The next day, Mutian Yuan went to the Metropolitan Police Department as requested by Inspector Megure to give a statement. After giving his statement, Inspector Megure suddenly pulled out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Mutian Yuan with a smile, "Brother Mu, this is your bonus for assisting with this case."
"How can I accept this?"
Mutian Yuan politely declined. To be honest, with his current wealth, this... seemingly generous bonus was less than what he'd make from a single horse race bet. So Mutian Yuan acted like a true gentleman, treating money like dirt for the sake of justice.
This inadvertently fooled Inspector Megure again, who thought Mutian Yuan wasn't greedy for money. If Inspector Megure knew that those... Maple Leaf Coins they had been tracking were actually picked up by this "non-greedy" person to get rich, he would probably jump up and down...
After some more polite refusal, Mutian Yuan reluctantly accepted the bonus. However, Mutian Yuan immediately invited Inspector Megure and his subordinates to dinner that evening.
Although Inspector Megure initially refused, he couldn't resist Mutian Yuan's coaxing. Mutian Yuan spun tales of it being just a private gathering among friends, that the chosen place wouldn't be too fancy so Inspector Megure wouldn't have to worry,
that police officers were usually busy and deserved an occasional break, and even threatened that if Inspector Megure and his team didn't come, Mutian Yuan wouldn't accept the bonus, and so on... a series of various reasons.
Mutian Yuan had changed jobs quite a few times in the past, and even worked in sales at the beginning. This guy, especially, had developed a knack for saying the right thing to the right person through his work experience.
Coupled with his excellent acting skills, he didn't need to deliberately flatter anyone. In the end, within the span of one meal, he became incredibly familiar with Inspector Megure and his group.
After the dinner, Mutian Yuan even packed up some food for the officers who couldn't attend because they were on duty. After this wave of goodwill, Mutian Yuan leisurely left the Metropolitan Police Department.
On the way back, the little fox looked at Mutian Yuan and sighed, "You made so many new friends so quickly. Your social skills are truly astounding. With this talent of yours, you could even become a top socialite..."
"Are you complimenting me?"
Mutian Yuan rolled his eyes at the little fox. The little fox nodded vigorously, "Absolutely complimenting you! But are you sure one meal is enough?"
"How could one meal be enough? This is just to build some goodwill."
Mutian Yuan smiled and shook his head, then explained, "With them, you don't need to deliberately do anything. This group of people are all shrewd. If you try too hard to curry favor, it'll be inappropriate. Just slowly build good relations with them, and that's it."
"Alright, you handle this."
The little fox knew she wasn't good at these messy things, and she didn't want to bother with them, so she nodded at Mutian Yuan, considering the matter closed.
Meanwhile, Uncle Kogoro had received a case investigating infidelity a couple of days ago. Today, he finally had irrefutable evidence. So, Uncle Kogoro took Conan, Ran, and Mutian Yuan, who was playing pranks on Conan at his house, to the home of an antique collector named Denjiro Maru to report the situation.
Uncle Kogoro had serious business to discuss with his client, and it wasn't appropriate for Mutian Yuan, Ran, and Conan to eavesdrop, so the three of them simply went to the courtyard. After strolling around for a bit, Ran pointed at a small pond in the courtyard and exclaimed, "Conan, look, there are fish!"
"Yeah, there are fish..."
Conan's mouth twitched twice when he heard Ran's words, pretending to be happy as he replied. Damn it, I'm not a child. I have absolutely no interest in fish in a pond, okay?! So, my dear sister Ran, can you please not try to fool me with that tone you use for little kids? Ran giggled and held Conan's hand, walking towards the pond, saying, "Conan, shall we watch the fish, okay?"
Conan: "Okay..."
Big sis, you've already dragged me here, and you're still asking if it's okay? Don't you think that's a bit redundant?! And seriously, I'm really not interested in fish! The little fox, perched on Mutian Yuan's shoulder,
watched Ran leading Conan to see the fish and pondered, "Speaking of which, don't people usually go to see goldfish? Why is Little Ran going to see carp? Do men take women to see goldfish, and women lead them to see carp? So what kind of carp is Little Ran?"
"You really understand."
Mutian Yuan looked at the little fox somewhat helplessly, then carried Meowth on his shoulder and the little fox, and also strolled over to the pond. He squatted on a rock by the pond. Mutian Yuan, the little fox, and Conan weren't particularly interested in...
the koi in the pond, but Ran and Meowth were interested in... the koi in the pond. Especially Meowth, who had been lazily lying in Mutian Yuan's arms, looking as if she was about to fall asleep, was now wide awake.
