Analyzing the Case / The Jewel Said to Be Worth a Billion

Upon seeing the message Jiang Hang sent him, Conan knew he was definitely in for trouble.

Sonoko Suzuki, on the other hand, was already in trouble.

She arrived in Kitazawa Village a little earlier Conan.

After waiting for Kogoro Mouri and his group to arrive in Kitazawa Village, she is now checking in at the inn's reception desk.

After receiving the room key, Sonoko Suzuki looked at the waitress in front of her.

She was about to ask if they had hosted any guests today whose situation matched that of Jiang Hang and his group.

Just as she was about to voice her question, a loud "snap" was heard in the hotel lobby, and the entire hotel lost power.

"Ah, it might be a power outage, but don't worry, our hotel has a backup power supply. I'll get an electrician to check it right now."

While Mizuki Tono, who was serving the guests, found it a little strange that the power was out at this time, he wasn't particularly surprised.

After all, Kitazawa Village is located in a mountainous area, quite a distance from nearby cities. Before the old Kitazawa Village was relocated, power outages were common.

Now that the area has been moved to Kitazawa Village, the situation has improved somewhat, but problems still tend to arise after snowfall in winter.

Just as Mizuki Tono was about to remind Sonoko Suzuki not to worry too much and that she could just wait in the lobby for a while,

To her astonishment, the girl who had just been standing before her suddenly vanished without a trace.

"Ms. Suzuki?"

She called out the other person's name, but there was no response.

"Did she just get back to her room? I thought she seemed to have something she wanted to tell me." Mizuki Tono muttered to herself, then looked at the stairs leading to her room behind her.

It's not evening yet, but the lobby is dark because the power is off, but there's still some visibility.

So she wasn't worried about anything happening to Sonoko Suzuki; she would just wait for the phone to come back on and then go to the other person's room to check.

But Sonoko Suzuki felt completely differently.

At the moment the power went out, she instinctively wanted to scream.

Before she could utter a sound, a wet handkerchief was placed over her mouth the moment the power went out.

Before her body could react reflexively, the unknown figure had already easily taken control of her.

Then, before anyone noticed them, he was carried away by that person without any struggle to her room.

Even though the power was off, the other person still opened the door quite easily and threw her onto the bed in the room.

Sonoko Suzuki didn't get a chance to see the other person's face until the door was closed.

Just as Sonoko Suzuki was filled with fear and panic, the other person finally drew back the curtains, revealing his appearance.

"It seems you still haven't listened to me, Miss Suzuki. If you want to become a detective, your vigilance is still too low. It wouldn't be good if someone tried to kidnap you in the future," came the voice.

Jiang Hang carried a stool to the window and sat down with his back to the light, so that Sonoko Suzuki on the bed could not see the expression on his face at all.

Sonoko Suzuki wanted to ask Jiang Hang what he was trying to do.

But he found that he seemed to have completely lost his strength, and he didn't even have the strength to sit up in bed and talk.

"Speaking of which, I've recently been considering whether to offer an emergency survival and self-defense course for young ladies like you. If you'd like to pay me tuition, I'd be quite happy to do so."

"In short, this case is not something a young lady like you should get involved in. I have received your 'kind offer' to help me, but you should just take a nap here first. When you wake up tomorrow, you can go out and have a good time in the neighborhood, and then return to Tokyo happily. This kind of case is not a problem for me."

After Jiang Hang finished speaking, seeing that the slow-acting anesthetic was about to take effect, he waved to the other person and said goodnight.

Then Sonoko Suzuki fell into a deep sleep.

Jiang Hang remained seated in the room, took out the human skin mask he was holding, and stuck it on his face until a few minutes later, the power was restored to the hotel.

A few minutes later, Mizuki Tono from the front desk came over to check on Sonoko Suzuki's situation, Jiang Hang, who was disguised as Sonoko Suzuki, easily fooled her.

Then Conan and his group arrived at the hotel and went to Sonoko Suzuki's room.

"Is Sonoko alright?"

Seeing that Ran was still a little anxious about her best friend's situation, Jiang Hang waved his hand, indicating that she should go and change Sonoko Suzuki's clothes later.

"I'm not some kind of devil, I wouldn't do anything too outrageous to a high school girl, I just put her to sleep, just remember to explain the situation to her when she wakes up."

