Conan: Ran turns into an elementary school student and calls me dad.

Chapter 126 The Mad Scientist

Back in the car, Lin Xiuyi closed the door, plugged in her headphones, and pressed play.

The tape was spinning, making a slight hissing sound.

Then, a woman's voice came through the earphones.

The voice was gentle and calm, carrying a sense of knowing the ending all along.

"I'm sorry, Shiho, if you hear this, Mom is probably no longer in this world."

Lin Xiuyi's fingers tightened slightly.

"Before we talk about anything else, Mom wants to apologize to you. It's about your background."

"You are not actually Atsushi's child. Your father's name is Hayashi Hideichi."

Even though he already knew the answer, and even though Miyano Akemi had said those words herself, when the fact was calmly uttered by Miyano Elena, Hayashi Shuichi's breath still caught in his throat for a moment.

The street scene outside the window flowed by, and the afternoon sun shone on his face through the car window, but he could not feel any warmth.

The tape continued to spin.

"After Shirakyu Pharmaceutical went bankrupt, Atsushi and I returned to our hometown and opened a clinic. But neither of us was suited to be ordinary doctors."

"Atsushi still harbors resentment towards his somewhat outlandish medical research. Although he has been labeled a 'mad scientist' by others and ostracized by the scientific community because of those experiments."

"But I still believe in him, and I believe his research will succeed."

"But there's nothing I can do to help him. Even the simplest of those research experiments costs more than we can afford."

"Just when Atsushi and I were starting to despair and were ready to just become two ordinary doctors."

One evening, a young girl anxiously knocked on the clinic door. Beside her was a boy covered in blood.

"It turns out that she and the boy encountered armed robbers, and the boy took a bullet to the chest while protecting her."

"Atsushi and I took the boy to the clinic, quickly gave him emergency treatment, and then helped them contact an ambulance from a major hospital."

"After they left, Atsushi and I started cleaning up the bloodstains in the clinic, but we found a drop of blood in Atsushi's bacterial culture dish."

"Atsushi casually took it to a medical microscope, originally wanting to see if the drop of blood affected the bacteria in the petri dish, but he made an unexpected discovery."

"The cells in that drop of blood were several times more active than those in a normal person. Moreover, some of the cells even shared the same characteristics as stem cells."

Lin Xiuyi's pupils contracted slightly.

"Atsushi's research has always aimed to break the limits of human lifespan, unleash the potential of the human body, make people stay young forever, reverse aging, and even reverse life and death."

"Although we had found a certain research direction, we were never sure if it would be successful. But the boy's blood gave us hope for success."

"Atsushi and I wanted to keep the boy and have him participate in our research. But at that time, we were just ordinary doctors. What could we use to convince others?"

"At this point, Atsushi came up with an idea: since the boy has a special constitution, his offspring are very likely to inherit this constitution."

Lin Xiuyi tapped her knee lightly twice with her fingertips.

He already knew what was going to happen next, but when those words actually came out of the tape, he still felt a sense of absurd unreality.

"I immediately understood what he meant. Although the idea was crazy, and doing it would be unfair to the boy and the child to be born, I did it anyway for Atsushi's wish."

"Atsushi and I went to the hospital where the boy was staying and obtained some seeds. Then, in the lab, through in-vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, we succeeded. I got pregnant."

Lin Xiuyi closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

He recalled what Eri Kisaki had said: the clinic's owner had sneaked into the ward when he wasn't there, and looked embarrassed and panicked when she was caught.

At the time, Eri Kisaki didn't think much of it.

After all, who would have thought that a married female doctor would do such a thing?

"Originally, Atsushi and I only planned to continue our research after the child was born. But then, a mysterious organization extended an invitation to Atsushi. As soon as Atsushi saw the research materials they gave him, he was immediately captivated and couldn't take his eyes off them."

"Atsushi and I joined a mysterious organization. This organization has also been conducting research on human life, death, and potential."

"Relying on their research data, Atsushi's years of research finally made great progress. He called the unfinished drug the Silver Bullet."

Silver bullets.

Lin Xiuyi's fingers tightened slightly. The precursor to the renowned drug APTX4869 in the original timeline.

It turns out that it started developing it a long time ago.

"Atsushi and everyone else in the lab called it a dream drug, but I found that silver bullet terrifying."

"In order to ensure the successful completion of the silver bullet, the mysterious organization began using live people as test subjects. The testing process was both cruel and brutal."

"I'm somewhat relieved that I convinced Atsushi a long time ago not to report the matter of that boy to the organization. The reason was that it might affect the baby in my womb."

"Although I initially got pregnant with her just to help Atsushi realize his dream, I gradually developed feelings for the child."

Lin Xiuyi's gaze fell through the car window onto the blurry street scene in the distance.

He didn't know whether to feel fortunate or terrified. If Elena Miyano hadn't done that back then, if she and Atsushi Miyano had reported his secret to the organization...

Then his life might be a completely different story.

Imprisoned in an underground laboratory, they were subjected to daily bloodletting and flesh cutting, becoming living samples for those insane experiments.

He's neither a tycoon nor a famous writer. He only has a number, a prisoner who will never see the sunlight.

He instinctively shivered.

The tape recording continues.

"Shortly after that, you were born, Shiho. To our surprise, you didn't inherit that boy's constitution."

"After examination, Shiho, you are just a little stronger than other children, but there are no other abnormalities."

"I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. After all this, I only hope you can grow up safely and happily..."

The recordings that followed were all pre-recorded by Elena Miyano, as birthday wishes for Shiho Miyano every year.

Those voices were gentle and loving, like the words of advice and expectations that every ordinary mother gives to her child.