Ms. Moriarty wants to save Beika Town today too.

"No, they're all dead! Who are you? Haha! Don't play tricks on me!"

She raised the iron pipe in her hand and was about to swing it down towards him——

A feeling of stagnation.

The blow, which was filled with her strength, had no effect at all. It was like a child hitting someone with a toy. It was caught by a pale, slender hand. She tried harder again, but the iron pipe did not move at all.

Hearing Nishikawa Mutsumi's shout, Winette, who was standing in front of her, was speechless:

"Do I look so scary now? Even a vicious murderer would call me a ghost when he sees me?"

"Every failure is a lesson learned. Next time I encounter a desperate person like this, I will not give her a chance to struggle... If I were not afraid of her death because of her age, I would have attacked her directly before."

Although she didn't know the other person's real age, Winnet could feel that she had become a real old person just like her appearance. Even though the people here were generally in good physical condition, she still had some concerns.

The impact of killing Numabuchi last time was already significant. If she kills the murderer again in the name of self-defense this time, Winnet Moriarty's image is bound to collapse.

While thinking, Winette pressed the iron pipe with her right hand and gradually applied force. The metal pipe was visibly wrinkled and deformed, making a teeth-chattering sound.

"How can it be!"

Mutsumi Nishikawa's eyes almost popped out of her head, and the wrinkles on her face were squeezed together, making her look like a devil in a painting. She let go of her hand in panic, trying to retreat.

"Damned ghost, you are dead...dead!" She muttered madly, and her mind seemed to have become unbalanced.

"It's really noisy." Taking advantage of the light coming through the secret door, Winette hit her neck with a knife, and Mutsumi Nishikawa fainted instantly.

Winnet leaned over and placed her fingers in front of her nose to make sure she was still breathing. She waited for another two seconds to see that Xichuan did not have any sudden symptoms such as a heart attack, then she turned her eyes to the ladder in the secret passage.

She found this place not because she estimated the location, but because she could somehow sense Xiao Ai's position, which was probably related to the so-called "telepathy".

Following her instinct, she went underground. This place was different from the environment she had been in before, as it was covered with bricks and stones, and the air was a bit chilly.

"After realizing that someone is chasing her, Ai will definitely go back to the castle to seek help... She should have guessed that the eldest lady is someone else pretending to be her, and even knows her true identity."

Winnet had a guess and followed the direction towards the castle.

……

"We can't find Conan and the others." Ayumi shook the watch-shaped flashlight.

Xiao Ai was also looking around, trying to find some clues. The light in her hand had dimmed a little, and the power was beginning to run out. Seeing the dim light, she suddenly thought:

"By the way, where is your Junior Detective Team badge?"

She had borrowed it once before when they were searching for crows separately, but she didn't specifically ask the Doctor for one.

If I had this badge, I might be able to use it to contact Edogawa and the doctor, provided they are both still alive.

"Because the battery ran out, I gave it to the doctor." Ayumi replied.

"I see……"

Ai didn't hold out much hope, and this result was within her expectations. She looked in the opposite direction of Ayumi, and immediately heard her surprised voice.

"Look, there's someone over there!" Ayumi called out to Ai, "Right over there."

There was indeed a human figure in the shadows. After Ayumi ran over, the flashlight revealed her true appearance - a skeleton.

Due to the sound and the vibration of the footsteps, the skeleton fell down head-on, and Ayumi was so scared that she quickly stepped back.

"This is..." Xiao Ai was not afraid of this. She came to the bones and checked their condition. "They have turned into bones, which means they have been here for quite some time. Judging from the dust on them, they should not have been here for long."

Ai's experiences at school and in the laboratory helped her make some judgments.

"It seems that the person who carved the words on the stone steps is definitely this person."

"It must have been discovered by Edogawa, which is why it was moved to this place."

"But who could this person be?" Ayumi asked when she saw Ai was so calm.

