Conan's grammatical investigator

Chapter 1410 History is repeating itself
On the walls of the Tonkura family's photo studio, there are a large number of photos and exhibits of ancient weapons.

Most of the photos are modern landscape photos.

The only thing that stands out is a black and white photo in the upper right corner, framed in an inconspicuous corner.

The shooting angle of the photo is very similar to that of Beethoven's most classic portrait, except that the protagonist in this photo is not holding a pen.

The man in the photo has slightly curly hair and a slightly square face and chin.

"May I ask who that person is?"

Qin Zhibo looked at the photo in the corner and asked.

The old woman looked up along the line of sight of Qin Zhibo, and then replied: "It is the ancestor of the Yincang family. It is said that it is the one from three generations ago. This is the only photo of him left behind."

"Oh……"

Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, and then asked, "Since your family takes group photos every year, where do you keep the photos?"

"I see that all the pictures hanging on the walls here are modern landscape pictures. Except for the picture of your ancestors, they have nothing to do with your family."

"That's because half a year ago, my brother had all the old photos taken down."

Torakura Sannan answered while lowering his head to check his camera.

Suddenly, his expression froze, and he murmured, "I actually took a picture of it..."

Hattori Heiji and Conan, who were standing nearby, heard what happened and hurried over to check.

It turned out that when Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuha discovered the strange shadow in the mirror, they happened to press the shutter and took a photo.

However, since this family respects tradition, they still used an old-fashioned film camera, so it is unclear what exactly was captured.

Hattori Heiji held his chin up, "It would be nice if I could print out the photos and take a look at them now..."

Torakura Sannan immediately replied, "There is a darkroom in this house that is specially used for developing photos. I can go and develop them now."

"what?!"

When he heard that he could develop the photos here, Hattori Heiji's expression immediately became excited.

Although the trick of the mysterious shadow in the mirror has been cracked, if there were photos, perhaps more clues could be analyzed.

And when the police come, it can also be used as evidence.

Hattori Heiji immediately sent Torakura San'ao to develop the photos.

When I turned around, I found that Toyama Kazuha and Mao Li Ran were gone.

"Huh? Where did that person go?"

Conan raised his little hand and pointed in a direction.

When the two men chased after them, they found that the two girls had escaped to the kitchen and were asking the chef if he had any garlic.

"garlic?"

"But because the master has become very disgusted with garlic recently, there seems to be no garlic in the kitchen?"

The chef's tone was uncertain, which meant it was possible.

So Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuha volunteered to look for it in the kitchen inventory.

Conan and Hattori Heiji put their hands in their pockets, watching their girlfriends busying themselves in the kitchen, and complained helplessly.

"Because there are vampires, we need to eat garlic..."

"After all, it is something that can be fought against..."

The two straight men just stood at the door and watched, without thinking of going over to explain the trick used by the strange shadow in the mirror just now. In fact, anyone who is not a vampire can do that.

The two girls rummaged through the cardboard box but didn't find any garlic, so they prepared to open the large refrigerator in the kitchen.

"Why can't I open this refrigerator door?"

Yuanshan Heye pulled the handle, but the refrigerator door didn't move at all.

When Mao Lilan saw this, she stepped forward to lend a hand.

Fortunately, the chubby chef saw it and quickly stopped him, "That was the refrigerator that the master bought to store his things. I remember the refrigerator door was locked, and outsiders couldn't open it..."

"The refrigerator door is locked? Why?"

"I don't know." The chef held his chin up and recalled, "I heard from the master before that there are very high-quality meats in it, ready to entertain the guests who come to visit today."

"As a result, until now, the master has not mentioned taking it out to entertain the guests."

Conan and Hattori Heiji were standing at the door listening casually, and suddenly they remembered that at dusk, butler Koga said that a chef provided an alibi for Torakura Sasuke, so they asked the fat chef about it.

The fat chef nodded and admitted it honestly.

"Yes, it was indeed me who provided evidence to the police at that time."

"The night before I went to bed, the master said that he wanted to taste the freshly made soup as soon as he got up, so he asked me to bring the soup to wake him up."

