Chapter 62 Cointreau Arc·Beginning

Along the way, Conan Edogawa was a little absent-minded because of what happened just now.

He was led by his close brother's hand towards the bookstore. He responded to the other party's pauses in his speech at the right time, while thinking carefully about what happened just now.

The name of Cointreau was mentioned by Bourbon when the thief Kid, who disguised himself as Miyano Shiho, confronted Bourbon on the Suzuki Express train. The original words were——

'Don't worry, I won't kill you for the time being. I don't want to mess with that troublesome guy Cointreau.'

What does this sentence mean? Does Cointreau not want Haibara Ai to be killed, or does he hate her so much that he has to do it himself?

Conan Edogawa was more inclined to the latter. After he returned, he quickly asked Haibara Ai if she knew the code name, but he did not get any useful information. If it was true as she said that she had only heard of it but had never met the other party and did not know what Cointreau looked like, then the first one was naturally impossible.

It was estimated that some drug that Haibara Ai or Miyano Shiho was researching offended the member who was as famous as Belmode.

Conan Edogawa felt a pain in his hand and instantly pulled himself out of his thoughts. He looked at the man walking beside him. The man's usually gentle smile faded and was replaced by a serious thinking expression.

"Brother Asari?"

"......Ah, sorry." Tsukiyama Asari reacted and quickly let go of the boy's hand, but his eyes did not fall on the little friend who was pinched by him, and he was still looking at the place not far away, "Wait for me." After

saying that, without even waiting for the other party's response, the man quickly ran forward.

"Hey--"

Not knowing what the other party was going to do, and a strange man who looked like Cointreau had just moved in next door, Edogawa Conan was so scared that he almost broke out in a cold sweat. For the first time, he felt the feeling of Xiaolan shouting anxiously behind him every time he rushed to investigate something, and hurriedly quickened his pace to catch up with the man who had already run a long distance in front.

After Tsukiyama Asari ran out, his eyes accidentally swept across the virtual panel next to him that was not closed.

In the picture, while the two people were talking and walking towards the bookstore, a close-up of an old man walking away with a five or six-year-old child was given. He quickly had a bad premonition and ran in the direction where the two people left.

"......Huh?"

The old man with a hunched back and a cane was startled by the sudden appearance of the young man. He reached out to hold up his reading glasses that had slipped to the side of his nose and asked in doubt.

"Excuse me, I saw you guys seemed to be looking for something, so I came to ask if you need help." The man with a gentle smile waved his hand, and the girl who had been supporting the old man's eyes lit up instantly, "Great, we are looking for a Japanese confectionery shop!"

The girl had big eyes, and was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and a black suspender skirt. Her mouth, which was dyed red by the strawberry-flavored popsicle in her hand, was slightly pursed. When she raised her head, it seemed that she overlapped with another child in an old photo.

Tsukiyama Asa was distracted for a moment.

"I am quite familiar with this area. Do you need help?" "

Sure!" The little girl agreed with a smile on her face, and the old man on the side also relaxed his expression, and the fine wrinkles unique to the elderly rose with the corners of their mouths, looking kind and gentle.

This is what Conan Edogawa saw when he ran over. He was a little surprised. Did he suddenly leave him and run over just for this?

The boy frowned, and subconsciously felt that things were not that simple. He couldn't grasp his thoughts and there was nothing suspicious. He could only hold Tsukiyama Asari's hand again and walk to a more remote street with the old man.

[Is there something wrong with those two people? ? ]

[I don't see any problem... So is this plot just to establish Tsukiyama Asari's character? A helpful young man (looking confused.jpg)]

[It's not a character setting. If it's to highlight his personality, then this inexplicable plot is a bit stiff. And Asari's expression is really wrong. I was scared when he just became serious. I almost thought he saw a wanted criminal.]

[Hiss... I have an idea. It's a bit long. Let me type for a while]

[Squat]

"Is this your granddaughter?" Tsukiyama Asari asked casually during the chat.

"I don't think so--" Edogawa Conan answered first, he quickly integrated the information he just observed, "She used a respectful title when she called grandma just now, and if she was a relative, she should hold hands and walk, right? Just like me and my brother Asari."

No one can resist the cuteness of the little boy with baby fat on his profile. Tsukiyama Asari has completely forgotten how angry he was when he saw Edogawa Conan's complaint about "single mother" in the comics two weeks ago. He couldn't help rubbing the other's soft profile and narrowed his eyes because of the word "relative".

"Brother, you're so awesome!" The girl widened her eyes. She was carrying a children's guitar on her back and seemed to have just returned from a weekend interest class. "Because grandma can't find the Japanese confectionery shop, I'm helping her find it."

"Yes, Meiling is a beautiful and kind-hearted child." The old man said kindly, "I lived here when I was young. There weren't so many streets in this area at that time. I didn't expect it to become like this after leaving for more than ten years. I have no idea how to get away."

