Kiyomi Ruri followed the instructions, followed the line, and climbed the ladder, quickly completing the installation of the "simple communication device". During this time, Kiyomi Kako heard some noise and came out to take a look. She found that it was just two high school students playing around and didn't pay much attention. She just reminded them to be careful and went back to watching TV.

The installation was not troublesome. According to Kiyomi Ruri's research, this so-called "simple communication device" was actually a toy version of a "cable car". It consisted of a carrying cable, a traction cable, and a driving device, powered by dry batteries. Nanahara Takeshi only asked her to build the cable car, but didn't give her the cable gripper or the "gondola", which were probably still in his hands.

This cable car should be able to transport some not too heavy things, and even notes were no problem. It was really a delicate toy. However, after Kiyomi Ruri finished installing it, she looked at it speechlessly. What kind of lunatic would have such a strange train of thought? To save a little time knocking on the door to talk, he spent more time making these useless toys.

That guy seemed really idle at night...

In addition to these toy cable cars, she also received a key to the Nanahara family's front door. It seemed that Nanahara Takeshi couldn't even be bothered to open the door for her anymore. After giving her the order, he let her open the door herself and start working directly.

However, she couldn't find the doorbell anywhere. She suspected that it was sealed in the box along with the driving device. And she didn't have any buttons or ropes on her side, so she seemed to have no way to ring the doorbell and disturb Nanahara Takeshi... Well, she should have thought of it earlier. That guy was not human at all. The "simple communication device" was just a nice-sounding name. In reality, it was his one-sided summoning tool.

Nanahara Takeshi was obviously fooling around. After Kiyomi Ruri finished installing it, she studied it for a while and then let it go. After all, Nanahara Takeshi had done this kind of thing before. He was a mentally ill person who was bored to death. It would be embarrassing to take him seriously.

She went straight to take a bath, soaking until her skin became fair and tender. When she came back, she wrote her homework carelessly, regardless of whether it was correct or not. Then she took out "The Case Files of Miss Ruri-mes, the World's Number One Beautiful Princess Detective" and started writing today's story. She changed the names of Tokiyoshi Kenshi, Uchii Tatsuo, and Hiradate Kazuo to Tokyo, and wrote them into the book. She also let Miss Ruri-mes insult Nanahara Watson. Where did you get the courage to think you're the male protagonist? If there were a pig-brained male protagonist like you in a detective novel, readers would have used the book to wipe their butts!

Yes, that's right. I can't be the female protagonist, and you can't be the male protagonist either. I don't have any lines, and neither do you. Let's all go down together. No one will have it easy!

Under the desk lamp, she wrote with enthusiasm, becoming more and more excited. Soon, she became happy again, and a smile appeared on her little face.

......

The next morning, Kiyomi Ruri didn't wait for Nanahara Takeshi to go to school together. She went straight to school in a daze and dozed off during two classes. During the break, she walked in the corridor, breathing in the fresh air, and found her best friend and childhood friend Tsuda Yūtarō sticking together, discussing something.

Curious, she approached to listen, but Tsuda Yūtarō immediately noticed her and greeted her with a smile. Sawada Yūko also immediately stopped talking and turned to face her.

Kiyomi Ruri noticed that Tsuda Yūtarō was holding a stack of papers and asked curiously, "What are you guys talking about?"

"We're discussing club matters and getting to know the seniors who joined the club." Sawada Yūko remained calm and secretly gestured for her boyfriend to put away the documents.

It was about the judo club, and Kiyomi Ruri immediately lost interest. She casually asked, "Yūko, do you want to go to the restroom together?"

"No, I've already been there before."

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"Okay." Kiyomi Ruri walked away.

Sawada Yūko watched her leave and immediately leaned in closer to her boyfriend, continuing to flip through the stack of student information. Tsuda Yūtarō was really well-connected. He had obtained basic information about many people from friends in the student council and made photocopies. There were even ID photos on them.

"This one won't do. He looks like a gorilla. She definitely won't like him."

"This one is worse than a gorilla. How did you choose these people?"

"This one won't do either. He's too fat."

"This one is too thin. What if he gets sick often and Ruri has to take care of him? No good."

"This one has a bad reputation. I heard he's a playboy. What if he cheats on her? Ruri would end up in jail for murder."

Sawada Yūko was really strict. Even when choosing a son-in-law for a princess, it was only to this extent. After hesitating for a while, Tsuda Yūtarō whispered, "Maybe we don't need to worry. Yesterday, I asked some friends who have good sources of information to help. They heard some rumors..."

"What rumors?"

"It seems like Kiyomi likes Nanahara Takeshi from Class A, the guy who caused trouble during the activity where I pretended to be a dead body." Tsuda Yūtarō wasn't too sure about the accuracy of the information and hesitated before saying, "Several people saw them leaving school together yesterday. Someone even said that Nanahara is the young master of a wealthy family and has a beautiful full-time driver. Kiyomi got in the car with him."

"Is that so?" Sawada Yūko's eyes instantly sharpened, and she immediately searched for information. "Did you get his personal information? I can't quite remember what he looks like."Tsuda Yūtarō was well prepared and immediately pulled out Nanahara Takeshi's information. Sawada Yūko looked at it for a while and was not particularly satisfied. She pondered and said, "Class A is the preparatory class for the special advanced class, and he is still the top student in the grade. That's not bad. In the future, we can copy his homework. He looks... okay, a bit weak, but still passable. However, his athletic ability... is really weak, no special talents, and he hasn't joined any clubs. He's not the same type of person as us, at most he's a 60 out of 100."

"So what should we do?" Tsuda Yūtarō asked innocently. After all, Nanahara Takeshi managed to get a score of 60, while the gorilla gang only got 20 or 30 points.

