Chapter 22 I'm Super Innocent
Jiang Xia turned around and found, as expected, that Conan had found the body in the exhibition hall very accurately.
He also shone the flashlight on it.
Two girls standing outside the exhibition hall froze when they saw the corpse suddenly illuminated by the flashlight.
A second later, two intertwined screams echoed through the corridor, and the high-pitched tremors that broke through the boundary were more piercing than the alarm bells.
Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko huddled together, looked at Jiang Xia, and thought of the blood on his body, speaking incoherently: "You you you..."
Jiang Xia: "I didn't kill him."
The two girls opposite covered their chests and breathed a sigh of relief at the same time: "Oh, we think so too..."
Before she could relax, she suddenly saw Jiang Xia looking at them and asked thoughtfully, "Do you believe what I say?"
Mao Lilan: “…”
Suzuki Sonoko: “…”
This really sounds like the lines spoken by a good guy turning against you.
Two pairs of frightened eyes suddenly looked at Jiang Xia again: "!"
"It's not me." Jiang Xia said again patiently.
…
However, this time, Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko still looked horrified and a little suspicious.
Jiang Xia looked at them and felt that the reactions of these two classmates were quite interesting.
As expected, the more people are fooled, the more defensive they become...
…
Jiang Xia had had enough fun and slowed down his tone: "What I said just now, 'Do you believe me?', was actually just a simple question..."
Mao Lilan, Suzuki Sonoko: "..."
The two innocent and kind-hearted female classmates, seeing Jiang Xia's "innocent" expression, couldn't help but reflect silently.
"..." Indeed. Thinking back carefully, Jiang Xia's words just now, "You believe me when I say it?" - shouldn't it be understood as "You believe me when I say it? You trust me so much? It's touching"... or something like that!
Thinking of this, Suzuki Sonoko cleared her throat in an apparent attempt to conceal her feelings, walked back to where she was, grasped Jiang Xia's hand, shook it vigorously, and said firmly:
"I was just kidding! Of course we trust you."
...Ah, this hand is really nice to touch.
And it was different from what she had thought before.
It's not cold.
It is actually quite warm when you hold it in your hand. It can be used as a hand warmer in winter.
…
At the entrance of the exhibition hall, Suzuki Sonoko was obsessed with shaking hands with Jiang Xia.
Conan walked back from the corpse.
He first reminded Mao Lilan to call the police, then looked at Jiang Xia:
"We believe you didn't kill the person, but you were the first person to discover the body, so the police will suspect you first. Think carefully about your itinerary today. It would be best if you can find an alibi. Also, do you see any suspicious people on the way here?"
Conan doesn't blindly believe in Jiang Xia's character.
But the corpse in the exhibition hall died in such a tragic way that blood was splattered everywhere.
In other words, if Jiang Xia had killed the person on the spot, it would be impossible for Jiang Xia to be so clean.
In addition, Conan had seen Jiang Xia beating people before - he used a stick to hit them one by one, like playing whack-a-mole in the game hall.
And like in the exhibition hall, the action of nailing people to the wall, imitating oil paintings... has a strong sense of ritual and is quite complicated.
It doesn't look like Jiang Xia's style at all.
…
Therefore, Conan felt that the truth was probably that Jiang Xia passed by here, and for some reason, walked into the exhibition hall to take a look, and then accidentally stepped on the blood.
As for why Jiang Xia didn't turn on the lights, scream, or call the police...
...Maybe it has something to do with his personality.
Everyone's reaction when seeing a corpse is different.
Conan really couldn't imagine the scene of Jiang Xia screaming and running away.
"..." Thinking about it this way, it seemed quite reasonable for Jiang Xia to calmly walk out of the exhibition hall just now.
And theoretically speaking, Jiang Xia's condition was... not very stable. In short, some abnormal behaviors were quite reasonable for him.
Conan: "..." Speaking of this, I don't know whether Jiang Xia actually goes to the psychotherapy department to see a doctor honestly when he takes more than ten days of sick leave and misses more than ten days of classes every month.
Thinking of this, Conan couldn't help but review the daily life in Jiangxia that he had observed: it seemed to be all about racing, beating people, and visiting exhibition halls...
Conan thought tiredly that the answer was probably no.
…
The exhibition hall is not far from the Metropolitan Police Department.
The high school students stood at the entrance of the hell exhibition hall, waiting for the police. Some were scared, some were speculating, some wanted to pick up the ghost... before long, the police arrived.
…
In the Hell Exhibition Hall.
The roof lights were turned on, and the room was instantly bright.
Inspector Megure and the officers from the Forensic Department went into the hall together to look for clues, and sent several subordinates to find witnesses to inquire about the situation.
Officer Sato took the order and walked out. He glanced at the four people and his eyes stopped on Jiang Xia's back.
According to her experience, the probability that the murderer appears in the first person to discover the murder is not low.
Compared with the two high school girls who turned pale and dodged and dared not look at the corpse, and the elementary school student who was not even as tall as Sato's legs, Jiang Xia's suspicion suddenly rose sharply.
