Chapter 931: Colleagues
"You guys came just in time."
Watching Hattori Heiji get off the motorcycle and lead Toyama Kazuha closer, Mouri Kogoro curled his lips and glanced in Akechi Goro's direction with his peripheral vision, but didn't say anything.
You know, this is Osaka, their home field, and the Suzuki family is cooperating with the police headquarters in Osaka for security. The troubles here cannot be hidden from the police chief's son.
"Sorry, sorry, mainly this is a rare opportunity. Kaitou Kidd, I have never been to Osaka a few times." Hattori Heiji waved his hand, "What's more, since you are all here, I should come and take a look."< br>
As he spoke, he glanced directly at Xingchuan Hui, who was standing aside with a smile on his face, and secretly said "Huh" in his heart.
Why is Goro Akechi so quiet today... It's not like him...
Could it be that in front of people from the Suzuki Group, he had to maintain his image and not expose his sinister and mean side too much?
What a cunning guy.
Xingchuan Hui, who didn't know what the other party was secretly complaining about, just watched him approach silently, taking half a step back involuntarily.
It's not that he's showing cowardice, it's mainly that when facing these friends with whom Tang Ze has a good relationship, he always has an uneasy feeling that if he talks too much, some information will be easily exposed. If possible, he really wants to shorten this time of.
Suzuki Sonoko had no idea about their private lawsuit. She just secretly expressed to Mao Lilan again that she thought Hattori Heiji was a handsome sports guy, so she took her best friend's hand and led a group of people into the venue.
Standing in an art museum called the Museum of Modern Art, but the interior decoration style is not simple at all, and can even be called very gorgeous, Mao Lilan listened to Suzuki Sonoko introducing the venue and exhibits along the way, and was a little unable to recover, using a kind of He stared at the profile of his best friend with stunned eyes.
Although last time, before and after the Kisaragi Minesui painting exhibition hosted by Kitagawa Yusuke, she had initially realized that Suzuki Sonoko had really worked hard to find her own path. Even earlier, the other party had accepted Tang because of the influence of the case of the elementary school teacher. When she started to establish a charity aid foundation based on Sawa's suggestion, she watched how Suzuki Sonoko went from complaining when she saw the report to being able to attend some formal occasions decently...
She had been watching all this happen the whole time, watching Suzuki Sonoko step by step towards the routine that belonged to the Suzuki children. But at this moment, watching her introduce the upcoming exhibition with a little excitement, she seemed to belong to the owner of this place. Only then did she realize clearly that Yuanzi had really done it.
"It's really amazing..." Mao Lilan couldn't help but praise, "The way Yuanzi looks now is really amazing."
"No way." Suzuki Sonoko was a little stunned by her sudden compliment and pushed her, "You are too exaggerated. I didn't participate in much work. At most, I went back and forth a few times to check on the situation of the venue. Mr. Nishino and the others are responsible for most things.”
"Miss, you are too humble. I am also very satisfied with your work this time." Master Nishino, who was one step behind her, heard this and quickly took over.
"I'm just surprised that I actually want to do something seriously." Suzuki Sonoko waved her hand nonchalantly, "After all, I wasn't interested in these things before."
"No, you are really powerful, Sonoko." Mao Lilan took her hand and said seriously, "You should ask Kyogoku to come with you, or at least take some photos to show him. Passionate strong woman , he will definitely become more obsessed with you.”
"Xiaolan...!"
"It's really unexpected." Seeing the two of them fighting together, Conan looked away and commented, "Sonoko is a three-minute hot guy, and for things like work, study, etc., she has never even done it before. There was no heat for three minutes.”
Like Mao Lilan, he knew that his friend who had grown up since childhood had indeed entered a new stage, but his concept was unclear until he confirmed it with his own eyes.
