One of the most frequent requests received by the Detective Agency is “finding lost pets.”
These cats were all caught after receiving a commission.
After Jiang Xia arrived, the Amuro Detective Agency certainly had more clients than before.
However, the work he received was still finding cats and dogs, and tailing mistresses.
Jiang Xia did not hand over the case as Amuro Tooru instructed.
He wanted to keep it to build his reputation and connections.
Therefore, all the pet-finding commissions were handed over by Jiang Xia to his group of unreliable friends.
At first glance, the delinquents seemed cool and busy. But in reality, they often felt bored.
Riding motorcycles and playing video games every day could get tiresome, so many of their group activities were actually just a bunch of people gathering, looking fierce for a while, and going through the motions.
When the time was up, they would each go home.
Now, with the novel task of finding cats and dogs, the originally boring street wandering suddenly became exciting.
Not to mention the considerable pay.
No one would turn down money, and delinquents also had to live their lives.
Motorcycles needed repairs, hairstyles needed perms, and the arcade owner couldn't let them play for free… In short, they worked exceptionally hard.
However, Jiang Xia did not set the delivery location for pets at the Detective Agency.
Because he still remembered the fabricated background he had made up when he first came to Amuro Tooru for a job.
Something about thugs coming to smash up the store where he worked…
What if one day, innocent delinquents came to deliver cats, but Amuro Tooru mistook them for wanting to smash the store… That would be very bad.
So, the cats and dogs that were found would be sent directly to Jiang Xia's home, and Jiang Xia would then bring them to the Agency.
Pet commissions were easy to solve.
But the cases of tailing mistresses, because they involved client privacy, Jiang Xia did not outsource them and could only do them himself.
Fortunately, he had been very free lately.
Moreover, if he went out for a few more rounds, he might just stumble upon a murder case.
Jiang Xia carried the cat into the Agency and called the client to pick it up.
After sending off a few cats, Jiang Xia sat and waited for clients to bring ghosts to his door.
However, unfortunately, he still received some pet-finding commissions.
Jiang Xia stared at the stack of new cat and dog photos, sighing: Perhaps the delinquents' efficiency in finding pets was too high, and word-of-mouth among clients began to spread, building their reputation…
Unable to receive any effective cases, Jiang Xia flipped through the commission list, planning to go out in the afternoon to secretly photograph a mistress.
However, before he could leave, Amuro Tooru suddenly sent a message.
Jiang Xia clicked it open and found that the part-time emperor had something urgent, so he asked Jiang Xia to cover his part-time job for the day—delivery.
Work given by the boss still had to be accepted.
Only with give and take could a harmonious and stable tool-person relationship be established.
Jiang Xia got up and went out.
As he closed the Detective Agency's Daimon, he hung a reservation book at the entrance and looked at it expectantly:
“You are already a mature book; you must learn to attract clients with murderous intent on your own.”
A gust of wind blew, the book rustled open a bit, then closed again.
Jiang Xia took it as a nod.
Jiang Xia followed the address given by Amuro Tooru, found the logistics company, and received a map, a manifest, and a vehicle.
He drove a car full of goods and delivered them for several hours.
This part-time job was not difficult.
But during the part-time job, Jiang Xia's mood continued to decline.
Every client who signed for the delivery was very ordinary: no killing intent, no ghosts, and no signs of their lives being threatened.
In the evening, Jiang Xia finished delivering the last package and returned to the car dejectedly.
He was about to return to the company to report.
However, at this moment, the Ghost Infant sleeping drowsily on his shoulder suddenly woke up and poked him excitedly.
Jiang Xia was startled.
He leaned in to listen to the Ghost Infant's whispers, then got out of the car, followed the Ghost Infant's direction, and turned a few corners.
After passing through a gloomy alley, when he stopped, a dark Western-style house appeared on his right.
The Western-style house had several floors, and the yard was also very large.
However, it had not been well maintained; the entire house was eerie, the yard was overgrown with weeds, and the walls were covered with depressingly rampant ivy.
