For Fang Zheng, the epitaph didn’t mean much; he just glanced at it and stopped thinking about it. Then, at Kanon’s invitation, Fang Zheng entered the conference room — the tense atmosphere was really a bit irritating.
"Let me confirm one more time."
Fang Zheng finished reading the contract in his hand, looked up, and faced everyone.
"According to your discussion, the final agreement is that 50% of Kinzou Yodaimiya’s wealth will be left to the next head of the Yodaimiya Family, and the remaining part will be equally divided among the other siblings. The property will be distributed upon Kinzou Yodaimiya’s death... Does everyone agree to this agreement?"
"........."
In the face of Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Krauss Yodaimiya, as the eldest brother, remained silent, while the others watched him with a somewhat smug smile.
"If you haven’t reached an agreement yet, you can continue to talk until you come up with terms that everyone can accept."
Fang Zheng placed the agreement on the table.
"Also, I hope to meet Mr. Kinzou Yodaimiya to discuss the inheritance distribution in person."
"This..."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s words, Krauss Yodaimiya showed an awkward expression, while Ruffov sneered.
"That’s right, Brother Krauss, we also hope father can clarify these issues. If father had made a decision earlier, we wouldn’t have wasted time here."
"Yes, how about letting Mr. Fang Zheng meet father?"
At this moment, Ehua Yodaimiya also joined in.
"This concerns an important agreement confirming legal validity."
"But father doesn’t like to meet outsiders and dislikes noise..."
Under the pressure of his siblings, Krauss Yodaimiya frowned and hesitated to speak.
"Regarding the inheritance issue, I insist on meeting and discussing it."
Fang Zheng stared at Krauss Yodaimiya and continued calmly.
"Inheritance distribution is a serious matter that must be handled by the person themselves, and there must be confirmation of the person’s consent for notarization to proceed. If I cannot meet with Mr. Kinzou Yodaimiya, I will not agree to confirm notarization."
"I understand. I’ll ask father and then decide."
Faced with Fang Zheng’s response, Krauss Yodaimiya was visibly uneasy, and in the end, this was the only answer he could give.
Thus, an afternoon passed in a tense atmosphere, and when Fang Zheng saw Conan again, he couldn’t help but make a sarcastic remark.
"Now I understand why all these people ended up dead. You should have seen the way these people talked about money; their eyes lit up like wolves seeing food. I think even if there really were that gold, these people might start killing each other at the sight of it... Well, I think it’s very likely they killed each other for the gold, and in the end, only one lucky person escaped, but because ’family killed each other for ten tons of gold’ was too embarrassing, they deliberately caused an explosion accident to cover it up."
"........."
Conan remained silent in the face of Fang Zheng’s sarcasm. It was only after Fang Zheng finished speaking that he looked at him.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, has anyone gone to the garden before?"
"Garden? No, those people have been arguing over the inheritance issue until now. If it wasn’t for everyone knowing the word ’dinner,’ I suspect we might not have eaten tonight... What’s up?"
"Hmm... There’s something I’m concerned about."
"What’s that?"
"It’s about Maria... actually, when we came back from the picnic today, Maria found that her rose was missing."
"...What do you mean?"
"Earlier, when we just arrived at the villa, Maria saw a wilting rose in the garden. I remember Renji specifically tied a ribbon on that rose, but when everyone came back from the picnic, it was gone."
"Could it have been cut off by the gardener or something?"
Fang Zheng wasn’t too concerned.
"Since it’s a sick plant, it should have been dealt with."
"We asked the servants, but no one attended to the garden, and oddly enough, that flower disappeared..."
"Did you ask us about our whereabouts this afternoon just for that?"
"Of course not. The issue arose afterward."
Conan shook his head.
"Afterward, because it was about to rain, Maria’s mother came to find Maria to take her home, but Maria was throwing a tantrum because she couldn’t find the rose. The two then got into an argument, and Lady Kanon even hit Maria... We felt it wasn’t good to stay there, so we left. But after a while, Lady Kanon found us again, asking if we had seen Maria. We all said no, because we thought it was just a mother-daughter argument and thought Maria would go back with Lady Kanon afterward, but didn’t expect Lady Kanon, in anger, left Maria behind."
Conan seemed a bit frustrated as he said this, and Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.
"And then?"
"Then, of course, we went to find Maria, but surprisingly, we found Maria in the garden, but she was holding a white umbrella. When Lady Kanon asked her who gave her the umbrella, she said it was Beatrice..."
"The Golden Witch."
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng finally became serious.
"So that’s why you came to ask if any of us had stepped away."
"Exactly."
Conan nodded.
"I’ve been following Renji, Shizuka, and Sento; they didn’t have time to leave. And Lady Kanon, if she wanted to find her daughter, wouldn’t need to disguise herself as any witch. So I suspect someone is trying to deceive us, hence asking if you have any clues."
"Everyone on my side is embroiled in disputes over the inheritance, and no one has left the room during this time."
Fang Zheng shook his head, understanding Conan’s thought. After all, Maria is a nine-year-old girl and appears mentally unstable. If someone disguised as a legendary witch appeared in front of her, it would be easy to deceive her.
