Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"I wonder if there is any information related to linked sentences..."

"If Detective Mori is interested," Ando Reiko said with a smile, "I can give you my book later. It talks about the basics of linked sentences."

"That couldn't be better."

……

The next morning, Mao Li met the other members of the Lian Ju Kai on the train.

The two young men, one is called Yagisawa Takumi, who has a mustache and long hair like an artist, is 32 years old and runs a pastry shop in Osaka, and the other is Shiina Ryosuke, who is gentle and wears glasses, is 38 years old and is a dentist.

There is also another middle-aged man who talks about investment all the time, his name is Niu Gangsan.

"Teacher Reiko, I didn't expect you could actually invite a famous detective," said the middle-aged man Ushio Gozo, who was sitting alone in the window seat. With his raised eyebrows and hooked nose, he looked like a big boss who was not easy to get close to. He looked at Mao Li curiously and said, "You detectives, you make a lot of money, right?"

"where……"

Mao Li laughed dryly, "In fact, most of the time, I can't make any money."

"Don't lie to me," Niu Lu said in disbelief, "We paid a lot of money to invite you here this time. Your appearance fee should be quite high."

"fine……"

Maori's face was full of black lines.

What do you mean by a lot of money? He came here because of the strong request from old customers...

"Detective Mori," Yagisawa Takumi took the initiative to change the subject, "In fact, we have done a couplet about your Taiko Treasure Case before. I didn't expect to meet you, the great detective, in person. It's great to have the opportunity to get to know Japan's number one detective!"

"Japan's number one detective?"

Maori raised an eyebrow.

He is not qualified yet, right?

"Yeah," dentist Shiina Ryosuke laughed, "To be honest, a friend of mine told me a lot about you before, saying that you are the most rare detective he has ever seen!"

"Haha, is that so?" Mao Li asked curiously, "Your friend is..."

"Brother Maori?"

Dr. Agasa suddenly poked his head out from the next car.

"Dr. Ari?"

Maori leaned over and looked towards the next carriage with a twitching face.

Since Dr. Agasa is here, that means...

"Uncle," Conan climbed up the back of the chair in surprise, "Why are you here? Are you going to Songjiang too?"

"really……"

Maori rubbed his brows.

"Detective Maori," everyone in Lian Juhui looked at Maori in confusion, "Who is this..."

"This is my friend Professor Agasa and his relative's child, Edogawa Conan."

"By the way," Maori stood up and walked to the aisle of the carriage, looking at Conan with half-closed eyes, "Why are you on this train?"

"Because the doctor won the travel ticket to the shopping street...what about you, Uncle Maori?" Conan asked curiously.

"We are on a renga tour," Maori pointed at Shiina Ryosuke and his group, "Once we get to Matsue, there will be a renga competition tomorrow..."

"Lianju? What is a lianju?"

"Hey, there are things you don't understand, kid. Simply put, Lian Ku is a game of connecting sentences with multiple people, also known as Lian Ku..."

"I think you yourself are not very clear about it, right?" Conan asked suspiciously.

"Humph."

……

It was already afternoon when they arrived at Matsue in Shimane Prefecture. Since they all stayed at the same hotel, Mori and the members of the Rengakai got off the bus and visited Matsue Castle with Professor Agasa and Conan.

"Speaking of Songjiang, the first thing that comes to mind is Songjiang City. From the city, you can see the whole view of Shidao Lake. The most talked-about thing about Shidao Lake is the Shidao Seven Treasures..."

"What are the Seven Treasures?"

Dr. Agasa asked doubtfully.

"The perch, whitefish, weakfish, clams, prawns, carp and eels that come from here..."

"Mr. Mori, you know a lot about it. Have you been to Matsue before?" Ando Reiko and a few others walked slowly behind Mori.

"No, I just looked at the travel guide in advance," Maori led everyone past an old Japanese mansion, "This is the former residence of Lafcadio Hearn. His earless Hoichi and Snow Woman are the most famous..."

