Conan: I'm Not a Model Worker in the Winery

Chapter 498 Off-field Assistance Staff
"The sun is shining in the sky ~ the flowers are smiling at me ~"

The summer sky is blazing like fire.

Lie was invited to the Metropolitan Police Department and hummed the children's song "Everyone Knows It" in the corridor leading to the conference room as if no one was around.

——In the end, the little otaku Hiroki still refused the invitation to come to the Metropolitan Police Department with Retsu.

It's not even seven o'clock yet, but on this slightly special day, you can already see quite a few policemen in suits walking hurriedly by.

Many police officers were confused when they passed by Lie - because Lie was obviously not from the Metropolitan Police Department, nor did he look like the county police who were coming here from all over the place for a meeting today.

Moreover, Lie was afraid of the heat today, so he wore a loose high-necked gray-blue vest, which made him look like a serious person...

Plus, the way he was looking around to find a meeting room made him seem even more suspicious.

"Conference Room 1...Conference Room 1...where is it? I didn't expect this floor to be so big~"

Lie scratched his head in distress.

Just when he was at a loss, a kind police officer finally came over and said, "Hello sir, I wonder if you are here..."

Lie looked at the other person with eager eyes, and he grasped the other person's hand, smiling brightly: "Hey! Hello, hello~ I'm here to participate in a case, that...oh, it's a meeting, the location is in the first conference room, can you help me show the way? How to get to this first conference room~ Thank you!"

……

Meeting room 1.

The chairs in the hall were neatly arranged. Many policemen were already sitting in their seats, some dozing off on the table, and some chatting with acquaintances.

Many of these policemen are unfamiliar faces.

But this did not prevent Lie from seeing a certain cub he favored sitting by the window at a glance -

"Xiao Zhenping~ You got up so early today? You look like you haven't woken up yet? Is your sleep quality not good? This won't do~ After the meeting, do you want to run around Tokyo Tower a few times?"

Matsuda Jinpei, who felt hopeless after being named by Rei, said: "..."

Inspector Megure must have been out of his mind to have called this guy here, right?

When he thought about the police having to find a detective and a criminal to help them come up with a plan because they had reached a dead end in solving the case, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly felt that the future of the Japanese police was bleak...

The famous Maori Kogoro was also invited to the Metropolitan Police Department as a consultant for solving cases.

This confused detective was not taken seriously by the Metropolitan Police Department in the early days, but later, because Retsu and Hiroki were not present many times, thanks to Conan's anesthetic needle, Mouri Kogoro performed miraculous deeds many times while in a coma, and was regarded as the "Sleeping Kogoro" by the Metropolitan Police Department.

"Don't worry about this, Rei...Mr. Lin." Matsuda Jinpei almost blurted out Rei's code name, but fortunately he turned quickly and Officer Sato and Officer Shiratori next to him didn't notice anything wrong.

However, Sato and Takagi looked at Lie with a little apologetic look - they were supposed to go out to greet him, but who knew that Lie would come over without saying a word?

Matsuda Jinpei then pointed to the seat placed diagonally in front of the conference room and said, "The seat for the special advisor this time is over there. Your name and Mr. Maori's name are on it. Please sit where you like."

Feeling Matsuda Jinpei's deliberate distance, Rei didn't react in particular, and replied with a smile: "Okay, okay~ I'll sit over there later... But the meeting hasn't started yet, how about we chat?"

After saying that, Lie didn't wait for Matsuda Jinpei to react. He moved a chair over there and sat down opposite Matsuda Jinpei.

Shiratori Renzaburo, who was standing nearby and reading the manuscript, said: "..."

Strange, are Mr. Lin and Matsuda so close? I never paid much attention to it before...

Sato Miwako, who was sitting at the table next to Takagi: “!”

Strange, why does she have the illusion that Matsuda is very similar to Mr. Lin?
As for the fierce rogue, Matsuda Jinpei had no way to deal with it. He rolled his eyes obscurely under his sunglasses and said weakly:
"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

"It's about the case~ and today's meeting~" Lie had a warm smile on his face, "There are so many unfamiliar police officers here today. Do you have so many people in the Investigation Section?"

