This Is the Scent of Gossip! / The Mystery of the Buddha Statue's Whereabouts

To be honest, Jiang Hang hadn't been paying any attention to what Ayumi singing, and he had no idea what those strange lyrics meant.

He blinked as he listened to the two sides suddenly start arguing about things like the older sister and the bride.

Is she the older sister... or the bride?

This sounds like it involves some kind of unspeakable ethical issue. Have children's songs developed to this extent now?

It wasn't until he carefully read the lyrics that Imai Midori handed him that he realized what they were talking about.

"Hmm... looking at it this way, it seems that it should indeed be the older sister. You two must have mixed up the names when you listened to this song together when you were little," Jiang Hang said after finding out what the children's song was. He then matched the names of the streets in Kyoto one by one.

The second line of lyrics refers to the streets Jiexiao Road, Santiao Road, Liujiao Road, Xiaoyaoshi Road and Jinxiao Road. The name "ane san" is formed by Jiexiao Road and Santiao Road, which is the origin of the name "older sister".

Hearing Jiang Hang's explanation, Kazuha Toyama were still somewhat skeptical until they saw the names of those streets with their own eyes and were convinced that they had remembered them wrong.

"I was taught this song when I was visiting relatives in Kyoto more than ten years ago. I might have misremembered it back then... But Heiji, how come you also misremembered it like me? I don't remember ever singing this song in front of you, did I?" Kazuha Toyama looked at Heiji Hattori with some confusion.

Kazuha Toyama herself wasn't very confident, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Heiji Hattori's confident and certain expression.

Unexpectedly, it turned out that the two of them got it mixed up together.

Heiji Hattori's memory is much better than hers. Usually, when she forgets something, it is Heiji Hattori who reminds her. He almost never makes a mistake. How come this time the other person made the same mistake as her?

Heiji Hattori, glancing at Kazuha Toyama with a strange look. He didn't offer an explanation directly, but instead took the phone from Kazuha Toyama's hand, confirmed that he was wrong, and then returned the phone.

Seeing Heiji Hattori in thought, Jiang Hang, who had initially thought it was just a simple Heiji Hattori misremembering, suddenly became interested.

Hmm, this smells like gossip!

It seems the two didn't hear the song together; Kazuha Toyama said she heard it from a relative and never sang it in front of Heiji Hattori.

However, Heiji Hattori made the same mistake as Kazuha Toyama in this very place...

It seems like this was just a coincidence, but after a few months as a detective, Jiang Hang has made some progress, especially when it comes to things related to gossip. Human imagination is always much more active than usual when it comes to such matters.

Almost instantly, Jiang Hang recalled what Heiji Hattori had said to him yesterday when they first met—"That little girl was humming a song about the streets of Kyoto while bouncing a ball."

Judging from Heiji Hattori's current reaction, the song his so-called first love sang back then was probably the same one that Ayumi is now singing to Conan— a nursery rhyme known in Kyoto as the "Ball Song."

Since the parts that Heiji Hattori Kazuha Toyama misremembered are exactly the same, does that mean that the "first love" that Heiji Hattori met back then was actually Kazuha Toyama, but they hadn't met at that time, or there was some other little episode in between that prevented Heiji Hattori from recognizing Kazuha Toyama?

Although there was no evidence, Jiang Hang wasn't just making wild guesses.

Given the childhood friendship between Kazuha Toyama Heiji Hattori, and considering the consistent theme of childhood friends being paramount in the Conan series, this unexpected twist of fate that ultimately leads back to the starting point is indeed quite possible.

His gaze fell on Heiji Hattori, wondering if Heiji Hattori was aware of this possibility, and what the next steps would be.

Such a delightful gossip session is a rare treat. If Jiang Hang had sunflower seeds and peanuts on hand, he'd probably be sitting with his legs crossed, munching on sunflower seeds and watching the show.

Conan's expression at this moment was somewhat similar to Jiang Hang's, suggesting that he had probably thought of the same thing as Jiang Hang.

Just as everyone was waiting to see the gossip, Miyano Akemi suddenly interjected, "Can I see the lyrics to that ball song?"

