Chapter 179 Jinjiang First Launch
"Fire?" Weng Xuhua's heart was lifted when he heard this. Gao Jin also asked nervously: "Mianmian, what are you talking about? The store was fine when we left. Did you say the wrong address?"
Bai Mian shook his head apologetically: "Master, Master's wife, I didn't tell you the wrong address. It's just that there was a fire in our store. I had foreseen that someone would set the fire at this time, so I bought two fire extinguishers this afternoon. Before I left, I gave the fire extinguishers to the owner of the store next door and hired him to help us keep an eye on it. Once the fire started, he would immediately use the fire extinguisher to put it out so that the fire would not spread."
Gao Jin was stunned. Weng Xuhua looked unhappy. "Since you knew someone wanted to set the fire, why didn't you call the police in advance to catch him? This could have been avoided. Why did you let him succeed in setting the fire? The store is the result of our years of hard work. You, you, you - aren't you helping outsiders to harm our own people?"
This was the first time that Weng Xuhua spoke to her in such a serious tone since Bai Mian came down to earth. It was no wonder that Weng Xuhua was anxious. The second floor of the store stored the books and medicinal materials he had collected since he studied medicine. These things were very precious and he valued them more than his life. Once the store caught fire, the books and medicinal materials would be the most easily affected.
Bai Mian did not explain, but simply said: "I naturally have my reasons, Master, there is no time to talk more now, let's go back to the store and see the situation first."
Weng Xuhua thought the same and did not continue to argue with Bai Mian. He waved to hail a taxi on the street. Several people got in the taxi and hurried back to Ci Xin Hall.
Weng Xuhua breathed a sigh of relief only after arriving at Ci Xin Hall. He saw that the store's facade was blackened and the glass door was burned, but the fire did not spread to the lobby. Apart from the facade, no other part of the store was affected. There was a charred mark at the door, which seemed to be where the fire was set.
The firefighters had arrived long ago. They first assisted the owner of the store next door to put out the fire, and then they thoroughly investigated the scene. Gao Jin and others were waiting outside the door. Although the firefighters hadn't said anything yet, there was a strong smell of gasoline at the scene. When the old couple smelled it, they already had an idea.
After a brief investigation of the scene, the fire department contacted the police, who came to the scene for further investigation and briefly explained the situation to the elderly couple: "We found a large amount of gasoline at the scene. We suspect that the fire was caused by human beings. There is still gasoline residue at the scene. It is not safe. We suggest that you temporarily live somewhere else and come back after we have cleaned up the scene."
Weng Xuhua looked up at the second floor. The Cixin Hall was surrounded by police cordons, so he couldn't go in. But the second floor didn't seem to be affected at all, which meant his medical books and herbs were all fine. He breathed a sigh of relief and agreed, "Okay, then we'll stay at the hotel tonight."
Gao Jin tugged at Bai Mian's arm in fear: "Mian Mian, who is it? Who is so vicious that he wants to burn us to death?"
"It's Hu Lao Ba and Xue Xiao Xia," Bai Mian said directly to the police, "They are now in the Xingfu Express Hotel on Ye'an Road in Qingshui Town. They had conflicts with us before and now want to retaliate against us. They didn't do it themselves, but hired a junior high school student to set the fire. The junior high school student is called Huang Lihui, and he is now hiding in the Red Star Internet Cafe not far away."
After Bai Mian gave this information, the police officer looked at Bai Mian in confusion, and then he recognized that Bai Mian was the extraordinary woman who helped the police solve the kidnapping case. He nodded with some understanding and began to investigate according to the clues provided by Bai Mian.
There is no surveillance on the street where Ci Xin Tang is located, but there is surveillance at the corner of the intersection. The police retrieved the surveillance footage of the intersection and saw that only one person entered and left the street during the time of the incident. This person was a yellow-haired boy. Later, the police really caught this yellow-haired boy named Huang Lihui in the Red Star Internet Cafe.
Huang Lihui confessed that the mastermind behind the scenes was Hu Laoba and his wife, and he just wanted to make some money online. The police went to the express hotel to capture Hu Laoba and his wife. Hu Laoba blocked the door from the inside. When the police broke the door, Hu Laoba and Xue Xiaoxia jumped out of the window in an attempt to escape. However, this was the fourth floor, and one of them broke his spine and the other broke his leg. Both of them lay on the ground unable to move, and were finally carried into the ambulance.
