Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 160: Found the person already?

"There is indeed a grove of cherry trees around the inn," Otomo Hiroki heard the conversation between the brother and sister. "The cherry blossoms in the river must have fallen when the wind blew through the cherry blossom forest."

At this time, another black car stopped at the door of the gas station.

A short and fat young man got off the bus, looked around, and immediately walked over after seeing Otomo Hiroki.

"Sorry, I'm late."

"We just arrived not long ago," Otomo Hiroki introduced the identities of both parties.

The short and fat young man was none other than Akita Keito, whose fiancée had gone missing.

He looked Lin Xiuyi up and down with distrust: "Mr. Lin doesn't look very old?"

"I'm still in school, in the first year of high school," Lin Xiuyi replied casually.

Akita Keito looked at Otomo Hiroki in confusion. Although he didn't say anything, his meaning was obvious.

Why did you find a child to investigate?

"Although Lin-kun is still in school, he has helped the police solve many cases," Otomo Hiroki explained. "The detectives I hired before didn't get any results, so I'll let Lin-kun try."

"That's fine," Akita Keito sighed. "As long as you help me find the necklace, I'll give you a commission in full."

That's what he said, but looking at the expression on his face, it was obvious that he didn't believe in Lin Xiuyi's ability.

"Onii-chan is very good at reasoning," Reiko said indignantly.

"Really?" Akita Keito sneered, turned around and returned to the car.

"This person is so annoying," Fujimine Yukiko said, also a little angry, "How can he look down on others like that?"

"Mr. Akita is the president of a company," Otomo Hiroki said soothingly, "and Mr. Lin is too young, so it's normal for him to look down on him."

"He just said he was looking for the necklace, but he didn't mention his fiancée at all," Lin Xiuyi asked. "What's going on?"

"When Mr. Akita's fiancée disappeared, she was wearing a necklace passed down from their family," Otomo Hiroki replied. "It's said to be worth tens of millions of yen."

"I was saying, how could such a person value feelings?" Hibiki Eri said with disdain, "So he's looking for someone for money."

As they were talking, they were about to return to the car when Akita Keito, who was walking in front, suddenly screamed.

It turned out that when he was walking towards his car, he passed by the painting scaffolding. The worker on it accidentally knocked over the paint bucket on the shelf, and most of the bucket of paint spilled on Akita Keito.

The worker on the shelf hurried down to apologize, while Akita Keito was cursing there.

Otomo Hiroki went over to mediate, while Hayashi Hideichi and the other three stood aside and watched.

In the end, the matter ended with the workers paying a sum of money to Akita Keito.

"Really? I just bought this suit," Akita Keito said with a dark face, taking off his coat.

"Wipe it first," Otomo Hiroki reminded, "Once the paint dries, it will be hard to wipe off. Do you have any paper?"

"Have."

Akita Keito opened the trunk of the car, and in addition to a few rolls of toilet paper, there was also a huge cactus.

He bought the cactus on the way here and planned to take it home to raise.

Throwing his coat into the trunk, Akita Keito tore off some paper and began to wipe the paint off his forehead.

But paint is obviously difficult to clean. After wiping for a long time, there was still a lot of it on his body.

"Let's go to the hotel first," Lin Xiuyi suggested. "I'm afraid the remaining paint will have to be washed off in the bathroom."

Akita Keito could only nod dejectedly.

……

More than ten minutes later, two cars stopped one after the other in front of the Togo Hotel halfway up the mountain. Akita Keito rushed in.

Lin Xiuyi and others also got off the car and stood at the door to look at the hotel.

Just as Otomo Hiroki said, this hotel is not big. It looks like it was rebuilt from an original residence. It has an old appearance, two floors, and about ten rooms.

Lin Xiuyi carefully observed the structure of the hotel. If the two missing girls were really imprisoned here, there must be a secret room inside the hotel, which would prevent the police from finding them after two searches.

He was watching intently when Otomo Hiroki next to him suddenly exclaimed, "Mio?"

Following his gaze, Lin Xiuyi saw a woman standing in front of a window on the right side of the second floor.

"Mio!" Otomo Hiroki shouted and ran into the hotel quickly.

"Found it already?" Fujimine Yukiko was a little surprised.

Lin Xiuyi didn't say anything and continued to stare at the window on the second floor.

The woman also heard Otomo Hiroki's shout, but did not respond. Instead, she hurried away from the window.

"...Let's go in too."

Lin Xiuyi greeted him and walked into the hotel.

In the lobby on the first floor, the middle-aged proprietress, who was in her fifties, was standing in front of Otomo Hiroki. "Mr. Otomo, I told you a long time ago that Miss Mio was not in the hotel. Why are you here again?"

"Nonsense! I was outside just now and saw it clearly. Mio was upstairs!" Otomo Hiroki pushed the proprietress away and rushed to the second floor.

"Wait a minute!" The proprietress also hurriedly caught up.

Lin Xiuyi and others followed closely behind.

Everyone went up to the second floor and saw a corridor in front of them. There were four rooms on each side, 201-204 on the left and 205-208 on the right. At the end was a public bathroom.

Otomo Hiroki was standing at the door of Room 206, banging on it vigorously.

"Mio, I see you. You're right here, right?"

"Mr. Otomo, there are guests staying in this room," the landlady advised. "You'll disturb them!"

"That guest must be Mio!" Otomo Hiroki shouted, "I must see her today!"

At this time, the door of room 202 opposite opened. It was Akita Keito who had entered the hotel earlier. He had already checked in, changed into a bathrobe, and was about to go to the public bathroom to wash off the paint on his body.
"What's going on here?"

"I found Mio!" Otomo Hiroki answered and continued knocking on the door.

"Is your Miss Mio really here?"

Akita Keito was startled for a moment, then he grabbed the proprietress's arm.

"What's going on? If Miss Mio is here, where's Kaho? Did you hide that bitch too?!"

"It's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding! Mr. Otomo must have seen it wrong," the landlady said. "The person staying in this room is Ms. Mizuno. She came here with her boyfriend to enjoy the cherry blossoms."

"I can't be wrong, open the door quickly!" Mr. Otomo urged anxiously.

While the noise was going on, a young man came out of the public bathroom at the end of the corridor and wiped his head with a towel.

When he saw everyone blocking the door of room 206, he immediately walked over with an unhappy look on his face.

"What are you doing? Why are you disturbing my girlfriend's rest?"

"Mr. Otomo may have mistaken Ms. Mizuno for his missing girlfriend," the proprietress hastily explained, "and he insisted on opening the door and going in."

"I can't be mistaken!" Mr. Otomo said with certainty, "The person standing by the window just now must be Mio!"

(End of this chapter)