Mouri Kogoro carefully got out of the car from the passenger door. He only glanced at the bottom of the cliff from a distance of 1 meter, and his legs trembled with fear, and his upper body moved back.
Conan and others in the back seat also got out of the car and glanced down at the cliff.
"How did we get here? Why is there a cliff at the end of the road?"
"Could it be the old gentleman I met just now..."
Mao Lilan's words stopped abruptly, without saying any very bad guess.
Just when everyone was wondering, a battery car came quietly from the distance of the forest road.
Qin Zhibo used his telescope to check in advance and saw a beautiful woman sitting on the battery car.
I saw a woman riding a battery-powered scooter until she came to a stop in front of everyone, took off her helmet, and shook the hair on the back of her head.
She just glanced at the scene and immediately understood what was going on, and began to question worriedly.
"There's obviously a warning sign in front of me, why did you drive your car here?"
"Please be careful, someone fell off a cliff and died not long ago..."
Qin Zhibo, who was standing in front, could only smile and apologize: "Sorry, we were chatting in the car just now and didn't pay attention to the warning signs..."
"By the way, we are here from Tokyo to investigate the recent cases of the Inufushi family...Miss, since you are a member of the Inufushi family, please lead the way."
"Eh?" The woman was stunned, "How did you know that I am from the Inubushi family?"
Qin Zhibo raised the corners of his mouth slightly and explained confidently: "There is only one road in this forest, and only Quanfu lives near this road."
"Miss, since you are here, and it is a battery car that cannot travel long distances, you can only be a member of the Inubushi family..."
"Oh~ So that's it..."
The woman suddenly understood.
In fact, this reasoning is secondary. Qin Zhibo mainly saw the basic information on the top of the woman's head.
Inubushi Yukihime, female, 28 years old...
With this name and age, he should be one of the eight adopted children of the Inubushi family.
However, this woman only drove over after the car stopped, and she just heard it while the van was driving.
So that warning could never have come from her.
…
Qin Zhibo explained the origin of the group, and Inubushi Yukihime readily agreed to lead the way.
With Xing Ji's guidance, everyone finally understood why they drove the wrong way.
It turns out that at the fork 1 kilometer before the cliff, you should turn into the side path instead of going straight to the main road in front of you.
But it's no wonder that Mouri Kogoro drove the wrong way, because the road leading to Inubushi's house is slightly narrower than the road leading to the cliff.
In addition, there are no signboards at the intersection, so it is easy for outsiders who come here for the first time to make mistakes.
Turn into another forest path and drive all the way to the end. A magnificent Japanese castle is located in front of you.
As she walked, Yukihime introduced that this place is called "Inubushi Castle" by local residents, and it is the castle where the Inubushi clan has lived for generations.
Although it is far smaller than Osaka Castle in Osaka, it still has a history of hundreds of years.
Qin Zhibo sighed in his heart, why are there so many old houses with a sense of history in Qunma County?
Inubushi Castle, Dusk Annex, Angel House...these are all from Gunma Prefecture.
Compared with the villas in the forests on the outskirts of Tokyo, the ancient houses here are larger, have a longer history, and the previous owners were more powerful.
In the courtyard, while everyone was feeling the majesty of this ancient Japanese castle, an Akita dog barked behind everyone.
"Woof, woof!"
The disturbing cry alarmed everyone, and Xing Ji hurriedly walked over to comfort the dog head, teaching him a lesson in a soft voice.
"No~Xiaoba..."
"These people are the detectives and his friends who came to investigate Brother Yingci's accident~"
When Mouri Kogoro heard that he had been mistaken for a policeman, he opened his mouth to explain, but his words were interrupted by the sliding door opening.
Standing in the entrance hall behind the door is a middle-aged woman with a beautiful figure and red lips. It can be seen that she was a beauty when she was young.
It's just that the middle-aged woman raised her eyebrows at this time, making the wrinkles around the corners of her eyes more obvious.
"It's you who act carelessly, Yukihime."
"When a dog barks, if you call it by name or even touch it, it will be mistaken for praising its behavior. How many times do I have to say this before you understand?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, Sister Kaozi..."
Xingji immediately apologized, her big eyes looking pitiful.
Qin Zhibo glanced at the top of the middle-aged woman's head. Her name was Inufukako. She was 47 years old and was obviously one of the eight adopted children.
