The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

Miho Mako nodded slightly to Jiang Hang and her teacher's wife, then pulled Fumino towards the outside of the house.

After glancing at the backs of the two people, Jiang Hang looked away and followed the directions of Shichie Kujuro to the basement of the villa.

Chapter 497: Chapter 493: The Cause and Effect of 14 Years Ago

The basement of the Tsukumo family's house was clearly the place where Motoyasu Tsukumo specifically researched new magic tricks.

According to Shichie Kujukuni, the basement door was not locked on the day Motoyasu Kujukuni died.

It was precisely for this reason that, although the police felt there might still be some doubts about the case, they ultimately concluded that Tsukumo Motoyasu had died by suicide.

However, Jiang Hang noticed something before entering the basement.

The walls of this basement are very thick, and soundproofing measures were specifically implemented.

Although it was not locked.

However, if the murderer used some method to prevent the room from being opened from the inside, the victim's cries would obviously not be able to reach the outside.

Upon entering the basement, Jiang Hang, using his eagle-eye ability, discovered nearly a hundred different kinds of magic props.

These props don't look special at all, but Jiang Hang, who can see the mechanisms behind them, inevitably has to turn off his Eagle Eye to rest his eyes for a while due to the large amount of information he receives in a short time, before turning his Eagle Eye back on to figure out the uses of these magic props one by one.

"No wonder it's a place where famous magicians study magic; these props are truly ingeniously designed," Jiang Hang exclaimed, looking at the dazzling array of props.

It must be said that these magic props really opened his eyes.

After this case, he might ask Professor Agasa to design some magic props; who knows, they might come in handy someday.

However, he did not forget that he was there to investigate Tsukumo Motoyasu's suicide.

After using Eagle Eye to confirm that these magic props were not closely related to the case, he quickly shifted his attention from the magic props to the overall layout of the room.

The basement floor had police-marked body evidence, and a pile of playing cards was scattered around a nearby desktop telephone.

On the walls of the room, there were more than a dozen photos of people.

In the background of the photo, Jiang Hang recognized the three suspects he had just seen in the lobby.

"Are the photos hanging here from the disciples your husband once took on?"

Kujuku Shichie nodded.

"Yes, whether they graduated or gave up halfway, my husband frames their photos and hangs them here as a memento."

Jiang Hang looked at the photo frames.

Apart from the few disciples whose photo frames still look relatively new, among these dozen or so disciple photos, only one disciple's photo, although it looks to be more than ten years old, still shows signs of being wiped clean from time to time.

Seeing that Jiang Hang's gaze remained fixed on the disciple's photo, Kujuku Shichie sighed and began to explain to Jiang Hang.

"This is Kinoshita Kichiro, my husband's most valued disciple. Unfortunately, he died in an accident 14 years ago, which was my husband's biggest regret over the years."

Shichie Kujuro was only talking about what she knew.

After all, she had only been married to Tsukumo Motoyasu for ten years, so she wasn't so clear about things that had been going on for much longer.

For her, Kinoshita Yoshiro was her husband's biggest regret. And in Jiang Hang's eyes, looking at the light in this photo from an eagle's-eye view, it shows that Tsukumo Motoyasu's death may also be related to this magician who died fourteen years ago.

He glanced back at Shiho Miyano.

Although the two haven't played together many times, they still have a basic understanding of each other.

After receiving a signal from Jiang Hang, Shiho Miyano continued to use her phone to search for information about Yoshiro Kinoshita.

Jiang Hang, on the other hand, continued to investigate the place where Kujuku Motoyasu had died.

The cadaver traces are located in the middle of the basement.

With just a glance, Jiang Hang, a master of poisons, immediately noticed the problem.

Judging from the traces, the deceased's hands were tied behind his back, which made him look peaceful before he died.

But this is impossible.

According to the police autopsy report, no sleeping pills were found in Yuan Kang's body. The poison he ingested before his death was aconitine, a highly toxic substance that can be fatal with just 2 milligrams.

After taking aconitine, symptoms of chest tightness and palpitations will soon appear, followed by nausea and vomiting.

No matter what pain Tsukumo Motoyasu experienced before his death, it's impossible for him to appear so "peaceful" now.

This is also the part that Shichie Kujuku finds most incomprehensible about her husband's death.

“Your husband must have had his hand movements restricted for some reason before he died, otherwise he couldn’t have died in this position,” Jiang Hang gave his answer clearly.

"Perhaps that's why, even though the basement door wasn't locked, his physical movements were restricted, so he couldn't leave or ask for help from the outside world."

Kujuku Shichie was stunned, not expecting that Jiang Hang, the detective, would make such a decisive judgment.

You should know that the police officers discussed this for several days but didn't come up with any useful information.

All she could do was repeat what the police had told her.

"Yes, that's what I thought too, but according to the police report, the police told me that there were no signs of restraint on my husband's body. If he had really been tied up, the struggle in pain would definitely have been physically manifested."

Jiang Hang didn't give this question much thought at all.

