Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

As soon as Xiaolan finished speaking, a girl in maid costume walked out from the door on the right, and almost at the same time, an identical maid walked out from the other side.

"We are very pleased to welcome you all."

The same girl, the same words, standing symmetrically on the left and right sides, stunned everyone for a moment, almost thinking they were having an illusion.

"What's going on?"

"Twins, maybe."

Mao Li was not too surprised, he just didn't know what this meant.

The maid on the left smiled and said, "Mr. Maori, please go in and rest with your family from the east entrance here."

The maid on the right continued, "Mr. Katagiri, Mr. Matsudaira, and Ms. Nagara, please go in through the west entrance and rest."

……

"Quack--"

Amid the cries of crows flapping their wings, Maori and his companions followed the maid on the left into the room on the east side.

"In this mansion, if you don't follow the rules, you will definitely suffer a disaster afterwards... because this is the mansion where the cursed mask lives..."

The words of the twin maids made Maori frown. Looking at the decoration inside the villa, he suddenly felt a sense of gloom, especially the masks hanging on the walls, which looked particularly weird.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Xiaolan murmured a little scared.

"Teacher Su Fang has always had a hobby of collecting masks," the maid said as she led everyone upstairs, "I'm going to put away the luggage now. Please wait in the mask room for the time being."

"Masquerade Hall?"

At the stairs on the second floor, after pushing open a door, what appeared in front of them was a room connecting the east and west side rooms. Just then, Matsudaira Mamoru and others also entered the hall from the opposite side.

After Nagahara took off her coat, she was wearing a purple dress, which made her look a bit like a fortune teller.

The mask hall is filled with masks, some ordinary, some creepy. It's like a mask museum. The owner here, Sufang Hongzi, has a really weird hobby.

(I just don’t know if any incident will happen this time…)

Although Maori's initial observation showed that there was nothing unusual among the people present, the only clue was the threatening letter from the "Cursed Mask".

However, a terrible murder may be brewing in this strange villa...

"these are?"

Suddenly, Conan bumped into something, causing the red curtains on both sides of the hall to be pulled open. Hundreds of identical white masks were revealed in front of everyone, and the empty smiling faces scared everyone.

"How come there are so many?"

"These are all Xiaobul's masks." A noble old lady appeared at the door, with silver-gray hair and a red shawl. Although her face was old, she still had a hint of charm. Next to her was a short-haired woman wearing glasses.

"You must be Ms. Sufang Hongzi!"

Mao Li recognized the person at a glance.

"It is a great honor for you to come to my humble home," the old woman said, smiling brightly as she walked up to Maori. "What do you think of my most proud collection? Is it okay?"

"This……"

"These are the two hundred masks that the Spanish sculptor Chobelcondres completed before his death..."

The fortune teller Liang Yao looked at the white masks on the wall with a slightly tense gaze, "Are they cursed masks?"

"Excuse me," Katagiri Masaki asked curiously, "what exactly does the cursed mask mean?"

"Because Xiaobul is a tragic sculptor. Although he is gifted, he fell into the trap set by his jealous brother. His status, fame and even property were robbed of everything. Since then, he has been desperate and has been carving these masks non-stop as if he was possessed by something."

Ms. Su Fang boasted in a suppressed voice, "And just after he finished carving the 200th one, he ended his life. The masks scattered around his body were all stained with blood, as if they were sucking his blood..."

"Not only that," Nagara Haruka said quietly, "Later, these masks were scattered into the hands of different people. The people who held these masks seemed to be cursed, and most of them ended up in tragedy."

"But Ms. Sufang has collected all these masks," Mao Li scoffed at the legend and picked up a mask to examine it. "Aren't you afraid of something happening?"

The old woman laughed and said, "Don't worry about that. I have already asked a powerful psychic to seal away all the curses of these masks."

"A medium?"

Maori raised his eyebrows, and Conan twitched his lips.

In fact, Conan has always felt that psychics, exorcists, and onmyojis are all money-swindlers who are not worthy of being mentioned in public, but there are people like Sufang Hongzi who are willing to believe them.

However, it is usually easy for things to go wrong when there are curse legends, because criminals also like to use curse legends to cover up their crimes.

"In fact, in the real world, human evil thoughts are much more terrifying than curses."

Seeing that the time was almost up, Mao Li took out the threatening letter from his arms while saying this, "To be honest, we were blocked by a tree on the way here, and this piece of paper was pinned to the tree."

"This is……"

The others were surprised and said, "I received the same letter as well."

"Me too."

"Our company also received a strange letter." A blond young man wearing sunglasses walked into the hall with an envelope in his hand.

"Touya?" Sufang Hongzi gently scolded, "Why are you here so late?"

"I'm on a national tour, so please don't mind if I'm a little late."

The yellow-haired young man was not shy at all. He chuckled and handed the envelope to Su Fang Hongzi: "The letter didn't mention the sender's name. It only said the recipient was Teacher Su Fang. The handwriting was also very strange."

"This is written very neatly to hide the handwriting."

After Mao Li asked for consent, he opened the envelope and pulled out a threatening letter.

"Tonight, the Cursed Mask will suck blood... The Messenger of the Cursed Mask?"

"Everyone, these things are just for show. I don't think you should take them seriously," Sufang Hongzi said nonchalantly. "Since I started doing charity work, I have never stopped receiving threatening letters like this."

