*Awesome guys! We reached the goal this week. Will release 10 BONUS Chapters in two tranches of 5 chapters today and tomorrow! Please vote if you enjoy! Same goals this week, mentioned at the bottom of the chapter. Ba-Bye!*
The words "DNA paternity test" hovered on Jiangxia Tongzhi's lips… and then vanished, like a passing cloud.
Honestly, he hadn't paid much attention to the wildly inconsistent sci-fi technology of this world—it advanced, regressed, and occasionally exploded for dramatic effect. The only high-tech sources worth watching were the Professor and Haibara Ai, who basically served as mobile research facilities.
Anyway, since the Yabuchi family hadn't done the test, it probably didn't exist at this plot point.
Even if it did, bringing it up now would be pointless. The Yabuchi family definitely wouldn't go for it—because it was too late.
The will was being announced tomorrow at 10 AM. By the time any results came back, the fake uncle would be halfway to Brazil sipping coconut water on inheritance money.
Jiangxia briefly ran through this whole thought process and then casually threw it into the mental trash bin.
DNA test timing? Not his pot. He was just a spiritualist passing by, here to collect ghosts and move on with his life.
——
On the road leading from the mansion gate, the Yabuchi family came rushing out in turns like they were auditioning for a reality show, each handing Jiangxia a different chunk of backstory.
The overall inheritance war looked like this:
One camp was dead set on proving that "Yabuchi Yoshifusa" was a fake, aiming to expose him before the clock hit 10 tomorrow.
The other side was Fake Uncle Yoshifusa and his terrifyingly muscular Brazilian bodyguard. This pair had already received two threatening letters and were now on red alert.
The Brazilian bodyguard was tall, bronze-skinned, with a stone-faced, square-jawed aura that screamed "Do Not Disturb." He clung tightly to Uncle Yoshifusa, silently emitting serious "You don't want this fight" energy. The rest of the family instinctively gave him a five-meter radius of personal space.
Jiangxia eyed him once.
Then again.
...And again.
Unconsciously, he began comparing the guy's skin tone to Hattori Jiangxia's.
Shockingly, Hattori came out a shade darker.
The bodyguard initially returned Jiangxia's stare with blank disinterest. But after the tenth second of unblinking eye contact, he started to squirm and awkwardly looked away, silently stepping back behind Uncle Yoshifusa like a big, shy bear child.
Yabuchi Hiromi noticed all this and was instantly fired up.
She leaned in to whisper behind Jiangxia to Kudo Yukiko:
"See? I told you 'Uncle Yoshifusa' is fishy! Look at that bodyguard—totally guilty! Definitely scared Jiangxia will expose something."
Earlier, while everyone else was giving background info to Jiangxia, she had sneakily Googled his name.
To her delight, he turned out to be a famous detective, reportedly as good as Kudo Shinichi himself—although phrases like "Kudo Shinichi's ghost possession" did raise a few questions.
Not important.
As long as he could blow the lid off Fake Uncle, she was happy.
Kudo Yukiko was thinking the same thing.
But while reassured, she was also a bit bewildered.
She hadn't realized Jiangxia had gotten this famous. Even foreigners were scared to meet his eyes now?! Kids these days grow up too fast.
Listening to their murmurs, Jiangxia felt like his nonexistent "cool factor" was being forcibly inflated.
From his point of view as someone with full spoiler access (read: supernatural cheats), he knew perfectly well that the Brazilian wasn't scared—he was just embarrassed.
Because that guy wasn't a bodyguard.
He was actually Uncle Yoshifusa's son, born from a Brazilian woman.
Real talk: Yabuchi Yoshifusa was already dead. When the Yabuchi patriarch wrote his will, he left everything to his younger brother's son.
So the current "Uncle Yoshifusa" was actually Yoshifusa's old friend, skilled in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After receiving a threatening letter that basically said, "If you come, you die," he and the real heir cooked up a switcheroo.
The friend put on the "Uncle Yoshifusa" disguise.
The actual heir—half-Brazilian, tall, and jacked—pretended to be his silent bodyguard.
This way, if someone was planning to kill the heir, they'd target the wrong guy.
One small issue: the heir had lived in Brazil his whole life and couldn't speak or read Japanese. He had no idea what was going on. So when Jiangxia stared at him like he was a walking spoiler, the poor guy just panicked.
He wasn't guilty. Just extremely confused.
——
Of course, Jiangxia couldn't just blurt all this out.
"Hello, I'm a ghost-seer and I read spoilers" doesn't go over well in polite society.
So he made some vague suggestions, poked around the Fake Uncle a bit, and got nowhere.
No surprise. Yabuchi Yoshifusa had left home over thirty years ago. The only people who'd even seen him back then were a young Kudo Yukiko and some childhood friend. The guy might as well have been a shikigami at this point.
Instead of wasting time, Jiangxia turned his attention to two key suspects.
Yabuchi Machiko—the patriarch's young second wife.
And the patriarch's daughter-in-law.
Both were surrounded by thick clouds of murderous aura. Machiko's was practically dripping with intent. The daughter-in-law's was more controlled but still obvious.
Their objective? Stop Fake Uncle from getting a slice of the inheritance pie—even if it meant blood.
Now this was more like it. Jiangxia was very pleased. A murder might not have happened yet, but the vibes were promising.
——
He also sneakily examined everyone's legs.
(Yes, legs. Let him cook.)
Fifteen years ago, the Yabuchi patriarch's wife had fallen into the courtyard well while reaching up to pick camellias.
If that was murder, there might be a ghost lingering. But alas, the house was ghost-free.
No spirits. Just rage.
——
After some fruitless investigation, night fell.
Yabuchi Machiko left for a friend's wedding. The rest of the family gathered to eat hot pot.
Jiangxia watched the walking murder-flag Machiko exit stage left.
At that moment, he felt someone watching him.
He quickly turned his head.
A man in a baseball cap, with his collar pulled up and sunglasses on, was lurking behind the door like a yinbi paparazzo.
As soon as Jiangxia locked eyes with him, the man disappeared like a cartoon thief—poof, gone.
Jiangxia stared at the empty spot for a moment, then turned back to eat hot pot like nothing had happened.
Suspicious outfit? Creepy behavior? Sure.
Murderous aura? Zero.
Ghosts? None.
That guy wasn't a threat.
That guy… was Kudo Yusaku.
Yes, Conan's dad.
Having recently argued with his wife Yukiko, he was now hiding in the shadows like a guilty cadre, unsure if it was safe to come out.
Or maybe he just wanted to let the kids play detective for a while. Who knows.
Jiangxia shrugged. If Yusaku wanted to lurk around being dramatic, fine.
As long as he didn't interfere with Jiangxia's noble mission: collecting murderous aura.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 3/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*