"It's normal for Sonoko-san." Karasawa, who is involved in almost all of her career lines, shrugged. "She doesn't lack motivation, and she never lacks enthusiasm. She just had no interest before. As the daughter of the Suzuki family, even if She has achieved nothing in her life. As long as she does not violate the public order and good customs of society, everyone will praise her as an excellent young lady. In the past, she had no interest in these things only for these reasons. ”
Even the eldest lady of a chaebol family is in line with human psychology.
She must have heard a lot of admirers before, so her threshold must be very high, and she has long been accustomed to all kinds of positive responses, so of course she has no initiative to prove herself or develop her career. sex.
After all, no one would be interested in doing something that doesn’t get positive feedback. For her family, it would be wrong if she didn’t do it. If she really started a business, she might lose all her money, so of course she I will not do such a thankless thing and reduce my own risk of reputation.
But now, the operation of the foundation has accumulated a lot of reputation for her, and Kitagawa Yusuke's accident has made her a lot of limelight. She really feels this sense of accomplishment, and she will naturally start to seek progress.
"You speak highly of her..." Conan couldn't help but look sideways after hearing what he said.
"Anyway, an ordinary wealthy lady would not become such a good friend with Xiaolan." Tang Ze replied calmly, "She is indeed a very good person."
Xingchuan Hui, who was walking on the other side of him, retracted his gaze from looking around and glanced at Tang Ze silently.
Conan and the others may be confused by this extremely high evaluation. As a teammate of Karasawa, he can somewhat guess the whole story.
For unknown reasons, although Suzuki Sonoko did not actually sponsor the Phantom Thieves, Karasawa would often praise Suzuki Sonoko for her generosity, especially when it came to commissioning subway cleanup sites and using Kumail's name to get money from the organization.
Karasawa's explanation for this is, "This is all thanks to Suzuki Sonoko's wealth"...
Who knows why, it sounds a bit metaphysical, but this is how they understand metaphysics.
————
After showing them around, Suzuki Sonoko quickly took the elevator and climbed to the president's room on the top floor of the exhibition hall.
There, Suzuki Sonoko's father, Suzuki Shiro, was receiving several foreigners. He followed the footsteps in the corridor and looked at the people coming. When he saw his daughter, he immediately stood up with a smile.
"Mr. Mori, and this, Akechi-san, you are here. Welcome." Shiro Suzuki smiled and came over to shake hands with them respectively. "Thank you for coming all the way from Tokyo. Thank you for your hard work."
"Hello."
"It's over here. I'm causing trouble for you."
"Ah, there are Xiaolan, Karasawa and Conan." Suzuki Shiro nodded equally friendly to them, and turned his eyes to the end of the team, "These two are...?"
"These are the famous high school detectives Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha from the West. He is also a very powerful detective, and he comes from a police family and is very good at solving cases." Suzuki Sonoko introduced with a smile.
This is a euphemism for indicating that he has deep ties to the police system in Osaka.
Suzuki Shiro raised his eyebrows and immediately understood what she meant. When he reached out, his attitude became more calm and humble.
"You are young and promising, so I will trouble you this time."
"Put it on me, old man!" Hattori Heiji's greeting was also very personal.
"Hey...what a rude name..." Mouri Kogoro glared at him.
"It's okay, it's better to be more friendly." Suzuki Shiro shook his head, and first took the initiative to introduce a few people sitting on the sofa in the living room, "Let me introduce them to you."
Tangze, who felt refreshed, immediately raised his head and looked at the other people in the room.
The meeting he had been looking forward to for so long was finally about to begin.
"This is the First Secretary of the Russian Embassy, Siruov Chennikov."
The first person to be mentioned was naturally the one sitting on the far right, obviously the visitor with the highest status in the venue.
Karasawa listened to his accented Japanese pronunciation, silently observed his physical features for a while, and then turned his attention to the next one.
"This is Mr. Shoichi, an art dealer, who was specially invited by me." Suzuki Shiro spoke a little faster this time. It was obvious that he had a relatively average perception of the second guest, "and This..."
Tangze's eyes finally stopped hiding, and naturally followed his introduction, turning to the woman sitting there with a dignified posture.
