Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 284 The Client is a Child Star
"Kogoro?!"

After the recording of the show ended, the man with the mustache was so full that he couldn't even stand up, feeling like all the noodles were stuck in his throat.

Just as I was about to ask someone to help me up, a clear, surprised shout suddenly came from the crowd outside.

Beauty!

The man with the mustache turned his head reflexively and saw a fashionable woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat with long, straight black hair. She seemed to have just returned from the beach, and under her loose coat, she was only wearing a swimsuit, revealing a glimpse of her snow-white cleavage.

"Kogoro" was just a nickname he used for an acquaintance, but he had no recollection of ever knowing this beautiful woman.

"you are?"

"Oh dear, don't you remember me already?" the woman said with a smile. "It's me. Don't you recognize me when you see the mole below my lip?"

"Wow, isn't that Yu Cheng Liuli?" A passerby was the first to recognize the woman. "A popular actress known for her healing style!"

"It really is her!"

"Ruri? You're Doigaki Ruri?"

The man with the mustache belatedly realized what was happening, staring blankly at the beautiful woman in front of him, his mind conjuring up an image of a tacky middle school student wearing thick glasses.

She was the bespectacled girl who was my classmate all the way through middle school.

"How did you..."

"You've become prettier, haven't you?"

The woman walked into the restaurant with a smile.

"Isn't there a saying that a girl changes a lot as she grows up? To be honest, I've become who I am today because of you."

"what?"

The man with the mustache let out a burp, then his face turned bright red. He looked far from elegant; he was practically a blob.

For the 500 million yuan prize money for the show...

Ok?
Suddenly, the man with the mustache spotted Gao Mo walking out of the private room. His sharp eyes fixed on the 1000 million yuan check in Gao Mo's hand.

"Kido boy, you..."

"It's Kido?" Ruri Amashiro exclaimed in surprise. "You're working with Kogoro now? Terumi said the other day that you were a detective, so it's true?"

"He runs a detective agency, just like me." With his eyes only on the 1000 million dollar check, the man with the mustache suddenly wasn't so happy about winning the eating contest.

He almost ate himself to death, and his bonus was only half of Gao Mo's.

"But with such great potential, why did you leave the entertainment industry?" Yu Cheng Liuli didn't quite understand. "The idols nowadays are far inferior to you. They just act like divas and are so immature."

The woman spoke of her idol with a hint of annoyance and helplessness, as if she had suffered a lot of injustice.

"I still prefer it this way, free and unrestrained." Gao Mo frowned as he looked at the lively crowd outside, but did not go out.

Although the influence of external malice on him has greatly decreased, and he no longer needs to be as wary as before, he still doesn't like his daily life to be exposed to malice.

My true self is my life; my online persona is my job.

Life should be more relaxed and carefree.

"Freedom?" Yu Cheng Liuli asked enviously. "Yeah, working for someone else is nothing compared to being your own boss. As an older actress, I'm finding myself increasingly powerless these days."

indeed.

Gao Mo knew a little about this woman.

She has always been a leading actress in the healing genre, but now that she is almost 40 years old, she still hasn't changed her image and her acting roles are getting narrower and narrower. I'm afraid she's not having an easy time.

"But speaking of which," the mustachioed man said, watching Gao Mo put away the checks with longing eyes, "Liuli, what are you doing here too?"

"Because I'm going to Okinawa to film a TV series, I'm taking the opportunity to travel around the area," Ruri Amashiro explained with a smile.

lie.

Gao Mo could tell that the woman was not being sincere.

Perhaps they heard that the mustachioed man was here and came all the way here?
Surprisingly, this clueless guy with the mustache is quite popular with women.

"Kido-kun," Hattori Heiji said weakly, "I want to go back. Are there any troublesome cases at the agency?"

"go back?"

Kazuha, who had originally wanted to get Ruri Amashiro's autograph, changed her expression.

"Why? Didn't we have a planned itinerary? We're going to Okinawa tomorrow and the day after."

"Idiot, I'm not in the mood to play right now," Hattori Heiji said sullenly.

This trip to Okinawa was absolutely terrible.

The place where the princess sleeps is A, not B... What does that mean?
"Huh?" Kazuha pounced on Hattori. "You're the idiot! You've been acting like a fool ever since you came back from Onikiri Island!"

"What do you know? Isn't it because you all insisted on coming along?"

The young couple started arguing again.

Gao Mo pursed his lips helplessly.

He didn't intend to steal the Osaka Black Chicken case; he just felt that it would be too cruel for this man, who was determined to seek revenge, to let Daito Butler kill the former Miss Koto with his own hands.

