The huge bells rang from the bell tower outside, and countless clocks in the room also rang instantly. A hundred bells sounded at once, which was quite spectacular.
But the sound of a hundred bells ringing in unison at this moment made the guests in the darkness slightly panicked, especially the person involved, Ruikako Hoshina, and everyone around her.
Because from the moment she blew out the candle, the movement around her didn't stop.
The sounds of scuffles, falling to the ground, cries of pain...
All kinds of sounds were mixed together, and the darkness in front of us made it impossible to see the situation, which made people feel scared.
Even because Tang Ze made so much noise, the people next to her unconsciously stepped back and squeezed her space, causing her to fall to the ground in a state of embarrassment.
And she was not an exception, because after Tang Ze brought down the murderer, several of them were tripped and fell by the prisoner. The scene was chaotic for a while.
In other words, Tangze's physical fitness is strong enough. Even if he is half-kneeling to subdue the prisoner, he can still push the person approaching him with his other hand. Otherwise, he may be hit by someone's butt in the face or even fall down.
And the chaos in the center also brings about the chaos in the periphery, just like a stone dropped into the water, after the ripples are shot out in the center, it is time to spread to the surroundings.
Especially when the bell rang, the dining car was pulled by huge force and accelerated towards the balcony, hitting many people and causing screams of pain.
The unknown is the scariest thing, especially when the chaos in the darkness intensifies.
The chaotic scene did not last long, as the cake cart and the glass door of the balcony were violently hit together.
"Bang!"
The dull collision of wood mixed with the crisp sound of glass, and the cake on it had already been stuck on the door and rotted into a ball under the action of inertia.
This huge movement seemed to press the pause button on the banquet venue, causing the chaos to pause for a moment, but it was followed by even more terrifying chaos.
"What's going on!? What happened!?"
"what's the situation?"
"What's ringing?"
A hundred bells are ringing in unison in the chaotic hall, which no longer makes people feel romantic, shocking or ritualistic.
In this panic environment, everyone only felt that the person who was making noise with a hundred bells was panicking.
"Turn on the lights! Hurry up and turn on the lights!!"
After Tangze tied the murder weapon to the cake cart, he directly held down the prisoner. Seeing the chaos at the scene, Tang Ze couldn't help but shout out to alert the housekeeper.
"Conan, turn on the lights!"
The huge bells and the surrounding chaos obscured his voice, but fortunately Conan was close and he was calm enough.
So even though Karasawa's voice was not heard, Conan still made the clearest move in response to the current environment.
After turning on the flashlight without hesitation, Conan did not let the flashlight shine around, but raised his wrist flat to let the flashlight shine directly on the ceiling.
Just like those light-seeking moths chasing candlelight without risking their lives, people who are now trapped in darkness and panic are instantly attracted by the light when they see the weak light source in the darkness.
As if a pair of invisible hands calmed everyone's unknown fear, the guests were no longer anxious, but instead focused their attention on the lights one by one.
At this moment, the bell that rang on the hour slowly disappeared, and the entire banquet hall gradually fell into darkness.
"Hurry up and turn on the light!"
Seeing that the situation was temporarily under control, Conan immediately shouted, and soon Mouri Kogoro also reacted and shouted again.
Compared to Conan, Mouri Kogoro's roar was very penetrating and quickly alerted the surrounding guests.
Obviously, after the brief confusion at this moment, they all calmed down and understood what they should do most now, and they all shouted in agreement.
When he heard the shouts of the crowd, the butler named Qingmei who was standing in front of the light switch finally came to his senses from his previous panic and confusion and quickly went to turn on the lights in the room.
After he pushed the cake over, he actually stayed in front of the switch.
The original plan was that he was supposed to turn on the lights after Rikako Hoshina blew out the candles.
But the sudden chaos made him panic, and the subsequent panic of the guests made him a little overwhelmed.
But in fact, this is the normal reaction of ordinary people.
When encountering danger or a sudden chaotic situation, you will initially become overwhelmed and stand there stupidly, and even forget about the originally planned actions.
At that time, your brain is completely blank, and you can't think of anything at all. It won't take the next step until your downed brain starts functioning again.
