To Fang Zheng, the inscription didn't mean anything, he just glanced at it and didn't think about it anymore. Then, at Jiayin's invitation, Fang Zheng came to the meeting room - it must be said that the tense atmosphere in front of him was really annoying.
"Then I'll check again."
After Fang Zheng finished reading the treaty in his hand, he raised his head and looked at the people in front of him.
"According to everyone's discussion, the final terms reached are that 50% of Ushiromiya Kinzo's wealth will be left to the next head of the Ushiromiya family, and the rest will be divided equally among the other brothers and sisters. The property will be distributed when Ushiromiya Kinzo dies... Do you all agree to this agreement?"
“…”
In response to Fang Zheng's question, Ushiromiya Kurasu, as the eldest brother, remained silent, while the others looked at him with a somewhat smug smile.
"If you haven't reached an agreement yet, you can continue to negotiate until you come up with a clause that is acceptable to all parties."
Fang Zheng placed the agreement in his hand on the table.
"Also, I hope to meet with Mr. Ushiromiya Kinzo and discuss the issue of inheritance distribution with him face to face."
"this……"
In response to Fang Zheng's words, Ushiromiya Kurasu showed an embarrassment, while Leuproy sneered.
"That's right, Brother Zangjiu. We also hope that father can explain these issues clearly. If father had made a decision long ago, we wouldn't have wasted our time here."
"Yes, how about taking Mr. Fang Zheng to meet his father?"
At this time, Ushiromiya Ewa also joined in.
"This is an important agreement that needs to be confirmed as legally binding."
"But my father doesn't like to see strangers, and he doesn't like noise..."
Faced with the pressure from his younger brothers and sisters, Ushiromiya Kurasu frowned and spoke hesitantly.
"Regarding the inheritance issue, I insist on meeting to discuss it."
Fang Zheng stared at Ushiromiya Kurasukuni and continued speaking calmly.
"The distribution of inheritance is a serious matter. It must be decided by the person himself, and the notarization can only be made after the person's consent is confirmed. If I cannot meet with Mr. Ushiromiya Kinzo, then I will not agree to confirm the notarization."
"I understand. I will consult my father before making a decision."
Facing Fang Zheng's answer, Ushiromiya Zangju was obviously a little uneasy. In the end, he could only answer like this.
In this way, an afternoon was spent in a sinister atmosphere. When Fang Zheng saw Conan again, he couldn't help but complain.
"I finally understand why all these people died. Didn't you see how their eyes lit up when they talked about money, just like wolves seeing food? I think, even if there really was gold, these people would have killed each other as soon as they saw it... Well, I think this possibility is very high. Maybe they killed each other for the gold, and in the end only one lucky person escaped. But because it was too embarrassing for 'family members to kill each other for ten tons of gold', they deliberately created the explosion to cover it up."
“…”
Facing Fang Zheng's complaints, Conan remained silent. Only after Fang Zheng finished speaking did he look at him.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, has any of you been to the courtyard before?"
"Courtyard? No, those people have been arguing over the division of the inheritance until now. If everyone didn't know the word dinner, I'm afraid I wouldn't even have dinner today... What happened?"
"Well... there is one thing that I am concerned about."
"What's up?"
"About Maria... Actually, when we came back from the picnic today, Maria found that her rose was missing."
"……What's the meaning?"
"When we first arrived at this villa, didn't Maria see a withered rose in the garden? I remember asking Zhi to tie a ribbon around that rose, but it was gone when everyone came back from the picnic."
"Maybe it was cut off by a gardener or something."
Fang Zheng disagreed.
"Since it is a sick flower, it must be disposed of."
"We asked the servants, but no one had taken care of the garden, and the strange thing is that the flower disappeared..."
"Is that why you ask where we were this afternoon?"
"Of course not. The problem comes after this."
Conan shook his head.
"After that, because it was about to rain, Maria's mother came to Maria and asked her to go home, but Maria couldn't find the rose and kept getting angry. The two of them quarreled, and Ms. Rosa even hit Maria... We felt it was not good to stay there, so we left. But after a long time, Ms. Rosa found us again and asked if we had seen Maria. We all said no, because we thought it was just a quarrel between mother and daughter, and Maria should have followed Ms. Rosa back after the quarrel. But we didn't expect that Ms. Rosa was so angry that she left Maria alone."
At this point, Conan was obviously a little annoyed, while Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.
"Then what?"
"Then everyone naturally went to look for Maria, but to our surprise, we found Maria in the garden, but she was holding a white umbrella in her hand. Auntie Balcony asked who gave her the umbrella, and she said it was Beatrice..."
"The Golden Witch."
Hearing this, Fang Zheng finally became serious.
"That's why you're asking if any of us have left."
"That's right."
Conan nodded.
"I've been following Jōji, Shujika, and Battler. They didn't have time to leave, and if Ms. Roza wants to find her daughter, she doesn't need to dress up as a witch. So I suspect someone is trying to play tricks, so I asked if you have any clues."
"Everyone on my side was arguing over the inheritance, and no one left the room during it."