At this point, in addition to the three adopted children who have died, plus the two who have already appeared, there are still three people left.
Seeing that Yukihime had admitted her mistake, Kaozi didn't say anything more, but looked at Mouri Kogoro and asked.
"Speaking of which, Mr. Detective, why are you still here now?"
"The criminal police who came before already determined that it was just an accident and finally closed the case and went back."
"Eh? Me?" Mouri Kogoro was stunned and quickly wanted to wave his hand to declare that he was not a policeman.
But Qin Zhibo interrupted him directly and said seriously: "Actually, another case that seemed to be an accident but turned out to be a murder happened in Tokyo recently."
"So we wanted to come over and find out about the situation..."
Facing Qin Zhibo's statement, the middle-aged woman named Kaozi frowned and said "oh".
Qin Zhibo continued: "So can you make arrangements as soon as possible? We want to meet all the adopted children of the Inufu family."
"And that lady Suo Chen..."
…
At Qin Zhibo's request, everyone walked through the long corridor to Ms. Suochen's room.
Inufus Saomi is the current parent of all adopted children. Due to cerebral thrombosis at the beginning of the year, he is now bedridden and often in a coma.
Fortunately, one of my adopted children has a doctor, so he can do check-ups at home every day, so he doesn't have to stay in the hospital all the time.
Under the guidance of Kaozi and Xingji, everyone came to Suo Chen's bedroom.
In the spacious tatami room, a white-haired old lady is lying on the hospital bed in the center. Her dignified and beautiful face is easily reminiscent of her beauty when she was young.
However, time is not forgiving. At this time, her face was covered with wrinkles, her eyes were closed tightly, and she was still in a coma.
The adopted son, who is a doctor by profession, is conducting daily physical examinations on him, and the others can only wait behind him.
After waiting for a while, the doctor checked the body of the adopted son, and then everyone got down to business.
"My name is Inufushi Chiaki, and I work as a doctor at the nearby Inufushi Hospital."
"Then you are also one of the eight adopted children?" Mouri Kogoro asked knowingly.
"Yes." Inufushi Chiko responded, and then said: "The hospital where I worked before closed down. Just when I didn't know what to do, luckily my adoptive mother rescued me in time, let me move to her place, and gave me
a job……"
Qin Zhibo is not interested in the kindness of the two, he just wants to find out the origin of the beads.
"That Kudo Shinichi in Tokyo once said that there are fake adopted children in this family. Do you know about this?"
Kaozi replied in a deep voice: "Mr. Shinichi once said this. He said that someone is using the cursed devil dog to make the Inubushi family's eldest son and grandson impossible."
"It's just that there is no possibility of a curse or anything like that, so don't worry too much."
At this time, Hattori Heiji asked again: "Did Ms. Sasomi say anything when she was sober? For example, who did she think might be a fake adopted child?"
The doctor Zhihuang sitting next to Suo Chen lowered his head, "I never said this..."
At this moment, the sliding door behind everyone opened, and a bearded man with one hand in his pocket stood at the door, accusing in a rich voice.
"That uncle named Shinichi is a fake, right?"
"He actually became the first traitor to escape from the Inubushi family because he was afraid of the non-existent legend of the devil dog!"
Qin Zhibo looked back at the man. The message above his head was Inufus Zenya, 34 years old, and obviously another adopted son.
As an older man, Kaozi turned his head and scolded the bearded man named Zenya, "What did you say? You actually said such rude words in front of your adoptive mother..."
"Don't worry, she can't hear you." An indifferent smile appeared on Zenya's lips, "She has been sleeping anyway..."
Qin Zhibo glanced at everyone present.
There are currently four adopted children in the room. Although they are part of the same family, they are somewhat unfamiliar with each other.
The 47-year-old Kaozi should be the eldest sister.
Zhihuang, 42, is a doctor by profession and is responsible for taking care of his adoptive mother on a daily basis.
Zenya, 34, seems to still be working outside, but just living in this home.
28-year-old Yukihime is the youngest among all the adopted children.
There is one adopted child left. Kaozi said in the corridor just now that the adopted daughter went to a dry cleaning shop a little further away and will not come back until later.
Since there are a lot of people here, Qin Zhibo doesn't plan to hide them.
He took out the beads he brought from Tokyo and showed them to everyone.
"Everyone, this was found at the murder scene in Tokyo. It was the bead that Kudo Shinichi was holding in his hand before he died."
