Chapter 87 Football Turmoil
The birthday party lasted until late at night, and Bourbon didn't get a chance to speak to Mai Tai.
The following morning, Bourbon, introduced by his secretary, finally met with Maitai. This diplomatic ambassador representing the distillery, undeterred by the language barrier, sincerely mourned Maitai's brother's misfortune and indignantly said, "We've done everything in our power to rescue Lord Carlo. But just when we were about to succeed, that CIA mole ruined everything! That gentleman was furious upon learning of this and originally intended to execute the traitor himself. However, considering your deep bond with your brother, I imagine Lord Ap would want to avenge Lord Carlo. So I brought that person to you; she's in her cell now, awaiting her fate!"
These words enraged Maitai: "This person must be executed on the spot, to pay for her crimes with blood! I will gather all my confidants and clansmen to judge her crimes."
Just as Mai Tai was about to meet the undercover agent, he was interrupted by something else: his secretary rushed in and whispered a few words in Mai Tai's ear. Mai Tai frowned and turned to Bourbon, saying, "Mr. Lig, something's come up here. So let's talk about this later."
Bourbon was curious about what urgent matter it was, but being a newcomer, he didn't want to inquire casually, so he had to leave first.
Bourbon went to check on Gil in the cell first, and was relieved to see that she was in good spirits.
"I just wonder how Mai Tai intends to deal with her?"
Yesterday, Bourbon took a stroll through the village and got a general idea of the area. But he quickly discovered a troubling problem: the signal was terrible in this deep forest, practically nonexistent. Therefore, all electronic communication relied on the only cell tower not far from the village.
"But wouldn't it be unsafe to use a mobile phone to communicate in this way?"
Bourbon was worried that his communications were being monitored by Maitai. But going directly to Jingguang seemed too unusual. As he pondered how to deal with this potential threat, a soccer ball rolled to his feet.
Bourbon scooped up the ball with one hand and asked with a smile, "Your name is Coco, right?"
"Who are you?" Little Coffee Bean hopped and jumped, trying to get the soccer ball back, but because of its height, it couldn't reach it no matter how hard it jumped. It cried out pitifully, "Give me back the ball!"
"Call me uncle and I'll give it back to you." Bourbon couldn't resist teasing him, raising the ball even higher. He suddenly remembered that since Ran's food poisoning in Nagano, he hadn't spoken to Conan face-to-face; the child had been raised by Hiromitsu.
"Brother!" the little boy called out loudly, as if deliberately trying to annoy someone.
"Conan Edogawa, can't you even behave a little better in front of me, just once?"
Bourbon thought gloomily: "Distance makes the heart grow fonder"—that saying really hits the nail on the head!
"Okay, here's your ball back." Bourbon surrendered helplessly.
The little guy who received the ball smiled sweetly: "Thank you, big brother!"
"Good boy/girl, do you want some candy?" Bourbon pulled a few milk candies out of his pocket.
The little boy happily accepted it, saying, "One is enough," and subtly slipped a return gift into Bourbon's hand: a small, tightly wrapped piece of paper that was barely noticeable among the pile of candies.
"They've actually started using such primitive methods to communicate?"
"Who came up with this idea?"
Bourbon took the gift with a wry smile, patting the little boy's head. He casually put the return gift and the remaining candy into his pocket.
Before Bourbon could return to his room to look at the contents of the paper, he saw Maitai's secretary come out.
"Mr. Lig, I'm so sorry about what happened earlier. I've kept you waiting."
"It's alright. It's a rare opportunity to stroll around in such a beautiful place. Has Lord Ap's matter been settled?"
The secretary looked troubled: "This is a bit difficult."
"Oh? Tell me about it, maybe I can help!"
"This...this is too much trouble for Mr. Lig..."
“Lord Apoo, if you can’t handle your internal affairs, you probably won’t have the energy to interrogate that undercover agent, will you? Besides, my master and your master are business partners, so we subordinates should naturally share the burden with our superiors!” Bourbon spoke sincerely, and the secretary found it very reasonable. So she recounted the whole story in detail—
"There was a football match this morning that should have been a sure thing. But the first half went poorly: not only did we lose by two goals, but our key player was also sent off with a red card."
"I bet the losing team is the club that gifted the golden soccer ball to Lord Apoo?"
"That's right. At first, it was just a loss. But both sets of fans were very emotional. Our fans thought the referee had been bribed by the opposing team to make biased calls and that the decisions were unfair. On the other hand, the opposing fans thought we were simply inferior in skill and were throwing mud at us. During halftime, both sides were sticking to their stories and arguing endlessly. As a result, before the second half even started, a fight broke out off the field. This whole mess was really..." The secretary covered her face and made a very desperate expression.
"Is it serious?" Bourbon asked with concern.
"The team supported by Lord Ap is playing away, while the opposing team has the home advantage and outnumbers us! We are outnumbered and are being pushed back. The fans on both sides are fighting and brawling, causing a huge disturbance and attracting a large number of police officers."
"Now that the police are here, shouldn't we stop fighting?"
"Wrong! When the police arrived, the beating became even more brutal! Among them were some of our young friends who went to watch the game, and they were beaten black and blue."
Bourbon asked in shock, "Shouldn't the police maintain order?"
