Chapter 40, Chapter 39: Glacier Ruins: Police Leaflets...

I have ten virtues

Seventh, be a caring daughter to your elders.

"Hey! Cheer up, Zhuge!" Conan grabbed Zhuge Tongzhi by the collar, who was lying peacefully on the ground, and shook him back and forth in an attempt to rouse his friend. "Don't give up so easily."

The back-and-forth shaking caused the girl's non-prescription glasses to dangle from her face, but they were quickly removed from her nose and put back on.

Zhuge Tongzhi pressed the Conan-style glasses, which concealed his identity, back onto Conan's face, wishing he could conjure up a tube of super glue to stick them there completely, in case anything unexpected happened and Gin, who was standing right next to him, discovered Shinichi Kudo's presence.

However, the reality was that she didn't have any glue on her hands. Zhuge Tongzhi was shaken by Conan with regret, and asked intermittently, "I... I... I won't give up. Can... can you not go to Gin later?"

“How could that be?” Conan stopped what he was doing and asked seriously, “This is a great opportunity to investigate the Black Organization. We have to hurry up, or we might not be able to find them later.”

"Okay, I knew it." Zhuge Tongzhi watched as the blue and white arrows in the void guided her to the target and then led people towards the exit. She knew that O and Conan had the same goal.

"What about that bomb?" She pointed to the bomb behind the fire extinguisher box. Some of the exposed wires had already been cut. Conan reached out and pulled the girl sitting on the ground up, put his hands in his pockets and said seriously, "This is a chain-reaction bomb. Although I disarmed one, it may be useless."

“Look.” He showed the fire layout diagram he had taken a picture of on his phone to Kaito Kuroba and Tongzhi Zhuge, pointing to their current location. “We are currently at the back of the central exhibition hall, and the other fire exits are also built around the central exhibition hall.”

"If nothing unexpected happens, these bombs, though small in quantity, are hidden in various locations around the central exhibition hall, enough to keep people from leaving the central exhibition hall."

Conan adjusted his glasses and deduced from the information he had gathered: "Ireland has the authority to deploy mobile police. This exhibition hall is quite large, so it should be easy to leave a few gaps for patrol searches."

"Instead of searching for the bomb like looking for a needle in a haystack, we should confront them head-on and find out what their mission objective is." The black-haired, blue-eyed elementary school student calmly offered the most feasible yet most dangerous solution, his gaze drifting across the window to the sky outside.

He knew that right under that sky, the culprit who had knocked him unconscious and turned him into a child was in the Porsche parked by the roadside.

"We need to find out their purpose as soon as possible, and we can also follow the clues to find out where the real Inspector Nakamori is. He was probably hidden while he was unconscious."

Conan and Kaito Kuroba exchanged a glance. The phantom thief, though extremely anxious, forced himself to remain calm and maintained a poker face. He spread his hands and said with a mocking smile, "I can't let my nemesis miss tonight's magic show."

“In that case, calling the police would be a complete waste of time.” Zhuge Tongzhi said, opening his contacts, but after hovering his finger over the screen for a moment, he simply exited the page and sighed, “Even if we call the police, it will only alert them.”

"Hmm, the amount of these bombs isn't enough to destroy the load-bearing walls of the exhibition hall. As long as no one is here, they'll only serve as a deterrent." Conan pulled out a stack of warning signs from the storage room next door and placed a few at the entrance to the fire escape.

“Besides, this door is always locked. If Kid hadn’t opened it, we wouldn’t have been able to get in.” He clapped his hands, glanced at the smiling phantom thief beside him, and looked at the listless Zhuge Tongzhi, asking, “Zhuge, do you have any dealings with Gin?”

"I don't know, Detective." Zhuge Tongzhi shook her head. How would she know what her past was like? Even the fact that the original owner of this body was Al's wine was something Conan told her.

The girl, whose hair had been shaken into a mess, smoothed it out and started tying it into a small bun. She said nonchalantly, "Just make sure you wear your glasses and hide your identity, and you'll be fine."