However, after getting closer, Jiang Xia turned around, and Officer Sato was stunned when he saw his front.
...She had just met this person in the office not long ago.
Although Miwako Sato is not a police officer in the forensic department, she has handled so many murder cases and has some experience.
——She could tell roughly how long the body had been dead.
At this time, according to her rough judgment... when Boss Zhenzhong was killed, Jiang Xia was sitting in their office reporting the case.
"..."It seems that this time, the murderer is not among the first group of people who discovered the body?
…………
The police quickly completed their questioning.
Unfortunately, the witnesses did not provide many clues.
However, Inspector Megure was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a surveillance camera in the Hell Exhibition Hall, facing the crime scene.
Inspector Megure waved his hand happily: "Go check the surveillance!"
…
Five minutes later.
See the surveillance footage.
Inspector Megure was no longer happy.
The surveillance camera did capture the murder.
But the murderer's face could not be captured - the murderer was wearing a suit of Western knight armor with an iron mask on his face, which completely covered his face.
…
When the police looked at the surveillance video and sighed.
Beside him, Jiang Xia was silently fiddling with his cell phone.
There was an extra video in it, which he had just secretly filmed.
——Just now, the director of this exhibition hall, Ochiai, squatted down and pretended to tie his shoelaces while everyone else was watching the surveillance camera.
During this time, the old man with white beard secretly replaced the pen that Boss Manaka used before his death, which could not write, with a good pen by squatting down.
This was part of Director Ochiai's murder plan.
A few hours ago, he put on knight armor to conceal his identity and deliberately killed someone under the camera. During this process, the old curator did not kill Boss Manaka with one blow, but left him some gaps - Boss Manaka realized that he could not survive when he was attacked, so he touched a piece of paper on the table next to him and picked up the pen that was also there, intending to secretly write down the murderer's name.
However, the piece of paper was actually placed there by the old curator. Another employee's name was also written on the piece of paper.
Moreover, the pen in Boss Manaka's hand was broken and he couldn't write at all.
The lighting in the Hell exhibition hall is dim, and the camera has difficulty distinguishing such subtle differences.
Therefore, as long as Director Ochiai replaced the broken pen used by Boss Manaka with a normal pen that could write in time afterwards.
To sum up, the whole thing becomes "Before Boss Manaka died, he wrote the murderer's name on a note while the murderer was not paying attention."
But in fact, that person was just an employee who was framed.
…
While the police were pondering in front of the surveillance camera.
Jiang Xia skipped all the reasoning steps and walked to the old curator.
Director Ochiai was standing with his hands behind his back, gazing deeply at the painting on the wall - staring at the painting opposite the corpse, which showed a knight killing a demon but was covered in dirty blood.
In the eyes of the museum director, the new owner, Manaka, was untrustworthy - he had promised to continue running the exhibition hall after purchasing it, but now he suddenly wanted to demolish the exhibition hall and convert it into a hotel.
So Director Ochiai did not regret killing people: he was punishing Shinaka, the guy who tarnished art.
Therefore, the curator felt that the blood-soaked knight in the painting was very similar to his own situation.
——Handsome, tragic, sacrificing everything just to eradicate evil.
...that's what a man should do.
As I was sighing, a voice suddenly floated over from the side:
"The Knight of Justice subdued the devil, but at the same time, he himself was infected by the evil blood... Is that what you think?"
Director Ochiai: “!”
He was startled and turned his head sharply to look to his side.
The young man who first discovered the body walked up to him at some point.
"..." Director Ochiai thought of Jiang Xia's words and felt that he was hinting at something. He froze for a few seconds with a guilty conscience.
After a moment, he twirled his waist-length beard and forced himself to calm down.
——I must be overthinking it.
This perfect murder plan cannot be easily seen through.
This little brat in front of me is probably just talking about oil painting.
…
However, Director Ochiai just comforted himself in this way.
The next second, Jiang Xia's topic completely deviated from the oil painting.
Jiang Xia suddenly whispered, "You should know that when signing a land sales contract, the seller can impose restrictions on the subsequent use of the land - for example, write 'continue to operate the exhibition hall and not use it for other purposes' into the contract."
Director Ochiai was stunned.
Jiang Xia continued, "However, this kind of restriction will discourage many buyers. In other words, once restrictive clauses are added to the contract, it will become difficult to sell the land.
"——It now appears that your former boss did not include the 'restriction on land use' agreement in the contract.
"You can't trust promises that are not written into the contract. Even a rookie who has just joined the company for a few months knows this, not to mention your former boss..."
Jiang Xia looked up at the director and hesitated, "Speaking of which, you are already quite old and have been working in the workplace for decades. You are also a director and must have signed many contracts. You have never thought about this, have you?"
Conan sneaked to the side and eavesdropped for a long time: "..."
Although he didn't quite understand the cause...but from what Jiang Xia said, he seemed to suspect that the curator was the murderer.
……Why?
Also, how could Jiang Xia know so much about the exhibition hall?
Could it be that the lady at the ticket office told him?
(End of this chapter)
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