Jiang Xia stepped into the next room, glanced at the furnishings with a casual eye, then moved with clear purpose to the wall.
An unassuming watch hung there.
Jiang Xia raised his hand, adjusted the hands of the clock. When the minute and second hands aligned just right, the wall in front of him suddenly rotated, revealing a dark passage behind it.
On the floor inside the passage was a pale, cringing shikigami.
Jiang Xia walked over, squatted down, and poked at it. The shikigami shrank back in horror, then flattened itself to the floor, pressing down like a sticker.
Just then, the entrance wall swung back into place, and the passage was plunged into darkness again.
Luckily, Jiang Xia borrowed his ghost's night vision, and once he could see clearly again, he pulled out a knife, ripped a page from a notebook, and folded it into a small paper bag.
This secret passage led to the tower that had been burned down years ago. After the fire, the remains of a dozen bodies were scattered across the place. The fake "old lady" had walked through this tunnel for years, her shoes always dusty with ash, occasionally taking some of it elsewhere. As a result, the shikigami weren't confined to one spot but had spread throughout the passage.
Jiang Xia took the knife and the paper bag, used the knife to scrape at the shikigami on the floor, scratched the bricks underneath, then collected the dirt in the paper bag, holding it over the shikigami's head.
The shikigami, still flat on the floor, hesitantly lifted a corner.
Jiang Xia could sense the drama unfolding.
He retracted the knife, pinched the shikigami, and in a flash, shoved it into the paper bag, forcibly cramming it inside.
The shikigami, now terrified, squirmed and huddled deeper into the bag, clinging to the ashes.
Jiang Xia found this surprisingly convenient—it didn't even need to fold itself. The shikigami was already doing it, folding up and packing itself in.
Jiang Xia smoothly bagged another ghost. Although it couldn't be dealt with yet or signed into a contract, it was definitely safer in his pocket than left in the gloomy passage.
Jiang Xia tucked the paper bag away.
He'd originally planned to leave the passage, sneak back to the main group without anyone noticing, and use this shikigami to learn about its obsessions. After solving those, he could sneak back into the secret passage and collect all the ghosts.
But before he could head back to the entrance, Jiang Xia glanced up and, to his surprise, spotted another shikigami a few meters deeper into the tunnel.
He paused.
... Thinking it through, it wouldn't take long to scrape just a little more dirt.
And it was rare to be this close to a wild shikigami. It would be easy to pick it up now. Collecting ghosts now could lighten the load for later...
With this in mind, Jiang Xia pulled out the knife and paper bag again and walked toward the deeper shikigami.
Grab one more.
Grab it and go.
...
Ten minutes later.
Conan was sitting in front of the window, sketching out the layout of the chess pieces in the courtyard with intense focus.
Amuro glanced back from the window at Conan. Since Conan was lost in thought, with a pen dangling from his mouth, Amuro didn't notice anything unusual about the child. In fact, he just thought Conan was more organized than most kids.
Amuro had a few ideas about the puzzle now, but they weren't clear enough, and he still felt like something was missing.
It was then that he realized no one had spoken to him in a while, which struck him as odd. Normally, Jiang Xia would have taken this opportunity to crack whatever message the grandfather was trying to convey and figure out where the treasure was.
But Jiang Xia had been unusually quiet... Could it be that he wasn't good at puzzles? Or maybe this wasn't a murder case, and Jiang Xia was just tired?
Amuro turned around, planning to ask Jiang Xia for his thoughts.
But when he scanned the room, he only saw two high school girls standing near the window, quietly discussing which flower bushes were the prettiest. Jiang Xia, however, was nowhere to be found.
Amuro Toru: … Where did he go?
...
It seemed that Jiang Xia's luck was just too good. Every time he finished collecting one ghost and was about to leave the passage, he'd spot another one nearby.
It didn't take long to catch a shikigami. Jiang Xia couldn't help but keep going. By the time he finally stopped to appreciate his harvest, quite a bit of time had passed.
Jiang Xia glanced at his watch and did some quick mental calculations. After estimating the time since he entered, he started to feel a little concerned.
... At this point, it would be hard to sneak back to the main group without anyone noticing. If someone found out he'd gone off on his own and discovered the secret passage, they'd definitely follow him, curious about what he was up to.
Jiang Xia remembered there was a corpse hidden deep in the passage, now little more than a skeleton. When the main group discovered the body, they'd be on high alert, investigating the secret passage thoroughly. The police would also show up soon...
At that point, if he was caught digging up ghosts like this, it wouldn't be as easy to explain.
Jiang Xia glanced down at the fresh shikigami in his paper bag, then at the one waiting to be bagged at his feet, and another just a few meters away, and felt a bit conflicted. After a brief pause, he squatted down silently.
... Anyway, it was too late to go back now. He might as well finish collecting all the ghosts.
Rationally speaking, he realized there was no harm in being gone for a while.
After all, the only villain in this old castle was just an ordinary maid who'd had plastic surgery to pretend to be an old lady. She didn't even have a decent weapon. On the protagonist's side, there were two top-tier thugs—Amuro Toru and Mouri Ran.
Conan had all sorts of black tech on his side. And Suzuki Sonoko was a healthy, athletic high school girl. The fake old lady, on the other hand, sat in a wheelchair all day and couldn't even get sunlight...
As long as it wasn't a surprise attack, the fake old lady wouldn't stand a chance. She'd be countered easily.
Jiang Xia's conscience eased. He realized that by disappearing like this, he wasn't just making things easier for himself—he was making his teammates more alert. They'd notice the plot before it unfolded, and that would only help them. So, in a way, he was sacrificing himself for the good of the team.
Jiang Xia nodded to himself, knife in hand, and resumed digging for another ghost beneath his feet.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 30 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 36/50(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS*