Chapter 1077: Information Hidden in the Wine Cabinet
"Wow, these meatballs really do look good!"
In front of the snack shop, Mori Kogoro deliberately exclaimed in surprise, then quietly edged backward.
Okay, take this opportunity to secretly... secretly...
"What would Teacher like to eat?"
A calm voice, sounding chilly, came from behind him. Mori Kogoro's expression froze, and he slowly turned his head.
Huh? Wait, his disciple felt a little different. It seemed like the warm color of his clothes softened his eyebrows, eyes, and facial features quite a bit. Even though his face was still expressionless, he felt quite harmless.
Not exactly sunny, but just a pure and harmless feeling.
"What would you like to eat?" Chi Feichei repeated. "I'll buy it for you."
Mori Kogoro: "..."
People are indeed visual creatures. Just listening to his voice, there was no change, but he just felt that his disciple had become much gentler.
It made him... feel strange, very unaccustomed to it.
The shop assistant turned her head, saw Chi Feichei, and immediately exclaimed with a smile, "It feels very different from just now, it suits you very well!"
"Thank you," Chi Feichei said. "You've worked hard."
"You're welcome," the shop assistant looked at Mori Kogoro. "I think this gentleman will also like this surprise!"
Mori Kogoro was completely confused. "What surprise?"
Chi Feichei confessed calmly, "I told them I wanted to give you a surprise and asked them not to let you leave beforehand."
Mori Kogoro: "..."
No wonder he was being watched so closely, damn it!
Gentle? Harmless? This kid is clearly asking for a beating!
The key is that he probably can't beat him... Infuriating!
The next second, Mori Kogoro turned around and walked towards the clothing store. As he passed by Chi Feichei, he said angrily, "I'll give you a surprise too!"
Ten minutes later, the master and disciple were walking on the street.
Mori Kogoro was wearing his previous suit pants but had changed into a black shirt and put on a dark brown windbreaker. He wore sunglasses on his face, his face was cold, and he exuded a serious aura.
Chi Feichei walked beside him in silence.
His teacher was really similar to Takatori Yan'o. Their height, body shape, face shape, and mustache were almost exactly the same. There was a slight difference in their eyes, but with sunglasses on, you couldn't see it at all. Plus, his clothing style had become much more serious. Now, his teacher looked exactly like Takatori Yan'o.
Fortunately, under circumstances where they hadn't confirmed a meeting beforehand, Gin and the others wouldn't greet him proactively even if they encountered him. Otherwise, he was really worried that when passing through a small alley, Vodka would mistake Mori Kogoro for Takatori Yan'o and call out a greeting without thinking...
Seeing Chi Feichei following him without saying a word, Mori Kogoro couldn't vent his anger. "I'll take you to Lemon Bar to try their super spicy cheese!"
...
Lemon Bar.
There were no other guests in the bar, only a man wearing a waiter's uniform standing behind the counter.
The man's brown hair was slicked back into a pompadour, he had dead fish eyes, thick but pale lips, and was tall and thin. He was wiping wine glasses with a towel. Sensing someone enter, he looked up and greeted, "Welcome, two people... Huh? Mr. Mouri?"
After Mori Kogoro took off his sunglasses, he was recognized. He sat down at the bar counter. "Boss, it seems there are still not many guests today."
Chi Feichei sat down next to him, looked at the man, and quickly looked towards the wine cabinet behind the man.
He had no recollection of this case.
But if the criminal's goal was Mori Kogoro himself, and 'Kimura' was likely a completely non-existent facade, then, this bar owner who claimed to have met 'Kimura' was very suspicious.
Moreover, Mori Kogoro taking the wrong coat happened at this bar, and the other party was the only one who could use tricks to create the existence of 'Kimura'.
However, the more someone needed to be paid attention to, the less he could stare and observe them directly. He didn't have Conan's small body shape that was easy to be ignored or his age that was easy to be disregarded.
"It's still early," the man said with a smile. "Mr. Mouri, would you still like to eat the super spicy cheese?"
"Yes, please prepare two servings," Mori Kogoro turned to Chi Feichei and explained. "Initially, I came here to drink using that first anniversary free drink ticket, but then I tasted the cheese he made, and it was so delicious I couldn't forget it. Recently, I've become obsessed with spicy bar snacks!"
The shop owner turned around and got busy. "Mr. Mouri, you flatter me. I wonder who this is..."
"This is my eldest disciple, Chi Feichei, whom I mentioned the night before last," Mori Kogoro introduced him, then looked towards Chi Feichei sitting beside him. "It's a pity you didn't come with me the night before last."
"The night before last, I had to organize documents at home and couldn't get away," Chi Feichei's gaze still wandered among the wine bottles in the wine cabinet. "Otherwise, I would have come, just because of the name of this bar."
"Huh?" Mori Kogoro was curious. "Lemon? What's wrong with this name?"
"Because of a song," Chi Feichei didn't elaborate, looking at the man. "Boss, could I have a Sazerac?"
"Ah?" The man turned his head and said with an apologetic smile, "Sorry, my shop has only been open for a year, and the previous bartender resigned because of family matters, so..."
"No wonder you're doing food and bartending by yourself, it's really hard!" Mori Kogoro exclaimed with a sigh.
"Can I do it myself?" Chi Feichei got up.
His words were a question, but his action of getting up already made it difficult for ordinary people to speak up and refuse.
After all, a guest making a cocktail himself, especially under circumstances right under the boss's eyes, there was no reason to refuse this. Even if the cocktail the guest made was undrinkable, as long as the guest pays, that's enough.
If the guest had already stood up and the boss still refused, then it would indicate there was some reason why he couldn't go behind the bar counter.
"No problem!" The man readily agreed, looking at the liquor in the wine cabinet. "The liquor with a sign on it is bought by guests, the others can be used casually."
