Jangxia Tongzhi was not having a good morning. The previous night's dinner party, meant to smooth things over after the pottery cabinet disaster, had only made things worse. The young lady of the house had been especially dramatic after breaking the pottery—now, she was making an even bigger mess with her words.
"You're so lucky," she sighed exaggeratedly, her voice thick with wine. "My father-in-law won't live for much longer, and his hands are shaking. I'm afraid masterpieces like the 'Feng Shui Pills' won't be made anymore. These clay pots are gonna skyrocket in value soon."
Jangxia stared at her, blankly. The apprentice nearby opened his mouth to say something, but Kikuemon, the old man, stopped him. "She's right," he said, sounding almost defeated. "I can barely make two or three decent pieces a year now. It's not what it used to be."
Amuro Toru, who had been talking with another apprentice, overheard and raised an eyebrow. "Two or three? But last year, it was more than ten..."
The young lady, clearly drunk and eager for a distraction, turned to Amuro with a wild grin. "Enough about pottery! Tell us about the cases you've solved! Today's detectives are the stars!"
Anshi Toru raised an eyebrow and, without missing a beat, grabbed Jangxia, who had been playing with a clay pot, and handed him to the young lady. "You solved those, you tell them." Then he casually turned away, returning to his own conversation.
Jangxia sat there, silently judging the situation, his gaze following the drunken young lady's antics. He didn't even have the energy to push her away when she grabbed his face.
"Tell me more!" she giggled. "Although you've solved like, 2 or 3 cases, I'm still bored and can listen to your same stories again." She smiled at him, still touching his face like it was some kind of joke.
At the corner of the room, Suzuki Sonoko's eyes narrowed as she watched this scene unfold. She quickly turned, about to pounce, but was held back by Ran, who whispered in her ear, "Calm down, Auntie's just being affectionate. She's not trying to take advantage."
On the other side, Jangxia couldn't help but glance at the drunken lady with a look of disbelief. Even with all that alcohol, she still had the courage to act like this...
But, to be fair, Jangxia also knew exactly what was going on. The young lady wasn't as drunk as she looked. She'd interrupted Amuro's question on purpose earlier to avoid talking about the pottery production numbers. Recently, the young lady had been in cahoots with one of Kikuemon's apprentices, selling fake Kikuemon pieces as real ones to make extra cash.
As he thought about it, Jangxia looked over at the apprentice who looked like he was about to explode from frustration. This apprentice, he remembered, was actually the son-in-law of Kikuemon's old pottery mentor. Judging by the look of his face, he wasn't the most cheerful guy, and Jangxia had a feeling that he might be the real target of the young lady's "accidental" death.
The family dynamics here were chaotic, to say the least, but that was how more ghosts were made.
Jangxia sipped his juice thoughtfully as the party carried on into the late hours. The young lady eventually passed out, and they had to send her to bed early.
By morning, though, Jangxia woke up to chaos.
"She's dead," was all he heard when he asked what happened. Apparently, the young lady had "hanged herself" in the warehouse this morning. She was still warm when they found her.
Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko stood together, their expressions conflicted. It was obvious they were used to the idea of murder by now, but this one seemed a bit too peaceful—at least her body had been intact.
Jangxia walked over to the warehouse, where the police had already arrived. This time, it wasn't the usualInspector Megure, but an unfamiliar officer—Sangou Yokomizo, a man with coral-like hair and a square jaw. When Sangou Yokomizo saw Jangxia, his expression shifted slightly, and he looked like he wanted to approach him. But then, with an effort, he stayed put, keeping his professional distance.
In the Detective Conan universe, detectives were more popular than celebrities. Sangou Yokomizo was a fan of famous detectives, but his position as a police officer kept him from approaching Jangxia too casually.
Jangxia couldn't care less about Yokomizo's weird hair, so he turned his attention to the crime scene instead. Amuro Toru was already there, waiting for him.
"It's a bit strange," Amuro whispered. "Her cervical vertebra is broken."
Usually, people who commit suicide by hanging die from cerebral hypoxia. But in this case, the fracture of her cervical vertebra was odd. The position of the break made it look like it wasn't accidental.
Jangxia nodded, his expression serious. "The young lady didn't step on a clay pot to hang herself. She was probably strangled with a rope first and then dropped from the top of the cabinet."
"If it were a suicide," Jangxia continued, "there wouldn't have been any need for theatrics. This was definitely a murder. Someone took her while she was drunk, tied a noose around her neck, and dumped her from the top of the cupboard. When she fell, her cervical vertebra broke. Most likely, the killer is Mr. Mino. I saw a lipstick print on the back of his inner shirt earlier. He and the young lady were sitting across from each other at dinner last night, and after she was sent back to her room by Mrs. Otani, they wouldn't have had any further contact. So, that lipstick mark must have been from another time. It's likely that he carried her upstairs and set up the whole scene in the middle of the night."
As Jangxia spoke, Yokomizo was already rushing over to the nail Jangxia had pointed out. There was a small patch of skin on it, confirming the theory.
"Look! There's some skin on the nail!" Yokomizo exclaimed.
Amuro Toru sighed and looked away. He had been the one to catch this detail first, but Jangxia had already figured it out and put it all together in record time. Amuro had never seen someone reason so quickly.
Meanwhile, one of the apprentices asked Jangxia dully, "Did you get up in the middle of the night and see the murderer?"
Jangxia gave him an unimpressed look, but before he could respond, Suzuki Sonoko interrupted, "Don't be ridiculous! If the young lady had gone to look for Jangxia in the middle of the night, I would've noticed!"
The apprentice was left speechless. What did the young lady even look like in their eyes?
Despite Sonoko's somewhat dubious testimony, everyone else was fairly confident that Jangxia didn't need to get involved directly to solve the case. His reasoning skills had already proven he was one step ahead of everyone.
Amuro, though, was still a little skeptical. He had spent most of the night on edge, worried about some "dangerous person trying to eavesdrop on the organization's secrets."
After all, the group had all fallen asleep on tatami mats in the living room after dinner, and Amuro was fairly sure Jangxia didn't leave the room in the middle of the night.
But what bothered Amuro more was how Jangxia managed to make this entire deduction so quickly after entering the warehouse. He and Jangxia had arrived at the same information, but Jangxia had already figured it all out while Amuro was still mulling things over. This was a talent, something Amuro had never fully grasped before.
Amuro couldn't help but think: it was definitely a good decision to bring Jangxia along as part of the team.
And to think, someone almost shot this kid down as cannon fodder.
Amuro had another account against the organisation in the thick vengeance book in his heart.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 28/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS*