“Ah——!!!” The sharp cry echoed throughout the restaurant, interrupting Chu Ming’s unfinished words.

“Look, a case is coming.” Chu Ming took a sip of his drink and called Rum to go out and watch the fun.

Seeing Chu Ming looking like a charlatan, Rum followed him out the door in confusion and walked towards the place where the scream came from.

It was in Box No. 8, which was separated from them by a door, that a man with a knife in the chest was found. He was already dead.

“Brother Chu Ming, are you here to eat too?”

Conan had just walked around the corpse when he saw a familiar figure in the crowd at the door and hurried over.

Chu Ming rubbed his head unhappily: “You are talking nonsense, you can’t be here to sleep if you don’t eat–“

Conan pushed Chu Ming’s hand away. Xiaolan had worked hard to style his hairstyle today, so how could he let Chu Ming mess it up?

He looked at Rum beside Chu Ming and asked, “Who is this uncle?”

“It’s my uncle, my father’s good friend. He took me out for dinner today.”

Chu Ming greeted Maori Kogoro who was beside Conan, and introduced them to each other: “Uncle, this is the famous detective Maori Kogoro, Uncle Maori, this is my uncle——”

Rum quickly extended his hand to Maori Kogoro and said, “I have long heard of Maori Detective’s name. My name is Wakita Akira. Chu Ming’s father and I were good friends before he passed away. I have been developing in the United Kingdom and the United States before, and I just returned to China recently. Thank you for taking care of this child before.”

Maori Kogoro waved his hands quickly: “No, no, no…”

After Kogoro Mouri exchanged greetings with Rum, he introduced Xiaolan and Conan to Rum. At this time, Inspector Megure also arrived at the scene. He asked everyone who was surrounding to return to their boxes, and then arranged for the police officers to investigate the basic situation first.

Seeing the police coming, Chu Ming and Rum looked at each other and knew that they had to solve the case quickly. Otherwise, if the case remained unsolved, the information of everyone present would need to be registered and archived, which would be somewhat inconvenient for Rum.

Chu Ming first went around all the private rooms, and then followed Maori Kogoro into the crime scene. Kaneda Keizo was lying on his back on the table with his body facing the door, and there was a black stain on his thumb.

Chu Ming gestured with his hand: “The direction of the deceased’s feet is facing the door. It is possible that the murderer came in from the door, and he was stabbed in the chest when he stood up to greet him. There are no signs of a fight at the scene. It seems that the crime must have been committed by an acquaintance, otherwise the deceased would not have resisted at all. Did the deceased come here to eat alone?”

Maori Kogoro shook his head: “We saw them before entering the box. There were three of them coming to eat, and there should be two more companions – Ah, Officer Takagi, have you found out the results of your investigation?”

Takagi came running over with detailed records: “The deceased’s name is Kaneda Keizo, currently an associate professor in the Department of Physics at Jomon University. The store employees all have alibis, and the two people next to me are Professor Iwama and Lecturer Arai, who teach at the same school as the victim.”

Chu Ming looked at the two of them. Since the crime was committed by an acquaintance, then it would be a choice between these two?

Thinking of the ship that just passed by the window, Chu Ming’s eyes moved between the short Professor Iwama and the burly Lecturer Arai, and then fixed on Professor Iwama.

“Do you two gentlemen have an alibi?” Chu Ming asked.

When Conan saw Chu Ming start asking questions, he knew that Chu Ming had deduced the murderer again.

Alas, Chu Ming has been moving very quickly recently, and he also needs to work harder.

Lecturer Arai took out a receipt and said, “Just now the professor asked me to go out and buy cigarettes. This kind of cigarettes is not available in the store, so I went out to buy them at a convenience store. This is the receipt. The convenience store should also have surveillance cameras that can capture me.”

Chu Ming’s eyes swept across the receipt, and then focused on Professor Iwama: “Then the murderer can only be you.”

Professor Iwama was so frightened by his confident words that he broke out in a cold sweat. Before he could say anything, Kogoro Mori spoke up for him.

“That shouldn’t be the case. Just now when we were eating in the private room, I heard Mr. Iwama talking next to us.”

When Nobuo Iwama heard that someone was testifying for him, he immediately straightened his back and tried to support his not-so-tall stature.

“Yes, I stayed in room 3 the whole time. I was looking for my contact lenses and I accidentally knocked over the plate.”

“That’s right, I also saw that the window of Room 3 was closed. This should be his alibi, so the murderer should not be the two people who had dinner with the victim!”

Kogoro Mori said this with great certainty.

Rum on the side glanced at Kogoro Mori with some confusion. He was well versed in human psychology and facial expressions. From Nobuo Iwama’s expression and the way he spoke, it was obvious that Nobuo Iwama was a little nervous, especially at the moment when Chu Ming pointed out that he was the murderer. All the muscles in his body tensed up, and during his subsequent explanation, the corners of his mouth trembled slightly, and his fingers were slightly curled up uncontrollably.

