Conan Keeps Egging Him On (Continued)

Jiang Hang muttered to himself. Although more than an hour had passed since the explosion, the smell of gunpowder was still very strong at the scene.

Police and firefighters are still working diligently to clear the rubble.

After all, they didn't know if there were any unexploded ordnance hidden under the rubble.

Jiang Hang offered some simple assistance, clearing some of the rubble and also accurately determining the original location and approximate yield of the bombs.

The type of bomb used can also be roughly determined, which does correspond to Jiang Hang's previous investigation.

However, there are indeed no useful clues to be found here.

An explosion was enough to destroy all traces left by the criminal.

However, Jiang Hang came here for more than just to investigate the explosion site.

He also needs to find the location where the prisoner was when the explosion occurred.

This location is definitely not too far.

The greater the distance, the less stable the signal, and the more likely there will be a delay in detonation.

The prisoner must have carefully checked these things to make such a commotion. If it weren't for Jiang Hang's interference, those bombs would have been detonated normally after the train entered the tunnel.

Jiang Hang could probably imagine the prisoner's furious expression when he discovered that despite all his preparations, the detonator in his hand hadn't reacted at all.

Then he was probably pressing the button repeatedly, trying to trigger the bomb's detonator.

From the signal jammer blocking the loss of that signal, to them hearing the explosion from the train.

If we disregard the effects of sound speed and vehicle speed, it can be basically confirmed that the perpetrator was likely trying to detonate the explosives.

So he was planning to go and investigate the area.

The local police are naturally trying to investigate these matters as well.

However, their skill level was indeed not very good. They were just relying on their own eyes and some police dogs that didn't have a clear target to search for.

They don't feel like 21st-century police officers at all; they seem more like police officers from the 1960s or 70s.

That's just how the world of Detective Conan is.

On the other side of a bunch of messy, high-tech technologies, there is a group of police officers who seem completely unaffected by modern criminal investigation techniques.

According to the system, this world is a complex world centered around various detectives, so the world's setting naturally revolves around the abilities of these detectives.

In short, after mentally ranting like this, Jiang Hang, the transmigrator who bore no resemblance to a traditional detective, continued to use his Eagle Eye cheat to search the mountainous area near the scene.

By this time, the police officers who had come with Jiang Hang had rested for a while and had adapted quite a bit. Now they were also helping out by Jiang Hang's side.

So it was definitely the right decision not to bring Sonoko Suzuki here. This place is indeed not suitable for bringing such a young lady. The flow of people and vehicles here is not large. Apart from the people living nearby, Jiang Hang quickly discovered something special on a hillside near the tunnel.

"This is..."

From Jiang Hang's Eagle Vision, a piece of debris with a distinctive color appeared.

He immediately pointed to a nearby police officer and then squatted down to examine the debris.

The police officers standing nearby hadn't yet figured out what it was and were wondering what it was when Jiang Hang pointed to a patch of grass that looked slightly trampled. "If I'm not mistaken, the criminal was standing right here when the bomb was detonated."

Jiang Hang picked up some debris. "This should be the detonator made by the criminals."

He briefly reconstructed the scene, showing how the prisoner, in a fit of rage after the failed detonation, smashed down the detonator, which ironically caused the detonator to successfully detonate the bomb.

These fragments are likely from when the perpetrator discovered the explosion and, fearing the nearby police would notice, hastily cleaned up the scene without thoroughly cleaning it, leaving behind these small, broken pieces.

After identifying what appeared to be the criminal's trail, Jiang Hang used Eagle Eye to determine the criminal's escape route.

They followed the trail of traces that ordinary police officers would never notice, only becoming aware of them after Jiang Hang pointed them out.

The prisoner appeared to have some experience and counter-surveillance skills during the police search.

"It seems like he's a repeat offender, which is why he has this kind of experience," Jiang Hang explained to the police officers, while also giving a general description of the physical characteristics of the person who left these marks.

Male, approximately 1.75 to 1.8 meters tall, shoe size 45, weight approximately 70 to 80 kilograms.

Following these clues, they eventually tracked the suspects down to a nearby side road.

Here, they were finally able to determine, based on a relatively obvious tire track on the path, that this must be the car the criminals drove here when they committed the crime.

However, they only saw so much and couldn't analyze the specifics of the car at all.

"Furthermore, you failed to determine that there should be an accomplice in that car."

Jiang Hang pointed to a cigarette butt that was thrown nearby.

"This cigarette butt must have been thrown here this morning, and it looks like it's been there for quite some time. That means the killer who set this off must have had someone in the vicinity driving over to pick them up."

The police officers seemed puzzled as to how Jiang Hang could deduce that the murderer had another accomplice based on just one cigarette butt.

