Model worker and his little darling

“Detective Mouri will probably be recognized immediately. Please wait here and see if the culprit continues to make contact. Hirai and Conan can come with us.”

Ping Qing touched his face. He had been in the newspapers before, so why was he so unrecognizable?

The group's first stop was Rokuta's house. Because of his love for music, Sato immediately became a music fan and grabbed Takagi's arm.

"Actually, we're both in a band, but lately the lyrics he writes just don't match the music I compose."

Conan tugged at Heikichi's clothes, "My brother and I also like music, so we came here specifically to ask you for advice, big brother."

Upon hearing this, Pingqing glanced at Conan.

Do you like music?

Remember when Su Dai invited Ran and the others to a karaoke bar, but after hearing Conan's singing, she felt terrible when she got back?

He complained to him and Margot for a long time with a bitter face, saying that the live version was much more damaging than the audio on the phone. At the time, he even mocked Su Dai for asking for trouble.

And so, the group successfully entered the Rokuta household.

The room was small and filled with musical instruments and lottery tickets.

Picking up the lottery ticket on the table and looking at it, Masafumi Emoto sighed, "Since you have money to buy these kinds of things, why don't you just move to a nicer place? There might be some flyers advertising good houses in your overflowing mailbox."

After walking around for a while, the group arrived at their second stop, Yinwu's house.

Yinwu is a fat otaku whose house is filled with collections, all kinds of figurines.

Takagi pursed her lips; it looked exactly like Chiba's room.

Sato, a self-proclaimed figure enthusiast, looked at Hikiya with starry eyes and exclaimed, "Wow, I love figures so much, I'm so touched!"

Yinwu blushed and scratched her head. "I'm so happy to be praised like this by such a beautiful character like you. I should have gone to the matchmaking event."

Next, Hikiya chatted with Masafumi Emoto about the Kamen Rider cards, noting that the limited-edition, out-of-print card was missing from the entire set.

Hearing their conversation, Pingqing suddenly realized that this industry seemed to be very profitable.

The group's final stop was at Sazuka's house.

Looking at the old banknotes in Sazuka's collection, Sato looked at Sazuka with admiration, "Wow, that's amazing! I've always loved old banknotes, this is so touching."

Seeing that Sato had used the same reason all the way, Conan's half-moon eyes made it sound rather far-fetched.

Sazuka took out the banknotes he had specially collected, and Takagi was shocked. "The serial numbers are all 7s!"

Seeing Sazuka's smug expression, Masafumi Emoto's words brought him back to reality.

"But then again, it's because you're so obsessed with collecting rare banknotes that even when you have to borrow money that your wife ran away."

Upon hearing this, Zuozuka scratched his head sheepishly.

After visiting the three families, the group finally began their journey home.

"That's right, none of the three of them are suspicious at all."

Seeing that Takagi was still suspicious of his friend, Emoto Masashi was speechless. "Did you see Kota in the three of their rooms? Maybe the voice Kota heard only sounded a little like me."

Just then, Aya Emoto called. She remembered that Kota had once said that he had seen a baseball broadcast at a man's house, and it was a boring game.

Sato immediately decided to send someone to keep an eye on the three of them, and then check the baseball schedule for the day.

Upon hearing Sato's arrangement, Emoto Masafumi roared angrily, "You said you'd send someone to monitor us? Is it really necessary to go to such lengths? Maybe it really is just a prank. Perhaps Kota will be back soon."

The hot-tempered Sato shouted back, "What nonsense are you talking about? The child has been kidnapped. How can you just treat this as a prank?"

Pingqing shook his head. With an older brother like that, Haotai was truly miserable.

"Mr. Emoto, you're so agitated. You don't know which of those three people took your brother away, do you? You don't care about your own brother, but you're desperately protecting the murderer who hurt him. It's truly your brother's misfortune to have a brother like you."

Upon hearing what Hirakiyo said, Sato and Takagi's sharp gazes shot towards Emoto Masafumi, "Mr. Emoto!"

Jiang Bensheng angrily rushed up to Ping Qing, "What nonsense are you spouting? No one found Kota in their house, so what makes you think they're the murderers?"

Taira shrugged and gave Emoto Masafumi a meaningful look.

Emoto Masafumi's unusual behavior aroused the suspicion of Sato and Conan.

Seeing this, Sato walked over to Hirakiyo and asked softly, "Hirakiyo, have you discovered anything else?"

"Not yet. Judging from Masafumi Emoto's reaction, he probably knows something. The murderer should be among those three people."

Sato nodded, and Conan, who was standing next to him, also felt that there was something wrong with Masafumi Emoto.

Back at the Emoto residence, Takagi quickly uncovered three suspicious baseball matches. However, all three matches were quite exciting and had nothing to do with the boring games Kota had described.

Meanwhile, at noon, another channel broadcast a "highlights of baseball games".

