Conan: The Self-cultivation of Fake Wine

If it were five centimeters it would be easy, but ten centimeters is too difficult.

However, after hearing the content of Lu Ren's call, Shimabukuro Kimie began to suspect that her boss might have gone crazy.

"Is there any magic that can make a person grow taller temporarily? It would be best if it lasts longer. Okay, then please come over now."

Then Lu Ren hung up the phone, "Done."

So Shimabukuro Kimie began to think about which psychiatric hospital in Tokyo had the best treatment. Before she could figure it out, a dark door suddenly appeared in the middle of her living room, and a red-haired woman walked out from behind the door and stood in the air. Then, as if she was stepping on invisible stairs, she walked step by step to Lu Ren's side.

On X month X day of 20XX, 27-year-old Shimabukuro Kimie's worldview collapsed.

"Is it her?"

"Yeah." Lu Ren roughly explained what happened to the witch Koizumi Hongzi.

"Halloween party? Interesting." The witch thought for a moment, "How can I participate in this party?"

"Just get an invitation."

"Then get me one. It will be my reward for my help this time."

"No problem." Lu Ren agreed readily, "Are you planning to participate too?"

"Hmm. Such plots are not often found in literary works. Among these activities where people dress up as monsters and ghosts, there are always some real people mixed in. I plan to go over and take a look."

Koizumi Hongzi glanced at the clown mask next to Shimabukuro Kimie and said meaningfully, "Although you have a bunch of strange magic props in your hands, and you and I have some things in common. But after all, you haven't entered the door yet, so you can't be considered one of my kind."

"Then you better be careful. As you said, at this time, if you really meet them, be careful that they have bad intentions."

"They are the ones who should be worried." Koizumi Hongzi didn't care.

She stretched out her hand and drew another door in the air. "Okay, I'm going to go back and rest. I'll come pick her up the day after tomorrow."

"See you."

Shimabukuro Kimie - AFK hosting, disconnected and reconnecting.

After a while, she came back to her senses, reached out and grabbed Lu Ren's arm, and said excitedly: "Boss, it turns out that there is magic in the world!"

"Yes, yes, I knew it a long time ago. Could you please not shout so loudly?"

Shimabukuro Kimie ignored him and continued to ask, "Since there is magic, are there gods in the world? Is there heaven or hell? Where do people go after they die? Can they be reincarnated?"

Questions were thrown one after another, and Shimabukuro Kimie held on tightly, her nails turning white from excessive force. It was as if she would not let go of Lu Ren's arm unless she got the answer she wanted.

"I don't know. You can ask the witch the day after tomorrow. But I don't recommend you to have too much hope for this." Lu Ren pried open Shimabukuro Kimie's fingers one by one. At this moment, he realized that Shimabukuro Kimie was still living in the shadow of her mother's accidental death.

But...what can I do?

The dead are gone, and there is no one who can truly let go. Either forget or be numb. If he himself can't let go, how can he comfort others?

"Rest early. I'll go back first."

……

The next morning, Lu Ren drove Huiyuan to his home, told her what might happen next, and told her to stay at his house and not go out for the next two or three days.

Huiyuan remained silent from beginning to end. After Lu Ren finished speaking, she turned around and went upstairs and locked herself in the room.

Lu Ren probably understood her thoughts, but he could do nothing about it. He reached out and rubbed the oranges twice, and told Dabai: "When I'm not around, you must protect Xiao Ai."

[Understood. The gentle Dabai will definitely protect the little master.]

"Okay, please." Lu Ren let go of Orange, changed his clothes and left the house.

Before leaving, Lu Ren turned around, smiled and waved at the second floor of his house, and then went straight to the cafe.

But the cafe was not open today. Lu Ren called the shop owner and found out the reason. Shiina Hana had taken sick leave and had not returned to work yet, and Shimabukuro Kimie also took a day off today. There were no waiters in the shop, and the boss himself was not feeling well, so he simply took a few days off to rest.

Having temporarily lost his permanent AFK spot, Lu Ren had to turn around and drive to the office.

Brother Mao Li didn't go on strike, but he was really idle. No customers came to his shop all day. Mao Li was used to this. When he saw Lu Ren coming so early today, he thought of having a small gathering. Anyway, no one came to the shop, so he simply hung up the sign of closing early and took Lu Ren to drink.

