"Rumble..." The deafening thunder woke Su Li from her sleep.

She lay on the bed and calmed down for a while, then sat up and looked at the alarm clock beside the bed. The hands happened to be at a quarter past four.

Su Li got out of bed, wrapped herself in a shawl and walked to the living room. Just as she was picking up the kettle to pour water, a dazzling bolt of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, illuminating the room for a moment through the curtains in the living room.

The heavy rain poured down at this moment, like a huge waterfall, sweeping across the city of Ninghai. Thunder roared among the low clouds, making her ears buzz.

Su Li picked up the water glass and was looking out of the window. She was lost in thought when a steady knock on the door suddenly sounded. She swallowed the water in her mouth, walked slowly to the door, and looked out through the peephole.

However, there was no light in the corridor and it was difficult to see who the figure was. At this moment, the knock on the door rang again. It knocked three times before stopping. Su Li reached out and took the iron bar placed next to the shoe rack. This was the same as before.

Su Heng was worried that it was dangerous for her to live alone. She held the iron rod, and when another knock on the door began, she said in a cold voice: "Who?" The knock on the door suddenly stopped, and then a voice came from outside the door:

"It's me, Xiao Zhuo."

Su Li was startled and put the iron bar back. When she opened the door, she saw Xiao Zhuo standing outside the door neatly dressed, with a raincoat slung on his left arm. She asked doubtfully: "Captain Xiao? You...this is?"

Su Li didn't turn on the main light in the living room, but just turned on a floor lamp next to the sofa. The light was dim.

The warm yellow light swept towards Su Li from behind, passing through her long hair that was draped lazily on her shoulders, casting a layer of soft light on her white cheeks.

Xiao Zhuo looked at Su Li inside the door, and his eyes froze for a moment. After his eyes touched her long and slender calves under her nightgown, he immediately looked away as if he had been burned.

His eyes avoided Su Li's sight, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he said: "There is... a case. I paged you. You probably didn't see it, so I came up to call... to call you."

Although he stuttered, he still explained the situation quickly in one breath.

Su Li saw his nervousness and was a little confused but didn't ask any more questions. She just said: "I put the pager in the bedroom. Please wait for me while I change clothes."

After she finished speaking, she turned around and went back to the bedroom, leaving Xiao Zhuo awkwardly standing outside the door in a dilemma.

This was the first time he went upstairs to see what Su Li's room looked like. The layout of the house was the same as his room, but Su Li's home looked very cozy.

She laid a fluffy white blanket on the sofa, and a floor mat under the long low wooden table in front of the sofa.

There were also a few books and some scattered papers on the table. Xiao Zhuo thought she usually sat there and read.

The room was neatly organized by Su Li, and every corner had her unique design.

Xiao Zhuo didn't understand. He was running around investigating cases like them every day, so why did Su Li still have time to tidy up the room?

Su Li quickly changed her clothes and left the room. She casually grabbed her hair a few times with her hands and rolled it into a low bun. She walked to the door and changed her shoes. She picked up the satchel on the coat rack and took it.

Go out the door.

Xiao Zhuo saw that she was wearing a thin white sweater with a black jacket on top, and reminded her: "It's raining outside, put on a raincoat!"

Su Li took out an umbrella from the bucket next to the shoe rack, then closed the door and said, "I don't have a raincoat."

"If it's inconvenient to have an umbrella on site, you can take this one and I'll get another one when I get home."

After saying that, he handed the raincoat in his hand to Su Li, turned around and strode downstairs.

Su Li looked at the raincoat that was stuffed into her arms, said nothing, arranged it a little, then carried it downstairs.

When Su Li arrived on the first floor, Xiao Zhuo was already locking the door. He glanced at Su Li and said, "Let's go!"

Su Li sat in the car and looked at the water droplets hitting the glass outside the window. The rain outside was much lighter than before. She rubbed her eyes and yawned softly. She was awakened by the thunder and felt sleepy again.

Attacked again.

After Xiao Zhuo noticed it, he said warmly: "You should sleep for a while, it will take half an hour to get there."

Su Li shook her head and pressed her face against the glass. The cold stimulation made her sober. Her tone was lazier than usual due to sleepiness: "What case is it?"

"There was a fire in the school and a body was found in the building!"

"There's a fire in the school?" Su Li murmured again. What she said to Qi Rong in the Qi family flashed through her mind. She suddenly became more awake and asked vaguely: "Is it... Ninghai No. 2 Middle School?"

Xiao Zhuo was surprised: "How do you know?"

…

The two arrived relatively early, and apart from the fire station personnel who were still cleaning up the mess, there were only a few policemen left to maintain order at the scene. The sky had some light at this time, because it was still raining lightly, and visibility was not as good as before.

, but it is still enough for on-site personnel to arrange operations.

The entire building has been cordoned off, and there is a circle of high school students holding umbrellas watching the excitement, with curious expressions on their young faces.

The building where the fire broke out was not high, with only two floors. The walls were completely burned and black, leaving only an empty frame in place.

The police came over with a man in his forties. The man was wearing an old-fashioned Chinese tunic suit. Even though he was holding a big umbrella, he was still wet.

