Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 396 The Blind Man?

"Listen to my explanation..."

"What else are you going to explain? I've already taken photos of the evidence. Divorce!"

"No, I was just playing around..."

"Play around? I don't have time to play with you!"

……

Yamagishi, Fuji, Shima:...

The three of them stood at the door, speechless as they watched this scene unfold.

Indeed, Ms. Anno is the "stalker," but... this "stalker" probably doesn't constitute a crime of stalking and harassment. After all, the household registration transcripts after marriage in Japan guarantee certain basic rights, so it can't be said that there is stalking and harassment between spouses...

Anno then saw the three people at the door, and felt somewhat apologetic, especially when he saw Yamagishi.

“Don’t worry, we’re fine. We’re still husband and wife. I just came to deliver this to him because I know you won’t reveal the guest’s room number, so… I’m sorry.” Anno said, picking up the divorce papers and showing them to the three of them as proof.

The three Yamagishi remained silent.

I even saw...

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the room, half of Chief Shiraishi's face was hanging down from above. Upon seeing this scene, he slowly hung back up!
It's clear that Shiraishi must have learned about the situation from the monitoring room, and because he was worried, he took a "shortcut" to come and check it out.

Who would have thought that Anno's elaborate scheme was all just to catch his wife cheating?

Shiroshi could simply sneak back inside; no one inside would notice him. However, the three people at the door exchanged awkward glances after a moment of silence…

Yamagishi gave Fuji a wink, Fuji gave Shima a wink, and Shima... being new, he didn't dare to provoke such a fierce policeman, so he braced himself and stepped forward, nodded to the two people in the room, and then closed the door!

Once they were out of sight, the three breathed a sigh of relief, exchanged "old-fashioned phone" expressions, and tiptoed away—as things stand, there's nothing that requires police intervention.

Shiraishi was also helpless.

That's the downside of narcissism, like Cupid's poisoned arrow!
It automatically targets enemies, but it can't determine what kind of "enemy" it's targeting—just like in the fake kidnapping case at the Atsumori family, the narcissist's side just unleashed a "rain of arrows," making Shiraishi initially think his special ability had gone berserk...

At the same time, Ayako saw Shiraishi climb back and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "How was it? Was it a false alarm?"

"It was a false alarm... or you could say that, except for Mr. Tatebayashi." Shiraishi said, briefly telling Ayako what he had seen, so that she wouldn't be worried anymore.

"But women really do become much better at planning things out at this time..." Shiraishi couldn't help but remark.

"Kuro, what would you do if you were in his shoes?" Ayako asked with a smile.

"Me? I'm not very good at tracking people, but I'm very good at counter-tracking... and even if I were blocked at the door, I would have already climbed down." Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

Ayako:……

"Brother, shouldn't you never make this kind of mistake?" Ai said, unable to bear it any longer.

"Huh? Then this problem doesn't exist anymore? I already said it was 'if'!" Shiraishi corrected Ai's misconception.

Ayako, Ai: ...

"Sister-in-law! If my brother does this, I'll go tell you directly!" Ai said, expressing her hope that she would be awarded to her sister-in-law.

……

Shortly after, Anno came down to check out.

Clearly, she stayed at the hotel to catch her husband cheating, and she didn't stay any longer after she succeeded.

Anno saw that Yamagishi was still there, so he came to find her.

"I'm sorry, because... I know that every time he comes to Tokyo, he's with his mistress, but I don't have any evidence, so I had to resort to some tricks," Anno apologized as he checked out.

“I was completely fooled… but are you really alright?” Yamagishi asked with some concern.

"Me? I'm fine. I've already received the divorce consent form... I feel so relieved now. After making up my mind, the huge weight on my shoulders has finally been lifted," An Ye said with a smile.

"Well... have a safe journey." Although Yamagishi was helplessly used, he didn't show too much resentment.

Her professional principle is to take good care of guests while they are in the hotel, because once they leave the hotel, she is powerless to help them.

"Thank you. I'll come again next time, probably after I've completely settled the divorce. I'll come to Tokyo to relax." Anno thanked him and left the hotel.

In addition...

When Fuji saw the narcissist at the door, he followed Ando upstairs and even went out of his way to open the car door for him!

While speechless, no one stopped him.

after all……

Compared to his previous "love at first sight" targets, this one is practically a normal person!
They've even gotten divorced, so theoretically they're "single again."

At most, I'd mutter a few complaints to myself—such a difficult woman, how dare she, so narcissistic, provoke her…

Not long after, Guan Lin also came down with a dark face.

Whether he was on a business trip, having an affair on the way, or coming specifically to have an affair, he is now so "humiliated" that he is unwilling to stay any longer.

Upon seeing Tatebayashi, Yamagishi initially showed an apologetic expression. However, after noticing that the other party was even more embarrassed and annoyed, he then restrained himself from maintaining a purely businesslike demeanor. Yamagishi did not mean to discriminate against scumbags, or rather, he would not make such a distinction at work. Lowering the service level just because the other party is a scumbag would be considered unprofessional by Yamagishi.

Now, since they found that Tatebayashi didn't want to talk about anything else, they pretended nothing had happened and processed her check-out...

However, no matter how she behaves, it seems this customer is gone forever.

Fuji then remarked with emotion, "The situations you usually face... are quite complex."

I originally thought that as long as I was "polite," it would be fine, but in the past two days, I've been given too many "surprises" – from extortion with a bathrobe to catching someone cheating with high intelligence.

"You know that much," Yamagishi said proudly.

……

"Dad, really, he doesn't even know where he is... and he's drunk again!" Ran complained as she led Conan back home.

Maori was still in the lounge, enjoying the free drinks, which was exactly why he had come to stay at the hotel.

It's probably been a long time since we've seen guests in the lounge drinking so heavily, even to the point of being hungover!
After all, the lounges in large hotels, although "free," are also the most expensive—at the very least, only guests in executive rooms can enter.

It's like having all the snacks in a first-class lounge that people can eat as much as they want!
"Conan, let's go back and rest... Oh, right, the Suzuki Hotel seems to have some hot spring water delivered, we can soak together!" Ran suggested. Conan: ...

"This... isn't a good idea..." Conan muttered softly.

"Huh? What did you say? You don't want to?" Xiaolan didn't hear clearly.

"I said... okay then." Conan said, already lost in thought...

Ouch——

While I was distracted, I accidentally tripped and fell.

"Ah! Conan, you've fallen and your nose is bleeding..." Ran exclaimed.

Because this scene happened right in the lobby, Yamagishi quickly ran over and helped Conan up.

Meanwhile, Shima, who was cleaning on the night shift, clumsily knocked over a bucket of water. Kuga groaned and rushed over to help...

As luck would have it, at that very moment, an elderly woman carrying a cane and wearing sunglasses walked into the hotel. Suzuki Atsushi naturally stepped forward to help her and took the small handbag from her hand.

Seeing Suzuki leading a blind person over, Fuji at the front desk immediately tensed up.

Suzuki then noticed that Fuji was giving him a wink—although Fuji was now just a patrol officer, she was his senior, someone he had bullied all the way up the ranks back then…

but……

Suzuki had no other choice!
At this time, there were no other receptionists besides Teng.

"Welcome, do you have a reservation?" Teng asked with a stiff smile.

Hotels certainly have their own procedures for receiving these "special guests," but...

Teng only received temporary training; how could he possibly remember all of this!

“No reservations,” the old lady said.

"Then... please sign the check-in form." No matter how hard Teng racked his brains, he couldn't come up with a solution to the current situation.

When Teng handed over the "Check-in Registration Form," his mind went completely blank.

What followed was naturally a moment of bewilderment as the two stared at each other...

"Um... excuse me, if it's alright, could this person here serve me?" the old lady said, gesturing towards Yamagishi, who had just returned to the front desk.

“Of course! I’ll help you check in.” Yamagishi quickly took Fuji’s place, and Fuji stepped back to make way.

At the same time, after no longer needing to attend to the blind man, Teng immediately began to scrutinize him without any restraint.

