Conan: The Self-cultivation of Fake Wine

"Although the autopsy rate in Japan is not high, for a great author like Ms. Saikawa, there is a high possibility that an autopsy would be performed after her accidental death. Tono should also know this."

"Once the autopsy is done, if there is no sushi-related food in her stomach, it will be exposed instantly. So there is a possibility that Ms. Saikawa's meal time has not changed and is still 6:30 in the evening as before."

"When Tono came to visit at 6:30, he might have been holding a plate of sushi in his hand. He watched Qichuan eat and chatted with her. When Qichuan finished eating the sushi, Tono found an opportunity to kill her."

Lu Ren pointed at the ginger slices on the handkerchief and made the final conclusion, "This pickled ginger was not replaced. It was the pickled ginger from the first sushi."

"Then he ordered takeout from Bao Sushi, and when it arrived, he took the sushi away. He found a random place to drop it off on the way to the station."

"This way, they can fake Qi Chuan's meal time to be after 8pm, and the time of death obtained by the forensic autopsy is estimated based on the degree of food digestion. He thus has an alibi."

"This is not right." The owner of Mizushima came out at some point, stood beside the table, listened to Lu Ren's inference, and expressed his objection.

"How to say?"

"Ms. Qichuan has very high requirements for food quality. Even if the sushi that Tono brought was not from our restaurant, it must be a special sushi of similar quality, otherwise Ms. Qichuan would not eat it."

"As far as I know, no premium sushi restaurant in Tokyo would use such low-quality industrial pickled ginger. Only the barbarians in Kansai, especially in Osaka, would do this."

The boss made a casual remark about the Osaka people, then added: "And according to what you said, if this sushi was delivered at 6:30 last night, then there is no way that the ginger slices would be the same as they are now."

He picked up a piece of ginger from the handkerchief, squeezed it hard, and when he opened his hands, they were covered with water stains.

Mizushima wiped his hands and said, "I also visited Teacher Qichuan. Her family has done a good job of moisture-proofing, and the weather is so hot. If it has really been stored for so long, the pickled ginger should have dried up long ago. It can't be so fresh."

Freshness...

Lu Ren suddenly remembered that Conan had pinched ginger slices in his hands and looked at them carefully before. Could it be that he discovered this?

Lu Ren took out his mobile phone and immediately started to verify.

The call was quickly connected, and he got straight to the point: "The pickled ginger in the sink is not fresh enough, right?"

"You already know. I was just about to tell you. Logically, if it was..."

"Okay, thank you."

Lu Ren hung up the phone, looking much more relaxed, and said with a smile: "The problem of freshness is easy to solve. Yuanye may have accidentally disposed of the pickled ginger last night."

"He remembered this this morning, so he bought a can of ginger slices from a nearby convenience store and disguised it as last night's sushi ginger slices. That's why it still looks fresh."

Kitajima nodded. "That makes sense. If the ginger in the sink is left over from last night's special sushi, the quality can't be much different from Bao Sushi's. I probably can't be sure if it's Bao Sushi's."

“So details determine success or failure.”

"Are you sure?" The owner of Mizushima was still a little unconvinced. "Mr. Tono is a very nice person, very polite. He always greets everyone with a smile."

Many murderers are described as "a good man" before they are exposed. This kind of testimony is meaningless.

"If possible, I don't want to believe it. But solving a case depends on evidence. Teacher Qichuan likes to eat sushi with squid and octopus. Toono should know this, right?"

"Ah."

"And every time you deliver sushi takeout to Mr. Qichuan, you always add these two things. He knows this, right?"

"Ah."

"But you forgot to add it last night. If the autopsy results prove that Mr. Qi Chuan has squid and octopus in his stomach, then tell me, where did these two things come from?"

Just then, Lu Ren's phone suddenly rang.

"Officer Megure, are the autopsy results out? Then take a look and see if there were any squid or octopus in the food she ate last night?"

Having said that, Lu Ren pressed the hands-free button.

"There are squid and octopus, quite a lot of them. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, we'll be back soon. I already know who the murderer is."

Lu Ren hung up the phone and looked at the store owner, "Mr. Mizushima, come with us. I need you to identify the murderer, Tono."

"Ah."

……

Half an hour later, faced with multiple pieces of evidence presented by Lu Ren, Yuanye confessed to the crime.

Ms. Qi Chuan was indeed murdered, and the method of committing the crime was just as Lu Ren said.

