"Chen Ming is still inside and hasn't come out yet!"
"Someone deliberately set the fire! Chen Ming and I just heard someone come into our house."
Xu Fang, not seeing Chen Ming come out, lost control of her emotions and started crying uncontrollably.
Before anyone could comfort her, Chen Ming rushed out wrapped in a quilt.
Chen Mai exclaimed excitedly, "Mom! Dad's out! He's even pushing our car!"
"Mom, look!"
Xu Fang looked up and immediately understood why Chen Ming had taken so long to come out—he had even brought his bicycle from home!
Looking at Chen Ming's current condition, although he was wrapped in a quilt, the fire was too big, and he had rushed out from the center of the fire.
So his hair and clothes were slightly burned. Xu Fang threw herself on Chen Ming and cried uncontrollably.
"How could you be so foolish! It's one thing to lose the bicycle, but what if... what if something happened to you? What would we do then? Waaah!"
Looking at Xu Fang, who was crying incessantly in his arms, Chen Ming felt a little scared. But he had only one thought at the time: the rest of the family's things were probably lost, but this bicycle cost half of their family's savings, so he had to save it no matter what.
Looking back now, it was really thrilling.
Click!
The fire spread into the main room, and Chen Ming's house collapsed right in front of everyone.
At this moment, the village chief, who lived relatively far from Chen Ming's house, also arrived. Accompanying him were most of the villagers from Chenjia Village.
"What happened? Chen Ming, how did your house suddenly catch fire like this?"
The village chief could see the raging fire from afar, and he was worried that Chen Ming's family might be fast asleep and still trapped inside the fire.
The village chief had practically watched Chen Ming grow up. Chen Ming had single-handedly raised his younger siblings, and now that they had finally enjoyed a few years of peace, he couldn't afford for anything to happen to him.
Now that I see their family standing outside all together, I feel relieved.
As more people gathered, Xu Fang gradually calmed down, straightened up, and had Chen Ming reply to the village chief.
“Village chief, someone deliberately set the fire. If Afang hadn’t had a nightmare last night, our whole family probably wouldn’t have been able to escape tonight.”
Upon hearing Chen Ming's words, the village chief's expression changed, and he asked seriously, "Are you sure? Could it be that you didn't extinguish the fire in the kitchen, and it accidentally spread?"
If someone really did set the fire, that's no joke; it would be intentional homicide!
Although Chenjia Village is poor, there have never been any murders or arson in all these years. At most, it's just minor incidents like someone stealing someone else's vegetables.
The other villagers were also in an uproar, discussing the matter amongst themselves.
"Really? The Chen family hasn't made enemies with anyone!"
"Who knows? But look, the front door of his house is almost completely burned down. It must have started burning from the front door, not from the kitchen."
"This is terrifying! Could it be that another village deliberately came to cause trouble? Will we be next?!"
"You're overthinking it. I think Chen Ming just offended someone, and now they're coming to take revenge."
Chen Ming heard what they said, but he wasn't in the mood to pay attention to them.
He said with absolute certainty, "I'm sure that not long after Afang and I woke up, we heard noises in the yard, but we didn't dare to go out directly. After those two left, the house caught fire."
The village chief felt a little annoyed by his words and instinctively reached for a cigarette. He reached out, only to realize he'd rushed out without taking one, so he gave up.
"Okay, I understand. I'll talk to the brigade tomorrow and explain the situation. What are you going to do tonight? How about you stay at my place for the night?"
Chen Ming hadn't figured out what to do yet, but he was thinking about whether he should trouble the village chief first.
However, Xu Fang declined first: "Village chief, thank you for your kindness, but we plan to go to the city to stay with my older brother for a few days. I wonder if it would be possible for you to help us get a letter of introduction?"
Xu Fang had just calmly thought about it and realized that her family didn't have any major grudges against anyone. The minor squabbles in the village wouldn't have made them set fire to their house.
The only possibility was Xu Weimin. She thought about it carefully and realized that the time she felt someone was following her was exactly the day after she went to see Xu Weimin.
If it really was Xu Weimin who sent people to silence them, then staying in the village would not be safe.
They escaped this time, but what about next time? Who can guarantee their luck will always be this good? They need to ask their older brother for help.
Meanwhile, Xu Weiguo also ran into trouble tonight.
Around 2 a.m., colleagues from the Public Security Bureau came to the Xu family's house and knocked on the door, saying that the Public Security Bureau was on fire and the chief had told everyone to go home.
Their commotion was quite loud, waking up everyone in the Xu family.
Knowing that the police station was on fire and that Xu Weiguo had to go back to put out the fire and follow up on the aftermath, they were extremely worried.
Xu Weiguo wasn't sure what had happened either, but he still reassured them, "You guys keep sleeping, it's nothing serious. I'm mainly going back to investigate the cause of the fire, I don't need to put it out myself."
"And I estimate that by the time we get back to the station, the fire will be mostly out, so you don't need to worry."
That's what she said, but Zhang Yumei couldn't rest easy at all. She didn't plan to go back to sleep; she'd just wait for him to come back.
Huang Qinqin was also worried about Zhang Yumei waiting alone in the yard. She tried to persuade her twice, but Zhang Yumei refused to go back to her room, so she and Xu Junhui stayed with her.
Xu Hongxia actually wanted to go back to sleep because she felt that since Xu Weiguo said everything was fine, then everything must be fine.
However, since everyone was waiting in the yard, she felt embarrassed to go back to sleep alone.
After waiting for more than two hours, Huang Qinqin had fallen asleep in Xu Junhui's arms. Xu Hongxia had also fallen asleep on the table. Xu Weiguo finally returned.
Seeing that he was not injured, Zhang Yumei finally had the mind to ask what had happened.
"How could the police station suddenly catch fire? Was anyone injured?"
Xu Weiguo shook his head: "No one was injured. The fire occurred in one of the archives rooms, which contains case records from the last ten to twenty years. Afang's case was also stored there."
Upon hearing his words, Zhang Yumei immediately thought of Xu Weimin: "You mean to say..."
Xu Weiguo had guessed what was left unsaid, but he didn't want it to be him. If it really was him, then Xu Weimin was even more terrifying than Xu Weiguo had imagined.
"I don't know about that. When we start work today, someone will investigate. While we still have time, everyone should go back and get some sleep."
Just as they were about to go back to their rooms to rest, there was another knock on the door.
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