Chapter 166 Twenty-two Vigilantes

After hesitating for a few seconds, Conan decided to move closer. Akae Nazuki and Furutani Rei exchanged glances and tacitly decided to go with the flow and let go at the same time, so as not to leave any strange spiritual pollution to the children.

There is no problem for them to act with each other, but if they act with Conan from another world, it would still be a test of their shame.

As Conan gradually approached, the chairman calmly let down the sleeves of his haori. When he stood there with his back straight, it seemed as if he was a noble young man.

Of course, this illusion disappeared when Conan recalled the other person's expression when he held the young butler's hand.

"Hey, Conan-kun, you actually came to see me." The chairman leaned forward, put his hands on his knees, bent his waist and said with a smile, as if he was not the one who had been waiting here for the little detective to come. "Well, do you have anything to ask me? Since I'm in a good mood now, maybe I will answer you."

Conan raised his head and looked over, and before he spoke, his eyes swept across the chairman's face calmly, but unfortunately the other person's expression was flawless and he could not see anything special.

"Hey, Brother Akae, since you said that, have you already discovered the identity of the murderer?" Conan asked curiously.

The detective, who had become skilled in the art of acting cute during the time he became small, blinked his blue eyes twice, acting like a little adult and quietly waiting for the chairman's answer.

In her heart, Akajeng Nayue gave her students in this world an 80 for their acting skills.

I didn't expect that Conan here's acting skills are a little better than Shinichi in their world. Is this the difference brought about by the environment?

He exclaimed: the growth effect brought about by crisis is truly amazing. He will let Shinichi give it a try when he returns.

The only one who could hear what he was thinking, the book, couldn't help but make the sign of the cross for the young detective out of pity.

"Hmm? I don't know."

Unlike what Conan had expected, the boy in front of him actually denied it after hearing his question, and there was no trace of false surprise in his expression.

Conan was stunned: "What?"

"I'm just an ordinary person, with a little money at most." The chairman stood up and spread his hands, looking more innocent than Conan. "I'm not a high school detective, how could I solve the case before the famous Maori detective?"

"But Brother Chijiang said that before..."

"'That'...ah, you mean you should come to me?" The chairman suddenly realized, and then laughed, his shoulders swaying, until he hung on the arm of the young butler next to him. "What? I'm not going to talk to you about a murderer."

He suddenly stopped talking and looked Conan up and down openly, until the little detective was almost furious, then he slowly said: "I thought you would be curious, why did I bring Zero brother to play here when I hate Asahi Katsuyoshi so much."

After going over it in his mind, Conan matched 'Brother Zero' with the 'Brother Toru' that the chairman had called earlier. He wasn't sure what he didn't know, but there were more important problems in front of him, so he temporarily suppressed his confusion and shook his head in agreement with the chairman's words.

"It's because you, Akae-san, hate Mr. Asahi that you came here." Conan didn't know why he relaxed a little, and subconsciously complained, "I saw on TV before that a few days ago, Akae Group bought a piece of land that Mr. Asahi originally wanted to use to build a new crystal restaurant, so I guess Akae-san might have come here on purpose to get those two tickets and show them to Mr. Asahi."

He euphemistically replaced 'show off' with 'display'.

The chairman was silent for a moment, then he looked up at the person who knew him best while hanging lazily on the butler's arm, pointed at his face and asked in a puzzled tone: "Do I look like that kind of person?"

The housekeeper chuckled, his expression gentle, but his tone sharp: "Of course you are not, you just wanted Mr. Xu to take a last look at the photos of the entertainment plaza that was under construction on the land he didn't take, so you threw all the vegetable juice in the box out while I wasn't paying attention and replaced it with the new album."

Conan and the chairman fell into a suspicious silence.

The chairman pretended not to hear, stood up quickly, shook off the wrinkles on his haori, put on a warm smile again and spoke quickly to Conan: "Okay, let's continue with the previous topic!"

Even so, Conan began to doubt his own judgment and reasoning: Could this person really be acting? Could he really act like this? Also, was it really necessary to act to a primary school student like him?

"Ahem, anyway, you're both right and wrong." The chairman cleared his throat seriously, "Of course, I'm here for a more formal reason."

He pretended to recall and said seriously: "It was probably yesterday afternoon. When I was acquiring a newspaper and a TV station, I accidentally slipped and bought a helicopter rental company next to the TV station. Then I saw a very interesting item in the reservation information in the backstage." "...Wait a minute, you acquired a newspaper and a TV station? You accidentally acquired the company next to it?" Conan's pupils trembled.

Even though he has a daughter of the Suzuki Group by his side and his family is relatively wealthy, he never expected this kind of thing to happen!