"I didn't expect that the flaw would be caused by the boss's carelessness." Yuanye sighed and shook his head slowly.

Hearing this, Mizushima's eyes widened and he clenched his fists. He really wanted to let Toono feel why there was the word "iron" in his name.

"Flaw?" Lu Ren raised his eyebrows. "The flaws you left behind are far more than just this one."

He has always been disgusted by murderers being so arrogant, especially those who have been caught.

"It's not that far from here to the izakaya in front of the station. And do you think the police can find the sushi you hastily discarded?"

"Since you can even accidentally lose the pickled ginger, you certainly haven't considered the fingerprints on the packaging box? You think that using forensic autopsy to perjure yourself is perfect enough and don't care about these small details."

"Let's talk about the pickled ginger. You were careless last night and accidentally handled the pickled ginger. This morning, you hurriedly made up for it and bought a can of pickled ginger at the store. In order to cover up a mistake, you made a bigger mistake."

"You are the one who ordered takeout for Ms. Saikawa many times. So why didn't you notice that the pickled ginger you bought is completely different from the one from Bao Sushi?"

"Your pickled ginger is dyed, and the color is totally wrong. Not to mention the knife skills and the quality of the ginger itself."

Although Lu Ren didn't see the latter two, it didn't stop him from claiming to be a tiger.

"If you take it for comparative testing, you will find that the ginger slices not only have pigments, but also various food additives. It is not the handmade pickled ginger of Bao Sushi at all."

"Can the police find out your purchase record of pickled ginger this morning? What explanation will you give then?"

Yuan Ye was speechless because of the questions one after another. After Lu Ren said this, he realized that his plan was full of loopholes.

"You live such a rough life, so don't think you are unlucky. You just don't have enough ability."

"Tono, why are you doing this?!" Before Mizushima Tetsuo showed his iron fist, another middle-aged man grabbed Toono's collar and forcibly pulled him up from the table.

Gao Mu rushed over to comfort him, "Mr. Shimazaki, please calm down."

The person who grabbed Tono's collar was Shimazaki Yasunori, the president of Labyrinth Publishing House whom Lu Ren had previously suspected.

He was very tall, with a face so thin that his cheekbones could be seen, and a stubble on his chin. He was wearing a cheap and dirty shirt, and the belt around his waist was not fitting and was exposed for a long time. The leather shoes on his feet were also dusty and full of wrinkles.

Just based on his unkempt appearance, no one would believe that he was the president of a publishing house if he walked on the street.

When Lu Ren and Kitajima went to Bao Sushi with ginger slices to ask the boss, President Shimazaki learned of Qichuan's death and took the initiative to come to the door and vouch for Toono with certainty.

Shimazaki Yasunobu firmly believed that Toono was not the murderer because he and other employees of the publishing house knew how much Toono liked Saikawa Murako's works.

He should be the saddest one when people in Qichuan Village were murdered.

With this in mind, Shimazaki temporarily put down his work, rushed over to personally vouch for Toono, and tried to comfort him.

As a result, the facts are revealed, Toono is the murderer.

In addition to the pain of being slapped in the face, Shimazaki Yasunori felt more disappointed and confused.

"Why did you kill Teacher Qichuan? Isn't she your favorite writer?"

Under Takagi's persuasion, Shimazaki Yasunori let go of Tono and sat back in the chair next to him.

But his voice was still loud, and he shouted at Tono: "Have you forgotten what you said to me before? 'It is precisely because everyone has forgotten Teacher Saikawa that I want to let the world know her again and let everyone know how good her works are.'"

Lu Ren had the same question. The murderer was caught, but he still hadn't figured out the motive.

It would be fine if it was normal. But this was Lu Ren's first time solving a case on his own, so he wanted to go through the entire process as much as possible.

Even if Shimazaki Yasunori didn't ask, he would take the initiative to ask about the motive for the crime.

"Teacher... has a terminal illness, and the doctor diagnosed that she only has half a year to live. I don't want her to die in obscurity. So I planned this case under the name of Ooshitani Ryo. This is also for her own good..."

"You bastard!"

Shimazaki Yasunori suddenly jumped up, and Takagi, who was prepared, quickly stopped him.

But...it didn't work.

He guarded against Shimazaki Yasunori, but ignored Mizushima Tetsuo, the sushi restaurant owner who had deeper feelings for Ms. Sachikawa.

