The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Chapter 1008 Ten Thousand Reasons for Delaying Manuscript

Of course Tang Ze noticed Conan's gaze, but he didn't care.

Because tonight, Kitagawa Yusuke is not the only one who is in charge, but Kuroba Kaito will be here soon, and this identity will have to be handed over to him. It would be wrong to just sell such a big flaw like the gloves to the other party.

Seeing Takeyori Oikawa and Kogoro Mori beside him, Haruhito Kanhara put away the still kind smile on his lips and his face became serious.

"Wu Lai, I have something to tell you about tonight..."

"Sorry, father, can we talk later?" Iikawa Takerai interrupted him before he could say anything else, "I still need to take the detective to understand the situation in my studio. You know, things tonight are very urgent..."

Kanhara Haruhito, who was rejected by his son-in-law, looked at Maori Kogoro and others, then looked at the policemen coming in and out of the house, nodded silently, and didn't say much. He just raised his hand and patted Tang Ze on the back.

"Mr. Haruhito." Tang Ze was pushed forward secretly by him. He knew that he wanted him to go with him, but he still pretended not to understand him and looked back in confusion. "Didn't you say that you would go there during the live broadcast? In case the painting is not well protected, it will save some staff members from hard work."

Kanhara Haruhito looked at this silly child helplessly, and had to find an excuse: "...I heard that you helped your teacher arrange an art exhibition."

"Yes."

"Well, it seems to have been arranged quite well. Not only did it end successfully, but it also prevented several thefts."

"That's true, although it was actually a senior brother who wanted to tamper with the painting..."

"In short, you may have more experience in this area than many people here. I would like you to go and take a look together."

Things have come to this point, even though Takeyori Iikawa was not very happy about it, he couldn't say anything to refuse and could only nod.

Having successfully pushed the young man at hand into the detective team, Haruhito Kanhara did not make any other requests. He just looked at Takeyori Iikawa, then walked away silently and went to communicate with the police in the hall.

"My father-in-law hasn't picked up a paintbrush for ten years, so he is nervous about this kind of thing. I still have great confidence in you, Detective Mori." After sending away Haruhito Kanhara, Takeyori Iikawa put on a smile again.

He didn't take Kitagawa Yusuke's situation too seriously.

On the one hand, this is a young man who doesn't seem to be thinking in the right way. On the other hand, Kisaragi Fengshui and Kanhara Haruhito are not that close friends, so he won't cause any obstacles to his plans.

On the way to the studio, Mori and his group unexpectedly met an acquaintance and chatted with Kitagawa Yusuke for a few words.

"I didn't expect to invite you to be a guest on the live broadcast. Does your teacher have a good relationship with them?" Mao Lilan asked in a low voice.

"Not bad." Tang Ze gave an accurate evaluation, "After all, we are all of the same generation and about the same age. However, the main reason for inviting me should be because I am young."

Kanhara Haruhito and Kisaragi Minemizu are not very familiar with each other, especially after the former retired from the painting world ten years ago due to injury.

Although Ruyue Fengshui is old, his creative will has not been exhausted. His output is not much inferior to that of young painters. Naturally, he is not very familiar with his colleagues who have retired and turned to actively manage their personal networks and promote younger generations.

The reason why we thought of inviting Yusuke Kitagawa was naturally the suggestion from the TV station.

The media in Tokyo are really good at generating traffic. Kitagawa Yusuke is young, has a good photogenic image, and is well-known among both young people and professionals because of his awards. He is indeed a professional painter and a very good candidate.

"So you wore gloves today?" Conan couldn't help but ask this question.

He had never paid special attention to Kitagawa Yusuke's hands in the past, but he had seen traces of paint on his hands several times when he was still able to remember.

This shows that he really didn't wear gloves when he was painting, and Conan still remembered his first impression of him as someone who was dressed simply and poorly. Today, when he suddenly saw him dressed so gorgeously, he was a little overwhelmed.

Tang Ze glanced at him, slowly pinched the glove on his right hand, and slowly pulled the simple white cotton glove off his hand.

Conan didn't expect that the other party would start taking off his gloves just after he mentioned it, and he felt inexplicably nervous.

He stared at the hand that was slowly emerging.

The glove was torn off little by little, revealing... a red hand.

"…What is this?" Conan's heart suddenly died. No, it suddenly dropped. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch twice.

"I've been helping my teacher grind pigments lately, and there are a lot of dyes that are difficult to clean." Tang Ze gave a half-truthful explanation, "It wouldn't look good if I were on camera. And it's more serious to wear gloves when touching paintings."