"You can't be careless either, Zhuge." Conan shook his head disapprovingly, casually patted Kaito Kuroba next to him, and said rudely, "Kid, you must have brought some disguise gear, right? Do you have the glasses?"

"Are you trying to rob me, Great Detective?" Kaito Kuroba reached into his pocket and rummaged around, jokingly saying, "Robbery is a crime, you know."

“Then robbing criminals makes a positive out of two negatives.” Conan took the round-framed glasses from his hand with a fake smile and handed them to Zhuge Tongzhi, earnestly instructing him, “Just in case, you must protect yourself.”

“Alright, great detective.” Zhuge Tongzhi shrugged, adding a small piece of luggage to his usually relaxed nose bridge. His bright black eyes looked at the two of them through his lenses, and he tugged at his uncomfortable glasses, laughing, “Come with me.”

Following the blue and white arrows that only Zhuge Tongzhi could see, the three of them chose a faster and more direct route and headed towards the first floor.

…

Inside a Porsche on the first floor by the roadside

Gin looked away from the third-floor window that reflected a blinding white light, slowly exhaling a thick cloud of smoke, and casually said into the phone, "What did you just say, Ireland?"

"...People I've killed? How could I possibly remember those trash? How's your infiltration going? Don't waste the face Vermouth gave you."

“…Fine, don’t become a piece of trash, Ireland.” Gin said calmly, then hung up the phone with a swift motion. He took a deep drag on his cigarette and, with the cigarette dangling from his lips, scrolled through Bourbon’s contact information on his phone.

The cigarette butt rose, its white smoke curling towards the roof of the car. Vodka, who remained quiet in the driver's seat, glanced at the increasingly smoky air inside the car, hesitated for a moment, and then leaned over to turn on the car's air circulation function.

Gin stepped aside to avoid his imposing figure, and the silver-haired assassin glanced out the window at a peaceful scene while waiting for the call.

The instant Vodka's gaze left the rearview mirror, a flyer, folded several times, suddenly flew over like a dart, landing precisely on the edge of the mirror lens and frame, completely obscuring the view behind the car.

Two nimble little figures took the opportunity to lower their bodies and run to the back of the car, crouching behind the Porsche, cautiously bending over without showing any of their heads.

The instant Zhuge Tongzhi helped the Porsche into the car, the blue and white navigation screen in front of him refreshed:

"Wayway: Meeting an Old Friend in a Foreign Land (Completed)"

Okay, now I'm about to run into an old acquaintance if I'm not careful. Zhuge Tongzhi frowned as he looked at the navigation prompt. Are you happy now?

I will never forgive you, you cold-hearted navigator!

Beside her, Conan secretly took out a tracker from his pocket, stuck it firmly to the back of the Porsche's license plate, turned on the tracker, and carefully wiped away all traces he had left behind.

At the same time, Bourbon hung up on Gin, and a text message notification from Bourbon popped up on his phone.

The silver-haired assassin paused for a moment, then thought that the Rum Faction members often did this, always emphasizing communication via text message during missions, but in his eyes, it was nothing more than a disgusting trick to make things mysterious.

"Ha, mysticism." Gin chuckled, swiping open the text message page to check Bourbon's intelligence work report. He was fairly satisfied with this intelligence broker, who had been extremely capable and on missions every day since joining the organization.

Vodka adjusted the air circulation level, watching with satisfaction as the air inside the car gradually became clearer. Turning his head, he noticed a flyer that had been stuck to the rearview mirror by someone at some point.

Vodka, who always made sure his boss's car was neat and clean, was taken aback. He rolled down the window and looked around but didn't see anyone. In the end, he could only bring the flyer in, confused. He rolled up the window with one hand and held the flyer on his lap with difficulty, spreading it out with one hand.

A blue flyer with white lettering unfolded before him, its headline in oversized font featuring two cartoonish figures: 'Police Reminder: Fighting is Costly, Act with Caution'.

