"Whew!"

In Kitanosawa Village at night, snow flakes fall like goose feathers, getting bigger and bigger, and the lights of the snow resort become foggy.

In the wooded area outside the ski resort, a snowmobile comes to a halt.

"Brother Joto," Mitsuhiko looked at the snowmobile in front of him that had turned off again, and Gao Cheng, who was lying on the side researching, "Do you really know how to repair cars?" ”

Next to him, Yuanta and Ayumi were also worried.

Because he had too much fun, Gao Cheng rode his snowmobile out of the venue and into the forest, but when he planned to return, he seemed to have lost his way, and even worse, the car was broken down now.

"Strange," Gao Cheng got out from under the car, looking at the tracks under the car and wiping his sweat, "It doesn't look like a motorcycle, I'll try again." ”

Mitsuhiko's face turned completely pale.

For the first time, I felt that Gao Cheng was not very reliable.

"It's miserable, I thought it would be okay to follow Brother Chenghu, what should I do now? I'm going to be scolded again when I go back. Ayumi said worriedly.

"That's not right," Yuan Tai said stunned, "We just came out with Brother Chenghu, who scolded us?" ”

Ayumi suddenly: "Yes, Brother Joto is here......"

Mitsuhiko sighed and looked at the snow-covered forest around him in distress: "Don't worry about anything else, now the key is how to go back?" ”

Gao Cheng heard a few children muttering, coughed lightly and said, "It's not a big problem, the engine should have been overheated just now, just cool it down for a while." ”

"But what about the way back? And the headlights seem to be repaired......"

"There's no way to go back the way you came, but as long as you go down the slope, it should be a road, and you can go back to the village directly from the road."

"It's illegal to ride on the road......" Mitsuhiko said weakly.

Gao Cheng felt that the trust of these little ghosts in himself had loosened, and he hurriedly looked around cautiously and said, "Don't care so much at this time, there will be no cars on the road at night...... Anyway, let's go back to the village first, and the snow doesn't seem to be easy to stop. ”

I didn't know how to explain it when I went back...... When nothing ever happened?

After a while, the snowmobile engine finally returned to normal, only the headlights still did not respond, Gao Cheng had to rely on the faint light of the watch flashlight to carry Ayumi and a few back on the road, and drive straight down the ramp to the road.

Gao Cheng also breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the highway.

The road around the village is not complicated, and you should be able to reach the village by following the road.

You have to go back quickly, it doesn't matter if you get into trouble, it will be troublesome if you miss the gathering of Muto and those people......

"Toot toot!"

A sedan drove from the front, and the short-haired young driver noticed Gao Cheng and honked his horn in surprise.

"Isn't this the ski scooter in the village? Where are you going? ”

"We're going back to the village." Mitsuhiko replied.

"Back to the village? I'm going to the village now," the young man looked around, "are you going the other way around?" It's a long way from the village. ”

“……”

The lobby of the lodge.

Takagi and Uncle Mori and his party had already made contact with the glacier and were waiting for Muto to arrive.

"So you're Muto." Gao Cheng unexpectedly looked at the young driver who led the way back.

"Yes," the young driver nodded, "I built a hut on the side of Lake Sawajiri, where I usually carve owl wood carvings, and you are also lucky, if I hadn't made an appointment with Mizuki and them to meet here, you wouldn't have met me so late." ”

"Strange," the glasses young glacier said in surprise, "how did you meet Detective Joto?" ”

"It's a long story."

Muto didn't seem to want to talk to Glacier so he took off his coat and walked straight to the central couch and sat down.

In addition to Hikawa and another young man named Yamao, there were two women sitting on the sofa, one of whom was Mizuki Tono at the front desk, and the other was Fuyumi Tachihara, a nurse at the clinic.

Glacier didn't care about Muto's attitude, and got up to meet Gao Chengdao: "Detective Joto, let me introduce you, I've met Yamao and Muto, and then these two ladies are Tono Mizuki and Tachihara Fuyumi, we are both from the old Kitanosawa Village, and we are also elementary school classmates, and this is also an elementary school reunion." ”

"That being said," Muto explained with his arms crossed, "because we have a branch school in our village, there are only five of us in the entire grade. ”

"Only 5 people?" Yuan Tai and Conan leaned over.