Sawada Yūko looked up and asked, "Can you strike up a conversation with him?"

Tsuda Yūtarō immediately shook his head and said, "No, I heard that he doesn't interact with others. Don't you know what a top student is like?"

Sawada Yūko flipped through the information again and thought that Nanahara Takeshi was somewhat presentable. The idea of having a fixed place to copy homework was quite tempting. After hesitating for a moment, she made a decision, "Then I'll come up with a plan. You go prepare for the social gathering, make it more lively and fun. We'll bring them together and see their reactions. We can also observe that kid's character. If he turns out to be a scumbag, we'll teach him a lesson and warn him to stay away from Kiyomi."

Tsuda Yūtarō patted his plump chest and created ripples, saying confidently, "Don't worry, leave it to me. I guarantee it will be fun."

............

It was 3:40 in the afternoon, time for school to end.

Kiyomi Ruri was finally in high spirits. She wasn't particularly angry about Nanahara Takeshi's disdain for her yesterday. After all, she had scolded him enough in her books and had vented her anger. Just like yesterday, she packed his bag for him at the shoe locker and happily followed him onto Nakano Eri's private car.

Nakano Eri habitually adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses and asked through the rearview mirror, "Where are we going?"

Nanahara Takeshi stretched lazily and said, "Let's stop by Uchii Tatsuo's house on the way."

Nakano Eri nodded and started the car, heading towards Uchii Tatsuo's house. The police had a complete set of personal information on Uchii Tatsuo because he owned a hunting rifle. She had checked it yesterday and had taken note of the address.

Soon, they arrived at Uchii Tatsuo's residence, a pretty decent house.

Nanahara Takeshi didn't ask to go inside and question Uchii Tatsuo's wife. He just circled around outside, getting a rough idea of the layout of the Uchii family's house and calculating the distance to the Matsunai family in his mind map. Then he instructed Nakano Eri to drive to the Matsuzaki Art Museum. They had made plans to see Ichinose Hajime's original works today, so they were just stopping by.

Kiyomi Ruri, sitting in the passenger seat, turned around curiously and asked, "Is that enough? Did you find any flaws in Uchii Tatsuo's alibi?"

Nanahara Takeshi, sitting in the back seat, looked out the window and said indifferently, "I thought of many possibilities yesterday. Now we're just confirming which one is the most likely. And as I told you, it's not important anymore. It's been almost three weeks, and it's difficult to obtain evidence. Even if we do, it will only serve as supplementary information for solving the case. It can't be used to prosecute Uchii Tatsuo."

Kiyomi Ruri couldn't help but itch and said, "Regardless of whether it's useful or not, can you at least tell me? Is it a time discrepancy?"

"I'll tell you later. The key to this case is the motive for the murder. Only by figuring that out can we truly bring down Uchii Tatsuo. I've seen enough blurry photos. Let's go see the original works first."

Nanahara Takeshi stroked his chin in contemplation, casually responding to Kiyomi Ruri's curiosity, while Kiyomi Ruri looked at his expression suspiciously and suddenly felt that he had other plans in mind, something hidden, probably not something good.

............

On their second visit, Nanahara Takeshi and his group easily saw the original works. After all, they had greeted the staff yesterday, and it was still early, only a little past 4 o'clock.

In a tightly guarded basement, Uchii Tatsuo and a representative from the bank opened the specialized art insurance safe together. They carefully took out four scrolls and placed them on a long table covered with white cloth. The "Chongzhidao Four Scrolls," missing for 121 years, were finally revealed in front of Nanahara Takeshi.

Nanahara Takeshi put on white gloves and took out a magnifying glass. He took a deep breath, and his eyes suddenly brightened. He first looked at the paintings from a distance, storing the "high-definition images" of the four scrolls in his mind, and then he leaned in to examine them carefully, especially the damaged corner of the spring scroll, which he scrutinized closely.

From the broken wooden axis to the pigments used, from the origin of the paper to the reactions caused by water immersion, from the smoothness of the lines to the early coloring technique of "brush painting," he didn't miss any tiny details, mainly focusing on the things that couldn't be shown in the photos.

Meanwhile, Kiyomi Ruri secretly observed Uchii Tatsuo and noticed that he didn't seem to care at all. At least there was no trace of uneasiness on his face. On the other hand, the bank representative seemed impatient, as if he didn't want to confront the police and was forcing himself to be patient.

Time passed second by second, and the room remained silent. After more than ten minutes, Uchii Tatsuo finally spoke, "Nanahara-kōhai, is it enough?"

The bank representative immediately agreed, "Yes, we have a lot of work to do. We have already fulfilled our obligation to cooperate. We can't just stand here for hours."

Nanahara Takeshi straightened up and said softly, "That's enough.""Please proceed." Uchii Tatsuo and the bank representative once again locked the "Tsushima Four Scrolls" back into the professional safe. Then, the bank representative went to have tea, and Uchii Tatsuo saw the guests out, always polite and courteous, showing great personal cultivation.

As Nanahara Takeshi was about to leave, he seemed to sense something and turned back to find Uchii Tatsuo staring at his retreating figure. When Uchii Tatsuo met his gaze, he was slightly taken aback, then a smile appeared on his face, and he nodded gently in acknowledgment.

This high school student had given him quite a surprise, inexplicably suspecting him of great suspicion, but in the end, he couldn't really do anything. He was unable to solve the puzzle of "pointing to the sky". He could only say that he was a decent young man, with sharp intuition, and perhaps he could achieve something in the future.

But in this hunt, he had ultimately won. Just like many times in the past, he had overcome the unexpected, defeated the prey, conquered his own fear, and in the end, he was the one who won everything.