Proofreader:Sandra

Chapter 165

The first rays of morning sunlight touched the small island, and the seabirds began to wake up, spreading their wings amid the wind and rain, circling above the island.

As time passed, the rain gradually stopped, and the wind subsided. The island, after the typhoon, was shrouded in a faint mist, like being enveloped in smoke and dust.

At the Happiness Guesthouse on Nansha Island, a new day had just begun.

Uncle Wang looked out through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room. From this angle, he could see that the once brightly lit cake shop now only had the front part left; the rear had been reduced to a charred, blackened ruin.

This morning’s typhoon had resulted in two deaths due to the explosion and fire at the cake shop.

These were living people, who had been talking and working just hours earlier, only to be consumed by the explosion and fire by dawn.

The family seemed cursed, frequently visited by death.

Living so close, Uncle Wang knew a little about the secrets of the cake shop. He had noticed some strange behavior from certain guests and had found balloons in the rooms while the cleaners were tidying up. He had always suspected that the disappearance of the girl might be related to the cake shop.

The villagers often talked about the cake shop, but everyone tacitly refrained from saying too much. The reason was simple: no one held a grudge against money.

The cake shop attracted customers to the island, and with customers came business, improving everyone’s lives.

In fact, Uncle Wang, despite his fear, had hoped for the cake shop’s business to prosper.

With that thought, Uncle Wang sighed deeply.

At this point, it seemed too late to think about anything.

The cake shop was destroyed, but the lives of the people on the island had to continue.

It might be a bad thing or it might be a good thing.

At least, he no longer had to worry about being implicated by the things sold or done at the cake shop.

Uncle Wang got up and went about preparing breakfast for the guests as usual.

By eight in the morning, the typhoon had passed, but communications had not yet been restored.

The islanders had probably heard the loud noises and seen the fire last night, but they didn’t dare to go up to the cliff to check. Over the years, the cliff and the areas below had become two distinctly separate worlds, with limited interaction and no interference.

The few people in the guesthouse had not slept well the previous night.

In the early morning, when Qiu Lan woke up, she found that the girl had already been awake for some time. She was wearing a T-shirt that Qiu Lan had given her, and was sitting by the guesthouse window, staring blankly at the ruins of the cake shop.

Qiu Lan walked over and looked in that direction as well, where the girl’s home had once been. She gently patted the girl’s hair, and the girl turned to look at her. Her large eyes were still swollen, appearing pitifully fragile.

Qiu Lan, feeling sorry for the girl and worried she might catch cold, gave her a red jacket and a pair of cropped pants. Although Li Ting’er was young, she had a long neck and was quite tall, while Qiu Lan, though an adult, was not much taller.

The girl put on Qiu Lan’s clothes, which were a bit large, and the hoodie had a slight cape effect, reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood in the forest.

By eight in the morning, the two of them, along with the girl, went downstairs for breakfast.

As they passed through the lobby, the two girls glanced outside. The various plants outside had been blown askew by the typhoon, many low-lying areas had been flooded, and traces of the typhoon’s fury were everywhere.

Qiu Lan felt a bit scared and quickly looked away, wondering what those who had been in the cake shop last night had become. Her mind automatically conjured images of charred corpses, making her uneasy…

Li Ting’er followed behind them, her head down, lost in thought.

When they reached the restaurant downstairs, breakfast had already been laid out. The options were few, but at least the food was still hot.

Teacher Su was already sitting at the table and greeted them.

The restaurant’s door was still half-open. Before they could eat, they had just taken a few items for the girl when Lu Siyu and Song Wen came downstairs from upstairs.

Early in the morning, the two of them seemed to have been somewhere, with the hems of their clothes still slightly damp.

Song Wen saw the two girls and then his gaze fell on the little girl. He approached Qiu Lan and said, “Regarding the explosion last night, we need to ask this girl a few questions. Could you and Jiang Jiang step aside for a moment?”

Qiu Lan, caught off guard by Song Wen’s sudden approach, felt a surge of nervousness. “Ah… um… then let’s take the breakfast upstairs to eat.”

She then conferred briefly with Jiang Jiang, and the two of them took a tray and carried the breakfast upstairs.

Teacher Su, who was standing nearby, said, “Do you need to ask something? Should I step aside too?”

Lu Siyu turned and said, “Teacher Su, you stay here. It’s better if you’re also a witness to the questions we ask.”

Teacher Su sighed and sat back down.