Moreover, detective work should be a form of redemption, rather than simply satisfying one's own desire to solve cases.

After patting Heiji Hattori on the shoulder, Gao Mo prepared to return to the hotel from behind the restaurant.

He's currently experiencing a burst of inspiration, so he should take advantage of the momentum and go back to conceive new short stories.

There are no special tasks for leveling up as a novelist; it's simply a matter of continuously increasing the popularity of your pen name. Becoming a top novelist nationwide should allow you to reach level 5.

It was a huge challenge for him, seemingly much more difficult than the previous professions.

With good luck, one might become famous overnight; with bad luck, one might be stuck there for life.

“Kogoro,” Ruri Amashiro pulled back the mustachioed man who was also trying to leave, “I have something to ask you. There’s a child who wants to find his mother, and I think you could help.”

"what?"

The man with the mustache looked completely bewildered.

What the heck is this about looking for your mother?

"I'm sorry, Ruri, this kind of request..."

“That child is my son in the play, and he’s a very popular child star now,” Yu Cheng Liuli said privately, stroking her mustache. “I heard that he was adopted by a church when he was one year old, but he never forgot his mother. He’s a pitiful child.”

"Well..."

The man with the mustache hesitated slightly.

A popular child star must be very rich, right?
“If you’re having trouble, Kogoro, I’ll find another detective,” Ruri Amashiro said, shaking her head. “But this matter must not be known to outsiders.”

"How could it be difficult?" the mustachioed man assured him, patting his chest. "Don't worry, with me, Kogoro Mouri, on the job, what can't I find? It's a piece of cake!"

"really?"

Yu Cheng Liuli's eyes seemed to be shining. On the other side, Xiao Lan, who was still secretly laughing at the little mustache's embarrassment, was suddenly startled and quickly squeezed into the middle: "Dad, shouldn't we go back? Mom said she bought you a present."

"Hmph, what good stuff could she possibly buy?"

Gao Mo turned his head to look at Xiao Lan, who was frantically trying to sabotage Xiao Hu Zi, and his gaze lingered on Yu Cheng Liu Li.

Popular child stars from the same drama series...

Recently, a child in the entertainment industry has become quite famous. It is said that his mother extorted 2000 million yen from his agency behind his back, and even the newspaper he wrote the article for has heard about it.

The news industry is also very envious of this inside story, and the newspaper has even set up a reward of up to 500 million yuan.

Even in this world, newspapers still prefer celebrity gossip.

Gao Mo became interested, but there was no rush. The most important thing now was to finish writing the novel.

We can find out more about the child star situation from the mustachioed man later.

the next day.

Gao Mo stayed up all night to finish the first draft, planning to polish it before sending it to the university library.

The novel is short, only based on the experiences of the town mayor's family to tell a case, but the effect is quite good, still at the level of a serialized novel.

Once I've accumulated more stories, perhaps I can publish a collection of short stories and, incidentally, fully establish the reputation of the Kindaichi detective series.

"Is this your plan?"

Xiao Ai yawned and got out of bed. Because Gao Mo had stayed up all night, she hadn't slept well either.

The main thing is that I feel like I made a wasted trip. I came all the way to Ryukyu, but I didn't see a single ghost.

“You’ve changed, Kido.”

"Don't talk nonsense, how have I changed?" Gao Mo wiped his sweat with a dark expression.

That's a statement that's too easy to misunderstand.

"Please keep the manuscript safe for me, and I'll send it to the editorial department later..."

Before Xiao Ai could respond, Gao Mo, supporting his aching back, got up and went out, yawning wearily.

"I'll take a shower and go to sleep. We'll talk about it later."

The hotel was deserted, with hardly anyone around. Even the mustachioed family next door was nowhere to be seen. Hattori Heiji and Kazuha had returned to Tokyo yesterday, saying they were there to deal with an arson case.

"Where has everyone gone?"

"It seems Uncle went to see that Yu Cheng Liuli, and Xiaolan went with him because she was worried."

Conan yawned and opened the wooden door, exchanging bewildered glances with Gao Mo, who was sporting dark circles under his eyes.

"You didn't sleep either? I thought about it all night and finally figured it out. That code refers to the location of the treasure, right? I heard from the staff that a valuable gold screen was stolen from the mayor's house four years ago. It seems to be in the wooden box that uncle brought back from the woods."

Conan's words carried a hint of frustration.

"I should have realized it when I heard him mention Urashima Taro. That old man already knew the meaning of the code and wanted to take revenge on the gangsters."

