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

So Shirley went to the zipper, the tip of the knife pressed against the tent near the zipper, as if searching for a place to strike.

Lin Xiaofeng then moved to a spot about two steps to Shirley's right, his grip on the knife hilt tightening.

The next moment, the two of them drew their swords simultaneously!

Stab it!

Although it's just a kitchen knife, it was carefully selected by the two of them and has a sharpness that matches its high price.

Although Lin Xiaofeng and his companion were not skilled with tools, their excellent culinary skills allowed them to use knives flexibly for cutting tasks.

With the combined efforts of the two, a large opening was easily cut into the tent.

Lin Xiaofeng threw away the cut cloth and looked into the tent.

As far as the eye can see, there are vast expanses of burning flames!

The flames spread toward Lin Xiaofeng and his companion at a visible speed, and within the flames, a figure could be faintly seen trapped inside.

Lin Xiaofeng's pupils suddenly contracted, and his gaze quickly swept around.

"Hmm? His feet haven't been engulfed by the flames yet... he should still have time!"

Knowing there was no time to hesitate, Lin Xiaofeng flashed and instantly crawled into the cut!

With a clear purpose, he reached out and grabbed Urushihara's right foot.

"Come out!"

With a low shout in his mind, Lin Xiaofeng tensed his arm muscles and exerted force fiercely!

call!

Lin Xiaofeng quickly darted out of the tent.

His right hand was gripping a figure still burning with flames!

Using the momentum, Lin Xiaofeng took a few steps back, away from the burning tent, before finally putting Qi Yuan's feet down.

Conan, standing nearby, didn't hesitate either. He quickly took off his jacket and used it to cover a patch of flames on Urushihara's body, attempting to isolate the flames from oxygen in order to extinguish the fire.

Seeing this, Lin Xiaofeng also took off his coat and helped put out the fire.

Shirley was only wearing a knitted sweater and no coat, but she didn't sit still. She stomped out a small flame that had started on Urushihara's trouser leg.

Wow!

As another bucket of water was poured down, the last embers of the fire finally went out, unwilling to be extinguished.

Meanwhile, with the help of Lin Xiaofeng and the others, Qi Yuan's flames were also dispelled.

Even though Lin Xiaofeng's rescue was swift enough, Qi Yuan had been inside a tent, which contained many flammable materials, causing the momentum to quickly become turbulent in a short period of time.

Despite the combined effects of various factors, Urushihara still suffered very severe burns and had fallen into a coma.

Everyone stared at Qi Yuan, who lay on the ground, his body charred black and twisted in a contorted position, and their expressions were all very grim.

Sherry and Conan stood in front of the three children. Sherry turned to them and said calmly, "These are not things you can see."

"Oh~" Even if the three little ones were slow-witted, they could still realize what scene was being blocked, and they responded very obediently.

"Urushihara... how could this happen?" Midori stared at the scene before her in panic, tears welling in her eyes.

"What... what happened? How did the tent catch fire?" Lu Ze asked, equally shocked.

"Hey! Look! There's another tent next to Urushihara's!" Mitsuhiko exclaimed, pointing to another tent about two meters away from Urushihara's. "Maybe the people in that tent know something?"

Everyone couldn't help but turn their gaze over there.

Just then, the zipper of the tent was unzipped, and a figure emerged from inside.

"Whoa!" The three little ones exclaimed in surprise.

This was because the man's face was far from kind and approachable, and the black eye patch he wore over his right eye only added to his fierce appearance.

Conan was also somewhat surprised to see this person and couldn't help but ask, "You...you're Supervisor Kuroda?"

"Oh? Manager Kuroda?" Lin Xiaofeng looked down at him.

Conan snapped out of his daze and nodded: "Yes! He's the newly transferred supervising officer of the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department. The former supervising officer, Matsumoto Kiyonaga, has been promoted to head of the First Investigation Division."

"I only met him once when I went to the Metropolitan Police Department to give a statement."

"I see." Lin Xiaofeng understood, thinking to himself that he hadn't guessed wrong.

Kuroda Hyōe glanced around, his gaze lingering briefly on Wakasa Rumi before finally turning to Lin Xiaofeng.

"Detective Lin, I've heard so much about you." He said softly.

"So it's Manager Kuroda, nice to meet you," Lin Xiaofeng said with a smile.

He paused for a moment, then cut to the chase: "Chief Administrator Kuroda should be aware of the current situation. When you were near the burning tent, did you notice anything suspicious?"