Combined with today's gloomy weather, at first glance, only one word could aptly describe it.
Ghost House.
Jiang Xia walked to the yard gate and peered inside through the rusty iron fence.
Then he was somewhat surprised to find two people lying in the messy grass of the yard.
They were two children, about six or seven years old. Their eyes were closed, but their chests rose and fell slightly, so they should not be dead, just unconscious.
Both of these children had somewhat strange physiques: one was as fat as a triangular rice ball, and the other was as thin as a stick.
This gave Jiang Xia a strong sense of déjà vu. He quickly thought of two people—Conan's classmates, Genta Kojima, and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya.
These two, plus the little girl Yoshida Ayumi, and the strategist Conan, formed the “Detective Boys” of Teitan Elementary School.
Jiang Xia: “…” Since Genta and Mitsuhiko were lying here, then today was probably the Detective Boys' first group activity:
Ghost House adventure.
Jiang Xia shifted his gaze from the two children and looked up at the overcast Western-style house.
This “Ghost House” had been vacant for several years.
It was said that a brutal murder case had occurred here, and since then, wind sounds like beast roars often came from the house, making it very famous in the surrounding area.
But in reality, Jiang Xia's false “precognition ability” told him: There was actually no ghost here, just a mother and son hiding here.
Five years ago, the male owner of this Western-style house angrily cursed his son, and was instead beaten to death by his son.
After the mother discovered it, she disguised the murder scene as a “home invasion and robbery-murder,” then took her son and hid in a secret underground room, planning to wait out the statute of limitations before returning to society.
Later, the son gradually couldn't stand this rat-like life and wanted to surrender, but the mother disagreed. She locked her son in the dungeon, insisting on waiting until the statute of limitations ended.
The “wind sounds very much like roars” that people nearby heard were actually the sad roars of the son underground.
And today, the four first-grade Elementary School Students of the “Detective Boys,” unaware of the inside story, trespassed, preparing to carry out a “Ghost House adventure.”
Thinking of this, Jiang Xia looked at the two children in the yard through the yard gate.
Currently, it seemed that this adventure of the Detective Boys was nearing its end.
Genta and Mitsuhiko were tragically K.O.'d, knocked out and thrown into the yard.
And Conan and Ayumi were probably still inside the Ghost House, struggling to survive.
Jiang Xia thought for a moment, took out his phone, and skillfully called the police.
Then he nimbly flipped over the railing, landed in the yard, and quickly circled to the side door of the Western-style house.
Jiang Xia remembered that the Detective Boys had snuck into the Ghost House from here.
However, at this moment, he reached out to twist it, but the door was locked from the inside.
“…” It seemed that after the mistress threw out the two trespassing brats, she took some defensive measures and locked the opening.
As an organization member, Jiang Xia felt that he should take out his tools at this time, and with a few clicks, neatly pick the lock.
However, lock picking was not his specialty.
And a Spiritual Medium should act like a Spiritual Medium…
Jiang Xia withdrew his hand and stepped back half a pace.
Two paper shikigami flew out from under his feet, from nothingness to existence, and silently slipped into the house through the door crack.
Soon, behind the door, the two shikigami overlapped, gradually expanding and forming a puppet like a “white clay figure.”
This kind of puppet had no thoughts. It was completely controlled by the Spiritual Medium.
If the Ghost Fetus was thrown into the puppet, it could be molded into an exquisite puppet with an appearance close to that of a human.
But for now, just opening a door, there was no need to make it so detailed.
Jiang Xia felt the position of the clay puppet through the door.
A moment later, “Little White” inside the house slowly stood up straight, fumbled its hand behind the door, and with a click, unlocked the door.
Having completed its task, the small puppet silently collapsed, transforming from clay back into the paper shikigami invisible to ordinary people.
The paper shikigami instantly returned to the imprint space in Jiang Xia's chest.
Jiang Xia reached out his hand again.
This time, he successfully opened the door.