This wasn't a big deal, but after getting the phone from Imai Midori, Miyano Akemi kept staring at the contents of the screen, and then whispered to Miyano Shiho next to her for a while.

Then Miyano Shiho took the instructions on her phone and started comparing them with the cipher image.

This action immediately caught the attention of Heiji Hattori and Conan.

With their intelligence, they naturally realized immediately that Miyano Shiho was planning to use place names in Kyoto to decipher the secret of the coded map.

This was a completely new direction they hadn't considered before, and looking at the coded diagram, it was a square cabinet.

Kyoto's streets are also square and orderly, and two songs were even composed about it.

However, since they were not from Kyoto, they didn't think of this matter for the time being. Instead, they were focused on arguing with Minamoto no Yoshitsune and the anecdotes associated with him.

In retrospect, it's possible that the leader of the Genji Fireflies didn't think that much about it when setting the code.

Heiji Hattori immediately took out a detailed map of Kyoto from his pocket and, ignoring the slightly awkward atmosphere, began to examine it.

Conan immediately burrowed into Heiji Hattori's arms, poked his head out, and, holding the cipher map, followed Heiji Hattori in searching for possible matching locations.

Immediately afterward, although the assistant team was a little slow to react, seeing that the Miyano Sisters Heiji Hattori had started studying the map, they naturally did not want to fall too far behind. Koharu Yoshino took out her phone to check the map, Shizuka Sakaki was reading out the street names, Imai Midori was responsible for matching the patterns with the place names.

On the contrary, Ayumi and Kazuha Toyama were both caught off guard and didn't react for a moment.

Weren't we just talking about the lyrics? How come everyone's suddenly grabbing their phones and maps and starting to gesture?

Are all detectives the same?

Chapter 370: Chapter 366: The Mystery of the Buddha Statue's Whereabouts

At this moment, apart from Jiang Hang, who knows almost nothing about Japan history and still looks like he has nothing to do, everyone else is busy deciphering the code and has not noticed the expressions on the faces of Kazuha Toyama and Ayumi.

Jiang Hang's feelings are quite complicated right now.

We might have been able to see an even more spectacular show, but it was interrupted by Miyano Akemi's sudden inspiration and ended up like this.

But seeing how hard everyone was working, Jiang Hang thought it wasn't right for him to continue being a slacker here.

So he simply took out his own phone and started tapping around on it in a very professional manner.

It has to be said that Conan's mind really works very fast.

Even though Miyano Akemi had thought of this idea beforehand, and Miyano Shiho's intelligence was no less Conan's, as a genius who grew up within the organization and was always busy studying, Miyano Shiho obviously didn't know as much about Japan customs as Heiji Hattori and Conan.

In this respect, the two of them might not even be as fast as the assistants on the side.

"This cabinet has five layers. The fifth and fourth layers have patterns on them, while the other four patterns are on the steps between the second and third layers. If I'm not mistaken, these might refer to Gojoji, Shijoji, and one of the streets between Nijiji and Sanji in Kyoto. The acorn pattern on the outside of the cabinet might be the key. Is there any street between these two streets that is connected to acorns? I remember a children's song called 'Acorn Rolling Along,' and the first line is 'Acorns roll into the pond.' This Oikeji Street fits that description perfectly."

This is the reasoning process of Conan and Heiji Hattori have clear thinking.

As he spoke these place names, he marked them on the map.

The assistant team, however, abandoned their speculations about the cabinet and focused entirely on the patterns on it. "If the tengu pattern refers to Karasuma Road, then the road to the right of Karasuma Road that's related to goldfish must be Fuyacho Road, right? After all, there's a saying that 'goldfish feed is wheat bran,' which I've seen in books. But what road does the cicada pattern represent? We haven't seen any road names related to cicadas on the left side of Karasuma Road..."

Miyano Shiho could discern even less in a short time. Although she, like Conan, realized the meaning of the cabinet, she had hardly ever heard nursery rhymes and had no way of associating the acorn pattern with the road to Michi. What she could see after that was almost entirely based on guesswork.

A few minutes later, Conan Heiji Hattori had matched all the roads with the patterns on the cipher map, although some of the explanations of the patterns sounded rather forced to Jiang Hang, a Chinese man.

