Chapter 129 Hose

Chapter 129: The Hose

However, these were merely their speculations. Whether the explosion was actually triggered by mosquito coils or whether anyone had entered the kitchen after dinner remained uncertain.

The only witness was currently undergoing emergency treatment at the hospital, leaving them without any solid leads.

By the time Shen Qingye arrived, it was nearly 2 a.m.

She got out of the car and caught her breath at the sight of the villa now a smoldering ruin before her. Her brow furrowed as she hurried over to Yue Lingchuan's side.

"Captain Yue, Captain Ma."

Yue Lingchuan glanced at her. "You made it?"

Captain Ma was also surprised. "Why'd you call Xiao Shen out here in the middle of the night?"

Yue Lingchuan replied, "If this turns out to be a homicide, time is of the essence. We can't afford delays."

Captain Ma shook his head at Yue Lingchuan, thinking the man truly had no concept of going easy on someone.

The allegedly insensitive Yue Lingchuan lowered his gaze to the girl, meeting her clear eyes. Just as he was about to speak, Shen Qingye smiled and said to Captain Ma, "It's fine. I'm a detective too—this kind of work is part of the job."

Before Captain Ma could respond, she continued, "What's the situation now? A fire?"

She was puzzled. If it were just a fire, it shouldn’t require the involvement of the criminal police—this wasn’t their jurisdiction.

Yue Lingchuan shook his head. "It is a fire, but one caused by an explosion."

"An explosion?" Shen Qingye's eyes widened in shock as she turned back. "What exactly happened?"

Yue Lingchuan filled her in on what happened. Shen Qingye took a deep breath and murmured, "That is suspicious..."

She looked up. The security department was speaking with the property manager, while the Trace Analysis Unit and the forensic team were inspecting the scene. The fire brigade had extinguished the flames but was still investigating the cause of the fire...

If this really was just an accident, that would be for the best. But if not...

An explosion. Arson.

A family annihilation.

A murder case of this nature would undoubtedly draw intense scrutiny from higher authorities.

Shen Qingye set her jaw, watching them work for a while before turning back to Yue Lingchuan. "I'm going to check things out."

Yue Lingchuan nodded without stopping her. Instead, he said to Captain Ma, "Xiao Shen has good instincts. She might notice something we missed."

Captain Ma gave him a surprised look. He was well aware of Shen Qingye’s capabilities, but Yue Lingchuan’s attitude...

"Are you mentoring her?"

Yue Lingchuan smiled. "She doesn't need my mentoring. She just lacks some experience since she’s new to the job."

Captain Ma tch'd in surprise, then watched as Shen Qingye joined the forensics team, collecting his thoughts.

...

Ever since developing that ability, Shen Qingye had never stopped exploring its applications.

At first, she only knew that after a homicide occurred, she could hear voices from certain objects at the crime scene. But at the time, she wasn’t sure whether this "crime scene" was limited to homicide victims or also included suicide victims.

During this quieter period with no homicide cases, Shen Qingye frequently visited riversides, accident scenes, and places where people had jumped to their deaths. She even went to hospitals several times, specifically heading to the ERs. However, it turned out that no matter where she went, she never heard any unusual sounds.

From this, she roughly concluded that her ability only worked at crime scenes where the victim was murdered. Suicides or accidents were not included.

This ability came in handy now.

If she heard nothing, it might just be an accident. But if she did hear something...

It could provide them with more clues to solve the case.

The Liang family villa had three floors with an open-floor design. The first floor consisted of the living room, kitchen, and dining area, the second floor was the bedrooms, and the third floor was a balcony.

But now, all three floors lay in ruins after the explosion. The villa's outer walls had collapsed significantly, most of the flooring had collapsed, and the non-load-bearing walls inside were reduced to rubble.

After the explosion, sparks ignited the sofa and curtains, causing a fire. Now that the fire had been extinguished, most of the items inside had been reduced to ash.

The crime scene techs divided the ashes in the villa into several sections, carefully bagging and screening them one by one. Later, they would analyze what was in the ashes.

Shen Qingye searched each section, listening intently to her surroundings. She muttered under her breath, half hoping something would answer her and half hoping nothing would.

After searching the first floor, she gave Captain Xu's team the potentially useful items she found in evidence bags, then headed to the second floor.

Fortunately, the stairs in the Liang house weren’t wooden, so they had survived the destruction.

Shen Qingye climbed the stairs, seeing colleagues rushing about along the hallway. Just as she was about to enter an open door nearby, she suddenly heard a faint voice from a corner:

"It wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t an accident..."

Shen Qingye paused.

"Someone deliberately turned on the gas, deliberately lit a mosquito coil, and caused this explosion!"

"Someone deliberately harmed them—it wasn’t an accident!"

She let out a heavy sigh, as if confirming her suspicions.

Just as she'd suspected.

She turned her head and saw, in the corner by the stairs, a table with a broken leg leaning crookedly against the wall. Beneath it were scattered fragments of porcelain.

That was it.

Shen Qingye took two steps forward and gently picked up one of the pure white shards with her gloved hand.

"What did you see?" she asked softly.

The porcelain, unaware of anything yet, went on weakly, "Someone deliberately harmed the Liang family! Someone deliberately harmed the Liang family!"

"You cops need to get to the bottom of this! You must give Old Liang justice!"

"I know, I know," Shen Qingye whispered, brushing the dust off the white porcelain. "I know someone harmed them."

"So, tell me, what did you see?"

The porcelain perked up excitedly. "You can hear me? You understand me?"

Without hesitation, it rattled off, "When the Liang family was asleep, someone suddenly broke in from outside. A tall, thin figure walked in. He seemed very familiar with the place—he went straight to the kitchen. I don’t know what he did there, but he came out shortly after. Then, he rummaged through the living room, found a mosquito coil, lit it with a lighter, and left!"

"At first, I couldn’t figure his angle—breaking in after midnight, just going to the kitchen, lighting a mosquito coil, and leaving without doing anything else. But when the explosion happened, I realized something was wrong—but by then it was too late!"

Shen Qingye pondered for a moment: "You said it was a tall and thin person? Did you see his face clearly?"

"No, no!" Bai Ci wailed. "It was too dark down there. I couldn't see anything, only barely make out his outline by the streetlight outside. When he lit the mosquito coil, he was also facing away from me. All I saw was that he was tall and thin—probably a man."

Shen Qingye's heart sank slightly. She pressed further: "Do you know roughly what time he came?"

Bai Ci answered: "I don’t know. It was too dark; I couldn’t see the time. I only know the Liang family went to bed around nine o’clock. It felt like a long time after they’d fallen asleep that the man showed up."

Shen Qingye: "When he came, did he use a key to open the door?"

Bai Ci said: "I’m not sure. By the time I heard the noise and looked over, he was already inside."

Shen Qingye crouched in place, deep in thought.

Tall and thin, a man, familiar with the villa...

Was it someone they knew?

Before she could gather her thoughts, a sudden cheer erupted from downstairs:

"We found it, we found it!"

Shen Qingye quickly stood up and looked over. A forensics colleague was running out, holding a piece of hose: "We found the hose connected to the gas tank!"

"There’s a long knife slash on it!"

At these words, the room went quiet as everyone turned to look.

Just then, someone else shouted from across the room: "There’s another hose over here! It also has a long knife slash on it!"

Yue Lingchuan and Captain Ma, who had been going over the case with security, snapped their heads toward the noise.