Kuroda Heibei shook his head and straightened his pajamas: "I'm sorry, I've been sleeping with earplugs on, so I'm afraid I can't answer your question."

"I see..." Lin Xiaofeng nodded noncommittally.

Kuroda Hyōe glanced around again and said calmly, "It seems you managed to rescue him in time. You must have called an ambulance and the police, right?"

“An ambulance has already been called,” Shirley said. “As for the police, we’re not sure whether to call the rapist unit or the fire department.”

Upon hearing this, Kuroda Hyōe hesitated for two seconds: "After all, it's a fire. Shouldn't we call the fire department over? What do you think?"

His gaze lingered on someone, a strange smile playing on his lips: "Wakasa Rumi-sensei?"

Lin Xiaofeng instantly sensed the unusual tone in Kuroda's voice and turned his gaze to Wakasa Rumi as well.

At this moment, Wakasa Rumi's expression became extremely stiff, revealing a ferocious look. Her pupils contracted sharply, and her gaze was fixed on Kuroda Heibei.

Her figure subtly conveyed a highly aggressive stance.

“Interesting…” Lin Xiaofeng’s lips curled into a smile.

"Wakasa-sensei...Wakasa-sensei?"

Ayumi cried out while tugging at Rumi Wakasa's clothes.

"Hmm...Eh?" Wakasa Rumi finally snapped out of that state, looking at Ayumi with a somewhat bewildered expression, and asked with a smile, "Is there something you need, Yoshida-san?"

"That supervisor, Kuroda, asked the teacher if she wanted to call the fire department police!" Ayumi recounted.

"So, what's your opinion, Wakasa-sensei?" Kuroda Hyōe approached Wakasa Rumi and continued to ask.

Wakasa Rumi looked at Kuroda Heibei and replied hesitantly, "The tent suddenly caught fire just now. It must have been an accident, right?"

"Calling the fire department should be fine!"

She paused for a moment, a hint of confusion on her face, and asked, "But why are you asking me? And how do you know my name?"

"It's nothing," Kuroda Hyōe said calmly. "I just noticed that you've been staring at me intently since earlier, and I thought you had something against me."

"After all, my face often frightens people so much that they can't help but look away; most people rarely stare at me for long."

"I see!" Rumi Wakasa smiled with a look of sudden realization.

Kuroda Hyoue continued, "As for your name, I saw it on the news: [Elementary school teacher Wakasa Rumi performed a great service, bravely fighting against the scumbag golf player murderer]."

"Ah! You've seen that report too?" Wakasa Rumi asked in surprise, then laughed a little embarrassedly, "I'm... I'm really a little embarrassed, haha..."

"Heh, is that so?" Kuroda Hyōe replied meaningfully, then ended the conversation and turned to leave.

Wakasa Rumi's expression darkened for a moment after Kuroda turned away, but she quickly returned to her usual dazed look.

……

In the blink of an eye, more than two hours had passed.

During this time, ambulances and police arrived one after another. Urushihara had already been lifted into an ambulance and rushed to the nearest hospital for emergency treatment, while the police, led by Inspector Yumioka of the Fire Division, began to investigate the scene.

Inspector Gong Chang squatted in front of the ruins, his eyes intently observing the entire area.

"I'm so sorry, Yuminota." Kuroda Hyōe had walked over unnoticed. "I had considered calling Inspector Megure and the others, the perpetrators of the rape, but the situation is still unclear, so..."

Upon seeing that it was Superintendent Kuroda, Inspector Yumikaze quickly waved his hand and laughed, "No, that's not true! Since there was a fire, it should have been called by our Fire Division!"

"So, how is it going?" Kuroda Hyōe asked politely before getting back on track.

Inspector Gong Chang turned his gaze back to the ruins and solemnly explained, "The source of the fire was likely a candle lit in a lamp. That candle melted together with the other candles on the ground, ultimately causing the fire."

"After the candle in the lamp fell over, it ignited nearby comic books and clothing, and the fire spread rapidly, eventually engulfing the deceased who was sleeping in the chair."

623. So you're here too.

The group chat paused for a moment, and then the police chief continued, "Judging from the situation at the scene, the deceased had drunk quite a bit of beer, and upon inspection, the tent was zipped up and locked."

Kuroda Hyōe looked thoughtful: "So, this was an accident?"

