Conan: What alias? That's my struggle!

When Gin was wheeled out of the operating room, there were hardly any people left in the corridor.

Shiratori and Kogoro Mouri were gone, and Shinichi Kudo was gone too. Only two uniformed police officers remained at the door, watching as the stretcher came out.

They stood up and looked around.

He then sat down again.

Lin Ye followed the stretcher to the ICU entrance. The door closed, and he stood in the corridor, leaning against the wall, looking up at the fluorescent light on the ceiling.

The lights were so bright they were blinding, and his eyes started to ache.

He started to think.

The man in the dark gray suit during the day, the one with the "B" mark on the registration slip, the hand that had held a gun. When the other person appeared at the hospital, Gin was still unconscious.

After the other party left, Gin was shot.

This is no coincidence.

That person was the gunman, or at least his accomplice. But what was his motive? Who did Gin offend? Who would know that Gin was seriously injured and hospitalized here?

Not many people knew that Gin was in this hospital. Lin Ye was one, Gin was another, and there were two others—Boss and Vodka. Boss didn't need to send a gunman to kill Gin; he only needed to make a phone call, and ten milliliters of air would be added to Gin's IV bag.

Vodka is even less necessary.

He was Gin's most trusted man.

He had plenty of opportunities to kill Gin; he didn't need to wait until today.

But there are also people who really don't want Gin to live.

And this person knew Gin was here, knew Gin was still asleep, and knew this was the best time to strike. Who else could this person be but Boss and Vodka?

"That's a real problem."

Lin Ye was completely baffled. He closed his eyes, and the face of the man in the dark gray suit appeared in his mind. The face was ordinary, so ordinary that it would be easily lost in a crowd. But those eyes were extraordinary; that calmness was not that of an ordinary person. It was the calmness of a professional assassin.

A professional assassin. Someone hired him to kill Gin. Who was the employer? Lin Ye couldn't figure it out. Gin had too many enemies—people within the organization who wanted him dead, people outside the organization who wanted him dead, people from both the underworld and the legitimate world, domestically and internationally—the list was endless. But the question wasn't who wanted to kill Gin.

Who knew Gin was here?

Just now.

The ICU door opened a crack, and a nurse peeked out. "Dr. Hashimoto, the patient's vital signs have stabilized. Would you like to come in and take a look?"

Lin Ye nodded, pushed open the door, and went inside.

Gin lay on the hospital bed, his head wrapped in thick gauze, with various tubes extending from his body and connecting to the instruments that emitted regular sounds.

His face was even paler than before the surgery, almost indistinguishable from a pillow. But his electrocardiogram was beating, and his blood pressure was within the normal range.

The ventilator was sending air into his lungs, one breath at a time.

He is still alive.

"It's just that there are some serious injuries—" Lin Ye stood by the bed, looking down at the pale face, with only one thought in his mind: Who exactly did you offend?

The thinking continues.

Shinichi Kudo's voice came from the other end of the corridor.

Lin Ye couldn't hear clearly through the ICU doors, but the confident tone, as if stating a fact rather than asking a question, made it clear to him that he wasn't mistaken.

"Nurse, how many people were on this floor when the shooting occurred?"

"I'm not quite sure... it was too chaotic at the time."

"Has anyone seen anyone suspicious going in or out? Wearing dark clothes, or a hat?"

The nurse's reply was too soft for Lin Ye to hear. He tilted his ear towards the door, catching only a few fragmented words, when his phone vibrated in his pocket. It wasn't a call, just a vibration. There was no ringtone, only a muffled buzzing sound, against his thigh like a bee trapped in a cage.

Lin Ye took out his phone. There was no number on the screen, only a line of text: Boss.

He turned and pushed open the back door of the ICU, walking into an empty corridor. The corridor was narrow, with piles of discarded medical equipment on both sides. One of the light bulbs on the wall was broken, leaving only one flickering overhead. He pressed the answer button.

"How is Gin?" Boss's voice was the same as last time, old and slow, each word seeming to have rolled in his throat for a long time before being uttered.

"He's still not awake. He was assassinated again and is almost dead," Lin Ye replied truthfully. His words clearly surprised his boss.

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"He was shot in the head, the bullet has been removed, and the surgery was successful." Lin Ye paused, "but he is still unconscious, and the doctor said he needs to be observed."

"Someone shot at him?" Boss's tone remained unchanged, but the silence lasted longer than before.

Lin Ye recounted the whole story: the suspicious man who appeared at the hospital during the day, Dr. Miyagi's death, the arrival of the police, and Gin being shot at close range in his hospital room. He spoke quickly, but every word was clear, as if he were reading a report.

After listening, the boss remained silent for a long time. Lin Ye could hear the breathing on the other end of the phone, slow and even, like the gentle swinging of an old pendulum.

"I understand." The Boss finally spoke, his voice lower than before, as if something was pressing down on it. "Gin won't wake up for the time being. There's something I need you to do."

"What mission?"

"Vodka will tell you," the Boss said, "your mission location is Tropical Paradise."

Tropical Paradise. Lin Ye held his phone, feeling that the words sounded familiar. He thought for a moment, and a picture suddenly flashed through his mind—a high school student wearing a red T-shirt being hit on the back by a man in black, and then forced to swallow a white pill.

"Feed?" Boss's voice came through the receiver.

"I'm listening," Lin Ye said.

"Vodka will contact you tomorrow. That's all."

The call ended. Lin Ye took the phone away from her ear; the screen displayed "Call Ended," which flashed briefly before disappearing, returning to the call log.

just.

Lin Ye was in a bad mood at the moment.

He finally understood everything.

Tropical Paradise is the origin story.

Vodka, a man in black, a blunt object, a white pill. That's where Shinichi Kudo became Conan Edogawa, and where the Conan story begins.

now.

The boss assigned him a mission at Tropical Paradise.

Could it be a coincidence?

"No way!"

Lin Ye cursed inwardly.

Gin is now in the ICU with his head wrapped in bandages. The Boss called and asked him to go to Tropical Paradise to carry out a mission.

What does this mean? Is he really going to replace Gin? The person who knocked Shinichi Kudo unconscious in the first episode of Detective Conan was Gin. Now Gin is in the hospital, and he's the one who went to Tropical Paradise. So he's going to knock Shinichi unconscious? Is he going to drug Shinichi Kudo?

That person was my benefactor!