Unable to find the relevant match, Sato frowned. "Didn't Kota really say what time he went to that man's house?"

Jiang Bencai nodded. "It seems that the man strongly requested that he not say anything, like the card he accepted, and being taken to that person's house. We had a lot of trouble getting those things out of him."

Ping Qing raised an eyebrow. "Could the cake in that man's house really brainwash him?"

If you ask him, just drag him out and beat him up, then see if he'll talk.

Conan rolled his eyes at Hirai, who was starting to act silly again.

After some questioning, all three suspects were ruled out.

"Could the ball game that Kota saw be a scene from a movie or TV series?"

Upon hearing Ran's guess, Takagi immediately began investigating.

"The movies or TV series that day were all love stories, such as 'Affairs Are Wonderful,' 'The Noble Couple,' 'The Lovers Who Passed By,' 'The Two Separated,' and 'The Spring That Was Too Short.'"

As he spoke, Takagi broke out in a cold sweat.

"Cough cough..."

Those nearby couldn't help but laugh out loud; these TV dramas were so timely. They certainly had nothing to do with baseball, but they were inextricably linked to Takagi's life.

Hearing these programs, Sato couldn't help himself.

"I was only attracted by the food, I had no idea it was a social event, which is different from some other people."

Takagi was sweating profusely. "No, I..."

Before Takagi could explain, Sato slammed his hand on the table.

"Also, what are you trying to do dressed like that? Isn't that a bit too much of a show-off?"

Hearing this, Takagi, not to be outdone, mustered her courage and pointed at Sato, "Officer Sato is the one who should be wearing makeup. If you have nothing to do, why are you putting on makeup?"

Sato blushed. "This...this was Yumi who insisted I do my makeup."

"Me too, it was Chiba who dragged me there. Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway."

Hearing Takagi's words, Sato's eyes gradually turned dangerous. "Is that so?"

Pingqing held up his phone, watching with great interest.

Xiao Lan curiously leaned closer. "Pingqing-ge, what are you trying to do?"

"When they get married, I want to put this video on the big screen and play it in a mixed format. It's a video that witnesses their love."

Xiao Lan's eyes widened. This was a bit too much.

Conan, on the other hand, stiffly turned his neck toward Hirai.

If he remembered correctly, Pingqing had taken a lot of unflattering photos of him, as well as all sorts of strange ones. If Pingqing were to release those photos in public...

Thinking of this, Conan pounced on him, hugged Hirai's leg, and gave him a sweet smile.

"Brother Pingqing..."

Ping Qing was so frightened that his hands trembled, then he looked at Conan with disgust, "What's wrong?"

Conan tugged at Heikichi's clothes, and Heikichi had no choice but to squat down next to Conan.

"Brother Pingqing, you didn't show my photo to anyone else, did you?"

Upon hearing this, Ping Qing felt a little guilty.

When his sister saw that he had Miyano Akemi's recordings, she guessed that he had something good. So she gave him a lot of things, and he generously showed off all sorts of embarrassing photos of Conan.

"What kind of person do you take me for? I only shared it with Hattori, and you already know all that."

Seeing how certain Hirai was, Conan was still a little skeptical. "Really?"

Pingqing glanced at Xiaoran beside him and gave her a mischievous smile. "Conan, you're not afraid that I'll show Xiaoran the photos of you cheating on me, are you?"

Conan: ...

What did he hear?

cheating?

She then glared fiercely at Ping Qing, "I didn't cheat on you, don't try to frame an innocent person like that."

Pingqing pointed to a photo and looked at Conan smugly, "I have evidence, guess how much more I have?"

Conan reached for his phone to delete the photos.

Pingqing stood up abruptly, waved his phone at Conan, and said, "It's not your fault that you're too small."

Conan glared at Hirai, thinking, "This guy is shameless."

Seeing that Hirai and Conan were having a commotion, Sato and Takagi were still arguing, and the family members Emoto Masafumi and Emoto Aya were also distracted.

The uncle was speechless. Isn't the most important thing right now to rescue the kidnapped Kota?

If these people keep causing trouble like this, the child will be lost.

"Ahem... Stop fooling around."

The man forcefully drew their attention back to Takagi, asking, "Officer Takagi, have you made any new discoveries?"

Suddenly, Sato received a call from Inspector Megure, asking about the current situation.

Just then, Kota returned on his own.

Jiang Bencai quickly put his arm around Kota and checked him over. "Kota, are you hurt anywhere?"

"I'm fine. I was in that uncle's car last time, and I fell asleep because I was so sleepy."

"Little brother, where does that person live?"

When Sato asked him about it, Kota said that he and that uncle had agreed not to tell anyone.

Seeing that Sato still wanted to press him for answers, Masafumi Emoto interrupted him, "I think we should just let it go. He's back safe and sound. I think it must have been one of my friends playing a prank, but they went too far."