"I asked the servant, and they said no one gave Maria an umbrella."
Conan maintained a very serious expression.
"However, it can’t be ruled out that there’s collusion between the servants and the master. Since this is the Yodaimiya’s main house, if it’s for the purpose of inheritance, bribing one or two servants to assist in a murder wouldn’t be out of the question. Moreover, if there is an accomplice, it would be easier to clear one’s alibi."
In the end, until dinner started, the two of them hadn’t discussed any results.
Sure enough, at the dinner party, Kanon also raised this question. However, everyone unanimously stated that no one went out to lend Maria an umbrella. As for what Maria said about Beatrice, naturally, it was ignored by everyone.
Yet, to everyone’s surprise, after dinner, Maria took out a letter—a letter from the Golden Witch, Beatrice.
The content of the letter from this self-proclaimed consultant Alchemist of the Yodaimiya Family stated that Kinzou Yodaimiya declared the end of the contract and that she would take back everything granted to Kinzou. But the letter also contained a special clause that if someone finds the hidden gold, then Beatrice would relinquish all rights and wealth, and it also mentioned that anyone could search for the gold based on the inscription. Anyone finding the gold could gain this power.
Although everyone found the letter absurd, the wax seal indeed bore the ring of Kinzou Yodaimiya, the family head, indicating from one angle that someone indeed possessed Kinzou’s ring and wrote this letter.
Whether this letter was actually written by the legendary witch is another matter.
After that, the adults of the Yodaimiya Family hurried to Kinzou’s study to seek an explanation from their father, leaving just Fang Zheng, Conan, and a few young people still seated at the dinner table.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, does this letter have legal effect?"
Sento looked at Fang Zheng in confusion and asked. Fang Zheng took the letter and glanced at it, then nodded.
"Because Japanese law stipulates that a seal can be used as a personal signature, so this letter, from a certain perspective, can also be considered a distribution of Mr. Kinzou’s will; only there’s one problem..."
"Problem?"
"Time."
Conan also focused on the letter, speaking as he looked.
"Although in this letter, the person claiming to be Beatrice says she’ll relinquish power only if the gold is found, there’s no time limit set. Generally, such requests would have time constraints, and failure to find something within that time would result in automatic forfeiture, right? Without a time limit, it means this stalemate can drag on indefinitely, doesn’t it?"
"That... makes sense."
Hearing Conan’s explanation, Sento, Shizuka, and Renji exchanged glances.
"So this letter is just a prank?"
"If it were a prank, it doesn’t quite seem like one. But clearly, the summary of the letter is: whoever finds the hidden gold will gain the wealth of the Yodaimiya Family. So even without a time limit, everyone will try to find the gold as soon as possible."
Fang Zheng shrugged, placed the letter back in the envelope, and looked at Maria.
"Maria, who gave you this letter?"
Facing Fang Zheng’s question, Maria happily raised her hand.
"It was Beatrice!"
"......."
Well, it seems there’s no hope of getting any clues.
After that, the adults of the Yodaimiya Family continued their meeting, while the kids went to the lounge to pass the time. Fang Zheng and Conan returned to their room to continue discussing the "incident."
"It seems this letter was handed to Maria along with the umbrella by Beatrice."
"But we still can’t confirm if Beatrice truly exists."
Conan was clearly unwilling to accept this notion.
"I still believe it’s someone disguising themselves as the witch. The reason they chose Maria is because she has cognitive and mental issues, making it less likely to be uncovered. This way, by taking advantage of Maria’s words, they could perfectly impersonate an unidentified stranger and commit the crime."
"If we’re to talk about non-existence, there’s another person who’s nonexistent."
Fang Zheng snapped his fingers.
"Kinzou Yodaimiya; since arriving at this villa, I haven’t seen him. Only the eldest son Krauss Yodaimiya and his wife Natsuhi, along with the attending doctor and a butler, are allowed in his study. Whether Kinzou Yodaimiya is truly still alive remains a mystery."
"Are you saying...?"
"Krauss Yodaimiya is suspected of embezzling his father’s assets. Assuming so, from a general viewpoint, if discovered, he’s sure to be punished, possibly losing his position as the next family head. They reside permanently on Rokugashima, so they could have fatally harmed Kinzou Yodaimiya early on. Then, by bribing some servants, they could maintain the illusion that Kinzou Yodaimiya is still alive."
"So you’re suggesting that everything at tonight’s dinner was orchestrated by Krauss Yodaimiya?"
Conan pondered.
"That could certainly be plausible; maybe Kinzou Yodaimiya already knows where the gold is. It’s a ploy to gain recognition from the siblings. With this letter, Krauss Yodaimiya just needs to ’successfully’ find the gold to officially inherit the ’family head’ role without arousing suspicion from others."
Though they discussed it for a long time, unfortunately, they reached no conclusions. Eventually, Fang Zheng yawned.
"In any case, let’s sleep first. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow."
"Boom-boom-boom...!!!"
As if responding to Fang Zheng’s words, thunder roared outside the window, mixed with the torrential rain.

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