This is an extremely typical Slavic person. The pigment on her body is obviously lighter than that of yellow people. Her flaxen hair, gray eyes, and deeply sunken eye sockets fully illustrate her ancestry.
However, she was wearing a nondescript aqua cheongsam, and the slim cut exposed her body curves that were completely different from those of Asians. With Shiro Suzuki's introduction, she slowly stood up even with a bit of pretentiousness. body.
"This is Pu Si Qinglan, an expert scholar specializing in the Romanov dynasty."
Pu Siqinglan lowered her head slightly, and said two Chinese characters in a very straight accent: "Hello."
No one else present had any reaction to her actions, but Tang Ze, who knew what a real Chinese was like, spent some effort to control his expression and not let himself look too obviously strange.
If you want to say that her Chinese proficiency is really not good at all, her words are actually standard Mandarin, which is more authentic than what Tangze thought he would hear.
But precisely because it is so authentic, it has a strong ABC flavor, with a semi-broadcasting accent but no broadcasting accent, which is far from the normal spoken Chinese accent.
Karasawa was evaluating the real thief who had sneaked in with a false identity. Suzuki Shiro was naturally unaware of this and naturally introduced the next one.
"There is also this freelance photographer who self-recommends himself to take photos of the collection, Mr. Samkawa Ryu."
The man holding the camera turned his head and nodded to them perfunctorily.
"We are discussing the Egg of Memories." Seeing that everyone had completed their preliminary greetings, Suzuki Shiro took the initiative to mention what they were discussing now, "After all, we only discovered by chance that this handicraft was actually the Emperor's Easter egg. One of the eggs..."
"To put it simply, it's just assessing the value." Gan Jiang kept saying it bluntly. "Even if the Suzuki family wants to apply for insurance for a new exhibit, they have to know its basic price, right?"
< br>
"Oh, so, have you come to a conclusion after the discussion?" Mouri Kogoro glanced at the photos spread out on the table and asked half curiously and half tentatively.
He probably knew that the price of Suzuki Sonoko's invitation to Akechi Goro this time was a bit too high even if it was just the advertising fee. If this were a less valuable exhibit, it would be somewhat overshadowed as the most eye-catching protagonist of this event.
"Eight hundred million yen." Pu Siqinglan lowered her head and quietly reported a number.
"Eighty-eighty million?!" Kogoro Mori repeated in a slightly broken voice, "Is it so expensive?!"
"This is because it is not inlaid with precious gems. Otherwise, the price of a single piece may be sold for more than 1.5 billion..." Gan Jiang waved his hands, pretending to be pity, "In short, now I can only The price has reached 800 million, but if you are willing to give up, this price is not non-negotiable..."
"No, Mr. Suzuki." Hearing his confident tone, the clerk of the embassy couldn't sit still and stood up immediately, "This is the heritage of the Romanov dynasty and a precious cultural relic belonging to our country. Compared with the flow into this country, If you are a black marketeer who only cares about the price and has no idea of the value of the items, you might as well leave it to us. You know, we have the most famous art gallery in the world..."
"Do you think I have no vision?" Gan Jiang raised an eyebrow.
"Haha, it's really interesting. Taking pictures of people is more interesting than taking pictures of that egg." Han Chuanlong, who was sitting on the side and always holding the camera, laughed twice, then turned the camera in the direction of Pu Siqinglan, "And you . Such an unmoved look. If you didn’t have a desire for it, you wouldn’t be sitting here today. You are an expert on the Romanov dynasty.”
"...There is no way, after all, I can't afford 800 million." Lowering his gaze, Pu Siqinglan sighed.
"That's true. It's not a small amount. I can only afford two hundred million..." Han Chuanlong grinned.
Obviously, the meeting that was interrupted by the detectives and the group was a transaction set up in the name of appraising the value.
Regardless of whether Suzuki Shiro has any plans to buy it, everyone sitting here today is interested in buying it anyway.
Pu Siqinglan's eyes moved slightly, and she glanced at Han Chuanlong vaguely.