“That should be correct,” Inspector Gong Chang nodded in agreement.

"But don't you find it strange?" A childish voice interrupted their conversation.

Conan walked naturally to the edge of the ruins and pointed to a melted candle among them, saying:

"Look, isn't there a bamboo skewer in that melted candle?"

Following Conan's pointing finger, Yukichi and Kuroda saw a bamboo skewer, blackened by smoke, lying in the pile of wax.

"These must be the bamboo skewers the deceased used to skewer the dumplings," Inspector Gong Chang guessed.

He paused for a moment, then seemed to realize something and exclaimed in surprise, "Conan? What are you doing here?"

"It was Sherry and me who brought Conan and the other kids camping here." Lin Xiaofeng and Sherry also came over.

"Oh? Detective Lin is here too!" Inspector Gong Chang exclaimed in surprise again, then looked enlightened.

“Yes!” Lin Xiaofeng smiled, then pointed to the ruins and said, “There are indeed many unanswered questions about this fire, such as here…”

He pointed to a piece of candle that had solidified again and said, "There's a small hole near the top of this candle, which is clearly not naturally formed."

He then pointed to a magazine: "And this magazine next to the laptop, the V-shaped burn marks on it are also quite abnormal."

"Moreover..." He recounted the strange things he noticed before the tent caught fire, and finally said, "So I reasonably suspect that someone tampered with the tent, which caused the fire."

“That makes sense!” Inspector Gong Chang nodded repeatedly.

Kuroda Hyōe also looked thoughtful: "Indeed, if someone tampered with it, the only suspects, excluding Conan who discovered the fire, should be... you guys who went to Urushibara's tent, right?"

Kuroda Hyoue turned his head and looked sharply at the three basketball club members who were waiting to be questioned.

The expressions on the three people's faces changed simultaneously!

Kuroda Hyoue stepped up to the three men and said calmly, "I remember, the first one to go to the tent of the dead was this Ms. Furuoka Midori, whose name I just asked, followed by Mr. Ashizawa Junto, and finally Mr. Danno Kunihiro, right?"

He paused for a moment, then added, "Although Conan also approached the tent, it was at Detective Hayashi's behest, and Conan was the first to discover the fire. It is thanks to Detective Hayashi's efforts that Urushihara has not completely perished."

"So, they can basically be ruled out as suspects, there shouldn't be any disagreement on that, right?"

None of the three members of the basketball club commented on this.

Putting aside the fact that Lin Xiaofeng, Conan, and Urushihara only met today and had no motive for arson, the series of actions taken by Lin Xiaofeng and the others before and after the fire simply do not conform to the behavioral logic of a murderer.

Therefore, they really had no grounds to refute the fact that the suspects were narrowed down to the three of them.

"Strange." Rumi Wakasa's voice suddenly rang out softly, "Didn't you say you were sleeping with earplugs on? How did you know the order in which they approached the tent?"

Kuroda Hyōe turned his head and saw Wakasa Rumi's seemingly harmless smile.

Kuroda Hyoue remained calm and explained, "I woke up for a while in the middle of the night, and in my dazed state, I saw you all happily eating curry through the gaps in the tent."

"Oh? Is that so?" Wakasa Rumi tilted her head slightly and asked with a smile, "So, were you observing someone? Otherwise, how could you remember them so clearly?"

Kuroda Bei shook his head: "No, I just saw it by chance."

"Unintentionally?" Wakasa Rumi's smile gradually became bizarre, and her expression grew increasingly strange.

“Yes!” Kuroda Hyoue’s expression slowly hardened, and he replied in a deep voice, “Because my tent was right next to the burning tent, I remembered the order in which the people approached the tent.”

"However, because I was wearing earplugs at the time, I don't know what the three of them said to the deceased."

"And then, you fell asleep in the tent, right?" Rumi Wakasa asked, squinting.

Kuroda Hyoue frowned.

Rumi Wakasa put her hands in her pockets and chuckled softly: "I was wondering, you wouldn't be ignoring something happening right here because you're observing someone you care about, would you... Manager Kuroda?"

Kuroda Hyoue looked directly at Wakasa Rumi and said calmly, "Yes, of course we wouldn't just let it go. I did just accidentally fall asleep at the time. I thought with the elementary school teacher there, nothing serious should happen."

"Oh? Is that what you think?" Rumi Wakasa chuckled, her tone tinged with a hint of sarcasm.