Song Wen closed the restaurant door, and for a moment, only the four of them were in the room.

The milk was hot, and the porridge was steaming.

Song Wen stood up to get some breakfast, but Lu Siyu, considering his wrist injury, helped him with a few items before serving himself a bowl of porridge.

Song Wen took the items with his other hand and sat down across from Lu Siyu at the table.

The girl, Teacher Su, and the two police officers sat on opposite sides of the long table, gazing at each other in silence, as if they had gathered here just to have this modest breakfast.

Song Wen didn’t hurry to start eating. He rolled up his sleeves and casually began, “This morning, after we got up, we went to check the scene of the fire from last night.”

Teacher Su seemed surprised. “No wonder… you got up so early.” Then he asked, “Were there any people at the fire scene?”

Song Wen shook his head. “There were no other survivors from the explosion last night.”

Teacher Su asked, “So, what did you see at the scene?”

Song Wen nodded. “We found two charred bodies.”

Teacher Su immediately lost his appetite, and Li Ting’er’s eyes widened with fear.

Lu Siyu, accustomed to such topics, calmly sipped his porridge with an indifferent expression.

After a moment, Teacher Su sighed and looked down.

Li Ting’er looked up and asked softly, “The cake maker and my mother… they were both burned to death, right?”

Song Wen confirmed, “Those two bodies should be your mother and the cake maker, Yang Ling.”

Li Ting’er lowered her head, her eyes slightly reddened. Her expression seemed to show a sense of relief.

Song Wen continued, “However… this morning, we found some traces there, leading us to suspect that last night’s incident was not an accident. So, Li Ting’er, could you provide us with some more clues?”

Hearing this, Teacher Su exclaimed in surprise and looked at the girl beside him.

“No… it’s impossible!” Li Ting’er said instinctively, then added in a low voice, “I… I think the explosion this morning was very sudden; it should have been an accident. Why do you say that?”

Lu Siyu suddenly stopped eating his porridge, turned to look at her, and asked softly, “Don’t you want to know why your mother and the baker were killed?”

Sitting on the high chair in the restaurant, the girl was much lower than Lu Siyu. She looked up with an expression of innocence and confusion, shaking her head timidly. “I can’t think of anyone who would want them dead.”

“Who exactly wanted them dead?” Lu Siyu tilted his head, his handsome face emotionless. “I think that’s a question you should answer.”

Teacher Su’s face showed astonishment at these words.

The girl raised her eyes, seeming not to understand, and asked, “What?”

Seeing the girl’s feigned ignorance and unwillingness to speak further, Lu Siyu buried his head back in his breakfast.

Song Wen, observing the ten-year-old girl, continued explaining, “We initially thought the explosion last night was an accident. However, this morning, after a thorough investigation of the scene, we discovered some interesting things.”

“We discovered some plastic fragments scattered in different places in the storage room. The contents inside were burned to a crisp, but we could still identify them as containers that once held flour. Initially, I thought they were for baking cakes, but later we realized that the explosion was likely a deliberate act of murder. It could have been a dust explosion.”

“A dust explosion?” Teacher Su was even more surprised upon hearing these words. “How does a dust explosion occur?”

Song Wen explained, “The essence of a dust explosion is a violent oxidation reaction. When there is 9.7 grams of flour per cubic meter of air, it will explode when exposed to an open flame.”

“The elements required for a dust explosion are: a relatively enclosed confined space, combustible dispersed dust in the air, and a heat source that can ignite the dust, such as an open flame.”

Song Wen continued in a clear voice, “The small building should be the storage room of the cake shop. It’s not very large and contained not only flammable laughing gas but also a lot of flour, coffee powder, sugar powder, and other dust used for making cakes. The characteristics of a dust explosion are that it requires a small ignition energy, can cause multiple explosions, and has strong destructive power, not to mention the many other flammable materials in the storage room.”

A concentration of 9.7 grams of flour per cubic meter is a number and condition that is easily reached. Because of this, many flour mills and dust-producing factories prohibit open flames.

Teacher Su frowned. “So, are you saying that the fire last night was caused by a dust explosion? But why do you think it wasn’t an accident…”

“Someone placed flour in several plastic buckets filled with sand in advance, then set up a simple mechanism by hanging these buckets on a rope connected to the storage room door. When someone opened the door, the buckets would fall, dispersing the dust. At this point, even a small spark…”

Song Wen’s gaze was fixed intently on Li Ting’er, scrutinizing every subtle expression on her face. He then made a gesture with his fingers to indicate the action. “At that moment, it would cause an explosion and reduce everything to nothing.”

