The Split-Actress in Conan's World

"That is the cursed piano that Mr. Aso used in the concert he held on the night he committed suicide!"

Maori Kogoro looked unconcerned: "What cursed piano..."

Hirata and Akira seemed to have gained some confidence and further argued for the so-called curse.

"It's not just the Aso-san thing, it's also the former village chief's thing!"

"The former village chief? Is he the former village chief Kameyama Isamu who is going to perform a ritual today?" Kogoro Mori was speechless.

"Yes, it happened two years ago, also on a full moon night." Hirata Kazuaki seemed to be suppressing some emotion, with sweat on his forehead.

"I happened to be passing by the community activity center at that time. There was no one inside, but I heard bursts of pleasant piano music. When I asked who was inside, the music stopped immediately."

"I went in curiously and saw that the village chief Guishan was lying on the piano, dead!"

Secretary Hirata suddenly raised his voice: "The cause of death was a heart attack, but what's more terrifying is that the piece he played before he died was exactly the piece that Keiji Aso played repeatedly in the flames, Beethoven's Moonlight!"

Mao Lilan hugged her father's arm in fear, with a look of horror on her face.

"But the professor just played for so long, and there was nothing special about it!" Conan jumped onto the piano stool and started playing the piano randomly.

Professor Lecter thought about it seriously, then agreed with a smile: "Maybe it's because I didn't play the Moonlight Sonata?"

Hirata and Ming stopped talking to them and drove them out. "Anyway, please wait here until the ceremony is over."

At this time, Asai Narimi had calmed down. Mao Lilan finally came to her senses and asked, "Why is Miss Narimi here? Are you and him?"

She looked at Shimizu Masato standing beside her.

"I happened to meet Mr. Shimizu on the road." Asai Narimi's eyes curved, and a circle of red could be vaguely seen.

The square-faced man next to her introduced himself: "Hello, I'm Shimizu Masato, thank you for your guidance."

"Because Mr. Kameyama was the first deceased person I examined since I came to this island, I came here specially to burn incense and pay my respects to him." Asai Narimi briefly explained the purpose of his visit.

"That's it..."

"See you later then." She waved goodbye and entered the memorial hall with Shimizu Masato.

Maori and his group had no choice but to stay outside and wait.

"Why does the professor carry this umbrella with him? Don't you find it a bit troublesome?" Mao Lilan asked when she saw Professor Lecter holding a long-handled black umbrella.

"I'm used to it. I always feel uneasy if I don't hold something in my hands." Professor Lecter raised his hand so that they could easily see the full picture of the umbrella.

"And sometimes it's very convenient, when there's heavy rain or bright sun or something like that."

"Hasn't the professor ever considered this a compulsive tendency?"

Conan's childish voice was heard, and he raised his hand as if to touch the umbrella, but unfortunately he put his hand down before he touched Professor Lecter and put the umbrella on the ground again.

"Little boy, you actually know about obsessive-compulsive tendencies?" Professor Lecter looked at him in surprise at first, then returned to his gentle smile, "To be honest, this is indeed a kind of."

Mao Lilan asked curiously: "Can psychology experts also suffer from mental illness?"

"While obsessive-compulsive tendencies are not classified as pathological mental illnesses, studying psychology may be a pathological process in itself."

Professor Lecter corrected her mistake and gave her some scientific advice: "In fact, everyone has some psychological defects, such as mysophobia, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, or irritability. This is normal. However, due to various reasons, these defects may rise to psychological disorders or even become the cause of mental illness."

"We study psychology to understand how to prevent and treat these diseases. This is consistent with traditional medicine. There are also physiological effects behind mental illnesses."

Mao Lilan seemed to understand a little.

"Does the professor treat many patients as well?"

Professor Lecter modestly denied: "My main job is education, doing research in the academic field."

"But I have a psychological clinic in Jianggutian. If you go to Jianggutian someday, you can come and sit for a while."

Conan suddenly appeared again, holding his hands behind his head, and asked in confusion: "Professor has a clinic, but he doesn't see many patients?"

Professor Lecter squatted down, holding his shoulder with one hand, squinting his eyes and looking at him through the lenses of his glasses. "It's called a psychological clinic, but it's actually more like a psychological counseling room."

