Chapter 743 Cosplay Added to Alliance Leader [Sun and Moon Gourd]

With the support of the leading police officer Sato Miwako, Jiang Xia quickly entered the yard.

Before that, Conan took advantage of his low presence at certain times and sneaked in.

Haibara Ai did not go with him. She looked around and finally followed Jiang Xia through the cordon and blended into the scene.

Without the obstruction of the courtyard wall, the scene in the courtyard is clearer.

This is a typical Japanese garden, dotted with rocks and low trees. In the corner of the garden, there is a small but exquisite pool.

The three of them entered the yard, looked around, and instinctively looked towards the pool.

——That’s where the largest number of police officers gathered.

As we got closer, without the busy police blocking our view, we could see a stiff body lying face up in the pond.

The upper body of the corpse was stained with large patches of blood, with the darkest blood on the heart, as if someone had stabbed him. From the parts that were not stained with blood, his shirt was actually a yellow and pink plaid shirt.

Yellow and pink...

"..." Huiyuan Ai was startled, and immediately thought of the dead cat she had just picked up. If she remembered correctly, the clothing fibers hanging from the cat's paws were also these two colors.

There are relatively few clothes with this color combination...and if the person the cat met before its death was the deceased, then this "cat-beating incident" is somehow related to the murder case?

This coincidence made Haibara Ai a little surprised.

But she looked up at the detective next to her, and suddenly felt that this seemed very reasonable...

Haibara Ai stroked her chin, observing the corpse while quietly daydreaming, recalling the locations of several famous shrines, as well as temples that she didn't visit often but had heard of: Maybe when she has time, she should find an excuse to take Jiang Xia there?

Although there is no such thing as "Kudo Shinichi's ghost", this kind of event that is too strong always makes people think of strange things. If you can go to the exorcism site and go through the process, it will be reassuring...

…

"We haven't found the murder weapon in the surrounding area. We are expanding the search area centered on this hotel, but so far, we have still found nothing."

Miwako Sato flipped through her notebook and told Jiang Xia some situations that might be useful, so that Jiang Xia could integrate and process these fragmentary information as he did before, and then quickly output the truth.

——Officer Sato is already very familiar with this process of filling in intelligence. Or rather, the police officers who have come into contact with Jiang Xia are very familiar with it:

"Preliminary estimates put the time of death at between 12:00 and 2:00 yesterday. The first person to discover the body was the store manager, Zenichi Akasawa, who usually lives in the hotel. This morning, before the hotel opened, he passed by the yard and accidentally saw his employee floating in the pond."

When she said this, Miwako Sato deliberately glanced to the side.

Jiang Xia looked in the direction she pointed and saw a man with gray hair.

The man looked to be about 60 years old, with an old-fashioned slicked-back hair and a well-dressed suit. Judging from these alone, he looked like a serious old grandfather. However, in fact, he was wearing a conspicuous pink shirt underneath his suit, which looked weird and a little funny.

This is the owner of this store, the person who first discovered the body - Zenichi Akasawa.

Jiang Xia was looking at him when, from the other side of the house, a chaotic sound of footsteps and whispers could be heard, as if many people were walking towards this side.

——The body was found in this hotel, and the deceased happened to be a hotel employee.

No matter from which perspective, the employees in this restaurant are more suspicious than others.

So just now, Miwako Sato asked the police to find the employees who were scattered everywhere.

Conan was originally observing the corpse. When he heard the noise, he raised his head and glanced at the "Shaoyefang" employees who were walking nearby.

Originally, Conan just wanted to take a quick look to see the approximate number of people, and then continue to check the bodies while listening to Jiang Xia and the employees communicating and looking for clues.

However, when he took a look, Conan looked at the employees and was stunned in confusion.

Jiang Xia's gaze also fell on the people walking over and stayed for a long while.

The employees' clothes look out of place in a normal modern city - a mixture of kimonos and old-fashioned Western-style clothes, but with a lot of fancy and exaggerated elements added.

Originally, the pink shirt of the old store manager Zenichi Akazawa was very eye-catching.

But now that these people have arrived, the store manager has blended in perfectly. Combined with the ancient-style architecture here, it is these outsiders who seem out of place.

“…”

The strange-looking employees stopped about five or six meters from the pond and were stopped by the police.

Several security guards holding steel forks passed the police and looked into the bloody pool, muttering, "Lao Yang was killed?"

Next to him, a passionate young man rolled up his sleeves exaggeratedly and said angrily in a dramatic tone: "Which bastard did this?! For such a villain, even if God forgives him, I will never let him off easily!"

The old woman next to him held a handkerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes where tears were forced out. She seemed moved and agreed: "Young Master, you have a strong sense of justice. Seeing your attitude, Old Yang's spirit in heaven will surely rest in peace."

“……”Haibara Ai was also a little confused just now.

At this moment, she suddenly heard a few familiar keywords and gradually understood: "... "Young Master"? "

Thinking about the big words "Shao Ye Fang" hanging on the door of the hotel, Huiyuan Ai suddenly understood everything and whispered to Jiang Xia: "...So this is what the name of the hotel means."

Jiang Xia nodded and pointed to a small wooden sign beside the pond: "This pond where the bodies were found is also called 'Sansilang Pond'."

"Sanshirō" and "The Young Master" are both novels by Natsume Soseki.

Combined with the "nonsense" just now spoken by the employees, the situation of this hotel has become clearer.

——It should be a Natsume Soseki-related theme hotel. Judging from the name of the hotel, "Shouye-tei", the main attraction is the book "Shouye". The employees in the restaurant are dressed like the characters in "Shouye".

The protagonist of "Young Master" is, of course, "Young Master". He is righteous and impulsive. After graduation, Young Master bids farewell to his kind grandmother, Aqing, and goes to a school in Shikoku to become a teacher. However, the school is full of chaos, and the dean who likes to wear a red shirt and his lackeys give the protagonist a lot of blows. At the end of the novel, "Young Master" and the straightforward "Porcupine" beat up the dean "Red Shirt" and his lackeys, and resigned in anger.

As for “Lao Yang” played by the deceased… he was an honest and unlucky man who accepted everything that happened to him.

(End of this chapter)