As it turns out, Umbrella’s intelligence division really does know what it’s doing.
Not long after Fang Zheng and the others returned from Capital City to Tokyo, they received a report from Umbrella’s intelligence division, and after reading it, Fang Zheng immediately picked up the phone and called everyone over.
"Did you find where that mark came from?"
Hearing this, Conan was naturally thrilled, and Ran was just as curious.
"Yeah. For now, it looks like we’ve found it."
Fang Zheng snapped his fingers, and the twin maids quickly brought over two dossiers, placing them in front of Conan and Ran.
"This is..."
"The Yodaimiya Clan."
Fang Zheng opened his own file at the same time and began explaining to them.
"According to what we’ve dug up so far, the Yodaimiya Clan were a rich family that owned several textile factories during the Meiji Period. But when the Great Kanto Earthquake struck in 1923, the clan suffered devastating losses. At that time, the Yodaimiya Clan Leader somehow used unbelievable luck and miracles to resurrect the clan."
At this point, Fang Zheng smiled faintly.
"Besides that, according to rumor, the Yodaimiya Clan also has a Gold legend."
"A Gold legend?"
Hearing this, Conan and Ran immediately perked up. Ever since they’d seen that house built of gold at Twilight Manor, they’d been extremely sensitive to the word ’Gold.’
"That’s right. According to the Yodaimiya family legend, the reason that Clan Leader was able to revive the family, by his own account, was that one day he encountered the Golden Witch named Beatrice, and signed a contract with her, offering his own soul as the price. Beatrice then bestowed wealth and fame upon him, and in the end he received ten tons of Gold from the Witch."
"Ten tons?"
Conan screamed when he saw the information in front of him. Ran might not have much of a sense of what ten tons of Gold really means, but for Conan it was a whole different story.
"That’s got to be a lie!"
"It is a rumor, after all. We have no way to verify it."
"Why not?"
"Because the Yodaimiya Clan has already been wiped out."
"...Eh?"
Everyone froze at Fang Zheng’s answer, and Fang Zheng flipped to the next page of the file and went on.
"According to the records, something happened to the Yodaimiya Clan on a place called Rokugashima over ten years ago. As for what exactly happened, nobody knows. All that’s known is that Rokugashima was completely destroyed, and everyone in the Yodaimiya Clan died except for the Yodaimiya Clan’s eldest daughter Ehua Yodaimiya and her granddaughter Yoshitsugu Yodaimiya. Later, Ehua Yodaimiya took control of the Yodaimiya Clan’s Financial Syndicate, but she eventually died of illness. As for Yoshitsugu Yodaimiya, she jumped to her death afterward. With that, every blood relative in the Yodaimiya Clan died, without exception."
"Uu..."
Hearing this, Ran’s face went pale, while Conan frowned.
"It says here that Ehua Yodaimiya was suspected of killing her own kin?"
"That’s one theory. Based on the intelligence we have, at the time, the Yodaimiya Clan Leader Uzo Yodaimiya didn’t have long to live, and each of his three children had serious financial problems. According to the police investigation report back then, it was very easy to suspect that Ehua Yodaimiya killed the others to inherit the estate, then faked an accident to cover it all up. Unfortunately, since there was no evidence to prove this, the case was ultimately closed with a verdict of not guilty. After that, Ehua Yodaimiya adopted Yoshitsugu Yodaimiya, but Yoshitsugu seemed convinced that Ehua Yodaimiya was the murderer who wiped out the Yodaimiya Clan. As for why she killed herself after Ehua Yodaimiya’s death, only she herself would know."
"So is there any connection between the Yodaimiya and Uramaru Renya?"
"None that we’ve found so far. But there is one thing they have in common."
"Gold... right."
Conan was still a Detective, after all; he knew what he was doing.
"Exactly. If it were just a rumor, whether those ten tons of Gold ever existed would definitely be a mystery. But we’ve all personally seen Twilight Manor, which was built from Gold, as well as the emblem of the Yodaimiya Clan... Since the common factor between both sides is Gold, there’s one person who becomes highly suspicious."
"The Golden Witch, Beatrice."
"Correct."
Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.
"According to the Yodaimiya Clan legend, the Gold that rebuilt the Yodaimiya came from Beatrice. So it’s entirely possible that the Gold used to construct Uramaru Renya’s Twilight Manor also came from Beatrice. If that’s the case, then this Beatrice character might actually be the mastermind behind everything. After all, someone who can casually produce that much Gold absolutely cannot be an ordinary person."
To be honest, it’s hard to even say if it’s human.
"Hmm......if that’s the case, then there’s a good chance Uramaru Renya is also just a chess piece."
Conan was thinking things through even more on his side. True, ten tons of Gold isn’t something just anyone can casually cough up, but compared to some rich lunatic who uses Gold to build houses, that’s not exactly unheard of. The question now is whether the two are actually connected. If they are, then could that so?called Golden Witch be the real mastermind behind everything, and maybe the Yodaimiya Family and Uramaru Renya are actually her subordinates? The Yodaimiya Clan tried to turn on her or had some sort of falling?out, so they were wiped out?
