Conan: What alias? That's my struggle!

Vodka parked the car in an abandoned warehouse in Beika Town.

After the door closed, only a few rays of light leaked in through the broken window, shining on the dust on the ground as if a layer of gold dust had been sprinkled on it.

"That guy's pretty generous with money, but unfortunately, we never intended to keep him alive in the first place." Vodka placed the travel bag on an old table, unzipped it, and two hundred million yen was neatly stacked inside, each bundle tightly sealed with transparent plastic.

Fukuzawa Yukichi's face appeared particularly serious in the dim light. Lin Ye leaned against the wall, took out a cigarette from his trench coat pocket, and lit it.

"Take it out."

He issued the order.

Vodka glanced at him, took out 100 million yen from his travel bag, and placed it on the table in two stacks. He pushed one stack toward Lin Ye and kept the other for himself.

Lin Ye glanced at the stack of money, didn't count it, straightened up from the wall, walked to the table, picked up the stack of money, and stuffed it into his suitcase.

"Boss." Vodka hesitated for a moment, his eyes behind his sunglasses scanning Lin Ye's face. "You seem a little different today."

Lin Ye exhaled a puff of smoke: "How is it different?"

Vodka thought for a moment, seemingly unable to come up with a specific word, and finally said, "I can't quite put my finger on it. It just feels different."

Lin Ye glanced at him. Vodka's expression was hard to see behind his sunglasses, but the corners of his mouth were slightly downturned, as if he were recalling something, or confirming something. Lin Ye didn't respond, put the cigarette in his mouth, took out his car keys from his pocket, and tossed them to Vodka.

"Drive the car back, I have something to do."

He was certainly planning to retreat.

Vodka caught the key and paused for a moment.

"Boss, aren't you coming with us?" He clearly didn't want to part ways with his boss; he seemed like a clingy little monkey, sticking to Gin like glue.

"Just leave when I tell you to."

Vodka stopped asking questions, picked up his travel bag, tucked it under his arm, and walked towards the door. After a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and looked at Lin Ye.

"Boss, what should we say when we report that 100 million?" He seemed to have never embezzled organizational funds before, so he looked particularly inexperienced.

He is truly a model worker who works diligently in organizing.

Lin Ye flicked off some cigarette ash.

"I just told you that we only received 100 million." Was he not afraid of his identity being exposed? Was he the only one in the organization who misused funds?

At least Madeira still does tasks for the organization. Look at that bourbon and other liquors, whose corruption is not more serious than Madeira's?

"OK."

Vodka nodded, turned, and left. The warehouse door was pushed open and closed again, and light squeezed in through the crack, drawing a thin line on the floor.

Lin Ye heard the sound of a car engine outside for a moment, then it gradually faded away until he could hear nothing at all. He threw his cigarette butt on the ground.

Smash it with the sole of your shoe.

Then, he walked out through another door of the warehouse.

Return to the crime scene.

The tropical amusement park was no longer as bustling as it had been in the morning. The setting sun had bathed the entire park in orange-red hues, the roller coaster tracks traced a black arc across the horizon, and the Ferris wheel was slowly turning, its cabins pausing briefly at the highest point before gradually descending again.

Lin Ye walked along the main road of the park, his black trench coat standing out in the crowd. Several children pointed at his back and said something.

He didn't turn around.

Lin Ye walked to the vicinity of that alley. The police had already arrived; yellow police tape cordoned off the alley entrance, and several uniformed officers stood outside the tape, blocking curious tourists.

A middle-aged man in a trench coat was squatting on the ground, inspecting something—Inspector Megure. Lin Ye stood behind the crowd, peering through the gaps in the police tape.

The alley was deserted. Murakami Masao's body had been removed, and the bloodstains on the ground had been cleaned up, leaving only a faint water stain.

The penguin plush toy is also missing; it was probably taken away by the police as evidence.

Shinichi Kudo was gone too. Lin Ye's gaze swept around the alley, but he couldn't find the figure in the dark blue school uniform. He left the crowd and went around to the other end of the alley. There were no police tape or officers there, only a high wall and a few trash cans. He leaned against the wall, lit a cigarette, and waited.

As darkness fell, the park lights came on. The colorful lights on the roller coasters twinkled in the night sky, the Ferris wheel transformed into a giant, luminous ring, and the music from the carousel drifted from afar, intermittent and like a ribbon scattered by the wind. Lin Ye saw Shinichi Kudo after finishing his third cigarette.

No, it wasn't Shinichi Kudo. It was a little kid. He was wearing an obviously ill-fitting dark blue school uniform, with the sleeves rolled up several times and the trouser legs dragging on the ground, as if he were wearing stolen clothes.

His hair was still Shinichi Kudo's hair, and his face was a miniature version of Shinichi Kudo's features, but his body was that of a six or seven-year-old child. He was crouching behind a telephone pole at the alley entrance, peeking out half his head and looking at the police officers inside the cordon. He moved very carefully and breathed very softly.

Like a rabbit hiding in the grass, observing its predator.

Lin Ye flicked the cigarette butt into the trash can, looking at the little child. Shinichi Kudo had successfully evolved into Conan Edogawa. The pill hadn't killed him; instead, it had turned him into an elementary school student.

Exactly the same as the original story. The world hadn't collapsed; the script continued. Lin Ye walked out from behind the wall and headed down the other end of the alley. He didn't look at the child again; his footsteps were drowned out by the music and noise of the amusement park, and no one noticed him.

"My real mission is complete." Lin Ye walked out of the gate of the tropical park. The parking lot was almost empty, with only a few cars left.

He walked to the far end of the parking lot and found his white sedan. The Porsche had been driven away by Volt; Lin Ye hadn't coveted Gin's personal property.

He has his own scale in his heart to determine what he should and shouldn't take.

"It's finally over. This ridiculous role-playing is over." Lin Ye got in the car and didn't start it immediately. Instead, he put the suitcase on the passenger seat.

Then he reached up and touched his chin.

The edges of the implant had been pressed against his skin all day and were starting to itch. He ran his fingers along the contours of his chin, found a tiny bump at his hairline, pinched it, and slowly peeled it off. The sound of the glue being pulled apart was exceptionally clear in the quiet carriage.

It looked like an adhesive label being peeled off the glass.

"Rip~"

The implant fell off his face, revealing his own skin underneath—pale from being covered all day, with a red mark pressed into his cheekbone.

His silver-white wig was also removed, and his short black hair, which had been fixed with hair gel all day, was now sticking up messily, like a pile of weeds blown about by the wind.

"I'm still the most handsome."

Lin Ye admired his own handsome face in the rearview mirror when his phone vibrated, displaying an encrypted message from Vodka.

"Boss, the money has been deposited."

After reading the message, Lin Ye placed his phone face down on the passenger seat without replying. He gripped the steering wheel, and the car drove smoothly through the night streets.

He wasn't planning to go home.

Because there's still one more thing to do.