Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 491 Haunted House
[Mr. Sato, what are your thoughts on the sharp drop in Teito Trading's stock price? What advice do you have for our investors?]

The recent scandal involving the president and executive director of Teito Trading, involving internal strife, framing, and sexual harassment, while seemingly accidental, is actually a concentrated manifestation of long-standing internal discord and the inability of the young successor to command respect. When investing, we should try to avoid companies with such controversies.

So, to what extent do you think this controversy will end?

The legal turmoil will soon be over, but the upheaval for the company has only just begun. I personally do not recommend taking unnecessary risks.

……

While Shiraishi was driving, the financial news program on the radio was still discussing the case.

A seemingly minor harassment case ended up with no winners, resulted in billions of dollars in economic losses, and even... it was impossible to find a single innocent person involved.

During the reconciliation, Asakura suddenly "revealed" that President Oshima had instructed him, and also said that the "deep winter snow" on the Internet was actually a "fishing" session arranged by Oshima. The time of the meeting was also carefully selected by President Oshima, because Executive Director Watanuki had already gained a lot of benefits from being late to several meetings.

Oshima originally intended to use this opportunity to escalate the situation and force Mikan to resign...

Who knew that at the crucial moment, Asakura would suddenly explode at him!

From the beginning, because he didn't want rumors to spread in the Imperial Capital Trading Company, Mikan hired Ikuma Law Firm, with whom he had a cooperative relationship, as his legal representative instead of directly engaging the company's legal department.

That's when it actually came in handy!
If it were a company's legal department, they might try to coordinate with their own No.1 and No.2 clients to mitigate the impact, since no one wants the company to collapse.

However, Ikuma...

They don't care about any of that, not even about the client; they only care about winning or losing!

Upon learning of President Oshima's role in the case, he immediately jumped up and fought him, deliberately escalating the situation, which ultimately resulted in both of them suffering heavy losses...

Although both pursue victory, Ikura's style is clearly different from Komikado's—Komikado's victory is at least "the client's victory," and he would not take the client and others down with him.

"That Ueno Takashi is really wicked!" Ayako, in the passenger seat, launched an attack on the young president: "He is not capable enough to control the group, and instead of looking for the reasons within himself, he only knows how to use these evil methods... and he even asked his lover to go fishing, it's disgusting."

Shiraishi strongly agreed with Ayako's assessment—that executive director Watanuki was already so unpopular that he couldn't even control his own secretary and driver... The new president was actually suppressed by him and even came up with such an idea, which shows that he was also a useless person and morally despicable.

but……

"Ueno Takashi? Isn't his surname Oshima?" Shiraishi was still puzzled.

“He married into the Oshima family, so they’re definitely going to get a divorce now.” Ayako knew more about it.

“I see… No wonder you said that Mrs. Oshima was able to gather so many people to cause trouble in Asakura’s hometown in Nagano…” Shiraishi suddenly realized.

Shiraishi didn't know much about his family situation and assumed that his wife was also very assertive. Now he realizes that his wife is actually the eldest daughter of the Oshima family.

Upon hearing this, Ayako seemed to think of something and said softly, "Hmm... it is a bit excessive... but it's not that bad..."

"Huh? What?" Shiraishi was taken aback, not knowing who she was referring to.

“I mean… you shouldn’t bother the Kudo family anymore. You can borrow that house for now!” Ayako changed the subject.

Ever since Ayako learned that Shiraishi had moved into the Kudo family's house, she had been trying to persuade him to do so—including, but not limited to, giving him a house, letting him stay at her house (the villa she usually lives in), or helping her look after a vacant house…

After all, in Ayako's opinion, it was completely unnecessary and even a bit inexplicable to borrow someone else's house to stay—did we really need a house?

Shiraishi knew, of course, that the Suzuki family had no shortage of houses, given that tens of thousands of square meters of buildings were destroyed by bombings every year.

However, Shiraishi still refused them all...

Whether you call it a gift, a loan, or just keeping an eye on things... it's essentially a gift.

Even though their relationship was already on the verge of a formal engagement, Shiraishi would not accept such a gift.

When Ayako brought it up again, this time saying she wanted to "borrow" it, Shiraishi still made excuses...

