Walking in the corridor of the castle, Dr. Ali looked at Yuan Huaiyu walking beside him with an inquiring look on his face.
"Mr. Yuan, do you really know the secrets of those chess pieces?"
After the search just now, no one found any trace of Conan. In addition, it started to rain again and it was already very late. Mamiya Mitsuru had no choice but to decide to search again tomorrow.
Back in the castle, Dr. Ali first asked Yuanhuaiyu about the treasure.
Because he trusts Shinichi too much and feels that even if he becomes a child, there will be no problems.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine. But I'm worried about Edogawa-san, where has he gone..."
Yuan Huaiyu looked at Dr. A Li, worried.
"New... Conan should be fine. If there is no news, it means he is fine." Dr. A Li was very confident.
"Doctor, stop talking nonsense."
Hui Yuan Ai, who was walking beside the two of them, couldn't stand it anymore and said with a scolding tone.
"Edogawa is not the kind of fool who disappears for hours without any reason, leaving people to worry about him in vain."
She looked at Yuan Huaiyu: "Teacher Yuan must have guessed it, right? Something must have happened to him. He may have been imprisoned by people in the castle and unable to escape, or he may have even been killed..."
Huihara Ai recalled Yuan Huaiyu's expression in the room at that time: "Why didn't Mr. Yuan say anything at that time? You should have guessed that there was something wrong with the clock in that room, right?"
Yuan Huaiyu looked at her and said nothing.
After a moment, he shrugged and laughed dumbly: "You are right. I did realize that Edogawa-san entered the secret passage of this castle and had some accidents, which caused him to lose contact with all of us."
"Then why..."
Yuan Huaiyu smiled: "Why should you pretend that nothing happened? That's what you want to ask?"
Hui Yuan Ai nodded: "It's because you are worried that there will be problems with the people in this castle, right?"
"...It's not."
"Huh??" This answer suddenly confused Haihara Ai.
She originally thought that Yuanhuaiyu remained silent because he was worried about alerting the enemy, and worried that the problematic person in the castle would harm Conan, so she remained silent.
"I actually already know who the person in question is."
"What?" Dr. A Li and Haibara Ai were stunned at the same time.
Why did you keep silent, knowing everything?
"Then call the police quickly! What if that person does something to the new...Conan..." Dr. A Li was a little anxious.
"It's okay. The kid is safe for the time being. I just took the time to check it out. Although he was slightly injured, he is still in good spirits."
Boom——
Suddenly there was a strange noise behind the three of them.
"Who?!" Haiyuan Ai looked back alertly.
The corner behind them was calm, and if it hadn't been for the noise just now, they wouldn't have realized anyone was there.
"Of course it's Ms. Masuyo Mamiya who is following us in the dark and wants to find out about our movements and where the treasure is."
Yuanhuaiyu stepped forward and walked quickly towards the place where the noise just came from.
"Mr. Yuan! Wait a minute!" Dr. A Li and Haihara Ai quickly followed.
Both of them felt a little unbelievable in their hearts.
Could that senile dowager Masuyo Mamiya be the mastermind behind Conan's disappearance?
Isn't she so old that she relies on a wheelchair?
Following Yuan Huaiyu around the corner of the corridor, the two of them saw nothing. Only Yuan Huaiyu stood on the empty corridor, facing a wall as if in a daze.
"Mr. Yuan, are you mistaken?" Dr. Ali asked.
Yuan Huaiyu raised his hand, grabbed the wall lamp hanging on the wall, and twisted it.
The wall in front of him immediately rotated ninety degrees, revealing the dark space behind it.
"Ah? What did you say, Dr. A Li?" Yuan Huaiyu looked at Dr. A Li with his mouth wide open in a "mouth" shape in confusion.
"Uh...nothing, nothing, let's go in quickly."
Dr. Ali wiped the sweat from his head.
"Teacher Yuan, do you know how to get there?" Haiyuan Ai asked. She just looked into the secret passage. It was dark and she could only see bottomless stairs.
"Come with me. I'll explain it to you along the way."
Yuanhuaiyu took the lead and walked into the dark secret passage.
Haiyuan Ai turned on the flashlight of his watch to illuminate the path for the three of them, although Yuan Huaiyu didn't need it and could see clearly.
"When Edogawa disappeared, I could see that there was a big gap between the two walls. Combined with the history of this castle, I can basically infer that there is a secret passage, and Conan entered the secret passage."
"Then he was controlled by someone in the secret passage, so he couldn't contact us." Haiyuan Ai continued.
"Yes."
Yuanhuaiyu turns the turning point of the stairs.
"And this kind of secret passage is definitely impossible to seal perfectly. Every entrance and exit will definitely leave traces."
"So when I was looking for Conan, I memorized every possible exit. Combined with the structure of the entire castle, it was easy to deduce the general distribution map of the entire secret passage."
Of course, the main reason is that all these secret passages were discovered many years ago.
"Then Mr. Yuan, how did you determine that there was something wrong with the madam?" Haihara Ai still couldn't understand this point.
Naturally, Yuan Huaiyu couldn't say it was because he had known about it for a long time, and he had been frightened by that old face in his previous life.
He said: "That's because that so-called dowager, except for her face and skin, there is no part of her body that looks like an old person."
"I don't know if you have ever observed her legs. They are strong and strong. She doesn't look like someone who has been sitting in a wheelchair for a long time."
"And the skin exposed on the face and hands is unreal at first glance."
"The most important thing is her trunk. Real old people will have osteoporosis due to the loss of calcium, and their muscles will also atrophy to a certain extent, and they will naturally appear rickets. But that person is simply hunched over.
"
Haihara Ai was shocked. She had not noticed these details at all.
But Yuanhuaiyu observed it.
This reminded her of a saying - "Everything that exists must leave traces."
"Then are we going to chase the pretender now?" Dr. Ali asked.
Yuan Huaiyu shook his head: "No, let's go rescue Conan first. That person probably already knows about me solving the puzzle, and I'm worried that she will suddenly be unfavorable to Conan."
"And according to my judgment, that person may be where Conan is being held now."
After saying that, Yuan Huaiyu led the two of them through the secret passage with ease, and soon arrived at their destination.