Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 767 Gin's Scheme

Xia Chuan quickened his pace, his face growing paler with each step.

"Hey, Natsukawa, what are you doing? Slow down!"

"Uncle, the place where the fire happened should be Xia Chuan's house."

After leaving those words, Conan dashed off like an arrow.

Meanwhile, on the third floor of the Xia Chuan family home.

The raging fire was rampant, the orange-red flames rolling and leaping, spreading rapidly and engulfing everything.

The window glass shattered under the high temperature, making a crackling sound, and the sound of burning and exploding objects could be heard from inside the house from time to time, which was terrifying.

Thick smoke billowed out, and many nearby residents were awakened by the scene. Some came to their doors, while others opened their windows, their eyes filled with curiosity, fear, and a hint of relief.

With so many arson cases lately, residents of Beikacho 5-chome are starting to feel uneasy. When they discover a house on fire, their first reaction is not to call the police, but to pat their chests and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Xiaolan, what happened?"

Xia Chuan noticed that Xiao Lan was standing at the intersection, nervously watching the flames leaping around. Beside her, Haibara Ai's face was orange-red in the firelight, and a nameless fear was hidden deep in her eyes.

The worrying thing is that Joel is not here.

"Brother Xia Chuan, you're back!" Xiao Lan exclaimed in surprise, then pointed anxiously at Xia Chuan's burning house: "I don't know why, it suddenly caught fire. Sister Yue'er went up to put out the fire, and the fire truck probably won't be here for another five minutes."

After understanding the situation, Xia Chuan simply handed Anya to Xiao Lan, who was standing at the door, and rushed inside.

The room was filled with thick smoke, and the sinking carbon dioxide had almost filled the entire first floor. If the door hadn't been open for ventilation, people would probably have suffered carbon dioxide poisoning within seconds.

Upon reaching the second-floor stairwell, they saw Joel carrying a bucket of water and putting out a fire.

"Alright, let's go first. There's nothing important at home, and the fire won't spread to the second floor in a short time. We'll just wait for the fire department to arrive."

Xia Chuan gripped Joel's wrist tightly, and could clearly feel a temperature higher than normal body temperature on his wrist, with his skin slightly red.

"But that study."

"It's alright. There's nothing important in the study. Frank has backups of everything else that's important."

"All right!"

Upon hearing Xia Chuan's words, Joel nodded slightly.

Holding Joel's somewhat dirty hand, Xia Chuan felt a sweet sensation in her heart.

Joel must have been worried that there were important documents in his study, which is why he risked his life to put out the fire.

Five minutes later, the fire department arrived as scheduled.

The fire ladder was raised directly to the third floor, and thanks to Joel's efforts, the fire, which had not yet spread, was quickly extinguished by the combined effect of water and foam.

Half an hour later, firefighters brought an object that was burned and deformed to Xia Chuan and Yoel.

Even with some distortion, Xia Chuan could still vaguely make out the outline of a horse, only this horse was a little different in size from the previous ones, being slightly larger than the one he had seen at the Morozumi family's house.

"We found this on the third floor. It looks like it belongs to the previous serial arsonist."

As the firefighters collected the charred red horse, Xia Chuan's fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

The serial arsonist has been arrested, so there is no possibility of a fifth arson attack. Moreover, it would have happened while Joel was at home, making it impossible for an ordinary person to sneak into the third-floor study without being detected by Joel.

Xia Chuan looked at Yoel.

The two had already reached an understanding; Joel shook his head slightly, indicating that she had not sensed anything.

Xia Chuan looked up at the dark sky, as if he had guessed something.

It's clearly impossible for them to evade Joel's senses and break in from the outside; perhaps they'll just parachute in and set the fire.

And it seems that only certain organizations could do something like excluding Kaito.

Moreover, this arson was clearly retaliatory.

"I apologize, everyone. This may be a misunderstanding. The red horse is there because I am investigating the perpetrator of the red horse arson case. As for the previous arson case, you may not have received the news yet. The perpetrator was arrested half an hour ago."

"Ah? Really?"

The firefighter was stunned for a moment, then looked at Xia Chuan with admiration after making the call: "So it was you who solved the case and found the murderer. Thank you so much."

During this period, the entire fire brigade was so enraged by this arsonist that no one dared to close their eyes. Now that he has been caught, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief, at least they don't have to worry about a similar serious fire happening in the near future.

Xia Chuan casually made up an excuse about a possible fire, thus brushing off the firefighters.

After seeing off the fire brigade and the Maori family, the burning house was obviously no longer habitable, but thankfully we could go to Yoel's house.

After arriving at the Joel's house and settling the two children and Bond in, Xia Chuan sat silently on the living room sofa, a cigarette in his mouth. He didn't smoke it, as if he was thinking about something, until the ash fell on his fingers.

"What's wrong?" Joel was puzzled by Xia Chuan's reaction.

"This red horse was deliberately placed on the rooftop."

