Chapter 43: Excellent, truly ruthless!

Haibara Ai brought out the household spare medical kit, fished out the thermometer, and had Ayumi check her temperature. Sure enough, she was running a slight fever.

Mitsuhiko looked worried. "It's probably because the air conditioning in the movie theater was set too high today..."

Conan turned to look at Dr. Agasa. "Doctor, do you have any cold medicine here?"

Dr. Agasa rummaged through the medical kit, only to find gauze, hemostatics, disinfectant, and digestive aids. He looked somewhat annoyed. "It seems that after we finished the last batch last time, I forgot to go buy more the next day..."

"You guys go ahead and eat," Chi Feichi said, standing up. "Wait a moment, Ayumi, I'll make you some pumpkin rice. After you eat, I'll send you home early."

"Yeah!" Ayumi nodded obediently, turning her head to watch Chi Feichi as he went off to cook, then suddenly let out a sigh.

"What's wrong, Ayumi?" Mitsuhiko asked, puzzled.

There was a hint of yearning on Ayumi's face. "If only Brother Chi were Ayumi's older brother..."

Haibara Ai had just put the thermometer back into the medical kit and intended to reorganize the medicines that Dr. Agasa had rummaged through in a mess. Hearing this, her action of tidying up the kit paused.

Turns out she wasn't the only one who would think this way?

Waking up startled from nightmares on numerous occasions, she would always think of her older sister, and she would also think of the warmth and comfort that was within arm's reach when she woke up that day, and her heart would gradually calm down.

Her sister was a very gentle person, perhaps too gentle. While Chi Feichi did not show such overt affection, he possessed a magical ability to blend warmth and peace of mind together.

She had never thought of Chi Feichi in terms of romantic love; she had only ever thought that if Chi Feichi had a younger sister, that girl would surely be very happy...

And then she thought, if only it weren't just her and her sister. If there were someone like Chi Feichi around, when someone bullied them, he would surely step forward...

In the past, when she saw girls being shielded behind their older or younger brothers, she never felt envious. Her sister was a good-natured and gentle person, so she herself had to be the one standing at the front rebuking others, and she was capable of doing so.

However, ever since she met Chi Feichi, she realized that she, too, was capable of feeling envy.

She also understood a little—even if she painstakingly armored herself and stood at the front, she could never provide that sense of security. When her sister was with that man, she probably never thought, 'Even if I am wronged, I still have family behind me,' but rather, 'He will definitely be able to protect my younger sister'?

Because in her sister's heart, no matter what, she was always the younger sister who needed to be taken care of.

However, whether it was envy or sorrow, she was ultimately not Chi Feichi's younger sister, nor was she an innocent little girl like Ayumi. She was merely someone who brought danger and trouble to others...

Ayumi felt uneasy under Haibara Ai's complex gaze. Thinking of Haibara Ai's attitude toward Chi Feichi, she quickly explained, "Haibara, I don't want to monopolize him, nor do I want to steal your brother. It's just... it's just..."

Haibara Ai hadn't reacted in time. Monopolize what? Steal whose brother?

Ayumi stammered 'it's just' for quite a while without figuring out how to explain, growing somewhat anxious. She jumped down from her chair and pulled Haibara Ai up. "Come with me!"

"W-Wait a minute," Haibara Ai failed to keep up with Ayumi's train of thought. "What are we doing?"

"To tell Brother Chi that you want pumpkin rice too!" Ayumi pulled Haibara Ai along with a resolute look on her face.

A child's logic was simple. She thought that Haibara Ai believed she wanted to hog the 'brother', and since Chi Feichi was only making pumpkin rice for her, Haibara Ai must be unhappy.

Since she didn't know how to explain, she would just have Chi Feichi make pumpkin rice for Haibara Ai as well~

Haibara Ai remained utterly bewildered: "..."

How did this end up tied to pumpkin rice again?

At the table, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Conan also looked at the backs of the two girls with complete confusion. What just happened?