Seeing that Ayako was in low spirits and didn't seem very happy, Shiraishi coughed twice and said, "And I've found a suitable house too, um... I'm already planning to take out a loan to buy it. It's quite big, so it'll be convenient for you to come and stay occasionally after we move in."

Ayako was taken aback by what she heard, but a sweet expression immediately appeared on her face, though... her doubts remained.

It's quite big?

“Okay…where is it? The scenery is quite nice, isn’t it?” Ayako asked from the side.

With Shiraishi's salary, even if he took out a 30-year loan, he could probably afford a "quite big house" in Saitama, right?
"The scenery? It's alright. Although it's not as good as the one at Yamashiro's place, it's still a detached house in Mika Forest." Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"Mihana Forest?" Ayako exclaimed in surprise—the villas there are in an upscale neighborhood!
“The old houses in the southwest aren’t that expensive anymore,” Bai Shi said calmly.

"The Southwest... but it's not cheap there, is it? How big is it?" Ayako asked doubtfully.

Although she is the eldest daughter of the Suzuki family, Ayako is not like Miwako Kobe; she has a good understanding of prices!
The houses in the southwest of Mihua Forest are indeed much cheaper than those in the southeast. Firstly, the forest in the southwest is more "wild" and the facilities are not as good; secondly, the houses there are all old; and thirdly... it can't compare to a manor like the Yamashiro family's, it's just an ordinary villa area.

"Around 250 tsubo," Shiraishi said truthfully—250 tsubo, converted to internationally accepted units, is about 800 or 900 square meters!
Ayako:? ? ?
Ayako was also shocked, and even suspected that Shiraishi might have received unknown funding.

Accepting funding from unknown sources is bad enough, but it's not even from the Suzuki family...

It couldn't be the Yamashiro family, could it?

"Um... how much?" Ayako asked, sounding somewhat distressed.

"Not expensive, 8000 million," Bai Shi said truthfully.

Ayako:? ? ?
It's really not expensive!

8000 million sounds like a lot, but it is actually the hidden limit for loans. Given Shiraishi's social status as "Superintendent Shiraishi," he could easily get a 30-year loan if he wanted to.

But this price...

250 ping?
To put it simply, the Yingmihua apartment building where Shiraishi lived before wasn't even 25 pings!
"Is there something wrong with this price?" Ayako couldn't help but ask—even bribery can't be this blatant, right?
"It's not the price that's the problem, it's that there's a small issue with the house," Shiraishi admitted.

To be honest, Shiraishi found this house from the police station's "Routine Search Reports of Problematic Locations"...

Because Ayako had mentioned helping him "find a house" several times before, Shiraishi took it to heart.

My visit to Poirot's apartment inspired Shiraishi!

Even with all five remaining rooms in the infamous Poirot Apartments rented out, it still wasn't as expensive as Shiraishi's rent at the Kagemi Flower Apartments. However, Shiraishi certainly didn't plan to stay at Poirot Apartments, not just because it was haunted, but also because… the place was too dilapidated!

So, in his "investigation report," Shiraishi found another house that was actually quite nice...

"Haunted house?" Ayako had guessed it, but what she couldn't guess was... there are many haunted houses in Beika, so the number shouldn't be this high!

"Yes, and the house is quite old. It was originally the private residence of a wealthy family, but it was auctioned off by the court twenty years ago due to bankruptcy," Shiraishi began.

At this point, Ayako didn't feel anything was amiss—twenty years ago, it was all too common for wealthy families to go bankrupt; although it wasn't a good omen, it wasn't a big deal.

but……

"It failed to sell for several years, and then it was taken over by someone named Amagi Makoto... well, was he a demon worshipper? A researcher? Anyway, he believed in demons, researched all sorts of sacrifices and such, and even claimed that he could resurrect the dead. He even took jobs from home, setting up sacrifices and such... and some people actually fell for it. Later, he was convicted of desecrating corpses." Shiraishi continued.

Ayako:……

Ayako felt things were getting increasingly absurd—since the charge of desecrating a corpse was established, and he even said it happened at home… so he was using someone else's corpse at home to “perform a shamanic ritual,” right? And it sounded like it wasn't just once!
"After this incident was reported, it aroused the dissatisfaction of some religious groups, who believed that Amagi Makoto's actions were blasphemous. Later, a member of a religious group named Tomita Toshiya broke into his house at night and killed him," Shiraishi continued.

