I can dream about my own death.

Chapter 8 Residual Evidence

More than ten minutes later, Li Yucheng, Wang Feng, and a professional truck mechanic arrived at the parking lot.

Chen Wensheng stepped forward, pointed to a pile of scrap metal not far away, and said helplessly, "This dump truck that was involved in an accident has been severely burned. Only the steel shell remains of the truck."

"This..." Li Yucheng couldn't believe it at all. "No, we were just discussing coming to inspect today yesterday, and the car was burned last night?"

"It wasn't last night, but around 6 PM yesterday. That means the truck had already burned before we started to suspect the brakes on it. I just checked the security footage, and four suspicious individuals appeared around the time the fire started, so we can't rule out arson."

"This is outrageous, outrageous..." Li Yucheng was a reporter, and with the camera on, he couldn't just express his opinion randomly, so he repeated this sentence several times to express his strong dissatisfaction.

Immediately, Li Yucheng turned to the truck mechanic and said, "Master, you are an exceptionally skilled auto mechanic. Could you please take a look and see if you can find anything unusual?"

The mechanic squatted down, extended two fingers, gently wiped them on the ground, picked up some black ash, smelled it lightly, and shook his head, saying, "There's such a strong smell of gasoline left on the ground? These wrecked cars must have been deliberately burned."

Chen Wensheng had anticipated this and did not show much surprise.

Li Yucheng had guessed it earlier, but as a reporter, he couldn't say anything subjective or presumptuous in front of the camera. So, he feigned shock and asked the truck mechanic, "Master Qi, are you telling the truth?"

"Of course it's true." Master Qi squatted down again, pointing to the ground and said, "Look at this ground, there are specks of oil glistening on it. This oil isn't engine oil that leaked from the cars, it's gasoline. How could so much gasoline have leaked from the car's fuel tank? Therefore, the only explanation is that someone deliberately poured gasoline and burned these cars."

"Oh!" Li Yucheng nodded repeatedly.

Then, Master Qi further argued from several other aspects that the fire was man-made.

Chen Wensheng, who had been listening attentively, waited until Master Qi paused before interjecting, "Master Qi, I've heard that your car repair skills are exceptional. Can I ask you a question about car brakes?"

Master Qi was in high spirits after hearing Chen Wensheng's praise and said with a smile, "Ask away!"

"Master Qi, could you take a look and see if there's anything wrong with the braking system of this dump truck?" Chen Wensheng asked, pointing to the dump truck, which was almost burnt to a solid metal.

When Master Qi saw the black, dilapidated dump truck, his expression immediately froze.

Li Yucheng gave a wink to Wang Feng, the photographer beside him.

Wang Feng understood immediately and took the camera to film Master Qi.

When Master Qi noticed the camera was pointed at him, he immediately composed himself and stopped acting stiffly. Not wanting to embarrass himself in front of the camera, he forced a smile and said, "Although this dump truck is burned beyond recognition, with my skills, I can still make out quite a few things."

"Master Qi, you are really amazing!" Chen Wensheng immediately offered plenty of emotional support.

Master Qi glanced at his casual clothes and said, "I'm not wearing my work clothes today. I didn't want to get them dirty, but since everyone is so eager to see my repair skills, I'll give it a try."

As soon as he finished speaking, Master Qi crawled under the dump truck and began to conduct various inspections.

More than ten minutes later, Master Qi crawled out from under the car.

Chen Wensheng immediately stepped forward and continued to offer emotional support, saying, "Looking at your beaming face, Master Qi, you must have discovered something unusual. You're really amazing."

Master Qi nodded: "Indeed! After a thorough inspection, I found a serious problem with the truck's braking system. To put it bluntly, the brake pads are worn out too badly, and it has basically lost its braking ability. I'm not surprised at all that this truck had an accident."

Everyone had an expression of sudden realization.

"Besides the problem with the brake pads, I made another special discovery," Master Qi said with a smug look.

"What did you find?" everyone asked hurriedly.

Master Qi walked to the left front wheel and said with a smile, "Look, there's an extra set of new brake calipers installed on the left front wheel. This means that the dump truck driver was aware that the brake pads were severely worn, but instead of replacing them in time, he tried to increase braking effectiveness by installing additional brake calipers. This is extremely dangerous and could easily cause an accident."

"Add a brake caliper to the left front wheel?" Chen Wensheng immediately took out his phone and showed the video of the dump truck overturning to Master Qi: "Master Qi, take a look at this video."

After watching the video of the dump truck overturning, Mr. Qi sighed, "The left front wheel of this truck suddenly locked up and wouldn't move, while the right front wheel was still traveling at high speed, causing the front of the truck to lose control and veer severely to one side. Due to inertia, it overturned."

"The car that overturned in the video is the one that's been burned right here."

"What?" Master Qi's eyes widened in surprise.

He then walked over to the added brake caliper, examined it carefully, and exclaimed in even greater surprise, "This brake caliper is faulty; it's locked up the brake pads. The culprit behind the dump truck rollover in that video was this very caliper that suddenly locked up the brake pads."

Chen Wensheng turned his head and glanced at Li Yucheng.

Li Yucheng immediately understood Chen Wensheng's meaning and said, "We've discovered such important new evidence, but we don't know if it's true or false. Should we call the police and let the professionals determine its authenticity?"

Ten minutes later, Uncle Hat arrived.

After conducting a thorough investigation, Uncle Hat confirmed that the caliper on the left front wheel of the dump truck was recently installed.

Furthermore, the brake caliper has an independent brake control system inside, meaning that someone can remotely control the brake caliper to apply emergency braking to the left front wheel of the dump truck.

The emergence of this new evidence has completely changed the nature of this car accident.

This case has transformed from a traffic accident involving "driver Xu Pingshi driving a severely overloaded dump truck and illegally entering a city section" into a criminal case involving "others tampering with the vehicle's braking system to frame the driver."

Chen Wensheng took the opportunity to reveal the video evidence he had seen in the security room.

Uncle Hat immediately went to the security room to check the video footage, collected the video evidence, and issued a notice to arrest the four suspicious individuals.

Thus, the fire in the parking lot was confirmed to be arson and classified as a case of deliberate arson.

And so, the scene was cordoned off and completely sealed off.

Chen Wensheng, Li Yucheng, and the others left the parking lot and came to the roadside to wait for a taxi.

Chen Wensheng asked, "If we find out who's behind this, Xu Pingshi shouldn't be in any serious trouble, right?"

"He's only suspected of illegal driving and will bear secondary responsibility. Even if he goes to jail, it'll only be for a maximum of six months. Compared to the previous situation, it's infinitely better," Li Yucheng replied.

"Hmm." Chen Wensheng breathed a sigh of relief.

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