Four Bridges Middle School, on the way from the sports field to the abandoned warehouse.
Baishi Hui started walking, holding Ran's hand.
"This... this... Shirashi-kun." Ran fidgeted and stammered, "Do we... do we have to hold hands?"
Her cheeks were slightly red, feeling a bit shy.
Putting aside the emergency situations where Shinichi pulled her and Ran, she had never properly held hands with a boy like this in her life.
"Yes, we must hold hands," Baishi Hui said righteously, "Mouri Detective told us to pretend to be a couple, so we have to act the part!"
"This concerns the safety of the hostage's life, we can't be careless!"
"You... you're right." Ran felt it made sense and didn't mention holding hands anymore.
The current situation made Ran feel inexplicably strange.
She and Shinichi had never seriously held hands in all these years, yet she was holding hands with Baishi Hui.
Just as she was lost in thought, she heard Baishi Hui say, "What do you want to eat for dinner?"
Ran came back to her senses and said, "How about... we go eat ramen?"
"That's what your Dad likes to eat," Baishi Hui emphasized again, "So, what do you want to eat?"
This made Ran feel valued, and she felt a slight sweetness in her heart, saying, "I'm not picky, anything is fine! Shirashi-kun, is there anything you want to eat?"
Baishi Hui chuckled softly, "Mouri Detective will definitely earn a lot of commission for completing this case, let's go eat something good."
"If he doesn't spend this money, he'll just use it for horse racing or mahjong anyway."
"That's true!" Ran, of course, knew her Dad well, so she gladly accepted the suggestion.
Besides, she believed Baishi Hui played a major role in finding the kidnappers this time!
It was only right to treat him to a meal!
The two walked and talked, and soon arrived near the abandoned warehouse.
The kidnapper inside the abandoned warehouse heard voices outside and felt his heart tighten. He quietly walked to the doorway with a knife.
He squinted and looked outside. When he saw it was a young couple, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
But to prevent them from coming over and ruining things, the kidnapper went out to drive them away!
He swaggered out of the abandoned warehouse and shouted loudly, "Hey! You two, what are you doing at school this late at night?"
"This is not a place for dates! Go to Minhua Park for your dates!!"
Seeing that the kidnapper had been lured out, Ran played her role well. Her acting skills kicked in, and she nervously hid behind Baishi Hui, weakly saying, "I... I'm sorry! We'll leave right away! Shirashi-kun, let's hurry and go!"
Watching Ran pull his arm to leave, Baishi Hui had to admire that women were natural actresses.
And so he cooperated with Ran's acting and was pulled away by her.
However, before they had walked a short distance, they heard a scream of "Ah".
Baishi Hui and Ran turned back and saw that Mouri Kogoro had already pinned the kidnapper to the ground!
After catching the kidnapper, the rest was simple: retrieve the hostage, Tani Shoko, and go back to collect the money.
President Tani was extremely grateful. With a wave of his hand, he stuffed one million yen into Mouri Kogoro's hand.
One million yen sounds like a lot, but the majority of people's income in Japan is around 150,000 yen.
This is less than seven months' salary for an average person.
It's like you saved the daughter of the chairman of a listed company.
And then the chairman sent you away with less than fifty thousand yen.
"How stingy," Baishi Hui watched, feeling very speechless.
If it were him, how could he bear this grievance?
Turn right out the door, put on the azu mask, and get to work right there.
He wouldn't let the person go without extorting tens of millions of yen.
"He's already given a lot!" Mouri Kogoro counted the money gleefully, and after confirming the amount was correct, he waved his hand grandly and said, "Let's go! Eat whatever you want today!"
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"Uh..." After coming out of the high-end yakiniku restaurant, Baishi Hui burped, showing a satisfied smile.
Although he usually came to this restaurant, paying for himself and being treated by someone else were two different things!
He looked at Mouri Kogoro, who had a pained expression, and said, "Thank you for the treat, Mouri Detective! I ate very well!"
"You kid sure knows how to eat, specifically ordering Kobe steak!" Mouri Kogoro looked at the 200,000 yen bill and said through gritted teeth, "Aren't you afraid of stuffing yourself to death!"
"I'm still growing right now, I won't stuff myself to death," Baishi Hui smiled and said, "It's getting late, I'll head home now... Goodbye!"
"You ate so much of mine and you want to go home?" Mouri Kogoro said, highly displeased, "Anyway, you're off tomorrow, come on, come back with me for a drink!!!"
In the past, Baishi Hui would definitely have gotten Mouri Kogoro, this stubborn guy, drunk, but now he had something to do.
During dinner, Akemi sent a message; she had found out another piece of information.
Since he was free, he agreed.
"I'm a bit tired today, I'll come find you tomorrow," Baishi Hui said as he walked, waving goodbye to Mouri Kogoro.
He first went back home, changed into clean clothes, and then went to the agreed location — Minhua Park.
Entering Minhua Park, before meeting Akemi, Baishi Hui bought a thermal imaging night vision device and observed the surroundings.
Although he had established a cooperative relationship with Akemi now, given her history of being deceived by Gin,
just in case they were all caught, it was better for him to check.
He observed the surroundings, and there was no one else besides Akemi.
Only then did Baishi Hui put on the azu mask with peace of mind and went over to meet the other party.
Akemi, who had been bitten by insects and mosquitoes on the bench, stood up when she heard footsteps and said, "Azu-sensei, you're finally here... couldn't we have chosen a place with fewer mosquitoes?"
By the end of her sentence, there was a hint of complaint in her tone.
It seemed she had suffered quite a bit here.
"Okay, let's change places next time," Baishi Hui admitted he hadn't considered that point.
He asked, "What is it this time?"
After organizing her thoughts, Akemi said, "The Basta Bank in Italy was robbed of 15,000 maple leaf gold coins by a group of robbers, with a total value of 600 million yen!"
As she said this, her emotions were clearly a bit agitated, saying, "And this group of robbers just happened to escape to Japan!"
Baishi Hui was a bit surprised when he heard this and asked, "How did you find out about this?"
Seeing Azu-sensei surprised by her information gathering ability, Akemi said with a slightly red face, "Uh... well... I saw it on the TV news while I was eating at home."
"..." Baishi Hui was silent. He knew he had been thinking too much.
Akemi continued with a red face, "The leader of the robbers, Dino Cabane, has already been arrested by the Police... I think if we can snatch him from the Police, then we should know the whereabouts of that batch of maple leaf gold coins."
"Snatching someone from the Police?" Baishi Hui thought for a moment after hearing this.
He only remembered that the bag of gold coins was hanging from the ceiling of a certain building, but he didn't know the exact location.
Waiting for the three little ones to accidentally find a treasure map, who knows how long that would take.
Furthermore, Conan is gone now, and the key plot trigger character has disappeared.
He also didn't know the three little ones, and didn't have time to build a good relationship with them.
Instead of foolishly waiting for an opportunity, it would be much faster to actively snatch the person himself!
Besides... he also wanted to play with the Police a bit.
It was getting boring always fighting against those yakuza groups.
Thinking of this, Baishi Hui nodded and said, "Okay!"