This is also a normal reaction of normal people when encountering emergencies. It is difficult for people who have not received training to react in time in unexpected moments.
What's more, from the time it happened to the present, it was only a short period of time from the time the bell rang to the time it stopped. This time is just a moment for a person whose brain is in a panic and has shut down.
When the lights were turned on, everyone immediately squinted their eyes to adapt to the lights, and then everyone turned their heads simultaneously to look around, trying to check the situation and figure out what was going on.
And because everyone still remembered the beam of light cast by Conan, their eyes subconsciously focused on the center position.
As the heroine of the birthday party, Rukako Hoshina was still slumped on the ground. Her golden pocket watch had been trampled to pieces by the chaotic crowd, and she looked very embarrassed.
The first thing Karasawa looked for when the lights were turned on was Ayako and others. After seeing her, Xiaolan, and Mouri Kogoro standing there seemingly unaffected, he turned his attention to Rukako Hosuka.
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"Detective Maori, come here to help."
Since he was still holding the prisoner, Karasawa called out to Mouri Kogoro, who was looking around blankly, trying to figure out the current situation, and motioned for him to help his patron up quickly.
After hearing Karasawa's words, Mouri Kogoro immediately reacted and hurriedly came to the sponsor, Hoshina Rukako, and helped him up.
"What the hell happened!?"
After getting up from the ground, Hoshina Rukako's face was extremely ugly: "How could it be like this!"
"Rukako Hoshina, you were assassinated just now."
Just as everyone was watching in silence, Rikako Hokushina didn't know how to answer each other's questions, Karasawa suddenly spoke.
And his words were like pouring cold water into a hot oil pan, and the entire banquet hall exploded in an instant.
And the aggressive Rukako Hokushina on the side also instantly felt like a goose whose fate was being strangled by the throat, and instantly lost the angry and frustrated look before.
Instead, there was a pale complexion and fear.
"Tangze Criminal, what do you mean..."
Hoshina Rukako turned around and wanted to find Karasawa to ask clearly, but when she turned around and saw Karasawa's current state clearly, the previous words were stuck in her mouth.
At this moment, Karasawa was capturing and suppressing Sadago Karabeta. This scene made Rukako Hokshina somewhat unable to digest the news in front of her.
"This, this is..." Rukako Hokashina looked at the scene in front of him hesitantly and said with some disbelief.
"Actually, the person who wants to kill you in the dark is Mr. Sadago Karibata." As soon as Karasawa finished speaking, it was like throwing gunpowder into the water, causing an uproar among the guests around him.
At this time, Qingbian Singwu had already accepted his fate. Seeing this, Tangze reached out and took out the handcuffs he carried with him and cuffed them.
"What exactly is going on?"
Seeing Karasawa controlling the suspect, the doubtful Rukako Hoshina couldn't help but ask: "What happened when I blew out the candles!?"
After hearing what Rukako Hoshina said, the guests present also looked at Karasawa with burning eyes, obviously eager to find out what happened in the previous darkness and chaos.
Tangze felt the gazes from around him and knew that he needed to explain the current situation clearly to stabilize the situation and avoid riots caused by dissatisfaction among the people.
"This is related to Qingbian Singwu's criminal methods. Of course, some of the chaos is also related to my actions."
So he calmly stood up and spoke slowly. Seeing that everyone's attention was on him and waiting for the answer, he was not embarrassed and said generously: "Since everyone is so curious, let me explain it in detail.
You must all agree that my wife has been receiving threatening letters for several years in a row, but everything was fine in the past two years.
At first, I didn't understand why, but it wasn't until I stopped the prisoner in the dark that I understood why.
It turns out that the prisoner was waiting for an opportunity, waiting for a rainy day when he could justifiably bring an umbrella.
After all, when he committed the murder in the dark, he planned to open it to cover the splattered blood, and then stabbed Mrs. Baokou to death with the sharp blade on the umbrella.
And he also thought of a way to get rid of the murder weapon."
At this point, Tang Ze stepped forward to the dining car that was stuck by the balcony guardrail. While wearing white gloves, he knelt down and said, "As you can see, the sharp blade on this umbrella is the murder weapon.