"Before closing the lid, the master said he suspected someone had secretly lifted the lid to check while he was asleep. He asked me to put something on the coffin lid to confirm whether anyone had opened the lid."

"So I casually placed three sesame seeds on the edge of the coffin lid. When I came back to wake the master up, I found that the positions of the three sesame seeds had not changed at all."

"That means the coffin lid was never opened during that time, right?"

When Conan and Hattori Heiji heard this description, they became slightly alert.

The two of them turned around and left the kitchen with serious expressions, and returned to Tokura Sakuya's bedroom on the second floor, which was the house where the coffin was placed.

As soon as I entered the room, I saw Qin Zhibo trying to move the coffin inside.

"You guys are here too... What are you standing there for? Come over and give me a hand~"

Hattori Heiji and Conan hesitated for another second before coming over to help Qin Zhibo push the coffin.

As the coffin slowly moved, the marble bricks underneath were exposed.
There is a metal handle on a marble tile in the center.

"This is……"

Hattori Heiji subconsciously wanted to reach out to pull it, but Qin Zhibo took the lead and put his hand on it.

As the marble bricks were lifted up, a deep and narrow secret passage was revealed underneath.

As expected...

Qin Zhibo stared at the deep tunnel in front of him, not knowing where it led to.

However, this also confirms that the first time Torakura Sakuya suddenly disappeared in the coffin, it was probably not because of his ability to teleport, but because he simply took advantage of this secret passage.

"Where does this passage lead to?"

"do not know……"

Hattori Heiji and Conan, one asked and the other answered, which together was equivalent to saying nothing.

The two brothers looked at each other seriously and decided to go in to find out what was going on.

But at this moment, there was a sudden sound of animals howling outside the window.
Qin Zhibo, Conan, and Hattori Heiji quickly ran to the window and looked at the forest in the distance.

Under the dim moonlight, the lifeless forest seemed to be startled by something, and a flock of birds flew out from the dark treetops.

Qin Zhibo stared at that direction, his eyes gradually becoming solemn.

Conan and Hattori Heiji just took a look and quickly looked away to continue studying the secret passage.

Hattori Heiji took the lead and entered the dark secret passage first.

Conan followed closely behind. As the space in the secret passage was very tight, Hattori Heiji had to crawl down by lying almost close to the steps.

At this time, Conan's physical advantage was reflected.

This secret passage was not very long and we got out of it in less than half a minute.

Hattori Heiji and Conan moved the wooden board away and jumped out of the hole in the wall one after another.

At the end of the secret passage was a pitch-black space, the kind so dark that you couldn't see your hand in front of you.

Conan was the second one to crawl out of the cave. As soon as he landed, he could no longer see Hattori Heiji.

"Hattori, where are you?"

"I'm right in front of you..."

In this dark environment, Hattori Heiji activated his passive skill - invisibility.

Conan turned on the lighting function of his watch, and a dark figure appeared right in front of him.

The light shone all around, and the room was filled with some horrifying torture instruments.

"Hello, Hattori, this is..."

"Well, it looks like a torture chamber."

Conan held a flashlight and walked towards the torture instruments one by one with Hattori Heiji.

There are all kinds of tools available, including tiger benches, iron maidens, animal traps, spikes, nail chairs, swords, spears, and halberds. Each one is powerful enough to pry open the mouth of a weak-willed person.

In the center of the room stands a 2-meter-high guillotine, also known as the "Louis XVI Happy Scaffold."

"Wow, there is something so amazing in this place..."

Hattori Heiji put his hands in his pockets and looked up at this backward killing machine.

However, at that time, the guillotine was a very "advanced" execution machine because it executed prisoners quickly and efficiently without any pain, and the process was also very entertaining.

Just as the two were observing the various torture instruments in the room, there was a sudden knock on the door from behind.

The two of them immediately turned serious and turned to look.

Before the two decided whether to open the door, the door handle was turned and a figure was standing at the door.

When I looked closely, I realized it was Qin Zhibo.

"Uncle Qin, why did you come from there?"

Qin Zhibo walked in and explained, "I don't like drilling holes, so based on the descending angle of the secret passage, I guessed that the exit should be this room."

