"From five to seven in the afternoon is the best time for a drink. It's the most nourishing for the body, and it's even better with peanuts and pig's ears."
Ran Mouri looked at the recipe and saw many dishes she had never made before. Although she wasn't sure if it would work, she could learn step by step.
Kogoro Mouri thought his daughter was acting very strange today. Not only did she encourage him to drink, but she even prepared side dishes for him. Although the pig's ears were a bit odd, the taste was still quite good.
He watched as his daughter not only poured him a drink, but poured one for herself as well... Wait, just one cup. Wait, a single cup?!
"This is definitely not something children can drink!"
"What's wrong with it? I bought this wine myself, can't I even have a sip?"
Kogoro Mouri was left speechless by the retort. It wasn't that she wasn't allowed to drink, but drinking too much was bad for the health—yet somehow he couldn't get the words out.
"Just one sip, okay?"
Kogoro Mouri warned. And indeed, Ran Mouri only took a few sips. Past seven o'clock, she chased him into his bedroom to sleep.
Kogoro Mouri drifted off to sleep with a heart full of anxiety. When he woke up the next morning, he felt completely refreshed—how strange.
To prevent his daughter from developing a liking for alcohol, Kogoro Mouri hardly ever drank at home, only during that five-to-seven window after she got home from school, and even then, not very much. And Ran Mouri only drank that one time.
"Dad, we're going to the hospital for our follow-up checkup today!"
Ran Mouri excitedly pulled her father along to the hospital. Kogoro Mouri couldn't understand why his daughter was so excited, right up until the doctor looked at the medical scans, glanced at him, and frowned.
"Doctor, what's wrong with my dad?"
Comparing the scans from a month ago with the current ones, the doctor couldn't help exclaiming, "This is truly a medical miracle! A month ago, Mr. Mouri, your condition was still very poor."
"Yet the scans taken now show not only that your body has no problems at all, but that you're even healthier than before. In all my years of practicing medicine, this is the first time I've ever encountered a case like yours."
Kogoro Mouri let out a sigh of relief. So it turned out he was just healthier than before... healthier!
"Doctor, are you sure?"
"I stake my medical career on it."
That was truly incredible. Even after returning home, Kogoro Mouri remained in a daze until five in the afternoon, when Ran Mouri punctually brought him a plate of peanuts and pig's ears, along with a bottle of wine he had never tasted before.
Late that night, Kogoro Mouri crept out of bed and overheard his daughter in the kitchen talking on the phone with some man. Ran Mouri held the phone between her shoulder and ear, smiling as she washed the dishes.
"Teacher, you're really amazing! When my dad went for his checkup at the hospital today, the doctor even called it a miracle—his health is even better than before, hee-hee!"
"You need to take care of your own health too, classmate Mouri. You haven't been sleeping well these past few nights, have you? What on earth are you letting your mind wander about?"
"Even you figured that out, Teacher?"
"How could I not know, when I only just taught you pulse diagnosis today?"
Kogoro Mouri felt something was amiss and immediately set out to investigate the background of this "teacher" his daughter kept talking about. To do so, he even called in a favor from a former colleague.
"I'm telling you, old friend Mouri, do you really have to go this far?"
Juzo Megure never expected his old friend to drag him out today just to investigate someone named Geng Jing, who happened to be Ran Mouri's teacher.
"It's not that I'm trying to lecture you, old friend Mouri, but this Geng Jing really has no improper intentions toward Ran. Besides, this is his profession to begin with!"
"What kind of profession requires feeling a young girl's hand?!"
Juzo Megure sneered. Didn't Kogoro Mouri frequently use his own status as a detective to go around touching other young girls' hands from time to time? Sometimes he even touched their waists!
With that, Kogoro Mouri re-entered society and began tailing Geng Jing, determined to find proof of his ill intentions. Yet after an entire day of following him, he discovered absolutely nothing.
"I refuse to believe this."
Kogoro Mouri tightly clutched a newspaper in front of his face to block his view. Seeing Geng Jing get up and quietly slip into a narrow alley, he smiled with excitement—a bizarre grin that sent chills down the spines of everyone nearby.
"Finally, I've caught you."
After hastily paying his bill, Kogoro Mouri followed him into the alley. He peered inside, but Geng Jing was nowhere to be seen—and suddenly, a shadow loomed directly before him.
A fierce glint flashed in Kogoro Mouri's eyes as he immediately threw down with the person behind him, but he was ultimately outnumbered and tied up.
"Mr. Geng Jing, are you alright?"
Wataru Date supported the extremely pale Geng Jing. The man's steps were unsteady, the color had completely drained from his lips, and every single step he took required an immense struggle.
"I just had a hypoglycemia attack, it's nothing major, I'll be fine after a little rest..."
Before he could even finish speaking, darkness descended before Geng Jing's eyes, and he passed out cold on the spot. Wataru Date hoisted him onto his back and rushed toward the nearest hospital, while Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda jointly handed Kogoro Mouri over to Juzo Megure.
Looking at his former subordinate and his current subordinates, Juzo Megure couldn't help pressing a hand to his forehead. How on earth did they end up fighting each other? Judging by the looks of it, Kogoro Mouri had clearly been restrained by multiple people.
"Old friend Mouri, you really are getting more capable by the day, dragging people right into the hospital."
"How was I supposed to know his constitution was this frail?!"
Kogoro Mouri argued sophistically, though to a certain extent he was indeed in the wrong for causing Geng Jing's hypoglycemia attack and landing him in the hospital. Who would have guessed Geng Jing's hypoglycemia was this severe? In the hospital, he suffered from vomiting and diarrhea until he was utterly exhausted, and he was still hooked up to an IV drip of glucose.
"Senior, you're really in the wrong here. No matter what, you shouldn't have stalked Mr. Geng Jing just based on some random guesswork."
Kenji Hagiwara said with a helpless sigh, "You scared him so badly he didn't even dare go home."
At the moment he received the call, Wataru Date was still wondering why Geng Jing was looking for him, never expecting to receive a cry for help. Geng Jing had felt like someone was tailing him all along, suspecting he might just be overthinking things, but in an attempt to test the waters, he practically sprinted through several streets. Before he even had a chance to drink a sip of water, his body staged a full protest, leaving him with no choice but to call Wataru Date.
"If he hadn't done anything shady, what was he afraid of me for? Besides, what ordinary person looks like that, with black streaks dyed right into his white hair?"
Kogoro Mouri still felt Geng Jing harbored ill intentions. Jinpei Matsuda sneered, "With that leering, sleazy smile of yours, even ordinary people would be terrified to see it, let alone the fact that he has a child at home. What if you happened to be one of his enemies—wouldn't any normal person be scared?"
"As a doctor, some patients can be saved while others can't. The patients' families might also seize the chance to retaliate, and instead of ever looking inward for the cause, they simply vent their dissatisfaction on the doctor. Can he afford not to be cautious?"
It was undeniable that people's prejudices always stem from appearances. When Juzo Megure first met Geng Jing, he had the exact same thought, but it was quickly dispelled.
"Geng Jing is sick. He's seen countless doctors from childhood to adulthood and none of them could cure him—this was his grandfather's greatest heartache before he passed away."
Juzo Megure explained patiently. Fortunately, Geng Jing chose not to press charges or pursue accountability, and the incident was never brought up by anyone again.
Inside the hospital room, Geng Jing lay in bed, sleeping in a deep, heavy daze. A man dressed in black gently smoothed the stray locks of hair from his forehead and then quietly turned and left.