I believe you can easily see now that there are ropes tied to it, and there are heavy objects below the line.
Judging from the location, it must have been hung on the hour hand on the clock tower above our balcony.
Then wait until six o'clock and the mechanism will automatically trigger."
This is not a casual statement, but a conclusion drawn by Tang Ze based on the landforms here and the time of the crime.
And when he went to the bell tower, in addition to paying attention to the rotation of the Gutan worshiping below, he also observed the hour and minute hands on the clock.
After all, the "clock" element of this case is too obvious, and usually in situations like this, criminals will use such things to commit crimes.
In order to facilitate everyone's understanding, Tang Ze started to describe: "The tip of the minute hand above the hour hand is a spade, and the tip of the spade is a broken ring.
All you need to do is prepare the rope in advance, then tie a heavy object to the middle part, and then tie a very sliding small ring to a section of the rope.
Just put one end of the ring on the broken ring decoration at the tip of the clock tower minute hand, and then hang the middle part with the weight attached to the outside of the balcony guardrail.
The other end of the empty rope was passed into the house through the gap in the balcony and tied to the murder weapon, and the trap was completed.
Then just wait for the moment when the room falls into darkness, tie the rope to the umbrella, and the preparations are complete.
When it's time to blow out the candles, all you have to do is attack Mrs. Rukako Hoshina, and then wait until 6 o'clock when the mechanism is triggered. When the short hand of the clock points directly downward, the small ring with the rope becomes broken and slips through the gap.
As a result, the weight suspended outside the balcony guardrail in the middle of the rope lost its fixed point and began to fall rapidly under the action of gravity.
In this way, if according to the original plan, Zhou Fangzhiqiu only needs to kill the people, quickly close the umbrella and then let go. The umbrella dragged by gravity will knock open the balcony door and fall to the bottom of the balcony.
The fishing line was not easy to find, not to mention that the part with the heavy object tied to it was not simply hung outside the balcony, but was placed under the well in the yard by the prisoner.
In this way, the only conspicuous mechanism was eliminated, leaving only a few fishing lines hanging in the air.
When the agency is dispatched, the heavy object will fall directly into the well with the rope and the murder weapon. This will not only destroy the murder weapon, but also create the illusion that the prisoner escaped from the balcony.
In addition, as far as I know, the well will be sealed next week, and then the murder weapon will be destroyed and sealed forever."
Speaking of this, the surrounding guests all showed astonishment, and Tangze saw everyone's expressions, and after they had finished digesting it, he smiled and said: "Now that we have figured out the prisoner's plan, let me tell you what happened in the darkness.
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Because Mrs. Baoke specifically asked me to investigate the case, I had read the threatening letter.
Based on what I learned about the process of tonight's birthday party, I judged that the murderer was most likely to take action, so I was always on guard at the moment when the candle was lit.
Fortunately, I have good eyesight and can see roughly in the dark environment. In addition, I was standing next to Mrs. Baokou at the time, so I took action decisively when I heard the noise.
After subduing the opponent, I noticed that there was a rope tied to the murder weapon. According to experience, this is usually a trap made by the prisoner to discard the murder weapon.
At that time, in order to avoid carrying a sharp knife in the air and causing casualties to the guests standing on the route, I entangled it in the cake dining car in a hurry.
This is all I did in the dark. I am very sorry that the subsequent commotion caused by the cake truck disturbed everyone. Fortunately, no one was injured."
"So that's it."
"It's nothing. Instead, we would like to thank Tangze Criminal for your emergency handling."
"Yes, otherwise we would be in real danger if we let the knife fly in the air."
Some guests who realized that they seemed to be standing in front of the balcony door were even more frightened and thanked them one after another.
For a time, the entire banquet hall echoed with sounds of relief and appreciation.
Then the applause that came from nowhere quickly took over the venue, until finally the entire banquet venue burst into thunderous applause!
Seeing this scene, Tang Ze was also caught off guard by the limelight. He didn't know why this scene happened.
Fortunately, he was calm enough and bowed slightly to express his gratitude.