The old woman appeared to be quite advanced in years. Although she was wearing a felt hat, a significant portion of her granny-gray permed hair was still visible. Perhaps for the sake of security, she was dressed in many layers, completely covered up in the April weather, and even wore gloves…

"I usually rely heavily on my intuition. Old people can be stubborn, so I hope you won't mind," the old lady said, trying to make amends for herself and Teng.

Even this elderly woman could probably tell that Teng had little experience in receiving special groups like herself.

“I hope you don’t mind… Would you like me to help you fill out the registration form?” Yamagishi asked.

“No, I can.” The old lady was clearly not completely blind, but only visually impaired. She touched the written parts of the registration form, confirmed the contents with Yamagishi, and then filled in a few blanks herself.

She obviously couldn't see the text, but she could roughly see where the text was and could write it herself.

After checking in, Yamagishi gave the room key to Suzuki and escorted him to the elevator before having him guide the guests up. Immediately afterwards, Yamagishi pulled Fuji, who had followed him, away...

“What are you doing? That lady is obviously blind. You don’t have to doubt her too, do you?” Yamagishi said to Fujio.

Yamagishi didn't say anything about Fuji's previous mishandling of the situation—after all, it was a very obscure procedure. If another receptionist had made the same mistake, she would have definitely criticized them. However, Fuji was only there for a "secret investigation" and had only received simple training, so it was understandable that he didn't remember such things.

However, what Yamagishi didn't understand was that Fuji had been staring at the other person so intently, clearly with suspicion.

“No, something’s not right about her…she might not be blind,” Teng said, frowning.

“There are different levels of blindness! Some may not be completely blind, but…” Yamagishi thought that Fuji was suspicious of her sometimes acting as if she could see something.

Fuji interrupted, "Of course I know that. I often help disabled people... after all, I'm a patrol officer!" This was partly a response to Yamagishi's earlier reminder that "you're a patrol officer." After a pause, Fuji continued, "However, for any visually impaired person, when vision is not working well, the assistive device after hearing is touch. I've met and helped many blind people, and none of them wear gloves. On the contrary, they should have obvious scars and calluses on their hands!"

That's right, this is the biggest flaw that Teng discovered...

Blind people often rely on touch, so how could they possibly wear gloves, especially in this weather? They don't need to wear gloves at all.

Yamagishi looked puzzled upon hearing this, clearly convinced by the suspicious points about the "gloves," but out of professional habit, she still said, "Perhaps she had some reason to do it... Pretending to be blind didn't hurt anyone, did it?"

“Indeed, we can’t say for sure what kind of crime this is, but we must take it seriously,” Teng said solemnly.

"At least Mrs. Katagiri's intuition is quite accurate. It's because you're always like this that she doesn't let you serve her, right?" Yamagishi said helplessly.

Perhaps because she had seen so many "strange people" in hotels, Yamagishi didn't find it strange at all to pretend to be blind—she had seen guests who faked other illnesses before, or even those who would suddenly fall ill to "torture the staff"...

It was later discovered that it was simply a case of an elderly person needing attention and expressing a desire for care. Now, she still sends that guest a New Year's card every year to show her concern.

“If you mean she thinks I’m hard to fool, then I accept that,” Teng shrugged.

Yamagishi:……

Yamagishi did not continue this pointless argument.

At the same time, Fuji had already spoken into the walkie-talkie: "Kawagoe, did you see the old lady Suzuki just brought up to the sixth floor? Remember her room number and her name. If she does anything unusual afterward, notify me immediately."

"Yes, Minister Fuji!" Kawai's voice came through—she was taking over the night shift from Muto.

As a "front desk receptionist," Teng can usually slack off, only coming out to greet suspicious individuals. However, the monitoring room position definitely requires shift work; otherwise, it would be disastrous if he slacked off or did anything suspicious.

Just then, Yamagishi's walkie-talkie rang. It was Kuga's voice: "Manager Yamagishi, Mrs. Katagiri just called the front desk saying the room is very noisy and specifically asked you to handle it..."

"Okay, I understand." Yamagishi said, and immediately headed over.

but……

Yamagishi felt a little uneasy when he remembered what Fuji had just said!

Fortunately, Teng then said, "I'll go with you."

(End of this chapter)