It is indeed a very reasonable explanation.

For a moment, Conan couldn't think of any loopholes, so he could only nod and accept his answer.

"Kitagawa-kun is indeed an excellent junior. It would be a good idea to ask him to come and help check on the preparations in the studio." Oikawa Takeyori laughed, trying to bring the atmosphere back to a casual chat state.

He led a few people into the studio where three or four policemen were standing at the door.

Although they are not in the same style, Takeyori Ishikawa's studio does use a similar idea to Minemizu Kisaragi's studio.

There are many old works hanging on the wall. The room is very spacious and has various painting supplies for practice. There are many picture frames piled up in the corner.

The most important thing is the three huge windows on the wall.

Although they are not floor-to-ceiling windows, they are large windows about 2 meters high. Excluding the height of the windowsill below, they are almost touching the ceiling. While trying not to affect the architectural style, they ensure the openness of the view to the maximum extent.

"It's so beautiful." Mao Lilan looked around the studio, then looked at the scenery outside the window, and couldn't help but sigh.

Kogoro Mori also cast his gaze toward the forest outside the window, watching the dark treetops swaying like waves in the wind. He raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

How could it not be beautiful? This is a large villa built directly in Okutama.

This is one of the few pure natural landscape areas near Tokyo. If a landscape painter builds a house here, it would be similar to Kisaragi Minemi building his home opposite Mount Fuji.

"The height difference here is quite big." Conan moved to the windowsill and looked down.

The villa is built on a steep hillside, with one side almost entirely supported by the structure below, like a bridge, completely suspended in the air.

Tang Ze's comment on this method of forcibly shooting spectacular scenes is that it is like something that a player of a business game would do, ignoring the terrain and insisting on building a house on the top of a mountain.

"The situation down there has also been controlled by the police." Mao Lilan was also looking down and saw the fully armed rangers below at a glance.

Everyone knows that Kaito Kidd can use a hang glider, so it is only natural that all the windows have been locked.

"Oh, so, this is the painting..."

After observing the environment, Kogoro Mouri's attention was quickly attracted by the easel placed in the middle of the room.

On the wooden easel, a red curtain hung, covering the area where the drawing board was placed and most of the easel. It was obviously the most important target tonight.

"Yes, this is the work I will announce soon, "Aoarai." Oikawa Takeyori nodded in agreement.

"I remember your previous work..." Kogoro Mouri blinked.

"The market value at the time of publication was around 70 to 80 million yen, and the previous one was more expensive." Knowing what Maori Kogoro was focusing on, Karasawa continued, "Now, it may be more than that in the collector's market."

"Because Mr. Oikawa has become more famous?" Mao Lilan guessed.

"No, it's because Mr. Ishikawa's paintings are in sets." Tang Ze said calmly, "For example, Mr. Kisaragi's work with the highest transaction price is a set of consecutive works about the changes of Mount Fuji at dawn and dusk. If Mr. Ishikawa sold them all at once instead of reselling them one by one, it is estimated that there will be a higher premium."

Oikawa Takeyori glanced at him and said nothing.

It’s not that what Kitagawa Yusuke said was wrong, it’s that what he said was a little too right and hit the nail on the head.

Generally speaking, as long as it is not a fake set that is forcibly put together by collectors, as long as it is a set of works with a complete theme style designed by the artist himself out of his own will, it will receive higher recognition in the market.

A set of paintings, even if sold separately, will have a premium because of their creative context. This is the value of this "Qinglan".

This is also the fundamental reason behind Takeyori Iikawa's series of actions.

In order to ensure that his son-in-law's work would be recognized by the market as much as possible, Haruhito Kanhara promised that the series was not yet completed and there would be a next work when he sold the previous work.

Even though it was a private conversation, this rumor quickly spread in the collecting community, so before a single move was made on Qinglan, the price had already been estimated to be very high.

"Oh, then let me see it first..." Upon hearing this, Kogoro Mouri immediately became interested. He reached out and grabbed a corner of the curtain, ready to take a look at the work below.

"Hey, Detective Mori, this won't work." Oikawa Takeyori grabbed his wrist and stopped him, "I'm not used to showing unfinished paintings to others."

"But, isn't it just one signature missing? Your definition of completion is so strict?" Kogoro Mouri was stunned and glanced at Kitagawa Yusuke who was standing not far away.

"Well, there are indeed some details that can be corrected." Oikawa Takeyori seemed to realize the contradiction in this sentence and tried to explain, "Anyway, I just hope that the painting can be shown to others in its complete form."