Jiang Hang sighed and explained, "Because along the way, the traces left by the criminal were actually very few. If things had gone normally, it wouldn't have been discovered so quickly."

"With such counter-surveillance capabilities, the criminal obviously wouldn't make such a basic mistake or leave such a flaw. The person who threw the cigarette butt should just be an ordinary person who wasn't very vigilant, and looks like an accomplice who was temporarily pulled in by the real murderer."

Jiang Hang gestured to the police officers to take the cigarette butt back for testing to see if it could be compared with other cigarettes.

However, this possibility is not high. After all, Japan, with a population of over 100 million, only has a little over 100 forensic doctors. Apart from the data of habitual offenders and wealthy people that are kept in the database, who would bother to test these things for no reason?

It's just giving the police some work to do.

In addition, there were tire tracks left by the car when it left.

However, apart from the initial traces which were relatively obvious, once the car entered the main road, these traces were certainly not so easy to trace.

Jiang Hang could only roughly determine the tires used on the car and their possible model based on what he saw.

This information is enough for the police to investigate for quite some time.

Afterwards, Jiang Hang made another call to the high-ranking police officers in Hokkaido, explained the current situation, and asked them to remind Governor Asakura to temporarily suspend the schedule for the next few days. He would then announce that the schedule would remain unchanged after Governor Asakura had investigated the situation in Kitazawa Village.

Now, because Jiang Hang truly did save their lives, the officials in Hokkaido quickly agreed to these requests.

The other party even offered Jiang Hang a car without police markings, which was probably used for surveillance and reconnaissance, for him to use in Hokkaido.

After that, Jiang Hang planned to drive his current police car to get a new one.

It was at this moment that he suddenly received another questioning phone call from Sonoko Suzuki.

On the other end of the phone, Sonoko Suzuki loudly questioned Jiang Hang why he hadn't kept his word. He had clearly said he would take her to the scene for investigation that afternoon, so why had she just left?

"It was just a simple test to see if you had any talent for being a detective. It seems your vigilance isn't very high. Real detectives don't believe what suspects say just because of some pretentious explanations. They have their own thoughts and will question anything that doesn't make sense."

"When investigating a crime scene, the sooner you go, the easier it is to find more clues. I think you should know that too. If we wait until the afternoon to set off, we probably won't find anything at the crime scene by then."

Jiang Hang sighed and said that Sonoko Suzuki was too relaxed. She believed the suggestion to rest and didn't take the case seriously, which caused her to miss the opportunity.

"If you really want to try again, I'll put in a good word for you with Mori-nii. You and Ran are such good friends, I'm sure Mori-nii will be very willing to take you on as his apprentice."

"That's all for now. I have to go to the next place for investigation. We can talk again when we get back to Tokyo." Jiang Hang said this, and without giving Sonoko Suzuki any chance to speak, he hung up the phone amicably.

Given Sonoko Suzuki's carefree and easily distracted personality, once he returns to Tokyo, giving her a few tickets to a meet-and-greet with a famous idol will surely dispel any thoughts she might have about becoming a detective.

If all else fails, let her experience being a female assassin in the Animus, an all-ages version with full mission guidance.

Hearing the busy tone on the other end of the phone, Sonoko Suzuki was completely blushing.

She called Jiang Hang intending to confront him and demand an explanation.

Instead of achieving her goal of questioning him, she was instead lectured by the other party, who also said that she had no sense of suspicion whatsoever that a famous detective should have.

Sonoko Suzuki, who had been constantly teased by Jiang Hang in various ways for the past two days, was finally breaking down.

Even at this moment, she actually showed a bit of obsession.

She was determined to do the things Jiang Hang forbade her to do, just to prove Jiang Hang wrong.

So she directly called her best friend Ran, saying she wanted to ask Kogoro Mouri about something.

Then she recounted in detail everything that had happened that morning, hoping to see if Kogoro Mouri and the others could figure out where Jiang Hang's next target would be.

"How could such a thing be possible? Jiang Hang has already been to the scene and clearly found some useful clues before planning to move on to the next place. You only rode in the car with him; how could you possibly know where he is investigating now?"

Kogoro Mouri immediately stated that he was powerless to help and could not do anything about it.

After all, he was just a detective, not a prophet who could predict the future.

He also overheard Sonoko Suzuki saying that Jiang Hang wanted her to become his apprentice.

Then he gave me a look that said, "Jiang Hang understands me better than I do." He continued, "Although I don't currently have any plans to take on apprentices, and you don't really meet my criteria, if you really want to learn some reasoning from me, I can still spare some time to give you lessons."

Hearing Kogoro Mouri's words, Sonoko Suzuki became even angrier.

He had just been looked down upon and teased by Jiang Hang, and now he was being looked down upon by his friend's father?