“Someone set a fire and provoked me.” Xia Chuan leaned the back of his head on the sofa, closed his eyes and remained silent for a while before saying, “It should be the work of Gin and Vermouth.”

Is this a counterattack against my bombing?
Aside from this possibility, Xia Chuan couldn't think of any other organization that had a grudge against him.

Joel crossed his arms, pondered for a moment, then tilted his head: "But what does the red horse mean? Isn't this something to provoke the police? Does the brewery think you're a cop?"

Xia Chuan gently shook his head.

Joel was unaware that Edogawa Fumiyo was Vermouth.

Xia Chuan didn't intend to tell the other party either.

Given Joel's composure and acting skills, if he knew, his acting might go wrong, so it's better to keep it a secret for now. "Throwing the red horse on the rooftop is telling me that my every move is under their surveillance."

"They found out about the case in just half an hour. Their control over intelligence is quite interesting."

"You can still laugh at a time like this?" Seeing Xia Chuan suddenly laugh, Joel rolled his eyes helplessly.

God knows how worried she was when the fire broke out.

It wasn't that I was worried about Ai Haibara and Bond. Bond was very fast; he ran straight to the second floor, grabbed Ai Haibara, and ran off. The main concern was the study on the third floor.

Anya and Ai Haibara are not usually allowed to enter that study; it might be hiding some secrets or something.

"I feel a little more at ease that they did this. I'm not afraid of enemy retaliation; I'm just afraid that the enemy will remain hidden forever."

If Natsukawa didn't know Vermouth's situation, he would definitely be very upset, but since he knows how Gin is observing him, he doesn't need to worry.

When necessary, he could even turn around and use Vermouth as a tool, such as leaking false information to mislead others.

After all, people tend to believe what they see more of.

That's why I was able to fool Vermouth last time.

“That makes sense,” Joel nodded slightly. “It seems that we were right to keep Anya and Ai with us. The brewery has indeed used them as a breakthrough point.”

“I won’t give them that chance. There are surveillance cameras everywhere. If they want to steal someone from us, they’ll have to be able to beat us first.”

Xia Chuan smiled confidently, then suddenly seemed to remember something.

"what happened?"

Xia Chuan didn't answer, but instead took out his phone from his pocket.

When the phone screen is turned on, a large cross is visible in the upper right corner of the yellowish screen, where the signal indicator should be.

Just as the topic of surveillance was being brought up, Xia Chuan suddenly remembered that there were quite a few surveillance cameras installed around him. It was impossible that Frank hadn't noticed the fire, and since it had been burning for more than ten minutes when Xia Chuan discovered it, it was impossible that Frank hadn't notified him.

Therefore, there's only one truth—there's something wrong with my own phone!

Now that I look at it, it's true.
It was probably Vermouth, who likely carried some kind of device that could disrupt cell phone signals. The phone still hasn't regained its signal, so the signal components inside the phone have probably been damaged.

"Give me your phone."

"Oh."

Joel handed the phone to Xia Chuan.

Upon inspection, it was found that Joel's phone was in the same situation; the phone itself was fine, but the signal was disrupted.

This method is more unique than signal interference; once affected, it cannot be recovered and can only be replaced physically.

"What is Vermouth's intention in doing this?"

Xia Chuan frowned and looked out the window.

If you don't want him to know there was a fire at home, all you need to do is break his phone.

Joel was not present at the scene of the arson, but his cell phone signal was also down.

It must have been around the time the distillery was set ablaze.

But there's no need to do that!

"why?"

There was only one thing Xia Chuan could think of.

The distillery plans to cut him off from everyone else.

Given the circumstances of this arson case, it wouldn't be resolved within an hour, no matter how quickly it was handled. Plus, with the fire at home, even after the case is solved and you get home, you'll still have time to deal with the fire.

As a result, I didn't have time to notice the abnormality of my phone.

With the addition of Joel's phone, I was essentially cut off from the outside world during this period.

Why are they doing this?
Xia Chuan suddenly looked up, as if he had remembered something.

Just then, the phone in the room rang, pulling Xia Chuan back from his speculation.

"I'll answer the phone."

"No need, they're probably looking for me." Xia Chuan shook his head slightly and stood up.

"Looking for you?" Joel was a little confused; this was her house.

“Is it Frank?” she asked.

"It might be my brother-in-law."

Joel's face flushed instantly. He grabbed a cushion from the sofa and threw it at Xia Chuan. "I'm going to check on Ai. She's not feeling well. She's probably having nightmares."

Xia Chuan nodded slightly; it was so nice not having to worry about things at home.

Just as a happy smile appeared on her face, the ringing of the phone pulled her back to reality.

He roughly knew who made the call and even the reason for it!

"Hey, sister, is Xia Chuan with you? Why can't I get through to either of your phones? I have an emergency, please let him answer the phone."

Yuri, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, started rambling on and on, and then pointed to Natsukawa to answer the phone.

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(End of this chapter)