Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 332, Section 326: Han Chuanlong: Speak up for me! Speak up for me!
Shi Kaobing, or rather, Pu Siqinglan, had a bad feeling after the girls' tea party on the ship.

This ominous premonition made Pu Siqinglan subconsciously quicken her pace, wanting to return to her room.

Someone like her would always feel insecure without a gun.

As one of the few internationally renowned professional assassins, is the reason why Scrooge has not been captured or killed despite her high profile and fame, because of her superior skills and unparalleled talent?

of course not.

To put it bluntly, when an assassin's reputation starts to grow, it means their death is imminent.

Assassins have always operated in secrecy. Throughout history, there have indeed been many famous "assassins," but how many of these assassins became famous only after their missions failed?

Pu Siqinglan's skill level is more than second-rate but not quite first-rate. Technically, she has no problem, but the problem is that she seems particularly obsessed with using PPK/S.

This applies to all tasks.

For tasks that require close-range engagement of targets, using PPK/S is perfectly fine.

However, some missions are clearly more advantageous when using long-range sniping—and that's where a police-issued criminal pistol like the PPK/S falls short.

Despite not reaching top-tier level, she has such a great reputation. Why has Pu Siqinglan been able to remain active in the industry until now?

It is obvious that, in addition to her two part-time jobs as an international professional assassin and an art thief, she also has a primary profession.

This profession refers to the cadre codenamed "Shi Kao Bing" in the "Zoo".

Just like Gin's great reputation in the underworld, isn't there anyone who wants to mess with Gin?
Of course there are, but once people know that Gin has his own criminal organization, they will give up targeting Gin.

Dealing with a lone assassin is not difficult, but dealing with a top-tier assassin who has a designated affiliation is much riskier.

The same goes for Schoping, the silver medalist.

Because Snake lost a number of his men as soon as he arrived in the island nation, Scrooge came to the island nation as support for the "zoo".

Having just arrived in the island nation, before Scroobing even had time to familiarize herself with the local business, she saw news about "The Egg of Memories" in a magazine.

It's worth mentioning that Pu Siqinglan has always claimed to be a descendant of Rasputin in the "zoo," but frankly, not many people believe him.

In other words, it makes no difference to these criminals abroad who S. Kao Bing is descended from.

Even if Pu Siqinglan is indeed a descendant of Rasputin, does that mean she has an extra life compared to others?
Moreover, Pu Siqinglan, a descendant, doesn't even know whether her ancestor's right eye was blinded or not.

Most of the zoo staff members were not in good spirits.

In a criminal organization, isn't it perfectly normal for a few members to be mentally unstable?

Although others didn't take the matter between Pu Siqinglan and Rasputin seriously, Pu Siqinglan herself was clearly very involved.

She carries photos of her "ancestors" with her at all times and insists on using the PPK/S as her weapon.

Rumor has it that Rasputin was killed by a PPK gun.

Not only that, she also insisted on collecting artifacts from the Romanov dynasty. In her view, these Romanov artifacts should all be entrusted to Rasputin, who had a good relationship with the royal family, for safekeeping.

Now that Rasputin is dead, these artifacts should be handed over to her, Rasputin's descendant. Did Pusiqinglan become a descendant of Rasputin because of the Romanov dynasty's artifacts, or did she collect Romanov dynasty artifacts because she believed herself to be a descendant of Rasputin?

This matter is now unknown, and even if you asked her directly, she might not be able to answer it.

But the instinct to collect artifacts still drove Urashi Seiran to Osaka.

She originally intended to retrieve the Egg of Memories in Tokyo. However, due to a letter from Kaito Kid, the security level at the Suzuki Museum in Tokyo was immediately raised to the maximum.

Let alone her being just a silver medalist in the assassin world, even if it were a gold medalist like Gin, would you dare to storm the Metropolitan Police Department all by himself with a small handgun?
An assassin is an assassin, and John Rambo is John Rambo. Even Rambo wouldn't so blatantly court death.

The operation in Tokyo came to nothing, and Snake, hampered by previous losses, refused to go to Osaka to support Urashi Seiran.

Left with no other choice, Scroobing had to adopt the alias Pu Siqinglan, fabricate the identity of a Romanov dynasty researcher, and recommend himself to the Suzuki family's art museum.

Finding professionals to endorse a particular artifact is a basic practice in the collecting world. In short, Urashi Seiran successfully infiltrated the museum in Osaka.

But she had only been at the art museum for a short time when the annoying Tokyo detectives showed up at the art museum in Osaka.

Although Inspector Nakamori has very few resources available in Osaka, he brought most of his own manpower from Tokyo.

However, just to be on the safe side, Pu Siqinglan didn't choose to make her move at the art museum. Instead, she decided to ambush Kaito Kid, the guy who ruined her plans, on the way.

The ambush, unsurprisingly, went wrong. After all, the PPK/S wasn't designed with the expectation that someone would use it as a sniper rifle.

The bullet she fired should have hit Kaito Kid, but it doesn't seem to have caused any effective damage.

Fortunately, the white "fluttering moth" flying in the sky was finally shot down. Just as Pu Siqinglan was about to pick up her spoils, the "omnipresent" cops appeared again, scaring her away.

Pu Siqinglan's operation has failed once again.

As the saying goes, "once and twice, but not a third or fourth time," and Pu Siqinglan, having failed twice in a row, still showed no sign of giving up.

She acted as if nothing had happened and followed Shiro Suzuki onto the Suzuki family's cruise ship.

On the cruise ship, Pu Siqinglan was assigned her own room. The first thing she did after tidying up the room was to put out photos of her "ancestors".

Despite the misspelling of "Rasputin" on the back of the photo, how much culture can you expect from a mentally disturbed killer?

Just as Pu Siqinglan was pondering her next move in her room, photographer Han Chuanlong, who had also volunteered to participate in the "Egg of Memories" exhibition tour, knocked on her door.

As soon as she opened the door, she found a handheld camera pointed at her. Han Chuanlong gave her a flippant greeting and then walked away.

Pu Siqinglan didn't react at first, but after closing the door, she realized that Han Chuanlong had very likely taken a picture of her "ancestor"!

This was an unforgivable mistake, but she never expected anyone to be so bored. In short, Han Chuanlong was already a dead man in Pu Siqinglan's eyes.

Only the dead are the best at keeping secrets.

Disturbed, Pu Siqinglan hurried back to her room. As soon as she opened the door, she saw her ancestor gazing at her from a photograph on the cabinet.

'How could this be? Han Chuanlong, you deserve to die!'

(End of this chapter)