Conan: The Romantic Daily Life of a Ghost Detective

But he wasn't sure if Ai Haibara had seen Sonoko Suzuki give him the cake.

If Ai Haibara is unaware of this and is simply trying to ease tensions between them, then directly rejecting her would seem rather impolite.

Ai Haibara's expectant gaze and Sonoko Suzuki's tense look both fell on Kazuki Nukumi.

Wen Shui looked at Xiao Lan, who was eating cake with her head down beside her.

In situations like this, it's natural to seek help from your closest partner to get out of trouble. He and Xiaolan had previously agreed to help each other.

Moreover, Wen Shui had tried to help Ran out of the predicament, although Suzuki Sonoko ultimately disrupted their plans.

If Xiaolan simply takes the cake off his plate, this sudden crisis will be perfectly resolved without hurting any of the girls' fragile hearts.

Xiaolan remained in the position of eating cake, looked up and met Wenshui's gaze.

Warm Water blinked, sending out a distress signal.

Ran sighed, then reluctantly placed the remaining third of the cake on his plate, on top of Ai Haibara's cake.

Now almost everyone around was looking at them with curiosity.

Warm water: ? ? ?

Chapter 36: Xiaolan's gift was stockings?

Wen Shui stared speechlessly at the two pieces of cake on her plate.

He glanced at Xiaolan, who had misinterpreted his distress message, and couldn't help but sigh.

Although Xiaolan fulfilled their promise to help each other very well.

But she didn't seem to be very bright; instead of helping him alleviate the crisis, she was adding fuel to the fire.

Wait a minute? Could Xiaolan be doing this on purpose?

A thought suddenly popped into Wen Shui's mind: "Xiao Lan is actually a scheming woman."

Then he quietly observed Xiaolan beside him and noticed that her face was full of reluctance to part with the last piece of strawberry cake.

Okay, I misunderstood you. You're really just a simple foodie.

But this is troublesome.

As more people noticed her little actions, Sonoko Suzuki's expression became even more unpleasant. Although such a small thing was nothing to Nuwa, girls of this age usually pay a lot of attention to these details.

In order to protect the internal harmony of the Lily of the Valley Detective Club.

Warm water had to make some sacrifices.

"Seriously, don't give me food I don't like. I'm not some stray cat being fed." Wen Shui smiled helplessly and swallowed Ran and Ai Haibara's cakes in one gulp.

"Ugh, this is way too sweet!" Wen Shui frowned, looking at the scalding hot tea in her cup, unable to bring herself to drink it.

Sonoko Suzuki immediately saw an opportunity and handed the black tea in her hand to Wenshui: "Drink this, it's already cold."

"Thank you."

Wenshui took the teacup that Suzuki Sonoko had drunk from, downed it in one gulp, and showed an expression of "I'm finally alive" on his face. Then he looked at Suzuki Sonoko gratefully.

The solution is perfect; every action is logical and will not harm anyone.

She has truly mastered the art of balancing things to the extreme.

However, after putting down his teacup, Wen Shui suddenly noticed that everyone was looking at him with some surprise. Among them, Hiroki Kakutani even had a hint of envy in his eyes.

Ayako Suzuki's expression changed slightly, and she stood up from her seat: "I'll go make some more tea. Sonoko, can you help me?"

"okay."

Sonoko Suzuki skipped and hopped away with her older sister, a faint smile on her lips.

.

After the two sisters left, Hiroki Kakutani brought up the topic of the bandaged monster again.

Ota Katsu frowned slightly: "You mean that strange person? I saw him when I went up the mountain."

"I saw it too. That bandaged guy's eyes looked kind of scary," Ryoichi Takahashi chimed in.

After asking around, almost everyone who went up the mountain saw the bandaged man.

Hiroki Kakutani looked somewhat uneasy: "Do you think... there really might be monsters in these mountains?"

“How could that be?” Chikako Ikeda immediately retorted, dissatisfied. “Kakutani, didn’t you always disbelieve in these kinds of supernatural legends?”

Hiroki Kakutani scratched his head: "It's because the Slit-Mouthed Woman in Kyoto has been causing a lot of trouble lately. I heard she killed someone a few days ago."

“That must be a lie, probably just a smokescreen by the murderer,” Chikako Ikeda said.

Just then, Ayako Suzuki and Sonoko returned with freshly brewed tea: "You guys were talking about the Slit-Mouthed Woman, huh? Nukumizu and Sonoko's detective team are investigating this serial murder case. They were the ones who discovered the second body."

"Eh?! Sonoko and the others are detectives?!"

Everyone looked at Wen Shui and his group with astonished expressions.

Ryoichi Takahashi's expression changed visibly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"So you guys are detectives too. Adding that dark-skinned chef detective, there are now two groups of detectives here," Hiroki Kakutani suddenly said in a horror story tone.

"Add to that the novelist Chikako and that mysterious bandaged man, and it feels like a plot unfolding in a thriller."

