Jiang Xia looked at the jumpy reporter and politely repeated himself. "I'm very interested in your program. When are you filming?"
"The day after tomorrow!" The program director was overjoyed. To keep Jiang Xia from changing his mind, he subtly played up the show's selling points. "The schedule might be a little tight, but with you there, I'm sure we'll be able to solve the problem that's been troubling us for so long!"
He deliberately left it at that, planning to wait for Jiang Xia to ask what exactly this difficult problem was.
Unexpectedly, the detective asked about something else first. "You said you were going to meet a detective from Osaka?"
The program director's lengthy introduction caught in his throat. Still, it was good enough that Jiang Xia was willing to talk to him. He quickly nodded, tossing the mysterious guest's privacy far out of mind. "Yes, Osaka's High School Detective—Hattori Heiji."
There was, of course, a reason they had chosen Hattori Heiji as a spare tire... ahem, as a backup plan.
First of all, this high school detective really did have quite a few accomplishments to his name. Although he had solved more robbery and theft cases than Murder Cases, his total case count was high enough, and among them were several classic Murder Cases. He had a certain degree of fame.
Besides, due to printing limitations—and because many Murder Cases happened after dark—this Detective Hattori appeared to many people as nothing but a pitch-black silhouette, with only two shining eyes in the night.
—If a detective like that suddenly appeared on a color television screen, it would at least make for a decent gimmick. If they took the opportunity to run an ad in Kansai newspapers when the program aired, it would surely have a good promotional