Conan’s Corpse Picker

   Chapter 88 Take another one and go

  Jiang Xia entered the next room, looked at the furnishings here, and then walked to the wall with a clear goal.

   An inconspicuous watch hangs on the wall.

   Jiang Xia raised his hand and moved the pointer above. When the minute and second hands turned to a certain angle, the wall in front suddenly unscrewed, revealing a dark passage behind.

   On the ground in the inner part of the passage, there was a pale shikigami.

   Jiang Xia walked to it, squatted down and poked it, Shikigami shrank in horror, and then pressed closer to the ground, like a firm sticker that was flattened.

   At this moment, the wall at the entrance swivels closed, and the passage is plunged into darkness again.

   Jiang Xia borrowed his night vision ability from his ghost. After he could see the surroundings clearly, he took out a knife, tore a piece of paper from the note, and folded a small paper bag.

   This secret passage is connected to the tower that has been on fire. After the fire that year, the scorched corpses of a dozen people were scattered everywhere. The fake "old lady" walked through the tunnel all the year round, the soles of her shoes were stained with ash, and occasionally some scorched ashes were taken elsewhere. As a result, the shikigami did not stay in one place all the time, but scattered in the passage.

   Jiang Xia took the knife and the paper bag, used the knife to pass through the shikigami on the ground, scratched the bricks under it, then put the scraped dirt into the paper bag, holding the paper bag and shaking it above the shikigami's head.

  The shikigami who was flat on the ground hesitantly raised a corner.

   Jiang Xia feels like there is drama.

   He took back the knife, pinched the shikigami, and threw it into the paper bag with lightning speed, forcibly moving.

The   shikigami seemed to be frightened, shivering and squirming into the depths of the paper bag, clinging to the ashes.

  This act of self-protection made Jiang Xia more convenient—there was no need to fold it by himself, the shikigami had already folded it and put it in the bag.

   Jiang Xia dug a ghost so smoothly. Although it has not been dealt with now and cannot sign a contract for the time being, it is definitely much safer to keep them in your own pockets than to leave them in the gloomy passage.

   Jiang Xia put away the paper bag.

   He originally planned to leave the passage first, return to the protagonist team without knowing it, and then use this existing shikigami to inquire about the obsessions of the shikigami. In this way, after solving the obsession, slip into the secret passage again, and you can pick up all the ghosts.

   But before walking back to the entrance, Jiang Xia raised his head and inadvertently caught a glimpse of a shikigami just a few meters further in.

   Jiang Xia paused.

  ... Thinking about it carefully, it doesn't take much time to scrape a little dirt.

   And it is rare to be so close to the wild shikigami now, so you can pick it up easily. Picking up ghosts now can reduce the workload of picking ghosts in the future...

   Thinking so, Jiang Xia took out the knife and paper bag again and walked towards the shikigami that was a little deeper.

   Grab one more.

   Grab it and leave.

  …

ten minutes later.

  Conan took out his notebook and carefully drew down the layout of the chess pieces in the courtyard.

  Amuro looked back from the window and glanced at Conan and his notebook. Since Conan is meditating with a pen in his mouth, it looks like he is in a daze, so Toru Amuro has not found anything unusual about this child so far, he just feels that Conan is more organized than ordinary children.

  Amuro Toru vaguely had several ideas for solving the puzzle at this time, but they were not clear enough, and he always felt that there was a little bit of information missing.

   At this time, he suddenly realized that no one had spoken to him for a long time, which was very abnormal-according to experience, shouldn't Jiang Xia take a swipe at this time, immediately decipher the message that the grandfather wanted to express, and then find out the location of the treasure.

   But now, Jiang Xia has been silent... Could it be that he is not good at solving puzzles? Or is it not a murder case this time, Jiang Xia is a little tired?

  An Shitou turned around and planned to ask Jiang Xia what she thought.

   Who knew that he glanced at the whole room, he only saw two high school girls in front of the window next to each other, who were discussing in a low voice which flower bushes were the most beautiful, Jiang Xia was not in the room.

   Amuro Toru: ... where are people?

  …

   It may be that luck is too good. Every time Jiang Xia finishes digging a ghost and intends to turn back and leave the secret passage, he can always see another ghost nearby.

   It doesn't take long to poach a shikigami. Jiang Xia couldn't help digging more. By the time he recovered from the joy of the harvest, it had been a long time.

   Jiang Xia glanced at his watch, then estimated the time he would spend after coming in, and fell into deep thought.

  ... After such a long time, I'm afraid it will be difficult to sneak back into the team without knowing it. Once someone else found out that they had left without permission and found a secret passage, 80% of them would follow curiously.

Jiang Xia remembered that there was a corpse that had been turned into a skeleton hidden in the secret passage. When the protagonist group, Mamiya Man and others saw the body, they would definitely be alert, attach great importance to the secret passage and pay close attention to the secret passage, and the police would also arrive later. ...

  When the time comes, if you imagine yourself digging up ghosts like you are now, there will be no such good or bad situation.

   Jiang Xia looked at the fresh wild shikigami in the paper bag, then looked at the shikigami waiting to be dug at his feet, and another shikigami waiting to be dug a few meters away, tangled for a moment, and squatted down silently.

  ... Anyway, it's too late to go back now, so let's just go back after picking up all the ghosts.

   And to measure it rationally, Jiang Xia found that there was nothing wrong with him disappearing for a while.

   After all, the only villain in this old castle is just an ordinary maid who has undergone plastic surgery to become an old lady and doesn’t even have a decent weapon. On the protagonist's side, there are two top thugs, Amuro Toru and Mao Lilan.

  Conan also has various black technology plug-ins. And Suzuki Sonoko, anyway, is a healthy female high school student. She usually exercises for fitness, but the fake old lady sits in a wheelchair all the year round and can't get sunlight...

   As long as it's not a sneak attack, the fake old lady can't be put down, and she will be counter-killed.

   Jiang Xia's conscience suddenly relaxed when he thought about it - his sudden departure from the team would not only not cause harm to his teammates, but instead would make them more vigilant, and then they could sense the plot that the old lady might take, which could be said to sacrifice herself and benefit the entire team. Did a good thing today.

  Jiang Xia nodded secretly, cut down the knife without any burden, and continued to dig the ghost under his feet.

   (end of this chapter)