Fang Zheng shook his head. He understood Conan's thoughts. After all, Maria was only a nine-year-old girl and she looked mentally unstable. If someone tried to disguise themselves as a legendary witch and appeared in front of her, it would be easy to deceive her.
"I asked the servants, and they said no one had given Maria an umbrella."
Conan's expression was still very serious.
"But we cannot deny that there is a high possibility of collusion between the servants and the master. After all, this is Ushiromiya's main household. If the purpose is the inheritance, then it is not impossible to bribe one or two servants to assist in the murder. And if there is an accomplice, it will be easy to clear your alibi."
In the end, the two of them didn't come to any conclusion until dinner started.
As expected, at the dinner party, the balcony also asked this question, but everyone unanimously said that no one had ever gone out to lend Maria an umbrella. As for Maria's mention of Beatrice, it was naturally ignored by everyone.
However, what no one expected was that after dinner, Maria took out a letter - a letter from the golden witch, Beatrice.
The content of the letter was that the Golden Witch, who claimed to be the alchemist consultant of the Ushiromiya family, said that Ushiromiya Kinzo had declared the end of the contract and that she would take back everything she had given Kinzo. However, a special clause was added, that is, if someone found the hidden gold, Beatrice would give up all rights and wealth and return it. The letter also specifically stated that anyone could find the gold based on the inscription. And anyone who found the gold could obtain this power.
Although everyone thought the letter was ridiculous, the seal on the wax was indeed the ring of Kinzo, the head of the Ushiromiya clan. This also proved from one side that someone did have Kinzo's ring and wrote this letter.
As to whether this letter was written by the legendary witch, that is another matter.
After that, all the adults rushed to Ushiromiya Kinzo's study to ask their father for an explanation, and only Fang Zheng, Conan and a few other young people were still sitting at the dining table.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, does this letter have any legal effect?"
Zhan Ren looked at Fang Zheng in confusion and asked, while Fang Zheng took the letter, looked at it, and nodded.
"Because Japanese law stipulates that seals can be used as personal signatures, this letter can also be regarded as Mr. Kinzo's will from a certain perspective. However, there is a problem..."
"question?"
"time."
At this moment, Conan was also staring at the letter, and spoke as he read it.
"Although the person calling herself Beatrice said in the letter that she would give up power if the gold was found, there was no time limit. Generally speaking, if such a request is made, if it is not found within a certain time, it will automatically be judged as a loss, but if there is no time limit, then doesn't it mean that this stalemate can continue forever?"
"That... makes sense."
After hearing Conan's explanation, Battler, Shuzhixiang and Joji looked at each other in bewilderment.
"So this letter is just a prank?"
"It's unlikely that this is a prank, but now it's clear that the content of the letter can be summarized as follows: whoever can find the hidden gold will be able to obtain the wealth of the Ushiromiya family. So even if there is no time limit, everyone will try to find the gold in the shortest time possible."
Fang Zheng shrugged, put the letter back into the envelope, and looked at Maria.
"Maria, who gave you this letter?"
Facing Fang Zheng's question, Maria raised her hand happily.
"It's Beatrice!"
“…”
Well, it seems there is no hope of getting any clues.
After that, the adults in the Ushiromiya family continued their meeting, while the children went to the lounge to kill time. Fang Zheng and Conan returned to their guest room to continue discussing this "incident".
"It seems that Beatrice gave this letter to Maria when she lent her the umbrella."
"But we cannot confirm whether Beatrice really exists yet."
Conan was obviously unwilling to accept this statement.
"I still think that this is someone pretending to be a witch. The reason they found Maria is because Maria has cognitive dissonance and mental problems, and it is not easy to be seen through. In this way, as long as they use Maria's words, they can perfectly pretend to be a stranger who is not present and commit the crime."
"If it doesn't exist, then there is another person who doesn't exist either."
Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.
"I have never seen Kinzo Ushiromiya since I came to this villa. Only his eldest son, Ushiromiya Zausu, his wife, Ushiromiya Natsuhime, the attending physician, and the housekeeper are allowed to enter his study. However, whether Kinzo Ushiromiya is still alive is still a question."
"You mean to say..."
"Ushiromiya Kinzou is suspected of embezzling his father's property. If that's the case, according to the general public, if he is discovered, he will definitely be punished, and he may even lose his position as the next head of the family. Since they are the only family living on Rokukenjima, they can kill Ushiromiya Kinzou as soon as possible, and then just bribe a few servants to create the illusion that Ushiromiya Kinzou is still alive."
"So what you're saying is that everything that happened at the dinner party today was actually directed and acted out by Ushiromiya Kurasu?"
Conan also started thinking.
"That does make sense. Maybe Ushiromiya Kinzo already knew where the gold was, and he just used this method to gain recognition from his other brothers and sisters. As long as he has this letter, then as long as Ushiromiya Zoujiu 'successfully' finds the gold, he can naturally inherit the position of 'family head' and no one else will suspect him."
The two discussed for a long time, but unfortunately there was no result. In the end, Fang Zheng yawned.
"Anyway, let's go to bed first, and we'll deal with the rest tomorrow."
“Boom boom boom!!!”
As if in response to Fang Zheng's words, outside the window, thunder roared along with heavy rain.
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