"Oh, oh..." Kogoro Mouri let go of his hand, with a very subtle expression on his face.

He understood the principle. It seemed that oil paintings could be retouched temporarily, and it was not all about adding strokes. It might also be necessary to smear some things.

Although, in his impression, this kind of painting has to be left dry, right?

What time is it now? The unveiling will be at 8pm. The unveiling guests are all here, but your painting is not finished yet. Is that acceptable?

"That's normal." Tang Ze took over the conversation, "When we were setting up the exhibition, one of our senior brothers had already hung his paintings on the wall, and he even modified the pictures in the exhibition hall overnight before the isolation fence was put up. Although I'm not that type of painter, maybe Mr. Oikawa is."

"Is that so?" Kogoro Mori looked as if he had learned something new, and his expression was very subtle when he looked at Takeyori Oikawa.

This masterpiece, which took so long to create, was still being revised an hour before it was released.

What is this, a slide tackle to get on base, right?

But the problem is that Kitagawa Yusuke’s senior brother may just be an unknown little-known painter.

Kisaragi Minemizu has only been recommending Kitagawa Yusuke now, but he once had a very large group of disciples, and not all of them were famous. There were also many people like the Tokiwa family who were just enthusiasts of enlightenment learning.

Oikawa Takeyori is different. He has been famous for a long time and his paintings can be sold at high prices...

Under the gazes of several people, Takeyori Ishikawa's eyes twitched again, but he didn't know how to refute this evaluation.

How else could he get away with this matter except acknowledging the label?

"But..." Seeing that everyone seemed to have dispelled their doubts, Tang Ze took another step forward and grabbed the curtain himself.

Ishikawa Takeyori's expression, which had just relaxed, suddenly tensed again, and he quickly reached out and grabbed the fluttering cuffs of his kimono, trying to stop the other person's actions.

But how could a middle-aged painter be able to resist Tang Ze today?

Not only did he grab the curtain with his wrist without stopping, but he also almost pulled down Takeyori Iikawa who was pulling his sleeve.

The next second, under the nervous and collapsed gaze of Takeyori Ishikawa, he directly lifted the curtain on the easel.

…revealing the empty easel underneath.

"Huh?" Ran Mouri, who had just thought that Kitagawa Yusuke was a little too much, was stunned when she saw this unexpected scene.

"But there's no painting here at all." Tang Ze finished the second half of the sentence calmly, "What is this for? Is this also an anti-theft measure against Kaito Kidd?"

As he spoke, he shifted his gaze to the fishing line dangling in front of him and raised an eyebrow.

This is also a question that Tang Ze is quite confused about.

Yes, yes, yes, the fishing line can hang the canvas here in mid-air, creating the illusion that there is something underneath, but Kogoro Mouri has already grabbed the edge and tried to lift it up.

Can't you tell there's an empty easel underneath? Isn't that a bit of a disregard for the laws of physics?

Covering something is not the same as simply using fishing line to stretch the curtain. Is the person a fool or a blind person?

"Could it be that Mr. Oikawa has discussed with the police and hidden the painting first?" Maori Kogoro looked at the canvas in Kitagawa Yusuke's hand, then looked at the empty easel in front of him, and commented dryly, "Inspector Nakamori has improved..."

Not much though.

You are playing this kind of trick with a thief who is proficient in magic tricks. Who are you looking down on...

"This..." The corners of Takera Ikawa's mouth twitched a few times.

Before he could use his quick wit to come up with a good idea, the door of the studio was banged open.

"What do you mean by agreed upon? How come I didn't know that the painting was not there?!" Nakamori Ginzo's loud voice came through.

"So..." Ran Mouri looked blankly at Takeyori Iikawa who had an ugly expression on his face.

Perhaps because of the discussion about lying on the wall and modifying the painting the day before the opening, Mao Lilan's thoughts naturally turned in this direction, and she quickly interpreted the stiffness on Takera Ishikawa's face after being exposed as another direction.

So, it wasn't a slide tackle at all, but it was not finished at all, so after receiving the notice, did you just take the opportunity to cancel it?

Then Oikawa Takerai has to thank Kaito Kid. There are really ten thousand ways to delay the submission of manuscripts. In order not to submit the manuscripts, he has also tried very hard...

"So the painting must have been taken to another place by Kaito Kid!" Nakamori Ginzo continued, "He has moved it away, so when we wait until 8 o'clock, we will only be able to see an empty studio! Is even the preview time fake this time? Damn, cunning guy!"

"……what?"