novelden Chapter 1336 Squandering Luck
Chapter 1336 Squandering Luck
Chapter 1336 Squandering Luck
Having found the lottery and secured financial support, Shirota Kyozo was overjoyed and no longer needed to worry about his future.
If Tang Ze hadn't firmly refused, and if the kids hadn't worried about being scolded by their parents for delaying their return home, this small banquet would probably have turned into a large feast.
"Thank you, thank you so much, otherwise I really wouldn't know what to do—"
Since everyone except Karasawa, who was slightly closer to an adult, was a child, in the end, Shirota Kyouzo could only express and vent his emotions to Karasawa.
He gripped Tang Ze's hand tightly, while also clutching the small notebook, his eyes welling up with tears again.
Having money is one thing, but Tang Ze's introductions and guarantees, which he made in his own name, were equally important channels for him. After the initial excitement, he naturally understood how much help this young man had given him, and this did not contradict his own wealth.
"Just hang in there, good things will happen eventually." Tang Ze smiled, matching the way he excitedly shook his arm. "You've always been a lucky person, Uncle Shirota. Keep it up."
"I even considered robbing a bank before," Kyozo Shirota said with deep emotion. "I've done liaison work in this area before, so I roughly know how banks are structured. So I—ah, it's so good I didn't do anything bad—"
"Hey, hey—" Conan's smile, which had been on his face, suddenly drooped, and he looked a little uncomfortable.
It's absurd to talk about this in front of children who experienced something like this yesterday.
Fortunately, before the kids could voice their objections and shock, Tang Ze spoke up first.
"You have no idea how difficult it is to be a good robber. Considering that you couldn't even fool a group of elementary school kids when you tried to commit suicide for insurance money, I suggest you think about something better, sir."
"You have a point." Shirota Kyozo scratched his head, then laughed. "Anyway, you shouldn't do bad things, kids!"
"You shouldn't be telling us this," Genta Kojima said, crossing his arms again. "We wouldn't do anything bad. You're the one who should be thinking about such extreme things, Uncle."
Yesterday's incident was so dangerous. Although no one was hurt except for the unfortunate citizen who was shot by the robbers at the beginning, facing gun violence directly is frightening enough for a child.
Hearing him mention it so suddenly cooled down the dopamine that had just been stimulated by the sweets.
"Haha, you're right. Thank you all for your help, little detectives! I have to go see Huimei now, goodbye!"
Having expressed his excitement, Shiroda Kyozo clutched the lottery ticket tightly, seemingly unable to bear any more uncertainty and eager to go home and redeem it.
The group understood his feelings, and after saying goodbye to him, they saw him off as he ran away.
"Should I say he's genuinely optimistic? Surprisingly positive and cheerful, perhaps?" Ayumi Yoshida shook her head. "But we did do a good deed this time, we helped people, right?"
Their appearance prompted Kyozo Shirota to strengthen the evidence to facilitate insurance payouts, which made everything that followed seem so logical.
If he hadn't encountered them, Shirota Kyozo might have wandered around for a while, then randomly picked a passerby or a child, rambled on about all the premises he had prepared, and then jumped off the platform.
"It's definitely a good thing." Tang Ze highly praised the children's actions. "This might be a bit inappropriate, but the reason I brought up the humanitarian rules of insurance companies at the beginning was because if he really intended to commit insurance fraud, he probably wouldn't succeed. The legal departments of insurance companies are not to be trifled with; controlling the rejection rate is an important means of ensuring profits. As long as there is even a small loophole, they will not obediently hand over the money."
"But you also mentioned humanitarianism—"
"Humanitarian compensation won't be much, and whether it can cover the surgery costs is uncertain. Full reimbursement is only available to those who have held the policy for more than a year. Insurance isn't a one-time thing; it requires long-term renewals. His situation—newly purchased life insurance and dying soon—is something insurance companies absolutely want to prevent. Otherwise, their profits would be completely wiped out."
Not to mention, how can a family that can only resort to such means to raise money for their loved ones' surgery possibly compete with a professional legal team?
It is very likely that his death will not bring any substantial compensation. In many cases, humanitarian compensation is simply a way to appease the family and prevent further chaos under suppression.
"That's true. If Conan hadn't gone to help him chase the bag, there would have been no chance of getting that lottery ticket back." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya stroked his chin, his smile barely contained. "We saved a life, right?"