It was obvious that he was the murderer.

However, Kogoro Mori testified so confidently for a suspect when the situation at the scene was still unclear.

The basis for the testimony was merely the sound and the action of closing the door which could be faked.

Is it to paralyze the murderer?

Chapter 216 Arai Becomes the Biggest Winner

“Voice can be faked.” Chu Ming looked at the briefcase that Nobuo Iwama carried with him, “Mr. Iwama, you brought a tape recorder, right?”

Seeing everyone’s suspicious looks, Iwama Nobuo quickly explained: “I just came from a meeting at school, and I have always had the habit of recording important meetings. Even if you think my voice was recorded with a tape recorder, I still closed the window!”

“There are so many small mechanisms for closing windows at a fixed time. For example, you can use rubber bands, ice cubes, paper bags for chopsticks, and thumbtacks to make a small mechanism that can close the window with a snap even when no one is around. I just saw that the window of Box No. 3 seems to be a little wet, and there are traces of thumbtacks on it…”

“But these are just your suspicions, you—”

“You have no evidence to prove that I killed Jin Tian—” Chu Ming helped him finish the second half of the sentence, then looked at him teasingly, “Is this what you wanted to say?”

Nobuo Iwama, whose lines were snatched away by Chu Ming, turned pale with anger and was unable to speak.

Seeing that he didn’t say anything, Chu Ming waved his hand generously: “Why do you all like to ask people for evidence? Do you think that even if my reasoning is close to the truth, I can’t convict you without evidence? Tsk, don’t be lucky, okay? Here, the evidence is a piece of caviar on the dead man’s hand.”

While Nobuo Iwama was still not able to react, Chu Ming, who had secretly communicated with Conan, gave him a look.

Conan jumped up suddenly, grabbed Nobuo Iwama’s sleeve and took off half of his coat: “Ah, this is so strange, I was thinking this uncle smelled so good, it turns out he got caviar on his clothes~”

Iwama Nobuo was so frightened by Conan’s pull that his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He couldn’t help but roar: “Is it a problem if I accidentally get caviar on myself?”

“But just now when everyone was walking towards box number eight, I saw uncle standing at the door slowly putting on his coat. Would most people put on their coats when they heard screams and rushed out? Uncle, you’re so weird.” Conan pointed out Nobuo Iwama in his childish voice.

“That’s right. When most people rush out of the door, they only take the door with them.” Chu Ming subconsciously continued.

“…”

“…”

After thinking for a while, Conan finally understood what Chu Ming meant. He couldn’t help but look dead in the eye and said, “Brother Chu Ming, can you be more serious?”

“I want to maintain my image. After all, I am a professor and it would be ugly to have stains on my body.” Nobuo Iwama refused to admit it.

“Tsk, you still don’t understand what I mean. When the deceased left your room, the caviar should not have been served yet, so how did it get on his hands? It can only have been from your clothes. In other words, his fingerprints should have solidified on the caviar on your clothes~”

Seeing that Nobuo Iwama didn’t understand the evidence he was talking about at all, Chu Ming simply broke it down and explained it to him. Alas, this criminal doesn’t seem to be very smart, after all, he is a professor of physics.

“Mr. Iwama, you must have reached Box No. 8 by hiding under the big boat that delivered the food. After all, you are small and it is easy for you to get in.” Seeing that Chu Ming didn’t tell him the method, Conan couldn’t help but say a few words to help.

Iwama Nobuo couldn’t help but kneel on the ground, tears streaming down his face: “It’s all——”

“It’s all his fault—” Chu Ming dubbed for him again, and then couldn’t help rolling his eyes, “It seems that every murderer has his own difficulties, but who do you want to empathize with you? You should tell the police about the whole story.”

Then he patted his butt and walked away leisurely, leaving Nobuo Iwama kneeling on the ground, not knowing whether he should continue crying.

Conan was ready to listen to his murder story, but was stopped by Chu Ming’s words. Now he was curious and felt torn.

Seeing Conan looking at him resentfully, Chu Ming stepped forward and pinched the back of his neck: “It seems that Mr. Arai is the biggest winner this time. The professor killed the associate professor, so he, the assistant, can directly become a professor tonight, tut tut.”

“…”

Rum, who was standing by, heard Chu Ming and Conan joking and laughing, and his thoughts were in turmoil.

It actually works like this. If the organization wants to nominate new politicians in the future, this method seems to be a good choice.

Entrusting the matter of taking the statement to Conan, Chu Ming waved his hand and followed Rum out of the restaurant.

