Ke Xue: The thief Cao is actually myself

Chapter 443

"A secret entrance?"

Yuantai led everyone to the side of the house and found a wooden secret door.

"It's right here. Although it's hidden in the bushes, this is the only way to get in, okay?"

After several people walked in from the secret door, Conan looked at the door thoughtfully.

"Conan, hurry up." When they arrived at the main door, they found that it was not locked and opened easily. However, they were troubled by the darkness in the room.

"By the way, we should go back. Look, it's starting to rain."

Sure enough, it had started to drizzle outside, but not long after, the rain suddenly became heavier, accompanied by lightning.

Yuan Tai disagreed with this suggestion, "Idiot, you're already here, if you want to go back, go back by yourself.

"How about that..."

The rain suddenly got heavier and a flash of lightning struck. Ayumi ran into the house in fear, but she seemed to have bumped into something and fell to the ground. When she looked up, she saw a demon looking at her.

"Ahhhhh!!!!"

Ayumi suddenly screamed in fright.

Yuan Tai and others on the side could not help but be speechless, "Please, look carefully, this demon is just a sculpture."

"It's so dirty, but I just fell and my hands and feet are covered in mud."

“Because no one has lived here for a long time, there is dust everywhere on the floor.”

The group continued to walk inside, surrounded by many strange sculptures. Suddenly, Ayumi found a washbasin?

"I'm so lucky that I can finally wash it clean."

Conan looked at the flowing water and frowned slightly.

The house had clearly not been occupied for such a long time, but the water hadn't stopped flowing yet. Moreover, the secret door used to enter looked very new. It must have been installed after the original owner died, which meant that someone must have been entering and leaving the house recently.

But who is he and why did he come in?
Thinking of this, Conan couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

"Everyone is walking together like this. It seems like we are really on a mission, right?"

Looking at his friends, Yuan Tai said confidently, "That's right, we are an expedition team."

Yuan Tai took the lead, "Of course, I am the hero."

Ayumi blinked, "I am a very cute female warrior."

Mitsuhiko followed closely, "I am a smart magician."

"Then I am..." Conan was about to speak when he was immediately stopped by Genta.

"You're just a villager."

"Huh? If they are villagers, they don't count as partners, right?"

"Yes, that is an important role in providing us with intelligence."

"This role suits you best."

"Tsk, that's too contemptuous of me."

Hearing the discussion of Genta and others, Conan acted like a child for a rare moment and thought secretly.

After the team atmosphere became lively, several people set out again. While walking, suddenly a door opened out of nowhere, and several people got scared and hid behind Conan.

"What does this mean, hiding behind the villagers?"

Conan rolled his eyes and couldn't help but feel speechless.

After exchanging a glance with Ayumi and the others, Genta decisively pushed Conan out, "Go quickly, villagers."

A few people walked over carefully and found that the door was simply blown open by the wind after the window was opened.

Seeing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, "I see, the window was blown open naturally because of the wind. The monster or something, probably because of this."

They were so scared that they almost thought there was a monster.

"Wow, Mitsuhiko, you seem like a famous detective."

"I'm going to the bathroom first. Please wait here for me and don't run around. I'll be back soon."

"Even so, this house is really big." "Well, the person who lived here before must have been a rich person."

Mitsuhiko, who was walking back from the toilet, suddenly heard a strange noise, which scared him.

"Hehe, there's no way there's any monster. The sound just now must be the sound of wind blowing through a tiny gap. Okay, I'll go check it out to see what's going on."

Mitsuhiko ran in the direction of the sound and came to a staircase leading to the basement. He found that the sound came from here. "Okay, let me see what's going on." After saying that, he went down the stairs.

On the other side, "Mitsuhiko is so slow." "It's been twenty minutes." "Maybe that guy encountered an accident." Mitsuhiko went down to the basement and found that the sound was getting louder and louder. He came to an iron door and said, "That's right, the sound came from here."

When he opened the door, Mitsuhiko saw three flames in front of him, and he was so scared that he sat down on the ground.

"Ah!!!!!!!" Mitsuhiko's screams spread throughout the house. Conan immediately responded to the screams and went to look for Mitsuhiko.

"You guys just wait here and don't go. I'll go take a look."

"Mitsuhiko, where are you!" "Answer me quickly, Mitsuhiko, what happened!"

……

The two people who stayed in the room were eating the snacks that Ayumi brought. "Mom and the others must be worried about us at this time. But then again, Conan is too slow."

After saying that, Genta reached out for another bag of snacks, but Ayumi snatched it away, "You can't eat this. I don't know where Mitsuhiko is. He must be very hungry now, and so is Conan. This is for all of them, you can't eat it."

"Okay, I get it." At this moment, a scent of food wafted over, and Yuan Tai's eyes lit up, "It's food! It's coming from that direction, I'll go take a look."

"No, Conan has already said that you can't run around."

"It's okay, I'll be right back."

"Yuanta..."

"It's so strange. I don't see anyone around. Is there really no one here?"

"Conan, come and look at this photo."

"What's wrong? Oh? This is the owner who was killed five years ago. The people standing behind him in the photo should be his wife and son. In the end, the murderer was never found, and his family members moved to an unknown place."

"Ah!" "This is Yuantai!"

"Yuanta, what's wrong? Answer me quickly." Ayumi asked nervously after hearing Yuanta's scream. Suddenly, a red light lit up at the end of the corridor. "Yuanta, come on, don't scare me."

