Chapter 21: Let Go, Please! (Seeking Monthly Votes)
Borrowing the Ghost Fetus's vision was equivalent to gaining night vision.
Jiang Xia stepped into the pitch-black Exhibit Hall, navigated through a group of strangely shaped sculptures, and headed towards the deepest part.
The smell of blood grew heavier and heavier.
At the end of the room, looking to the left, a huge oil painting hung on the wall. In the painting, a demon was impaled on a cliff by a knight's sword.
Looking to the right, a portly Middle-aged man was nailed to the wall in the “demon-like pose,” splattering blood across the wall. Streams of blood ran down the wall, and a pool of blood had already gathered at the base of the wall.
Jiang Xia's gaze swept over the Middle-aged man's corpse, quickly settling on his lower leg.
A fresh soul was clinging there. It was palm-sized, like a Shikigami cut from a piece of white paper.
Jiang Xia had just seen a similar one that morning and hadn't expected to see another one so soon after taking a walk in the afternoon.
...
In the Spiritual Medium's classification, when a person dies, some souls dissipate directly, while some exceptionally talented ones can transform into Ghost Fetuses.
There was also another type, somewhere in between.
—These paper-thin Shikigami-like entities.
Ghost Fetuses usually possess a strong self-awareness and remember some things from their lives. They are the hardest to abduct but also the most useful.
As for these leg-clinging Shikigami... they had little awareness, only exceptionally strong obsessions.
Most of them acted on instinct.
After forming, some would cling to their own corpses nearby, while others would drift towards the murderer and cling to the murderer's leg.
Although the Ghost Infant's vision was borrowed, its other senses were still intact.
It sensed the aura of the leg-clinging Shikigami and couldn't resist going over, extending its small hand, wanting to pull it off and bring it to Jiang Xia.
...
Jiang Xia observed from a few steps away.
He saw that the leg-clinging Shikigami, though trembling at the Ghost Infant's approach, held on tightly.
When the Ghost Infant pulled harder, it accidentally wrinkled a bit.
It froze, let go, and secretly smoothed out the wrinkled part.
Jiang Xia sighed inwardly watching this scene.
...As expected, it couldn't be violently torn off.
He still had to follow the process: first, send the murderer away, allowing the soul to dispel its obsession and fall off the murderer's leg on its own.
...
As a “prophet,” Jiang Xia naturally remembered this case in the Mihana museum.
—The cause was that the museum owner had gone bankrupt, so he sold the entire museum to President Nakamoto.
And President Nakamoto was the unfortunate uncle nailed to the wall in front of Jiang Xia.
—He died after buying the museum, believing all art was scrap metal and intending to convert the museum into a restaurant.
Director Ochiai, who had managed this museum for decades, was furious upon learning of the situation and developed murderous intent towards the new owner.
So, that afternoon, Director Ochiai, wearing a faceless knight's armor, waited in this Hell Exhibit Hall.
He invited President Nakamoto over, then nailed him to the wall.
...
As Jiang Xia recalled the preceding events, he surveyed the bloodstains throughout the hall, feeling that this case would not be difficult to solve.
Of course, the first step was definitely to call the police.
Jiang Xia took out his phone, about to dial 110.
But then he suddenly heard some movement in the corridor.
—A few people were chatting as they walked towards this Exhibit Hall.
Jiang Xia listened carefully and found the voices quite familiar—they sounded like his two classmates, Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko.
“...” Jiang Xia paused slightly in his action of pressing the phone, silently glanced at the terrifying corpse beside him, and the sword on the corpse.
Then he realized that if he didn't want to hear a scream duet, it would be best not to let them in...
...
On the other side.
In the corridor outside the Hell Exhibit Hall.
Mouri Ran hesitated and stopped.
She looked at the passage leading to the “Hell Exhibit Hall,” tilting her head in confusion: “I remember there was a ‘No Entry’ sign here just now?”
Suzuki Sonoko leaned next to her, pondering thoughtfully: “Maybe some exhibits were being repaired just now, and they're fixed now?”
The two looked curiously at the dim Exhibit Hall, exchanged glances, and remembered the purpose of their visit today.
Recently, there was a frightening rumor nearby.
—Every night, the knight's armor in this “Mihana Medieval Museum” would come to life and walk around the Exhibit Hall.
So, they came with the idea of “visiting a Ghost House.”
They even brought Conan along for courage.
...
However, after exploring all afternoon, they never encountered the “Ghost Knight.”
Now, they had explored the entire museum, and only this “Hell Exhibit Hall” remained unvisited.
At this moment, seeing that the “No Entry” sign was gone, Suzuki Sonoko's heart immediately stirred:
“Since we're already here, let's go in and take a look. Maybe that mysterious armor is hidden in this Exhibit Hall!”
At their feet, Conan, with a pair of dead fish eyes, tiredly said, “Let's not, we've been walking for most of the day, aren't you tired?”
His faint protest was completely ignored.
The two girls exchanged glances, nodded at each other, mustered their courage, and dragged him into the museum.
Conan sighed wearily, struggling to stand upright.
However, at this moment, the force pulling him suddenly disappeared.
—Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko stopped in their tracks. Not only did they not move forward, but they even subtly retreated a step, showing a tendency to huddle together and tremble.
Conan was startled, raising his head vigilantly to look ahead.
He saw a sinister figure in the dim Exhibit Hall, slowly emerging from the darkness, step by step.
Conan was shocked: “!”
...But soon, he realized that the so-called “sinister” was just an illusion caused by the dim light.
In reality, the person who came out of the Exhibit Hall was walking perfectly normally, with normal posture and gait, even looking a bit familiar.
Conan: “...” Huh?
...Familiar?
...
Jiang Xia walked out of the Exhibit Hall from the darkness, leaned against the doorway, and looked at Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko, who were huddled together and trembling, a little confused: “...Are you very cold?”
“N-no.” Mouri Ran saw Jiang Xia and let out a sigh of relief, feeling both disappointed and relieved.
Disappointed that they didn't encounter a ghost.
Relieved that... well, they didn't encounter a ghost.
Beside her, Suzuki Sonoko's emotional journey was completely different.
“Jiang Xia?” She skipped the disappointment phase and went straight to double the joy, enthusiastically greeting the handsome young man in front of her, “Are you also here to see the movable armor?”
Saying that, she pointed to the darkness behind Jiang Xia: “Is it in this Exhibit Hall?”
Although Suzuki Sonoko had basically concluded that Jiang Xia's capture difficulty was SSS-rank, extremely hard to get, after various attempts.
But that didn't stop her from enjoying looking at his face.
For a seasoned face-lover, as long as Jiang Xia appeared in front of her, Suzuki Sonoko's mood would soar like she had taken hormones.
And looking at him a few more times could also maintain her high standards when flirting, which was very practical...
Suzuki Sonoko said as she tried to pull Mouri Ran into the Exhibit Hall to take a look.
With Jiang Xia there, the courage-boosting effect would definitely be much better than Conan's.
...
However, as the two girls took a step, they were blocked by Conan in front of their legs.
They looked down in confusion, noticing that the child's eyes were somewhat complex.
Conan looked at Jiang Xia, his expression solemn: “...Why is there blood on your shoe?”
Everyone else froze and looked down at Jiang Xia's shoes.
Including Jiang Xia himself.
Jiang Xia was wearing a pair of black sneakers today. The uppers were clean, with only a little freshly accumulated dust on the edges.
Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran breathed a sigh of relief, suspecting it was a prank by the mischievous child.
However, at that moment, they saw Jiang Xia look down at the ground, then suddenly, as if remembering something, he retreated half a step.
When he lifted his foot, a very faint blood-colored shoeprint was left where he had just stepped.
“Ah.” Jiang Xia was a little embarrassed. He simply took another step back, returning to the carpeted Exhibit Hall, and said with a slight apology, “I didn't notice, I stepped in it.”
Saying that, he took out a handkerchief, squatted down, and seemed to want to wipe away the bloodstain on the ground.
Conan: “...”
He rushed over in a flash to stop Jiang Xia, preventing an action that looked suspiciously like “destroying evidence”:
“Where did this blood come from?!”
Conan had strong observational skills and was short in stature.
As soon as Jiang Xia approached, he noticed a subtle difference in the color of the carpet where Jiang Xia had stepped.
After confirming it was blood, and having seen similar things before, Conan initially suspected his neighbor was hiding and cutting himself again.
But upon closer inspection, he found that Jiang Xia looked very well, was acting normally, and there were no strange wet marks on the black wristband of his left hand.
...
However, judging by the fact that Jiang Xia had walked across the carpet, yet there was still a little bloodstain on his shoe...
The amount of blood he had just stepped in was definitely not small... It was highly likely that someone had died here!
...
Unlike Conan, Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko did not have such strong observational skills, and by a stroke of luck, they were not nervous.
They simply thought Jiang Xia had accidentally stepped in some red paint left by the staff—after all, this Exhibit Hall had previously displayed a “No Entry” sign, suggesting it was undergoing maintenance.
At this moment, seeing Jiang Xia's action of wiping “paint” being stopped by the mischievous child.
They also took out their handkerchiefs and approached, intending to help Jiang Xia wipe away the footprint.
Only when they got closer did they realize that the color of the footprint indeed looked very much like blood.
The two nodded secretly: Hmm, as expected of the Hell Exhibit Hall, even the paint used is so unique...
Suzuki Sonoko asked curiously while wiping: “What did you step in? Paint? Pigment?”
Jiang Xia apologized: “A pool of blood.”
“Oh, blood...” Suzuki Sonoko paused, her voice suddenly rising, “A POOL OF BLOOD?!!!”
She looked up in shock.
She saw Jiang Xia squatting at the edge of the crimson carpet, watching her wipe the ground, and then raising his hand to point into the Exhibit Hall: “Someone died, nailed to the wall, you guys...”
Jiang Xia was about to say, “You'd better not go in, it's a bit scary.”
Before he could finish, Conan darted past him and rushed into the Exhibit Hall.
At the same time, Conan pressed his wrist, turning on the flashlight attached to his versatile watch.
—The first batch of equipment the Professor made for him had arrived.