After all, according to the report, Rokugashima was rocked by a massive explosion that pretty much obliterated everything on the island. That kind of "don’t like what you said, so I’ll just blow you up" approach really fits the image of the Black Organization in Conan’s mind.
"If only Miss Enju were still alive."
Staring at the report in front of him, Conan felt a wave of frustration. According to it, Yoshitsugu Yodaimiya’s death by jumping from a building was also just a few years ago. If Enju hadn’t died back then, they could still go and ask her what happened. But unfortunately, since she’s dead......naturally there’s nothing they can ask anymore.
"I’ve already sent people to buy the Yodaimiya Family’s villa and Rokugashima. By the time this preview screening is over, we should pretty much have them in the bag."
Fang Zheng said it as if it were nothing, leaving Conan and Ran staring, dumbfounded.
"Buy them?"
"Of course. Once I buy them, I can bring in an excavator and turn the whole island upside down if I want; I can dig it up however I like. That villa’s already on the market, it’s just that because of the rumors about the Yodaimiya Family, nobody dares to buy it———after all, a whole family being wiped out is still pretty taboo in high society. Plenty of people think maybe the Yodaimiya Family was cursed or something. As for Rokugashima, it was nationalized afterwards. All I need to do is grease a few palms and it’s done."
".........."
Fang Zheng’s little speech left Conan and Ran completely speechless———buying an entire island just to investigate it. Now they finally understood what "truly rich and willful" really means.
"Oh right, Ran."
Having finished explaining the important stuff, Fang Zheng turned to Ran.
"The movie’s already done. The premiere is in three days. Do you and Sonoko want to come watch?"
"Eh? You mean the one starring Miss Yoko Okino?"
"That’s right, Seventy?Two Hours."
Fang Zheng nodded. The film Seventy?Two Hours, adapted from the Tokyo Tower bombing case back then, had already wrapped. Yoko Okino is the lead, and Fang Zheng had poured a lot of effort into promoting it. In fact, Ran had heard her father talk about it many times already—after all, Kogoro Mouri is your textbook Yoko Okino fan......
"Then can I bring my dad along? He’s been dying to see this movie. And Conan......"
"......Fine, I guess."
Hearing Ran’s request, Fang Zheng let out a silent sigh.
He was afraid that once those two showed up, someone might actually die at the premiere.
But since Ran had asked......whatever. It’s not like the dead would have anything to do with him anyway, so why care.
Still, he hoped no one would die.
Three days later, the film opened.
Seventy?Two Hours is basically a classic popcorn Hollywood?style movie, and Fang Zheng had gone that route with the script. In the movie, Yoko Okino plays a rookie who has just joined the police, and the one who trains her is an older cop. This older cop doesn’t exactly play by the rules, and at first he clashes with the serious, straight?laced Yoko Okino, but as the story goes on, the two gradually come to understand and trust each other.
Then during a later operation, the older cop dies while defusing a bomb. Yoko Okino is hit hard by his death, but she pulls herself together, pushes on, and works tirelessly to track down the culprit behind the bombing, eventually catching him.
The whole film basically follows the structure of the Tokyo Tower bombing case, just with the timeline compressed. As for the Bomber, Fang Zheng deliberately gave him a lot of screen time, portraying him as a psychopath who gets off on watching other people suffer and panic—a thrill?seeking criminal. Fang Zheng was sure that once the movie came out, the jury at the trial would base their impression of the criminal on what they saw in the film when they sentenced him. Even if the guy tried to argue otherwise, Fang Zheng could just wave it off with a single line: "artistic license," and muddle through.
After all, Laozi shot a movie, not a documentary. I’ll embellish it however I feel like. Any resemblance to real people is purely coincidental. What are you gonna do about it?
The movie was a huge hit and received pretty glowing reviews. Yoko Okino’s acting in it also won recognition from quite a few critics, which left her pretty thrilled. Up to now, she’d done plenty of films and TV shows, but many critics wrote her off as relying on her looks to cash in on her youth, with only average acting. This time, though, a lot of critics gave her very promising evaluations, and naturally Yoko Okino was over the moon.
NBS, the TV station under Fang Zheng, also rolled out behind?the?scenes specials and interviews about the movie at just the right time, including exclusive interviews with Officer Megure and Officer Sato, plus segments on the officers who died in the bombing case, pushing public opinion as much as possible. In any case, as far as this movie was concerned, Fang Zheng had already pulled off quite a success.
Of course, what pleased Fang Zheng most was that nobody died at the premiere.
If there had been some kind of "premiere murder case" stealing the headlines, then Fang Zheng might as well have gone and found a wall to bash his head against.........
And not long after the premiere, Fang Zheng received word that the Yodaimiya Family villa had been successfully purchased.
So Fang Zheng took Conan and headed to the Yodaimiya Family villa to see if they could find any clues.
However, they had barely reached the gate of the Yodaimiya villa when Fang Zheng spotted something he knew all too well......

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