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

"Please restrain yourself, sir. I am just an innocent passerby." Ying Sheng raised his hands in surrender and turned around.

“A passerby wouldn’t talk like you.” Shinichi Kudo kept his pistol firmly raised, without relaxing his grip in the slightest.

"I was mainly scared. Are you a policeman? Or a gangster? On my way home from get off work, someone actually pointed a gun at my head from behind. My God, is this still Tokyo? It's terrifying."

"Don't speak in that weird tone! Speak your normal voice!" Shinichi Kudo pressed the hammer on his revolver, his eyes cold and sharp. "And take off your mask!"

"That's not a good suggestion. You can just say what you want. If it's money..."

"Don't think I'm afraid to shoot!"

"Hmm? So what?"

Ying Sheng asked curiously, "You have to state your needs, right? Let's skip those two."

Shinichi Kudo's eyelids twitched, and he really had the urge to shoot. He barely managed to hold back. The local police from Kabukicho finally arrived. Seeing the stalemate, a young man stepped forward and tried to pull off Hotaru's mask.

Ying Sheng's right little finger trembled slightly.

"Do not move!"

Shinichi Kudo suddenly shouted, his index finger, which was tightly gripping the trigger, almost pressed down halfway.

The young police officer froze, stopping several meters away from Hotaru. Hotaru shrugged helplessly. The officer, thinking Shinichi Kudo was referring to Hotaru, took a deep breath and was about to step forward again when he was immediately stopped.

"Don't come any closer! He's dangerous!"

Shinichi Kudo's tone was very stern. The police officer swallowed hard and hurriedly backed away, also pointing his gun at Hotaru.

This series of actions made Hotaru raise an eyebrow. Was Kudo really that prestigious in the police force?

But to say he was dangerous would be a real injustice, Ying Sheng shook his head helplessly:

How dare you slander someone's innocence out of thin air?

"..."

Shinichi Kudo didn't want to waste time arguing with this suspicious person, but his gut feeling, which was on high alert, told him it was best not to approach, so he simply asked directly:

"who are you?"

"If this isn't enough, then it'll be a lowly henchman from the Muddy Gang."

Shinichi Kudo didn't believe a word of what he said, but he still continued to ask:

What are you doing there?

"See how to handle things here, then report back to my boss."

"Who is your boss?"

"This is irrelevant to the matter, so let's skip it."

Who was the person you were talking to just now?

"My fellow passerby B, you must have only heard the last sentence, right? You started talking out of nowhere."

Hotaru glanced at the skateboard that had crashed into the trash can and broken in two, then raised his right hand and gave Shinichi Kudo a thumbs-up:

"You dare to skateboard that fast downhill? You're brave. And the slope isn't even that steep. Did you kick first and then jump straight up from the top?"

Shinichi Kudo's eyelid twitched. Could this guy be a detective too?

And what gives him such confidence? Now that new police officers have arrived and there are already three guns aimed at him, he still acts completely unconcerned.

Is it possible that...?

Ying Sheng smiled and said, "I really am an innocent passerby. Feel free to verify any doubts you may have."

"..."

Shinichi Kudo really wanted to say, "With your overly calm demeanor, you can't possibly be just a passerby."

But as a detective, he couldn't say such unfounded things. After thinking for a moment, he held the gun still in his right hand, took the victim's phone from his pocket with his left hand, scrolled to the top of the call log, and dialed it. Three seconds later, the message indicated that the phone was switched off.

"I can't get through to Mr. Harada. Is there anything you'd like to say?" Shinichi Kudo asked.

Ying Sheng asked in confusion, "Putting aside who that person is, what does it have to do with me if I can't get through to him on the phone?"

"I'm going to search you."

"Do you really have to do this? I'm going to sue you later."

"I'm sorry, but I hope you can cooperate. If I've wronged an innocent person, I will compensate you."

"I want one million."

"..."

Shinichi Kudo remained silent, focusing his attention as he slowly walked towards Hotaru. When he was within three steps of Hotaru, his hand suddenly reached for the mask on Hotaru's face. Hotaru tilted his head back slightly, narrowly avoiding the grab, and sighed helplessly.

"Sir, please don't make things so ugly."

The surrounding police officers were all alert and ready to act. Shinichi Kudo waved to them, signaling them to be patient, and also put away the gun in his hand.

"Sorry, I was just curious."

"I can understand, but it's best if it doesn't happen again."

"Since you insist on your innocence, why don't you dare take off your mask? And why is your hat pulled down so low?"

"I'm very ugly, I'm afraid I'll scare you."

