Conan: The Romantic Daily Life of a Ghost Detective

"Bourbon?" Ai Haibara looked surprised and frowned slightly.

She then explained that the Black Organization did indeed say they wanted to send someone to protect her, but she refused because it had been agreed during the negotiations that only one of her and her sister, Miyano Akemi, needed to be monitored by the organization.

Unexpectedly, the Black Organization still sent people.

“However… it feels a bit strange.” Ai Haibara looked thoughtful. “Generally speaking, even if they send someone to protect me, they wouldn’t arrange for Bourbon to come over, because he has a good relationship with Vermouth, so his relationship with me is just so-so.”

Wen Shui: "I feel like the interpersonal relationships in the organization are quite complicated, but as long as he doesn't realize our plan, having one more person provides more security."

Ai Haibara nodded slightly:

"By the way, you said Bourbon went mushroom picking in the forest? I don't think it's that simple. I'll talk to him about it later."

Wen Shui nodded and looked at the laptop on the bed: "By the way, how long will it take to decipher this?"

"It's hard to say," Ai Haibara explained. "After all, it's important data for the Metropolitan Police Department. They've spent a lot of money hiring some of the world's most famous cybersecurity experts. It could take a few days, or it could take a few hours."

"Hopefully we can crack the code before we get back to Mihua, so we can start an investigation when we return," Wen Shui said.

"I'll try my best," Ai Haibara said.

Wen Shui didn't stay in Ai Haibara's room for long; she left after finishing her business.

Back at the restaurant, Wen Shui found several more people at the table. It seemed that Suzuki Ayako had called all the classmates out, and they were chatting.

Wen Shui also discovered that, just like in the original Conan manga, Ota Masaru was constantly trying to win Ran's favor.

But Xiaolan kept staring intently at the cake on the plate in front of her, seemingly hesitating whether to eat another piece.

Seeing Wen Shui come downstairs, Ota Masaru greeted him with a smile: "It's been so long, did you manage to appease your girlfriend?"

Upon hearing this, Wen Shui immediately felt several sharp gazes fall upon him.

Besides Ran, Sonoko Suzuki, and Conan, Ayako Suzuki also looked over with some concern.

A hint of coldness emanated from those beautiful, squinty eyes.

This left Wen Shui completely bewildered.

"Didn't I just say you misunderstood? Haibara isn't my girlfriend," Wen Shui explained. "We're classmates from the Literature Club, and we were just talking about our ideas for this club magazine."

Ayako Suzuki's eyes still held a hint of doubt as she smiled and said, "Sonoko, please introduce the warm water to everyone."

Sonoko Suzuki stood up from her seat and began introducing herself to everyone:

"This is Wen Shui Jun from our class. We are also members of the Literature Department. Although he seems unreliable, he is actually a pretty good detective."

Wen Shui bowed slightly to everyone.

After introducing Wenshui, Suzuki Sonoko began to introduce her sister's classmates one by one.

"The man next to Ran is Ota-nii, who works as an actor in the club," Sonoko Suzuki explained.

Ota Katsu and Nukumizu waved their hands, their attention almost entirely focused on Ran.

Sonoko Suzuki continued, "The man next to him holding the camera is Kakutani-san; you've probably met him before."

Hiroki Kakutani moved the camera lens toward the warm water and said with a smile, "I'm really sorry for scaring you in the woods earlier. As compensation, I'll take a few more photos for you later, and videos are fine too."

Wen Shui politely replied, "That would be too much trouble."

“Next up is Takahashi-nii, who is in charge of prop making in my sister’s university club.” Sonoko Suzuki looked at a chubby man wearing a blue-gray sweater.

The other person wore round glasses, had a very large belly, and his smile gave off a kind and honest feeling.

It's hard to imagine that this is the horrific killer who dismembered people and transported their heads by hiding them inside his stomach.

After all, the bandaged monster was one of Wen Shui's childhood nightmares. With the thought that every glance was one less chance to see him, Wen Shui couldn't help but linger on Takahashi Ryoichi's round belly for a few more seconds.

Feeling a little uneasy under his gaze, Ryoichi Takahashi stood up and greeted him, "Hello, my name is Ryoichi Takahashi."

Wen Shui smiled and shook hands with the other person.

Because Sonoko Suzuki introduced the seating arrangement clockwise, Ayako Suzuki was sitting next to Ryoichi Takahashi.

Sonoko Suzuki's expression suddenly became much more formal. She cleared her throat and said, "This is my older sister. She is in charge of makeup and costumes for the actors in the university club."

I'm currently looking for a suitable marriage partner. If you have any suitable candidates, please introduce them to my older sister. Of course, any exceptionally handsome guys need to be approved by me first.

Everyone else in the restaurant burst into laughter.

"Sonoko, what nonsense are you talking about?" Ayako Suzuki stood up from her seat, embarrassed. "Nuwa-kun, please take care of me from now on," she said very formally.

"Please give me your guidance," Wen Shui replied earnestly.

Then, Sonoko Suzuki looked at the last person present: "This is Chikako Ikeda, a currently popular director and screenwriter. The drama 'Blue Kingdom,' which is currently showing, uses the script that Chikako wrote during her university days."

Wen Shui looked at the young woman with the fashionable short hair.

Thinking to myself, as expected of someone who works in the entertainment industry, Chikako Ikeda's purple dress paired with delicate earrings and light purple lip gloss gave her the air of a magazine model.

However, Wen Shui's gaze was fixed on Ikeda Chikako's neck.

She wore a decorative purple ribbon around her neck because her top was low-cut, leaving a large blank area between her collarbone and neck.