Xiao Ai continued to check the condition of the bones:

"Compared to other bones, the foot bones seem to be thinner, and the teeth are almost all gone."

Judging from the foot bones, this person must not have walked for a long time, and her long white hair confirmed that she was an elderly woman.

Combining these clues, she immediately came to a conclusion:

"The person whose identity was swapped by the prisoner is definitely the eldest lady of this castle."

Plop!

"What's that sound?" Ayumi looked behind her in confusion.

Xiao Ai immediately pulled Ayumi and started running:

"I'm afraid that person has caught up with us. Let's run!"

As she ran, she told Ayumi her inferences, letting her know the true identity of the culprit who caused the current situation. As long as one of them could escape, the identity of this person would be revealed.

Ayumi was shocked by Ai's words:

"How could this be?"

"The old lady turned out to be the murderer."

Ai didn't have time to give Ayumi a chance to cushion the impact of the conclusion, and ran with her to the end of the tunnel. The flashlight shone on a ladder that looked like a water tower, which was wide enough for two of them to stand on.

"Hurry up, climb up."

Xiao Ai climbed to the top of the ladder and pushed the stone slab above with force. Just as she had imagined, there was also a mechanism here, and the weight of the stone was also lighter than she had imagined.

After seeing the light, she realized that the destination was the hall of the castle. With such a passage, anyone could set fire to the tower and leave easily. Everything was connected. Pushing Ayumi to the ground, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm afraid the criminal's goal is the treasure in this castle."

After she finished explaining, she was about to crawl to the ground, but was suddenly grabbed by something.

Although the force was not strong, it still scared her and almost made her lose her balance.

"what!"

She turned her head and looked down, and saw a person whose face was completely covered by hair and was covered in mud. Because the light was not very bright, for a moment she felt that she had been caught by the murderer.

"Run, leave me alone."

Ai yelled at Ayumi, who stood there at a loss, her face blurry.

"Hmm? That's not right..." After shouting, Xiao Ai felt that the other party was not using much strength and immediately realized the problem.

When the person behind her climbed up, she saw the figure of the person following her and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know how Winnet made her look like a female ghost crawling out of the bottom of a well.

Scared me.

Xiao Ai knew that Winnet must have done it on purpose, and was about to cooperate with her, but as soon as she looked up -

"do not want!"

An iron barrel flew towards here.

That guy Edogawa... Ai saw him standing in front of the handrail upstairs, looking very arrogant.

Bang!

Miss Winnett, with half of her body sticking out, one hand on Ai's ankle and the other on the ladder, had no leverage. She also happened to be in a straight line with Ai. If she dodged, Ai might be hit by something flying from behind.

Winnett was hit hard on the back of the head.

There was a dent in the iron bucket.

"Woo..."

Miss Winnet was in a bitter mood. She had spent a lot of time digging for the truth, and finally rushed over, but was hit hard.

In need of comfort, Winette whimpered:

"It hurts so much... Ai..."

Conan, who was originally standing on the handrail with a "winner is decided" smile on his face, immediately fell backwards, causing such a mistake. Mitsuhiko and Genta beside him also hid hastily, with "this is Conan's fault" written on their faces.

Looking at Winnett who came up to her for a hug, Xiao Ai stepped back slightly with a stiff expression:

"How did you get into this state?"

"Okay, this is all Edogawa's fault, stop crying."

Ai glared at Edogawa.

The doctor who wanted to show off and expose the true identity of the murderer behind the scenes also looked unhappy.

Winnet saw that she was covered in dirt and mud, and her hair was messy. She touched the back of her head, which was still a little red, and said aggrievedly:

"She tricked me and I fell into an underground passage. There was no light at all and it was a completely unfamiliar place, so I had to run to the wild and dig my way out. Then, I came to save you... Ugh!"

It's quite miserable, but the lethality of this fake crying is too strong... Ai knows that Winnet is not a crybaby, she is just acting coquettishly, but she is still completely irresistible.

