Money! Money! Money!

Three days later, at ten o'clock on Sunday morning, inside the Keqin Exorcist Agency.

Shu Yunwen was woken up by Matsushita Heisaburo's phone call that morning and rushed over to the Keqin Exorcist Agency.

In the president's office, Shu Yunwen looked at the financial report Matsushita Heisaburo handed him with a headache. He pressed his forehead with his hand. "Matsushita-kun, is this the financial situation of our agency? How can we only have five hundred thousand yen left on our books? And in three days, it'll be payday again? The total salary expenditure is a staggering thirteen point five million yen? Was the agency's financial situation always like this?"

Matsushita Heisaburo stood respectfully in front of Shu Yunwen's desk, bowed, and said, "Yes! Yunwen-san, as I mentioned before, two months ago, one of our agency's exorcists made a mistake and failed to properly handle an exorcism request, which resulted in the death of an innocent person. Because the client was very powerful, our agency had to take responsibility for the deceased and paid nearly twenty-five million yen in compensation. Furthermore, because that request was not handled properly, our agency's reputation suffered greatly, and the number of people requesting our exorcism services has decreased significantly in the past two months."

"...Of course, we are currently working on various fronts. Once we overcome this difficulty, everything will return to normal..."

Shu Yunwen frowned and recalled.

Matsushita Heisaburo seemed to have mentioned this matter on Tuesday.

Two months ago, an experienced exorcist master at the agency took on a job at a construction site in Beika Town. The site frequently had strange noises at night, and accidents had been happening continuously since construction began. The main investors contacted the Keqin Exorcist Agency to handle the situation.

In reality, under normal circumstances, strange noises at night and frequent accidents at a construction site are not as mysterious as they seem. Nighttime noises could be construction materials piled up at the site not being neatly arranged, sliding down in the middle of the night and making impact sounds. It could also be wild animals randomly entering, or even people causing trouble at the site. As for frequent accidents, it's likely due to worker carelessness, equipment malfunctions, and so on.

However, Japanese people are generally superstitious, and those in high-risk professions are even more so. They insisted on finding a master to "drive away" the "things" causing trouble at the site before they would resume work. Thus, the investors found the Keqin Exorcist Agency.

After receiving the request, the exorcist master prepared some "tools" and went to the construction site. Then, as usual, he wandered around the site, shouted a few phrases in a random corner, roughly saying things like "Evil spirits, take this!", "Little ghosts, die!", "Behold my magic treasures!", and so on. Of course, while shouting, he also fiddled with his "tools" in a seemingly serious manner, even though he had no idea what these tools were actually for...

After fiddling around for a while, he clapped his hands and told the site manager that everything was taken care of, that the "evil spirits" at the site had been eliminated by him. He then advised them to pay attention to safety in the future and avoid dangerous operations, and so on. He acted like a "safety production promoter."

After his instructions, the site manager immediately had the workers at the site start working. Seeing that the exorcist master had declared everything safe, the workers happily got to work. However, as soon as the hoist started, an unlucky worker was hit by a falling rock and died on the spot.

The above is the daily work routine of a certain incompetent exorcist master.

Finally, during the responsibility assessment, the construction site believed that the casualties were entirely due to the master's failure to exorcise successfully. Therefore, they forced the agency to bear the compensation.

That twenty-five million yen expenditure came about in this way.

"Who was the investor for that construction site?" Shu Yunwen asked, frowning.

Matsushita Heisaburo replied respectfully, "The investor was Daito Construction Company. And the actual controlling party behind Daito Construction Company is Sadao Teito, the fifth generation leader of the Sumiyoshi-kai, who is also the chairman of the Sumiyoshi-kai's operations committee..."

"Uh..." Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes.

How did the Sumiyoshi-kai get involved?

However, upon hearing the name Sumiyoshi-kai, Shu Yunwen understood why the agency meekly accepted the compensation.

It seemed they had encountered someone they couldn't afford to offend.

Of course, Shu Yunwen didn't have the time or energy to conflict with the Sumiyoshi-kai right now. He was only an introductory-level sorcerer. If he were to go against the Sumiyoshi-kai, he wouldn't be able to handle it! Well, once his strength increased, he could consider getting even.

"What's the situation at that construction site now?" Shu Yunwen asked after thinking for a moment.

Matsushita Heisaburo immediately replied, "Accidents are still happening frequently at the construction site. In the past two months, they've also consulted several exorcists and onmyoji. They've started work eight times in total, and every time an accident occurred. It has now completely stopped."

So strange?