Ran, on the other end of the phone, criticized her father and told him not to talk like that.

Then she apologized to Sonoko Suzuki, saying, "That's just my dad's personality, Sonoko, don't take it to heart."

"Furthermore, we can't figure out where Jiang Hang is right now. If Jiang Hang doesn't want you to know, how about I ask Miss Haibara for you? They came with Jiang Hang this time, so they should know something too."

Sonoko Suzuki also thought this seemed like a good idea.

But then she felt awkward again.

Ran had a few exchanges with the other party. At most, she had met and interacted with the red-haired and pink-haired guys from Jiang Hang's firm a few times.

She wasn't very familiar with the two women who helped Jiang Hang manage his business, and who were said to be sisters.

Ran was also in a bit of a dilemma.

She had only met him a few times.

Come to think of it, they're not as familiar with them as Conan.

So Ran's gaze unconsciously fell on Conan was still watching the news.

She had barely uttered the word "Conan" when Conan shook his head in refusal.

"They are completely focused on Jiang Hang. If Jiang Hang is unwilling, they definitely will not reveal this information."

Just as Ran showed a regretful expression and was about to explain things to her friend again, Conan suddenly said that Jiang Hang and the others might have gone to another place.

"But I think they might have gone here now."

"Kitazawa Village?"

"How did you deduce that?" Ran was stunned, wondering why Conan had made such a judgment after only watching a short police press conference.

"Because Sonoko... Sonoko- neechan mentioned it before," feeling everyone's eyes on him, he, who had just been able to maintain the Shinichi Kudo mode and talk to Ran in a normal tone, immediately returned to his true Conan state.

He wiped his forehead and recounted what Sonoko Suzuki had just recounted—what she had seen in the car.

"Sonoko said, Brother Jiang Hang must have guessed in advance that the criminal might use an explosion to launch an attack, and he made the police prepared accordingly."

"Although the police and Brother Jiang Hang were unable to prevent the explosion, they did avoid casualties."

"The train itself was not in any danger, and Governor Asakura's behavior on the train was normal. He even kept thanking Brother Jiang Hang for his investigation."

"Based on your explanation, Sonoko -neechan, I feel that Brother Jiang Hang actually had some doubts about the prisoner's situation before getting on the bus, which is why the people on the bus believed what Brother Jiang Hang said."

Although Sonoko Suzuki always felt that Conan's tone was a little strange, she was only thinking about finding Jiang Hang to prove herself, so she didn't care about that at all.

In fact, the Suzuki family has always had this stubborn streak.

Just like her second uncle, after he was robbed of his headlines by Kaito Kid, he has been relentlessly challenging Kaito Kid to prove that he is the most powerful person.

"That's right. Come to think of it, it seems that before Jiang Hang, the Hokkaido police chief had already heard something from Jiang Hang and told Governor Asakura. However, they never revealed any specific information, and I only vaguely understood what they were saying..."

Conan nodded. "I also noticed that you mentioned, Sonoko -neechan, that Jiang Hang and the others discussed their schedules when they got off the bus, right?"

"It's because Yuichiro Asakura wants to take advantage of the schedule adjustment these few days to entertain Brother Jiang Hang."

Since it happened when she got off the bus, Sonoko Suzuki naturally still remembered it. She said that Conan was right, "As a result, that guy Jiang Hang told people that maybe he had already solved the case before the schedule was adjusted."

"However, at the press conference held by the Hokkaido police just now, the police officer who was speaking was clearly reminded otherwise, and specifically mentioned at the press conference that Governor Asakura, who had received threats, had to temporarily postpone his schedule for the next week for safety reasons. And of the schedule released by the police, the one that felt most suspicious to me was Kitazawa Village."

Sonoko Suzuki pouted, seemingly still unaware of why Conan would suspect Kitazawa Village based on the police announcement.

"Is that all? That's too hasty. Although the person wasn't seriously injured, such a big incident still happened, along with that threatening letter. It's normal to postpone the schedule for a week."

Conan shook his head. "If this was a prepared press release from the beginning, it could be explained that way. But it's obvious that after Brother Jiang Hang had already been to the crime scene and perhaps even found some important clues there, the police suddenly reminded the spokesperson to change the subject and mention Governor Asakura's cancellation of his schedule. In fact, shortly after he said that, news about it could already be found online, and it seems to be even more eye-catching than the tunnel explosion case."

"So it feels to me like Brother Jiang Hang deliberately had the police do this, just so that the criminal would see this."

Knowing how advanced Jiang Hang's network technology was, Conan immediately suspected Jiang Hang when he noticed this trend.

Of course, what led him to conclude that Kitazawa Village was not just the police's impromptu statement.

Rather, he had actually paid attention to the Kitazawa Village Dam issue before.