“Mr. Lig, you don’t know this, but the police there won’t protect our interests. We’re playing away.”
Bourbon struggled to process the news and asked, "So, what does Lord Ap plan to do?"
"Of course, we're preparing for revenge!" the secretary said in a low voice. "Actually, we roughly know who's stirring up trouble behind the scenes this time. Lord Ap is planning to teach them a lesson."
Bourbon nodded knowingly; he could roughly guess that a group with a conflict with Maitai was behind the incident. They might even be secretly colluding with the local police. And Maitai's retaliatory method would likely be to eliminate them as quickly as possible.
Bourbon returned to his room, closed the doors and windows, took out the paper, and carefully read its contents, his brows furrowing more and more as he read.
"Jing, what are you thinking about?"
The golden retriever lay on the bed with his arm as a pillow, staring blankly at the rafters for a while. Suddenly, he jumped up, grabbed a pen and paper to reply, but stopped before he could even begin writing.
Finally, he sighed heavily, and after much deliberation, decided to follow his partner's crazy plan.
Bourbon took out his phone and wrote an email: "Maitre has not yet decided what to do with Kiel, who is still in jail."
Furthermore, a suspicious man and a young boy have recently appeared around Maitai. The child, named Coco, is the son of his younger brother Carlo, and Maitai has designated him as his future heir. The man is called Cat Whiskers, and his name seems to be related to octopuses.
Bourbon checked the wording of the email again before sending it to the gentleman.
"Jing, I hope everything will really turn out as you wish!"
Bourbon prayed silently in his heart.
As night fell, Cat Whiskers came to Coco's room; he was now practically Coco's guardian. Mai Tai felt at ease entrusting the child to such a reliable man.
The little coffee bean looked up and asked, "Uncle, is something the matter?"
"You went back to your room very early today! I noticed you didn't have much of an appetite during dinner. Are you feeling unwell?"
"No." The boy shook his head gently, but the man felt a pang of heartache.
"I know you're having some trouble adjusting to this place, there's no need to force yourself. Just tell me if anything's wrong, okay?"
"What should we do this time?" The young detective's eyes were filled with confusion, a stark contrast to his usual confident demeanor.
The man knew what the other was worried about: both sides were gang leaders, and neither was inherently more ruthless than the other. These criminal gangs, deeply rooted in the local community, were so powerful that even the police were powerless against them. This time, Mai Tai was determined to retaliate, and bloodshed was likely inevitable.
“If the local police don’t do anything, perhaps we can think of some other ways,” Cat Beard suggested.
“Unfortunately, Mai Tai thinks so too.” The young detective’s tone became even more somber.
"Huh?"
"These gangs may seem large and sprawling, but they're all rooted in the local area. Mai Tai can't cause trouble on other people's turf, and it's also difficult for him to lure them to his own territory. So he can only use others to eliminate his enemies... I just overheard Mai Tai and his secretary talking. They're planning to create some trouble and frame the other side so that the CIA can teach them a lesson."
"A double-cross? That would be great! That way we wouldn't have to worry about it."
The young detective gave the man a strange look and asked, puzzled, "Do you really think this is a good thing?"
"Um...do you think there's something wrong with it?"
“Unless a sufficiently heinous crime occurs, the CIA will not deploy enough police force to handle it. So Mai Tai is bound to make a big splash. However, once this happens, it means that people will die, and definitely not just one.”
"Yes, your concerns are valid. But as long as we prepare in advance, we can definitely avoid the risks."
"Is it... really possible?" His tone and eyes showed extreme distrust.
"What happened last time must have been a big blow to you, but please don't lose confidence in yourself, okay? We can do this."
The little boy lowered his head and remained silent, saying in a muffled voice, "These past few days I've been thinking, what am I supposed to be doing here? Am I supposed to be an accomplice to evil?"
"Of course not! We have a very important mission: to ensure the safety of our comrades. In addition, we cannot turn a blind eye to the crimes that are about to occur."
"You know what? I always have this strange feeling here. They're all Mai Tai's men, they've all committed various crimes, and they don't even find anything unreasonable about committing crimes in broad daylight. Their first reaction to this kind of thing is not to think about the motive, because they all know who did it! But they can live and work here in peace. Yesterday, they were all so happy! Is it the same situation with Mai Tai's rivals on the other side?"
Are you sympathizing with the prisoner?
"No, I was just thinking about myself: What is the truth I'm pursuing? And who should uphold justice? Will the world become a better place if we get rid of Mai Tai and our opponents? Or will this land breed new evils, even worse than Mai Tai's? Then what is the purpose of all our efforts?"
"Don't think so much, okay? Let's focus on what we can do right now." The man affectionately patted the little boy's head. "You're tired, get some rest, and don't think about these things. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day!"
The little boy gave a very awkward smile and said, "Okay."
Cat Whiskers got up to leave, and the little detective suddenly said, "I never wanted to give up, I just didn't know which way to go..."
The man turned to look at him and continued, “I used to think the world was complicated, but I could always find the right path. Now, it seems like there aren’t as many paths in front of me, but I can’t find the right one. It’s as if going in any direction is wrong.”
"No, we'll always find the right path. Trust me, okay?"
The young detective's lips twitched as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only uttered one word: "Goodnight."
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