Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

Chapter 271 Reaching the Village
"This village is really old."

Through the car window, Yuji looked at the village in the distance from above.The sun goes westward, and the slightly reddish-yellow sunset shoots down from the mountains, passing through the Yuanshou Mountain in the center and reaching the village.

Because Yuanshou Village is in the mountains and there is no electricity here, the boy cannot imagine what it would be like to have never been exposed to electronics in this era.

"Ida said we can stay at the police station in Nancun tonight. There are spare rooms there."

It happened to be winter, so it didn’t matter if there was no air-conditioning or heating, but it would be uncomfortable if it was summer, as there were the most mosquitoes in the mountains.

"How many police officers are there usually?"

Yuji also looked south and noticed the only two-story building in the entire village, which was also the police station of Yuanshou Village.The area is not big, it looks about the same as Yu Erzhai, it is really small and pathetic.

"Probably only two." Toru Amuro turned down the heat and decided to reduce fuel consumption.

"The police in this kind of village are different from other places. They are both police officers and villagers, and they often stay here for a lifetime."

If you don't have a good relationship with a big family in the village, you will not only lose your job, but you may even be forced to leave.

Finally stopping in front of the police station, the young man noticed Datehang and Maori who were already sitting inside, zipped up his clothes and walked in.

"No one drinks coffee here, only tea." Picking up a cup of green tea and putting it in Yu's second hand, Datehang sat back to where he was just now: "Secretary's house has very little communication with the outside world."

"I can tell, they are probably the self-sufficient type." Toruya Amuro opened the door and picked up a cup of tea from the table.

From the road just now, in this village, there is a huge Japanese-style house in the North Village, East Village and South Village, and the rest except for the fields are scattered and solitary.

"80.00% of the land here is owned by the secret guards. They only send people out occasionally to buy some necessities. Most of them have never left the village in their entire lives."

Noticing an old policeman sitting in the corner, Yuji looked at Datehang and pointed at the old man.

"This is an old policeman from a village, and another young policeman is now discussing the ceremony at Yishou's house. His name is Twenty Guilang."

A policeman actually participated in such activities in a local village. The young man became more curious about what happened ten years ago and simply asked the old policeman about the situation at that time.

"You guys came here for the ceremony and curse..." The old policeman took Mori Kogoro's cigarette and lit one and smoked it slowly. After the whole room started to choke, he finally spoke.

"When we talk about participating in the ceremony at Thirteen Nights, we have to mention Yishou's past."

In the early years, the ancestors of the secret guard clan cut off the head of his wife Ah Dan because she could not give birth to a son.Later, the ancestors continued to marry, but no matter what, the sons born would not survive.

"That's why their family built the Yuanshen Hall on this Yuanshou Mountain, just to worship the beheaded ancestor who has nothing to do with them." The old policeman threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray, and continued to smoke .

"A woman who was beheaded during the Warring States Period was also sacrificed with Ah Dan.

In short, the curse of Lord Danshou has been passed down like this. In order to protect the child from growing up safely and avoid the attention of Lord Danshou, people in this village will slander and insult their children on the surface, and give them some humble names. Rebuke them with vicious words and dress them in rags. "

The old policeman stood up, took out a bad book from the drawer of the police station, and pointed at it.

"The contemporary head of the Yishou family has never had a son, not even a daughter. It was not until 23 years ago that his wife gave birth to him a pair of twins in one go, and the position of the patriarch was completely assigned to the head of the Yishou family. "

After receiving the old policeman's notebook, Mori Kogoro glanced at it and asked suspiciously: "But judging from this notebook, Yishoujia didn't slander and insult his son as you said, but named him Changshoulang ah?"

"Yes, it's probably because the owner of their family really likes his son. Changshou Lang's life is very good, but his daughter's treatment is poor." The old policeman took back the old notebook, as if he was reminiscing.

"I heard from the old people in the past that the Ishou family is particularly afraid of Lord Danshou. The Ishou family of this generation is really an exception."

"Did the Ichishou family's daughter really die at that time?" Conan lay on the table, holding Xiaolan's hand to comfort her.

"Actually, we don't know what the corpse looks like. It was cremated the next day as soon as it was kept at home."

Hearing this, everyone in the room understood that attending the Thirteenth Night ceremony back then was definitely tricky, and it was very likely that Yishou knew the inside story, but there was a reason why he couldn't tell.

After all, in a village with little contact with the outside world, when someone dies, they will definitely choose to be buried in accordance with the tradition, but the Yishou family chooses to be cremated.

Is the dead person really a concubine?

"It must be a woman!" the old policeman said without hesitation: "There was a lot of long hair in the well, which belonged to the concubine. In the entire Yuanshou Village, only the concubine's hair was that yellow-black color."

It's probably...the hair is yellowish due to malnutrition.

Going back to the original question, if the curse came true, why did Lord Danshou not kill Changshou Lang, but instead targeted the concubine?If it didn't come true, why did someone still die in Ichishoujia?

Even if from a scientific point of view, the curse of Danshou is false, in terms of the motive of committing the crime, it is most likely the second and third guards, but the question remains, why is it the concubine who died?
What benefit would killing this girl bring to the Second Shou family and the Third Shou family who want to compete for the position of clan leader?
Shaking his head, Yuuji wrote down his questions in his notebook. Looking at the darkening sky outside, he suggested making accommodation arrangements first.

"There are no electric lights here, only lanterns." The old policeman lit two red and yellow lanterns in front of the police station and lit candles in the room.

"But you have to be careful. If there is a candle burning, someone must wake up, so as not to catch fire."

The old policeman took out a broken lantern from a corner, lit it, greeted several people, put the key on the table, and went home to sleep.

After all the candles were still out and the lights turned on, they walked up to the second floor and looked at the three rooms that could be used for sleeping. Yuji suggested that Toru Amuro should share a room with Date, Kogoro Mori and Conan, and Ran a room alone.

"No!" Shaking her head desperately, the unicorn girl hugged Shinpachi tightly.

"Then...Officer Date sleeps with uncle, Mr. Amuro and I share a room, Miss Ran and Conan together?" Yuji noticed Shinpachi's eyes begging for help.

"Shinpachi is also for you."

After agreeing to come down, and soaking six bowls of cup noodles in hot water, the few people sat on the first floor, listening to the whistling wind outside.Considering Ran who has been hugging Conan and Shinpachi desperately, everyone tacitly refrained from mentioning rituals and curses.

"Eat quickly. After eating, go to bed. We can go see the witness tomorrow morning." When Xiaolan had gone upstairs, the remaining four people came closer.

"How tall is that axe?"

"Yes."

　There is another chapter to be posted in the afternoon
　　
　
(End of this chapter)