Chi Feichi had just pressed the button on the rice cooker when he saw Ayumi pulling Haibara Ai over. "What is it?"

Ayumi encouraged in a low voice, "Go ahead, Haibara."

Dark lines streaked across Haibara Ai's forehead. A phrase like 'I want to eat pumpkin rice too,' which sounded like a little girl acting spoiled, was something she simply couldn't bring herself to say.

Besides, why did Ayumi think she wanted to eat pumpkin rice?

However... since Chi Feichi was making a private dish, she really didn't want to be left out.

After a brief internal struggle, she lifted her chin and instantly put on a calm expression. "That pumpkin rice, I'd like to try some."

"I made an adult-sized portion, it should be enough for the two of you," Chi Feichi said, turning to lean against the kitchen counter. He took out his phone, unlocked it, and browsed the bounty board online.

There were two newly updated bounties, one of which was an escaped robber and murderer who had committed a home invasion in Beika Town yesterday and killed the homeowner. The police had already locked onto a suspect and even released a front-facing photo obtained during the investigation.

Still at large, with a bounty of 900,000 yen.

He remembered a plotline where Ayumi caught a cold and was home alone, only to encounter a home invader.

Upon seeing earlier that Ayumi had a cold, he had only been somewhat suspicious; now, seeing this wanted criminal, he was ninety percent certain.

Although the person who broke into Ayumi's house was not this wanted robbery-murderer, that kind of situation was still quite terrifying...

After reading through the newly released investigation details, Chi Feichi cleared his digital footprint, put away his phone, and pocketed it.

There wasn't much hope of catching this wanted criminal; having committed the crime yesterday, he would likely be caught elsewhere by tomorrow evening, and by now he had probably already left Tokyo.

As for the one who broke into Ayumi's house, he didn't know if he had a criminal record, but even if he did, it probably wasn't worth much...

"Brother Chi!" Conan had also wandered over at some point. Seeing Chi Feichi's gaze shift to him, he pointed toward the other side of the living room. "Can I borrow your phone for a moment? Dr. Agasa is using his own phone to call Ayumi's mother and explain the situation, and my battery is dead. Genta and the others need the landline in the living room. I want to call Uncle Kogoro and Sister Ran to let them know that I'll be helping send Ayumi home first and will return a bit later tonight."

The excuse was sound.

Chi Feichi took out his phone, shut it down, removed the memory card, turned it back on, unlocked it, and handed the phone to Conan, his thoughts briefly drifting away: I wonder when I'll be able to switch to a smartphone...

Conan looked at the phone, then at the memory card in Chi Feichi's hand.

Very well, quite ruthless!

Silently taking the phone, he walked off to the side to make the call.

Taking advantage of the moment Chi Feichi turned back to look at the pumpkin rice in the rice cooker, Haibara Ai quietly crept over. Once Conan hung up the phone, she asked softly, "Did you confirm anything?"

"Hold on." Conan opened the phone's photo gallery and videos. Sure enough, it was completely clean with nothing there, and no photos or videos could be found in the file manager either. He barely managed to suppress his curiosity and refrained from poking around elsewhere.

Haibara Ai hadn't held out much hope to begin with, so she wasn't particularly disappointed either. She just couldn't figure it out. "Finding a chance to get his phone is a bit troublesome, but surely that's better than asking him directly, right?"

"I was just testing the waters. If he had no guard up, I could have taken the opportunity to destroy the photos and videos. If he was on guard, I could at least confirm his phone's lock screen password. That's why I purposely waited until he put the phone back together before going over to borrow it. As long as he unlocked it in front of me, based on the direction of his finger's movement and range of motion, I could deduce it," Conan locked Chi Feichi's phone and then lit up the screen again. "At the time, he used his right hand single-handedly to hold and unlock the phone, meaning only his right thumb was in play. Judging by the finger's range of motion and movement trajectory, the first three digits are in the bottom right, with the second and third digits repeating and positioned lower down, the first one is to the right of the second and third digits, and the fourth digit has the largest finger movement range and is located in the upper left. Therefore..."

