Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

"Has the trail gone cold?"

Lin Xiu muttered to himself, his gaze falling on the imposing terracotta warriors in the display case, his eyes gradually sharpening.

"No, there's another crucial point: how did they manage to leave the notice next to the Terracotta Army?"

He paced slowly, his fingertips unconsciously tapping his palm as he began to trace the timeline.

These past few days have been the 400th anniversary celebration of Osaka Castle. As the core exhibition area of ​​the celebration, the exhibition hall is packed with people every day, especially in front of the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, where tourists gather in waves, with almost no free time.

"If the notice was left before the museum closed yesterday, it would have been discovered by tourists or staff long ago, and it would not have been discovered until this morning."

Lin Xiuyi stopped in her tracks, her eyes focused in deep thought.

"But if it was left after the museum closed last night, the exhibition hall was completely closed at that time, with only a few security personnel patrolling in shifts."

"Since the other party was able to break in silently and leave a notice, with such skills, they could have easily knocked out the security personnel and taken the Terracotta Warriors away directly. Why bother leaving a fake notice?"

"Moreover, as the Terracotta Warriors are important cultural relics in the exhibition hall, the security personnel patrol this exhibition area far more frequently than other exhibition areas, and they come to check it almost every once in a while."

"If an unfamiliar notice were to appear next to the booth at night, the security personnel would not be unaware of it."

"Could it be... that the other party only sneaked into the exhibition hall this morning?"

Suddenly, a crucial thought flashed through Lin Xiuyi's mind.

The exhibition hall was not open to the public this morning; only the staff inside were allowed to enter in advance.

In this way, the scope is greatly reduced.

The thief was either one of the exhibition hall's staff members or bribed a staff member to leave a notice.

This speculation made Lin Xiuyi's eyes light up. He was about to turn around and find the organizer of the exhibition hall to verify the situation when he suddenly heard a commotion at the entrance of the exhibition hall, followed by a dense noise and footsteps, mixed with the excited discussions and exclamations of the tourists.

It's obvious that the police relented and reopened the exhibition hall to the public.

The once deserted exhibition hall was instantly filled with a flood of tourists, with crowds of people everywhere.

The air was filled with the sounds of tourists talking, footsteps, and camera shutters clicking, instantly turning the venue into a noisy mess.

As agreed, Tomizawa Chikage and Ikenami Shizuka stood guard on both sides of the Terracotta Warriors display, their eyes scanning the surrounding crowd warily, trying to find any suspicious individuals behaving strangely.

However, as more and more tourists arrived, wave after wave of people surged toward the Terracotta Warriors exhibition stand, and the two were soon squeezed to the edge of the stand by the surging crowd.

Forget about carefully observing the crowd, it was even difficult to stand still, and the dense crowd of tourists completely blocked the view, making it impossible to see the situation around the booth.

"Where's Shuichi?"

Chibo Shizuka pushed aside the tourists around her and looked around on tiptoe, but she couldn't see even a trace of Lin Xiuyi. Her tone became somewhat anxious.
Where did he go? How did he suddenly disappear?

Chikage Tomizawa frowned, glaring angrily at the thronging crowd before her, her tone tinged with a determined complaint.
"That guy must have anticipated this and slipped away beforehand! He's probably hiding somewhere investigating right now!"

She knew Lin Xiuyi too well; once he had a direction for investigation, he would act immediately without thinking twice. "Shall we go find him?" Chibo Jinghua suggested hesitantly.

"Forget it."

After pondering for a moment, Tomizawa Chikage slowly shook her head, her gaze returning to the Terracotta Warriors display stand. "If we stay here, at least we can keep an eye on the Terracotta Warriors and make sure nothing happens to them."

"If we leave, and they take the opportunity to attack, that would be terrible."

"That's true."

Ikenami Shizuka nodded helplessly, and her gaze towards Tomizawa Chikage held a hint of admiration.

"I didn't expect you to have such a strong sense of justice."

"sense of justice?"

Upon hearing this, Tomizawa Chikage blinked, paused for a moment before realizing what Ikenami Shizuka meant, and a fleeting hint of embarrassment crossed her face. She quickly burst into laughter to cover it up.

"Yes, I have a strong sense of justice! The Terracotta Army is a precious cultural relic, and we absolutely cannot let it be stolen! Haha..."

……

Lin Xiuyi had already made her way through the noisy crowd and found the office of the exhibition hall organizer.

The office was relatively quiet, with several staff members busy organizing documents and checking the exhibition schedule, all looking quite busy.

Lin Xiuyi walked straight to the desk and unfurled the banner of Ikenami Tsuyoshi in front of the staff in charge of reception.

"Hello, I am Hayashi Hideichi. I have been asked by Chief Ikenami Tsuyoshi of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Osaka Police Headquarters to investigate the notice in front of the Terracotta Warriors exhibition booth."

Lin Xiuyi spoke calmly and with a serious expression.
"I would like to ask you about the details of the staff on the morning shift before the exhibition hall opened this morning, especially the list of personnel responsible for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition area."

Upon hearing this, the staff member immediately looked troubled.
"Sir, there are many staff members at the exhibition hall, most of whom are volunteers recruited during the celebration."

"There are nearly a hundred volunteers in the entire museum. They arrive an hour early every morning to prepare for cleaning, exhibit inspection, and other tasks before the museum opens. There are also more than a dozen staff members responsible for the Terracotta Warriors exhibition area..."

The staff member's words made Lin Xiuyi frown even more.

With hundreds of volunteers and a dozen or so staff members responsible for the Terracotta Warriors area, the scale of the investigation undoubtedly added tremendous difficulty.

The volunteers are highly mobile and come from diverse backgrounds. Trying to investigate them one by one would not only be time-consuming, but also easily alert the real thieves, allowing them to slip away.

"Isn't there any way to narrow down the scope?" Lin Xiuyi pressed. "For example, did any staff or volunteers leave their posts early this morning, or behave abnormally? Has anyone come into contact with the Terracotta Warriors exhibit alone?"

"Well... I'm not sure." The staff member shook his head, his tone apologetic. "Everyone was busy preparing before the museum opened this morning, and the scene was quite chaotic. No one paid special attention to these details."

"Furthermore, volunteers take turns on duty, and everyone's position changes. To confirm the specific situation, we would probably need to check the duty records, but these documents require the police to provide relevant documentation to retrieve them." (End of Chapter)