"After all, people nowadays don't take mental health very seriously, and rarely come to me for intervention on their own initiative. Plus, my principle is 'if the patient doesn't feel pain, then there is no need for treatment.'"

He pinched Conan's shoulder slightly, and said in a deep tone: "So according to this principle, precocious children are not necessarily the ones who need to be interfered with in treatment..."

"What do you think?"

Conan sweat dropped and laughed dryly, "Yes, yes, hahahaha."

Could it be that this professor is so smart that he can tell his mental age?

Half believing and half doubting, Conan thought it would be better not to go deeper into this topic.

"Hey, professor, when you were playing that piece just now, did you feel that the piano was a little strange?"

"You think it's weird?"

"Yes, that secretary uncle clearly said that no one had used that piano for many years, but it's not out of tune at all!"

Now it was Professor Lecter's turn to be surprised. "It seems that you have a rare 'absolute pitch', kid."

"You're right. That piano must be maintained regularly and retuned from time to time."

Suddenly, a pleasant piano sound floated into the ears of several people. Conan's face suddenly turned ugly and his pupils suddenly shrank.

It's the Moonlight Sonata!

Oops!

He immediately turned around, pushed open the door, rushed into the house, and ran straight to the room where the so-called "cursed piano" was placed.

Several people who were participating in the worship also rushed out from the corner of the corridor.

"The sound seems to come from that room..."

Secretary Hirata looked as if he had seen a ghost.

Conan suddenly opened the door!

When everyone saw the scene before them, they all showed expressions of horror.

Hideo Kawashima, who had previously used the excuse of going to the toilet, now fell on the piano, wet and covered with tiny scars!

Outside the room where everyone was gathered, Professor Lecter walked slowly through the corridor, muttering something in a very light tone, like a saint reciting a prayer silently.

"When the law fails to bring justice to the person concerned, private revenge becomes justified and even noble from that moment on."

Asai Narimi, who came late at the corner, didn't know if he happened to hear these words. He was stunned at first, and then fell silent.

Professor Lecter seemed not to see her and walked past without saying a word.

In the room, Kogoro Mouri has begun to consciously protect the scene and separate irrelevant personnel.

Sheet music was found on the piano.

"Strange, didn't I see this when I came here during the day?"

Just as he was wondering, Xi Benjian, one of the guests, fled in panic, leaving everyone with an embarrassed back.

"Who is that?" Kogoro Mouri didn't understand what he was doing.

"It's Mr. Nishimoto," Secretary Hirata introduced. "I heard that he used to be in a very high position, and he was addicted to eating, drinking, whoring and gambling."

"But ever since the accident two years ago when the head of Guishan Village was injured, he has been hiding at home all day long."

As if he remembered something, he shouted to the absent-minded Kuroiwa Tatsuji: "By the way, village chief, haven't you and Mr. Nishimoto known each other since childhood?"

"Ah, that's right..." Kuroiwa Tatsuji responded reluctantly, his attitude being perfunctory.

Mao Lilan, who was asked to call the police, stood at the door panting, holding the hand of an old policeman who looked very old.

"Dad, I brought the policeman here!"

"Why so slow?"

"Because the phone call couldn't get through, I had to go out and find the police myself." Mao Lilan explained unhappily.

She wouldn't accept being asked to do such physical work and then being complained about.

The old policeman is the only police officer on this small island, so the scene still has to be maintained by Kogoro Mouri.

Seeing that it had become completely dark, he had no choice but to let everyone in the activity center go.

"I'm afraid we can't interrogate them one by one now. Everyone go back and rest first. Remember to lock the doors and windows!"

The guests dispersed in twos and threes.

Asai Narimi was the last one to leave along with Mori and his group.

"Conan, your deduction just now was really great!"

She was referring to the fact that at the scene, Conan deduced that the murderer was a man based on the marks on the corpse.

Mao Lilan smiled and said, "This child just loves to play detective games."

Not at all discouraged, Asai Narimi continued, "Your reasoning is really convincing. I think many of those adults don't realize it."