"Do any of you have any impressions of this bead?"
Qin Zhibo put the beads on his palm and showed them in front of everyone.
However, everyone just stared at this inconspicuous bead and shook their heads indifferently.
"This kind of thing looks very ordinary. Is it a bead that fell off some kind of decoration?" Kaozi asked.
Qin Zhibo didn't answer this, and was about to put the beads away when Conan suddenly said.
"Can you guys smell this bead? Maybe you can smell something?"
Apparently, Conan has not forgotten his loss of sense of smell.
Qin Zhibo just wanted to take the opportunity to see other people's reactions, so he handed over the beads.
But the adopted son named Zen was the first to take the bead, smell it, and immediately sniffed and took the bead away.
"What is this? It smells so bad!"
"What? Are these beads smelly?"
Kaozi had some disbelief on his face, and when he took the beads and smelled them, he also made an ugly expression.
"It does stink...like the smell of burning plastic."
Several other people from the Inubushi family also smelled it one by one and gave the same answer.
Conan felt a little depressed when he saw several people answering like this.
It seems that there is really something wrong with my sense of smell.
But the good news is that it seems that the problem only occurs when smelling the beads and does not affect normal life.
But I am afraid that this symptom will get worse in the future...
Qin Zhibo on the other side was equally surprised.
It seems that only I and Conan smell the fragrance of this bead.
But why is this?
What is the most special thing about Conan and yourself compared to others?
Although he had doubts in his heart, Qin Zhibo calmly took back the beads from the last person's hand.
Then, he asked again.
"Then what's the legend about the devil dog?"
Several people looked at each other and immediately said that this was no secret.
However, Kauko felt it was not good to tell these terrible legends about the Inubushi family in front of her adoptive mother.
So everyone moved from the bedroom to the living room.
Yukihime serves as the narrator and narrates the legend.
It turns out that during the Meiji Era, the Inubushi family was very famous as a large local family.
One day, the only daughter of the head of the Inubushi family suddenly disappeared, and the Inubushi family mobilized nearby villagers to search for her.
After searching for a whole day, I couldn't find any trace of my only daughter.
It wasn't until midnight that day that Inubushi's dog suddenly appeared with his only daughter in his mouth.
The only daughter was covered in bruises and dying, so her owner vented his anger on the dog and beat it repeatedly with a whip.
Later, they even set fire to the dog and burned it alive.
However, when the only daughter woke up later, she learned from the child that she got lost in the mountains and fell into a coma from exhaustion, and it was the dog that brought her back.
The owner of the dog, the head of the Inufu family, regretted this very much and built a majestic tomb for the dog.
However, a few days later, a fire suddenly broke out in Inubushi's house. Only the owner of the house failed to escape and was burned alive.
"Since then, it has been spread that the Inubushi family was cursed by the flame demon dog..."
Yukihime spoke with a serious look on her face.
Others were also involved in the plot, unable to bear the tragic death of Gouzi, or focused on analyzing the similarities between the rumors and reality.
Only Hattori Heiji held his head with his hands, looking a little disdainful.
"It sounds like a legend...in fact, there is no curse at all, it's just a coincidence."
Qin Zhibo thought about the legend and found that there was no part about beads in it.
And the so-called flame demon dog sounds like it just combines the fire that appears frequently in the story with the demon dog.
Just when Qin Zhibo wanted to further inquire whether the dog's grave really existed, Conan asked first.
"Does that tomb really exist?"
"Yes, right under the cliff you almost fell off during the day."
Xing Ji seemed to be interested in her eyes, and she leaned in front of Conan's face, "How is it? Do you want to go and take a look now?"
…
Since the last adopted son had not returned yet and dinner could not be served, everyone drove to the bottom of the cliff in the daytime.
Just as Yukihime said, there is indeed a short tombstone in the open space next to the cliff.
"The tomb of the brave Inubushi family's beloved dog Fuotaro..."
In order not to encounter the devil dog, the somewhat superstitious Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuye immediately closed their eyes and worshiped.
Hattori Heiji was still very disdainful.
Conan asked Yukihime if the adopted son who died first fell off the cliff here.
"Yes, right above this tomb..."
Yukiji raised her hand and pointed upward.
But at this moment, an orange fire suddenly appeared out of thin air on the edge of the dim cliff.
Just when everyone was surprised, a man riding a bicycle suddenly flew off the cliff!