Half of the body.

The few strands of hair he used to cover the Mediterranean Sea, whether it was wet from the rain or sweat, were scattered in clusters at this time, revealing the bare top of his skull.

"Captain Xiao, this is the dean of the school." The policeman introduced Xiao Zhuo, and then turned to the middle-aged man: "This is Captain Xiao, the second captain of the Municipal Criminal Police Detachment."

Hearing this, the man immediately stretched out his hand: "Hello, Captain Xiao, my name is Sun Shizhong, and I am the dean of the No. 2 Middle School."

After Xiao Zhuo shook hands with him and said hello, he said: "Take us to the corpse first." He turned to the police and asked: "Has the forensic doctor contacted him?"

The policeman nodded hurriedly and replied: "Contacted, on the way here."

Su Li glanced at the crowd of students outside and asked, "Why are there so many students outside at this time?"

Sun Shizhong explained: "After the fire started, there was too much noise, and people from the Public Security and Fire Department came to put out the fire, so the students were basically woken up."

“Are so many students living on campus?”

"Ah, yes! Our No. 2 Middle School is all boarding school, and the students all live on campus."

Su Li originally thought that Qi Rong chose to live on campus because the school was far away from home and it was troublesome to travel back and forth, but she did not expect that it was the school's policy.

Sun Shizhong walked in front, leading the way while introducing: "This building was originally planned to be demolished in the second half of the year. Who would have thought of this? Alas!"

Xiao Zhuo was surprised: "Push it down? Why push it down?"

"This building is too old. It is basically abandoned here and can only be piled with unnecessary moving items, so the school is planning to demolish it and build a new teaching building to reuse this land."

The place they were walking now should be the corridor before the fire in this building. Su Li looked at the room they passed and asked: "Is this building usually locked?"

Sun Shizhong turned around and said: "It's not locked. There is nothing important in this building."

He stopped as he spoke, turned his back and pointed at the ruins in front of him with a confused look on his face: "Captain Xiao, the body is inside, I...I won't go in."

Xiao Zhuo saw his fear and didn't say anything but nodded to indicate that he could leave.

The room where the body was found was the deepest room on the first floor. The policeman continued walking forward with Xiao Zhuo and Su Li. He sighed and said: "That body...Actually, it's not just him, even I feel uncomfortable looking at it.

." Xiao Zhuo: "Well, corpses after fires can indeed cause people to feel uncomfortable."

Su Li followed Xiao

Behind Zhuo, he stepped on the wet ground and walked into the room. Except for the bricks and steel bars, everything else in the room had been burned away.

As soon as they entered, they saw a black corpse curled up on the ground. "His" hair, skin, and physical features were all taken away by the fire, leaving only the charred muscles exposed on the body surface.

The policeman frowned and looked away. The next second he saw Su Li walking past him to the body, squatting down and observing it carefully.

His eyes widened in surprise, and he muttered in his heart, the women in this criminal police team are just different!

The damage to the corpse was so severe that not only the appearance but also the gender could not be identified. The hands of the deceased had disappeared, leaving only the carbonized forearm bone stubble, and the limbs were flexed in a fist-fighting posture. Xiao Zhuo also observed from the sidelines.

Yes, he said with some help: "We can only wait for the forensic doctor to come here." Su Li nodded: "This kind of scene is also quite troublesome for the forensic doctor and the trace examination department."

The high-temperature burning of fires and the high-pressure water cannons used by firefighters to extinguish fires will greatly destroy traces and physical evidence at the scene, especially testing the personal abilities of trace inspectors.

Su Li stood up and observed the environment around the room: "The situation in this room is obviously more serious than in other places."

Xiao Zhuo replied: "I also discovered that except for the corpse and the brick wall structure, everything else in this room was basically burned down."

Su Li walked to the window. The glass of the window had been broken, but there were very few glass fragments on the ground. She stuck her head out of the window and saw glass fragments of different sizes scattered on the ground outside.

"The glass fragments are all outside, but the fire started not outside. The fire started inside the room first." The policeman didn't quite understand and asked: "Why is it that the glass fragments are outside, but the fire started inside the room first?"

Su Li explained: "If the fire starts in a relatively closed room, the high temperature and gas caused by the combustion will cause the air pressure in the room to increase, so after the glass is broken, it will be pushed out by the air flow."

The policeman nodded confusedly. Although he still didn't quite understand, he was very sensible and didn't ask this question again.

Xiao Zhuo was still squatting next to the corpse, looking up at Su Li and saying: "If it is like you said, the fire started in the room, and the fire marks in this room are more serious than in other places, then the fire point is very likely

It's right here."

His eyes fell back on the corpse, as if asking Su Li, and also asking himself: "Then did 'he' commit suicide...or was it homicide?" Su Li turned around and looked at the corpse without replying.

It is difficult to draw conclusions at this time from what has been discovered.

Xiao Zhuo didn't dwell on this anymore. He stood up with his legs propped up and told the police: "It's better to confirm death first."

Who is the perpetrator? Please go talk to Director Sun and ask him to verify whether any school personnel are missing."
Chapter completed!