Shu Yunwen now somewhat believed that there might indeed be something unclean at that construction site.

Shaking his head, Shu Yunwen said, "Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's get straight to the point. This financial report you gave me, you're telling me our agency is out of money, right?"

"Yes, Lord Yunwen," Matsushita Heisaburo nodded. "Since the agency was established, we have never delayed salary payments. Therefore, we must raise fifteen million yen before payday..."

Shu Yunwen's mouth twitched twice. "Matsushita-kun, how about we discuss it, and you can continue being the president? What do you say?"

Damn it! It sounds so simple when you say it! That's fifteen million, not fifteen hundred!

Speaking of which, Shu Keqin, his cheap old man, did leave Shu Yunwen some inheritance, and quite a substantial amount too, two hundred million. However, there was a will attached to this inheritance. Until Shu Yunwen graduated from university, he could only withdraw one hundred thousand yen per month for living expenses. Any more than that was out of the question...

Ah, how frustrating!

After all, this was the world of Conan! Shu Yunwen had already prepared himself to spend twenty years in his second year of high school.

Going to university would mean waiting until the next life, right?

He had originally planned to "spend public funds" after becoming the agency's president. But all he got was a mobile phone, and now he had to worry about fifteen million yen—it felt like a loss no matter how he thought about it!

Matsushita Heisaburo immediately said, "Lord Yunwen, you are the president of the agency."

Shu Yunwen rolled his eyes and waved his hand at Matsushita Heisaburo. "Forget it, you can go out first. Try to think of a solution too..."

"Yes!" Matsushita Heisaburo responded.

After Matsushita Heisaburo left the president's office, Adachi Roppei entered, poured Shu Yunwen a cup of coffee, and then left.

Shu Yunwen pondered for a while. Besides robbing a bank, nothing else seemed reliable.

Shaking his head, Shu Yunwen turned his head and saw the remote control beside him. He casually turned on the TV in the president's office and started watching.

At this time, the morning news was being broadcast, and the sweet voice of the female anchor came from the TV:

"...Last night, the leader of the Italian Bandit Group, Tino Cabana, who was arrested in a building near Tokyo Tower, still refuses to say a word. The police are still pursuing Cabana's accomplices who have fled, but there are still no leads. In addition, the fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins that were stolen are still missing..."

"...These Maple Leaf Gold Coins are commemorative coins specially made by the Italian government. Each weighs 12.41 grams. The front features a maple leaf icon designed by a famous painter, and the back features a pattern of the Italian government building. They have a certain collectible value, and each coin is now worth forty thousand yen. This means that the total value of the stolen coins is as high as six hundred million yen..." (Okay, this is all made up by me)

"Holy crap? Six hundred million yen? If that were mine, I wouldn't be worrying about money right now..." Shu Yunwen muttered to himself as he glanced at the TV.

However, immediately after, Shu Yunwen suddenly stood up, his eyes wide open. The executive chair he was sitting on, due to his sudden movement, hit the wall and bounced back.

He remembered!

These fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins also appeared in the anime. It seemed like Conan and the other kids found a piece of paper somewhere, which had a drawing of the location where the Maple Leaf Gold Coins were hidden. As for the clue to finding the coins, because it was interesting, Shu Yunwen remembered it very clearly. It seemed to involve looking for neon light patterns at night.

This meant that if he could find these coins first, he could indeed pocket them!

Shu Yunwen narrowed his eyes, sat back down in the boss's chair, dialed the internal extension, and called Matsushita Heisaburo over. "Matsushita-kun, did you watch the morning news today?"

"I did," Matsushita replied.

Shu Yunwen continued, "Then... did the morning news mention the Italian Bandit Group and the stolen Maple Leaf Gold Coins?"

"It did mention them," Matsushita nodded. "It said something about fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins, with a total value of six hundred million yen..."

Shu Yunwen asked, "Matsushita-kun, if I were to get my hands on those coins, do you think you could handle selling them smoothly?"

"You... can find those coins?" Matsushita Heisaburo was surprised, then immediately said, "If you really can find them, selling them won't be a problem at all. Our agency has connections with several syndicates in Tokyo, and they're very good at handling these kinds of things. However, we might have to pay a commission. For six hundred million yen, we might only get four hundred million yen."

A third of the commission? That seemed reasonable.

After all, these Maple Leaf Gold Coins weren't exactly legal tender. Some ruthless types might take half, or even two-thirds.

Shu Yunwen nodded and casually instructed, "Matsushita-kun, please get ready. We're going out."