For the average person, accomplishing this would be quite troublesome.

But where is this place?

The basement of a magician whose fame ranks among the top five in all of Japan.

This basement contains over a hundred unique magic props that ordinary people have never even heard of.

Jiang Hang glanced around and found several rings with different styles, all of which had intricate thread mechanisms.

He picked up a few of the rings and then asked about Tsukumo Shichie.

Do you know what this prop is?

Kujuro Shichie was quite familiar with the magic props her husband often used, and after a short while, she explained their uses.

"This is my husband's proudest thread magic trick. He uses the almost invisible threads on these rings to manipulate other magic props..."

As you say that, it seems like Shichie Kujukō will remember you too.

"Oh, come to think of it, my husband was also practicing this magic trick in the basement that day, but we didn't find any trace of thread on the rings he was wearing on both hands."

Upon receiving this news, Jiang Hang already had a clear idea of ​​what was going on.

The threads used in this magic trick may look very thin, but they are designed to be strong and durable. Otherwise, if an accident occurs during the performance, the magic show will naturally fail.

Judging from the manner of Yuan Kang's death, it seems as if he was entangled by the thread on the ring in this way.

Under such circumstances, unless one is extremely flexible or has specifically studied these escape methods, it is impossible to break free from the restraints.

While Motoyasu Tsukumo is a renowned magician, he is now over fifty years old and on the heavier side, so his specialty is unlikely to be escape magic.

Given his build, being bound like that with his hands behind his back, he would probably have a hard time even standing up, let alone trying to turn the high, cylindrical door handle with his hands behind his back.

So, if we continue thinking along these lines, if the other party was framed by one of his disciples, what would Tsukumo Motoyasu do after discovering that he was unable to open the door or transmit his voice to the outside world?

Jiang Hang's gaze fell on the telephone in the room.

After all, even without using your hands, you can leave marks on it with your nose or even your tongue.

But since the police didn't find any problems, it means that the phone was probably disconnected at the time and unable to make calls.

But then what is the point of those playing cards that Tsukumo Motoyasu created in the final stages of his life?

"So, these playing cards are the last message he left before he died?"

Jiang Hang remembered that Sanhao Mazi had said in the hall that their teacher had stopped playing card magic many years ago.

In this situation, the fact that the other party suddenly used so many playing cards must mean they left something on this phone for some purpose.

Thinking back to the two playing cards stuck together, Jiang Hang walked to the phone.

At this point, the messages left by the deceased become clearer.

Because Jiang Hang only needed to glance at the phone with his eagle eye to spot the highlighted redial button.

Furthermore, the shape of this replay button is almost 80% similar to the shape of those two playing cards stacked together.

At most, you can only say that when the opponent is restrained by a backhand, their grip might not be as precise, but as long as you realize this, you will inevitably be able to connect the two.

Jiang Hang's only worry now is whether the murderer did anything destructive afterward, damaging the last clues left by the phone.

“The police did investigate the phone’s call records, but they didn’t find any record of my husband calling for help on the day of the incident,” said Shichiko Kuju.

"However, the police did find that the last number dialed on the phone was a string of meaningless numbers. In addition, my daughter's fingerprints were found on it, so the police believed that my daughter must have randomly pressed numbers when she was playing with the phone."

Well, it's time for him, the eagle-eyed detective, to tackle the weakest link in deduction – decoding codes.

However, the necessary process still needs to be followed.

"Do you still remember the string of numbers the police found back then? I need to confirm it to avoid any discrepancies."

As Jiang Hang said this, he pressed the replay button.

Sure enough, the next moment the phone showed that the dialed number was not in service and displayed a string of incomprehensible numbers.

So what do these strings of numbers mean?

There are four strings of numbers in total, with each string separated by an asterisk (*).

If these numbers haven't been altered, then these are probably the deceased's last words.

After hearing Jiang Hang's question, Kujuku Shichie thought for a while but couldn't recall it. However, she remembered that Sanada Ichizo should still remember these numbers, so she prepared to go upstairs to ask Sanada Ichizo about the situation.

"Anyway, thank you for your help. Please wait here for a while."

After Shichie Kujo left, Jiang Hang looked at Shiho Miyano.

He wasn't good at using codes, so he'd better listen to Shiho Miyano's investigation into Yoshiro Kinoshita first.

"They're all here. A genius poker magician who was known as 'Little Kuroba Toichi' back then. It looks like this magician specifically trained Kuroba Toichi to surpass him."

"He was also considered a steampunk character, and his path basically followed the route that led to Kuroba Toichi's rise to fame. However, he lacked the highest award in the International Magic Federation competition. It seems that before he was preparing to participate in this competition, his magic props malfunctioned, and he accidentally died on the rehearsal stage during an escape magic performance, which sparked a lot of discussion back then."

Hearing Shiho Miyano's words, Jiang Hang couldn't help but look at the photo again.

After losing to Kuroba Toichi, he chose to train another Kuroba Toichi to fight against him.