Ayumi thought it was Genta who was about to step forward, but when she listened carefully, the footsteps were not Genta's at all. Behind Ayumi, a pair of hands reached out and covered Ayumi's mouth. Ayumi was about to struggle, but found that it was Conan.

"Conan, it's you."

"Shh, don't make a sound."

The shadow of the person coming was reflected on the wall, getting closer and closer. The timid Ayumi was about to cry out, but Conan covered her mouth and forced her not to make a sound.

Finally, the person coming closer, it turned out that the light came from the candlesticks on the dining cart, and the person pushing the cart was an old woman with very long hair, which was really scary in such an atmosphere. She seemed not to notice anything and walked straight past.

"It's... it's a monster." Ayumi was about to cry. "Please, look carefully, it's a human."

The woman turned a corner and disappeared into the corridor. Several people followed her quietly. Looking in the direction the woman turned, they found only an empty dining car and nothing else. "It's gone. There are no rooms around. The end of the corridor is in front of it. Where did she go?"

"That's why I said she was a monster."

"Look, there are cuts on the floor, and there's a handle here. It should be the entrance to the basement."

"So that's how it is. Then the guy just now must be down there."

Several people went down the stairs and saw a door ajar. When they opened the door, they found that it was a dungeon. There was a man with a long beard sitting on the bed in the cell. Suddenly, the man howled, which scared them.

"Who is this person and why is he imprisoned here?"

At this time, footsteps were heard outside the door. "Someone is coming. Hide behind the cabinet over there first."

The woman came in with a plate of food. "You must have had a nightmare again. How pitiful. But it was five years ago. Forget about it. No matter how much pain you feel, the dead will never come back."

"The dead? Are you referring to the master who was murdered? If so, who are those two people..."

"Okay, eat quickly." But the man suddenly went crazy and threw the food aside.

"I put you in jail not because I want to make you suffer, you know, Akio, I did it for your future."

Seeing this scene, Conan thought, "I see, I now understand the secret of this house and the truth of that incident."

But Ayumi accidentally knocked over the broom next to her, and Conan hooked it with his foot without any danger, but it hit the cabinet again, knocking over the iron bucket on it, and the iron bucket fell to the ground with a "clang".

The old woman picked up the sharp knife on the ground after hearing the noise. "I feel like there are other mice sneaking in besides the two just now. Come out now. It's no use hiding, come out now."

"It's useless to hide. Madam, I think you should say this to yourself. I just saw in the study a photo of the master who was killed five years ago with you, and the man standing next to the photo, that is, the madman who has lived in the basement for five years. Although his appearance has completely changed, I know that the man is your son, because the mole under his eye has not changed at all. I felt something was strange since I entered this house, because after the murder, his family members all moved to an unknown place, so there should be no one in the house, but water flows out after turning on the faucet, which is strange. There is no such thing as paying for a house that no one lives in. Moreover, the exit made in an inconspicuous place and the wooden door are too new compared to the ancient walls around. I think it was probably made after the murder, in order to hope that entering and leaving the house would not attract attention, but why do you do this, no one lives here. And why do you have to lock your son in the basement? I have completely understood this question from your conversation just now."

After hearing Conan's reasoning, the woman had completely lost her mind, "Who are you? Who are you?"

Conan came out of his hiding place and said the classic line "My name is Edogawa Conan, and I'm a detective."

"What, detective!" The hostess became panicked after hearing Conan's identity.

Conan began his reasoning again, "I infer that there are two possibilities: the first is that it was the wife, that is, you, who killed the master, so you imprisoned your son who witnessed everything in this place; there is another situation, that is, the person who killed the master was the son you locked up, and you knew that he committed the crime, so you decided to conceal the truth of the matter to protect your son. But for him, such a crime is too serious. The sigh coming from the house is probably his sigh of distress. Maybe your son wanted to go out and surrender in order to reduce his sins, but as a mother, you did not allow him to do so. That's right, you wholeheartedly did not want your son to become a criminal, so you chose to live a secluded life without letting him leave the house. From the conversation just now and the reaction on your face, the person who killed your husband should be..."

"Shut... shut up, just shut up." After saying that, he pushed Conan against the wall and raised the knife in his hand. Just as Conan was about to dodge, his son in prison spoke first.

"Stop it, please don't do this, Mom. Just as the child said, I am the one who killed my father, it is me..."

"Akio..."

"That was the spring five years ago..."

Shaw told the truth about how he killed his father five years ago. "I've had enough. I don't want to live this cowardly life where I dream about killing my father every day. I don't want it. I want to atone for my sins so that I can live a more relaxed life."

"You must cheer up, Akio. You must be patient until the statute of limitations expires. If...if you don't tell the truth, no one will know."

"Indeed, if you continue to hide like this, you can escape the police's pursuit. However, you can't escape the condemnation of your conscience. Madam, do you really want your son to carry such a heavy burden for the rest of his life?"

The wife who was persuaded by Conan's words shed tears of regret.

After a night of terror, the house was enveloped in bright sunlight. The two people who had disappeared were sleeping soundly on the grass outside the house. They must have been anesthetized by the lady and thrown out of the house. The lady and her son also surrendered to the police that day. The murder case that had no further follow-up was finally solved after five years. And the members of the Junior Detective Team were severely punished by their parents...

(End of this chapter)