Insights Chapter 38: The Big Fire

Chapter 38: The Big Fire

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

It was another quiet night. At three in the morning, the glow of fire suddenly illuminated the night sky of Penang, flames spreading from a residential area. The fire burned within a two-story self-built house at the foot of the northern hills of Penang. Soon, the entire house was engulfed in flames, thick smoke billowing upwards, reaching for the clouds.

The night wind was strong, fueling the fire as it rapidly spread with a crackling sound. The fierce flames licked at bricks and tiles, dancing fiercely in the night wind. The intense heat was enough to consume everything. Nearby neighbors were quickly awakened, rubbing their eyes as they came to their windows, then catching the strong smell of smoke and seeing the towering flames, sending shivers down their spines.

It’s unclear who shouted first, “Fire!!”

Soon, nearby lights flickered on one after another. With the situation urgent, the flames relentlessly consumed everything around, posing a potential threat to neighboring properties. It was impossible to extinguish the fire with buckets and basins at this point.

“A house is on fire! Is it the old Qiao’s house in that direction?”

“Did their family manage to escape?”

“Why hasn’t anyone called the fire department yet?! With a fire this big, the chances of survival are slim!”

After the fire was reported, the fire department rushed to the scene within a few minutes.

Two fire trucks arrived, with firefighters quickly getting out of the vehicles. Using high-pressure hoses, they sprayed water continuously. Half an hour later, the fire gradually subsided and was finally extinguished. Firefighters entered the house, extinguishing the remaining flames and inspecting the scene. The fire had claimed the lives of a family of three.

After the firefighters and local detectives examined the scene, suspicions arose about the cause of the fire, leading to a report being filed with the City Bureau. Several police teams within the City Bureau had unsolved cases on their hands, and with three deaths in this large fire, it was considered a major event. The case was then assigned to the Special Criminal Division.

At four-thirty in the morning, Gu Yanchen was awakened and immediately began calling his team members. They quickly assembled and rushed to the scene. Before five in the morning, Gu Yanchen and Shen Junci arrived, with several others already present, just finishing the handover with the local detectives.

Lu Ying greeted them, stifling a yawn, “Damn, if I knew we’d be on field duty this early today, I wouldn’t have stayed up late watching that game last night.”

Gu Yanchen, accompanied by Shen Junci, inspected the scene, while Bai Meng checked the information on the sidelines, receiving no response from anyone.

Lu Ying remarked, “Surely I’m not the only one in our team watching the championship, right?”

Finally, Qi Yi’an, in a soft voice, alleviated the awkwardness, “That game was quite exciting, 3-2, a last-minute winner in the last thirty seconds.”

Lu Ying, with dark circles under his eyes, replied, “Thinking that someone stayed up with me all night, I suddenly don’t feel so bad.”

Qi Yi’an admitted, “I happened to catch a clip online on my way here…”

Lu Ying exclaimed, “Damn… I thought I found a kindred spirit!”

Bai Meng, holding a laptop, began briefing Gu Yanchen and the others, “The family who died in the house consists of three people: the parents and their daughter who had just entered university. It’s summer vacation now. The daughter’s name is Qiao Siwei. She was supposed to leave for another university in a few days for enrollment, but the fire happened unexpectedly.”

Gu Yanchen asked, “Who reported the fire first?”

Bai Meng replied, “It was a neighbor. By the time they called, the fire had already started.”

Gu Yanchen approached the scene, lifting the police tape as Lu Ying handed him a flashlight. The beam pierced through the darkness, illuminating the interior of the house. It looked like a gloomy haunted house.

Shen Junci followed behind Gu Yanchen, wearing gloves. Since the fire department had just left and there were suspicions of foul play, the scene remained untouched. Lu Ying went up to scout the path first before signaling for the others to follow upstairs.

The wooden railing leading to the second floor had been burned into charcoal, and the stairs were littered with wood debris and water stains. As they ascended the stairs, a burnt beam suddenly collapsed, heading straight for Shen Junci. The beam, made of wood, was as thick as a bowl and over a meter long.

The incident happened suddenly, and the angle at which the beam fell was tricky. Shen Junci wanted to dodge, but he was standing on the stairs with no way to avoid it. He instinctively closed his eyes.