"That's really rare. You must have guessed it from the start, and even stopped him from killing someone... Speaking of which, you always seem particularly enthusiastic when it comes to beautiful women, and this time you saved that female crew member."

"It's just a coincidence."

Gao Mo ruffled Conan's hair, ignoring the guy's reasoning.

These high school detectives seem to have obsessive-compulsive disorder; even though the case is closed, they still insist on figuring out the whole story.

"Is this the place?" A casual child's voice suddenly rang out from behind.

A little boy dressed like an adult, wearing sunglasses, appeared at the hotel stairwell. He looked a bit younger than Conan, but he insisted on acting like an adult, with his hands in his pockets and a small bag slung over his shoulder.

Her temperament is the complete opposite of Conan's, who tries so hard to dress up as a child.

"You're the detectives that woman introduced?"

The child took off his sunglasses and casually pulled a stack of postcards from his bag.

"Please help me find the woman named Wenzi who mailed these postcards to me."

"Who is this guy?" Conan looked at the arrogant child opposite him with dissatisfaction.

"It seems to be the child star that Yu Cheng Liu Li mentioned, Kinukawa Kazuki."

Gao has a child.

"Sorry, Detective Mori has already gone out. If you want to hire him, you can go to the beach, or come back to see him tonight."

"And who are you?"

The child was clearly taken aback.

Most people are happy to recognize him and will even try to curry favor with him by asking for his autograph.

Even a complete stranger wouldn't be unmoved; at the very least, they would be surprised for a moment. Yet these people showed absolutely no reaction.

"I overheard you guys making a deduction just now...you must be detectives too, right?"

At that moment, Ai, still wearing her pajamas, lazily walked out of the room. The confused child suddenly started to stutter, her face flushed and her heart suddenly racing.

"Can I entrust this to you? Don't worry, I have plenty of money."

This little devil.

Gao Mo's eyelids drooped, and despite being extremely sleepy, he still took the stack of postcards from the child's hand.

Just send them away quickly.

Every postcard was crumpled and stained, like a book that had been frequently turned over.

It's clear that the child really likes these postcards.

"No, don't misunderstand," the child understood Gao Mo's look, "I just thought it was an eyesore, so I just threw it aside, that's why it's so dirty."

"No need to explain, these should all have been sent to you by your mother, right? The messages of blessing are a bit different from those of ordinary fans."

Gao Mo continued examining the postcards.

"There are only signatures but no specific addresses, and the stamps come from all over the country, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, as if it's traveling all over the country..."

However, the postcards themselves seem to be from the same tourist destination, and there are many duplicates. It's obvious that the set of postcards was specially selected to intentionally hide the tourist destination information... It's likely that your mother didn't want her address to be known, so she asked someone else to mail them for her.

"Huh?" The seemingly nonchalant child suddenly froze.

"Your mother doesn't want you to know who she is or where she lives, but you've guessed her identity and now you want to find her..."

You've got it wrong!

The child frantically snatched back the postcard, shouting defiantly.

"I just want to tell that bastard woman in person, don't pretend to be a mother just because I'm famous! Forget it, I don't need you anymore, I'll find another detective..."

"Your mother should be working at a hotel or inn in Atami."

Gao Mo didn't pay much attention to the child's reaction.

"The postcards from so many places must have been sent by the guests. Although the postcards were selected, the tourist spots are still recognizable as photos of the Atami coast."

"How did you figure that out?" the child asked in surprise, then quickly turned his head away.

“I saw a similar set of postcards in Izu, featuring sculptures of tropical coastlines. Your mother picked out one of the less noticeable ones.”

Gao Mo's eyelids started to droop, and he yawned again as he headed towards the bathhouse.

"Let Detective Mori go to Atami and ask him for you."

She abandoned her one-year-old son outside the church, pretended to be a fan and sent him postcards, all while trying to hide her identity and address...

They look like typical sex workers in Japan.

There are many single mothers like this in tourist destinations. Most of them are not doing well. They hide their identities to escape their past but still have psychological support.

But what's the story behind demanding 2000 million yen from the child's agency?

Judging from the contents of the postcard, the other party probably wouldn't do such a thing.

The child seems unaware that the sudden call for a detective might be because he hasn't been receiving postcards since the extortion incident.

What happened to that mother?

“You’re the one,” the boy said, putting his sunglasses back on. Without waiting for Gao Mo’s reply, he seemed eager to get started. “I’m free tomorrow and the day after. Help me find that woman as soon as possible. I don’t have much time to waste on this kind of thing…”

Don't worry, I've saved up a lot of money; I can give it all to you.

(End of this chapter)