The Truth from 14 Years Ago

"Oh, come to think of it, my husband was also practicing this magic trick in the basement that day, but we didn't find any trace of thread on the rings he was wearing on both hands."

Upon receiving this news, Jiang Hang already had a clear idea of what was going on.

The threads used in this magic trick may look very thin, but they are designed to be strong and durable. Otherwise, if an accident occurs during the performance, the magic show will naturally fail.

Judging from the manner of Kutsuku Motoyasu's death, it seems as if he was entangled by the thread on the ring in this way.

Under such circumstances, unless one is extremely flexible or has specifically studied these escape methods, it is impossible to break free from the restraints.

While Kutsuku Motoyasu is a renowned magician, he is now over fifty years old and on the heavier side, so his specialty is unlikely to be escape magic.

Given his build, being bound like that with his hands behind his back, he would probably have a hard time even standing up, let alone trying to turn the high, cylindrical door handle with his hands behind his back.

So, if we continue thinking along these lines, if the other party was framed by one of his disciples, what would Kutsuku Motoyasu do after discovering that he was unable to open the door or transmit his voice to the outside world?

Jiang Hang's gaze fell on the telephone in the room.

After all, even without using your hands, you can leave marks on it with your nose or even your tongue.

But since the police didn't find any problems, it means that the phone was probably disconnected at the time and unable to make calls.

But then what is the point of those playing cards that Kutsuku Motoyasu created in the final stages of his life?

"So, these playing cards are the last message he left before he died?"

Jiang Hang remembered that Mako Miyoshi had said in the hall that their teacher had stopped playing card magic many years ago.

In this situation, the fact that the other party suddenly used so many playing cards must mean they left something on this phone for some purpose.

Thinking back to the two playing cards stuck together, Jiang Hang walked to the phone.

At this point, the messages left by the deceased become clearer.

Because Jiang Hang only needed to glance at the phone with his Eagle Eye to spot the highlighted redial button.

Furthermore, the shape of this replay button is almost 80% similar to the shape of those two playing cards stacked together.

At most, you can only say that when the opponent is restrained by a backhand, their grip might not be as precise, but as long as you realize this, you will inevitably be able to connect the two.

Jiang Hang's only worry now is whether the murderer did anything destructive afterward, damaging the last clues left by the phone.

"The police did investigate the phone's call records, but they didn't find any record of my husband calling for help on the day of the incident," said Kutsuku Nanae.

"However, the police did find that the last number dialed on the phone was a string of meaningless numbers. In addition, my daughter's fingerprints were found on it, so the police believed that my daughter must have randomly pressed numbers when she was playing with the phone."

Well, it's time for him, the Eagle-Eyed Detective, to tackle the weakest link in deduction – decoding codes.

However, the necessary procedures still need to be followed.

"Do you still remember the string of numbers the police found back then? I need to confirm it to avoid any discrepancies."

As Jiang Hang said this, he pressed the replay button.

Sure enough, the next moment the phone showed that the dialed number was not in service and displayed a string of incomprehensible numbers.

So what do these strings of numbers mean?

There are four strings of numbers in total, with each string separated by an asterisk (*).

If these numbers haven't been altered, then these are probably the deceased's last words.

After hearing Jiang Hang's question, Kutsuku Nanae thought for a while but couldn't recall it. However, she remembered that Kazumi Sanada should still remember these numbers, so she prepared to go upstairs to ask Kazumi Sanada about the situation.

"Anyway, thank you for your help. Please wait here for a while."

After Kutsuku Nanae left, Jiang Hang looked at Miyano Shiho.

He wasn't good at using codes, so he'd better listen to Kichiro Kinoshita's investigation into Miyano Shiho first.

"They're all here. A genius poker magician who was known as 'Toichi Kuroba' back then. It looks like this magician specifically trained Toichi Kuroba to surpass Toichi Kuroba."

"He was also considered a steampunk character, and his path basically followed the route that led to Toichi Kuroba's rise to fame. However, he lacked the highest award in the International Magic Federation competition. It seems that before he was preparing to participate in this competition, his magic props malfunctioned, and he accidentally died on the rehearsal stage during an escape magic performance, which sparked a lot of discussion back then."

Hearing Miyano Shiho's words, Jiang Hang couldn't help but look at the photo again.

After losing to Toichi Kuroba, he chose to train another Toichi Kuroba to Toichi Kuroba.

I hadn't noticed anything before.

Now that it's brought up, the young man in the photo does seem to have a bit of the look of Toichi Kuroba.

Toichi Kuroba is most skilled in card magic and escape magic, and it was precisely these two skills that made him the Kaito Kid.

If he hadn't been so familiar with Kaito Kid's style, he might have actually suspected that the case back then was because Toichi Kuroba felt his position was being challenged, which is why he targeted him.