Then, they put several simple drawings of criminals who were imprisoned and regretted their actions on the flyer, and thoughtfully included the Osaka Police Department's hotline below.

Vodka, who not only fights but also kills and uses this as a means of livelihood: ...

Taking advantage of the gap, Zhuge Tongzhi and Conan quickly ran away from the back of the car. After a few runs, they rolled into the jewelry exhibition advertising sign on the side of the road. Kuroba Kaito steadily helped the two children to their feet and handed each of them an earphone.

Conan cautiously took out a mirror, carefully observing the Porsche's movements while keeping an eye on any potential reflections, and covered his ears with his hands to listen intently to the sounds inside.

Zhuge Tongzhi leaned over to look at the Porsche in the mirror, listening to a soft, rustling sound of paper coming from his headphones, as if he were inside a crumpled piece of paper being opened.

But that was indeed the case. She provided a police leaflet she found in her bag, and Kaito Kuroba provided a listening device he had developed himself. Thus, the leaflet was found in the rearview mirror that Vodka had opened.

After the paper ball was unfolded, there was no movement for a moment, followed by the sound of it being vigorously crumpled into a ball. Zhuge Tongzhi was a little uncomfortable with the somewhat jarring noise that was amplified several times in his ears, but he couldn't help but laugh when he thought that this was Vodka's reaction after seeing the police flyer.

The driver's side window, reflected in the mirror, was opened for a moment, and a large hand holding a blue and white crumpled paper ball reached out, but hesitated for a moment before withdrawing it.

"What did you take, vodka?"

It was Gin. Conan listened intently to the voice coming through his headphones.

“Someone slipped it to me, boss,” Vodka explained hesitantly. Gin, noticing something was amiss, immediately ordered him to show him the flyer in his hand. Vodka clenched the crumpled paper in his hand and tried to explain, “It’s just a flyer, boss.”

"Stop talking nonsense." Gin said coldly, and a soft rubbing sound came through the earphone, followed by the repeated sound of paper rubbing.

The leaflet, which had been crumpled up after being opened, was unfolded again. The listening device, which was not sticking very tightly to begin with, fell off the leaflet with each crumpling and landed on the black carpet in front of the Gin chair with a soft thud.

The dark blue listening device lay in the shadows under the seat, barely concealing its presence, but fortunately, Gin's attention wasn't on the carpet beneath his feet.

He fell silent as he stared at the large "Police Reminder" sign. Vodka, standing beside him, scratched his face awkwardly and stammered, "Boss, littering isn't allowed around here."

"Idiot," Gin said mercilessly, rolling down his window and casually tossing the crumpled police leaflet out the window. He then told Vodka, "Drive."

After unfolding, it clumped together, clumped together, unfolded again, and finally turned into a crumpled piece of paper. The police leaflet drew an arc from the Porsche window and lay there casually in the middle of the road, while the black Porsche sped past it.

"Flyer, my friend!" Zhuge Tongzhi pressed his hand to his chest, silently mourning for the police flyer who had successfully retired, thinking to himself: I will always remember your heroic figure in deceiving Gin.

Regardless, you should be the one among all the flyers that truly participated in the anti-gang crime campaign and was an important part of it!

Conan held the headphones and heard a rhythmic series of keystrokes coming from them. His perfect pitch allowed him to quickly memorize the sound, and a sense of familiarity washed over him.

Before he could think it through, Zhuge Tongzhi suddenly grabbed Kuroba Kaito and Conan by the arm and, taking advantage of the Porsche turning at the T-junction, jogged and pulled the two of them to the exit of the exhibition hall they had just come from.

Through the earpiece, Gin pressed the dial button, waited a moment, and then spoke in a respectful and docile tone that Conan had never heard before: "Boss, I..."

The boss of the Black Organization? Is the person on the other end of the phone Karasuma Renya that Elle mentioned? Conan glanced at the solemn-faced Zhuge Tongzhi for a moment, his brain racing: No, Elle said she hadn't seen the person behind the scenes in person, that's just a possibility.