She even uncharacteristically leaped from Mutian Yuan's arms onto a nearby rock, staring intently at the fish in the pond, excitedly yelling, "Fish! So many fish!"
Ran looked at Meowth, who was meowing at the pond, and smiled, "Little Maple Leaf, do you want to eat fish? These fish can't be eaten!"
Meowth simply didn't hear... Ran's words; she was completely focused on the fish in the pond. If Meowth didn't think the water was a bit deep, she would have jumped in to catch fish...
These... foolish koi didn't know that their natural enemy was squatting by the water. One particularly foolish one even jumped out of the water, performing a "fish leaping over the dragon gate." Ran immediately exclaimed happily, "Conan, look, the fish jumped!"
Looking at the surprised Ran, Conan rolled his dead fish eyes and pretended to nod enthusiastically. To be honest, Conan really had no interest in whether the fish jumped or not!
Although Conan wasn't interested, Meowth was. After seeing these foolish fish jump out of the water on their own, Meowth felt her chance had come. After finding a suitable position, Meowth stopped meowing and began to stare intently at the... pond.
Hard work paid off; Meowth indeed found an opportunity. The foolish fish from before probably thought its performance was pretty good and immediately decided to perform another "fish leaping over the dragon gate."
But at the exact moment the foolish fish leaped out of the water, Meowth also leaped. Before Conan and Ran could react, a shadow flashed by, and then Meowth had already leaped from one end of the pond to the other. And in the flower bed not far away, there was a lively carp... "Hey, hey, Maple Leaf, you're not going to eat it, are you?"
Seeing Meowth scurrying towards the carp, Mutian Yuan asked somewhat helplessly. He felt he had made a wrong decision. Why would he casually take a cat to look at fish? Wasn't that just asking for trouble? "No, raw doesn't taste good, meow!"
Meowth answered while coming to the foolish fish's side and looking at it. Just as Mutian Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, he heard Meowth say again, "So, later: can we take it back and cook it, meow?"
Mutian Yuan: "..."
And at this moment, Meowth picked up the foolish fish in her mouth and scampered over to Mutian Yuan. After placing the fish at Mutian Yuan's feet, Meowth ran back to the edge of the pond. She had already decided to catch
more foolish fish to take back so they would all have fish to eat! After Meowth successfully caught a few more fish, Mutian Yuan felt this couldn't go on. The fish in this pond were simply too foolish. Every now and then, they would jump out, and Meowth's success rate was still one hundred percent.
If this continued, who knows, perhaps all the fish in this pond would become Meowth's trophies! At that point, would he really have to ask for 610 bags to take them back? After stopping Meowth,
who was still trying to catch fish, Mutian Yuan looked at the twitching corners of Ran and Conan's mouths and said, "Uh, I think I should take them out for a walk. Otherwise, if this continues, I think that... bearded uncle from before might kill me."
Then Mutian Yuan pointed to the neatly arranged... Meowth's trophies at his feet and said, "Also, these fish are for you..."
Conan & Ran: "..."
Take them away! Why would we want these?! After wandering around outside for a while, Mutian Yuan returned to the antique collector Denjiro Maru's house. He looked at Ran and Conan, who were still watching the fish, and asked, "Has Uncle finished talking with that... bearded man?"
"Yes, Mr. Maru Denjiro went to the reception room to receive guests."
Ran answered with a helpless smile. Mutian Yuan muttered somewhat helplessly after hearing it, "Looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer."
After waiting for a long while, Conan looked at Ran somewhat helplessly and asked, "Sister Ran, what's going on? That old man is taking too long."
Ran also wondered, "Yeah, what's he doing? It's been so long."
Mutian Yuan, who was squatting by the side playing with a rubber ball with the little fox and Meowth, looked up at the sky, which was already filled with the glow of the setting sun, and muttered, "After all this time, he couldn't have died in there, could he?"
"Xiaomu, don't talk nonsense. It's very rude if someone hears you."
Ran immediately stopped Mutian Yuan when she heard his words. How could he say such things? If someone heard it, he would be beaten, alright! Mutian Yuan just smiled at Ran, then gave Conan a meaningful look.
Usually, it might just be idle talk, but with Conan here, you have to be prepared for this! Who knows, that guy... who had kept them waiting for half a day might just be cursed to death by Conan because his birth date wasn't strong enough!
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