However, the suspicion against Toichi Kuroba can naturally be ruled out.

Therefore, only one possibility remains, which is the only reason why the magician who died 14 years ago would be highlighted as key information by Eagle Eye.

"Because of his resentment towards Toichi Kuroba, and realizing that his disciple was becoming more and more like Kuroba Toichi, he was consumed by jealousy again. In the end, before his disciple could follow Toichi Kuroba's path to the very end, he used dishonorable means to kill his disciple..."

"Fourteen years later, one of his disciples, having some connection with Kichiro Kinoshita then, decided to kill his teacher to avenge Kinoshita Yoshiro after discovering the truth of what happened back then."

Jiang Hang made his own deduction, and this whole monologue of reasoning surprised Miyano Shiho, who was standing next to him.

Although they had seen this several times before, this series of assumptions that suddenly unfolded without any obvious proof were almost all confirmed as the truth by the end of the case.

In other words, the reason this case occurred is because of a mistake that Kutsuku Motoyasu made 14 years ago?

Thinking of this, Miyano Shiho couldn't help but look at Jiang Hang.

She was familiar with this person's style; he was never a champion of justice.

On the contrary, he has always admired Sherlock Holmes's saying, "When the law fails to deliver justice to the parties involved, private revenge becomes justified and even noble from that moment on."

After Jiang Hang confirmed the cause of the case, how will he deal with the real culprit?

Chapter 498: Chapter 494: The Truth from 14 Years Ago

Although Jiang Hang has not yet deduced the murderer who killed Kutsuku Motoyasu, at this point, the investigation does not necessarily have to focus on the numerical codes.

Finding out if any of the three disciples had any connection with Kichiro Kinoshita will also help us identify the murderer.

Compared to cracking codes that require brain teasers, this method may be a bit more complicated, but it is more suitable for Jiang Hang today.

Especially after Jiang Hang acquired hacking skills, the internet in this era held almost no secrets for him.

Just as Jiang Hang handed over the task of deciphering the code to Miyano Shiho and was about to go to his car to get his computer for further investigation, Kazumi Sanada suddenly appeared in the basement.

Upon seeing the white line on the ground, a look of confusion flashed across the face of the young man in his twenties.

"I heard from my teacher's wife that you think the disconnected number on the phone might be his last words, so I came to take a look."

He bypassed the spot where his teacher's body had been and began telling Jiang Hang the numbers from the day the police investigation took place.

This string of numbers does indeed seem meaningless; even the police didn't record it in their files. Only someone with an exceptionally good memory like Kazumi Sanada could remember it so clearly.

After comparing the figures, Jiang Hang confirmed that there was no change from the current numbers.

Either the murderer is Kazumi Sanada, who is standing right in front of us.

Either the murderer didn't realize what the string of numbers represented, since the police had already closed the case as a suicide, and the murderer didn't think the case would undergo any new changes, so he didn't come back to make any more changes.

Jiang Hang asked Miyano Shiho there and think for a while, while he had a brief chat with Kazumi Sanada in front of him.

The man in front of me Kazumi Sanada, is 27 years old this year. He became a disciple of Kutsuku Motoyasu nine years ago.

According to online comments, the other person is skilled in card magic and had already mastered the art several years ago. However, he was able to stay here to continue researching new magic tricks because of Kutsuku Motoyasu's appreciation.

In terms of talent, the person in front of him is one of the top disciples under Kutsuku Motoyasu.

However, magic is an industry that requires a high level of talent.

The more top-tier a magician is, the more they feel the gap between themselves and those international masters.

Kazumi Sanada's talent is roughly on par with that of Kutsuku Motoyasu. With years of hard work and perseverance, it wouldn't be too difficult for him to become a world-class magician in his thirties or forties.

However, compared to Toichi Kuroba just a few years after his debut, and Kichiro Kinoshita and was only Toichi Kuroba, the gap is quite obvious.

Did Kazumi Sanada, whom Kutsuku Motoyasu treated like a son, have a motive for murder?

Thinking about it carefully, there is indeed some, but it's definitely not much.

After all, less than five years had passed between Kichiro Kinoshita's death and Kazumi Sanada's acceptance of him as a disciple.

It's highly unlikely that Kazumi Sanada was Kichiro Kinoshita's younger brother and that Kutsuku Motoyasu himself was unaware of this.

Only the two people who recently joined Kutsuku Motoyasu's school are more likely to change their names and identities after more than a decade of ups and downs and attempt to take revenge on Kutsuku Motoyasu.