"But the perpetrator in this case has planted quite a few bombs around here, so just to be on the safe side, let's not cause any unnecessary trouble," Jiang Hang said, then shook his head. "However, it shouldn't matter much; I'll probably be able to solve this case and leave tonight."

He looked at Ran: "Anyway, she might be a little emotionally unstable after she wakes up, so I'll have to trouble you to calm her down."

Ran learned about the culprit's plan from Sonoko and Conan, and knew that it was Sonoko's strong-willed personality that led to it, so she naturally had no complaints against Jiang Hang.

"I understand. Jiang Hang, just focus on handling the case. I'll explain things to Sonoko for you."

Jiang Hang nodded, and then took Conan out again.

"You idiot, stop showing off your cleverness for a bit. Do you even know how much gunpowder is in this place?"

Jiang Hang pointed in the direction of the dam and the other side of the village, where there was a nearby signal base station.

The prisoner had already planted bombs in these places in advance, and as soon as things went wrong, he would probably detonate the bombs immediately, thus bringing his plans to a halt.

If Sonoko Suzuki had just mentioned the names Kogoro Mouri and Jiang Hang at the front desk, one famous detective might be considered a coincidence, but two famous detectives could easily spark speculation.

If the prisoner notices this, and the signal station is destroyed, Jiang Hang will have to resort to satellite signals to prevent the bomb from exploding.

Jiang Hang doesn't want to cause such a big commotion right now; it's better to resolve things quietly and quickly.

Conan is now completely at your mercy.

Indeed, it was his subconscious habit, and when facing Sonoko Suzuki, he couldn't help but blurt it out.

"I'll be more careful in the future, but for now, let's hurry up and deal with those bombs," Conan tried to change the subject slightly.

"You said the case should be solved tonight, so do you already know who the culprit is?"

"It's pretty close," Jiang Hang said, carrying Conan outside.

Although this is at the foot of the ski resort, it has recently snowed quite a bit, and there is still a layer of snow outside that has not yet melted.

"The perpetrator of the bombing is actually quite easy to deal with, but I feel there are still some issues here. You can investigate and find out the truth later."

Jiang Hang said this, and then casually tossed Conan onto the snow.

Conan shivered and got up from the snow.

He quickly shook off the snow that had gotten into his neck, then asked Jiang Hang, "What else is going on?"

"It's not really anything particularly troublesome, I'm just a little worried, but I can't really say for sure."

As he said this, Jiang Hang first pointed to the hotel, and then pointed to a small courtyard near the hotel.

"There aren't many young people left in Kitazawa Village now."

"The people here who are hosting us, and the nurse staying over there, are all people who came back to Kitazawa Village from big cities after some things happened."

When he asked Mizuki Tono about these things before, he naturally didn't get the answer, and the other party wouldn't reveal such private matters.

However, through the rather "straightforward" Takehiko Muto, many things were connected.

Conan pricked up his ears, wanting to hear Jiang Hang continue.

"I don't know the specific truth yet, but one thing is certain: eight years ago, when the dam was just being built and the residents of Kitazawa Village had not yet moved here."

Several things happened at the same time one night.

"The younger sister who served Mizuki Tono at the inn was in a car accident and died from her injuries."

"The person who caused the car accident was her elementary school classmate, Keisuke Yamao. At the time, he owed a gambling debt and then drove drunk and without a license in a negative state, which led to the tragedy."

"A few kilometers away from the accident site, Mizuki Tono, who was also a primary school classmate of Fuyumi Tachihara, lost her 7-year-old son who fell off a cliff and remains in a coma to this day."

Hearing about what happened back then, Conan couldn't help but frown.

Is there any connection between the two?

"Anyway, the police investigation at the time concluded that there was no contact." Jiang Hang shrugged. "After that, one of them resigned from his original position at the hospital and returned to the small hospital in Kitazawa Village to work as a nurse."

"Another person also quit his job in another city and returned to Kitazawa Village to become a waiter at this inn."

"As for Keisuke Yamao, who was drunk and killed someone in a car accident, he was sentenced to eight years and was just released from prison this summer."

Conan tries to connect these people, but it seems that something is still missing.

Jiang Hang then took the opportunity to mention the names of two other people.

