He's in Detective Conan, and he's the mastermind behind everything.

Samadhi, essence, energy, and spirit—that makes sense too.

"Has Mr. Mori made an order here?" Hotaru asked as he approached the front desk.

"I've already ordered half a osmanthus-flavored chicken, a lucky two-colored fish, and two bowls of cordyceps flower clear soup lion's head meatballs," the receptionist replied after checking.

"Has it been sent over yet?"

"Not yet, but it's already underway."

"Bring these to us. It's too greasy for a patient like him. Give him some bitter melon, a cold salad of shredded vegetables, and tofu with scallions. That'll do." Ying Sheng handed her a bank card. "You can check. I'm the one paying. It should be fine, right?"

He then turned to look at Xiaolan, who had a strange expression, and introduced her to the receptionist: "And this is Mr. Mori's daughter, who is very concerned about her father's health."

The receptionist, who was initially hesitant, swiped the card and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She politely handed over the menu and asked:

Would you two like to order anything else?

"........."

Sure enough, the big spender is always the most important.

A moment later, Xiaolan looked at the sumptuous dishes on the table with a helpless expression: "Suiyue-kun really has a wicked sense of humor. Did he come here specifically to tease my dad?"

"Not necessarily," Ying Sheng said, taking out his phone and placing it on the table. "Guess who's calling next and when it will ring?"

"Eh? If it's related to this place, then..."

Buzz buzz!

Ying Sheng covered the phone screen.

"It's Miss Aida!"

Xiaolan has amazing eyesight!

"You cheated, huh? Your punishment is to eat a slice of bitter melon." Hotaru answered the phone, "Ms. Aida, what's up?"

“Mr. Mori wants me to go back and bring him some food, but the research institute won’t let me leave. Could you talk to them, Mr. Mizuki?” Aida Masayo said calmly.

"Mr. Mori isn't... Pfft—!" Hotaru quickly covered his mouth, barely managing to stop himself from spitting it out. "Hey, Ran, you actually ate it?"

What's going on? The way he's sticking out his tongue in pain is just too cute to be true!

"Hmph, you have one too!"

Xiao Lan precisely inserted a chopstick into Ying Sheng's mouth.

"cut…"

Hotaru remained calm, chewing heartily, and mumbled, "I grew up drinking bitter melon water, why would I be afraid of this? By the way, Miss Aida, didn't Mr. Mori already order food? I saw the delivery person come back earlier."

"...So it really was Mr. Mizuki who did it. Mr. Mori thought it was Attorney Kiyoshi and didn't dare to call and ask. Could you please order another one for Mr. Mori? I might not be able to leave right now."

"Speaking of which, why won't they let you leave?"

"An explosion occurred in the research institute's parking lot; they are investigating."

"Have you been there?"

"No."

"Oh, well then. As long as you haven't done anything, they'll release you eventually. I'm sorry, Ms. Aida, I'm just a low-level employee there. Hmm... they didn't give you any trouble, did they? Who was it specifically?"

"They didn't make things difficult for me. Mr. Kurosawa is in charge of investigating the explosion."

"There's really nothing I can do about it. He's my direct superior. Say hello to him and goodbye."

Ying Sheng hung up the phone and continued eating.

Xiaolan, who was sitting across the table, had a rather serious expression, but seeing him like this, she couldn't help but ask, "Did Shuiyue-kun verify anything through this phone call?"

Ying Sheng nodded: "There's some to it, by the way, your banter just now was very natural, but it was actually unnecessary."

"Oh... that Mr. Kurosawa?"

"It's just a name for now, it's probably not Gin; and the location of the explosion, how could it be the research institute parking lot? There are surveillance cameras everywhere there, even if I wanted to send the bomb in, I couldn't."

Furthermore, they must have wanted to contact me before, but the call only came after Mr. Mori gave them a pretext. This shows that while they suspected me, they were also very wary of the mastermind behind it all, fearing that their call would confirm something for the mastermind.

Then, as the mastermind behind it all, I can be certain that they are so guilty that their intelligence exchange is definitely not finished yet, and Gin probably can't hold on any longer.

That's about it. Let's go over after we finish eating; we have plenty of time.

"So where exactly did Mizuki-kun put the bomb?" Ran asked curiously.

"Naturally, it's in the surrounding cars. At most, they can only hear a sound. You know, stirring up trouble is dangerous. If you do something like that at a crucial moment, it can really scare people away, especially given Gin's condition at the time. If he were startled like that, he might have passed out."

"………sharp."

"Thanks for the compliment."

"But the risk is still too great, doesn't Mizuki-kun have a safer method?"

“I didn’t expect to fail, so there’s no guarantee. Besides, I never intended to hurt Miss Shirley. I have to be careful with some of my methods.”

"Alright, is Mr. Gin a key fighting force? He's down, are we going to launch a full-scale attack later?"

"A direct assault on the enemy's base is suicidal no matter how you look at it. What if they set up machine guns? If a burst of fire comes, we won't even be able to fight them all off."

"...They even have this?"

"Absolutely, maybe even an RPG."