Wait, Elle also said that! A flash of lightning struck Conan's mind, and Gin also quickly reacted to the abnormal noise in the communication and cut off the communication.

The sharp sound of the bugging device being crushed made all three of them grimac for a moment. Zhuge Tongzhi took the earphone off his ears and handed it back to Kuroba Kaito, rubbing his ears and urging the two of them, "This is only the second floor, let's hurry up and go up, they will definitely come back here later."

Kaito Kuroba was pushed upwards by her, while Conan remained rooted to the spot, his expressionless face mostly obscured by his reflective glasses. He turned his head to look out the window at the Porsche speeding towards them.

"Conan?" Zhuge Tongzhi asked in confusion, "You..."

"Crow, why do you sing?" A strange tune that seemed to have a melody came from Conan's mouth. After singing this line, he smiled and looked at Zhuge Tongzhi, who was standing next to him with a stunned expression, and said, "0858, the area code of Tottori Prefecture, right?"

"This is the secret behind the nursery rhyme 'Seven Children.' The organization members memorized the BOSS's SMS URL by following this melody, right?"

The opening melody of "Seven Children" perfectly matched the melody played by Gin's dial. With the help of Al's hint, Conan understood the meaning behind the melody almost instantly with his perfect pitch.

"The organization's boss is hiding in Tottori Prefecture, right?" Blue eyes peeked out from behind her glasses, reflecting the image of Zhuge Tongzhi, who was also wearing glasses. The girl's expression gradually became puzzled.

"I can't remember, maybe." Zhuge Tongzhi vaguely remembered that a certain chapter of the manga seemed to have revealed information about Karasuma Renya's location, but she couldn't recall the specifics.

The girl ignored Conan's three questions, looked over his shoulder and saw two burly men in black getting out of the Porsche. She pulled him away through a nearby door on the second floor and left the passageway. "Forget about the crows singing, let's get out of here first."

“Great Detective, that melody isn’t like that at all.” Kuroba Kaito only managed to recall the original version of the nursery rhyme by following the lyrics, and then he revealed his crescent-shaped eyes and complained, “It should be ‘Crow, why do you sing?’”

"What's the difference?" Conan crossed his arms and looked at Kaito Kuroba, refusing to admit that he had perfect pitch but was tone-deaf, and retorted, "Isn't it just the melody of '3212 31615'?"

"Why does your singing sound so weird..." Kaito Kuroba was speechless for a moment, then waved his hand to indicate that he wanted to skip the topic. "Never mind, where do we go next?"

We can't just chase them all the way to Tottori Prefecture, can we?

“Well, next…” Zhuge Tongzhi glanced at the navigation page in the void, took out his constantly vibrating phone from his pocket, tilted his head and said, “Shouldn’t we go back to the central exhibition hall? Sister Xiaolan is looking for us.”

"That's true. If we want to find the target, we should start with that imposter." Kaito Kuroba flipped the playing cards between his fingers, the overhead light casting a cold glow on the cards.

"Let's go, there's no time to lose."

…

Central Exhibition Hall

Ran Mouri, holding the phone that had just connected, asked worriedly, "Kiri-chan, haven't you, Conan, and Shinichi come back yet?"

"Sister Xiaolan, we're coming right back. We took the wrong turn and ended up in the fire escape. We're heading towards the central exhibition hall now."

A child's clear voice came through the phone. Ran Mouri breathed a sigh of relief and instructed, "Let me know when you're almost there. This place isn't open to the public yet, so I'll come pick you up."

"good---"

Behind Ran Mouri, Ireland fumbled for his phone; the latest call record was with Gin.

The man's hand gripping his phone tightened little by little, avoiding the gaze of everyone present. In the shadows, his jaw was clenched so tightly that his masseter muscles bulged noticeably.

"Useless trash, Gin." Ireland recalled how Pisco, a member of the organization whom he regarded as a father, had been ruthlessly killed by Gin for failing a mission. A flash of anger appeared in his eyes, but he suppressed it tightly.