As he spoke, Conan very decisively entered 9001, and the phone unlocked successfully.

Haibara Ai: "..."

From now on, she must never unlock her phone in front of a detective, even if the front of the screen isn't seen!

"Actually, both 9001 and 9881 were possible, but since the English word for 'Chi' is Pool, 9001 is much more likely. He really is quite bored," Conan closed the phone again and said with a confident smile, "不过现在可能不需要手机密码了... But now we might not even need the phone password. Since we've confirmed the photos and videos are on the memory card, we just need to find a way to get the memory card and slip it into any phone to delete those things."

"And what if the files on the memory card are password-protected?" Haibara Ai asked.

Conan rubbed his chin and thought seriously. "To make them easy to remember, many people don't set passwords to numbers or letters unrelated to themselves. We can try his phone password first. As long as it doesn't automatically lock or wipe after a certain number of incorrect entries, even if there is a password, we can try them one by one. If all else fails, we can use decoding methods to forcibly crack the password. Right now, the most important thing is still getting that memory card..."

Haibara Ai turned to look toward the kitchen counter and found that Chi Feichi was happened to be looking over. Caught in his gaze, she felt an inexplicable wave of guilt and instantly dismissed any thoughts of directly snatching the memory card. "I'll leave it to you, then."

Conan was somewhat surprised. "You're not planning to help? He has his guard up against me; if it's you, maybe you could take advantage of his inattention to grab the memory card..."

"Ai, help bring the bowls over, the pumpkin rice is ready," Chi Feichi called out from over there.

"I know," Haibara Ai decisively went to fetch the bowls.

Conan: "..."

Why did he suddenly have such a desolate feeling of fighting a lonely battle?

Dinner started once more. Everyone was worried about Ayumi's health and were not in high spirits, but... they still finished all their food.

Afterwards, while digesting their meal, they kept stealing sidelong glances at the pumpkin rice in the two girls' bowls.

That sweet pumpkin aroma smelled so enticing that they really wanted a taste...

Fortunately, the two girls didn't eat too slowly either, finishing their rice a minute later.

In the end, Dr. Agasa and Haibara Ai were left in charge of cleaning up, and since Chi Feichi had to head back to Beika Town anyway, he offered to drop the others off along the way.

Along the road, Chi Feichi received a call from Kuroba Kaito. Hearing Kuroba Kaito say he went to a reptile farm and bought twenty catties of frogs, he directly gave him the address of the bamboo rat breeding spot and told Kuroba Kaito to drop them off there.

Hearing that Chi Feichi was driving, Kuroba Kaito didn't chat much longer. Once the matter was settled, he hung up the phone.

Conan sat in the back seat, paying attention to Chi Feichi's phone the entire time. He had half a mind to try and quietly snatch it, but...

Could someone please tell him why Nonatus was poking its head out from near Chi Feichi's collar and staring fixedly at him?!

For the past twenty-something minutes since getting into the car, it hadn't blinked even once!

Fine, snakes couldn't blink to begin with, but did it have to keep looking at him like that? It was seriously creepy... Could this guy Chi Feichi have guessed that he was still plotting against his phone, and deliberately had his pet stare him down?

In reality, however, Nonatus was chattering endlessly.

"I still don't understand how he turned into a little child. Looking at him every which way, he's no different from any other kid..."

"Huh? Why does he keep stealing glances at me..."

"Master, he's stealing glances at me again. His look is so weird, is he plotting something shady?"

"Here he comes again, here he comes again! He's even stealing glances at me while talking to Mitsuhiko! If he makes a move on me, can I fight back?"

"Right, Master, you said if I bite him once, can he revert to the juvenile snake stage?"

Chi Feichi kept his eyes focused on the road as he drove: "..."