Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 553 The Scheme at Twilight Villa

a few days later.

Nagano Prefecture.

After passing through the bustling city and suburbs, you will find yourself in a lush primeval forest.

The remoteness of the area resulted in muddy and complicated roads, and even Xia Chuan might not be able to find his way without a guide.

Soon, a magnificent building appeared in a corner of the forest. A villa stood alone, and the deathly silence that greeted the eye made one wonder if anyone actually lived there.

"Is the plan you mentioned related to this place?"

Joel got out of the car and walked up to look up at the villa building in front of him.

This is a building with a distinctly Western style, with tall columns, exquisite and lifelike carvings, and a magnificent overall shape that exudes a noble and elegant temperament.

The ancient and heavy bluestone steps are covered in dust and extend to the gate after passing a platform.

The main gate is also quiet and luxurious, complementing the surrounding brick carvings and elevating the overall grandeur to a higher level.

At the towering summit, a clock tower stands silently, its mottled walls conveying a profound sense of history.

"Yes, sir and madam, although this villa is in a remote and secluded location, quite a few wealthy people are interested in it."

After all, this was once the Twilight Villa of Karasuma Renya, one of Japan's wealthiest men.

The speaker was an office worker wearing a suit, glasses, and carrying a briefcase.

He explained the history of the place in detail, especially mentioning the former owners, to give the villa a cultural boost.

"Uncle is talking nonsense. I have clearly heard that there were a lot of disappearances here decades ago, and there are traces of blood everywhere."

Anya spoke quietly, having tried to listen to the real estate agent's true feelings while he was making his introduction.

Forty years ago, something terrible happened at this villa. Hundreds of powerful figures from all walks of life and professions came here, but none of them left; they all died here.

It's the kind of place where you can only see bloodstains but can't find the body.

This is what Anya heard from the real estate agents.

Although it was a little scary, Anya wasn't afraid. As long as her father was there, what was there to fear?

Father said that whether or not they can get this villa cheaply this time depends entirely on her!
Perhaps Xia Chuan was just joking, but Anya readily agreed. She had nothing to lose when it came to a mere intermediary.

Ai Haibara poked half her head out of the car, her expression somewhat serious.

The overcast sky and the oppressive atmosphere made her feel uneasy in this vintage twilight villa.

Aunt Joel told her that this was part of the plan that could target the winery.

Before coming, she had specifically researched that Karasuma Renya was indeed a wealthy man who was obsessed with immortality, and that his family crest happened to be the most prominent crow pattern in the brewery.

If Karasuma Renya also took some kind of longevity drug, was he also a member of the brewery, or was he the boss of the brewery?
"Haibara, come down and take a look! This place is really big!"

Anya opened her arms wide, and even in the twilight villa shrouded in dark clouds, she still revealed a childlike, innocent smile.

Ai Haibara silently pushed open the car door and got out.

However, she had no intention of going near the villa.

Maintain a certain distance.

"The word 'dusk' can mean the sun setting in the west, and it's not a good word."

"Haibara, don't be such a spoilsport."

Anya went directly behind Ai Haibara and shoved her to catch up with Natsukawa and the other two.

"The Twilight Villa adopts classical Western aesthetics and makes certain modifications to the castle. After entering, there is a hall, and on the left and right are corridors leading to the loop. There are two floors in total. Only above the hall is there a separate staircase leading to the clock tower, which leads to the fourth floor where the clock tower is located."

In addition, after passing through the hall, you will reach the atrium, which features abundant greenery and a magnificent fountain stone base in the center. Further back, you will reach the opposite side of the corridor, which is the location of the back door.

There's also a sizable courtyard at the back gate, about the same size as the front parking lot. The entire Twilight Villa complex probably covers about three acres.

He led the Xia Chuan family around, explaining things as he went.

Even disregarding geographical location, the architectural layout and livability of Twilight Villa are indeed very high.

However, it's not without its drawbacks.

The interior of the villa was permeated with a musty smell, and traces of age could be seen from time to time.

"This looks like blood."

Joel touched the doorknob, then turned to look at Xia Chuan, wondering what he was trying to tell her.

"I'll tell you later."

Xia Chuan said in a low voice, then walked up to the real estate agent: "I'm very satisfied with this Twilight Villa. How much?"

“Uh,” the agent scratched his head awkwardly, “To be honest, the seller only asked me to bring people over to take a look. They haven’t discussed a suitable price with me yet, and it seems they still have some business to attend to these days, so I need to go back and discuss the specifics with the seller.”

"Really?" Xia Chuan had done his research before coming.

Two years ago, this annex was acquired by Daikami Shuzen for 2.7 billion yen.

He didn't buy it outright; he had taken out a lot of loans to buy the villa, and recently he's been struggling to make ends meet.

