to care about it," Conan changed his tone and suddenly said, "Is it true that Mr. Shinji Inada didn't chase us out that night?"

Shinji Inada stood aside holding a camera, his whole body was eerily quiet. Just as others were murmuring in their hearts, he suddenly raised his head and said, "Are you joking, Mr. Maori? How can I know what a person like that is thinking? But he probably won't repent. How can he regret what he has done?"

He looked around and finally fixed his eyes on Maori Kogoro. He felt that this scene was somewhat familiar. He thought about it and smiled with relief: "Yes, this is the time he said..."

"If you choose to stop now, maybe you can still make it." Time passed quickly, and the camera was pulled to the dense forest. In the quiet night, a man in a black cloak appeared in front of Shinji Inada. He was not tall, but his every move was flawless. From under the slightly raised hood, Shinji Inada felt a calm gaze, "You didn't really do it, the retreat is still there. As long as Maori Kogoro leaves, some flaws are nothing."

Shinji Inada started laughing. He observed his palm, as if he was looking at the blood that was about to stain it. He whispered, "I didn't expect you to come here. It's just that," he turned around, tears already streaming down his blurred face, "You know what? There are some people that I can't live without killing."