Chapters 3526 & 3538: [The Creator of Paranormal Events]
Beside him, Conan glanced at the three umbrellas. Watching the small puddle slowly seeping onto the ground, he pushed up his glasses, the lenses flashing a sinister light.
"You little brat, you seem to understand too." Suzuki Sonoko glanced at the fake child's expression and couldn't help but touch the goosebumps on her arm. "You're not possessed by that senior's ghost, are you?"
"No, not at all." Conan opened the door to the art room, glanced at the staircase next to it, and grinned mischievously.
"The senior Hosaka fell down these steps back then—if we just wait patiently, we'll see his spirit slowly walking down the stairs."
Ran Mouri: "!!"
Sonoko Suzuki looked at the steps and a flash of inspiration struck her, bringing to mind a variety of images that combined romance and fear.
The three senior high school students were speechless upon hearing this: "So these paranormal events still haven't been investigated? -- Then we'd better go back, senior high school students are very busy."
Jiang Xia glanced up the stairs, then looked away in disappointment. He then spoke like a detective: "What happened today was just a simple prank."
Upon hearing this, Dr. Shinichi couldn't help but ask, "The three phenomena of the sighing warehouse, the flowing water steps, and the books scattered in the library are easy to achieve, as long as no one else sees you doing it... But what about that desk that was placed in the middle of the courtyard just now?"
"There were no footprints around it, which means it wasn't moved there after the rain, but was there before the mud was washed away by the heavy rain. But if that's the case, the table should have been soaked. However, when Conan and I went over, the piece of paper on the table was still dry and hadn't gotten wet at all."
Jiang Xia glanced at the umbrella in the corner: "Just like the other three things you mentioned, this desk only needs to be handled in a way that no one else can see it when you're tampering with it."
"When the rain was heaviest, the prankster moved the deceased's desk and chair over, then spread out the piece of paper with the resentment written on it, and opened an umbrella tied with a thin string on the paper."
"The heavy rain washed away his footprints. After the rain stopped, he could retrieve the umbrella by pulling a thin thread, leaving behind a desk placed in the 'secret room'."
"Unlike human footprints, the marks left by umbrellas are smaller and more natural, and are not easily noticed at a glance—but with careful observation, it is not difficult to find some small scratches left by the umbrella ribs near that desk."
"Afterwards, the prankster shook the umbrella dry and wiped off the mud. But after all, it was an umbrella that had been soaked in the rain for a long time—if left for a while, the rainwater would slowly seep out from inside the umbrella."
Upon hearing this, the people inside paused, then suddenly looked at the three umbrellas placed to the side.
Underneath the long-handled black umbrella leaning against the table, a small puddle of water had gathered.
"So the owner of this umbrella..." Ran Mouri turned her head and looked at the senior who had been lying in the infirmary because he supposedly had food poisoning, "is it Senior Seko?"
Jiang Xia nodded: "He checked the weather forecast beforehand and knew there would be a shower this morning, so after arriving at school, he made an excuse about feeling unwell, asked the club for leave, and went to the infirmary alone."
"When it started to rain, he quietly went to the warehouse, moved the deceased's desk and chair to the center of the courtyard, covered them with an umbrella, and then returned to the infirmary."
"After the rain stopped, he came to the corridor again and pulled the thin string to take away the umbrella. This left behind a 'ghost desk' with no footprints around it, but the surface was very dry."
Sonoko Suzuki scratched her hair clip and looked at Kunishige Seko: "I can't believe I didn't think of something this simple—but you're really lucky. A strange desk with an umbrella on it has been sitting in the courtyard for so long and no one has ever seen it."
Jiang Xia smiled and said, "This is all thanks to the principal. Trees were planted around the courtyard, blocking the view from all directions on the first floor. If you look into the courtyard from a high place, you can only see the umbrella-like canopy."
"So passersby will only think that someone is standing in the courtyard with an umbrella, and will not think that the umbrella is actually a desk."
Upon hearing this, Tsukamoto Kazumi suddenly realized: "So when I went to the restroom, the 'principal' I saw standing in the courtyard was actually just a table?"
Jiang Xia nodded: "The principal usually likes to use this kind of black long-handled umbrella, and he often goes to the courtyard to think about what trees to plant, so it's normal that you thought it was him when you saw it."
Beside him, Shigu Guofan, who had remained silent the whole time, finally came to his senses. He spread his hands and said, "After saying so much, there is actually no basis for it. Just because my umbrella is wet, does that mean I did that prank?"
"There aren't many people at school today, but there are definitely not few either. The method you just described could be easily done by anyone, so why should it be me?"
Sonoko Suzuki had long disliked this senior, and upon hearing this, she snorted, "You're so stubborn. Then tell me, you've been lying in the infirmary the whole time, so why is your umbrella so wet?"
Shigu Guofan thought for a moment: "When I left home this morning, I was in a hurry and just grabbed an umbrella. As a result, I accidentally took an old umbrella that I had used for many years. After arriving at school, I felt more and more upset about it, so I went and washed that umbrella. What? Is it wrong to be clean?"
The more the math student listened, the more uneasy she felt. She slowly clenched her fist, and a sickening cracking sound came from her knuckles: "You copied my words verbatim?"
"I didn't." Shigu Guofan belatedly remembered his classmate Bang Ying's fist and silently moved two steps to the side. "Anyway, anyone can do this kind of thing, so don't try to pin the blame on me."
Jiang Xia shook his head: "It's not just the desk today. In the other supernatural events, there are many things that only you could do—for example, in the library, the books that the deceased borrowed were thrown around for four consecutive days."
Ran Mouri paused, then asked in a low voice, somewhat puzzled, "There are library cards inside the books. If we just find them and look at them, we can find out which books the deceased borrowed... Why is it that only this senior, Seko, can do this?"
Jiang Xia: "There are tens of thousands of books in the library. Picking out a few books from the nooks and crannies, such as 'Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering Theory,' 'History of the University System,' 'Report on the Destruction of Tropical Rainforests,' and 'Analysis of Rock Destruction Sounds,' and then checking the borrowing cards inside, is not an easy task."
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