"So, Mr. Adachi, you did all this for Miss Miyuki?" Sonoko's eyes sparkled, as if she could smell the tempting aroma of gossip.
Adakko nodded.
He was curious when he saw Miyuki running out of the room in a panic, and when he entered the room, he saw that the teapot was broken, so he was determined to cover for her.
"What time did Ms. Miyuki leave the room?"
"12:45."
Miyuki Tachibana gave her senior a grateful look, and the air seemed to be filled with the bittersweet scent of romance. Then she said, "So, this pot really is mine..."
"Actually, no. I came to this room around 1 a.m., and the kettle was still in good condition then."
Natsume Tomoko, who had just been arguing with the two, suddenly spoke up.
Um?
Everyone shifted their attention once again.
Are there more experts?
Natsume Tomoko held up her phone, which showed a photo taken at 12:59. The photo was taken in this room, and at that time, the kettle was still intact.
"Tomoko, thank you."
Miyuki Tachibana looked at Tomoko Natsume with a deeply moved expression.
Tomoko Natsume smiled, her eyes narrowing. "Miyayuki, I understand you, but it's ultimately wrong to casually leak information about your work."
"sorry……"
Yu Sheng Nan chuckled and said, "It seems that when exactly this teapot was damaged is quite a mystery. But since none of you three broke it directly, how exactly did it break?"
Everyone fell into deep thought.
Sonoko tilted her head and suddenly said, "Could it be that someone else entered the room before we arrived?"
Kenzo Ukishima shook his head decisively: "Impossible. No one else could have gotten in today except for a few of us."
"What if it's not a person?"
"Not human?"
"Yes, it's not human."
As Yuu Nan spoke, he walked towards the door. The cat that had run out earlier because of the trouble it had caused was now peeking its head in furtively, cautiously observing the movements inside the room.
Upon seeing Yuzuru Hanyu approach, the cat meowed once and then obediently let him pick it up.
"Actually, you can figure it out by reasoning about the time."
Yuzuru gently stroked the cat's glossy fur, then turned to look at everyone. "At 12:30, Ms. Miyuki entered the room to take pictures of the teapot. At 12:59, Ms. Tomoko came in and found the teapot was still intact. At 1:30, Mr. Adachi entered the room and found the teapot was broken, so he began to set up the device."
"So, the teapot broke between 1:00 and 1:30, right?"
Detective Sonoko discovered the time gap in the middle.
Kenzo Ukishima then said, "But I was at the door of the room from 1:00 to 1:30, and I didn't see anyone go in, nor did I hear the sound of the pot breaking!"
"That means there's only a minute left."
Detective Sonoko once again accurately discovered the time gap.
She looked intently at Natsume Tomoko beside her, "In one minute, the only person who could break the pot is Miss Tomoko..."
"Bang!"
A loud smack landed on Sonoko's head.
Yuzuru looked helplessly at Sonoko, who was clutching her head and looking pitiful, and said, "Didn't I just say, what if it wasn't done by a human?"
“It’s not a person, it’s…” Sonoko pouted, her gaze falling on the cat in Yuzuru’s arms.
"Could it be..."
"That's right, it's a cat."
Yuzuru lifted up the cat, who was still unaware of what had happened, and showed everyone the bandage on its hind leg. "I think the cat must have accidentally scratched its hind leg when it ran into the room through the small window. Then it jumped onto the table, causing the pot to fall over. The cat was startled and ran out of the small window again."
As he spoke, Yu Shengnan quickly walked to the small ventilation window on the high place where the cat had fled in fear of punishment. Then, to everyone's surprise, he suddenly jumped up, grabbed the window frame tightly with one hand, took out his phone with the other, and took a picture of the window frame outside.
The photo shows a dried bloodstain.
Based on what Kenzo Ukishima said earlier, we know that the cat's leg injury was just bandaged before he and Sonoko arrived.
"One minute is enough time for the cat to do all this."
The truth came out, and everyone was happy.
“Since that’s how it is, then what I just did…” Adakko scratched her head, looking somewhat embarrassed.
Miyuki Tachibana crossed her arms and smiled slightly. "You mean those things where you try to shirk responsibility? You're still the same as ever."
“But this result is really great.” Tomoko Natsume gently picked up the cat from the ground and said happily, “It wasn’t any of us who broke the pot.”
Miyuki Tachibana and Adakko looked at their overjoyed junior sister, but their smiles gradually faded. Adakko took the initiative to say, "Tomoko, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I went too far."
"No, I also made mistakes."
"Tomoko, I shouldn't have said those things..."
After this incident, the three siblings' relationship was restored to normal.
Kenzo Ukishima smiled with satisfaction.
Sonoko was nestled in Yuzuru's arms, watching the four of them reconcile, and she was so moved that tears were about to flow.
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