Ke Xue: Shinichi and I are childhood friends.

Chapter 1296 The Real Brother and the Fake Fourth Brother

Conan exclaimed with a sudden realization, "Ah, I know! That uncle is allergic to crabs!"

He likes crab-flavored pancakes, which means he likes crabs. But he returned the canned crabs unopened. There's only one explanation for this behavior—he's allergic to crabs!

Crab-flavored pancakes only have a crab flavor; they don't mean there's actually crab inside. However, canned crab contains real crab.

Yu Kashiwagi immediately asked a question: "Then how do you explain chocolate and nuts?"

Conan chuckled, put his hands behind his head, and said innocently, "Maybe it's a snack allergy?"

"···"

Yu Kashiwagi retorted, "Idiot, some people are allergic to snacks!"

While the others were speechless, Hattori Heiji was deep in thought, rubbing his chin, when suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him—So that's how it is!

He shouted, "He's allergic to metals!"

Everyone looked at Hattori Heiji in surprise, while Yuya and Conan smirked – they finally guessed it.

"What does this mean?" someone asked.

Heiji Hattori explained, "Canned foods contain the metal components from the can, while chocolate and nuts contain metal components such as nickel and cobalt. Then there are leather products, which are treated with chromium to make the leather soft."

"I see." Inspector Megure suddenly understood; this explanation made sense.

Moreover, whether or not it is a genuine metal allergy can be determined simply by investigating the victim's medical records.

Takagi Wataru asked, somewhat puzzled, "What does this mean?"

Hattori Heiji smiled faintly: "Don't you find it strange? If the victim is allergic to metal, why would they be wearing metal-framed glasses?"

Inspector Megure pondered, "Indeed, if that were the case, he shouldn't be wearing metal-framed glasses. Why is that?"

Heiji Hattori: "Because... those glasses belong to the murderer!"

"When the victim was pushed down the stairs, she grabbed the killer's glasses, and then the glasses fell to the ground and cracked."

"But the victim's brothers were about to arrive, and he didn't have time to get new glasses. In desperation, he had to exchange the victim's glasses with his own."

“In other words,” Hattori Heiji said, one hand in his pocket, as he walked up to the three brothers and stared at one of them, “the murderer is Mr. Jinya Saifu, the only one of the three who wears glasses. You are the murderer!”

The second and third brothers looked at the fourth brother in shock.

Jinya Saifu cried out that he was innocent: "What a joke! We've finally reunited after 30 years of separation, why would I kill my own brother!"

Hattori Heiji smiled calmly: "That's because you're not Jinya Saifu at all!"

"?" The two brothers stared blankly at Hattori Heiji, and even Inspector Megure and Wataru Takagi looked confused.

Jinya Saifu shouted angrily, "Speak!" He opened his palm and pointed it at Hattori Heiji, "Didn't I just show you? I have a scar on my hand from when I was a child, from protecting my mother! That's proof that we're brothers!"

“I remember,” Hattori Heiji said, recalling, “we just said that when you were cleaning up the lamb grill, someone knocked it over, right?”

Jinya Saifu nodded: "Yes, Mother almost got burned by that grill pan back then. Luckily, the four of us brothers reacted quickly and caught the scalding hot grill pan with our bare hands..."

"Huh?" Suddenly, both Yu Kashiwagi and Koshin Kaneda showed confused expressions.

Hattori Heiji chuckled lightly: "You're wrong. The truth is, the grill pan was overturned, and your mother fell and was about to hit the grill pan. It was you guys who put your hands on the pan to prevent her from getting burned."

“Back then you were just a few kids. Even if you mustered up a lot of strength in a moment of panic, it would have been impossible for you to catch a scalding hot grill with your bare hands. The survival instinct of a person who has been injured would have forced you to drop the grill, let alone hold on for a while.”

"And if you catch it with your hands, your entire palm should be scarred, not just the center of your palm."

“Isn’t that right?” Hattori Heiji looked at the remaining two brothers.

Yu Kashiwagi and Koshin Kaneda looked down at the scars on their palms and replied, "Yes, that's why we have these scars on our hands, because our hands were there until Mom got up."

Jinya Saifu's face visibly darkened: "So, when you say 'very heavy,' you're not referring to the pot, but rather..."

Yu Kashiwagi's expression grew increasingly cold: "We were talking about Mom's weight. She was indeed quite overweight back then."

Jinya Saifu chuckled dryly, "Too much time has passed; I've forgotten..."

He argued with Hattori Heiji, "But look, I have the same scar on my hand! That's enough evidence..."

Just then, a child screamed from the side, and then the man felt a chill on his arm. He looked down in surprise.

Conan, looking flustered, said, "Sorry, I accidentally spilled water on you..."

"Really..." Jinya Saifu muttered impatiently, but Conan's next words made his expression change drastically.

"Oh dear, I thought it was water, but it's lemon juice!"

"What?" Jinya Saifu hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe the water that had dripped onto his hands.

Hattori Heiji calmly said, "The reason you're so nervous is because the scars on your hands are marks left by applying citrus juice to create a similar shape and then exposing them to the sun, right?"

Jinya Saifu looked at Hattori Heiji in astonishment. How did he know?

At this moment, Conan said with a mischievous grin, "Oh dear, I made a mistake, that was indeed water."

Jinya Saifu realized he had been tricked and glared angrily at Conan.

At this moment, Yu also spoke up: "In the end, your identity was exposed from the very beginning. Your big earlobes are enough to prove that you are not brothers with them."

Everyone subconsciously focused their attention on Jinya Saifu's ears; his earlobes were indeed very large.

Yu also said, "Large earlobes are a dominant gene. If neither parent has large earlobes, their child will not exhibit the trait of large earlobes."

When everyone recalled the photo they had just seen, it was clear that neither of the parents in the photo had large earlobes.

“So,” Yu paused, “you must know about this family’s affairs and are pretending to be the fourth son to try and get a share of the profits, right?”

Jinya Saifu remained silent for a long while, then sighed deeply: "You're right..."

After getting to know his real fourth brother, "Jinya Saifu" thought the scar on his hand was cool, so he got one exactly the same and they even joined a band together.

Guan Tianke grabbed his collar and angrily questioned, "You bastard, did you kill our fourth brother for the treasure?!"

“No!” Jinya Saifu shouted. “Saifu passed away from illness a few days ago. Before he died, he told me about the code and said that he really wanted to see his brothers whom he hadn’t seen for 30 years, but he was afraid that they wouldn’t recognize each other after such a long time.”

"Later, when I was sorting through his belongings, I saw a coded message. Cai Fu deciphered the answer and said that the treasure was in the fourth warehouse of Beihu Port."