Not caring about the mud, she hugged the squatting Winnet, lifted her hair to look at the back of her head that was hit by the iron barrel, and found that it was just a little skin broken. She asked Winnet if she felt dizzy, and the latter shook her head.

She was still quite resistant to the beatings. She spoke to comfort him:

"Well, aren't we all safe? I'm sorry you were wronged this time. Why are you acting like a little girl?"

Hearing this, Ayumi wanted to complain: Haibara-san, you are also a little girl yourself.

"It's bleeding, so it's better to go to the hospital and check it out," Ayumi said.

Winnet was already very upset with Conan, and now she had to see Ai blame him to feel relieved. Although she stopped crying, she still choked up and secretly complained a lot. She waited until the end to tell Ai about Nishikawa Mutsumi, and Ai relayed it to others.

Upon learning that the real murderer was knocked unconscious by Winette, Conan, who claimed to be a detective, immediately fled. In addition to contacting the police, he also revealed the truth to the owner of the castle and detained Mutsumi Nishikawa, who was lying in the secret passage - the former housekeeper who disappeared in the fire and replaced the identity of the first wife, and waited for the arrival of the police.

Although Ayumi was very worried about Winnet, Ai asked her to give the bread to Conan and sent her away.

"Stop pretending," Xiao Ai smiled after the others dispersed, "I know you're having a hard time, but weren't you kicked because you wanted to scare me on purpose? Besides, it's almost dawn."

Winnett thought of her promise and stopped crying. Instead, she pulled Xiao Ai to the portrait of the master and spun it around:

"The treasure is right here."

Xiao Ai also understood the meaning of the code, which turned out to be to rotate the portrait of the master known as the old scholar counterclockwise.

A passage appeared behind the portrait.

Ai followed Winnett up to the top and found that the end was an attic. Outside the attic window, the rising sun passed over the mountain ridge, outside the barrier of the green forest, the gurgling stream sparkled in the sun, and the mountains in the distance were layered, just as Ayumi expected in the car, a beautiful scenery like a painting.

"I would like to give this castle and this scenery to the first person who finds this place." Xiao Ai read out the engravings on the wall and said lightly, "I really don't know what she will be like after she knows the truth about the treasure."

She turned her head and saw Winnet squatting down again and moving her face closer to her.

"It's all dirt."

"Well……"

“Like a beautiful view, it can be saved for later, right?”

……

385 Bourbon's Plan

With Edogawa's internal channels, the police quickly arrested the former housekeeper Mutsumi Nishikawa.

After learning the truth about the treasure, Nishikawa Mutsumi suffered a mental breakdown and surrendered. With the evidence provided by Dr. Agasa's plastic surgeon friend, Nishikawa Mutsumi confessed to the crime.

Xiao Ai sighed and said with emotion:

"The treasure that one desperately pursues is ultimately just a dream of a castle in the air. Once a person becomes too paranoid, he or she will no longer see anything and will unknowingly move towards destruction."

She said this to remind herself that if she pursues results too much, she will easily neglect the good times in the present.

Winnet nodded, hunched over with her hands behind her back, and pressed her cheek against the side of Ai's.

"But... sometimes the results are also very important. Especially the milestones."

"Do you know that you look quite frivolous now?" Xiao Ai pushed Winette's face away with her left hand.

"Well, are you going to break your promise?"

Winnet pouted in dissatisfaction, and then felt as if a feather was brushing lightly across her face.

"How come it's so fast? I didn't even have time to feel it properly. No, it doesn't count this time."

Ai put her lips to Winnet's ear: "Okay, this is not a private occasion."

As if to echo what Ai said, the Junior Detective League and Agasa Hiroshi gathered in the living room. The case was over and it was time for them to leave. As for taking notes, it would not be too late to do it after returning to Tokyo.

Winette understood and restrained her smile, returning to her usual serious face, and walked out of the villa with Ai.