Compared to the thin president of the publishing house, the sushi restaurant owner who has been doing heavy physical work all year round has successfully proved to everyone why the word "iron" is in his name.

He knocked over the table and rushed in front of Tono.

With just one punch, Tono fell to the ground. With the second punch, blood spurted from Tono's mouth and nose.

The other police officers present also reacted quickly, and Chiba, who was also quite powerful, quickly pounced on Mizushima Tetsuo.

But... it's no use.

Mizushima Tetsuo rode on Tono, and even though there was a person hanging on him, it didn't stop him from punching. His eyes were bloodshot, like an enraged bull dripping with blood, and a roar that was not human came out of his throat.

"I'll beat you to death, you bastard."

"That's enough, stop it." Lu Ren grabbed his wrist and slowly but unquestionably pulled him up. "If you hit him again, he'll die. Why bother? Let me have a word with him."

Tetsuo Mizushima suddenly became quiet, silently gave up his seat and stood aside.

Chiba still did not relax his vigilance and continued to hug Mizushima Tetsuo with his arms.

"Mr. Tono, you should be conscious now, right? It's good that you are conscious. If you are not conscious, what I am going to say next will be meaningless."

"You know the identities of Bei Dao and I. I am a reporter for the Eastern Newspaper, and she is the editor-in-chief of the Eastern Newspaper. You also know why Bei Dao and I were called here. It was a phone call."

"We plan to visit Ms. Qichuan Village this morning. Have you ever thought about why a reporter and an editor would go to visit an author who has not written for many years?"

"You may have guessed it, but you dare not think about it further."

Toono's body twitched, and it was unclear whether it was because of pain or something else.

"We had dinner at Bao Sushi last night, yes, it was the sushi restaurant that Ms. Qichuan loved most when she was alive. It was because of the owner's introduction that we became interested in Ms. Qichuan and wanted to interview her."

"You should know what the interview with the Eastern Newspaper means. It doesn't matter if you don't know. I can tell you slowly."

"Toho is one of the three most powerful newspapers in Tokyo and even in Japan. I have a nickname, 'God's Pen', and I am recognized as the best writer in Japan. She is the youngest, most motivated, hardworking and responsible editor-in-chief of Toho."

"As long as we want, we can mobilize enough resources of the East Daily. This means we can make anyone famous that we want. We have a say and a hand in newspapers, publishing houses, and TV stations."

"Only one day." Lu Ren raised a finger. "Only one day will it take for Qichuan Village to come back into people's sight. People will know that there is such a master mystery writer in Japan."

"People will pay attention to her, discuss her, and admire her. Her books will sell well. She will be able to leave this world without any regrets."

"But what did you do? You killed her. You made her close her eyes before dawn. You made her unable to find peace in the last moments of her life, and she left this world in great pain."

"You must be in a lot of pain right now, so you should be able to feel what kind of pain Teacher Qi Chuan was going through at that time."

"There's something you don't know. After I told Mr. Mizushima about Saikawamura's death, he was extremely sad. He felt that he had ruined Saikawamura's last meal in her life, causing her to leave this world with regrets."

"But Mr. Tono, it was you who ruined Qichuancun's last meal and made her leave this world with great regret. Even if you studied the ingredients of sushi, would the taste really be the same?"

"In the last moments of her life, she didn't get to eat her favorite food as she wished. Do you really think you are doing this for her good? No, you only have yourself in your eyes."

"You're not some kind person who cares about other people. You're just a careless, mean, self-serving bastard."

Yuanye curled up his body, tears and blood flowing to the ground, like a wounded animal.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 450 No One Cares

"That's what happened……"

At Dr. A Li's house, Lu Ren put curry rice in his mouth, his voice slightly unclear.

After the case was solved, Lu Ren still had no time to spare.

The detective's work was temporarily finished, and the newspaper office work was still waiting for him.

Moreover, it is still a relatively anxious job.

"A writer was killed by his characters." This kind of outdated and untrue rumor was naturally disdainful to be reported by Dongbao.

"Writers were killed by editors." This kind of truth-seeking and pragmatic news is what Dongbao pursues.

It’s not to pursue popularity or slap the other two newspapers in the face, but to return the truth to the dead and not let the world be deceived.

perhaps……

Anyway, Sato Kiyoshi said it so righteously on the phone, so everyone just accepted it and believed it.

As for a job like a slap in the face... no, a job like telling the world the truth, the sooner the better.

A late truth will obviously not be remembered by too many people.