If we're talking about the motives of Kazumi Sanada, judging from Jiang Hang's years of experience researching Detective Conan, it's likely that his teacher always treated him as a substitute for Kichiro Kinoshita. After years of accumulating resentment, he eventually learned the truth about what happened back then, and his inner convictions collapsed instantly, leading him to choose to kill his teacher.

Anyway, this reason for murder would be quite reasonable even in Conan.

However, when Jiang Hang asked why he chose to specialize in card magic, which even his teacher wasn't very good at performing, Kazumi Sanada's answer was quite straightforward.

"It's not that the teacher isn't good at card magic, it's just that when he was performing card magic in front of a certain magician, he made a major mistake for some reason. In the end, the other magician saved him with an even more ingenious card magic trick. After that, he was unwilling to perform card magic in front of others anymore."

"Only a few people know that the teacher has only gradually come to terms with things in recent years, which is why he hasn't been involved in card magic much."

"Before this, although the teacher had never performed card magic in public, I dare say that his research on card magic is absolutely the best in the world. Not only me, but also the Kinoshita student Kinoshita whom the teacher often mentioned, our card magic was taught by the teacher little by little. Even the card magic that I have shown after my debut was largely developed by the teacher and me together."

Although Kazumi Sanada did not reveal the magician's identity.

But Jiang Hang felt that the magician was probably Toichi Kuroba, the lifelong nemesis of Kutsuku Motoyasu.

If that's the case, then it's not surprising that Kutsuku Motoyasu has such a strong obsession with Toichi Kuroba.

He was surpassed by a younger colleague, his genius title was stolen by the other party, and he was even helped out by the other party when he made a mistake in his performance on the show.

Clearly, Toichi Kuroba's actions did not trigger the "turn enemies into friends" buff. Instead, they thoroughly aroused the sense of shame in Kutsuku Motoyasu, who was also young and impetuous at the time, and from then on, he never performed card magic in front of others again.

"When your teacher took you in, he probably wanted to train you to be the next Kichiro Kinoshita, right? Did you realize that at the time?"

A slight change appeared on Kazumi Sanada's face.

"Actually, it's alright. Ever since that world-famous magician passed away eight years ago due to a magic accident, after being depressed for several months, the teacher has relaxed his requirements for us disciples a lot."

"Just like the escape magic that Kinoshita -senpai is also good at, I have only learned about 30% of it from my teacher, and I am still far from reaching the level that my senior was at back then."

When Kazumi Sanada said this, a hint of regret flashed in his eyes, it was unclear whether he felt regret for his teacher or for himself.

So it was only because of Toichi Kuroba's death that Kutsuku Motoyasu was able to let go of his obsession.

Observing Kazumi Sanada's expression throughout the conversation with Eagle Eye, Jiang Hang was basically able to determine that the man in front of him was not the culprit in this case.

The guy in front of me, in a way, is the kind of person who puts all his energy into magic and doesn't care much about other things.

"Toichi Kuroba was indeed a magician who suppressed an era," Jiang Hang lamented, reflecting on Toichi Kuroba's "sins," and continued to question Kazumi Sanada.

This time, his questions became much more pointed.

"So, you probably already know the truth about your teacher's death," Jiang Hang asked, then offered his speculation. "Or perhaps your teacher even told you that something bad might happen to him in the future, which is why you were so certain that your teacher committed suicide, even with so many suspicious circumstances at the scene."

Sure enough, after Jiang Hang asked the question, a look of surprise flashed in Kazumi Sanada's eyes. He seemed not to have expected that Jiang Hang would have figured out so much in just ten minutes after arriving in the basement.

He truly deserves to be called Japan's foremost detective by the news.

Even so, Kazumi Sanada quickly regained his composure after a brief change in expression—something his teacher had told him when he accepted him as a disciple.

As a magician, in order to prevent others from seeing through your hand, you must always maintain a poker face without any expression.

Unfortunately, even maintaining a poker face requires talent.

Even his teacher has repeatedly lamented that he himself could not fully achieve that level, and that only a handful of people can truly reach that level.

"I don't know what you mean, Mr. Jiang Hang. If you already have evidence that the teacher was murdered by someone else, you can take the evidence to the police. I have nothing more to say."

With that, Kazumi Sanada prepared to leave the basement and return to his room upstairs.

However, at that moment, Miyano Shiho nearby, finally figured out what the code meant.

The code itself isn't complicated; it just requires someone to come up with it.

Miyano Shiho reached out and poked Jiang Hang, then simply gestured a few times on the number buttons of the phone.

With just one glance, Jiang Hang understood what Miyano Shiho meant.

He called Kazumi Sanada, who was about to leave, and revealed the true identity of the culprit in this case.

"This was done by that pockmarked lady, wasn't it?"

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Kazumi Sanada's steps noticeably halted once again.

"I'll say it again: if you have evidence, then go find the police."