Ke Xue: Xiaolan delivers goods to your door at the beginning

Don't ask why it's the back that's attached; the reason is that if it were attached to the front, it would bounce off. If it were Sera Masumi, this might have been avoided.

After Shirley went into the bathroom, Lin Xiaofeng walked along the route she had taken before, mopping up the footprints she left behind. Then he took a broom and dustpan and went into the kitchen to start cleaning the next area.

Just then, Lin Xiaofeng's cell phone rang.

When I took it out, I was surprised to find that it was a call from Sonoko.

1.4 Lin Xiaofeng raised his eyebrows and clicked to connect.

"crooked?"

"breeze!"

As soon as the call connected, the excited voice of a cheerful young girl came through the wireless signal from the other end of the line.

"We haven't been in touch for several days. What are you doing now?"

"Now?"

Lin Xiaofeng glanced at the broom in his hand.

"I'm cleaning, what's wrong?"

"Hmm—" Sonoko paused for a moment, her voice feigning mystery, "Do you still remember what you promised me a few days ago?"

"Of course I remember," Lin Xiaofeng hummed in agreement. "Going on a trip, huh? What, have you already set a departure date?"

"Yes. Tomorrow, I'm planning to go skiing." A mouse click sound came from the other side of the garden.

"Skiing?" Lin Xiaofeng was taken aback.

He thought to himself, "In the middle of summer, where can I find a place to ski? An indoor ski resort?"

"Hmm, there's an outdoor ski resort in Kitazawa Village, Niigata Prefecture, where it snows all year round. I think they're holding some kind of festival there recently."

Sonoko's tone suddenly turned excited.

"So, what do you think? Should we go?"

412. Ran doesn't want to have anything to do with Shinichi Kudo.

Niigata Prefecture is actually located in the mountains of north-central Honshu Island, Japan.

However, considering that there are 3,650 days in a year in the Conan universe, nearly 20 or 30 Christmases and Valentine's Days, as well as numerous winter and summer vacations and spring breaks, and that the seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter are often frequently and randomly interspersed.

To avoid a situation where the hottest days of summer have just ended and the coldest days of winter are upon us, a designated area in Niigata Prefecture on Honshu Island, Japan, has been forcibly set aside for year-round snowfall.

Its name is Kitazawa Village.

A few days later, the annual snow festival opened in Kitazawa Village.

Festivals like the Snow Festival are not uncommon around the world; almost every place that experiences heavy snowfall in winter has such a custom.

However, Kitazawa Village is truly the only place that opens a snow festival in mid-August.

This is arguably the most important revenue-generating time of the year for this remote mountainous area.

And Lin Xiaofeng and his group just happened to be there.

A huge welcome banner was attached to a long cylindrical balloon and erected in an arch at the entrance of the village. Looking into the village from the entrance, various food stalls were set up on both sides of the snow-covered main road, with a wide variety of delicacies such as roasted sweet potatoes and takoyaki on display. Tourists wearing thick down jackets were coming and going in an endless stream.

Wow, there are quite a few people here.

In the very center of the main road 17 in Beize Village, Lin Xiaofeng, dressed in casual clothes, stood outdoors in sub-zero temperatures, his hands in his pockets, looking left and right, his gaze wandering between one snack stall after another.

Beside him, a young lady from a certain garden was wrapped tightly in a pink padded jacket, with her hands obediently wearing not-so-pretty but very practical large gloves, and she even wore fluffy clip-on earrings.

Even so, the girl's voice still trembled slightly, and she exhaled a large puff of white mist with every word she spoke: "Of course... It's very hot all over Japan this season, only this place can be considered a real 'summer resort', but... it seems a bit too cold. By the way, Xiaofeng, don't you feel cold wearing so little?"

"I feel alright?" Lin Xiaofeng said casually.

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and extended his arm to Sonoko.

"No way?" Sonoko murmured.

Undeterred, she risked having all the warmth she had managed to build up blown away by the wind, took off her gloves, and touched Lin Xiaofeng's arm with her slightly cool fingertips.

Hmm... It's warm and cozy. It seems you can't generalize about everyone's constitution after all.

Lin Xiaofeng raised his head and turned his gaze to the side.

Shinichi Kudo is still trying to reconcile with Ran Mouri. Although he has given up on pursuing Ran, they can still be friends.

However, Ran Mouri wasn't too impressed.

"Kudo-kun, you don't need to apologize to me. I don't care at all."

"Mmm... Ran, you've changed so much while I was away. You even started calling me Kudo-kun."

"We can't let Xiaofeng misunderstand."

Conan deliberately took Sherry's medicine to temporarily turn back into his original form, wanting to surprise Ran, but Ran wasn't interested at all.

They were talking to each other, but it was as if they were talking to thin air.

"What's the situation between the two of them?" Lin Xiaofeng asked knowingly, gesturing with his chin.

"Them... I don't really know either." Sonoko glanced over and understood. "Maybe it's because they've been apart for too long. But don't worry, Ran won't go back to her ex."

"Oh ho ho ho—" Lin Xiaofeng's drawn-out laughter revealed a sense of smug satisfaction at seeing through everything.

As she said this, she squinted and glanced at the three little ones behind her, led by a riddle teller from Beika Town.

It's not that Sonoko dislikes children; normally, that would be fine. But this time, she came to strengthen her relationship with her beloved Lin Xiaofeng.

In addition, based on past experience, these three little ones are really not ordinary bears when they get angry. If they ruin her plans, she will really go berserk.

"Then let's go explore somewhere else," Lin Xiaofeng suggested.

"good idea!"