"Um...should we call the police?"

"Real name or anonymous? No, that's not important. What's important is that I can guarantee the distillery has connections with officials. Call the police? Ha, the police won't do anything, they'll probably just turn around and sell us out."

Seeing that Xiaolan seemed somewhat incredulous, Ying Sheng glanced around and whispered, "What they're researching might involve immortality and resurrection. It's normal for many people to covet such things; there are plenty of old guys in Chiyoda Ward, after all."

Chapter 200 Shinichi Kudo's death is imminent!

Immortality!

He died and was resurrected!

These two words completely stunned Xiaolan, leaving her speechless for a long time.

This kind of thing...

Is this really something humans can do?

It's already at the level of mythology!

Seeing that Xiaolan didn't cry out in shock, Yingsheng nodded with satisfaction and continued:

"Vermouth had undergone drug modification. When I investigated her, I found a notebook in her home that was full of experimental data."

I didn't understand most of it, but yesterday morning the newspaper reported that Shinya Yamanaka had been nominated for the Nobel Prize. It mentioned that he was engaged in research on induced pluripotent stem cells and even quoted two passages from academic papers.

I happened to recognize some of the technical terms mentioned in those papers from the notebook I had seen before. Later that afternoon, Gin called me to assign tasks and mentioned this as well, which made me even more certain.

Even if it's not one of those two, it's still an extremely important life science that can extend lifespan.

The notebook was actually found at Kiyoko's house, which confirmed Hotaru's suspicion that he and Kiyoko knew each other before Hotaru arrived.

Moreover, they were probably a control group undergoing the drug modification experiment together, the kind who sympathized with each other.

But the result was obvious: the Shuiyue couple were a fake, and neither of them had changed much.

"This is incredible."

Xiaolan finally murmured absentmindedly, "Have their studies... yielded any tangible results?"

“Vermouth, that’s probably a good result, but I don’t know about the others.” Ying Sheng shook his head. “In short, even if there are some reliable individuals in the police force, they are not reliable in general. We have to figure out our own way.”

"That's it..."

Xiaolan ate in silence, lost in thought. Even the most exquisite dishes tasted bland to her. After what seemed like an eternity, she suddenly realized something and hesitantly said:

"Is our goal to save Shinichi?"

"Otherwise what?" Ying Sheng retorted.

"But why did you suspect the distillery forced him to join the organization and control him?"

Ran paused for a moment, then answered her own question: "Shinichi is a very talented detective, but the Black Organization hasn't paid attention to him before, and they won't now. They need to get him into the organization..."

Mizuki-kun had previously mentioned his relationship with Miss Sherry, so that must be the reason.

Sherry did care about Shinichi to some extent, and this may have been revealed to Gin. Gin's goal in controlling Shinichi was ultimately to control Sherry.

So what conclusion can you draw?

“Shinichi is not important to the brewery, and he has already been noticed by Gin. Even if he is rescued this time, the brewery can still take action against him later.”

Ran's thoughts became clearer: "The only important thing is Miss Sherry. As long as she's gone, the brewery won't care about Shinichi at all."

If it's the situation Hotaru-kun described before, Shinichi would already be unconscious. Furthermore, given Vermouth's feelings for him, the Black Organization would most likely not harm him further, and he wouldn't know anything when he wakes up the next day.

"Good, you've finally figured out what's important."

Ying Sheng smiled slightly: "So what do you want to do? Find a way to kill Miss Shirley?"

Ran quickly shook her head: "Mizuki-kun wanted to rescue Sherry before. She should be a good person, so how could we hurt her for no reason? I was just thinking that the core issue is still rescuing her. Once this is accomplished, Shinichi's troubles will naturally be resolved."

"Isn't this still rushing into a heavily protected research institute to rescue people? It's the same as before."

“It’s different. If it’s to save Shinichi, given our relationship with him, there’s a high chance our identities will be exposed. But Ms. Sherry is a very important researcher. If we go to save her, the Black Organization might not suspect us.”

"The main problem is the difficulty. Miss Shirley is definitely not able to move around freely anymore."

"Hmm... If the Japanese police aren't reliable, can we use other forces? For example..." Ran's eyes suddenly lit up, "For example, the Muddy Water Association, didn't you pretend to be one of their people last time, Mizuki-kun?"

Ying Sheng shook his head: "The true nature of that place is actually a secret. Not many people know about it. If we make a big fuss about it, they can easily rule it out, and I will become even more suspicious."

Besides, what use are those ugly and deformed people from the Muddy Association? They're just food for others.

Even if they manage to breach the research institute's defenses and break in, causing a huge commotion—no, perhaps even before that, the distillery staff will relocate, and then we won't be able to find them.

"Huh?! And now?"

“Now they’re worried that someone is watching that place, and moving would be more dangerous, so they might as well stay in that fortress.”

Xiao Lan breathed a sigh of relief and continued to think: "Exposing my identity is definitely not an option, and making a scene to force them to move won't work either. Hmm... then we must use elite troops for a surprise attack and achieve our goal before those people can react, right?"