He was hinting that it would be difficult for one person to resist the encirclement and suppression of a professional collectibles dealer like Gan Jiangyi, and he was asking her whether she should consider cooperation, such as jointly funding the fight against Gan Jiangyi's money offensive.
The corners of her mouth tightened for a moment, but when she met Han Chuanlong's gaze, she just lowered her head in a humble manner, as if she wanted to agree to the alliance for the time being.
"Everyone, I can understand your feelings, but this is all after the opening of the exhibition." Suzuki Shiro clapped his hands, interrupting their silent communication, "How about we discuss this topic another day? The police and detectives are very quick will come. As you know, we still have a problem to face.”
This is a very clear eviction order.
Knowing that it was impossible to achieve their goal today, several people stood up and bowed to Mouri Kogoro and others who walked in the door one by one before they began to file out of the reception room.
Hoshikawa Teru, who was looking at them with a dull expression, suddenly felt his sleeve being pulled by something. Judging from where they were standing, it was Tang Ze.
This is a signal that their target has appeared.
So, even before his brain could fully react, he instinctively flicked his fingers and threw the prepared transmitter onto Pu Siqinglan's handbag.
I don’t know if this lady is too concerned about emphasizing that she is Chinese. Not only is she wearing a cheongsam and the earrings on her ears are made of jade, but even her handbags are very Chinese-style small satchels. It is completely inappropriate to ignore her. The face and body shape look like that of a Chinese, as if they were cosplayed with the style of the Republic of China.
The micro transmitter smoothly entered the mezzanine of Pu Si's blue bag and was taken out by her unconsciously.
Although she is an internationally notorious Phantom Thief, theoretically she is not too weak in terms of vigilance and technical ability, but for this special transmitter that has been strengthened by the Phantom Thieves...
The organization's vigilance must be stronger than that of an international thief. Karasawa had already thrown eight or nine of these transmitters at Gin without giving up.
In the end, they were all destroyed due to Gin's excessive stability and the clothes he replaced. None of them survived for more than a week, but none of them were discovered by Gin or the organization.
In addition, the fact that Gin actually had a wardrobe of identical black coats also shocked Karasawa.
"President..."
Not long after the few people left, Master Nishino walked in cautiously with a tied wooden box in his arms.
This is the highlight of the day, the Egg of Memories that sparked so many disputes and realizations.
Everyone sitting down, including Suzuki Sonoko who had thrown it away as a toy in the warehouse to collect dust for many years, all sat upright and leaned over. Except for Karasawa, his mind had already left with the transmitter.
The Egg of Memories is indeed exquisite. A handicraft that cost a lot of skilled craftsmen and money has a delicacy and ingenuity that cannot be surpassed by mass-produced industrial products. But in the final analysis, its most precious thing is not its value measured by money, but its value for history. research significance.
This is a treasure that can directly prove the identity of its former owner, the royal family of the Romanov dynasty, and hides the true roots that were dared not be revealed to the public in troubled times.
Although there is no royal food to receive at the moment, this status does have a certain value.
Karasawa fully understands that Kaitou Kidd has seen through its essence and wants to fulfill the romanticism of this silent past. However, Karasawa is not of this type.
Having said that, when Suzuki Shiro demonstrated the mechanism effect of the Egg of Memory, and everyone's eyes were attracted by the golden small sculpture of the royal family, Karasawa still threw the same type of message that Hoshikawa Teru just threw out. The vessel was quietly placed on the velvet base where the Egg of Memory was placed.
Half an hour later, Kuroba Kaito, who was still laboriously tying bugs to the pigeon's feet, was distracted by the continuous beeps and wild vibrations of his cell phone.
He turned the phone over and poked Noah on the desktop, who was using his APP icon to shoot like a basketball. He looked very annoyed: "Hey, you just ran into someone else's phone without permission. What's the matter?" Are you still messing around? I'm very busy right now. If you cause my phone to run out of battery and miss important information, let your boss wear my clothes and go out and steal it for me!"