"He was indeed lucky to have met a detective." Ai Haibara smiled, but her tone was classic pessimism. "I just don't know if this stroke of luck overshadowing his lowest point is a good thing for him. In fact, he still doesn't have the ability to cope with unexpected events. I wish his family and himself good health and a peaceful life."
He won the lottery, lost the ticket, and was at his wit's end when he encountered a kind detective and a phantom thief. Each of them reached out a hand, grabbed him firmly from the bottom of the abyss, and pulled him back.
Human luck cannot withstand such extravagance; once, it was already a miracle within a miracle.
"As long as he remembers not to give up easily, there's definitely hope." Conan shook his head, stating objectively, "Even if he didn't reveal that he won the lottery and lost the ticket, as long as he didn't successfully commit suicide today, the results of his new lottery draw will be tomorrow. After all, he bought so many tickets, so at the latest tomorrow, he'll have to take out his glasses and try to check the numbers—"
Since winning the lottery is already a done deal, finding the lottery ticket is almost inevitable.
The reason why Shirota Kyozo couldn't find the lottery ticket for so many days was simply because he was so anxious that he was busy looking for things and raising money that he stopped reading newspapers, didn't even pay attention to the news, and didn't even bother to find out the basic information about the teams in the competition.
As long as there's an opportunity to take out your reading glasses and carefully check the text, this lottery ticket will naturally appear.
What he truly lacked in his pursuit of good fortune was perseverance.
"You're surprisingly cheerful and positive too," Ai Haibara glanced at him.
"This is a reasonable reasoning and deduction, okay? —"
"A reasonable deduction is that, if he weren't lucky, he might have received a recruitment message from those robbers when he was driven to desperation by financial problems, and then offered his relevant knowledge to become one of them."
After enjoying a delicious dessert and drinks, the children embarked on their journey home. Hearing what the two of them said, they started talking about the bank robbery they had previously robbed.
Tang Ze, who was supposed to be unaware of the details of the matter by design, but was actually a key participant who had followed up on the police discussions and meetings, could only smile and let them explain the details to him.
"Oh, right, we also saw Ms. Jodie at the bank." Ayumi Yoshida clapped her hands as if she remembered something. "Didn't she stop being a teacher? Did she find a new job in Japan and come back to work here?"
Judy is a teacher at Teitan High School, but because of the bus robbery and the fact that she is Tang Ze's teacher, the kids all know each other.
"She was acting really strange," Kojima Genta muttered, stroking his chin. "As soon as the police let her go, she grabbed them and asked if they'd seen a man with a scar on his face. When the police said they hadn't, she came over and asked us—"
"Didn't any of you see the person she was talking about?" Conan blinked rapidly to confirm.
The children hid in the toilet until the kidnapper informed them of the plan via his detective badge just before he began setting the time bomb.
Their involvement was almost limited to running out to help transport the bomb. The hostages were later freed by the group of police officers who were ushered in. It's reasonable that they didn't see the man.
"I didn't see it."
"I didn't see it either. I was too busy taking the police to see the bomb in the bathroom—"
Conan listened to their conversation thoughtfully, then raised his eyes and glanced at Ai Haibara and Karasawa, who were quiet and not participating in the discussion.
It's reasonable for Ai Haibara to know that Subaru Okiya is Shuichi Akai, given that she has connections with the Phantom Thieves, but it can't be said that she knows the details. As for Karasawa, he wasn't involved in Shuichi Akai's plan to fake his death and escape. In other words, theoretically, he shouldn't even know that Shuichi Akai is dead. It seems pointless to discuss this topic with them.
Of course, considering the suspicious aspects surrounding Tang Ze, his involvement might be much greater than it appears on the surface. However, for similar reasons, Tang Ze would never admit to knowing what he knew; to do so would be tantamount to indirectly admitting to his identity.
Therefore, I'm afraid we'll have to go back and discuss this matter seriously with Subaru Okiya again.
Meanwhile, Tang Ze was quietly thinking about the question Judy had asked him when she cornered him at the entrance of the Metropolitan Police Department yesterday.
Did you see "him" at the bank yesterday?
Tang Ze knew perfectly well who Judy was asking.
Even because of her rough binding method, when the police came to rescue the hostage, it was Tang Ze who thoughtfully helped Amuro Tooru fix the flaws in his mask and quickly disguised him, allowing him to leave the scene without arousing anyone's suspicion.