How can this be done carelessly?

Furiya Rei felt the same way. When he learned yesterday that the little devil had bought a bunch of companies during his lunch break, he also had the same expression as Conan, who was eager to complain.

Things have changed, and now it's his turn to enjoy watching others being shocked by the little devil, yay.

"That's not important." The chairman was dissatisfied with Conan's mistake in the main point. "What's important is the information. Don't you want to know what I saw?"

He moved closer to the young detective's ear in a mysterious manner, muttered something, then stood up again. Without waiting for Conan to react, he casually pulled the butler and prepared to leave.

"Brother Chijiang, why are you telling me this?" The little detective's voice rang out behind the chairman, and the child asked solemnly.

"Does this even require a reason?" The chairman muttered in annoyance, waving his hands casually, "I don't want to deal with those policemen... Well, just assume that I like you better, little detective."

The black-haired boy left very quickly, and Conan could no longer see them in the blink of an eye. However, the information that the boy told him after approaching him seemed to still echo in his ears.

The murderer planned to escape from the cruise ship by helicopter? Conan thought for a moment, then suddenly realized the message behind it and broke out in a cold sweat.

He had thought the murderer intended to attack one by one and then escape in the crowd, but now it seemed that this was not the case.

So, what did the murderer plan to do that required him to escape from the air?

—

The search for Mr. Asahi ended in failure. No one found any trace of Mr. Asahi on the cruise ship, which made people wonder if he was really dead and buried deep in the sea just as Chijiang Nayue had said before.

Just as Conan thought, after a whole afternoon of exhausting searching, everyone was too tired to move any more after nightfall. For safety reasons, except for the master and servant, the rooms of the rest of them were on the same floor so that any unusual movements could be promptly rescued and accidents could be avoided as much as possible.

When Conan left the room, Uncle Maori was still sitting at the table with a frown on his face, looking at the information. He had no way to anesthetize him according to the plan, so he had to make up an excuse that he wanted to visit Akae and Nayue. Fortunately, the latter was too lazy to care where the little kid went at this time, and easily let him go.

Conan was able to leave the room smoothly, or rather, was thrown out of the room.

He stared silently at the closed door in front of him. He had reason to suspect that the uncle had thrown him out because he thought he would disturb him.

Never mind, it suits his taste anyway.

Before starting the sneaky action, Conan thought it was still early, so he planned to go see the chairman first, make his excuses solid, and then sneak away.

"Are you there, Brother Akae?" Conan knocked on the door, but worried that the people inside couldn't hear him, so he raised his voice a little. "Our room is on the first floor. If there is any accident at night, Brother Akae can come downstairs to find uncle."

There was silence in the room for a while, and then it seemed that the person inside was too lazy to open the door, so he responded directly through the door: "Okay, I know. Thank you for your trip, Conan-kun."

Conan froze.

Strange, something seems wrong?

"Ah, I'm so thirsty. Is there any drink in Brother Chijiang's room? Can I have a sip?" The child started acting right there, "Uncles won't let me drink!"

"What a pity, I don't have any drinks here either." The chairman's voice sounded helpless, "And Mr. Maori and the others are right, it's so late, children really shouldn't drink too much."

"Is that so? I'll leave first then." Conan said in a frustrated tone, "Good night, Akagi-ni."

It wasn't until he walked out of this floor and onto the deck that Conan's expression darkened.

No, the person in that room is not the chairman himself.

Even though the contact time was not long, it was enough for Conan to roughly understand the chairman's temper. If he were there, he would not have responded to what he said with "I know", but would more likely have said casually like before "I have brother Zero, and there will be no need to ask you for help."

Besides, the chairman is not a person who follows the rules.

But this is a bit weird. Who else could be in the room if not the chairman? Where is the chairman now? Could he be threatened in the room? That's impossible. The butler looks very skilled. How could he be knocked down so easily?

Damn it, no matter what the situation is, he should go to Mr. Midorikawa first for insurance!

Conan was thinking this and was about to go around the deck to the stairs to leave, but his way was blocked by a black shadow that suddenly appeared.

From Conan's perspective, he could only see the man's black cloak being blown up by the sea breeze and the pair of black combat boots made of special materials on his calves.

Conan's heart skipped a beat, as he recognized the man in front of him at a glance.

"Nighttime is not the time for children." A hoarse voice that had been processed for voice change rang above his head. Conan looked up stiffly and met the pair of dark eyes.

Wuming then reached out and picked up the little boy so that they could be at eye level.

Conan subconsciously swung his legs in mid-air.

Good, his brain had completely shut down.