The purple ribbon perfectly filled the gap, making her already fair and slender neck appear even longer.

"It feels easier to aim when I'm chopping with an axe," Wen Shui thought to herself.

Chikako Ikeda simply raised her cup of black tea and nodded slightly to the warm water. Although she was famous for plagiarism, she had the aura of a great writer.

After introducing themselves, Wen Shui sat down next to Xiao Lanyuan.

On the table in front of me were freshly baked pastries and cookies, and steaming hot black tea exuded a rich aroma.

As soon as Wen Shui sat down, Suzuki Sonoko leaned her face close and sniffed like a puppy in front of him.

Warm Water: "What are you doing?"

"I definitely prefer crispier cookies," Sonoko Suzuki said, taking a cookie from his plate and smiling genuinely.

"But don't you have some too?" Wen Shui looked curiously at the cookies on the plate closer to her.

"Because this was just baked!" Sonoko Suzuki's expression changed instantly, revealing her cute, pointed canine teeth as she threatened.

She actually got so angry over a piece of cake! Do rich girls also become possessive of their food?

Wen Shui was a little confused as to why Suzuki Sonoko was suddenly angry, just as he couldn't understand why Haibara Ai was talking to him through the door without wearing any clothes.

After a little thought, Wen Shui decided to categorize this phenomenon as: [Women with short brown hair will do incomprehensible abnormal behavior every once in a while].

"Is Ai still feeling unwell?" Ran asked with concern.

Wen Shui shook her head: "She's much better now. She's organizing the data on her computer, so she should be able to come down soon."

Xiaolan nodded and handed over a piece of cake: "This is delicious, you should try it."

Wen Shui reached out to take the cake, but then noticed that Xiao Lan's hand holding the cake twitched slightly, her slender, fair fingers pinching the cake and bringing it to his mouth.

The lukewarm water was startled.

He wondered what was going on. Why was the woman next to him being so proactive today?

However, shortly afterward, Wen Shui noticed that Xiao Lan had secretly given him a wink.

He then realized that Xiaolan didn't want to be approached by Ota Masaru next to her, and was trying to hint at it in this way.

But didn't you notice that Conan has already started adjusting the wristwatch-type tranquilizer gun?

While Wen Shui was still in a daze, Suzuki Sonoko snatched the cake from Ran's hand and took a big bite: "Mmm, it's really delicious, Wen Shui-kun, you should try it."

"Who would eat your saliva?" Wen Shui looked at the obvious teeth marks on the cake with a disgusted expression.

"You bastard..." Sonoko Suzuki had no choice but to swallow the rest of the cake in one bite.

At this moment, the bandaged freak, Ryoichi Takahashi, suddenly sighed, "We were pretty much the same as Sonoko and the others back then. When we were in the movie club, we were always bickering and joking around."

"Back then, there weren't any girls surrounding you and creating any romantic scenes," photographer Hiroki Kakutani teased.

"I was just using an analogy," Takahashi Ryoichi said, pushing up his glasses sheepishly.

Sonoko Suzuki then realized that she might have been a little too forward, and quickly explained, "No, we are just ordinary friends with Nukumizu-kun."

"We're always like this in our club. Wen Shui is like a mascot cat, the group's darling, right, Xiao Lan?"

You're more like a mascot, aren't you? You were just baring your teeth at me. Wen Shui couldn't help but think to herself.

Xiao Lan on the other side could only nod helplessly.

It seems that using Wen Shui-kun as an excuse to get rid of Ota Masaru's harassment is probably not going to work.

Ran has never been good at saying no, and since the other person was Ayako's classmate and hadn't done anything too offensive, she felt even more embarrassed to say anything harsh.

Since that's the case, we'll just have to use food as an excuse to appease them.

Xiaolan picked up another piece of strawberry-filled cake, looking at the crystal-clear pink jam. "This isn't what I wanted to eat. I'm only eating it to avoid being hit on by strange people."

Xiaolan took a bite out of half the cake, her face beaming with happiness.

Just then, footsteps came from upstairs.

Ai Haibara arrived late and, after a brief self-introduction, sat down next to Sonoko Suzuki.

When Ota Masaru saw Ai Haibara, he looked at Nukumi with disbelief, his face clearly saying, "Your girlfriend is so beautiful?"

He calmly picked up his teacup and drank the tea.

Although Ai Haibara is not his girlfriend, this misunderstanding still inevitably makes him feel a faint sense of smug satisfaction.

Ai Haibara also keenly sensed this subtle emotion.

Just now, Ai Haibara checked her injuries again in the room and found that after Wen Shui left, her anger level dropped to zero, and Usagi-chan returned to her listless appearance.

This was somewhat difficult for Ai Haibara to accept.

If she only returns to normal when she's angry, that would be troublesome. She can't possibly bring that jerk Wen Shui along on every date with her boyfriend, can she?

Seeing Wen Shui's smug expression, Ai Haibara was even more furious and wanted to teach him a lesson.

So she picked up a piece of cake, took a bite, and placed it in the warm water plate: "Oh dear, I forgot I'm on a diet and can't eat sweets, so please take care of the warm water."

Ai Haibara clasped her hands together in front of her chest, a sly smile playing on her lips, easily conjuring up the image of a beautiful underground idol trying to trick otaku into buying her fan merchandise.

Sonoko Suzuki, who was sitting next to her, immediately became nervous.

After all, she had just done the same thing and was decisively rejected by Wen Shui. If Wen Shui accepted Haibara Ai's cake, Sonoko would be in an awkward situation.

Warm water naturally knows this.