Shinichi Kudo thought this man was full of lies, but his actions just now showed that he was definitely skilled. Coupled with his rational thinking, if he really had something wrong with him, there was no reason why he wouldn't know that running away was the most likely option in the first place.

But instead of running away, he also failed to take control of the hostages when the previous officer acted rashly. Instead, he allowed more and more police to surround him, making escape increasingly impossible...

Did he really guess wrong?

To be honest, the reverse tracing only located that shop, not the person directly, and he was walking very slowly and deliberately before...

With thoughts swirling in his mind, Shinichi Kudo continued searching the body without stopping. He quickly found a black feature phone and a crocodile-skin wallet. He wanted to open the wallet, but before doing so, he glanced at Hotaru and only opened it after seeing him nod.

There was over 100,000 yuan in cash, seven bank cards, and no identification documents that clearly identified the person.

Shinichi Kudo silently memorized a bank card number, intending to have the police investigate it later.

He opened his phone again; it had a password.

"Four fours."

Before he could ask, Hotaru blurted it out. Shinichi Kudo opened his phone and went straight to the call log, only to find it full of unfamiliar phone numbers. After a moment's thought, he asked:

"Can I try hitting two?"

"This request is a bit excessive, but if you insist, just say you're a Maru-san police officer. It's barely acceptable for those rude guys to investigate me like this, so I won't lose too much face in the underworld."

Kudo Shinichi nodded, then made three phone calls to confirm that Hotaru was indeed a low-level member of the Muddy Gang, known as Mikawa. This made him silent for a long time before he finally spoke:

"Someone just asked you when you're going to pay back the money you owe him, why did you make such a groaning face?"

Ying Sheng rolled her eyes at him: "What do you think? If you hadn't hung up so quickly, I would have used the excuse of being hit by you to borrow money from him again."

Shinichi Kudo remained silent for a few moments, then took a few steps back and bowed deeply.

"Please come with me into the bakery!"

Chapter 107 Will Vermouth and Shinichi Kudo fall in love?

Shinichi Kudo suspects that Hotaru hid evidence of his crime in the bakery, and that the cell phone on his person is not even his.

As for why it couldn't be detected in conversations with other people, perhaps it's simply because he has a strong ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

There isn't a very close-knit network among gang members, so it's not impossible to fool them.

Unfortunately, his family's phone number was not in the phone.

Shinichi Kudo really wanted to ask this question as a point of suspicion: Did you anticipate this kind of questioning and delete the difficult-to-handle numbers in advance?

But he estimated that if he asked this question, he would only get one answer from Ying Sheng:

"Because I live alone."

It will definitely be this one.

Why not just take him back to the bakery? Didn't Chiba Kazunobu say that he might have set up a dust explosion trap there?

Then let him walk in front.

"Tsk, this is a little annoying, Mr. Detective. My apologies will be plentiful."

Ying Sheng shook his head, put down his hand, took the wallet and phone from Shinichi Kudo, and walked towards the bakery first. In less than half a minute, he returned to the bakery entrance, pushed the door open, turned on the light, and stood to the side.

Shinichi Kudo stood outside the door and carefully scanned the inside. He found that it was just a very conventional display. Most of the glass display cases were empty. Under the warm yellow light, even the unsold bread that had long since gone cold looked quite delicious and tempting.

"When the restaurant is open, the rich aroma here is simply irresistible," Ying Sheng said with a smile.

"Do you come here often?" Shinichi Kudo walked in and headed straight for the several unsold loaves of bread.

"Since you work around here, is there anything you're looking for, or do you need my help?"

"No need. Aren't you part of the Muddy Association? Does that count as working?"

Shinichi Kudo took out a piece of bread, squeezed it, and found nothing unusual. Feeling uneasy, he tore it open to check, but still found nothing.

“We Yakuza from the bottom rungs don’t live very well either, you know? Without bonuses, we only make 200,000 a month. I’m even thinking of switching careers to bake bread.”

Ying Sheng shook his head as he watched Kudo Shinichi ruin things: "By the way, did you come here to inform Boss Takayama? The money I left as an apology isn't enough for you to keep overthinking like this."

"You left some money?"

"Although I'm just a lowly henchman, I still aspire to be a gentleman. The address is in the kitchen; I borrowed it before. Perhaps you'd like to take a look?"

"Of course I'll go, but later."

"Do you suspect I'm trying to lure you away? I should say you're almost there, but unfortunately, I really don't know what you're looking for. Can you tell me?"

"What were you doing here before?" Shinichi Kudo not only did not answer, but instead asked another question.

Kneading the dough.

"Kneading dough?"