Lie pointed at the policemen behind him who were looking at him curiously.

——In a meeting where everyone was wearing a suit, it was no exaggeration to say that Lie stood out from the crowd with his casual outfit.

Matsuda Jinpei looked back and said, "No, they are from the police headquarters of various counties, because this serial murder case involves a wide area..."

"Serial murder case?" Lie was intrigued. "What exactly is going on?"

When Megure Juzo called him and asked him to come over, he did not explain in detail what the case was.

"This will be discussed at the meeting later. Besides, the detailed information about the case has not been brought in yet. Only Shiratori has a summary." Matsuda Jinpei tried to divert Rei's attention.

However, Lie's starry eyes only moved away for a second to look at Shiratori Renzaburo, and then immediately turned back to stare at him without blinking: "Oh~ Let's talk about it later... What areas are involved in this case?"

"...Tottori, Nagano, Shizuoka, Saitama, Kanagawa, and Tokyo."

Seeing that the method of diverting attention was ineffective, Matsuda Jinpei had to personally chat with them, "The most recent one was near the toll booth in Odawara City..."

"Oh, so there are already seven cases now?" Lie counted on his fingers.

"No, six."

"…Huh? But you mentioned seven places~"

"That's because one of the victims died at the border of Nagano and Gunma. The upper half of his body was in Nagano and the lower half was in Gunma."

Lie: “……⊙▽⊙～”

Hey~ This person’s death was quite skillful, or did the murderer want to increase the workload of the police?
After trying to figure out the murderer's thoughts for a while, Lie asked about the details of the case and took out a small notebook to record:
"Oh! The victim was knocked unconscious by the criminal, taken to various places to commit crimes and then escaped... Then what did the mahjong tiles found next to the victim look like~?"

Matsuda Jinpei held up his chin and said, "All six mahjong tiles are different. You should wait for Officer Megure to come back. He has gone to copy the relevant documents..."

"Oh~ Then, what are those things missing from the deceased?"

"…It's in the information. Just wait."

Lie blinked his innocent eyes: "Hey~ Can you tell me in advance~ It won't cost you anything if you say one more word, right?"

Matsuda Jinpei's face was filled with black lines: "I'm not in charge of this case, how can I remember the specific details?"

Didn't he know that he had just finished the bomb safety work yesterday? Although it was almost a week ago, it was almost as if he had just finished it yesterday...

……and many more.

Is there something wrong with this time?

Jinpei Matsuda was in a daze for a moment, feeling inexplicably that something was wrong.

"Is that so...never mind~" Lie shrugged.

He noticed that Jinpei Matsuda looked a little strange, but he didn't take it to heart.

Just as Lie stood up and prepared to move his chair back to his seat to drink some water, he paused, staring straight at the back of the conference room, and at the same time glanced outside the door, smiling and saying to Sato Miwako:
"Officer Sato~Mr. Maori and the others seem to be here, do you want to go out and take a look?"

"……Eh?"

Sato Miwako was stunned for a moment, then reacted. Without thinking about why Rei knew someone was coming, she pulled Takagi up, thanked him, and rushed out the door - it was their mistake not to welcome the person the first time... The same mistake must not be made a second time.

If Rei knew that Sato Miwako's inner awareness was so high, he would definitely be very pleased.

Unfortunately, his full attention was now focused on a certain policeman with glasses sitting at the back of the conference room.

Lie stared at the other person for a while, then suddenly leaned over and whispered to the unconscious Matsuda Jinpei: "Xiao Pingzi, have you been practicing the 'gongfa' recently?"

Matsuda Jinpei came back to his senses: "No...what?"

He has been busy installing insurance recently and has no time to practice in the United States.

"It's okay~ I just want to remind you to practice well! Once you have 'Chi' you will find many interesting things."

Lie patted his shoulder with a smile, then walked straight to the last row under the gaze of a group of policemen, and slapped the bespectacled policeman on the shoulder:

"Hello~ I'm just doing a survey~ Is Vermouth delicious?"

(End of this chapter)