"Really sorry, Boss," Mori Kogoro said. "We're causing you trouble."
"It's nothing," the man said with a smile, then turned around again to plate the cheese.
Chi Feichei turned around and went behind the bar counter, started picking out the liquor bottles without wooden plaques, and introduced, "Sazerac, known as the first cocktail in North America. The traditional recipe is French cognac, absinthe, bitters, sugar, and decorated with lemon peel..."
Sazerac is not an obscure cocktail. If this boss didn't know it, either the bartender indeed resigned, or this bar has been open for less than a year.
Moreover, the wine cabinet itself can reveal a lot of information.
From the gap inside the wine cabinet, one can tell how long this wine cabinet has been used. Even if the inside and outside of the wine cabinet are wiped every day, there are always neglected corners. At the same time, years of wiping will also leave some different traces on the wine cabinet.
This wine cabinet has been used for at least three years.
From the amount of bartending tools and food preparation tools, one can judge how many people used to work here. For example, if there were two bartenders here before, then there would be more than two sets of bartending tools. Even if one of them resigned and only the remaining one is working, the extra set of bartending tools would not be thrown away or put away, but would be used as spare tools.
The tools are complete, with two identical muddlers. Previously, there should have been only one bartender.
From the usage situation of cups, small dishes, and the like, one can judge the usual customer traffic.
This is not based on the cleaning extent, usage traces, or damage ratio, but on the method of placement. If the shop usually has a lot of traffic, at this point in the night, which is about to arrive, the boss should put a large amount of cups in a convenient place for taking.
General bars prepare the most various wine glasses, followed by small dishes for serving snacks. Some bars also prepare some knife and fork for eating cake.
This bar seems to have few guests usually... No, it should be said pitifully few. There are only two rows of cups placed on the outer side, a total of ten. There is a stack of small dishes, eight of them.
What's more interesting is that among that stack of small dishes, the two below have dust on their edges, and the knife and fork placed in the innermost part have accumulated a layer of dust.
This indicates that the boss estimated that there would be no more than ten guests today, and not many guests have come every day recently. If five of the plates are used by the boss himself for eating, even if not every guest orders food, the customer traffic would still be even less.
In addition, although the ten cups placed on the outer side are wiped clean and bright, they are only Old Fashioned glasses, champagne flutes, and beer glasses.
In a bar, Martini and Margarita are commonly ordered cocktails, and they also have specific cups. A bar actually doesn't prepare two Martini glasses and Margarita glasses in advance. Does the boss really want to do business?
Or, does the boss know that Mori Kogoro is keen on beer and shochu and won't order cocktails, so he put them away?
A bar that has been open for at least three years, although the boss said he took over a year ago, he wouldn't even know Sazerac. In other words, this boss may not have taken over the bar for a full year. Coupled with the idle situation of the cups, he may have only been open for a few days, yet Mori Kogoro received a free drink ticket for the first anniversary free drinks...
This is just like a bar opened specifically for one person, or, a trap prepared specifically for one person.
Mori Kogoro looked at Chi Feichei picking out bottle after bottle of liquor and putting them on the countertop, feeling a bit emotional.
Changing into warm-colored clothes, his disciple's mood seemed to have improved quite a bit. He actually had the mood to make a cocktail himself and explained it so patiently.
"Need to prepare an Old Fashioned glass, a mixing glass, a muddler..."
Chi Feichei was looking for things. When the bar owner turned around and brought two plates of cheese to the bar counter, he used his body to block the view while getting up to get the muddler, and quickly opened the wine bottle with the 'Kimura' wooden plaque with his left hand.
Feichi poked his head over to see, but couldn't smell anything. "Master, it's fake alcohol, no scent!"
Chi Feichei leaned in and smelled a bit, took the muddler with his right hand, operated with his left hand alone, quickly put the bottle cap back on, put it back in its original place, turned his head, and asked the bar owner who had turned around to look over with a calm face, "Excuse me, are there any ice cubes?"
"Yes," the man helped take the ice bucket. "In the refrigerator freezer compartment."
Chi Feichei put the muddler on the countertop and went to the refrigerator to get ice cubes.
Liquor, even if the smell of alcohol is faint, will have a slight special scent, such as vegetation scent or fruity aroma.
The bottle with the 'Kimura' name wooden plaque on it didn't contain fake alcohol, it was simply plain boiled water!
If that person named 'Kimura' really existed, spending money to buy a bottle of plain boiled water here, asking the boss to hang a sign and keep it, and coming every day to drink plain boiled water, wouldn't that mean he had a problem with his mind?
He had thought that the boss letting him come behind the bar counter was because he had nothing to hide. Now it seemed he had overestimated the other party. The other party didn't think he could discover anything at all, nor did he think about covering it up or preventing others from getting close to the wine cabinet.
He wasn't even willing to prepare a bottle of real liquor, putting plain boiled water in to pretend it was liquor. That's quite perfunctory.
The man took the ice bucket and helped put in ice cubes, unaware that Chi Feichei had again observed the internal situation of the refrigerator freezer compartment and the freezing situation of the ice cubes.
All of them were ice cubes that had been frozen for three days.
This is a bar opened for Mori Kogoro alone, confirmed.
This bar owner is probably just waiting for his teacher to show up. After his teacher leaves, he'll perfunctorily close the door, and the next day night, he'll open for a while casually to see if his teacher will come. Around ten or eleven o'clock, he'll probably guess his teacher won't come, so he'll close the door and rest, completely avoiding the bar's business hours from eleven o'clock to two or three in the morning. So there weren't even a few guests who stumbled in.
They weren't aiming to operate a bar at all.
Thank you for the Bonus Chapter for Lord Meng Princess Qiyelisi, second bow!
(End of Chapter)