Drilling a hole...

Conan and Hattori Heiji drooped their eyelids and spoke as if they were brothers who liked digging holes.

Qin Zhibo ignored the looks of the two and scanned everything in the room with his night vision goggles.

There are all kinds of torture instruments, shackles, etc. here, and it looks like a cruel execution room.

However, there was no smell of blood here, and Torakura Sakuya had no intention of hiding this room, otherwise he would not have even locked the door.

"It seems that the owner of this place has some special collecting hobbies..." Qin Zhibo complained lightly.

"This is not what the master collected."

As soon as Qin Zhibo finished speaking, an old voice came from the door.

Everyone looked back and saw Butler Koga standing in the corridor at the door.

He moved a little closer and explained calmly, "All the tools displayed here were used by your ancestors. It is said that each one of them was stained with human blood..."

"That's why this place is also called the 'Nanman Room'."

Nanman room?

Is it the Nanman who invaded?

Qin Zhibo pondered in his heart, and then asked: "What did the ancestors of the Yincang family do? That's why they need so many tools and weapons..."

Butler Koga's wrinkled old face remained calm as he replied calmly, "The ancestors of the Torakura family were once the lords who ruled this land during the Edo period."

"Legend has it that the lord had no sons or daughters. When he was about to pass the position of head of the family to his younger brother, the lord suddenly brought a beautiful woman and wanted to take her as his concubine."

"Not long after, this concubine gave birth to a son. Finally, she had an heir."

"But on a stormy night, the concubine unfortunately fell off the cliff. When she was found by the servants, her body was pierced by the tree trunk."

"The lord suspected something was fishy, ​​so he used the tools he bought from the Nanman to torture the subordinate who was serving the concubine at the time, and the truth finally came to light."

"It turned out that the lord's younger brother coveted the lord's position and lied to the concubine, saying that the young master went to the forest and never came back."

"So, the angry lord decided to execute my brother and all the men who supported this plan like the concubine, and put their bodies in this forest."

"After that incident, the lord was called the 'Piercing Daimyo'..."

After hearing this story, Hattori Heiji's expression remained unmoved.

Isn't this the story of Grand Duke Vlad III of Wallachia, the prototype of Count Dracula?

Conan held his chin up, frowned, and looked thoughtful.

Qin Zhibo thought of the conversation he had with the maid Xiaoguang during dinner just now. Her story sounded very similar to this legend.

The mother of maid Xiaoguang was also a woman brought from outside by Torakura Sakuya, and she also died outside one night.

However, judging from other people's reactions and maid Xiaoguang's own understanding, she is not Torakura Sakuya's biological daughter.

"Mr. Butler, do you know anything about the car accident that happened to Tora Sakuya's fiancée two years ago?"

Butler Koga frowned and sighed, "That car accident..."

"All I know is that the master was not at home that day. He was busy in the hospital performing surgery on the child brought by his fiancée."

"Finally, the operation was successfully completed and the child was fine."

"But after the fiancée received the news, I saw her leave the house in a hurry, and she got into a car accident on the road..."

Qin Zhibo thought for a second, then asked, "Did you pass on this news after receiving it?"

"No." Butler Koga shook his head. "It was Miss Shimizu who received the call from the master that day, and it was she who conveyed the message to the master's fiancée."

"But the expression on my fiancée's face didn't look like the expression she would get when she heard the surgery was successful..."

Hearing this, Qin Zhibo's eyes widened and he suddenly realized something.

If these situations are true, it seems that what is happening now is gradually consistent with the legend.

History is repeating itself.

The only thing missing is a sacrifice among these brothers and sisters...

……

After coming out of Nanman's room, everyone found the Torakan brothers and sisters in the corridor again.

At this time, more than an hour had passed since the end of dinner.

Several people from the Tonkura family gathered together and complained about why Tonkura Hakumiya hadn't come out to announce the will yet.

And Inakura Sannan also handed the developed photos to Qin Zhibo.

In the mirror in the center of the photo, Tonkura Sakuya's head appeared in the mirror, with two sharp and long teeth revealed in his open mouth.