There's no way to explain it. Even though he's the victim of the robbery, if the police come to question him and see that there's a tear in his skin from the tape, but no blood inside, how can he say that the robber kicked the tape off?
To be honest, even after Amuro Tooru complained about the substandard quality, Vermouth was genuinely happy on the phone. The unadulterated joy in her voice made Amuro Tooru grind his teeth.
However, these workplace anecdotes were not suitable to tell Judy, so Tang Ze simply smiled and gave her a meaningful reply.
"Without sources of information, without sufficiently strong protection, you are now completely at your wits' end, madam. If you are still asking this kind of question, then I think you don't even deserve to continue standing in front of me."
This is not meant to belittle Jodie, but rather Tang Ze believes that Shuichi Akai's exceptional individual abilities have clouded the judgment of his teammates, causing them to underestimate the difficulty of confronting the organization.
It's no exaggeration to say that if Jodie and Shuichi Akai's positions were reversed, Shuichi Akai would not hesitate to shoot if he saw someone who looked like an old friend standing in front of him.
At most, the goal is to avoid killing anyone and preserve all possibilities of hidden circumstances, but eliminating the other party's ability to resist as soon as possible is absolutely essential.
When an undercover agent who was being hunted dies, whether it's true or not, and this person reappears in front of you, you can't help but fantasize about the best possible outcome. If all special agents were this naive, Tang Ze wouldn't have even lived to retire; he would have fallen into darkness like countless predecessors.
From this perspective, Tang Ze can understand Akai Shuichi's helplessness.
If you're the only one who thinks the situation is serious and shouldn't be taken lightly, then you really can't handle it.
Not to mention, Judy should have guessed that Shuichi Akai was not only wary of the organization, but also of potential backstabbing from behind, otherwise she wouldn't have kept all of Tang Ze's complete and true information hidden until now.
Now it was Judy's turn to make the choice.
Staying with the FBI, continuing in her current role, maintaining a balance, and preventing more uncontrollable situations from arising, could provide possible assistance to Shuichi Akai in this way. Alternatively, she could simply abandon her past identity and leave, completely catching up with Shuichi Akai and answering her stance with actions.
Shuichi Akai only needs these two options, and he won't wait around if Jodie doesn't choose one.
"Mr. Akechi—" Judy pursed her lips, stared at Tang Ze's face for a while, and then slowly nodded, "Okay. I understand."
Tang Ze smiled gently, raised his wrist to check his watch, and made it clear that he would not continue the conversation.
"Well, if there's nothing else, I have other matters to attend to, so please excuse me."
"Sorry to have taken up your time. See you next time."
"goodbye."
Turning the corner, Tang Ze opened the car door, sat in the back seat, and nodded to Vermouth, who was touching up her makeup next to him.
"As expected, they came to ask me about Shuichi Akai's situation."
"Hmph." Vermouth closed her vanity mirror, a particularly pleased smile on her face. "She's squandering what little luck she has left. Knowing it's impossible, yet still clinging to hope, how weak."
"People who have experienced good fortune always try to believe that miracles will happen again." Tang Ze was not surprised by Vermouth's attitude and shrugged.
Anyway, the message he keeps conveying is that the FBI is insignificant and poses no threat, so it's normal for him to be a little dismissive.
"Who can blame her when the man she longed for was missing, his fate unknown? It is in times like these that people pray for divine mercy."
Vermouth's smile widened.
It's clear that helping Bourbon was just a side thing; seeing Judy break down was what truly gave her satisfaction.
She was clearly still resentful that she had been caught by the FBI because of her momentary weakness.
"If their fate is unknown, then they're dead." Tang Ze couldn't help but chime in, then shrugged. "We found out the result so easily. I bet Bourbon's going to complain again."
"He's not done yet. After all this time setting things up, it's not enough to just see one person's reaction. He'll find a way to show himself in front of each of them." Vermouth dismissed Kumail's comment as an expression of his character and waved her hand casually. "Instead of worrying about a paranoid man, let's deal with things here first."
After saying that, she raised her eyes and looked at the driver in front of her, who was trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.
Curaçao tightened his grip on the steering wheel, showing no sign of fear.
"Let's go, to where we're supposed to go. I believe we can get along very well, equally lucky lady."
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