For example, loach is the main ingredient in Yanagawa hot pot, a classic Japan dish. The character "Yanagi" corresponds to Yanagawa Street.

There is a type of cicada called the oil cicada, and the word "oil" corresponds to the oily path.

The most outrageous thing is the purple flower, which Conan explained is in another children's song called "Spring Creek," which contains the lyrics about violets, so it can be connected with the river road.

Watching Conan's serious reasoning Heiji Hattori's nodding in agreement, Jiang Hang, who was watching from the sidelines, could only say that the imagination and knowledge of these famous detectives were indeed beyond the reach of normal people.

But in the end, thanks to Conan's efforts, after connecting these patterns on the map according to color, a neat word "king" appeared in front of them.

"Add this last point, and it becomes the character 'jade,' and this place is probably where that Buddha statue is now."

As Conan said this, he found the location on the map where the last point of the jade character should be.

"This is... Bukko-ji Temple?"

Although Bukko-ji Temple may not be as well-known as other historical temples in Japan, such as Kiyomizu-dera Temple- Honnō-ji Temple, and Kinkaku-ji Temple is still a very famous temple.

But in Kyoto, it is quite well-known.

After all, the road in front of the main gate of Bukko-ji Temple is called Bukko-ji Temple Road and it was included in the song "Ball Song". Kyoto child who can sing this song will definitely know about Bukko-ji Temple.

However, it's rather audacious of the leader of the Genji Fireflies to hide that Buddha statue here.

According to the confessions of Saijō Taiga and Sakura Masazo, who have been detained by the police, the leader of Genji Fireflies passed away three months ago due to illness. In the past three months, they have not been able to decipher the secret on the cipher map or find the Buddha statue.

If the leader really hid the Buddha statue in this somewhat famous temple, wasn't he completely worried that other travelers or monks might accidentally discover the statue in the temple?

Conan isn't thinking about that right now; instead, he plans to go to Bukko-ji Temple to check on things there. It would be best if he could find the Buddha statue there directly.

Heiji Hattori didn't even have time to eat. After struggling for more than a day, there was finally a glimmer of hope for a solution. What did it matter if he missed a meal?

"Aren't you coming with us?" Conan asked Jiang Hang before leaving.

Jiang Hang was genuinely curious about the whereabouts of the Buddha statue, but he glanced back at the Miyano Sisters and their assistants, who were still racking their brains to figure out the meaning of the pattern.

His assistants and Miyano Shiho are still working hard. If he, their pillar of support, were to leave with Conan now, it would probably dampen their confidence.

Thinking of this, Jiang Hang shook his head at Conan: "It looks like they'll be studying this for a while longer. I'll wait for them here. If you really find the Buddha statue, contact the Kyoto police station directly and let me know. I'll come over and see what makes that Buddha statue, which has been missing for so many years, so precious."

For so many years, the leader of the infamous Japan theft gang, Genji Fireflies, had been eyeing this thing, and even in his death, he was still thinking about using it to decide the next leader of Genji Fireflies.

Although the entire Genji Fireflies fell apart after his death due to the position of leader, it is precisely because Saijō Taiga was willing to harm several acquaintances he had known for many years for the sake of that Buddha statue that its value is all the more evident.

If he could buy or rent this Buddha statue for a little money and put it in his art museum for exhibition, and then spend money to hire some screenwriters to write a script about the Buddha statue's experiences over the past few years and make it into a movie, wouldn't the industrial level of his businesses rise by leaps and bounds?

Unfortunately, according to the abbot of Sannō Temple, this Buddha statue is normally consecrated only once every twelve years, and only during this period can tourists from outside the temple see the Buddha's face.

Moreover, this custom has been continued since the establishment of Sannō Temple, and has a history of hundreds of years.

This Buddha statue is a true treasure of Sannō Temple, an item that is absolutely not for sale. Jiang Hang could only give up his little thoughts about it.

Chapter 371: Chapter 367: You took people out to play, and you chose the headquarters of a criminal organization, didn't you?

Seeing that Conan and Heiji Hattori had found clues and started taking action, the Miyano Sisters and their assistant team also sped up their pace considerably.

Although Conan and his friends have taken the lead so far, until the very last moment, who knows who will ultimately find the Buddha statue?

