Ke Xue: The thief Cao is actually myself

Chapter 716 I Love Kamen Rider! (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)
In the bustling and vibrant Beika Department Store, a spectacular tokusatsu drama is being performed on the stage.

"Reveal yourself, Kamen Rider! Your end is nigh!"

"That's right, today we're going to send you to hell!"

Accompanied by arrogant shouts, several strange men dressed in purple masked clothes launched a fierce attack on the man in front of them.

The man wore a white, blue, and yellow motorcycle helmet, a matching shirt with blue-black arms, white gloves with blue patterns, blue-black trousers, and white knee-high boots.

This person is none other than the masked superhero who is said to be protecting justice, according to the masked monster.

"I, Kamen Rider, will protect the peace of the Earth!"

Faced with the onslaught of attacks, Kamen Rider showed no fear. With a few swift movements, he easily routed the villains, leaving them helpless and unable to fight back.

"Kamen Rider! That's awesome!!!"

Seeing this, Ayumi Yoshida, who was sitting below the stage, blushed with excitement, her eyes sparkling with excitement and admiration.

Let's wipe out all the bad guys!

"Masked Roundhouse Kick!"

Genta and Mitsuhiko, who were standing next to her, were equally excited and couldn't help but stand up, waving their little fists and cheering loudly for Kamen Rider.

Not only them, but the children in the audience seemed to be ignited with enthusiasm, cheering and shouting, and the whole theater was immersed in a warm atmosphere.

Seemingly encouraged by the enthusiasm of the audience, the masked superhero on stage took a step forward and threw another "bad guy" hard to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, he leaped high into the air, his body drawing a perfect arc in the air, and then precisely executed his classic move—the Masked Spinning Kick.

"Masked Roundhouse Kick!"

"Boom..."

With a dull thud, the last masked villain fell heavily to the ground, raising a small cloud of dust.

This wonderful scene immediately drew even more enthusiastic cheers and applause from the children in the audience, the sound of which almost lifted the roof off.

However, amidst the thunderous cheers for "Kamen Rider," a little boy dressed in a blue suit, white shirt, gray shorts, and red bow tie, wearing glasses, stood out from the crowd.

Because, instead of cheering on Kamen Rider, he couldn't help but sigh slightly.

This little boy is none other than Conan, the last member of the Junior Detective League.

"Why do I, a high school student, have to watch this?"

Watching the lively Kamen Rider stage play on stage with a blank expression, Conan was filled with helplessness and inner turmoil.

Kamen Rider is a tokusatsu series and its protagonist that enjoys immense popularity among elementary school students and younger children. This series not only has a wide variety of merchandise, but also frequently features imitation performances in shopping malls and amusement parks.

Its fan base is extremely broad, not just limited to children, but also including many college students and even adults. It is said that several fan clubs have been established.

Characters like Kazuha Toyama and Detective Kazunobu Chiba are die-hard fans of Kamen Rider.

However, while Chiba and Shinichi were interested in Kamen Rider, Conan found the performance, which was full of childish fun, completely uninteresting. In his opinion, Kamen Rider was both childish and boring, and there was nothing to see.

As for why he, who clearly had no interest in watching the Kamen Rider stage play, was sitting in the audience with Ayumi and the others, why was he watching it?

The reason is actually quite simple. As expected, a certain bumbling detective, Kogoro Mouri, spends his days either lazily lounging on the sofa watching TV, drinking and having fun, or calling on friends to go out for horse racing and mahjong. He shows no sign of preparing for the upcoming detective show and doesn't take the detective challenges on the show seriously at all.

Left with no other choice, in order to prevent the identity of "famous detective Kogoro Mouri" from collapsing, Conan had to personally take charge, running around after school to collect materials in preparation for the detective show that was about to start airing.

But he never expected that he would be surrounded by Ayumi and her group of enthusiastic friends so soon after leaving school.

Immediately afterwards, these kids dragged him directly to the department store, saying they wanted to see a Kamen Rider stage play.

Thinking of this, Conan was filled with remorse.

If he had known it would turn out like this, he should have taken a different approach to gather material, instead of sitting here now, forcing himself to watch this Kamen Rider performance that holds no appeal for him whatsoever.

Conan's reaction seemed too obvious. Ayumi, who had been engrossed in cheering for Kamen Rider, couldn't help but tilt her head curiously and look at Conan with her clear, innocent eyes: "Conan? Don't you like Kamen Rider?"

Hearing Ayumi's words, Conan snapped back to reality, inwardly cursing. He couldn't let Ayumi see his true thoughts, or he'd spoil everyone's fun. So, he quickly scratched his head, trying to look excited, and grinned, saying, "How could that be? I love Kamen Rider the most!"

As he spoke, he even shouted loudly, "Go, Kamen Rider! Go, Kamen Rider!"

Ayumi blinked her big, watery eyes, her face beaming with a bright smile, and said happily, "I knew you liked Kamen Rider, Conan! Kamen Rider is so amazing, he always defeats bad guys and protects the peace of the earth, no one could dislike him!"

Genta nodded vigorously, his mouth full of newly bought snacks, and mumbled, "Yeah, yeah, Kamen Rider is so cool! I wish I could be as strong as him, so I could protect everyone and eat lots and lots of eel rice!"

Mitsuhiko pushed up his glasses and said seriously, "Kamen Rider isn't just powerful, he's also very smart! He can always come up with a solution to every problem. I think we can learn a lot from him."

Conan looked at his friends' innocent and enthusiastic expressions, chuckled dryly, and said nothing.

Haha, he's not interested in Kamen Rider at all!
After all, he is the famous high school detective Shinichi Kudo. His interests are always limited to perplexing cases and meticulous reasoning. Only innocent and carefree children like Ayumi and Genta would find childish things like Kamen Rider so appealing.

