Conan's Distillery: A Semi-Workaholic's Slacking-Off Life

Chapter 128 Moriya Tei 2 Tea Party Trip

It's a name that looks somewhat familiar.

Bai Yexiu recalled seeing him before at a business ball in England. He was indeed an architect. At that time, Moriya Teiji had even spoken to Bai Yexiu and invited him to attend a tea party hosted by him in Beika next time.

Thinking back, Bai Yexiu got up and checked the mailbox in front of the apartment. Sure enough, he found Moriya Teiji's tea party invitation.

In addition, a strange letter was found. It did not indicate who the sender was, but only listed a recipient as Ryuzawa Ritsuya.

Ryuzawa Ritsuya is the boss's pseudonym.

I checked the date the letter was sent and realized it was from several weeks ago.

Because Bai Yexiu's address is still the Longze Mansion in New York, and neither he nor the boss will live there for long. Usually, there is only an old and senile butler. Therefore, letters sent there are usually forwarded to this place by the butler. It is also common for the butler to accidentally send the boss's letters here.

Because the boss uses the identity of Ryuzawa Ryūya in public, most of the letters sent to the boss by the Ryuzawa Mansion are just ordinary invitations, so it doesn't matter much if Bai Yexiu removes them.

When Bai Yexiu was very young, he opened the boss's letters a few times. Once he found that he couldn't understand them, and the other times he opened ordinary banquet invitations. So Bai Yexiu lost interest and never opened any more.

But things are different now.

Bai Yexiu decisively opened the letter.

The letter contained a hastily written note: "I've added some new ingredients. If your son still shows any unusual behavior, remember to contact me."

Bai Yexiu lowered his eyes, lost in thought.

Although we don't know what the "new ingredient" is or who wrote the letter, this letter must contain some important information, and it's directed at us.

Bai Yexiu silently threw all the letters except for the invitation to the Moriya Teiji tea party into the shredder.

Since he moved here, the butler has been sending him letters. Bai Yexiu had no interest in these letters before, never even glancing at them, and would throw them into the shredder every now and then. Boss tacitly approved of this behavior, believing that Bai Yexiu would never be so bored as to read these letters.

However, it was truly thanks to this mission that Bai Yexiu obtained this clue.

……

The Moriya family residence.

A lively tea party was being held in the beautifully designed back garden. Moriya Teiji had not yet arrived, and Byakuya Xiu was holding a glass of red wine in one hand and eating cake from the banquet with the other. He looked... like he was starving and was wolfing down his food.

Every now and then, young guests would come up to him and strike up a conversation. After a round of mutual flattery, Bai Yexiu would turn back to his food.

The little snake Camilla, which had been silent all along, finally poked its head out and interacted with Bai Yexiu by hissing and flicking its tongue.

Camilla seemed terrified ever since he was surrounded by Mi6 when he first arrived in England. During that battle, Camilla hid like a turtle and didn't come out. She remained silent for several days afterward, as if she were hibernating. Only now has she finally poked her head out, and there seems to be a hint of apology in her small, bean-sized eyes.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Bai Yexiu turned his back to the others, reached out and gently flicked Camilla's head, muttering, "You little ingrate."

Camilla shuddered and shrank back.

Two seconds later, it cautiously peeked out again, its clear yet foolish eyes staring at Bai Yexiu.

Bai Yexiu shook his head helplessly. Although he still resented Camilla for being a coward back then, he still picked up a small piece of sashimi from the table and stuffed it into Camilla's mouth.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from behind Bai Yexiu.

"Brother Longze!"

Startled by the voice, Bai Yexiu turned around and saw Conan standing in front of him.

"Were you eating sashimi just now?" Conan asked, his gaze towards Bai Yexiu probing.

"Yes," Bai Yexiu readily admitted. "Want to eat together?"

After all, he was holding chopsticks with raw fish slices in his hand.

Conan politely declined Bai Yexiu's invitation to eat sashimi together, and watched Bai Yexiu turn back again, recalling the scene he had witnessed not long ago.

He just saw that Long Ze's wrist seemed to have white, scale-like reflections. Could it be that he was mistaken? Could that reflection be a bracelet?

Bai Yexiu was sweating profusely. If Conan discovered Camilla, then the previous events would be difficult to explain, especially since Camilla had appeared in front of Conan so many times.

But soon, Conan was called away.

Bai Yexiu breathed a sigh of relief, then slapped Camilla through her sleeve for reasons unknown.

Camilla, who was enjoying her sashimi halfway through, spat it out immediately after being slapped, hidden under her sleeve.

The pink sashimi slipped from Bai Yexiu's sleeve and fell to the ground with a soft thud.

Both the man and the snake fell silent.

Bai Yexiu calmly kicked the sashimi under the banquet table with his toe, then pretended nothing had happened and went to another location.

……

Bai Yexiu planned to investigate Moriya Teiji later, because he was currently—

Bai Yexiu had just fed Camilla another slice of sashimi when he slapped her, causing her to spit it out. Then, with a fluid motion, he kicked the sashimi off the floor and under the table.

Camilla squirmed mournfully inside her sleeve, occasionally peeking out with half her head and staring at her pitifully.

Bai Yexiu ignored him and repeated the torturous process on Camilla five more times.

Thinking back to when he and Saki fought against a group of people, Camilla, who should have come out to fight alongside them, acted like a coward. The pain of his dislocated arm was still vivid in his mind. So, Bai Yexiu decided to take advantage of this free time to "punish" Camilla properly.

After six rounds, Camilla was completely listless and motionless, with tears welling up in its large eyes. If it weren't for its tongue flicking out, Bai Yexiu would have almost thought it had died inside.

Finally, on the seventh attempt, Bai Yexiu did not force Camilla to vomit up, and a light seemed to return to Camilla's lifeless eyes.

Although Bai Yexiu knew he was incredibly childish, being childish had its advantages. For example, he was having a lot of fun right now, and his mood had improved considerably.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Teiji Moriya led the guests inside.

There were many portraits of buildings hanging inside. Bai Yexiu looked through all the portraits and found the four destroyed buildings among them.

Just then, Moriya Teiji was about to pass by behind him, and Bai Yexiu immediately turned around and called out to him: "Mr. Moriya".

"Young Master of the Ryuzawa family?" Moriya Teiji turned around with a kind smile. "It's been a year since I last saw you. I almost didn't recognize you. You've grown so much! By the way, how is your father's health?"

“My father has been traveling around New York lately, and his health is much better than before,” Bai Yexiu replied with a smile. Then he changed the subject and pointed to the portrait on the wall: “By the way, there have been several cases of buildings being destroyed in Tokyo recently. It seems that they were all works by Mr. Moriya. I hope you are not too sad. The terrorists will definitely be caught.”

Following Bai Yexiu's gaze, Moriya Teiji looked at the portrait on the wall and sighed, "Ah, actually I still feel very sorry for you. Thank you for your concern. Were you satisfied with the food at the banquet?"

"..."

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Bai Yexiu watched Moriya Teiji's departing figure and revealed a subtle smile.

It seems this mission is quite simple.

During the conversation just now, Moriya Teiji said he felt sorry for the damaged works, but there was no trace of heartache in his eyes when he looked at the destroyed works. Instead, there was a sense of dissatisfaction and scrutiny.

And on the way to the tea party, I learned a piece of news: the Japanese gunpowder depot had been robbed.

There were small amounts of black ash under the fingernails of both of Moriya Teiji's hands, which were hard to see unless you looked closely.

How could a pampered architect who is always mindful of his image not pay attention to his nails?