"Seriously, can you please stop saying such unlucky things?" Chikako Ikeda slammed her hand on the table.

She seemed to be constantly picking on Hiroki Kakutani, while Kakutani would just scratch his head and grin foolishly each time, revealing his true nature as a sycophant.

Ayako Suzuki quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Even if there are monsters, they should be fox spirits, mountain gods, or tengu, right? The bandaged monster doesn't seem to fit the style here."

"That's true."

Hiroki Kakutani smiled and scratched his head, showing no displeasure at being directly contradicted.

At that moment, Sonoko Suzuki suddenly seemed to remember something: "By the way, Numizu, haven't you been reading books about black magic and folk tales lately? Are there any legends about bandaged monsters?"

Wen Shui thought for a moment and then shook her head.

"No, but the tribes in the rainforest do have a custom of binding the criminals who killed their companions with bandages, pouring palm oil on them, and then sticking them into wooden stakes to be lit as torches."

"Just stick it directly into the wooden stake?" Xiaolan asked in shock.

"Not necessarily. There seems to be a form where the head is cut off and the corpse kneels in front of the head to repent." Wen Shui recalled for a moment. "In any case, the local indigenous tribes like to use this method to purify the soul hidden in the body of a sinner and prevent it from possessing other people."

"How cruel."

Xiaolan suddenly felt that the cookies in her hand no longer tasted good.

At this point, Ayako Suzuki took the initiative to change the subject, saying, "Oh dear, let's not talk about such scary things. Let's talk about something happy instead."

Sonoko Suzuki: "Exactly, Nukumizu-kun, is there any dark magic in that book that can make others like you?"

“How could such a thing exist in the world?” Wen Shui shook her head.

Sonoko Suzuki: "But isn't there a saying in Teitan that if you tie your hair together with the hair of the person you admire and hang it on a tree near the shrine, you can win their heart?"

Wen Shui and Shu: "That's all a lie, right? If there really were such magic, what do you think would happen if all the boys in school liked the same girl?"

Sonoko Suzuki tilted her head, her large, watery eyes sparkling with confusion.

A few seconds later, her face turned red: "Couldn't you have given a slightly more normal explanation? You've made me think of weird things."

Wen Shui shrugged: "Only people with dirty minds think of strange things. I can only think of that poor girl with all her hair pulled out."

"Stop talking!"

Knowing she couldn't win an argument with Wen Shui, Suzuki Sonoko had no choice but to pick up her teacup and drink.

Ai Haibara also picked up her teacup and took a sip: "So, Wen Shui-kun, who do you think would be the girl whose hair was plucked if this really happened?"

She was actually indirectly asking Wenshui who she thought was the most popular in Teitan.

Ran and Sonoko Suzuki both tensed up and looked curiously toward the warm water.

Without hesitation, Wen Shui replied, "Of course it's you, Haibara-kun."

Wen Shui felt the air around him suddenly freeze, and a faint sense of suffocation enveloped him.

Ran looked at him in surprise: "Huh? Is this a confession? Does Wen Shui-kun still like Haibara-kun after all?"

Conan was secretly pleased. If Nuku was fooled by Shiho Miyano's appearance, at least he could be sure that she would stop bothering Ran.

As for whether Wen Shui will be drawn into the Black Organization...

Once he completely eradicates the Black Organization, there will be no need to worry about this problem, Conan thought.

"I...I noticed it a long time ago, Ran. You're so oblivious when it comes to feelings." Beneath Sonoko Suzuki's forced smile, her large, watery eyes were gradually losing their sparkle.

Wen Shui smiled and said, "No, I just wanted to see Haibara-san's different side."

"Hey, Mr. Wen Shui, you're such a pervert."

Ran and Sonoko quickly distanced themselves from the warm water, but they both seemed relieved.

“You really do have the potential to become a psychopathic killer,” Ai Haibara suggested seriously. “I think we can try investigating Nukumizu-kun as the culprit behind the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s murder.”

Warm Water: "That's impossible, okay..."

"So you like me but are too shy to say it directly, so you can only express it in this half-joking way?" Ai Haibara pressed on.

Wen Shui: "Uh... let's talk about the fact that I'm a murderer."

While the romantic comedy unfolds here, Ayako Suzuki chats with her classmates, but she's also secretly observing Nukumizu and the others.

Could this kid named Wen Shui and Shu really know black magic?

Sonoko is one thing, after all, her younger sister has always been that kind of person, only interested in things for a short time.

But she remembered that Ran had always been on good terms with her childhood friend, the detective Shinichi Kudo.

That girl named Ai Haibara also seems to have a very opinionated personality.

That kid actually managed to get three girls to show him some level of affection at the same time. I guess I underestimated him a bit before.

Ayako Suzuki is considering whether she should take the initiative to test the other party's character for her sister's sake.

.

Ota Masaru noticed that Ran was using eating to avoid talking to him.