……

After passing Lafcadio Hearn's former residence, we reached the final destination, Songhu Lake Waterfront Hotel. As soon as the middle-aged man Niu Xinggang arrived, he said he had an appointment to discuss business with someone, so everyone had to wait in the hotel lobby.

"Someone will come to show you the way later. You can wait here for a while and have some matcha and snacks prepared by the hotel." said the front desk clerk.

"Okay, thank you."

Maori sat down on the sofa in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel and looked out at the beautiful scenery of Shidao Lake at sunset.

"It's really nice to see Shidao Lake from here."

"Yes," Conan also stood in front of the window and admired, "The hotel is built by the lake, it's so beautiful!"

"We'll see the clam harvest tomorrow morning..."

Mao Li leaned back on the sofa and looked at the people in the Lian Ju Hui: "By the way, Basho seems to have a one-word poem, 'When I saw the clam, the shell split in two, just like the autumn that is going away', right?"

Ando Reiko laughed in surprise and said, "Mr. Mori actually knows this poem. This is the poem that Basho recited in Ogaki City, the end of the Oku-no-Norichi..."

Dr. Agasa was eating: "The pastries here are quite good."

"Of course," said Yagisawa, the manager of the pastry shop, with a smile, "Matsue is as famous as Kanazawa in Kyoto. Both are important towns that produce a lot of Japanese pastries. We in Osaka are still a long way behind..."

"I'll try it too."

Conan then picked up the pastries on the coffee table.

“It looks delicious…”

"Don't forget to brush your teeth after eating," dentist Shiina Ryosuke reminded with a smile, "Eating sweets is not good for your teeth, especially if you eat sweets often..."

Maori turned his gaze to the other side. The middle-aged man, Ushio Tsuyoshi, was still talking to a middle-aged man in a gray suit and carrying a briefcase. Words like stocks could be heard from time to time.

"Isn't this the famous detective Maori Kogoro?" The middle-aged man happened to see Maori, walked over in surprise, handed over his business card and said with a smile, "Hello, my name is Nagakura Hisao, I'm from the Okayama branch of Naniwa Securities, this time I came here to discuss business with Mr. Niu..."

"What are you doing?" Niu followed with a gloomy face and interrupted unhappily, "Is it time to go back now?"

"Uh," the middle-aged man named Yongjiu Shounan said awkwardly, "Haha, that's true... I also like haiku very much. Let's talk about it again when we have a chance. Then, Mr. Maori, I wish you a good time."

"Humph!"

Niu drove the man away with a sullen face, and immediately said with a smile: "Don't worry about that guy, Detective Maori, let's have dinner together later, it's a good opportunity to listen to the experience of the famous detective."

……

As the sun set in the evening, Lake Shitomi was reflected in an orange-red color. Maori followed Conan into the hotel hot spring and soaked comfortably in the small pool surrounded by stones.

While I was steaming, looking at the sunset in the sky and the beautiful scenery of Shidao Lake, I felt that all my tiredness was gone and I just wanted to lie down by the pool and take a nap.

"It's so comfortable..."

"Yes," Conan floated on the water with only his head exposed, looking at Yagisawa Takumi who had a mouth-shaped mustache across from him, "By the way, Uncle Yagisawa, what exactly is a run-on sentence?"

"Well," Yagisawa looked at Mori who was taking a nap with his eyes closed under a towel, "Actually, what Detective Mori said is right. To put it simply, it's a sentence-connecting game. For example, Mr. Mori just read out a sentence with five, seven, and five tones, and the next person has to make a sentence with seven, and after seven, seven, they have to make another sentence with five, seven, and five. The first five, seven, and five are called a fa-sentence. There is also a fa-sentence in haiku, and it will also add a description of the season..."

Mauli opened his eyes.

"Then Uncle Yagisawa, what kind of sentences do you like?" Conan continued to ask.