Besides, who can guarantee that the place Conan and his friends have analyzed is definitely where the Buddha statue is hidden?

The Detective Boys on the side were still a bit stunned.

Isn't Conan with them? Even if he found a clue, shouldn't he be leading them along? Why is he suddenly following a dark-skinned older brother he's never met before?

Mitsuhiko reacted faster. After a moment of hesitation, he immediately approached Jiang Hang and asked, "Brother Jiang Hang, if Conan finds the whereabouts of that Buddha statue, then the reward should be ours, right?"

Jiang Hang stroked his chin and pondered for a moment. It seemed that there was nothing wrong with letting the kids in the Detective Boys receive the reward; on the contrary, it would save him time in choosing gifts.

Kids are easily satisfied.

I found a restaurant that sells Eel Rice for Genta, spent some money to get Genta a yearly membership card, bought some high-tech gadgets for Mitsuhiko, and finally bought Ayumi some pretty dolls and clothes to satisfy the wishes of the three of them.

As for Conan?

Conan is already quite old; he probably wouldn't care about such a small gift.

Even if you're going to give something as a gift, it certainly can't be anything too vulgar.

If Conan really wants it, then he'll send Conan a complete set of Huanggang Secret Test Papers and the 5-3 Learning Materials from neighboring China, as a reminder that even though Conan's body has shrunk, he shouldn't forget to study hard.

Once the Black Organization is solved and the antidote to his body is found, he might even be able to get into a good university and pursue further studies.

Thinking this, Jiang Hang nodded to Mitsuhiko to indicate that there was no problem.

Watching the kids in the Detective Boys cheer and jump for joy as if they had already secured the championship, Jiang Hang walked over to the Miyano Sisters and his assistant to check on their progress.

It seems that the progress on both sides is not too different, with both sides having basically completed about 60-70% of the reasoning.

After all, the main streets of Kyoto are only about the size of two children's songs.

Even if those patterns don't seem to have any obvious features, it's still a viable method to use exhaustive search to apply them to these streets.

However, the assistant team still revealed their lack of experience at the last moment. After finding out the street names represented by the patterns, they still failed to notice that the cabinet on the cipher map was also an important clue.

It's like a coordinate map. Although they managed to figure out the X coordinates of these streets by guessing, they couldn't confirm the Y coordinates. So, although the location they ultimately identified was near a temple, it wasn't Bukko-ji Temple.

Seeing the hesitant and uncertain looks on Shizuka Sakaki's and Imai Midori's faces, Jiang Hang said nothing.

His current role is that of a referee; if he were to remind them, it would be considered cheating.

Moreover, they probably wouldn't want to steal the fruits of other people's intellectual labor.

Besides, they wouldn't so easily admit that their reasoning had a flaw before personally verifying it.

At worst, it's just a wasted trip. Anyway, Kyoto is full of tourist attractions, and each temple has its own unique characteristics.

Just like the Kiyomizu-dera Temple with its clear waters and the classic streets outside, the Kinkaku-ji Temple with its glittering gold exterior, and the Sannō Temple with its priceless and precious Buddha statue that can only be seen once every twelve years.

Even if you go to the wrong place, it's not like you've made a completely wasted trip.

Miyano Shiho's side was much simpler, because the X-axis and Y-axis were both determined. Although the position of the "Jade" character seemed a bit far away from Foguang Temple, in that area, it seemed that Foguang Temple was the only place where things could be hidden.

She didn't have any intention of cheating or not; she simply took the map and went to Jiang Hang to ask if Conan and Heiji Hattori had finally identified this place.

After receiving Jiang Hang's affirmative answer, Miyano Shiho smoothed her hair slightly, whispered a few words to her sister, and then sat down quietly to the side.

"Aren't you going to go and take a look?" Seeing that Miyano Shiho had no intention of moving, Jiang Hang became a little curious.

"Those two have already gone. I'm not confident that I can find the Buddha statue before them, even though I found the answer almost ten minutes later."

The three assistants treat Conan like a child, and because of Jiang Hang, they don't have a very accurate estimate of Heiji Hattori's reasoning ability, so they still think about competing with Conan in speed.