Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Conan's room."

Standing in a bedroom converted from a storage room, Kogoro Mori paced back and forth, feeling very conflicted.

"Maybe there might be something else going on."

Although he usually thinks Conan is naughty and always makes trouble for him at the crime scene, Kogoro Mouri feels that he is not blind to the boy's character.

"Well?"

The three sleeping pets in the living room on the third floor opened their eyes. Shinpachi was the most awake among them. He stepped directly on the plum blossom paw prints and came to Kogoro Mouri.

"Ah! Why are your paws dirty again?!"

Kogoro Mouri scratched his hair and found that the wooden floor of his house was covered with sticky paw marks. He hurried back to the bathroom, picked up the mop and cleaned the floor again, and wiped the twelve paws clean with a wet towel.

"All right."

Pinching the fat dog face, Maori Kogoro sighed and persuaded himself: "This is... to clear Conan's suspicion."

"Wang?"

"Shinpachi, do you know if Conan has bought anything valuable recently?" Maori Kogoro said while gesturing, but when he found that the dog didn't understand what he meant, he said after a while: "It's a treasure."

"Wang!"

There was a reaction. The dog was like a machine that received a signal. Its originally wagging tail suddenly stretched straight towards the sky. It barked a few times and then disappeared in front of the head of the Mori family. A few breaths later, it appeared in the living room with a magazine in its mouth, then spit it on the ground, stretching its neck and waiting for Mori Kogoro to feed it.

"Ms. Yoko's photo album? No, this is my treasure. I mean Conan's."

Uncle Maori looked into Shinpachi's eyes and had to take out a duck breast bone snack from the refrigerator. After the dog had his mouth full of oil, he continued to push Shinpachi's butt.

"This time I'll take you to Conan's room."

Opening the door of the storage room, the interior is about the size of three tatami mats. Opposite the door is a small window. There is a desk on the wooden floor, and looking up is a small cabinet fixed on the desk.

"Wang?"

Shinpachi tilted his head, and the cute smile with his tongue sticking out disappeared in an instant. This was the first time that Kogoro Mouri saw a look of disgust on a dog's face.

"I know this room is small, but there's nothing I can do about it. My house really isn't big enough."

Maori Kogoro leaned against the desk and said, "After... after Xiaolan moves out of this house, I will renovate the third floor."

Although he was reluctant to admit it, this was a fact that he had to face as a father. His daughter would get married one day, and now it seemed that the candidate had been determined, but the time was uncertain.

"Forget it. You're just a dog anyway. You can't possibly understand my sadness."

Now that they had entered the room, the guilt they had felt for suspecting Conan was meaningless, so Detective Maori opened Conan's cabinet openly and checked the things inside.

"Why are all these Kudo Shinichi's old clothes?"

Kogoro Mouri's hands became heavier and heavier as he rummaged through Conan's closet. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he had rarely taken Conan to buy clothes since he moved into this house.

The uncle never expected that the clothes in the closet were all limited editions of that year. Not only did the shrunken Conan not feel aggrieved, but he would occasionally feel happy to be able to wear these clothes again.

"Wang!"

The dog's head immediately went under the desk, twisting left and right, and finally stopped after hearing a gurgling sound. Then Maori Kogoro looked at an envelope torn out by the dog's mouth. "This is the envelope that Officer Yokomizo gave me money!"

Kogoro Mouri picked up the envelope covered with dog saliva from the ground and noticed that the envelope had not become thinner but had become much thicker. So he walked out of the room with the letter.

He drove the other two pets off the sofa, slapped the envelope on the coffee table, then took out a cigarette and quietly looked at the letter while puffing on smoke.

"Wang!"

Shinpachi anxiously walked around the old man. According to common sense, the dog should be rewarded for his contribution. Unfortunately, Kogoro Mori was in no mood to find snacks for the dog. He just waved his hand and asked the dog to go aside.

"Woof?!" The dog's face suddenly turned gloomy. It was no longer the weak dog that the boy had just brought home.

Although he is still called Shinpachi or Bajiang at home, and there is a cat above him with a superior status, and a eunuch dog sits with him, but all the dogs outside call him Wang Ba Ye when they see him. This old man teases him like this, who does he think he is?

The cat and dog next to them opened their eyes lazily, and Anna wagged her tail in slight surprise.

"Meow?" (What's wrong with this silly dog? Has his temper gotten worse recently?)

"Hmm." (It has a lot of little brothers here.)
Shinpachi obviously had ideas about Conan's room, and planned to do something bad as revenge for the man's deception, so he walked towards Conan's room with light steps.

"Ah, I'm finally home. I'm so tired!"

"Sister Xiaolan! I'm the one pulling all the luggage!"

The sound of the brother and sister fighting came from the stairs, until Xiaolan said "I really can't do anything about you", and then seemed to pick up the suitcase. Then the door on the third floor was opened with a key. Conan walked into the house and looked at Kogoro Mouri who was sitting on the sofa smoking, and also saw the envelope on the coffee table.

"Conan? What's wrong with you? Why do you look like you're done for?"

Mao Lilan put down the suitcase, and there was a dull thud when the floor and the bottom of the suitcase hit it. She took a step forward and saw her father's serious expression. She also noticed that her boyfriend was keeping his head down and remained silent, and she guessed something.

"Ah, I just remembered that I still need to clean up the room, that..."

Realizing that Kogoro Mouri was looking at her again, Mouri Ran slowly closed her mouth and stood with Conan.

"So, you two have been hiding this from me?"

Kogoro Mouri squeezed the cigarette into his mouth and took a deep puff, then put it out in the ashtray. He picked up the envelope with his yellowed fingers and threw it at Conan's feet.

"What's going on? Conan, why is this money in your room?" Maori Kogoro picked up the empty cigarette box and tore the box bit by bit: "I remember asking you to deliver it to Yuuji."

"Uncle... Um, Brother Yuji said that this money can be used as pocket money for me..."

Conan habitually opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't expect that Yokomizo Shigego had already told Maori Kogoro that Kudo Yuuji didn't know about the subsidy. Maori Ran, who was familiar with her father, had already noticed that the other party's breathing was getting longer and longer, and there was a faint feeling of rage. Even the powerful Unicorn Master was shaking unconsciously.

"So that's how it is. Yuji gave you the money, so why didn't you tell me? Instead, you hid it under the table?"

[Wait! Shinichi, please realize this, this is the last chance your father will give you, please tell the truth and apologize! ]

Xiaolan's thoughts did not reach Conan. Seeing the girl's despair, he scratched his head and smiled embarrassedly.

"I'm worried that my uncle will use the money to drink."

(End of this chapter)