So, if you let someone who has discovered the organization's secrets live, and you can't even clean up the mess, what kind of useless person are you?

Ireland exhaled and turned to look at 'Shinichi Kudo' who followed Ran Mouri in. A ruthless glint appeared beneath his otherwise calm expression.

I will bring the living Shinichi Kudo to the BOSS and let him know the pretense and incompetence behind your cold-blooded mask, so that you will lose your current status and power.

I want to avenge my father, Pisco, who was killed and thrown into flames, leaving no trace of his body.

Ran Mouri led the four people behind her into the central exhibition hall, and asked Zhuge Tongzhi, who was holding the hand of a strange man, with some curiosity: "Tong-chan, who is this?"

“I don’t know him either, Ran-jie.” Zhuge Tongzhi, holding the hand of the stranger dressed as a street musician beside him, looked up at Ran Mouri and smiled sweetly. “But this gentleman has urgent business to attend to, so he hopes I can show him the gems in the main exhibition.”

"Oh, is that so? Wouldn't that be a bit inappropriate?" Ran Mouri hesitated, wondering if this violated the rules. Then Heiji Hattori, who had rushed over as soon as he saw Shinichi Kudo, chimed in, "It's fine. There are police all around. If there's any problem, you'll just be walking into a trap."

"Kudo, I won't lose to you in today's match." Hattori Heiji looked at 'Kudo Shinichi' with burning fighting spirit in his eyes and said, "Let me see what you're capable of."

No, Hattori, the person in front of you is not Kudo.

Conan watched as Kaito Kid smiled confidently and began to act, revealing his crescent-shaped eyes as he looked at the strange man Zhuge was holding. The man was explaining his background to Ran Mouri and assuring her that he was only there to take a look at the jewel.

And this guy, Lan, isn't some kind of street artist who loves gemstones.

One of them, the criminal Hattori had described as having walked right into a trap, was now listening intently to the police officers' plans to set up an inescapable net to capture him, and even offered some constructive suggestions.

Judging from Zhuge's social circle, the only person who could be her mysterious guardian, Midorikawa Hikaru, is now disguised and sneaking in, clearly with ulterior motives beyond the jewels.

Conan, recalling how the girl had precisely grabbed the man from the crowd, looked speechlessly at the two seemingly harmonious groups of people present.

What on earth is going on?

Meanwhile, Zhuge Tongzhi, who helped Morofushi Hiromitsu successfully approach Ireland, smiled silently, considerately giving Morofushi Hiromitsu space to chat with Inspector Nakamori.

Let the professionals handle intelligence gathering and such.

As dusk settled, Zhuge Tongzhi looked through the windows of the central exhibition hall and saw the sky gradually turning grayish-blue, making the blue and white navigation prompt box appear even brighter.

"Waypoint: Witnessed by the glacial remnants (Completed)"

People arrived at the exhibition hall one after another, showing their tickets to the staff. A tall, thin elderly man, supported by two strong men, walked into the spacious central exhibition hall with his hands behind his back after having his ticket checked.

Ireland stood on the platform on the second floor of the exhibition hall, taking in everything. He tapped his fingers lightly on the railing twice and gave the order to the police officers beside him to be on high alert for Phantom Thief Kid.

Conan, Kaito Kuroba, and Kagemitsu Morofushi silently watched his movements.

In the tense atmosphere simmering beneath the surface, Zhuge Tongzhi kept his eyes glued to the scene, then pulled out a half-empty bottle of water and gulped it down, immediately coughing from the spiciness.

She belatedly pulled out half a bottle of water from her bag. The same clear liquid was in two identical mineral water bottles, except that one of them was now emitting a smell of alcohol.

Oh dear, I drank the wrong thing.

Zhuge Tongzhi blinked, and the next moment he felt his heart contract tightly in his chest.

-----------------------

Author's Note: 10,000 Days (Part 2)

…

Police remind:

Fighting is costly; proceed with caution.

Vodka: ...

Gin: ...idiot

…

So tired today (slumped over)

Mwah