Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 330 Skiing Guide

"call--!"

After noon, the wind howled in the snow-capped mountains, and soon the outside world turned into a vast expanse of white. The blizzard completely covered the entire world, and the blinding white made it impossible to tell which way was which, profoundly demonstrating the terror of nature.

However, the experience is quite different indoors.

Sipping wine and enjoying snacks while watching the blizzard adds to the fun.

That's the feeling of the mustachioed guy who gets along so well with everyone in the editorial department. In no time, he became completely familiar with the editors present, as if they were close friends.

"I remember the last time I met Mr. Mori was during the incident with Ms. Shinmei."

"Yes, it seems that Mr. Mori solved the last mystery before Mr. Shinmei passed away, didn't he?"

"No, no, it's that detective actor, his name is Domoto Hajime, isn't it?"

“It really is Domoto Hajime, I was just a little short,” the mustachioed man said, his face flushed from drinking, shaking his head and sighing. “Mr. Shinmei was thinking about how his fans could solve the mystery until the very end, it’s truly admirable…”

“Now Ms. Kaori Shinmei has completely taken over her father’s mantle and even surpassed him,” Ida exclaimed. “I think Mr. Shinmei would be very happy in heaven.”

"Where did Professor Aoyama go? I thought I could have a drink with him." One editor lamented.

"The teacher is a famous detective himself; writing books is just a hobby," Ida explained.

"Speaking of which, why did the Naoki Prize end so suddenly? There wasn't even an awards ceremony."

"I heard that person passed away..."

Gao Mo sat at the children's table next to him, not participating in the editorial department's social activities, but he was a little worried that the mustachioed man's drunkenness would expose his identity.

Fortunately, the worry was unnecessary; even when he was drunk, the man with the mustache didn't slur his words.

"The snow is so heavy outside," Mitsuhiko and the others said, thinking about their snowman. "I wonder how things are at the hotel."

"The snowman is behind the hotel, so there shouldn't be any major problems."

The garden was somewhat sullen.

"As for me, I originally thought I would have a chance to go to the hot spring lake."

"You can't swim in that hot spring lake."

"Who says you have to swim? Don't you think it's romantic to boat on a lake in the snow-capped mountains? After all, this is the only place that isn't frozen over."

“Ahem,” Professor Agasa interrupted, “Actually, it’s just a pond, and there’s no boat at all.”

"The hotel has rubber boats."

"That's true, but it's just too dangerous..."

Amidst the chatter of the crowd, Gao Mo took a sip of his iced cola, feeling both peaceful and not lonely; he thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere.

It's still iced cola, but the taste has changed a lot since I first came into this world.

It tastes better.

Gao Mo quietly looked out the window at the wind and snow.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but it seems like I saw Gao Yuanyao's figure appearing in the wind and snow. But upon closer inspection, it's just a white reflection.

They're really bullying honest people.

So you're keeping an eye on him, aren't you?

Even a clay figure can be angry.

Gao Mo was furious, but his gaze became even calmer.

To defeat Death, you must first find your target.

It's a good thing to have the other party take the initiative to come to you.

I refuse to believe I can't find that guy's weakness.

……

It's around 1 p.m.

The blizzard subsided, but when Gao Mo and his group returned to the hotel, they found criminal police officers questioning them at the door.

"I heard someone drowned by the pond?"

"How could that be? Wasn't the road there blocked long ago?"

"I do not know."

"It seems like the dead woman was a female college student. She probably accidentally went down the slope while skiing. The pond is right below the steep slope. I noticed it this morning. The fence was broken, and there was only a danger sign. The hotel is really something..."

"Sigh, so young, and they died so suddenly."

"If you ask me, he brought it on himself. He was out running around during a blizzard." Gao Mo followed behind the man with the mustache, listening to the surrounding crowd's discussions without offering any comment.

He was used to life and death, and the death of the female college student with slanted eyes did not stir any emotion in him.

I knew beforehand that this person would die, and I also had some guesses about the source of the disaster, but I didn't know who the murderer would be.

“Speaking of which, this is Gunma Prefecture,” the man with the mustache suddenly said, his eye twitching as he had a bad feeling. “That guy…”

"Hey! Mr. Mori!"

Skinny, monkey-like detective Yamamura Misao rushed to the man with the mustache, overwhelmed with excitement.

"I was hoping to run into Mr. Mori, what great luck! I get to hear another exciting deduction from the sleeping man. Hurry up and unravel the truth behind this curse incident, Mr. Mori!"

"What cursed event?"

The man with the mustache had no temper with this fanatical fan.

"Don't you have any other detectives in Gunma Prefecture? I keep running into you."

"Hehe, this is fate," Yamamura Misao said, pulling out a camera from somewhere. "I'm all ready. The crime scene is in the pond below. Want to go take a look?"

"I'd rather not have this kind of fate."

The man with the mustache turned around and saw Gao Mo inspecting two snowmen next to the hotel.

Several children were gathered around the snowman they had built.

Sure enough, the snowman's head was blown away.

"I even kept my hat, but I don't know where it got blown away..."

Gao Mo squatted down and rubbed the snow nearby, then turned his gaze back to the snowman that the college student was pushing.

Although he didn't go to the pond to check, he had a general idea of ​​what had happened.

He had no formal training in sculpture, but he was an appraiser and had a fairly good understanding of sculpture.

On the surface, this snowman seems no different from before, with only the head still formed, but in reality, the snowball below that forms the body has been replaced.

Moreover, the snowman's head is a decoy; the college student actually made the head separately, and the purpose of the body is obvious.

The new body was made by recreating the children's snowman, which is why there are changes.

Salt was left in the surrounding snow, which helped the snowballs harden faster.

After looking at the three college students brought by the police, Gao Mo pulled the man with the mustache aside and whispered a few words to him.

"The key is the snowman?"

"You'll know once you try it. The murderer probably killed the person in the hotel, then took advantage of the blizzard to put the body into a snowball with holes in it beforehand, and rolled it down the slope to the pond. After the hot spring water melted the snowball, it would look like the person had unfortunately fallen into the water."

Fortunately, the blizzard was able to cover up the traces.

“But,” the man with the mustache whispered, “the police have already confirmed that the girl drowned…”

"It's very simple. Just pump the water from the pond to the hotel in advance. We should still be able to find traces of him dealing with the pond water."

Gao Mo patted the man with the mustache on the shoulder and looked again at the college students being questioned by Shan Cuncao.

The murderer was undoubtedly the long-faced young man who had been building snowmen outside.

At first, he thought the petite girl would be the one to make the move, since the conflict was clearly between the two women.

It turned out to be a male student.

Judging from the projected text and the undisguised adoration on his face, he's a total simp.

It seems his cultivation is still incomplete.

Forget that there are many murderers in this world who help others kill.

[Itabashi Kazuya's Skiing Guide] 4 stars

As Gao Mo was about to return to his hotel room, he suddenly stopped and looked at the long-faced youth with a slightly surprised expression.

Itabashi Ichiya was this person's name.

A student from the sculpture department of an art university found that his career path was skiing, and there was a lot of content, including competition experience, indicating that he was a skiing expert.

In comparison, the carving technique is rather difficult to evaluate.

It might be because he was distracted, but since the others didn't have any objections, it means he was just at that level.

Not only is he a sycophant, but he also imitates others by neglecting his duties.

(End of this chapter)