Onmyoji Sherry

Upon unexpectedly running into Lin Xinyi, Mouri Ran's eyes filled with surprise.

The boy always at her side, the famous detective Kudo Shinichi, was far more excited. "Mr. Lin, I didn't expect us to meet again so soon!"

"Yeah, what a coincidence." Lin Xinyi smiled naturally.

For someone like him, who had only just arrived here, Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran were the ones he truly knew.

Running into them twice in one day, morning and evening, could be considered quite fateful.

"Um..." After her brief surprise, Mouri Ran seemed to suddenly remember something.

A concern she could not hide quickly appeared in her large eyes, and her tone became extremely cautious.

"Mr. Lin, are you all right?"

"Uh..." Lin Xinyi felt rather helpless.

The moment he heard Mouri Ran's careful tone, like a nurse comforting a terminally ill patient, he knew Kudo must have told this kind-hearted girl about "his" failed suicide attempt.

Just look at the worry written all over her face...

It was as if she feared he would run into traffic and kill himself the very next second.

"Don't worry. It's all in the past."

Lin Xinyi explained vaguely.

"Oh..." Mouri Ran relaxed a little.

Only then did she notice Miyano Shiho, who had remained quiet beside Lin Xinyi.

"Is this Mr. Lin's girlfriend?"

Her eyes were full of curiosity. With such a beautiful girlfriend, why would he ever want to commit suicide?

Miyano Shiho's eyes likewise flashed with surprise. She looked at Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran, then at Lin Xinyi.

This guy Lin Xinyi...

He actually made friends with such ordinary students?

As a lackey of an organization steeped in darkness, was he still carefully maintaining the identity of an ordinary person in the outside world?

What a surprise. It seemed she had known far too little about this lifeless-looking man.

Lin Xinyi did not notice Miyano's strange gaze. He merely explained earnestly.

"Girlfriend? No, no, no..."

"Her name is Miyano Shiho."

"I... I suppose I'm her bodyguard."

"A bodyguard?" Now it was Kudo Shinichi's turn to be surprised. "Mr. Lin, you work as a bodyguard? No way..."

"Based on my deductions, you should have a professional background in medicine."

"Well..." Lin Xinyi did not know how to answer that.

Miyano Shiho, however, glanced at Kudo with some concern.

She knew Kudo's deduction was actually quite accurate.

When Lin Xinyi had monitored her as a fellow student at Columbia University, he had studied clinical medicine.

Though the two had rarely interacted during university, Miyano Shiho vaguely knew that Lin Xinyi's academic performance had actually been quite good.

"I can't believe I guessed wrong..."

"That shouldn't be possible. How could a bodyguard know so much medical knowledge?"

"Did he study medicine, then switch careers into security later?"

"But comparing income, benefits, and prospects, being a medical practitioner seems better than being a bodyguard no matter how you look at it..."

Kudo Shinichi sank into thought, thoroughly conflicted.

"Haha, Shinichi finally got something wrong for once."

Mouri Ran teased him with a smile.

"Uh..." Kudo Shinichi scratched his head awkwardly and could only accept that his judgment had been wrong.

Then, without wasting a moment, he instinctively turned his gaze to Miyano Shiho beside Lin Xinyi.

That focused, absorbed "detective mode" activated once more.

It seemed that after his unexpected mistake, he wanted to regain some face through this unfamiliar woman.

And that was indeed the case.

He examined Miyano Shiho from head to toe, and within mere seconds, that confident smile appeared on Kudo Shinichi's lips.

"Mr. Lin's profession was unexpected."

"But I shouldn't be wrong again about Miss Miyano's identity."

"Oh." Miyano Shiho responded coolly.

Hearing the famous detective deliberately build suspense, she showed none of the curiosity an ordinary person ought to have.

"Uh..."

Kudo Shinichi felt the atmosphere go cold, so he spoke directly.

"I noticed faint circular marks on both of Miss Miyano's wrists."

