Jiang Xia turned his head and, as expected, found that Conan had very accurately located the body in the Exhibit Hall.
He even shone his flashlight on it.
The two girls standing outside the Exhibit Hall froze simultaneously as they watched the body suddenly illuminated by the flashlight.
A second later, two intertwined screams echoed through the hallway, a high-pitched shriek that pierced the air, more ear-splitting than a Police siren.
Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko huddled together, looking at Jiang Xia, remembering the blood on him, and stammered, "You, you, you..."
Jiang Xia said, "I didn't kill him."
The two girls opposite them clutched their chests, simultaneously letting out a sigh of relief. "Oh, we also thought..."
Before they could fully relax, Jiang Xia suddenly looked at them and mused, "You'd believe me just because I said so?"
Mouri Ran: "..."
Suzuki Sonoko: "..."
This sounded too much like a line from a good guy turning villain.
Two pairs of terrified eyes darted back to Jiang Xia: "!"
"It wasn't me," Jiang Xia repeated patiently.
However, this time, Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko still looked horrified, with a hint of suspicion.
Jiang Xia observed them, finding his two classmates' reactions quite interesting.
Sure enough, the more people are deceived, the more their guard goes up...
Jiang Xia, having had his fun, softened his tone. "My previous 'You'd believe me just because I said so?' was actually just a simple question..."
Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko: "..."
The two pure and kind female classmates, seeing Jiang Xia's "innocent" expression, couldn't help but quietly reflect.
...Indeed. Thinking back carefully, shouldn't Jiang Xia's previous 'You'd believe me just because I said so?' be interpreted as 'You'd believe me just because I said so? You trust me that much? How touching' or something similar?!
Thinking of this, Suzuki Sonoko cleared her throat to cover her tracks, walked back to her original spot, grabbed Jiang Xia's hand, shook it vigorously, and said firmly:
"That was just a joke! Of course, we trust you very much."
...Ah, this hand really feels good to touch.
And it wasn't what she had thought before.
It wasn't cold.
It felt quite warm when held, perhaps it could double as a hand warmer in winter.
At the entrance of the Exhibit Hall, while Suzuki Sonoko was engrossed in shaking hands with Jiang Xia.
Conan walked back from beside the body.
He first reminded Mouri Ran to call the Police, then looked at Jiang Xia:
"We believe you didn't kill him, but you are, after all, the first person to discover the body, so the Police will prioritize suspecting you. You should carefully recall your schedule for today, preferably find an alibi, and also remember if you saw any suspicious individuals on your way here."
Conan didn't blindly trust Jiang Xia's character.
It was just that the body in the Exhibit Hall was in such a gruesome state, with blood splattered everywhere.
In other words, if Jiang Xia had killed him recently, there's no way Jiang Xia would be this clean.
Furthermore, Conan had seen Jiang Xia hit people before—he used a stick to hit them one by one, like playing whack-a-mole at an arcade.
But an act like this, imitating an oil painting and nailing someone to a wall... it's very ritualistic and quite complex.
It didn't look like Jiang Xia's style at all.
Therefore, Conan felt that the truth was probably that Jiang Xia passed by here, and for some reason, walked into the Exhibit Hall to take a look, then accidentally stepped in blood.
As for why Jiang Xia didn't turn on the lights, didn't scream, didn't call the Police...
...Perhaps it had something to do with his personality.
Everyone's reaction when seeing a body is different.
Conan also couldn't imagine Jiang Xia screaming and fleeing from the Exhibit Hall.
...Thinking about it this way, Jiang Xia calmly walking out of the Exhibit Hall just now seemed quite reasonable.
Moreover, theoretically speaking, Jiang Xia's state was already... not very stable. In short, some abnormal behaviors, when attributed to him, actually seemed quite reasonable.
Conan: "..." Speaking of which, he wondered if Jiang Xia actually went to see a doctor at the psychiatry department when he took more than ten days of sick leave and skipped more than ten days of classes each month.
Thinking of this, Conan couldn't help but review Jiang Xia's daily life as he had observed it: it seemed to be a consistent pattern of speeding, hitting people, and visiting museums...
Conan thought with a heavy heart that the answer was probably no.
The museum was not far from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
The High School Student stood at the entrance of the Hell Exhibit Hall, waiting for the Police. Four people were either scared, reasoning ing, or wanting to pick up ghosts... It wasn't long before the Police arrived.
Inside the Hell Exhibit Hall.
The large ceiling lights were turned on, instantly illuminating the room.
Inspector Megure and the forensic officers entered the hall together to search for clues, and he dispatched several subordinates to question witnesses about the situation.
Officer Sato accepted the order and walked out, scanning the four individuals, her gaze stopping on Jiang Xia's back.
Based on her experience, the probability of the killer being among the first discoverers of the body was not low.
Compared to the two pale-faced High School Student who were shy and dared not look at the body, and the Elementary School Student who wasn't even as tall as Sato's leg, Jiang Xia's suspicion immediately climbed sharply.
However, upon getting closer, Jiang Xia turned around, and Officer Sato saw his front, immediately startled.