Conan quickly put on a childish, innocent smile to make amends for himself.

"This is all the result of following my uncle around, right?"

"And the professor must be able to recognize the characteristics of the murderer at a glance!"

The boy changed his offensive and kicked the ball to Professor Lecter who was watching the show quietly on the side.

"I'm just a professor. Solving cases is Holmes' job." Lecter casually ignored himself, glanced at Conan silently, and decided to give this kid a big lesson another day.

"Anyway, I really hope you can solve the case as soon as possible." Asai Narimi stopped in front of the clinic door, his eyes sincere, but as if there was something extremely complicated mixed in them.

"I don't want to do autopsies anymore..."

Maori Kogoro put his hands on his hips and boasted: "As long as I am here, there will be no problem!"

"Then let's go back to the hotel first." Mao Lilan pulled the two of them and continued to move forward and said goodbye to Asai Narimi.

Professor Lecter did not follow them, but stayed behind.

"Do you mind if I come in and sit for a while?" He turned sideways and looked at the backs of the three people. His tone was clearly a request for permission, but it revealed an unquestionable arrogance.

Asai Narimi had no choice but to open the door of the clinic and gently invited: "Come in."

Walking into her familiar area, she was obviously much more relaxed. She walked briskly to the tea room and brought out two cups of hot water.

"The clinic is only open for free, please forgive me."

"I'm not very picky about this." Professor Lecter took the cup of water readily, took a sip to moisten his throat, put the cup down, and sat on the sofa.

It is called a clinic, but in fact it is just a residential building converted to be suitable for reception. There are a few more single sofas in the living room, and the room is divided into a pharmacy for storing medicines and a "ward" for seriously ill patients.

He could even see her own living room at a glance. It was full of the atmosphere of life, and from the warm decorations inside, it could be seen that the owner loved life very much.

"You just revealed a flaw." Professor Lecter's voice is very distinctive. It is a gentle and low timbre like water, but he often uses a flat or even cold tone.

Asai Narumi looked over in confusion, and the hand holding the cup of water unconsciously turned the cup.

"They are at the scene, so there shouldn't be any speculation about serial murders, right?"

Asai Narimi then realized that the "flaw" he was talking about was the sentence "I don't want another autopsy" and forced a smile and said, "Yes, is that so?"

"I just thought of what happened to Mr. Kameyama two years ago and said something out of turn. It can't be considered as evidence, right?"

Professor Lecter shook his head. "The young detective has already begun to suspect you. Because of this statement, I'm afraid he has already tried to change direction and find a reason to return to the activity center to look for clues."

"Of course this is not evidence, but are you confident that you have cleaned up the mess?"

Asai Narumi could no longer deceive herself. It was obvious that the professor in front of her was certain that she was the murderer.

"Why are you telling me this?"

She smiled sadly, "Are you trying to save me?"

"If what you understand as salvation is helping you escape from sin, then I don't think so."

Professor Lecter held the umbrella with both hands, tapping the handle regularly with his index fingers.

"I just think it would be a shame if a child's revenge was blocked halfway."

"Besides, at this point, do you still need someone to save you?"

For a person who has lived in misery and hatred for the first half of his life, any so-called "salvation" based on personal will is unnecessary. Ignoring the obsession on which he depends for survival will only turn his life into a sad joke.

After a long silence, Asai Narimi called the hotel where the Mori family was going and learned that they were indeed not in the hotel.

She asked Professor Lecter hesitantly, "Would you like to come with me?"

Professor Lecter gave her a helpless look in return, which made her look a little helpless.

"The detective needs to solve the mystery, and you need to set the questions. You both have your own things to do."

"But I'm just a professor. You wouldn't want a professor on vacation to stay up late with you, right?"

Asai Narumi nodded embarrassedly, quickly went to the kitchen to make rice balls, and prepared to run to the scene under the pretext of delivering a midnight snack.

Professor Lecter was the only one left in the clinic. He closed his eyes with peace of mind and decided to spend the night on the sofa.

Save...

It was precisely in the most irreparable situation that you saved each other...

The murderer who made the detective most regretful, and Holmes who shouldered the weight of life for the first time.

What an interesting subject.