Chapter 135 Script Killing (Part 3)
Xiao Dai took out a few photos and said, "I found photography tools in the rooms of all three tourists, but they focused on different areas. Tourist Tou took a lot of photos of the scenery around the village, including places like the woods and the back mountain. Tourist Subaru's room has many tools for surveying geological features, and most of the photos he took are of rocks and land. And tourist Ling's camera is full of photos of people and buildings in Baiyu Village. On the surface, she really looks like a tourist. But I noticed that she once took a photo of Ayong, so it's possible that she's using photography to screen targets."
Suzuki Sonoko frowned and said, "Your imagination is too rich. I'm simply interested in the people and scenery here."
Toru Amuro and Subaru Okiya also said that they only filmed what they were interested in.
"Are you just interested in the scenery?" Xiao Dai asked. "Then why do you carry weapons when traveling? Each of you has guns and knives in your room. This is not something ordinary tourists should carry, right?"
After hearing this, everyone at the table looked at the three tourists in shock.
Subaru Okiya pushed up his glasses and said calmly, "It's for self-defense. When you go out alone, you always have to pay attention to your own safety."
"Why do you bring a gun to an ordinary village?" Hattori Heiji asked with a frown.
"There are rumors outside that Baiyu Village is very xenophobic and the villagers are very fierce. I carry a gun just in case." said Subaru Okiya.
Edogawa Conan asked in confusion: "If that's the case, then why did you come here to travel?"
"I'm afraid they're not here for tourism," Dong Yexi said. "They're coming to a closed-off village with guns. There's something fishy going on."
When asked about their purpose, the three remained silent. Without key evidence, the triggering conditions were not met.
Xiao Dai continued, "There's another suspicious point. The three tourists arrived at the village on the same day, at different times, and acted as if they didn't know each other. But after my investigation, I believe you all knew each other." He pulled out a round badge with a feather printed in the center and pushed it to the center of the table. "I found this badge in all three of your rooms," he asked. "Excuse me, what is this? Are you all in the same group?"
Toru Amuro, Subaru Okiya, and Sonoko Suzuki looked at each other and shook their heads.
Amuro Toru explained: "This badge is not actually a symbol of identity."
Suzuki Sonoko also said: "I got this badge by chance. I don't know either of them at all."
Okiya Subaru nodded: "Ditto."
The others took turns passing the badge around, a few of them frowning slightly. Edogawa Conan rested his chin on his hand, thinking: This pattern...
Xiao Dai asked again: "Are you sure you don't know each other?"
The three of them nodded in unison.
This is the evidence Xiaodai found. The three tourists had different identities, all carrying cameras, weapons, and badges of unknown significance. They came to Baiyu Village for other purposes.
"Let me tell you the story next." Edogawa Conan raised his hand and said, "Just now you said that the village chief is greedy for money, and I happened to search this room. Village chief Xi is indeed greedy for money." He presented evidence at the beginning, "I found a large amount of gold bars under the village chief's bed."
"Gold bars?!" Everyone looked at him in shock.
Hatori Yuiichi was also surprised that even he, the "village chief's wife", didn't know about this.
Hattori Heiji said, "Our village isn't very wealthy, is it? Where does the village chief get all this money?"
Dong Yexi curled his lips and said, "I earned all this with my own ability. It has nothing to do with you."
"How can it be unrelated? This money was extorted from the villagers by you." Edogawa Conan continued to present evidence one after another. "Although Baiyu Village seems poor, it is close to the mountains and water, and has arable land. It is rich in natural resources. Even if you only rely on selling mountain products, you can make a lot of money in a year. But after you took office, you forbade the villagers to go up the mountain, and only allowed them to pick some wild vegetables at the foot of the mountain. You sold all the resources on the mountain, and the villagers didn't get a penny of this money."
Dong Yexi leaned back in his chair and said, "What's the big deal? The resources on the mountain are first come, first served, and you have to have a way to sell them. Even if I don't stop them from going up the mountain, they won't make much money. It's better for them to make all the money for me. When the village needs to build roads or something in the future, I'll use it."
"Are you so kind?" Hattori Heiji looked at him questioningly.
"Of course, I am the head of a village after all, and I will always consider the village." Dong Yexi described himself as very great.
"I don't think so." Edogawa Conan said, "If you really care about the village, how could you embezzle the investors' money? As far as I know, the village receives a sum of aid every year from fellow tribesmen who work hard outside, and they are required to use it for village construction. But you withheld all the money, and only built an activity room in the village." This was written in the village tyrant's script, and he also found relevant evidence in the village chief's room.
Dong Yexi said helplessly: "What do you know? That money is not so easy to get. You will pay the price if you use it."
Edogawa Conan was puzzled: "What's the price?"
Dong Yexi shook his head and said, "It's a clan secret that only the village chief knows. I'll tell you when you become the village chief."
Conan Edogawa: ...Are you really not talking nonsense?
"Besides the village chief, the clan leader is also very confused. You two are not father and son, but you live together. Why is that?"
Dong Yexi said, "The clan leader is the previous village chief and has no children. Since I have inherited the position of village chief, what's wrong with taking care of the elderly and widows? This is also one of the conditions for my succession."
The acting patriarch nodded.
His explanation made sense, but Edogawa Conan had a feeling that something was up. He asked again, "I found the marriage certificate in your room. It says Mrs. Wei's original name. She's from another place. As I said before, Shiraha Village is very xenophobic. Why did you marry her?"