“Chu Ming, is that Maori Kogoro really a famous detective? I saw that he seemed to have no clue when solving the case. He just wandered around without looking for any clues and even testified for the suspect–” Rum frowned as he spoke. Is this kind of behavior really what a famous detective would do?

“He is hiding his incompetence.” Chu Ming chuckled. “After all, he is a disciple of Shiota Heihachiro, and has the same personality as his master. Although he is lustful and shameless, he is quite interesting when he is serious. Uncle can pay attention to him if you have time.”

Rum nodded thoughtfully, then turned to Chu Ming and said, “Chu Ming, it’s time for you to build up your own network. You see, Vodka, who was promoted by Gin himself, can be considered a core member, and he is loyal to Gin; Vermouth has so many suitors and is surrounded by people, Ireland is Pisco’s adopted son and is not short of manpower, Cohen and Chianti support each other, Margaux has a special team among the peripheral members, Lafitte…”

Rum named nearly twenty people in the action team in one breath. Most of them had their own circles, and only Chu Ming was alone.

“Since you don’t want to join my intelligence team, but want to be the leader of the action team, you must have your own power, right? Otherwise, there are so many people in the action team, why would Gin give you the position? And Gin himself is only 29 or 30 years old, how can he decide on a successor so quickly? Chu Ming, if you want to get promoted, you can’t just rely on your own efforts, but your uncle will help you, don’t worry.”

Rum was secretly encouraging Chu Ming, and at the same time trying to alienate the relationship between him and Gin from various angles.

Chapter 217: Rum’s Cake is Pretty Round

“Are there so many people in the action team? I thought the action team only consisted of Vermouth, Gin, Chianti Cohen and a few others…” Chu Ming was a little shocked. He had never seen those other people before!

Rum was also a little shocked: “The organization is so big, how could the action group only have a few people? Gin is the chief leader of the action groups of all countries in the entire organization. Even if you get promoted later, you will probably be the leader of the Japanese action group first. But it will be different if you come to the intelligence group. I am old, and I will definitely train you to be the chief leader–“

After a few words, Rum began to seduce Chu Ming again.

“…” He was shamefully moved again. Being the team leader, isn’t this more glorious than being the team leader of the Japanese branch?

Rum knew when to stop and stopped lobbying. Instead, he changed the subject and told Chu Ming about the size of the organization and the people in the action team that Chu Ming had not met yet. From time to time, he would also brag about how awesome the intelligence team was. This was the part that Gin had not told him before.

…………

After separating from Rum, Chu Ming was blocked by Vermouth at the door as soon as he entered the base gate.

“Ah, you still remembered to come back? Did you enjoy your date with Rum? You actually came back?”

Chu Ming listened to Belmode’s deliberately resentful words and couldn’t help but touch his nose: “Sister, please don’t laugh at me, I just…”

Vermouth shook her long hair, turned around and walked into the room: “Alas, you are just acting, sister understands it all, I am just a little sad——”

“……”Chu Ming was speechless.

It seems that Vermouth has been a bit of a drama queen lately.

Chu Ming walked straight to Gin’s office. As soon as he opened the door, a burst of choking smoke rushed out. Gin was hiding inside smoking with the doors and windows closed. Chu Ming was choked and coughed repeatedly, and his eyes were red.

“Brother, is there a fire here?” Chu Ming covered his mouth and nose as he walked in, and opened all the doors and windows for ventilation.

Gin put out the cigarette on the table: “What did Rum say to you?”

Chu Ming stopped coughing when he talked about this. He moved closer to Gin and said, “Brother, Rum said he wanted to give me the position of leader of the intelligence team. Do you think I should agree to his request? In this way, we can join forces, I will use literature and you will use martial arts, to create a better new future for the winery~”

Gin pushed his head away and said, “The position of leader of the intelligence team is not something he can give you just because he wants to. Even if Rum abdicates, the change of personnel still needs the boss’s approval. Not to mention that you are from the action team, and it is not legitimate for you to take over the intelligence team. He was just lying to you.”

???

So Rum is just making promises for him?

unacceptable!

It turns out that those who play with intelligence have dirty hearts!

“You will be on a mission in two days.” Gin handed a piece of information to Chu Ming.

“Water Crystal Restaurant?” Chu Ming quickly flipped through the information. “Isn’t this restaurant just built? Why did it have to be blown up?”

“This was built with the investment from the Mud Society. All of the working capital of the Mud Society is in here. The boss has decided to attack the Mud Society. You can use whatever method you want, but there is one requirement: you cannot expose our organization when you blow it up. Go check out the area in the next two days. Next week, Margot and Lafitte will finish their business in the UK and return home. You haven’t met these two people yet, so it’s a good opportunity for you to get to know them. You will complete this mission together.”

Chu Ming’s eyes moved slightly. Water crystal… sounds familiar. It seems that it was just built but was blown up because of Conan’s visit?