"Did grandma live here when she was young?"

"Yes... I moved to Osaka after I got married, but I still came to visit my parents on weekends. I never came back after my parents passed away... It's been thirteen years."

Thirteen years ago... I remember that time...

Edogawa Conan recalled it in detail, but the memory was too far away and it was already vague.

The group walked to the street behind. There were a few shops that looked old in the sparsely populated alley. The shop at the very end had a sign for old-fashioned snacks. From the door, one could vaguely see the decorations of an old-fashioned snack shop. In the middle was a counter with several stacks of Japanese confectionery wrapped in solid paper.

"Thank you for bringing me here. How about some delicious Japanese confectionery as a thank you?" Seeing that the group shook their heads repeatedly and refused, the old man did not force them. He just took out a few orange-yellow candies wrapped in transparent candy paper from his pocket and handed them to the three people, then walked into the store with his cane.

The girl held the candy, smiled and said goodbye to the two people, then ran away, her black ponytail swinging out a cute arc behind her head.

Tsukiyama Asari's smile was originally rising, but it cooled down again because of the update in the forum.

[Here I come, a small idea: because my job is to issue ID cards at the police station, I occasionally hear colleagues in charge of cases talking about cases. There were quite a lot of human trafficking in the past few years. One method is that the human traffickers pretend to be lost old people and find a child or female student walking alone to ask for directions. An old man who looks like he needs help, doesn't understand how to get there and looks very anxious, most people with a soft heart will choose to take them directly]

[Shit, I have goosebumps]

[Then they would take the person to a more remote place, where their accomplices would pick them up and kidnap the person... This method really deceived a lot of children back then. After all, isn’t family education generally about being kind and helping others? It really fits the previous case of Xiao Wu, where the child was 'pushed into the abyss by his own kindness']

[Will this case be a child trafficking case? [Asari looks so handsome with his serious face. (whispering)]

[I suspect this is going to bring out Tsukiyama Asari's memories (?). Maybe he encountered something like this when he was a child, otherwise his reaction wouldn't be so serious]

[I don't think Asari has encountered this before. I remember he said before that he went to the orphanage because his parents died in a car accident. He shouldn't have encountered such a thing. Maybe he met a lot of abducted children like this in the orphanage?]

[Greek! ]

[The pure family relationship between KeKe Asari and Conan]

Seeing that the topic had gone off track again, Tsukiyama Asari didn't look down. He took the boy's hand again and said with a smile, "Let's go, we can go to the bookstore now."

"Why did Asari brother suddenly follow us just now?" Edogawa Conan asked the question he had wanted to ask since just now, but the man who was holding his head just shook his head without much explanation, "Nothing, just a little worried."

"Worried?"

"Well, but it's okay now, let's go, little detective."

Edogawa Conan's other questions were all blocked in his throat by the word "little detective". He agreed a little sullenly, but then he remembered the "baby" that the other party called to Asuka Mizuki in the hospital half a month ago.

He remembered that Tsukiyama Asari had never called her Asuki before, but... this overly sticky name coming out of that person's mouth didn't seem to have any sense of incongruity. Whether it was "little detective" or "baby" pronounced by him, it carried a taste of infinite tolerance.

To some extent, Tsukiyama Asari is indeed more suitable for the role of... mother than Yukiko.

... What am I thinking? !

Edogawa Conan couldn't help but reach out and mess up his black hair.

The destination is a bookstore with a history of more than 30 years. The layout inside is not as bright and spacious as the bookstores nowadays. The wooden bookshelves are stacked together and arranged very tightly. Only one adult can pass between two shelves. The books are numbered and arranged together, and the piles are full.

Those books are a bit old.

"These books are second-hand." As if sensing the two people's confusion, the middle-aged man who had been sitting on a chair reading a newspaper explained, "The store used to be next to a university. The professors and students there would bring the books they couldn't take away to the store before dropping out and graduating, and then they would be bought back by new students and teachers."

As he said this, his face was stained with a layer of nostalgia, and his tone was much slower. "Students call this panning for gold, saying that the notes left inside are very helpful to them. I am very familiar with the locations of these books. What book are you looking for, young man?"

"Hmm... a picture book." Tsukiyama Asari described it, "It's a collection of works by a painter named Tsukiyama, light green packaging, about this thick."

He gestured with his hands, and the boss's eyes widened slightly, and he smiled, "What a coincidence, two weeks ago a guy came to me to sell a book, it's this... Speaking of which."

The boss paused, his eyes fell on the face of the young man in a baseball jacket in front of him, "He looks a bit like you."

The author has something to say:

Asari: I understand! He must be my brother's son!

A Miao: ...score suddenly dropped

Ai only said that her protector is a very good person, and did not say what the code name is, so in Conan, Ai's protector and Cointreau do not match

Added -1, there should (should (should)) be another update (really·not sure