Conan looked at the threatening letter without saying anything.

Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. It’s hard to say whether he or Maori is the plague god, but it’s true that he is always involved in incidents.

This Su Fang Hongzi might have thought too well.

……

After enjoying a luxurious dinner, light snow began to fall outside.

Mao Li was called to a room on the third floor by Sufang Hongzi alone.

"Mr. Maori, I would like to ask you to help investigate something."

"Are you trying to find out who sent the letter?"

"No," Sufang Hongzi said, holding the wine glass, "In fact, I want you to help me investigate the car accident of Mr. Katagiri and his wife 200 years ago. After the investigation is completed, I will give you million. What do you think?"

……

In the lobby of the villa, Conan stood by the window, silently watching the snow scene for a while, his eyes sweeping over the people gathered together and laughing.

In addition to these invited guests, also in the villa were Soho Akako, her secretary Inaba Kazuyo, and Aikawa Touya, a very popular rock singer in their company.

There is nothing wrong with these identities alone.

Sufang Hongzi started to engage in charity activities 15 years ago, and this time she is also going to hold a charity gala for children who lost their family members in car accidents.

The initial cause was that a good friend who took care of Sufang Hongzi's daily life 20 years ago hit and ran. Aichuan Fuya was the son left behind after the good friend committed suicide. He gradually got to where he is today with the help of Sufang Hongzi.

The car accident seemed to have a profound impact on Sufang Hongzi, and for more than ten years she has been committed to helping orphans caused by car accidents become independent.

Conan learned from Maori that the reason Maori agreed to attend the charity dinner was because he thought it would help him develop excellent customers.

In short, there is nothing wrong with Sufang Hongzi that is worth killing, and there is no inheritance dispute.

Could it be that this was a play performed by Sufang Hongzi herself?

This Ms. Sufang used to be a big singer known as the Oriental Canary. Recently, she has been running a red publicity company and is busy dealing with her show business all day. If she can hype up the Cursed Mask, it will certainly be a good thing for her company, and the charity gala a week later may also be more well-known.

Thinking of this, Conan suddenly felt that the strange rules in the villa and Sufang Hongzi's strange behavior seemed to make sense.

"By the way, uncle,"

Conan walked towards Mao Li who was chatting with Nagara Haruka and others, "Ms. Su Fang called you over alone just now, is there something wrong?"

"......nothing."

Maori waved his hand.

"Really do not have?"

Conan looked suspicious.

Chapter 85 It Moves! It Moves! The Mask Moves!

Unless there is a special situation such as the client's death, as a detective, Maori needs to keep the client's commission confidential - even if the person asking him is Conan, his future son-in-law, whom he knows inside and out.

Conan left in a huff, and the twin maids suddenly stood in the middle of the hall: "I'm sorry to bother you all, but dear guests, this mansion has a tradition of locking the mask room at midnight."

"Once locked, the east and west rooms can no longer be connected to each other, so we must ask everyone to return to their rooms and rest before that. I hope everyone will cooperate."

"what?"

"It's only half past eleven..."

Maori wondered, "Why is there such a weird routine?"

The twins explained: "Because Xiaobul's mask likes to play pranks, it will play around without permission after midnight."

"We must lock them all in the Mask Room."

"Isn't this too outrageous?" Matsudaira Mamoru swallowed his saliva, "It's simply nonsense!"

"This is true," the maid said calmly, "Every time after dawn, the masks would either tilt left or right or fall directly to the ground. This has happened too many times in the past."

"So please, everyone, you can start preparing to go back to your room and rest now."

"..."

A trace of cold sweat ran down Maori's forehead.

I don't know where Sufang Hongzi found this pair of twin maids, but standing together they looked like mirror images, with the same expressions and tone. It would be more accurate to say that they were one person divided into two people rather than being printed out of the same mold.

Coupled with the topic of the cursed mask, even with his courage, the weirdness level felt like it had skyrocketed.

"Da da."

The four Maori followed the maid Honami to the room on the east side. Before entering the door, Maori asked her, "Where does Ms. Sufang live?"

Honami replied, "The teacher's room is in the west wing, because the only way to get to the teacher's room is through the stairs in the west wing."

“Is it only possible there?”

Maori's eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry, but could you please arrange a room for us over there?"

"Eh? But..."

Honami looked embarrassed.

"There should be an empty room, right?" Mao Li said carefully, "I'm sorry to bother you. I'm also concerned about the safety of Teacher Su Fang."

"Okay, I'll go talk to the teacher."

"Dad," Xiaolan said in surprise as she watched the maid leave, "Do you think the threatening letter is true? The cursed mask will suck blood tonight..."

"If it's true, it's a murder case, so we can't be careless even if there's only a slight possibility, right?"

Maori said this and calmly returned to his room to pack his luggage.

A few minutes later, Honami returned to the door and reminded, "Detective Maori, the west wing room is ready."

"Thanks. We'll be there soon."

Mao Li nodded, thanked Hona, and followed Minaho to the west room with his luggage.

Most of the guest rooms are on the second floor. The first floor is mainly an activity room and the servants' quarters. People from Sufang Hongzi's performing arts company usually live on the first floor as well. Sufang Hongzi is the only one living on the third floor.

When Maori and the other three moved to the new room, Sufang Hongzi had already fallen asleep and it was not a good idea to disturb her.