"Hai!" Matsushita Heisaburo quickly agreed and went to prepare.

After Matsushita Heisaburo left, Shu Yunwen tried to recall where Conan had found the treasure map. After thinking for a while, Shu Yunwen slapped his forehead, cursed himself as an idiot, and grabbed the phone to call the Koji family.

The phone rang a few times before being answered. Shu Yunwen immediately said, "Hello, this is Shu Yunwen..."

"It's Yunwen!" Koji Genji's voice came from the other end. "Is something wrong?"

"Uncle, hello, is Genta home?" Shu Yunwen asked directly.

The treasure hunt seemed to involve the four kids together. So, as long as he found out where Genta was, he could naturally find the other three.

Koji Genji said, "Genta? He went out this morning. Said he was going to meet friends and go to the Beika Art Museum together."

"I see... Thank you, Uncle," Shu Yunwen said gratefully.

"Yunwen-san, why are you asking about Genta? Oh, by the way, we're having ramen for lunch. Are you coming back?" Koji Genji asked.

Shu Yunwen smiled and said, "I was just asking. Also, I have something to do at noon, so I won't be back."

After hanging up the phone, Matsushita Heisaburo had also finished his preparations and knocked on Shu Yunwen's office door.

Leaving the office, Shu Yunwen took only Matsushita Heisaburo with him. After getting into the car, he gave instructions, and the car drove towards the Beika Art Museum.

Around 11:30, the car arrived in front of the Beika Art Museum and stopped. Shu Yunwen and Matsushita Heisaburo got out of the car and scanned their surroundings. They didn't see Conan and the others. Just as they were about to enter the museum, they heard someone say, "Yunwen-san? What are you doing here? Are you here to see the art exhibition too?"

"Uh..." Shu Yunwen turned his head and saw Tsukamoto Kazumi and a few other familiar-looking girls. "Kazumi-san, what a coincidence!"

Hmm... why would I run into Tsukamoto Kazumi here?

This feels like I'm stalking her.

Tsukamoto Kazumi smiled and greeted them, "Hello, Yunwen-san. And... Mr. Matsushita, hello."

Shu Yunwen waved his hand and asked, "Kazumi-san, have you been at the museum all morning? Have you seen Genta, Conan, and the others?"

"You mean Genta, Ayumi, and the other kids?" Tsukamoto Kazumi replied. "Yes, I did run into them... I saw them outside the museum just a little while ago. Oh, right, when they were in front of the museum, they seemed to be holding something and talking loudly. They looked like they were heading to Tokyo Tower..."

"Really?" Shu Yunwen's eyes lit up. It seemed they had already gotten the paper with the treasure map on it. "Kazumi-san, how long ago did they leave?"

"About ten minutes ago," Tsukamoto Kazumi answered.

"Thank you, Kazumi-san." After a pause, Shu Yunwen continued, "I'm very sorry, but I have some urgent matters to attend to, so I must leave now. If you have time another day, I'll treat you to a meal to apologize."

Tsukamoto Kazumi nodded. "Yunwen-san, please go ahead with your business. Don't worry about me."

Shu Yunwen and Matsushita Heisaburo hurriedly got back into the car and left. A girl next to Tsukamoto Kazumi said, "Kazumi, is that Shu Yunwen-san? We were classmates with him in our first year of high school, but he doesn't seem to remember us."

"Yeah! And he looked quite rude," another girl chimed in.

Tsukamoto Kazumi said, "Yunwen-san is indeed very busy. He's the president of an agency now. Judging by his expression, he must have something really important to do."

"A high schooler is the president of an agency? That's amazing!"

"It seems to be a family business. Yunwen-san is an exorcist now," Tsukamoto Kazumi explained.

"I remember, Kazumi, you were dating Shu-san in high school, weren't you? Are you still together?" another girl asked.

Tsukamoto Kazumi's expression dimmed slightly. "Ever since Yunwen-san woke up, he lost some of his memories. It seems he's forgotten that we were dating..."

"Is that so?"

"Mm. But I'll try my best to make him remember." Kazumi smiled and turned. "Let's go! It's almost noon. Let's go get lunch together. There's a family restaurant nearby that looks really good."

"A family restaurant? Is it the one near Tokyo Tower?"

"I've been there once. Their pickles are delicious."

Then, a string of chatter from the girls followed~

PS: Ah... ah... ah... I really went all out to include this plot point...

Also, writing about the Sumiyoshi-kai in the anime felt a bit jarring.

But, it felt pretty awesome too!~