"Of course it's because of true love!" Higashino Xi said with a smile, "I fell in love with her at first sight." As he said that, he also threw a coquettish glance at Hatori Yui.
Hatori Yui: "..."
"Can you tell me more about it?" Mao Lilan asked excitedly.
Talking about gossip, everyone became excited and sat up straight to listen to Dong Yexi tell the village chief's love story.
Dong Yexi coughed lightly and recalled, "It was a snowy winter. Due to the sudden drop in temperature, many villagers didn't prepare enough firewood, including my family. In order to avoid freezing to death, I could only go up the mountain to find some firewood during the day when the sun was out. One day, I found her fainted in the snow on the mountain. Without thinking too much, I quickly carried her back to treat her. She woke up a day later. At that time, she was extremely thin, with only a tattered cotton coat on her body, but her star-like eyes attracted me deeply, and I fell in love with her at first sight."
Hatori Yui:.
Edogawa Conan: ...
Girls: WOW~
The remaining men: - . -
Higashino Hi seemed to be getting addicted to acting. He said to Hatori Yui with a tender look, "Your health is gradually improving. I'm both happy and afraid, afraid that you'll leave me after you've fully recovered. So when you accidentally mentioned that you were homeless, I calmly said you could stay at my house temporarily, but in fact, my heart was already exploding with excitement." He grasped Hatori Yui's hands and said affectionately, "Although we didn't get together until a year later, I decided even then that I would never let you go."
Hatori Yui was utterly embarrassed. Of course, he would have opened up to someone else. But Higashino Hiroshi was acting, and he wasn't in the habit of putting on a show for others, so he could only stiffly reply, "Me too."
But the audience seemed quite satisfied. At least three girls put their hands on their faces and smiled like aunties: "It's beautiful, I want to hear more, more!"
Edogawa Conan: Ugh~
Hattori Heiji: I got it, write it down quickly!
The remaining men: - . -
"Didn't you encounter any resistance to marrying a foreigner?" Conan Edogawa was not interested in their love story and went straight to the point.
"Of course there was," Dong Yexi said angrily, pointing at the acting chief. "The village chief at the time was this old-fashioned guy. He disagreed. But he's not my biological father, so I didn't listen to him. The village isolated us for a long time, and the situation didn't improve until I became village chief."
"I think the acting chief's concerns are correct. The village chief's wife should not be an ordinary person." Edogawa Conan took out a silver coin, "This was found in her closet, placed in an amulet." A feather pattern was printed in the middle of the silver coin, exactly the same as the pattern on the badges of the three tourists.
Everyone present widened their eyes, and Dong Yexi also looked at him in disbelief.
"Can you explain it?"
Hatori Yui licked his lips and said, "I've been wearing this since I was a child."
Edogawa Conan raised his eyebrows: "So this is your family's mark? These emblems also belong to your family?"
Hatori Yui nodded. "But I can confirm that these three are not from my family."
Suzuki Sonoko smiled awkwardly: "Didn't I tell you that I got this badge by chance?"
Conan Edogawa: "So you were lying when you said you were homeless."
Dong Yexi covered his chest and made an expression as if he was about to faint.
Edogawa Conan ignored him and continued to ask: "Why do you insist on staying in this village?"
Hatori Yui explained, "First, I really don't want to go back, and second,... I fell in love with the village chief." The last sentence was said with great difficulty.
Dong Yexi immediately put down his hand and was resurrected on the spot in an instant.
"From the village chief's wife, I learned that her family might not be that simple." Edogawa Conan said, "This house is too big, and I still have a lot of places to search. This is all the information I have for now."
"It doesn't matter. If we can't find anything in the first round of analysis, we can still search in the second round." Xiao Dai said.
The three girls then provided information about two villagers. These two villagers, living close to the village chief, were his lackeys, acting with tyranny and becoming quite unpopular. Perhaps the conflict with Ayong was that the bratty kid met the bratty adult, and in the end, the kid, relying on his smaller size, had the upper hand.
"It's worth noting that Villager Hei interacted with all three tourists during these five days and took money from them. Why did you take their money? What kind of shady dealings did you have with them?" Toyama Kazuha threw the evidence in front of Hattori Heiji and demanded sharply. Is this what it's like to be a detective? This is so cool!
Hattori Heiji saw her secretly pleased and shook his head helplessly. He explained, "They're using the money to buy intelligence. They seem very interested in the village and have been asking me about it. But I'm a cautious person and have always refused to tell them. So they're trying to bribe me." He added, "Even though I accepted the money, the information I gave them was mostly false."
The three tourists were shocked. "What? Everything you said is fake?!"
Suzuki Sonoko angrily said, "You took our money, so why are you selling us false information?"
Hattori Heiji spread his hands: "Who knows what you want to do to our village? I have to be careful. The village chief also knows about this."
Dong Yexi crossed his arms and nodded, "Yes, he told me as soon as he received the first payment. I was the one who asked him to sell you the fake news."
Amuro Toru was so angry that he laughed: "You, the village chief, are too cunning. On the one hand, you collect our accommodation fees, and on the other hand, you ask us to spend money to buy information, and what we give are all fake."
Dong Yexi smiled slightly: "How else do you think the gold bars under the bed were collected?"
Everyone had a plan in mind. This village chief wasn't just greedy for money.
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