Chapter 6: Shinichi Kudo and His Pot (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 6: Kudo Shinichi and His Scapegoat

As soon as Jiang Xia entered the classroom, the noisy environment suddenly went quiet.

It wasn't because they were afraid of a school bully. The ones who went quiet were mainly the female students in the class.

Most were looking at Jiang Xia’s face.

A small minority, more perceptive, were looking at the back of his hand.

The silence lasted only a moment before the whispering resumed, though the topic of conversation had clearly changed from before.

Soon, the teacher arrived with a stack of exam papers and entered the classroom.

……

Jiang Xia found his seat and sat down, quietly taking an exam.

During the break, he went out to buy a can of cola.

When he returned, he discovered that his desk drawer had been stuffed with a lot of medicinal ointments.

The bottles on the outside had perfume-scented notes stuck to them, written with words of concern or confession.

The ones further inside didn't have notes, but there were traces of tape on the bottles.

Jiang Xia watched silently for a while, suspecting that they had also had notes attached, only for them to be peeled off by later arrivals... Tsk, tsk, tsk, this wicked world of judging by appearances.

It’s a good thing he has been handsome in both his past and present lives.

This habit must be passed down.

……

Jiang Xia didn't touch the medicine or the notes.

It wouldn't be good to take them home, and it wouldn't be good to throw them away.

After thinking about it, he figured he didn't need the desk drawer anyway, so he might as well leave them there for now.

This way, the next person who wants to give a gift might retreat on their own because they can't find an empty spot.

And if he acted rashly or handled it poorly... given the nature of this world, Jiang Xia worried that it wouldn't be long before someone poisoned his water cup.

Then, the Kudo classmate in the back row could show a sorrowful expression while conducting a "three-choice-one suspect" investigation into the poisoning of his secret crush, using him to boost his performance record...

……

Kudo Shinichi was late again today; he didn't arrive until after two exams were finished.

However, he had a legitimate reason—on his way here, he had encountered a murder case at a breakfast shop and only came over after solving it.

The proctor nodded, accustomed to this, and let him in.

Kudo Shinichi’s seat was right behind Jiang Xia’s.

As he passed Jiang Xia, his gaze inadvertently swept over the hand Jiang Xia was using to hold his pen, then snapped back, staring at it thoughtfully for a long while.

Just as the papers were collected, Jiang Xia’s shoulder was poked by a pen.

He turned around to see Kudo Shinichi staring at the back of his hand, asking with great curiosity

"What caused this injury? The area of bruising is too large and very uniform. If it’s not an impact injury, it could be a problem with a vital organ. You’d better..."

Jiang Xia interrupted him without changing his expression: "Yesterday afternoon, I was hit by a soccer ball you kicked away."

Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko happened to be passing by, and they were shocked when they heard this.

Both turned to Kudo Shinichi simultaneously, their voices filled with reproach: "Can't you just kick toward the goal?!"

"???" Kudo Shinichi was also shocked. "Soccer is a team sport that emphasizes coordination! How could I only kick toward the goal..." Hmm?

...No, wait.

That doesn't seem to be the point.

...The point is that he didn't kick a soccer ball at all yesterday; he had been at the police station filling out reports the whole time!

But at this point, it was clearly too late to try and clarify the point.

Kudo Shinichi realized that the looks Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko were giving him had already turned into the looks one gives a "jerk who kicks people without apologizing and then has the nerve to run over the next day to ask about the victim's feelings."

Kudo Shinichi was stunned for a moment, then fought back: "You can't just listen to one side of the story—such uniform bruising without any swelling at all, it couldn't possibly be caused by a soccer ball, you..." He turned to Jiang Xia, wanting to ask what was actually going on.

However, the person in front of him had already collapsed onto his desk, focused on catching up on sleep.

Yesterday, Jiang Xia had finally touched a ghost and was a bit too excited to sleep, so he stayed up half the night rolling ghost catnip and didn't sleep until dawn. He was exhausted.

"...Hey!" Kudo Shinichi couldn't accept this behavior of dumping the blame and walking away, so he leaned over, wanting to shake him awake.

But before he could touch Jiang Xia, he was pressed down onto the desk by Mouri Ran, who warned in a low voice: "Don't disturb his rest."

Kudo Shinichi: "..."

He was just about to launch his defense, but suddenly, he felt a thick wave of killing intent.

Kudo Shinichi looked up vigilantly, searching for the source. He saw that most of the girls in the class were silently glaring at him, and there were even a few students from other classes standing by the windows.

Kudo Shinichi: "..."

...Something is wrong.

This development is very wrong.

Clearly, he, Kudo Shinichi, is the most popular handsome detective at Teitan High School. Just a few days ago, there were many pretty girls writing him love letters... How did the world change just because Jiang Xia came to school?

Although he was indignant, there were simply too many people glaring at him...

Kudo Shinichi weighed his own combat strength and silently shut his mouth.

Forget it, no point in arguing with a fragile-hearted neighbor.

Maybe Jiang Xia didn't mean to frame him on purpose, but was actually hallucinating...

……

Kudo Shinichi didn't play "Ten Thousand Whys" anymore.

Jiang Xia spent a peaceful day, feeling relieved.

After school, upon returning home, he set about preparing the tools needed to help Yoko Kinoshita deal with her stalker.

Jiang Xia’s house was quite large, with several floors and a basement.

The layout was similar to that of Professor Agasa’s house next door.

Professor Agasa was a quirky inventor, just as his name suggested, and he was also Conan’s provider of "golden fingers"—things like the voice-changing bowtie, the anesthesia wristwatch, the power-enhancing sneakers, the soccer belt... all of them were made by him.

Next door to the Professor’s house was the Kudo family home.

Every time Jiang Xia passed by and saw the "Kudo" nameplate, he felt that his parents' luck was actually quite decent.

Kudo Shinichi’s father, Yusaku Kudo, was the ceiling of intelligence in this world.

And yet, Jiang Xia’s parents, those "men in black" from the organization, had lived next door to him for so many years without ever exposing their identities...

……

Now, Jiang Xia’s parents had ascended to heaven, and the Kudo couple had moved to the United States, so Jiang Xia no longer had to worry about that problem.

However, there was still Kudo Shinichi, another little expert at uncovering identities, right next door.

Fortunately, for the time being, Kudo Shinichi had no idea that Jiang Xia was doing odd jobs for a strange organization.

This might be for the same reason—Kudo Shinichi didn't have much contact with Jiang Xia.

Jiang Xia Tongzhi was one year older than Kudo Shinichi, and when moving up a grade, he was held back for various reasons, so they only ended up in the same class in high school.

And whether it was Jiang Xia or Jiang Xia Tongzhi, they were both very skilled at skipping class... Thinking of this, Jiang Xia made up his mind to keep up the fine tradition of skipping class.

……

Jiang Xia entered his home laboratory, found a few useful gadgets, and changed into light, comfortable clothing.

Then, he put on a mask to cover his face and ran to the area between Yoko Kinoshita’s company and her home, secretly tapping into a bit of electricity from a streetlamp to install a few surveillance cameras.

After that, the situation on those roads began to be live-streamed to his house 24/7.

……

Three days later, in the evening.

As Jiang Xia was pruning his bonsai, the monitor emitted a "beep-beep" sound.

It had detected a specific image.

Jiang Xia put down his shears, pulled up the playback, and saw a car with a unique color passing by the monitor.

He zoomed in to look at the license plate and discovered that this was his target.

So, he put down the shears, packed his things, and prepared to get to work.

(End of chapter)