Conan's Science Manga Artist Kudo Yuuji

"This village is really old."

Through the car window, Yuji looked down at the village in the distance. The sun was setting in the west, and the slightly red and yellow sunset glow shot down from the mountains, just passing through the central Yuanshou Mountain and reaching the village.

Because Yuanshou Village is in the mountains, there is not even electricity here. The boy couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have never come into contact with electronic objects in such an era.

"Ida said that we can stay in the police station in the south village tonight. There are extra rooms there."

It happened to be winter, so it didn't matter if there was no air conditioning and heating. If it was summer, it would be uncomfortable. There are the most mosquitoes in the mountains.

"How many policemen are there here usually?"

Yuji also looked south and noticed the only two-story building in the entire village, which is also the police station in Yuanshou Village. The area is not large, and it looks about the same as Yuji's house. It is really pitifully small.

"There are probably only two." Amuro Toru turned down the heating and decided to reduce fuel consumption.

"The police in this kind of village are different from those in other places. They are not only police but also villagers, and they often stay here for life."

If you have a bad relationship with the big families in the village, not only will you lose your job, you may even be forced to leave.

Finally stopping in front of the police station, the boy noticed that Date Kou and Maori were already sitting inside, and 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 Yuji's hand, Date Kou sat back in his previous position: "The secret guard family rarely communicates with the outside world."

"I can see that they are probably the self-sufficient type." Amuro Toruya pushed open the door and picked up a cup of tea from the table.

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

"Eighty percent of the land here belongs to the secret guard family. They only send people out occasionally to buy some necessities. Most people have never left the village in their lives."

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

"This is an old policeman from the village. Another young policeman is now at Ichimori's house to discuss the ceremony. His name is Nijukiro."

A policeman actually participated in such a local village activity. The boy was even more curious about what happened ten years ago, so he simply asked the old policeman about the situation at that time.

"You are here to participate in the ceremony and curse..." The old policeman took Maori Kogoro's cigarette and lit a cigarette and smoked it slowly. After the whole room began to choke, he finally spoke.

"Speaking of the Thirteenth Night Ceremony, we can't help but mention the past of the Ichimori family."

In the early years, the ancestors of the secret family had directly choked off their wife Atan because she couldn't give birth to a son. Later, the ancestors remarried, but no matter what, the sons born could not survive.

"So their clan built the Himejin Hall on this Himeshou Mountain, just to worship the ancestor who was beheaded and had nothing to do with them." The old policeman threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray and continued to smoke one.

"A woman who was beheaded during the Warring States Period was also worshipped with Adan.

In short, the curse of the Tanshou Lord was passed down. In order to protect the children from growing up safely and avoid the attention of the Tanshou Lord, the people in this village would slander and insult their children on the surface, give them some humble names, scold them with vicious words, and dress them in tattered clothes."

The old policeman stood up, took out a tattered book from the drawer of the police station, and pointed with his finger.

"The head of the Ichimori family in the current era had never been able to give birth to a son, not even a daughter, until 23 years ago, his wife gave birth to twins in one breath, and the position of the patriarch was completely returned to the Ichimori family."

Taking the old policeman's book, Maori Kogoro took a look and asked in confusion: "But from this book, the Ichimori family did not slander and insult their son as you said, but gave him the name of Chojuro?"

"Yes, probably because the owner of their family really likes his son, Chojuro has a good life, but his daughter is treated poorly." The old policeman took back the tattered book, as if recalling something.

"I heard from the old people that the Hishimori family was particularly afraid of Lord Tanshou, and the Ichimori family of this generation is really an exception."

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

"In fact, we don't know what the body looks like. The Ichimori family cremated it the next day."

Hearing this, everyone in the room understood that there was definitely something fishy about the Thirteenth Night Ceremony that year. It is very likely that the Ichimori family knew the inside story, but there was a reason that they couldn't say it.

After all, in a village that has almost no contact with the outside world, if someone dies, they will definitely choose to bury them according to tradition, but the Ichimori family chose cremation.

Is the dead person really a concubine?

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

Probably... malnutrition caused the hair to be dry and yellow.

Back to the question at the beginning, if the curse came true, why didn't Lord Tanshou kill Chojuro, but instead targeted the concubine? If it didn't come true, why did someone from the Ichimori family die?

Even if from a scientific point of view, the Danshu curse is false, the most likely motive for the crime is the Nimori family and the Sanmori family, but the question still remains, why did the concubine die?

What good would it do to the Nimori and Sanmori families who wanted to compete for the position of clan leader if this girl was killed?

Shaking his head, Yuuji wrote down his doubts in a notebook, and looking at the dark sky outside, he suggested arranging accommodation first.

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

"But you have to be careful. If there are candles, someone must wake up to avoid fire."

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

Candles were still not as bright as electric lights. Going up to the second floor, looking at the three rooms that could be used for sleeping, Yuuji suggested that Amuro Toru, Date Kou and himself share a room, Maori Kogoro and Conan share a room, and Xiaolan share a room alone.

"No!" Shaking her head desperately, the one-horned girl hugged Shinpachi tightly.

"Then... Officer Date will sleep with uncle, Mr. Amuro and I will share a room, and Ran will stay with Conan?" Yuji noticed Shinpachi's pleading eyes.

"Shinpachi will be yours too."

After agreeing, they made six bowls of instant noodles with hot water, and then sat on the first floor, listening to the howling wind outside. Considering Ran who had been holding on to Conan and Shinpachi, everyone tacitly agreed not to mention the ceremony and the curse.

"Eat quickly, and go to sleep after eating. We can still go see the witness tomorrow morning." When Ran had gone upstairs, the remaining four people moved closer.

"How high is that axe?"

"That's right."

There is another chapter to be released in the afternoon