Chapter 26 We Aren't Good Partners, Are We? Please give me your monthly votes (ω＼)
Jiang Xia walked into the Ghost House.
Outside, dark clouds gathered, and inside, it was very dim; without a flashlight, almost nothing could be seen.
Jiang Xia borrowed the Ghost Fetus's night vision ability and moved silently along the pitch-black corridor.
...
Soon, at the end of the corridor, he found a floorboard that had been lifted.
This seemed to be the entrance to a secret passage. There was a flight of stairs leading downwards.
Jiang Xia approached with slight curiosity, observed for a moment, and vaguely smelled the scent of killing intent from the passage.
"..." He nodded with satisfaction and walked in.
...
He followed the stairs all the way down to the bottom.
At the end of the tunnel, a lit basement appeared.
Jiang Xia remembered that this was where the filial son who killed his father had attempted to surrender but was instead imprisoned by his mother.
At this moment, the basement door was open.
Conan's deduction could vaguely be heard from inside.
...
Jiang Xia lightened his steps, walked to the door, and peered inside.
In the center of the room, a row of iron bars separated a cell.
The homeowner's son, disheveled, sat in the cell with an old Shikigami clinging to his leg, presumably transformed from his father.
Outside the bars, there were three people in total.
—Conan, his female classmate Yoshida Ayumi, and a white-haired, very thin woman.
...
Jiang Xia's gaze swept across, quickly landing on the woman with her back to him: "..."
That long, waist-length silver hair made Jiang Xia's fingers twitch, instinctively wanting to pluck something.
However, after a moment of composure, he realized that the killing intent on the woman was very faint. It could only barely be classified as 'edible', not even as fresh as the killing intent from the kidnapper last time.
The Ghost Infant looked at the white-haired woman in front of it and, after a moment of surprise, also showed slight disappointment.
However, it wasn't as picky as Jiang Xia; it was very satisfied to have killing intent to eat. So, it still jumped down with great enthusiasm, ready to pick it up.
...
A few meters away, in the basement.
The white-haired woman held a knife, glaring at Conan and Ayumi, who were cornered against the wall, her emotions extremely agitated.
Her back was to the door, so she didn't notice Jiang Xia had appeared there.
Conan, however, saw him.
His deduction paused slightly but quickly resumed as if nothing had happened.
However, this fake Elementary School Student clearly didn't control his emotions well.
When he spoke, his voice was much stronger than before.
Fortunately, the white-haired old woman's mental state was unstable, so she didn't notice Conan's abnormality.
Ayumi hid beside Conan, looking timidly at Jiang Xia, also remaining silent.
It was unclear whether she had become clever in a crisis or was too scared to make a sound.
Of course, it could also be the common illusion of a face-lover—the big brother at the door didn't look like a bad person.
...
Conan was clearly the kind of Detective who, once caught up in a deduction, would finish it even if it cost him his life.
Actually, at first, the white-haired old woman didn't intend to kill anyone.
Genta and Mitsuhiko, who were lying in the yard, were only knocked unconscious by her.
Because she thought that even if these first-grade children reported it, the Police wouldn't bother.
But now, Conan was different.
—Conan not only saw the person in the dungeon, he even guessed that the son was the murderer from back then.
"A Ghost House hiding a homeless person" and "A Ghost House hiding a fugitive murderer" are completely different.
If it were the latter, even if a child reported it, the Police might come over.
...
So, at this moment, listening to Conan's deduction, the white-haired woman developed some genuine killing intent.
When Conan said, "The one who killed your husband was actually your son," the old woman finally erupted.
"Shut up!" She grabbed Conan's neck, her face contorted in a ferocious expression as she raised the kitchen knife.
Ayumi shrieked in fright, covering her eyes.
Conan was also stunned: "..." ...Wait a minute?
How was the script different from what he had imagined?
—He clearly saw Jiang Xia just now!
Shouldn't the normal situation be: he deduces the truth, Jiang Xia simultaneously controls the old woman, and then the two of them share a tacit smile, deeply concealing their achievements and fame before taking out their phones to call the Police?
...But now, where was Jiang Xia?
Conan struggled to look back, but the old woman blocked his entire view. The furious white-haired woman let out a roar and suddenly raised the knife, bringing it down heavily.
When the tip of the knife was only inches from Conan, someone finally grabbed her wrist from behind.
Jiang Xia snatched the kitchen knife from the white-haired woman's hand and pressed down hard on her shoulder.
The woman cried out in pain, "Ah!" Half her body went numb, and she collapsed onto the ground.
Along with her cry, the faint sound of Police sirens could be heard from outside the house.
—Jiang Xia had called the Police before coming in.
"..." Jiang Xia glanced outside in the direction of the sound: perfect timing, as expected of the Police in this world.
He threw the snatched kitchen knife into a corner and suddenly noticed a mop at his feet, so he picked it up casually.
—Although the tunnel door was open, it would still take some time for the Police to find the entrance.
Before the Police arrived, he should quickly loosen up the killing intent.
—Conan's ability to attract hatred was truly not to be underestimated; the more this fake Elementary School Student deduced just now, the more killing intent the white-haired woman generated... The amount of killing intent now far exceeded when Jiang Xia first entered.
Jiang Xia looked at the person covered in killing intent and raised the mop expectantly.
At this moment, the white-haired woman sitting on the ground, clutching her shoulder, turned her head and looked at Jiang Xia with a face full of unwillingness.
The two made eye contact.
The next second, the killing intent swirling around the old woman naturally dropped to the ground with a patter.
...Perhaps she assessed the combat power of both sides and quickly realized that she couldn't continue to kill. So, she could only abandon the thought of killing.
The Ghost Infant, who had been waiting for a long time nearby, couldn't help but let out a joyful cry.
It scurried over, rolled the detached killing intent into a fluffy ball like cotton candy, and brought it back to show Jiang Xia.
Jiang Xia half-squatted, pulled out the cigarette case containing the ghost mint, tore open the sealed packaging, and let the killing intent soak in.