Eyes that are the same as those of evil

Chapter 159 The Hand of God 12
This statement perfectly matches their speculation.

The deceased suffered from mental illness. After the fire started in the room, he was unable to make an escape choice in time like a normal person. It is estimated that he inhaled a large amount of thick smoke at this time. When his survival instinct made him want to save himself, he opened the window, which caused the flames to backfire and burn even more fiercely.

Li Shixun was having trouble accepting his younger brother's death. He argued with his father until he was sweating profusely, then plopped down on the surviving sofa and wiped his face to calm himself down.

Tan Ming stood beside him and asked gently, while Tan Jia listened, kneading dough figurines.

She even spaced out for two seconds, thinking: criminals get irritable when it gets hot. There have been one case after another lately. She hasn't even finished making the "crime scene" for Zou Yuxuan's case yet, and now this one is happening. She's even making a KPI out of making dough figurines.

Coming to his senses, Tan Ming was asking for specific information about the deceased.

Li Shixun said, "His name is Li Xin, Xin with three golds. He is my younger brother. He is 25 years old this year. There is a nearly 20-year age difference between us. He says he is my younger brother, but he is actually about the same age as my son."

“He suffered a traumatic experience as a child and was unable to work or go to school normally, so he has always stayed at home, and I support him. This house belongs to my father, but I moved out after working for a few years, leaving only the two of them living here.”

“Xiao Xin is very obedient. As long as he doesn’t come into contact with fire, he’s no different from a normal person. For this reason, my dad usually only uses a microwave oven or induction cooker to cook, doesn’t smoke, and even uses mosquito repellent liquid instead of burning mosquito coils to avoid flames as much as possible.”

Tan Ming extracted a key point: "So there are no lighters or other tools for igniting open flames at home?"

"No, my dad is very careful about that, and I won't bring anything related to fire when I come back."

That means the deceased didn't start the fire themselves.

Tan Jia looked at the room at the crime scene again. It was on the fifth floor. No one was home. The deceased hadn't started the fire himself. The conclusion was obvious: someone had deliberately set the fire, and the perpetrator knew that the deceased had PTSD related to fire and was unable to escape normally.

Someone wanted to kill the deceased.

Tan Ming had also thought of this, and asked solemnly, "Mr. Li, who has the key to the main gate?"

Li Shixun: "Me, my dad, and Xiaoxin, we only have these three keys."

"Are you sure no one else has a key? This fire may not be an accident; we suspect someone broke into your house and set it on fire."

Li Shixun stared in shock, stunned for a moment, then said, "Impossible. There are only these three keys. Even my wife doesn't have them. Besides, Xiao Xin rarely goes out. He can't have offended anyone. Who would deliberately want to set fire to him?"

The police also wanted to know the answer to this question.

When it comes to murder, one must consider both the motive and the means. If someone deliberately set fire to the victim's house to burn them to death, what would their motive be?

Setting someone on fire, especially one specifically targeting someone with PTSD related to fire, is a serious offense. It doesn't seem like a simple act of revenge stemming from a dispute; it's more like a premeditated act of retribution.

Moreover, the murderer is most likely an acquaintance who knew about the victim's past.

After asking Li Shixun, Tan Jia followed Zheng Yan to visit the neighbors.

Busy until noon, the sun was blazing overhead.

The electric scooter teams picking up students to go home for lunch gradually returned to the community. Some parents peered out from behind the cordon, whispering among themselves.

Tan Jia broke away from the visiting group, pretending to be a passerby, and followed them at a distance, listening intently to their gossip.

"They say his head got stuck in the guardrail and he was burned alive; his skin was charred."

"I even went up to help put out the fire, but it only burned down that one room. It was like someone was deliberately watching the people inside." Someone muttered a low "Pah!" and said, "It's all karma!"

retribution?

She continued listening, but the neighborhood wasn't big, and as they were about to part ways, she only managed to hear someone say:

"They died the same way, but they were inhuman, and even God saw it."

"It's a pity that it wasn't another damned person who died."

She took two more steps, and one of the men turned around, saw her, immediately shut his mouth, and quickly went upstairs.

Tan Jia stood there for a while, memorized the building numbers of those people, and then went to find Zheng Yan.

“Team Leader Zheng, there may have been a similar fire in the deceased’s home. I suspect that the fire the deceased witnessed many years ago may be related to this fire.”

Zheng Yan: "I asked Li Shixun, and he said that fifteen years ago, his first wife was cooking in the kitchen when an accident occurred. A natural gas explosion caused a fire, and their four-year-old daughter was burned to death. The deceased was only ten years old at the time. She witnessed the fire and saw the charred body, so she developed post-traumatic stress disorder."

"Was it really an accident?" she reasonably suspected. "There must be quite a few people living in this community who witnessed the fire fifteen years ago. Since some of them believe that Li Xin's death in the fire was retribution, it means that there must be some secrets that Li Shixun didn't tell us about what happened back then."

For example, the cause of death of the deceased fifteen years ago, the posture of death, the cause of the fire, and the reaction of the Li family after death.

Zheng Yan put away his notebook and said, "Then let's go ask those old neighbors and see if we can hear any secrets."

There are quite a few old neighbors, because there are schools from kindergarten to high school in the area. Many people have gone from taking their children to school to taking their grandchildren to school, and they have never moved away.

They were eager to find out what happened fifteen years ago, and soon they heard similar versions of the story from several people.

Fifteen years ago, Li Shixun married his first wife, Liu Sulan. She was beautiful and a primary school teacher. The couple had a good relationship back then.

However, Liu Sulan's health was poor. She miscarried twice after getting married, and finally managed to keep her third pregnancy, giving birth to a daughter.

Li Shixun's parents were not satisfied, but at that time the one-child policy was still in effect. Not only was Liu Sulan's health not allowed to have a second child, but Li Shixun's job also prevented it.

So the elderly couple took their anger out on their daughter-in-law. Liu Sulan did everything perfectly – washing clothes, cooking, taking care of the children, and looking after the elderly – but she was still verbally abused in a sarcastic manner.

These old neighbors all believe that Liu Sulan's death was related to the elderly couple.

"Who knows if it was an accident? Even if it was an accident, it was because they tortured Su Lan and made her mentally unstable that this happened."

"Moreover, not long after Su Lan died, Old Man Li introduced Li Shixun to his current wife. The second year of their marriage, she gave birth to a big, healthy boy. Old Man Li was so happy that he smiled every day and never thought about his poor little granddaughter again."

“I don’t think it was an accident! Li Shixun didn’t even want the house anymore, he moved out and bought a new one. He’s unlikely to come back here easily. Who knows if he’s afraid of seeing the old place and being reminded of the tragic death of Liu Sulan and her daughter?”

"Although the retribution was directed at the wrong person, the way Xiao Li died really resembled his sister-in-law. There was no one else at home, only the kitchen burned down, and Su Lan stuck her daughter's head out the window, probably wanting her to jump..."

“Wait a minute,” Tan Jia heard a crucial point, “didn’t they open the door and run away?”

The old neighbor said knowingly, "The kitchen door is locked from the inside. They say the little girl likes to play a game of locking the door from the inside, but children don't know that much. Who do you think taught her that?"

(End of this chapter)