Stay away from Conan.

Hokkaido, a large Japanese dry landscape garden on the outskirts of Sapporo——

"Father……"

A middle-aged man slowly came to a separate house in the courtyard, bowed slightly respectfully to the closed door, and greeted the person in the house. Then he heard a calm response:

"Come in."

Then, after hearing such permission, the man continued to bow and responded respectfully, then walked forward, opened the door, and walked in.

I saw that this was actually a quiet room. Apart from some simple furnishings, most of the space inside was empty. In the middle of the room, an old man in a kimono was sitting quietly on a cushion with his eyes closed, as if he was meditating.

As the man walked into the quiet room, the old man with his eyes closed opened his eyes and looked at the newcomer. The man then bowed slightly and respectfully, as if it was a habit. After the old man opened his eyes, he began to describe the situation without much nonsense:
"Father, the Fujiang Group has roughly compiled a list of those collections. Please take a look."

As he said this, the man took out a book from his arms, held it in front of him with both hands, and then waited for the old man to signal before he stepped forward and handed the book over.

Therefore, after taking the book, the old man began to look through the contents. In addition to a list of items, there were also photos of the corresponding items for reference.

After flipping through a few pages, the old man nodded slightly, but soon shook his head slightly. The man next to him was very puzzled. He didn't know what the old man's attitude towards these items was.

"Kinmune, this is the list of important items related to Hijikata Toshizo collected by the Fujiang Foundation, is this it?"

At this point, after briefly flipping through the content and completely reading the list, the old man asked this question.

In response to this, the man, Mitarai Chikamune, gave a prepared answer:

"Yes, that's right. Although the Fujiang Group has not yet completely cleared out these collections, the main collections have been counted, and most of the remaining ones should be just some insignificant things."

So, after hearing this, the old man, Mitarai Souaki, looked indifferent, neither sad nor happy. He put the book beside him and said to Mitarai Chikamune:
"So it seems that the Star Edge Sword that was once used by Hijikata Toshizo is not in the current collection of the Fujiang Group. In that case, if the bid exceeds the initial expectation on the day of the auction, we will give up."

In this way, after Yutarai Muneaki gave such instructions calmly, Yutarai Chikamune naturally had no objection to Yutarai Muneaki's decision, but it seemed that there was something else. Yutarai Chikamune did not directly agree to this matter. Yutarai Muneaki saw this reaction and naturally asked:
"And when?"

"actually……"

In this case, Mitarai Chikamune informed Mitarai Souaki of another message he had received:
"Recently, there has been news that there seems to be a clue to the treasure left by Mr. Keisaburo Axue, the first head of the Axue Group."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Yutarai Souaki asked curiously:
"What kind of clues?"

"The clue seems to be a name - Dongwa Ronglong."

Mitarai Chikamune answered.

As for this name, Mitarai Munaki seems to know something about it:

"The name of a knife maker."

"That's right, so I was wondering, regarding the treasure...whether it might be related to the sword forged by Dongwa Ronglong. And it just so happens that among the items auctioned by the Fujiang Group this time, there are two swords that were forged by this swordsmith." So, Mitarai Chikamune continued.

At this point, after listening to these statements, Mitarai Souaki became thoughtful and asked:

"Can you find the source of the information?"

"This... seems to be a note left by the first owner of the family that was found when the Fujiang Group was sorting out their belongings recently..."

Mitarai Chikamune quickly gave the information he had.

In this regard, after hearing all this, Mitarai Souaki thought about it and suddenly smiled indifferently:
"The note left by the first patriarch? Humph, it didn't appear earlier or later, but at this critical moment, a clue pointing to Keisaburo Axie's treasure appeared...

"Don't bother."

At the end, Mitarai Souaki said decisively.

Therefore, seeing that Mitarai Muneaki was unmoved by such a situation, Mitarai Chikamune, who was a little surprised, naturally couldn't say anything more. He could only respond with "yes", and then Mitarai Muneaki signaled that he could leave.

In this way, Mitarai Chikamune had no choice but to obey the order, but just as he was about to leave, he suddenly seemed to remember something, turned around and said nervously:
"Oh, by the way, father, there is one more thing..."

At this point, Mitarai Chikamune glanced at Mitarai Souaki, and seeing that the other party had no intention of stopping him, Mitarai Chikamune looked a little depressed, and continued:
"That person... Akechi Takato has come to Sapporo..."

When Gao Yuan's name was mentioned, Mitarai Kinmune couldn't help but recall that he had fought him twice before but got nothing out of it. However, due to the other party's identity, he couldn't say anything. Moreover, the other party had not been in Hokkaido since that time, so he didn't usually hear this name. As a result, now...

In short, Mitarai Kinmune couldn't talk about Gao Yuan's name completely calmly, so he spoke nervously.

Even so, after hearing Gao Yuan's name, Mitarai Souaki's expression remained calm as usual, and he said:
"What's wrong?"

"It seems... he also came here because of the clues to the treasure of the Axe River Group. Now... the eldest lady is with him."

"Oh? The treasure of the Fujiang Group?"

After hearing this reason, Mitarai Muneaki seemed to become interested:
"Has this kind of news spread?"

Having said this, Mitarai Souaki thought for a while and then said:

"Notify everyone that we have given up participating in the auction organized by the Fujiang Group. As for Gao Yuan... take me to see him..."

……

"Hey! Are you kidding me? The old guy from the Siling Group... that old guy named Mitarai Souaki, isn't he usually a recluse who doesn't get involved in anything? Why did that old guy show up as soon as I used your identity to contact the Siling Group, and he immediately saw that I was pretending?"

Tokyo, Akechi's house.

Shortly after the news of the auction of the Fujiang Group was released, Gao Yuan and Kuroba Kaito made a preliminary plan. They were asking Kuroba Kaito to pretend to be himself and contact the Siling Group to see if they could use this opportunity to conduct an in-depth investigation into the auction of the Fujiang Group. However, not long after, Kuroba Kaito was very depressed about the news sent by Gao Yuan, which surprised Gao Yuan a little... (End of this chapter)