Qi Yi’an, following behind, saw Shen Junci about to be hit and exclaimed in shock.

Gu Yanchen reacted swiftly. He turned around and pulled Shen Junci into his arms, using his right hand to block the falling beam. The beam struck his forearm with a loud thud before falling aside.

Gu Yanchen, usually reserved, couldn’t help but let out a low “ugh” as his arm stung. By the time Shen Junci regained his senses, he found himself being protected in Gu Yanchen’s embrace. Realizing what had just happened, his expression changed, and he quickly struggled out, going to inspect Gu Yanchen’s injured arm.

Gu Yanchen shook his hand away, saying, “I’m fine. My arm doesn’t hurt much. It’s probably just a minor injury.”

Shen Junci was still concerned. He rolled up Gu Yanchen’s sleeve and felt his ulna bone. Judging solely by touch, he concluded that the bone wasn’t broken, which relieved him. “Thank goodness, no fractures.”

Gu Yanchen responded, “As long as you’re not injured.”

Shen Junci expressed his gratitude, “Thank you, Captain Gu.” He looked at Gu Yanchen’s arm, which was already turning bruised, feeling sorry for him. “Come to my place later, and I’ll apply some medicine for you.”

Seeing Shen Junci’s concern, Gu Yanchen suddenly felt less pain in his arm. He used his other hand to protect his forearm. “It’s not serious. Let’s go upstairs first. It’s not safe here.”

Seeing the crisis averted, Qi Yi’an, who was following behind, finally breathed a sigh of relief. The group ascended to the second floor. The most severely burned areas were the bedrooms on the second floor of the house.

The originally white walls were charred black, and the side windows were reduced to mere frames. Furniture inside the house bore obvious signs of fire damage, and the place was a mess. The temperature inside was considerably higher than outside, and the entire room had a strong burnt smell.

Due to the recent departure of the firefighters, water was everywhere in the room, dripping from the beams and accumulating on the floor. The ground was covered in black residue, making a squeaking sound when stepped on.

Gu Yanchen became more cautious, ensuring the scene was safe before allowing medical examiners to enter. Shen Junci and Qi Yi’an began examining the corpses.

The daughter lay in the secondary bedroom, while the parents lay in the master bedroom. All three corpses were charred beyond recognition, with no chance of survival. This family of three had been wiped out.

Starting with the more severely damaged secondary bedroom, they found the girl lying on the bed, her nightdress and bedding extensively charred. Her hair had turned gray, her face unrecognizable, and even her features were indistinguishable. Her hands were bent at the elbows, curled tightly against her chest, fists clenched—a common posture in burn victims known as pugilistic attitude.

Qi Yi’an approached the bed with the investigation kit, rubbing his nose as he looked at the corpse. Aside from the smell of burning, he also detected the odor of burnt flesh, which, compared to the stench of decay, was more tolerable. But the thought of it being human flesh made him nauseous.

Shen Junci, meanwhile, began to examine the corpse carefully. Burns were classified into four degrees based on severity, and the corpse before them clearly exhibited the highest degree, fourth-degree burns. Shen Junci first used a flashlight to examine the victim’s head. In fire cases, medical examiners often use the position of the head to determine whether the victim was alive when the fire started.

If the victim died in the fire, their face and body would typically be turned away from the direction of the fire.

During a fire, a person’s natural reflex was to close their eyes, creating deeper wrinkles at the outer corners of the eyes. If the skin in those wrinkles remained unsmoked and there was no ash on the corneas, it suggested a higher likelihood of direct death by fire.

The girl’s head was turned to the right, not facing the window on the left, which was where the fire had originated. Unfortunately, due to the prolonged exposure to fire, her facial features were almost entirely charred, with cracked skin around the eyes. The condition of the skin and eyes could no longer be used as reference points. They then examined the other two corpses, with the one belonging to the girl’s mother showing the most severe burns.

Qi Yi’an observed closely and asked Shen Junci, “I noticed this corpse suffered the most severe burns. Could it be because it was closer to the source of the fire?”

Shen Junci explained, “This is known as the candlewick effect in fire cases.”

Qi Yi’an suddenly understood.

Bai Meng, hearing the term for the first time, was curious. “What is the candlewick effect?”