Of course, even without the clues provided by Bai Mian, the police would have investigated all of this; it was just a matter of time.
That night, Bai Mian and the old couple randomly found a hotel to stay in. After entering the house, Gao Jin sighed and said, "Oh, this Hu Lao Ba is too cruel. He used to run a fortune-telling shop. We didn't provoke him or provoke him. He asked his wife to come to our house to provoke us, saying that Mian Mian's fortune-telling was inaccurate. She also edited an audio and posted it online, making everyone mistakenly believe that Mian Mian insulted customers. Mian Mian just clarified it. We have never harmed them from the beginning to the end. Now they actually want to do this to us. Tsk tsk tsk, the human heart is hard to predict!"
Weng Xuhua rubbed his neck and said, "Fortunately, we are all fine. Yinyin went out of town to buy spices and was not in the store. All the valuables in the store were not lost. It's just that the front needs to be redecorated. This is the best outcome. However, little apprentice, how did you know that Hu Laoba would set the fire today?"
Bai Mian: "I checked his wife Xue Xiaoxia's pulse at the beginning, and I saw their intentions clearly at that time. I made his store unable to operate, and he has always hated me and would not let it go. That time, he failed to smear me online, so he decided to harm me offline. Usually we stayed in the store at night, and he planned to hire someone to pour gasoline and set fire to it late at night, burning all of us to death."
Gao Jin gasped in fear: "Eh - is this necessary? We have had conflicts before, but it's not to the point of killing someone, right?"
Bai Mian shook his head: "Destroying someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. Hu Lao Ba has lived half his life without any real ability. His only characteristic is his smooth talk. He lives by his tongue. Now that I have exposed him, his reputation has been ruined and he will have no income in the future. He is used to being leisurely and is unwilling to work down-to-earth. He can neither make quick money nor work. In his eyes, his life has reached a dead end. After thinking about it, he believes that I am the culprit of all this, so he decided to kill me."
Weng Xuhua was not surprised: "Hu Lao Ba's face shows that he is not a person we should have close friendship with. He has upturned eyebrows, a drooping nose, and thin cheeks. It is obvious that he is a gloomy person. It is not surprising that he would do such a thing. But you could have stopped him in advance, so that we would not have suffered any loss. Little disciple, why didn't you stop him?"
Weng Xuhua raised the question again, and this time Bai Mian answered truthfully, "Because I want him to be punished more severely, just like the master I received today. If we catch him before he commits a crime, then he only has a crime plan but has not carried it out, so the sentence will not be too heavy. Only if we catch him after he has carried it out can we give him a longer sentence."
Weng Xuhua thought about it, nodded and agreed, "So that's the case. It's worth it. In order to punish this cruel criminal, losing my store is nothing. You should have told us earlier. We would definitely support you."
Bai Mian smiled, but didn’t say the second half of the sentence - let Hu Lao Ba be sentenced more severely, so that he won’t cause trouble for the old couple again in the future.
Bai Mian was about to leave, and she was worried that after she left the world, her former enemies would come to take revenge on the old couple, so she wanted to clear the weeds before she left.
After explaining everything to the old couple, Bai Mian returned to her room. She took out her mobile phone and took a look at the live broadcast room. The post posted by Que Ge had gone viral, with many people commenting on it. Someone also followed the clues and found out Xu Hongdou's baking account. The baking account gained tens of thousands of followers overnight. It seemed that their bakery would not have to worry about business in the future.
Bai Mian recorded a short video and posted it online, explaining the situation tonight. Due to the damage to the store, she will not be able to conduct live fortune-telling in the next few days. Fans are asked not to line up at the door to avoid a wasted trip.
After posting this video online, Bai Mian simply washed up. The system's voice rang on time: "Report to the host, you have obtained 30 points of good karma today. Your current good karma value is 600. Congratulations to the host, you have completed the initial good karma accumulation!"
Bai Mian's hand holding the cup stopped in the air. Does that mean she no longer needs to accumulate good karma through pulse diagnosis and fortune-telling?
The system continued: "Your score this time triggers a special reward - Memories of Heaven."
After he finished speaking, a white light flashed, and Bai Mian's mind was flooded with a lot of memories.