However, in order to get along well with his friends and not spoil their good mood, he had no choice but to "compromise" and pretend to be enthusiastic.

Oh, he's really having a tough time!
Just then, the performance on stage came to an end. Kamen Rider stood in the center of the stage, waving to the audience. The children's cheers reached their peak again, and they all stood up, clapping and applauding.

After the performance, Ayumi excitedly grabbed Conan's hand and said, "Conan, let's go take a picture with Kamen Rider! I heard there's an autograph session too!"

Genta and Mitsuhiko chimed in, "Yeah, yeah, let's go!"

Conan looked at his friends' expectant eyes, smiled helplessly, and said, "Alright, let's go line up..."

……

"Kamen Rider! Kamen Rider!"

As dusk fell, the setting sun, like blood, dyed a bridge spanning a wide river orange-red.

Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko were walking side by side along the bridge, their faces bathed in the warm glow of the setting sun, excitedly shouting, "The righteous Kamen Rider!"

The crisp sound seemed to carry endless energy and enthusiasm, echoing joyfully in the slightly cool evening air.

"what?"

As he walked, Yuan Tai seemed to be suddenly struck by something, abruptly stopping in his tracks. He subconsciously looked at his left and right hands, and then his pupils suddenly contracted, the smile on his face instantly freezing. He then hurriedly reached into his pockets, his movements rushed and flustered.

The next moment, the excited expression on his face completely disappeared, replaced by anxiety and panic, as if the sky was about to collapse.

His sudden, unusual behavior instantly attracted the attention of Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and the others, like a magnet.

Ayumi tilted her head, her clear eyes filled with concern, and asked softly, "What's wrong, Genta?"

Mitsuhiko quickly came over, looking at Genta with a puzzled expression. "Yeah, you look so anxious and upset, what happened?"

My Kamen Rider signature seems to have disappeared!

Yuan Tai was extremely anxious, his voice trembling slightly. Before he could finish speaking, he frantically rummaged through the backpack on his back. His movements were so urgent that they bordered on madness. Books and other items in his backpack fell out and scattered on the ground of the bridge as he searched, but he didn't care at all. He was only focused on finding the autographed photo of Kamen Rider that he treasured.

"No no……"

However, to his disappointment, he turned his backpack upside down, but still couldn't find a trace of the Kamen Rider autograph he had been longing for.

"Oh no, my Kamen Rider autograph is really gone!"

Such a heavy blow was like a bolt from the blue, and Yuan Tai could no longer bear it. He burst into tears.

Mitsuhiko and Ayumi exchanged a glance, both involuntarily revealing worry in their eyes. After a moment's thought, Mitsuhiko spoke first, guessing, "How could this happen? Could you have accidentally left it somewhere?"

Ayumi chimed in with her own thought: "Or perhaps it fell on the ground without you noticing on the way back?"

"I don't know either..." Genta sobbed uncontrollably, large tears streaming down his chubby cheeks. "Waaah... I wanted to keep it as a treasure for life..." As he spoke, his legs gave way, and he collapsed heavily to the ground, clutching his head tightly with both hands, completely immersed in deep sorrow.

Seeing Genta so heartbroken, Mitsuhiko's eyes flashed with pity and sympathy. He then stroked his chin, trying hard to recall, "Let me think... I remember when you took the picture with Kamen Rider, you were clearly holding that autographed photo!"

Although Genta often bullies him with his strong physique, and even in matters of the heart, Genta is his secret rival, always trying to steal the cute Ayumi away from him.

But they were childhood friends who grew up together, and their friendship was deep.

At this time, he could not and could not bear to kick Yuan Tai, who was in despair, while he was down, and to make all sorts of sarcastic remarks.

What's more, what Genta lost this time was an incredibly precious autographed photo of Kamen Rider!

If it were him, in his place, if he accidentally lost the autographed photo he had worked so hard to get, he would probably cry even more sadly than Genta.

Genta wiped his tears haphazardly with his dirty little hands, sobbing uncontrollably, "I remember holding it when I took the picture with Kamen Rider, but how did it disappear... Waaah... My precious thing!"

Ayumi knelt down with a pained expression, gently patted Genta's shoulder with her small hand, and tenderly comforted him, "Genta, don't be too sad. We'll help you look for it. Maybe we can find it."

Mitsuhiko quickly chimed in, "Yeah, Genta, don't worry, we'll definitely find it. Kamen Rider would also want you not to lose heart."

However, despite this, not only Mitsuhiko and Ayumi knew this, but even Genta himself, who was immersed in grief, did not have much hope of finding the Kamen Rider autographed photo.

After all, Yuan Tai had no recollection of where or when he lost the autographed photo.

With no clue about the time or place, searching under such circumstances is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

We can't possibly follow the road we took to leave the department store all the way back, can we?
However, not to mention the heavy traffic and crowds along the way, where a slight mishap could result in the autographed photo being mercilessly trampled beyond recognition, the possibility of a gust of wind or other unforeseen circumstances could cause the autographed photo to be taken away from its original location.

In this situation, even if they wanted to look, where would they even begin?

Even though the hope was so slim, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko decided to give it a try.

After all, it wouldn't be right to let their friend Genta keep crying like this. Besides, that Kamen Rider autographed photo was something they had worked so hard to get after much anticipation and excitement. If they were to lose it like this, not only would Genta be heartbroken, but they themselves would also be filled with reluctance and heartache.

As they pondered this, their gazes involuntarily fell upon the bespectacled boy who was lost in thought beside them.

It doesn't matter if they don't know where to start looking, as long as someone knows.

Coincidentally, they knew who had the ability to solve this thorny problem!

This person, without a doubt, is the brains of their Junior Detective League—Conan!
(End of this chapter)