61

In the reception room of the art museum, Mr. Manaka, dressed in a suit, sat on the sofa, looking a little nervous.

"This is..." Seeing Maori and his group following behind Noel, he frowned slightly and said.

"My friend, this is Detective Maori, his daughter Xiaolan, and..."

"Little brother Conan." Noel looked at Conan's eyes, which had been very wary from the beginning. For some reason, he just wanted to tease him.

When Boss Manaka heard the word "detective", his face changed slightly, but he was a powerful capitalist after all, so he quickly concealed his expression.

"So Boss Manaka suddenly asked me out because he wanted to say something." Noel went straight to the point and said directly.

"Natsukawa Sora, you know, I was the first one to set my eyes on this art museum." Boss Manaka coughed twice and deliberately spoke in the tone of an elder talking to a younger person. This is normal in Japan, a country that pays special attention to age, but Noel never cares.

"But I offered a higher price, and the highest bidder takes it, which is always the rule in the business world."

"Besides, you originally agreed to run the art museum, but suddenly you said you wanted to convert it into a hotel, so the previous owner suddenly agreed to let me run it."

Noel spoke calmly, looking calm and at ease. After all, the art museum has now been completely transferred to Xiachuan Kong's name. What else can the other party do?

You wouldn't be so naive as to think you would give it up just by explaining it a few words, right?

"I have always intended to run the art museum well!" Manaka immediately defended himself, and Director Ochiai next to him gave him a disdainful look.

"But uncle, when you came to the art museum just now, you almost bumped into the statue at the door." Conan suddenly said, pretending to be naive and asked: "Is that statue also a work of art?"

"Of course," Director Ochiai looked at Conan, understood the child's meaning, and explained with a smile: "That sculpture was a gift from an artist to our museum thirty years ago. At that time, he was not famous, but he was very talented."

"So, Mr. Manaka doesn't seem to be interested in any of this," the child said in a soft voice, speaking the most fundamental question, "Can someone who doesn't like art really run an art museum well?"

Xiaolan, who was sitting next to her, almost laughed out loud. Conan's words were so sarcastic at this moment, and coming from a child, the power was doubled.

"You..." Veins popped out on Boss Manaka's forehead, he clenched his fists and his eyes almost popped out, but then he quickly took a sip of tea and tried hard to suppress his anger.

He was able to hold it in. Noel looked at him in surprise. This person was not the patient one. Could it be that he had other requests?

"Natsukawa Sora, I'm here to discuss business this time. I can offer a higher price for this art museum."

Noel thought of his previous research. Under the influence of the financial crisis, entrepreneurs of all sizes were hit hard. In order to buy this art museum, Manaka even borrowed a lot of loans. It seemed that he wanted to use this to turn things around. No wonder he contacted him again and again, as if he was determined to win.

Where does he get such confidence?

Noel thought silently, picked up the water beside him and prepared to take a sip, but he paused.

The water is poisonous?!

Instantly, Noel understood the other party's logic.

So he wanted to kill himself and then buy the art museum? This is too exciting! This is worthy of being the world of science!

Noel was quiet for a moment, then overjoyed. He had known that being a boss or a curator was a dangerous job, but he never expected that someone would start poisoning just a few days after he took office. Hooray! Cheers!

Just as Noel was about to drink it, Conan's expression suddenly changed and he shouted:

"Brother Kong, don't drink!"

Noel pretended not to hear and was about to drink the water from the cup. Suddenly, he felt a cool breeze and Mao Lilan kicked the cup over. Her long hair flew in the air like a Valkyrie descending.

"Bang——" the teacup was kicked to the ground and shattered in an instant.

"What's wrong?" Everyone was startled by this sudden change, and looked at the girl who had just kicked the cup away, but they saw that Mouri Ran had put away her fierce aura and smiled shyly like a gentle angel.

"Uncle, look," Conan immediately pulled Kogoro Mouri over and asked him to smell the broken teacup.

"Sure enough, it smells like bitter almonds. It should be some kind of cyanide." Kogoro Mori looked serious and quickly looked at everyone present.

"Conan, how did you find out?"

"I was sitting relatively close to Brother Xiachuan, and I smelled this when he took the teacup just now."

Do you have a dog's nose? Noel was filled with sadness. Don't think he doesn't know that people can't smell the bitter almond smell in reality unless the dose is large enough.

Okay, I know this is the world of science, and it smells really bad...

"Brother Xiachuan, did you smell it too?"

"I did find the taste was wrong, but I rarely drink tea and I couldn't tell whether it was something else or the original taste of tea."