"yes, that's right," Glacier said, sitting down, "so we got along well after elementary school, but as of today, we haven't seen each other for eight years." ”

Conan was very sensitive to "8 years", and when he heard this, he asked, "Haven't seen each other in the past 8 years?" Why? ”

"It's not because of this guy Yamao, eight years ago, he was driving back to his grandmother's old village where his grandmother lived alone, and a girl was killed on the road."

Hikawa pulled out a news clipping from his pocket that was tucked away in his notebook, and on it was a news story about Yamao's hit-and-run in Kitanosawa Village.

"That's it, this guy was terrified and abandoned the girl's body and fled straight back to the village, and it took him a few hours before he finally figured it out and ran to the police to turn himself in."

Yamao's face was extremely ugly when he saw the newspaper clipping, and he didn't look around and explained: "After all, the car crashed like that, and I don't think I can get away with it." ”

"Hmph," Glacier laughed, "at that time, he owed a lot of gambling debts to the underground bank, his life was in shambles, and the court convicted him of speeding, drunk driving, hit-and-run, and was in the middle of a driver's license suspension period, and the sum of all zeros and zeros finally regained his freedom this summer." ”

"That's what happened," Takagi lamented, "and that's what happened in two unfortunate car accidents on the same day." ”

Another unfortunate case of Tachihara Fuyuma's mother, Tatehara Fuyumi, happened to be here, and it was really a catch-up.

"Even more unfortunate," Glacier continued, "the girl who died at the end of the mountain turned out to be Mizuki's sister Natsuki, who was only 18 years old at the time. ”

The atmosphere at the scene fell into a heavy one, and seeing this, Takagi hurriedly changed the topic and asked, "So, that's why Yamao will ...... when he returns to the village this time."

"Yes, when Yamao was serving his sentence, he had just decided to build a reservoir, and the entire village was flooded by the reservoir, including the old house of the Yamao family."

Muto answered, seemingly complaining about the reservoir, and looked at the glacier disapprovingly as he spoke.

"Speaking of which, Glacier, when you first said that you were going to build a reservoir, your family immediately raised their hands in favor, and sold the replacement land at a high price and moved to Tokyo without any attachment, I really can't forgive your family! You were the one who instigated my parents in the first place, right? Do you know that you are betraying your precious hometown?! ”

"Hey, Muto," Glacier smiled helplessly, "To be a human being is to be flexible, who doesn't like to have a good life?" Isn't the village very good now? ”

Uncle Maori looked at the few people who fell silent, felt that the atmosphere was very strange, and took the initiative to say: "Okay, you talk slowly, let's not bother, let's go back to the room first." ”

"Okay."

After returning to the guest room, Gao Cheng opened his laptop and searched.

"Keisuke Yamao ......"

The atmosphere between those people was a little stiff, and the reunion after 8 years seemed unsatisfactory, but these had nothing to do with him, and there was nothing to touch.

It is worth noting those two incidents that year.

What a coincidence.

A case that happened 8 years ago, plus a reunion 8 years later...... If there is no accident, it should have something to do with this case.

"Joto," Takagi said, "I asked, the incident with Tatehara Fuyuma really seemed to be just an accident, according to the police investigation, near that cliff is Lake Sawajiri, Tachihara Fuyuma likes to see swans, and when he found him, he also had a telescope around his neck, presumably accidentally slipped." ”

"He's going alone?" Gao Cheng turned around.

"Yes, Fuyumi Tachihara was working at the hospital at the foot of the mountain at the time, and there was no one else at home because there was an emergency wounded person who was called over," Takagi said, looking at the notes in his hand, "It was the dog next door that he usually loved when he found Fuyuma Tachihara...... What's strange is that the time and location of the two incidents are very close to each other......"

"That's right," Gao Cheng thought with a blank face, "There is definitely something related in the middle, let's go to Liyuan's house tomorrow to have a look." ”