Takehiko Muto, who is unwilling to leave the old Kitazawa Village and has been opposing the dam's inundation of the old Kitazawa Village to this day, and Shogo Hikawa, the insurance agent who was the first to agree to the move, took a large sum of money and moved to Tokyo, but recently returned specifically for the fifth anniversary celebration.

These five people were all elementary school classmates at the old Kitazawa Village branch school, and they represented the entire number of students in their grade.

Thanks to Takehiko Muto's explanation and some information gathered online, Jiang Hang now has a fairly good understanding of the situation of these five people.

After listening to all this, Conan pondered for a moment, "Jiang Hang, you've investigated so much, could these things also be related to the bombing?"

"Yes, because many of the characteristics of the half-explosive criminal that I investigated matched one of these five people. Also, during my investigation, I discovered another accomplice. These people were all discovered incidentally while I was investigating the identity of that accomplice."

"It was only during this investigation that I discovered that there seemed to be another matter involved."

At this point, Jiang Hang patted Conan on the shoulder. "I could have stayed here for another day, but I think I should stay away from Sonoko Suzuki's powder keg for now. It seems that the matter I asked Kaito Kid to investigate has made some progress, so after solving the bombing case, I plan to leave here to verify Kaito Kid's findings."

"As for whether there is any connection between the two cases from that night eight years ago, if it is not clear by the time I leave, then I will entrust it to you to take Sonoko Suzuki to solve this mystery."

As Jiang Hang said this, Conan immediately showed a look of disgust, and seemed unwilling to take Sonoko Suzuki with him to investigate the case.

Besides that, he also had some helplessness.

He had barely arrived when Jiang Hang, as efficient as ever, had already identified the prisoner.

Although Jiang Hang explained it to him, he already had several suspects in mind.

However, all this intelligence was obtained from Jiang Hang.

Moreover, the other party already had a general range of criminals in mind from the very beginning.

If it were him, without some kind of opportunity, it probably wouldn't have been so easy to come into contact with the murderer.

In short, now that Jiang Hang believes that what happened back then was not a coincidence, he will try to help investigate it again tomorrow.

After explaining the follow-up matters to Conan and telling Conan not to provoke Sonoko Suzuki, Jiang Hang returned to his room.

Miyano Shiho and the others are waiting for them to return in their room.

Upon seeing Jiang Hang, Miyano Shiho Jiang Hang n't ask if he had handled things properly. She simply said that they had already ordered dinner, and it should be delivered soon.

"Thank you for your help," Jiang Hang stretched and then told the Miyano Sisters about the arrangements for the later time.

"It seems we won't be able to ski here. A little later, I'm going to deal with that criminal and his accomplice. Then we'll head to Asahikawa. There are a lot of snow-capped mountains there. You can go skiing there and visit the zoo together."

Chapter 582: Jewelry Claimed to be Worth One Billion

After having dinner, Jiang Hang took a short walk around the area and, having gained a clear understanding of the situation, made another call to the Hokkaido police and Yuichiro Asakura.

"Mr. Jiang Hang, is it really okay to announce the resumption of the original schedule now?"

Hearing the somewhat uneasy questions from the police on the other end of the phone, Jiang Hang nodded affirmatively.

"If you wish, you can cancel other schedules, as long as Governor Asakura expresses that he will definitely come to Kitazawa Village to attend this festival no matter what."

Yuichiro Asakura readily agreed without hesitation.

Now that he wants to connect with Jiang Hang and the Pioneer Foundation behind him, he naturally needs to show them enough trust.

Moreover, when threatened, he only takes a short break before reassuring the public that he is not intimidated by these threats, which makes it easier for him to gain support.

In short, news about the schedule will be released soon, and then all we have to do is wait for those two impatient rats to come out of their holes.

······

The sky quickly darkened completely.

The hotel became much livelier as tourists returned from skiing trips.

Jiang Hang glanced at it and noticed that Conan seemed to have gotten involved with that nurse Fuyumi Tachihara.

It seems that Kogoro Mouri tripped and fell when he went out after having dinner and wasn't paying attention to his footing.

Although the situation wasn't very serious, I still went to the clinic to apply some medicine.

Seeing Kogoro Mouri chatting with the nurse with such a fawning expression, Jiang Hang figured Conan would soon be able to figure out what happened eight years ago.

Around 8 p. m., a man wearing glasses, who looked somewhat like a refined scoundrel, came out of his room.