Model worker and his little darling

Seeing Sonoko lost in her beautiful fantasy, Ran smiled and said, "I understand. This way, you can meet Makoto Kyogoku."

To everyone's surprise, there were far too many people who shared Sonoko's thoughts.

Sonoko was dumbfounded when she saw the maple tree in front of her covered with red handkerchiefs.

"How could this happen? I already messaged Ah Zhen, saying I'd wait for you under the red maple leaves in winter. Now all the trees here are tied with red handkerchiefs, so where should Ah Zhen wait for me?"

Hearing Sonoko's concerns, Conan thought of Makoto Kyogoku, who was obsessed with karate. The question was whether he would associate the sight of the autumn leaves with this place.

Just as I was about to speak, Sonoko shoved her handbag at me.

"There's no other way. I'm going to take down all the red handkerchiefs on this mountain. This matter is related to the fate of Ah Zhen and me."

Ran was a little stunned after hearing Sonoko's bold words, "Sonoko... Sonoko..."

Just as Sonoko was about to begin her crazy act, a man wearing a hat suddenly appeared and said, "I'm sorry, this place is like this because of me."

Upon hearing this, Sonoko looked at the newcomer with admiration, "You wouldn't happen to be the original author of Winter Maple Leaf, would you? I'm a loyal fan of yours."

The man quickly waved his hand, "No, I'm a staff member of the TV series. I'm sorry to disappoint you."

After a brief exchange, the man looked at Sonoko and said, "Could you do me a favor? There's a guestbook in the lobby of the Akagi Hotel in front of the station. Just write, 'I've found the tree. Please come to the rock that appeared in the last scene of the play.' By the way, my name is HODUMI. They'll understand if you write it like that."

After descending the mountain, Sonoko kept her promise and wrote a message for the man in the guestbook.

In the restaurant, Sonoko listlessly put down her chopsticks. "I think it's better to go back."

Xiaolan asked, confused, "Where should we go?"

“Over there just now,” Sonoko said, taking out a red handkerchief. “Go over there and tie this handkerchief.”

Conan silently rolled his eyes; the young lady's old habit of being capricious had resurfaced.

Seeing Sonoko's serious expression, Ran accompanied her up the mountain again.

On the way, Conan found the notebook that had fallen on the ground, which he had seen on the man he had just encountered. Opening it, he saw bloodstains on the date April 1st, which must have been from a bloodstained finger.

Conan felt the notebook was wet to the touch. He opened his hand and saw blood! He was instantly terrified, and a terrible thought flashed through his mind: the man must have met with misfortune. So he immediately began searching for the man in the forest.

The man was quickly found lying in the forest, with a knife wound to the abdomen and a dagger stuck in his chest.

"what--"

Two piercing screams echoed through the forest; it was Sonoko and Ran who had followed them.

After examining the body, Conan found that it was still warm and there was dirt under its fingernails, indicating that the time of death in the secret passage should not have been more than 30 minutes.

The wind blew, and the maple leaves rustled.

Looking around, Conan's expression turned serious. There were people here, and not just one or two. Looking at the figures that had appeared, Conan felt inexplicably that they were familiar.

Hidden in the tree, Pingqing smiled. Conan was as perceptive as ever.

The police arrived quickly.

"I thought it was someone else, but it was you guys who discovered the body." As he spoke, the old acquaintance Yamamura Misao's expression began to turn strange. "You guys didn't do something that would incur divine retribution, did you?"

Sonoko was speechless. "What do you mean by this?"

"For example, doing somersaults in a Buddhist temple, or kicking a tombstone."

After his antics, Yamamura Misao remembered his job and pointed to the corpse, "So, do you know the people over there?"

Sonoko and Ran nodded and began to recount their afternoon's experience.

Upon hearing about the drama "Winter Maple Leaves," Yamamura Misao once again veered off-topic, launching into a lengthy discussion about the series, claiming it was his favorite.

Seeing Yamamura Misao's appearance, Conan sighed. Why did this unreliable police officer have to come? Fortunately, Yamamura Misao eventually steered the conversation back to the case.

After searching the scene, forensic personnel discovered, in addition to the clues that Conan had found immediately, an unattended tent was also found not far away.

Seeing this, Conan walked over to the forensic personnel and asked, "Are there any other clues? Like, there are a lot of suspicious people around, or something like that."

"No, all we found was a tent."

Upon hearing this, Conan frowned. Who exactly was the person hiding in the darkness?

The group arrived at the Red Tree Hotel and, after inquiring with the owner, finally selected three guests who checked in that morning.

A young man with a foul tone, an elderly man wearing glasses, and a foreigner with a stiff accent.

Have you seen the TV series 'Winter Maple Leaves'?

All three denied it, but Yamamura Misao didn't believe them. He took out his phone to show them, but unexpectedly opened a program of the European Karate Championship.

"At the age of 18, he set a record of 400 undefeated fights, the proud and aloof Fist Saint—Kyogoku Makoto!"

Sonoko snatched it away and started swooning over the photo of Makoto Kyogoku.

Just then, a police officer walked in. "Officer Yamamura, we've already questioned the television production company, and they said there's no one named HODUMI in the crew. However, I still asked them for a photocopy of the list."

"Is this list really without problems? It seems like there are dates mixed in."

Conan, who was eavesdropping nearby, suddenly had a flash of inspiration when he heard the date and figured something out. He ran alone into the forest and dug up a skeleton under a tree with a red handkerchief tied to it.

Noticing the ground was still soft to the touch, Conan smiled. This proved that Mr. Hodomi had dug before meeting the culprit. He then looked up at the red handkerchief fluttering in the wind; the red maple leaves of winter were the grave marker for these bones.

Suddenly, the phone rang. Conan pursed his lips, worried that Ran had made him anxious again.

"Where are you?"

"I found some clues in the forest, Ran. Can you let Sonoko answer the phone?"

Upon hearing this, Ran handed the phone to Sonoko. Looking at the dark sky outside the window, she began to worry about Conan's safety, who always seemed to lose his temper when faced with a murder case.

After hanging up the phone, Conan nimbly climbed up the tree, waiting for the culprit to take the bait.

Not long after, a dark figure came to the tree. Looking at the unearthed skeleton, the person laughed happily twice.

“You should be even happier, Mr. Miyakushi Tatsuzo! Although I don’t know who these people who have turned into bones are, it was you who killed them and buried them here. You even tied a red handkerchief as a marker so you could move them immediately if anything happened.”