"I prefer humorous sentences," Yagisawa looked at Shiina Ryosuke who had just arrived at the hot spring, "Shiina, what do you like?"

"Me?" Shiina Ryosuke walked into the hot spring pool. "Well, I prefer sentences with emotions, such as the feeling of a father loving his daughter..."

"Oh?" Dr. Agasa asked in surprise, "Mr. Shiina, do you have a daughter?"

"Yes," Shiina Ryosuke's expression darkened, "but my wife took her and ran away from home."

"No, sorry..."

"Nothing. If I talk about this matter, it's all because I owed debts outside."

Shiina Ryosuke smiled cheerfully and didn't mind.

"By the way, can you tell me later about the cases that you, Detective Maori, have solved?"

"no problem……"

……

After soaking in the hot spring, everyone changed into yukata and went to the Japanese-style room next door to eat. Maori drank happily.

"Come on, Mr. Maori, drink more."

"thank you."

"By the way," Shiina Ryosuke helped pour a glass of wine and suddenly asked, "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Plan..."

Conan paused, "Uncle, have you ever heard of Yaegaki Shrine? I just heard about it from Reiko-sensei in the bathhouse. How about we go check it out tomorrow?"

"But we have to visit the Tiffany Garden Art Gallery tomorrow morning, and then in the afternoon..."

"I remember there is a god who specializes in matchmaking at Yaegaki Shrine," Shiina Ryosuke chuckled, "many people go to the Mirror Pond to ask about marriage."

"In that case, let's go together," Yagisawa suggested, "It seems that everyone here is single except for Mr. Niu and Detective Maori, right, Detective Maori?"

"Uh-huh."

Maori concentrated on finishing the food in front of him.

"I think this is the way to go," Shiina Ryosuke said with a smile, "Tomorrow morning there will be a bus from Matsue Onsen Station to Yaegaki Shrine, so you can go to the Garden Art Museum in the afternoon."

"Hey, Mr. Reiko," Ushigoro Tsunezou said sternly, sitting off to the side with his arms folded, "Have you chosen the location for the first sentence tomorrow?"

Ando Reiko was stunned for a moment: "Well, Shiina..."

"I think we should just draw lots to decide the location."

Shiina Ryosuke took out a note and wrote down different locations: "Miss Mizuki, can you please bring my hat over for me?"

"Ok."

Mizuki Kawaguchi handed a bowler hat from the luggage bag behind him to Ryosuke Shiina.

"hat……"

"thank you."

Shiina Ryosuke folded the note paper and put it in his hat to mix it up, then said to Niu beside him: "Let's start with Mr. Niu, and then according to age, it's me..."

Maori raised his chin and watched the people in the Lianju Association draw lots to allocate locations.

“Is everyone going to a different place?”

"Yes," Ando Reiko said with a smile, "Because everyone has to use a specified scene to write an opening line. The book I wrote on the basics of linked sentences says..."

"oh oh."

Maori's old face turned slightly red.

He had barely read the book...

"The results are out," Shiina Ryosuke said, "Mr. Niu drew Matsue Castle, Yagisawa drew Gekkouji Temple, Ms. Mizuki drew Shiomi Nawate, and I drew the Garden Art Museum..."

Ando Reiko nodded. "In that case, we will leave from the hotel at 9am tomorrow morning and return to the hotel at 11:am... Detective Maori, after that we will go to Yuzhao Hot Springs to officially have a lianjutsu duel, and you will have to join us then."

"Huh? Do I have to make sentences too?"

"That's not necessary, but if Detective Maori is interested, you can give it a try. It's actually not difficult to make a sentence."

"I'd better take a look first." Maori laughed dryly.

I should have brought Xiao Ai here earlier...

As night fell, because there were not enough temporary rooms, Maori had to squeeze into one room with Professor Agasa and Conan. Before he fell asleep, Professor Agasa's loud snoring sounded like drums beside his ears.