Mao Lilan complained, but her hands were not slow. She quickly prepared a few side dishes for them to eat with their wine.

When Maori was drunk, Maori Ran returned to the house holding two envelopes.

"There are two invitations in the mailbox." Mao Lilan handed one of the envelopes to Lu Ren, "Brother Ren, this is yours."

Lu Ren took it and put it aside.

Mao Li didn't take it. He was so drunk that he couldn't even hold the glass, let alone read the letter. "Xiao Lan, open it and see what it says."

"Oh." After opening the envelope and taking a look at the letter inside, Mao Lilan began to look embarrassed.

"What's wrong? Read it."

"Then I'll read it. The incompetent detective Kogoro Mori..."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 388: Handsome and Elegant

——Mr. Maori Kogoro, the incompetent detective, please allow me to invite you to this horrible night banquet on the night of the full moon this month. It will be a bloody party on the boat. Of course, whether you attend or not, the poor lamb who is about to die will curse his fate. The sinner will also get drunk before he dies.

As Maori Ran finished reading the invitation letter, Maori Kogoro put down his wine glass, and the anger in his heart diluted a little bit of his drunkenness. The best description of him at this moment was that he laughed when he was extremely angry.

"This isn't an invitation letter at all. It's a challenge letter to a famous detective like me. Who sent this?"

"It looks like a foreigner." Mao Lilan looked through the envelope and read out a little awkwardly: "Vermouth. Fumos."

Mao Li went over the name in his mind and found that he had no impression of it. He looked at Lu Ren and asked, "What do you think?"

Lu Ren took the invitation letter from Mao Lilan, glanced at it, and replied: "The writing skills of the person who wrote this invitation letter need to be improved. The writing is half-baked and confusing, just like a third-rate weird novel."

"Uh." Mao Li was stunned for a while, and then he said helplessly: "I'm talking about what you think of the intention of the person who sent the invitation letter, not how good his writing skills are."

"I think the same as you, brother."

"Hmm." Mao Li glanced at the invitation letter beside Lu Ren's legs, "Why don't you take a look at what's written in your invitation letter."

"No need." Lu Ren pointed at the signature on the envelope, "They are all sent by that person, and the contents are probably the same."

Lu Ren didn't want to open his invitation in front of Maori and his daughter because he didn't know what Vermouth had written in it.

Vermouth was so careless that he printed the name of his wine, Vermouth, on the envelope. If you open it, you will find that the beginning of his invitation is "Dear GlenFiddich/Glenfiddich."

That's not finished.

"Okay." Mao Li was a little disappointed, but he didn't insist. He raised his glass and said, "Come on, keep drinking!"

Lu Ren clinked glasses with him.

Mao Lilan continued to flip through the envelope, and then she found a very normal invitation letter in the envelope. The general idea was to invite Mao Li to attend the Halloween party. With the invitation letter, the person can bring one or two companions to attend together. All of them must dress up as monsters and wear black suits or black dresses. The time and place of the party are also marked.

Compared to the previous "challenge letter", this invitation letter is undoubtedly much more normal.

"You can bring someone with you." Mao Li looked at his girl, "Lan, are you going?"

"No." Mao Lilan refused decisively. She paused for a moment and added, "Perhaps Sonoko would be interested in this party. I'll give her a call and ask her."

The development of the matter was not surprising. When she heard about such a fun thing, Yuanzi agreed immediately, and not only that, she also volunteered to take on the job of makeup artist.

A quarter of an hour later, Sonoko arrived at Maori's office carrying a bunch of equipment. She half-pushed and half-shoved Maori from the table to the sofa and began to put on makeup for him.

Seeing that the drinking party was interrupted, Lu Ren was not annoyed. He stood up and walked to Mao Lilan's side, looking at the scenery outside the window with her. "Why don't you see Conan? I remember he came back yesterday."

"Yeah, but he left again today. He said he had to go take care of Ai."

Lu Ren was speechless.

"Brother Ren, will you go to that party?"

"It depends on the situation. If I have nothing else to do, I will attend. If not, I won't go."

"Ah."