As a result, Xia Chuan discovered that the other party had already begun collecting information on Phantom Thief Kid. It was likely that what the intermediary had said earlier, "This place is still useful these days," meant that the other party was planning to hold a detective showdown for a final struggle.

If he wants to take over this place, he definitely can't do it after that; he must do it within the next two days. Otherwise, once Da Shang Zhu Shan dies and the Twilight Villa reveals its true form, the ownership will be hard to say.

“Here’s what you do: call the seller and tell them I want this villa. I’ve already looked into the price of this villa before. The previous owner bought it for 2.7 billion. I’ll put up 3 billion. If all goes well, the handover can be completed within the next two days.”

Upon hearing the amount, Joel and Ai Haibara were stunned. They both knew that Natsukawa was not short of money, but was it too impulsive to take out 3 billion yen in one go? Even if this place could attract the attention of the winery, they could just rent it at most. Why waste money like this?

Only Anya was extremely excited, touching and looking at everything, wishing she could take out a hammer and knock on the wall to see if it was really inlaid with gold.

Xia Chuan remained completely unmoved by the amount.

After the secret of the Twilight Villa is revealed, the price of gold alone is at least several hundred billion yen. Exchanging it for 3 billion yen is an incredibly profitable deal.

Moreover, this doesn't even take into account its historical and tourism value.

Most importantly, once this villa is truly unveiled, it will definitely attract the boss's covetousness.

A sum of hundreds of billions—even Karasuma Renya would tremble at that amount.

With this money, the distillery could be expanded several times over.

Besides having the idea of ​​taking over this place, another purpose was to attract the attention of the distillery, so that the boss might also take action.

Moreover, with the codenamed members being killed one after another by him and Joel sabotaging the plan, Gin's anger had reached its peak.

Rather than waiting for the distillery to take action against Joel, it's better to strike first; a prepared attack is always more effective.

“Uh, Mr. Xia Chuan, although I would like to do that, this is a remote mountain forest with no mobile signal towers nearby. If I want to contact the seller, I may have to go out of the mountains.”

"No need to bother."

Xia Chuan took out his phone and handed it over: "This is a satellite phone. Even in the most remote places, you can still receive satellite signals."

"it is good"

"Wait a minute," Xia Chuan suddenly said, as if remembering something. "Let's make the call outside."

I almost forgot, gold is expensive, but it is also a metal and has a certain shielding effect on electromagnetic signals. Moreover, this entire villa is covered in gold.

“Aunt Joel, this place might really be related to the winery. I can feel the dark gloom that's lurking everywhere.”

Xia Chuan and Anya accompanied the agent out to make a phone call, and it was then that Joel noticed that Ai Haibara's face was unusually pale.

"You look terrible. Why don't you wait for us in the car?"

Ai Haibara shook her head: "How did Uncle Natsukawa discover this place? The brewery and Twilight Villa might really be connected. I saw it in the kitchen just now; all the tableware had a crow pattern printed on it, similar to the one the organization uses."

Karasuma Renya's characteristics do indeed match the boss's personality quite well. Although his age is a big issue, it's hard to say what might happen if he also took a shrinking drug.

"So your parents actually succeeded in developing that kind of immortality drug!?"

Ai Haibara gave a wry smile and said self-deprecatingly, "Probably not. If they had figured it out, I wouldn't be like this now."

"Although I haven't communicated with my parents, judging from the information, they probably didn't succeed in developing it. Actually, I had noticed a problem before, but I was hesitant to confirm it. After seeing this, I finally confirmed some things."

"what?"

Joel looked around the brightly lit yet still gloomy hall, where bloodstains were everywhere—on the railings, walls, doorknobs, and floors.

Even though many bloodstains have been washed away by the erosion of time and the maintenance by her owner, she can still smell a faint rusty smell in the air.

If you spray it with numinol, you will definitely see a lot of fluorescent reaction.

"Have you been here before?"

Ai Haibara shook her head, walked to the windowsill to breathe in the fresh air outside, and only answered when her expression softened slightly: "In the documents my parents left me, there is actually a part that feels very abrupt."

Even though they clearly didn't know what effect this material would have, and it wasn't recorded in the drug records, they still didn't delete it. The most representative example is actually the dugong marrow from Mermaid Island.

"Dugongs do have stronger cell activity and reproductive iteration capabilities than humans, but I have done experiments where even after eating a whole dugong, cell testing of the subjects still did not improve cell activity and iteration capabilities."

Nevertheless, this material has always been used as one of the main materials, and no matter what adjustments were made to the drug research, Dugong marrow, as one of the main materials, has never been replaced.

While I may seem very skilled, I only made adjustments to some auxiliary ingredients and overall quantities.

"What are you trying to say?" Joel didn't quite understand what Ai Haibara was trying to say.

Haibara sighed and said, "I suspect that the elixir of immortality must have been successfully created before my parents."

(Ask for monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)