"And if you get closer, you can smell alcohol on her."

"The marks on her wrists suggest that she was probably wearing the sterile latex gloves used in laboratories until recently. The smell of alcohol suggests she came into contact with the seventy-percent medical alcohol used to disinfect laboratory benches."

"So I'm guessing Miss Miyano works in some kind of pharmaceutical laboratory."

"Oh?"

"How can you be sure it's a pharmaceutical laboratory?"

"Gloves and alcohol are used not only by researchers, but also by doctors and forensic examiners."

"Even waiters might use them. They often wear gloves and wipe tables with alcohol to disinfect them."

Lin Xinyi spoke up at just the right moment and raised a doubt.

He was quite interested in this great detective's deductions.

"That's because I also noticed Miss Miyano's pants."

Kudo Shinichi continued methodically.

"Miss Miyano would probably change out of the white lab coat researchers wear after work, but most likely would not change her pants."

"And on these dark-colored pants she's wearing, several short white animal hairs are clearly stuck."

"She must have accidentally picked them up while handling white mice."

"I'd guess Miss Miyano had just conducted an experiment involving white mice not long ago, right?"

Halfway through, Kudo Shinichi deliberately paused to observe Miyano Shiho's expression.

In truth, he could not be completely certain that the white animal hairs had come from white mice.

When faced with something he could not be absolutely certain of, he usually made a "tactical pause" while explaining his deductions, using the other person's microexpressions to indirectly verify his guess.

And that little trick worked again now.

When he mentioned white mice, Miyano Shiho frowned slightly, though the change in her expression was minimal.

Miyano Shiho knew that Kudo Shinichi had once again come fairly close to the truth.

She had indeed handled white mice recently, though not for an experiment. During a break, with nothing else to do, she had simply stroked one of them.

Living in the laboratory offered little entertainment, so those white mice counted as pets she kept.

She had even given names to several white mice that were cute enough and looked presentable.

Whenever animal testing was needed, she kept the relatively cute ones as pets and let the ugly unnamed mice die first.

Of course, Miyano Shiho had done all of this behind the other researchers' backs.

Lin Xinyi knew even less about it.

Miss Miyano would never let this man she did not particularly like see her childish side, secretly playing with little animals.

This was her own private secret.

And now, a high schooler who liked playing detective games was rudely guessing at her secret—and worse, he was speculating about an identity that was not supposed to be known.

So Miyano Shiho frowned slightly, looking somewhat resistant.

But Kudo Shinichi instead saw the reaction he wanted in that expression.

Now that he had confidence that his deductions were headed in the right direction, he continued.

"White mice are mostly used for drug trials or medical instruction."

"And there aren't any universities nearby. The glove marks on Miss Miyano's wrists, which haven't had time to fade, also show that she only just got off work."

"So I deduce that she is most likely a researcher at some pharmaceutical company."

"Oh, right. I remember there seems to be a company called Yaobai Bio-Pharmaceutical not far from here?"

"Miss Miyano, do you work at that company?"

After saying all that, he habitually revealed a confident smile.

By convention, when ordinary people had their profession identified so accurately by him, they would instinctively gasp and praise him.

And that was what Kudo Shinichi enjoyed most.

But this time, he completely failed to notice...

The moment he casually guessed the name "Yaobai Bio-Pharmaceutical," Miss Miyano's expression had already turned somewhat grim.

And by the time Kudo Shinichi finished his deductions and smiled confidently...

The atmosphere had already become rather cold.

Facing his smile, Miyano Shiho mockingly curled her lips.

"You really like playing detective games?"

"Uh..." Kudo Shinichi's smile froze on his face.

Instead of the admiration he had expected, he heard a distinctly sarcastic edge in her voice.

"Then you must know the famous line Agatha Christie wrote:"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Miyano Shiho recited the English sentence coldly, her voice carrying an icy distance that kept others far away.

"Great detective."

"Prying into other people's affairs will get you killed."