As soon as the topic came up, Sonoko immediately perked up and, without saying a word, opened her arms and gave Lin Xiaofeng a bear hug, clinging to his arm like a koala.

Seeing that Lin Xiaofeng was already taking Sonoko for a stroll, Xiaolan quickly abandoned Kudo Shinichi and followed them.

"Hey, you two, don't bother me."

"Xiaofeng and I are here so as not to interfere with your reunion with Xinyi."

"There's nothing for us to reminisce about."

Ran Mouri had almost forgotten about Shinichi Kudo, and his sudden reappearance only made her feel uncomfortable.

It seems the locals genuinely intend to develop this village into a tourist destination; despite being a village settlement, the layout is designed to resemble an amusement park.

Before long, the three of them walked at a leisurely pace to the visitor center.

Pushing open the glass door covered in condensation, a wave of hot air from the indoor air conditioner hits you immediately.

Sonoko's face, which had been stiff from the cold outside, immediately relaxed.

At the counter directly opposite the entrance, two men, also dressed in thick winter clothes, seemed to be asking the customer service desk for something.

Lin Xiaofeng then saw the customer service staff take out two paper maps from under the table and explain them in detail.

"One of these maps is of the new Beize Village after the dam was built, and the other is of the old Beize Village."

"Oh, thanks!"

One of the men, wearing glasses, spoke to the relatively handsome man, while the other, with a darker complexion and unkempt appearance, held up two maps and carefully compared them under the light.

Hearing the door open behind him, the bespectacled man turned around and saw someone coming in. He then pointed at the dark-skinned man next to him with a hint of mischief and added a comment.

"Because this guy really wants to know exactly where his old home is now submerged in the reservoir."

After he finished speaking, he reached out and patted the latter on the shoulder.

"Alright, let's go."

"Oh, yeah."

The dark-skinned man sensed something and turned around to look. He caught sight of Lin Xiaofeng, Yuanzi, and Xiaolan entering through the door behind him, exchanged glances, and nodded.

The two turned around and were about to leave quickly.

Snap—

Perhaps in their haste, as the two couples brushed past each other, the bespectacled man accidentally brushed against Lin Xiaofeng, and a dark rectangular object flew out of his shirt pocket, landing on the ground with a plastic-like sound.

"oops!"

The bespectacled man was caught off guard and tried to pick it up as soon as he realized what was happening.

However, someone beat them to it.

Lin Xiaofeng picked up the cuboid that had fallen to the ground with a seemingly seamless motion, turned it around in his hand a couple of times, and muttered something in a voice that could be heard throughout the entire customer service center.

"Hey, isn't this a stun gun?"

Lin Xiaofeng's voice wasn't loud, but the customer service center was a relatively quiet environment, so even his ordinary self-talk could be heard to some extent, even from a distance.

What's more, these are such sensitive words.

In an instant, almost all eyes in the hall were focused on the man with glasses.

"Ah, this is..."

The bespectacled man paused for a moment, but his reaction was quick; he realized what was happening and gave the staff behind the service desk a mischievous smile.

"It's for self-defense. Because I work as an insurance investigator in Tokyo, I often encounter all sorts of dangerous situations, so I usually carry it with me when I go out like this..."

He turned to look at Lin Xiaofeng.

"Excuse me, could you please return it to me?"

"Hmm...of course."

Lin Xiaofeng nodded and casually tossed the stun gun he had picked up from the ground over.

The bespectacled man reached out and caught it in mid-air, gave it one last meaningful look, and then turned and left.

413. Conan reveals his plan to disappear.

"That person gave me a really bad feeling." After watching the two of them leave, Sonoko muttered to herself, "He looked like a cunning and treacherous old man."

"Who knows?" Lin Xiaofeng shrugged. "Xiao Lan, were you hurt when you were bumped?"

"No, I'm still worried about the other person," Xiaolan replied.

Lin Xiaofeng simply reached out and pulled the two women into his arms, then walked towards the service counter.

"Hello, do you have a tourist guide for Kitazawa Village? Could you please give me a copy?"

"Uh, of course, please wait a moment."

After responding with that comment, the customer service staff bent down and started searching.

Just like the two people before him, it didn't take long for the staff member to stand up and hand Lin Xiaofeng a tourist guide.

In other words, it's his business how many sheets he gives out, and it's the customer's business how many sheets they want.

"Thank you."

Yuanzi and Xiaolan huddled close to Lin Xiaofeng, looking at the map in his hand.

The map depicts the geography of Kitazawa Village in great detail, clearly marking the locations of ski resorts and food streets, as well as hotels and hospitals. Even the location of the ice-sculpted slide is marked on the map.

"Wow, that's so detailed!" Sonoko exclaimed.

"This looks like so much fun!" Xiaolan exclaimed, clearly intrigued.

The lower half of the map is Kitazawa Village, while the upper half is covered by a vast expanse of blue, resembling a large lake.

Sonoko pointed to the blue area on the map and asked, "Is that a lake? It looks huge. According to the map, it seems bigger than the entire Kitazawa Village. Why don't we go check it out, Lin-gege?"

"Ah, that...no."

The customer service staff glanced at it and looked embarrassed, then smiled and said...

“That’s not a lake, but a reservoir. The old Kitazawa Village was there eight years ago. Later, the government repurposed it for the construction of the reservoir, and Kitazawa Village moved from there to its current location.”

Xiaolan suddenly exclaimed, as if she had suddenly realized something: "No wonder those two people were talking about their hometown being flooded when we came in. It turns out that the old Beizhe Village is right below the reservoir!"

"Yes." The staff member nodded slightly.

Lin Xiaofeng didn't speak, but simply raised his eyebrows.

Beizawa Village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, so the reservoir was built in the valley...