Conan's corpse picker

Chapters 3774 and 3787 [Case Closed] Requesting monthly votes (づど)

The Cake Prince forced a smile and said, "You mean I killed the shop manager with candy? -- I'm not a candy maker, I don't have the ability to make something that hard."

Jiang Xia shook his head: "The murder weapon wasn't a dessert, but a tree stump cake."

"Hmm?" Sonoko Suzuki touched her mouth, remembering the sliced ​​log cake that the Cake Prince had just delivered, and suddenly slapped her palm. "Could it be that what I just bit wasn't the fork, but that piece of cake?"

"Don't talk nonsense!" The Cake Prince desperately defended himself against the accusation. "You just got pricked by a fork—the Yule log cake only looks like a tree stump; the core is actually soft, just like any other cake. It's not going to kill anyone. If you don't believe me, go and bring over the plate of cake you ate, and let the police examine it themselves!"

Jiang Xia pointed to his kitchen: "If you want to test the softness of the Yule log cake, don't you have a few right here in your kitchen? Why not use them instead of going all the way to the garden to get them?"

“Because…” the Cake Prince stammered, “because those are already made and we need them this afternoon. If they’re all taken for testing, I’ll have to make them all again this afternoon.”

Sonoko Suzuki couldn't bear to see the handsome guy in such a predicament, so she comforted him: "Look on the bright side, if Jiang Xia solves the case and sends you to jail, you won't have to continue working this afternoon!"

The Cake Prince roared in fury: "You...!"

Jiang Xia pointed to the house: "This dessert shop is themed around 'Cake House'. At first glance, every part of it looks edible, but in reality, beneath the desserts on the surface is a sturdy wooden house that provides support."

He looked at the cake prince: "This Mr. Fujino must have gotten his inspiration from this dessert shop, which is why he made this 'tree stump cake' today."

Sato Miwako vaguely understood: "So, the murder weapon he used was actually a piece of wood?"

Jiang Xia nodded with satisfaction: "Mr. Fujino prepared a piece of wood that was one size smaller than the tree stump cake and hid it in his cupboard."

"Once you've made the real log cake, put it on a tray and pretend you're coming to the garden to deliver it to us. As you leave, take out the real log and hide it under the tray."

"When you passed the shopkeeper's wife, you suddenly took out that piece of wood and smashed it hard on her head."

"That's utter nonsense!" the Cake Prince interrupted sharply. "What evidence do you have?!"

Jiang Xia readily agreed and pointed to his dining table: "The evidence is in your kitchen."

As soon as he finished speaking, Officer Chiba had already nimbly jogged over, scanned the area, and looked at a large tray.

—On the tray were three finished Yule log cakes, their brown cream soft and sweet, making one want to pick them up and take a bite.

"Jiang Xia kept talking about tree stump cakes... these should be the ones." Officer Chiba picked up the tray and ran back to Jiang Xia's side.

As expected, Jiang Xia nodded in satisfaction, took the tray, and placed it on the cabinet.

Then he pointed to the three identical wooden stake cakes: "Among these three cakes, one contains the murder weapon. Which one do you think it is?"

Maya Hashimoto, eavesdropping outside the window: "..." Even the cake has to be a choice of three? Just how much does Lord Uzo like this number...?

Peeking through the screen of a concerned reporter at a passersby mutual aid group.

Chianti: [Vodka! Let's open a plate right away.]
Vodka ignored him: What's the point of opening a betting pool? The purpose of opening a betting pool is to encourage you to study Uzo, not to play some 3-choice mini-game here.

However, it seems to have another purpose now: to recycle the small Ukrainian coins in Curaçao's possession.

—As everyone knows, Curaçao cannot obtain Uzo coins through gambling, so this woman obtained the currency by selling information related to Uzo.

And the coins she earns from selling information are then recycled through gambling... In short, this is a free perpetual motion machine for information.

Thinking about it that way, Vodka was actually a little tempted: "How about we open a betting pool and see? But Curaçao just lost two small Ukrainian coins, would he be willing to put one up for bet now...?"

While they were still struggling with this decision, the other side had already begun to take action.

The police clearly had no interest in riddles. Inspector Megure picked up a knife and sliced ​​each of the three wooden cakes horizontally.

He was cutting the last piece when he stopped abruptly, just as he pressed the knife down a little.

"This one is different from the previous two!" Inspector Megure exclaimed in surprise. "The first two were indeed soft like the other cakes, and you could cut through them with a little force, but this one, this one is very hard inside! -- Quick, peel off the cream on top of this cake, and try not to touch the inside!"

Vodka, having lost its recycling channels: "..."

"But this Inspector Megure isn't much better. There were only three in total, and he only found the right one when he was cutting into the last one." He muttered to himself, "Let's see who's more unlucky and bring him over to compare with Curaçao."

……

"Ah!"

Inspector Megure sneezed, feeling like someone was slandering him.

"It must be some prisoner cricketing at him from behind," he thought. He glanced at the terrified Cake Prince, but didn't pay any attention, turning his gaze away like a victor.

Soon, amidst the cake prince's grim expression, the police carefully separated the cream, revealing half of a wooden stake lying quietly on the tray.

Jiang Xia went over to take a look and nodded: "After committing the crime, Mr. Fujino wrapped this piece of wood in cream and placed it on a tray with the other two tree stump cakes he had made in advance, pretending that it was just part of the set."

"Then he picked up a real tree stump cake, casually went outside, came to our table, and waited for someone to discover the body in the dessert shop."

"..."

Caught red-handed, the Cake Prince collapsed to the ground with a thud.

He said bitterly, "Manager Qiaoyuan, she's just like that witch in the world of cakes!"
"When I first signed the contract with her, she promised me that after I won the cake prize, I would work for her for another three years, and then she would let me go out and start my own business."

"Later I actually won the big prize, and I worked for her obediently for three years. No matter how full her schedule was, no matter how much she exploited me, as long as I thought about being able to go out and work for myself soon, I could endure it without complaint."

"But after three years, when I was full of anticipation to open my own shop, Manager Qiaoyuan changed her mind again. When she saw that I was popular, she stopped mentioning the idea of ​​starting her own business. In order to suppress me, she even forbade me from making the wooden stake cake that made me famous!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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