Thinking of the fact that Karasawa had come to Osaka, Kuroba Kaito felt bitter.
This group of Phantom Thieves, who rely on their special abilities to have all information at their fingertips, not only lack the aesthetics of the Phantom Thieves, but also cannot even respect the most basic business privacy of their peers.
Obviously, he already knew the purpose of focusing on this thing, and even called him several times. Explaining the matter carefully could also be used to study the relationship with their cognitive knowledge in disguise, which would be beneficial and harmless. , he still ran over to cause trouble for himself without hesitation or looking back.
This guy Karasawa——
"Our boss asked me to come to you." Noah nimbly dodged his fingers, put the icons back to their original positions, and then waved his hand, and the icons of the Phantom Thief Line instantly enlarged.
This time, what was displayed in front of Kuroba Kaito was no longer his familiar chat software with simple pages, but an electronic map.
On this map, two red dots are flashing and changing their positions.
"This, this is..." After studying it for a while, Kuroba Kaito slowly opened his eyes when he discovered that it was the map of Osaka City.
"'Cheat Device'." The Q version of Noah poked his head out from the edge of the screen and smiled. "Leader said that as compensation for interrupting your work, he will give you a shortcut. However, the price is that here is There are two signals, one represents life and the other represents death. It’s up to you which one you want to track and how to use it.”
This means skipping all the fancy tricks to deceive the police and telling him his destination simply and crudely.
He let go of his hand and let Shirogane, who had been manipulated for a while, run away. The corners of Kuroba Kaito's mouth twitched.
"It's like this again, how can you guys have the nerve to call yourself Phantom Thieves..."
Noah shook his head seriously: "Tangze said, this is called 'one force defeats all laws'. Just tell me whether it works or not!"
Kuroba Kaito held his forehead: "Is the point is whether it works or not?"
It was obviously a romantic showdown, but now the other party rushed over to him, pointed out the map to him, and said that the things were here, so stop looking for them.
What's the difference between this and writing the murderer's name directly on the first page of a mystery novel?
"Hmph, don't take it lightly." After setting up this map page in Kuroba Kaito's APP, Noah enlarged the two red dots a little and slid his hand back and forth on the two points, "Leader this time I came to Osaka not for the Egg of Memories, but for you.”
"Huh?" Kuroba Kaito's expression became tense for a moment, "Although I know his purpose is to cause trouble for me, it's still too much to say it directly like that?!"
"What are you thinking about? Karasawa is not that kind of person." Noah crossed his arms and expressed dissatisfaction with his rude accusation. "Your goal this time is not that simple. You have been targeted by others. He doesn't think You will be easily caught by the police or detectives, but not everyone follows the same rules as police officers and detectives.”
The showdown between the phantom thief and the police, and the phantom thief and the detective, is itself a process of law and order against criminal behavior. Naturally, they will not take illegal means that cross the line casually.
After all, to put it bluntly, Kaito Kidd only steals gems and most of the time puts the things back. No matter how huge the amount of money involved is, the crime will not lead to death.
But other desperadoes are not so simple.
"Eh?" Kuroba Kaito was completely stunned this time.
"I don't know if you have heard of the 'zoo', but according to the leader, most of you should know." Noah tilted his head, "There is a well-known international thief who specializes in hunting treasures related to the Romanov dynasty. It's called 'Scorpion'...Scorpion, that means scorpion."
While Noah was greeting his busy colleagues, on the other side, Karasawa also made a friendly voice to another colleague.
Tang Ze looked at the woman who walked out of the store and met him face to face. He looked at her somewhat shocked expression and grinned.
"Oh, I saw you at President Suzuki's place this morning. Your name is Pu Si Qinglan, right? What a coincidence that I met you here."
Looking at the survival supplies store behind her, the smile on Tang Ze's face became more sincere.
Is it a common practice among monster thieves to prepare weapons in a model shop? Don't you think it's too conspicuous?
But it's not bad. In terms of types of scum, he likes bachelors like this.
(End of chapter)