The police had already sealed off the porcelain shop, and its doors were shut tight. Chiba Yo peered through the window, but all he saw inside was ordinary porcelain. He found nothing suspicious, and in broad daylight, he had no way to get inside and investigate.
"Excuse me, could you tell me what just happened?" Chiba Yo tapped the shoulder of a man beside the shop who had just taken part in the discussion, hoping to get some useful information.
The man turned at Chiba Yo's voice, looked him over, and said, "Isn't it obvious? The owner killed someone, and the police took him away."
"Uh, I wanted to know a little more. Like why the owner killed someone, or whether anything unusual happened," Chiba Yo explained.
"Why are you asking about that?" the man asked.
Chiba Yo thought quickly and came up with an excuse.
"I'm interested in stories like this," Chiba Yo replied.
The man gave him a surprised look. "You're a good-looking kid, but I didn't expect you to have such twisted interests."
"I..." Chiba Yo opened his mouth, but in the end, he couldn't find anything to say in his defense.
Did being interested in stories like this really make someone a sicko?
Chiba Yo had his doubts about the man's conclusion.
"All right, since you want to know, I'll tell you. Pretty much everyone in town knows about it anyway." Despite calling Chiba Yo's interests twisted, the man still decided to tell him what had happened.
"The owner's name is Yoshireno. He's been running this porcelain shop for ages. He used to be perfectly fine, and there was nothing wrong with what he sold. It wasn't especially exquisite, but it was all pretty normal and looked nice enough around the house.
"But about a month