Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 355, Page 349: The "Kind" Gardener of the Blue Castle
Whether it's troublesome or not, Ryoma Lin is still unclear. Besides telling Akita Kuranosuke that the order to monitor and track Ryoma Lin was not given by Rum, and that the Intelligence Support Department has not responded to the Isshin-kai's current conflict, Curaçao did not say anything more.

Don't ask, the answer is we're investigating.

Curaçao was very efficient when replying to Rum, but what about the Isshin-kai?
So what if she's a little less efficient at managing two large outposts in Curaçao?
The two intelligence agents who had fallen into Lin Longma's hands were also taken back by Curaçao's men. Lin Longma did not stop them.

These two things are useless to them; they don't have enough authority or rank, so they're just low-level minions.

With no intelligence, no profit, and probably a huge appetite—the Yixin Society certainly didn't prepare any rations for them.

After the minor incident, Isshin continued his journey towards the Mamiya family's residence. After enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery along the way, a blue castle suddenly came into their view.

"A blue castle, huh? The Gong family is really quite powerful," Lin Longma remarked.

As expected, the middle class in Mika lived in the city, while the poor could only live in the suburbs. Meanwhile, the rich in Mika rushed to venture into the deep mountains and forests.

The Suzuki family is like this, and so is the Mamiya family.

As the saying goes, "looking at a mountain makes a horse run itself to death," although Lin Longma and his party could already see the "point" of the castle, it still took the convoy nearly two hours to actually reach the gate of the Mamiya family.

Two hours later, a convoy of cars from Tokyo Beika slowly pulled up in front of the Mamiya family's gate. The group got out of the cars, and before anyone could ring the Mamiya family's doorbell, the gardener who was tending to the garden in the courtyard came over.

"May I ask what brings you all to the Mamiya family?" The gardener looked fierce, but he couldn't withstand the large number of Lin Longma's group.

There were four people in a Land Cruiser, plus three others in a Land Rover: Lin Longma, Baishi, and the deputy director of the chairman's office, making a total of eleven people.

Although they didn't exactly look menacing, their faces practically screamed "don't mess with me."

If this gardener had any brain problems, he wouldn't have used such foul language—did he really think that this iron gate could stop anyone?
This thing is always designed to keep out honest people, not scoundrels.

Lin Longma did not send the deputy director of the president's office to negotiate, but instead came to the iron gate himself and spoke to the gardener in a friendly manner:
"That's right, we are all employees of Tokyo Isshin Consulting Co., Ltd., and we came here to investigate some past events."

Could you please inform them, Mr. Gardener?

"Oh, okay! Please wait a moment, I'll go find the master right away." A junior employee from Tokyo?

The gardener didn't believe such nonsense.

He had been a gardener for the Mamiya family for decades, and in the past, the Mamiya family had always been associated with "important people".

At least to him, the gardener, these were all important figures.

Even these important figures don't have this kind of entourage when they travel, which shows that the investigation company and government officials may be real, but the so-called employees are definitely nonsense!
Important people should be entertained by important people. Regardless of whether the master wanted to see these outsiders or not, he still conveyed the message.

The gardener had only been in the castle for about ten minutes when a somewhat kind-looking "gentleman" with a mole between his eyebrows followed him to the gate.

"Are you guests from Tokyo?" Mamiya Mitsuru almost couldn't hold back when he first saw Ryoma Hayashi and his group.

How outrageous, folks! Who brings a whole bunch of followers when they visit someone's home?
Mamiya Mitsuru immediately recognized that Ryoma Hayashi was the leader of the group, and he was immediately troubled by Ryoma Hayashi's arrival.

Oh no, this guy's got some bad intentions!

"Mr. Mamiya, please rest assured, we mean no harm," Ryoma Hayashi said with a smile, noticing Mamiya's apprehension.

If these people really had malicious intentions towards the Mamiya family, this small iron gate and the seemingly "frail" gardener wouldn't be able to stop them, would they? Lin Longma took the business card from the deputy director of the office behind him and handed it to Mamiya Man through the iron gate.

"Tokyo Isshin Consulting & Research Company? Chairman Ryoma Hayashi?" Mamiya Mitsuru held the business card, feeling its high-end texture.

Furthermore, the job title on the business card is prominently displayed as "President".

How old is Lin Longma? He looks to be around thirty, at most forty.

Is this the president?

"Excuse me, Chairman Lin, I'll have someone open the door right away." After accepting the business card, Mamiya Mitsuru immediately had someone open the iron gate.

Lin Longma did not return to the car; the driver of the car outside naturally drove it in.

After the iron gate opened, Mamiya Mitsuru led Hayashi Ryoma through the courtyard, admiring the garden while probing Hayashi Ryoma's intentions.

"Well, the reason I'm here today is because of the fire that happened at your house four years ago."

Seeing Mamiya's uneasy expression, Ryoma Hayashi simply told him the truth. After all, there were still many things that needed Mamiya's cooperation later on.

"The fire four years ago?" Mamiya Mitsuru really didn't expect that Ryoma Hayashi would come for something from four years ago.

The fire that occurred in the castle tower was indeed devastating, killing nearly 15 people, including members of the Mamiya family and visiting guests.

The problem is that the rest of the Gong family called the police immediately after the fire broke out, and criminal police officers came to the scene to investigate later, but nothing suspicious was found.

It's strange that Lin Longma would come to the Mamiya family home because of the fire four years ago.

"That's right. Among the guests who visited back then, there should have been a scientist. The company that scientist worked for was an important partner of our company."

They took the scientist's death very seriously, so they specifically asked us to help investigate—the scientist had important documents with him when he attended the banquet.

If Ryoma Hayashi had only said the first half of the sentence, Mamiya Mitsuru would never have believed it.

If the company really valued that scientist, why did it take four years to investigate the matter?

In fact, Mamiya Mitsuru was more curious about what kind of information would warrant Chairman Hayashi Ryoma personally coming to investigate.

Judging from Lin Longma's entourage, his company is clearly not a shell company or a small business.

This is a large, well-structured company.

Otherwise, what small company would keep so many security guards?
Although Mitsuru Mamiya lived in the mountains year-round, he was no ignorant country bumpkin; he could still see the obvious signs.

“I think you might have some misunderstandings.” Lin Longma once again understood Mamiya Mitsuru’s gaze, and then recounted his experience of trying to investigate the members of the organization that was researching cadres.

Mamiya Mitsuru was also astonished by what he heard.

How could someone have such an unlucky constitution? Truly, the world is full of wonders!

(End of this chapter)