"Don't you like drinking tea?" Xiaolan asked subconsciously.

"Because tea tastes too bitter, I prefer Coke or orange juice." Noel could only explain, but in fact, although he did not understand the taste of tea, he knew the taste of poison very well.

"So someone wants to poison you..." Kogoro Mori said to Noel while calling the police.

"How...how is this possible?!" Boss Manaka stood up with a look of shock on his face and said in a somewhat exaggerated manner.

"Who is it who would poison someone?" Director Ochiai had a serious expression, but he immediately looked at Boss Manaka, obviously suspecting him.

"What do you mean? I just want to buy the art museum, but how could I use such means!" Boss Manaka looked at Director Ochiai angrily. He knew that Director Ochiai must have played some tricks on him because he did not buy the art museum.

"No, Boss Manaka, you are indeed the biggest suspect at the moment." Kogoro Mori easily stopped Boss Manaka who was about to rush over. For a judo master, it was very easy to stop such a guy.

So if he wanted to harm Natsukawa Sora, why would this boss Manaka use such crude means? No matter how you look at it, he seems to be the biggest suspect.

Conan stood aside and thought silently, but suddenly heard the guard outside the door bring in a person.

"Director, this guy has been sneaking around in the corner since just now, look!"

The uniformed guards dragged a man in black over. The man held his hat tightly to cover his face and his whole body was shaking.

"brush--"

Kogoro Mouri decisively pulled off the other person's hat, revealing his ordinary yet panicked face.

"He...he is Kubota!" An art museum staff member who had been standing nearby recognized him and said in surprise.

"Kubota?"

"He was a former employee of the art museum and was fired two days ago." Director Ochiai explained directly. He did not look very happy. After all, it was not easy to find a boss who was willing to run the art museum seriously, but he was poisoned. It was really unpleasant. The mere appearance of poison in an art museum was a blasphemy to art.

"Dismissal?" Maori Kogoro repeated. Apparently this word was the key word.

"He secretly took out the museum's artworks and sold them. It was just revealed two days ago..." The museum staff couldn't help but say, "He was fired after Mr. Xia Chuan came."

"And I'm preparing documents to sue him for abusing his position to sell artworks." Noel added from behind, noticing that this Kubota had a flash of resentment towards him. If it weren't for the fact that Boss Manaka's acting skills seemed too fake in his eyes, he might have thought that it was this Kubota who really wanted to kill him.

So this person is the scapegoat prepared in advance? Noel finally understood the routine of this real boss, but he didn't expect that he had so many messy and crooked ideas.

"So that means you are also a suspect?" Kogoro Mori's sharp eyes were very intimidating, making Mr. Kubota very angry.

"It's not me, I just came over but didn't do anything!!!"

"Then why did you come here?" Director Ochiai asked sharply. He simply felt disgusted with people who resell artworks.

"You're still asking me why?" Kubota looked at Noel fiercely, his eyes full of resentment: "I just sold some things, and not only did you fire me, you also wanted to sue me!" He struggled two steps forward and was violently pulled back by the security guard behind him.

"You..." Noel was about to say something when he saw Xiaolan next to him suddenly move behind him, separating him from the two suspects, obviously wanting to protect herself.

......

Noel was silent for a moment, then turned to look at Conan with a complicated look in his eyes.

Kudo Shinichi, your wife is a little too good, isn't she an angel?!

After swallowing the provocative words that were about to come out of his mouth, Noel looked up at Xiaolan's back and felt that just the back could be so sacred.

Teacher, I understand you!

"What are you thinking about, man?" Conan felt a little dangerous for some reason. He looked up at Noel beside him and immediately asked when he saw him looking at Xiaolan.

"Conan," Noel squatted down, looked at the protagonist's petite body carefully, and asked, "Does your sister Xiaolan have a childhood sweetheart named Kudo Shinichi?"

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Conan looked at the other person warily, not knowing why he was suddenly involved.

"Are they a couple?" Noel asked in a low voice, making sure Xiaolan didn't hear him.

"How...how is that possible?" Conan's ears suddenly turned red, and he quickly shook his head and denied it: "They are just childhood sweethearts."

"That's good......"

Noel stood up and left a cryptic remark.

What do you mean by "that's good"? Conan's usually smart brain was stuck for a moment, and he didn't understand what Noel meant, but then he immediately realized something and looked at Noel, only to see that the other party suddenly smiled.

What on earth do you mean?!

Conan was about to speak when he was interrupted by the sound of sirens. Inspector Megure and others finally arrived, and the investigation into the poisoning incident at the art museum officially began.