Shen Junci explained, “Among the three victims, only the girl’s mother was wearing long-sleeved pajamas, and she was relatively obese with more body fat. When the fire ignited her clothes, as the epidermis peeled off, her subcutaneous fat melted and oozed out, wrapping around the clothing in reverse. Fat acts like a candle, and clothing acts as a wick, continuously burning until the fat is consumed. That’s why clothed corpses often burn faster and more intensely than unclothed ones.”

Lu Ying let out a sigh upon hearing this. “Turning into a candle… that’s really pitiful.”

Gu Yanchen, observing the scene, noted that fingerprints and footprints were mostly destroyed, making it difficult to find relevant evidence. The most severely burned area was the secondary bedroom where the girl was located, particularly the wall with the curtains, which seemed to have caught fire first and was significantly more charred than other areas.

The initial point of the fire seemed to be on the second floor, but there were no signs of electrical fire. It felt more like someone intentionally started it.

Lu Ying asked, “Have there been any bandits or arsonists in the area recently?”

Bai Meng searched the police system and responded, “In the past three months, there haven’t been many fires in the vicinity, and all had clear causes. Two were due to aging wiring, one was caused by a cigarette igniting a bedsheet, and another was due to unauthorized electrical modifications. Also, there haven’t been any casualties from fires in this area for a while. There’s also no information about bandits.”

Gu Yanchen said, “There are no signs of forced entry on the door locks, so it doesn’t seem like arsonists. Arsonists rarely enter the premises to start fires, nor do they usually aim to kill. We should consider whether this was a targeted arson or to destroy evidence.”

After observing the surroundings, Gu Yanchen turned to Shen Junci. “Can we determine from the corpses whether it was murder or death by fire?”

Shen Junci intentionally prompted Qi Yi’an, asking him, “What’s your analysis?”

Qi Yi’an, holding the investigation form, attempted An Nanalysis. “The corpses are highly charred, making it impossible to see if there are any wounds. At the moment, we can only determine that there are no signs of movement or struggle after the fire, but we cannot rule out death due to heat respiratory syndrome or carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Shen Junci summarized for him, “We need to perform a corpse autopsy to confirm.”

Gu Yanchen then asked Bai Meng, “What time did the fire occur?”

Bai Meng replied, “The time of the alarm was around three thirty in the morning, so the fire likely started about half an hour before that. The corpses of the three victims were all found on their beds, and from their sleeping positions, they all seemed peaceful… The fire originated inside the house, so we can rule out aging wiring. The detailed information of the victims has been pulled up, and I’ve sent it to your phones.”

With that, Bai Meng manipulated a few things, and everyone’s phones made a beep as the information came through. Gu Yanchen looked at the sent information. The young female victim was named Qiao Siwei, nineteen years old, who had repeated a year and was a prospective freshman at Weicheng University. Since the fire started in Qiao Siwei’s room, they naturally needed to start their investigation from her.

Gu Yanchen asked, “Did the victim have a boyfriend?”

In cases like these, teenage romantic entanglements were often the first to be suspected.

“As far as the information I currently have, she didn’t have a boyfriend.” Bai Meng added, “According to the neighbor who called the police, the victim was obedient and rarely interacted with people outside. She repeated a year and mostly focused on her studies. Qiao Siwei’s mother worked on the nearby street, and her father was an ordinary employee.”

The family’s social relations seemed straightforward, but it could be just surface appearances. The officers carefully surveyed the upstairs and downstairs.

Gu Yanchen suddenly noticed something. He called for the evidence technician and pointed to a footprint on the windowsill at the end of the second-floor corridor. “Here, there’s a footprint.”

The fire on the second floor hadn’t reached this side, and the firefighting water hadn’t contaminated the evidence, allowing this footprint to be preserved intact. This location couldn’t have been left by firefighters or family members. The evidence technician hurried over. The window wasn’t large, just slightly ajar, but it was enough for a person to climb through easily. At that moment, the window wasn’t locked from the inside, and through the glass, a vague footprint could be seen on the outside windowsill.

The footprint was still fresh. Using a ruler, the technician measured it and judged, “Judging by the size and pattern, it’s a man’s footprint, probably wearing size 42 shoes.”