After a while, Mao Lilan broke the silence and said, "Do you think Shinichi will also receive this invitation?"

"It's possible. You can give the doctor a call and ask him to check the Kudo family's mailbox."

"Yeah." Mao Lilan took out her cell phone, but didn't dial it immediately. She seemed to suddenly think of something and turned to look at Lu Ren, "By the way, Ren Ge, don't tell Conan about the Halloween party. Otherwise, he will definitely go around in dangerous places."

"Ah."

Seeing that Lu Ren agreed, Mao Lilan made the call with confidence.

Lu Ren was not prepared to listen to the content of the phone call. He walked back to the living room and watched Yuanzi's makeup technique.

I have to say that Sonoko's makeup skills are quite remarkable. Not only does she make the characters look lifelike, but she also does it very quickly. She just picks up the pen and does it, as if she doesn't have to think about it at all.

Apart from anything else, she would have no problem applying for a job as a makeup artist at a special effects company with this skill alone. She could just switch to doing makeup for monsters.

But the progress of putting makeup on Maori is very slow.

Lu Ren felt that this was not Sonoko's problem, but that there was a problem with Kogoro Mori himself.

Maybe he drank too much, Mao Li turned into an unscrupulous party and rejected one makeup after another that Sonoko had done for him.

Not only did he pass it, he also made a bunch of requests.

To sum up, there are two points.

1. The less human-like the better.

2. The more human-like the makeup is, the better.

To put it simply, while taking into account Maori's handsomeness, he also needs to embody the unique evil charm of a monster.

This was so shameless that even Lu Ren, who was watching, couldn't stand it. He waved at Yuanzi, signaling him to stop what he was doing.

When they walked a little further away, Lu Ren gently gave some pointers to Yuanzi. She suddenly realized something and said, "Oh - I understand."

After a while, Sonoko transformed Maori into another shape.

A vampire with pointed ears and fangs. Unlike the pale or even pale skin of other vampires, Maori's skin is dark brown. He is a non-mainstream vampire.

Sonoko handed Maori a mirror and said, "How is it? This is a masterpiece that I put all my efforts into."

Mao Li looked left and right in the dressing mirror, "But I always feel that this state is no different from my original appearance."

"Makeup should be conservative," Sonoko muttered, "If it's too heavy, it won't stand out."

At this time, Mao Lilan just finished a phone call and came over. She echoed: "I think this makeup suits you very well, Dad. It can really bring out your handsomeness."

"That makes sense." Mao Li was immediately overjoyed and began to admire himself in the mirror.

Seeing that Mao Li had been really dealt with, Yuanzi smiled and made a gesture to Lu Ren and Lan that the plan was successful.

"By the way, Sonoko, what kind of makeup are you going to wear then?"

"I plan to wear super mini and super cute clothes to charm those monsters."

No matter what kind of party it is, Yuanzi can turn it into a social party. I have to say this is also a talent.

"Maybe I can meet some cool monsters there!"

"How could there be any handsome monsters?" Maori began to pour cold water on him.

"Why not? Uncle, aren't you still thinking about meeting some vampires with great bodies at the party?" Yuanzi retorted and looked at Lu Ren, "Brother Ren, are you going to the party too? Let me put on some makeup for you."

Lu Ren: "No, I have something else to do, so I'll leave first."

……

After leaving the office, Lu Ren walked towards the newspaper office, where he wanted to get the invitation letter for Koizumi Hongzi.

It was still a hasty move. If he had remembered to send an invitation letter in advance so that he could bring extra people, he wouldn't have needed to call Chisai Ichihara.

But since I've already promised them, it doesn't matter. It's just a matter of walking a few more steps.

And given Koizumi Akako's proud personality, she might not even accept sharing an invitation with others.

A quarter of an hour later, Lu Ren received the invitation letter at the door of the newspaper office, which was handed to him by Mori Atsushi. The tool man Chisai Ichihara was very busy and had no time to come in person.

Lu Ren didn't care. He took the invitation and looked up at the second floor of the newspaper office. The lights were already on there.

"Is Bei Dao still working?"

"The editor-in-chief leaves very late every day."

"Go up there and tell them a message for me. Just say 'Go to bed early and don't work too late.' Okay, I won't be going up there anymore."

"Yes."