...This person, she had just seen him in the office not long ago.
Sato Miwako, although not a forensic officer, had been involved in so many murder cases that she had gained some experience.
—She could roughly tell how long the body had been dead.
And at this moment, according to her rough judgment... President Nakamoto had died while Jiang Xia was sitting in their office reporting a case.
...It seems this time, the killer is not among the first wave of people to discover the body?
The Police quickly completed their questioning.
However, unfortunately, the witnesses were unable to provide many clues.
But soon, Inspector Megure was pleasantly surprised to discover that in the Hell Exhibit Hall, there was a surveillance camera directly facing the crime scene.
Inspector Megure happily waved his hand, "Go get the surveillance footage!"
Five minutes later.
Upon seeing the surveillance footage.
Inspector Megure was no longer happy.
The surveillance indeed captured the murder process.
But it failed to capture the killer's face—the killer was wearing a set of Western knight armor with an iron mask that completely covered their face.
While the Police were sighing and looking at the surveillance.
Beside them, Jiang Xia quietly fiddled with his phone.
There was a video recording inside, which he had just secretly filmed.
—Just now, Director Ochiai of this Exhibit Hall, while everyone else was watching the surveillance, squatted down pretending to tie his shoelaces.
During this time, the white-bearded Old Curator, using the action of "squatting down," secretly replaced a broken pen that President Nakamoto had used before his death, which couldn't write, with an intact pen.
This was part of Director Ochiai's murder plan.
A few hours ago, he put on knight armor to conceal his identity and deliberately killed the person under the camera. During this process, the Old Curator did not kill President Nakamoto with one blow, but left him some leeway—President Nakamoto, indeed, realized he couldn't survive during the attack, so he conveniently grabbed a piece of paper from a nearby table and picked up a pen also placed there, intending to secretly write down the killer's name.
However, that piece of paper was actually placed there by the Old Curator beforehand. On the paper, another employee's name had already been written in advance.
Moreover, the pen in President Nakamoto's hand was broken and couldn't write at all.
The Hell Exhibit Hall was dimly lit, and the camera could not distinguish such small differences.
Therefore, as long as Director Ochiai promptly replaced the broken pen used by President Nakamoto with a normal, working pen afterwards.
Combined, the whole thing would become "President Nakamoto, before his death, secretly wrote down the killer's name on a note while the killer was not paying attention."
But in reality, that name was just an employee who was being framed.
While the Police were contemplating the surveillance.
Jiang Xia skipped all the deduction steps and walked over to the Old Curator.
Director Ochiai was standing with his hands behind his back, deeply gazing at the oil painting on the wall—gazing at the oil painting opposite the body, which depicted a knight killing a demon but getting splattered with filthy blood.
In the Director's eyes, the newly arrived President Nakamoto was untrustworthy—he had reportedly promised to keep the museum open after buying it. Yet now, he suddenly wanted to demolish the museum and rebuild it into a restaurant.
So Director Ochiai did not regret killing him: he was punishing this fellow, Nakamoto, who defiled art.
Therefore, the Director felt that the knight covered in blood in the oil painting was very similar to his own situation.
—Handsome, tragic, sacrificing everything just to purge evil.
...A true man should be like this.
Just as he was lamenting, a faint voice suddenly drifted over:
"The righteous knight subdued the demon, but at the same time, he himself was tainted by evil blood... Is that what you're thinking?"
Director Ochiai: "!"
He was startled and sharply turned to look beside him.
He saw that the young man who had first discovered the body had walked up beside him at some point.
...Director Ochiai remembered Jiang Xia's words, feeling that he had some hidden meaning, and stiffened for a few seconds out of guilt.
A moment later, he twirled his waist-length beard, forcing himself to calm down.
—He must have been overthinking.
This perfect murder plan could not be easily seen through.
This kid in front of him was probably just simply talking about the oil painting.
However, just as Director Ochiai had comforted himself with this thought.
The next second, Jiang Xia's topic completely deviated from the oil painting.
Jiang Xia suddenly said in a low voice, "You should know, right, that when signing a land sales contract, the seller can place restrictions on the subsequent use of the land—for example, by writing 'continue to operate as a museum, not to be used for other purposes' into the contract."
Director Ochiai was startled.
Jiang Xia continued, "It's just that such restrictions would deter many buyers. In other words, once restrictive clauses are added to the contract, this land would become very difficult to sell.
"—Now it seems your former boss did not include the agreement to 'restrict land use' in the contract.
"Promises not written into the contract cannot be trusted; even a rookie who has only been employed for a few months knows this, let alone your former boss..."
Jiang Xia said this, then looked up at the Director, hesitating to speak: "Speaking of which, you are already quite old, having worked in the workplace for decades. And you're a director, you must have signed many contracts usually—you wouldn't have never thought of this point, would you? Surely not?"
Conan, who had been quietly eavesdropping nearby for a long time: "..."
Although he didn't quite understand the preceding events... from what Jiang Xia said, he seemed to suspect that the Director was the killer.
...Why?
Also, how did Jiang Xia know so much about the museum's affairs?
Could it be that the young woman at the ticket booth told him?