Ayako:……

Upon hearing that someone had died, Ayako felt a sense of relief—it really was a haunted house.

"At the same time, Tomita was also seriously injured in the fight. During the fight, for some reason, he wandered around the house and smashed many of the religious paintings and sculptures that Amagi had decorated... In the end, he also died from excessive blood loss." Shiraishi's story was not yet over.

Ayako:……

Sure enough, things started to get out of control.

"Later, this house also entered the market at a low price, but the next three owners all gave up the property due to psychological pressure, and the selling price became lower and lower. It has been abandoned for almost a year now." Bai Shi knew all this, after all, the patrolman wrote all of this down in the water report!

He probably thought the director wouldn't be so bored as to watch something like this.

Ayako:……

"Just... psychological pressure?" Ayako asked awkwardly.

"Probably? My patrol officers have investigated and found that people say things like 'I always feel like someone is watching me,' 'I saw ghostly figures outside the window,' or 'It seems like something has entered the house,'" Shiraishi said calmly.

Ayako:……

Now Ayako understands why this house stands out among all the haunted houses and is so popular!
"Ai and Mayoi...aren't you scared?" Although Ayako didn't know that Chihiro was currently in Shiraishi's left hand, she did know that Chihiro had asked Shiraishi to take care of her younger sister before she died.

“Of course not, those two… are the type who would be very excited if they actually saw a ghost,” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

Moreover, neither of them are just "hypocritical." Ai genuinely wants to investigate ghosts; perhaps APTX4869 needs some inspiration "outside of science." As for Mayoi, needless to say...

When it comes to "excitement," Mayoi is a bit less, after all, her "profession" is seeing ghosts, and she has seen countless ghosts since she was a child!
Ayako:……

After a moment of silence, Ayako asked, "Have you already bought it?"

"I've already paid the deposit, and I'll go take another look this weekend and then finalize it... Do you want to come with me?" Shiraishi asked specifically.

Ayako:……

“Of course!” Ayako said through gritted teeth.

Although it felt a little creepy, Ayako couldn't refuse Shiraishi's invitation to go see a house together before he even started buying it.

The house is cheap, but it's symbolic, isn't it?

However, after hesitating for a while, Ayako added, "How about... we ask Koizumi to come along too?"

Yes, this shows that Ayako doesn't trust Mayoi, the "spirit medium"!
Actually, "spiritual medium" is a more professional and relevant term...

“It’s alright, Mayoi will be there too. If there are any problems, she’ll tell me.” Shiraishi clearly knew why Ayako had brought up Koizumi Akako at this time.

Although Shiraishi told Ayako that Mayoi was a "spirit medium" and also the "head of the Kurin village," she was not like Akako, who directly possessed any obvious superpowers. Therefore, in Ayako's eyes, Mayoi was just a "hereditary member of a family of spirit mediums."

It's not necessarily more useful than a real "witch"!

Hearing that Shiraishi trusted Ayasato Mayoi so much, Ayako didn't say anything more.

"Besides... I don't think anything will happen. Even if something does happen, it's just someone playing tricks. I'm good at that."

Shiraishi had planned this all along.

If it's the work of a ghost, then that's something Mayoi excels at; if it's someone else's doing it, then that's something she excels at!

……

Saturday, April 6.

Shiraishi, along with Ayako, Mayoi, and Ai, came to look at houses in the villa area in the southwest of Beika Forest.

Once you actually see it, you'll understand even better why it's cheap now.

Many of the owners of these villas went bankrupt in the 1990s, which led to the area becoming quite desolate.

Especially Tiancheng's house, because it has been vacant for a long time, the house is a bit "abandoned" and definitely needs to be cleaned up before it can be moved in.

In addition to the Shiraishi family, Ms. Suwa, a real estate agent, also came along.

"This is it. Although it looks a bit abandoned now, the foundation of the house is still there. It won't be difficult to renovate, and it won't require major construction," Suwa explained to Shiraishi.

Ayako, still somewhat uneasy, whispered to Mayoi, "There aren't any... spirits in this house, are there?"

Ayako felt that calling someone a "ghost" directly might be impolite.

Mayoi thought for a moment, looked at Shiraishi's left hand, and then said confidently, "Well... right now, we can't say there's absolutely no chance."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Dongdong: It's the end of the month, please vote for me! Please vote for me!
(End of this chapter)