Hearing this, the little girl lowered her head, pressing her lips together in a nervous gesture. Such a reaction was not missed by Song Wen.

“Last night, the cake shop suddenly had a power outage. Due to the typhoon, there was a storm, and the storage room had previously had water leakage issues. Therefore, the cake shop owner, Yan Min, had a habit of checking the storage room. She woke up in the middle of the night and decided to check if there was a leak. She should have used a phone or flashlight for illumination, but she didn’t expect that when she opened the storage room door, she would hear strange sounds, followed by rising mist. The flashlight wasn’t enough to light up the room, and she couldn’t see what was happening.”

Song Wen paused for a moment and looked at Li Ting’er. “By simply using small buckets to fill the room with flour, even if discovered, you could have told your mother it was just a prank. If your mother had been calm enough at that time, she would have realized the danger and shut the door, preventing the tragedy.”

“Unfortunately, in the dead of night, she was groggy, and her awareness of dust explosion hazards wasn’t strong. At that moment, she instinctively took out a lighter she carried with her, intending to light a candle, and that’s when the accident occurred…”

A mere instinctive action, such a small flame, met with dust, turned into a disaster. This was followed by a series of violent explosions that ignited the flammable materials in the cake shop’s storage room, causing a catastrophe.

In the bed and breakfast’s dining room, there was a moment of silence. Everyone stopped their movements, except for Lu Siyu, who continued eating slowly.

Song Wen waited for the elderly professor and the young girl to process his words, as he had just described the entire sequence of events.

Teacher Su looked at the little girl beside him with a frown, seemingly unable to accept that the seemingly innocent child before him was responsible for these events.

If the girl was indeed responsible, she must have been planning this for a long time.

How could a ten-year-old child execute such a seemingly complex plan? How did she come up with such a method of murder? Why did she want to kill her own mother? And why did she appear so calm…

With this thought, Teacher Su found he could no longer eat the food in front of him. He pulled out a tissue and wiped his mouth.

Li Ting’er looked puzzled for a few seconds and asked softly, “I don’t understand what you mean by a small bucket and flour. From what I hear, isn’t this just an accident?”

Song Wen replied, “You can try to argue or deny it, but we’ve found other evidence…”

Li Ting’er’s face turned pale, as if she remembered something. She widened her eyes and feigned innocence, saying, “What are you talking about? I don’t understand…”

She appeared innocent and pure, dressed in red like Little Red Riding Hood from a fairy tale, but this calmness and composure far beyond her age betrayed her.

If she were an ordinary child, she would have been in tears by now, not knowing how to defend herself.

Lu Siyu, having finished his meal, pushed his bowl aside and clarified further, “The power outage at the cake shop last night wasn’t an accident; someone deliberately pulled the circuit breaker. That person was you, wasn’t it? You might have been careful and didn’t leave fingerprints, but you overlooked something…”

They hadn’t realized earlier why, although both were on the cliff, only the cake shop was affected by the power outage while their guesthouse remained unaffected. It wasn’t until later that Song Wen discovered the hidden traces…

Li Ting’er followed up with Lu Siyu’s question, “What is it…”

She didn’t realize she had already exposed a flaw. A person who wasn’t guilty would deny the accusations, not question the overlooked point.

Lu Siyu licked his lips and continued, “Since you had just been to the storage room at home, some flour got on your feet while you were transferring it. When you came out of the storage room and walked across the short outdoor area into the corridor, the flour on your feet mixed with rainwater and turned into a white, sticky substance.”

“You hurried through the corridor, leaving few traces, but when you stood in front of the electrical box, tiptoeing carefully to pull the circuit breaker, the flour-water mixture left marks on the floor along your pants and shoes…”

Song Wen showed Li Ting’er a photo on his phone, taken this morning when he and Lu Siyu inspected the scene. Lu Siyu used a high-end camera, while he used his phone for a quick shot.

The photo showed some fine white traces on the floor.

Li Ting’er looked confused and asked, “What is this?” Her voice began to tremble.

Lu Siyu leaned back in his chair and said, “Your footprints.” He elaborated, “The footprints you left under the electrical box.”

Different conditions leave different footprints, which can reveal movement patterns and various information.

The size and pattern of the footprints proved that the girl had stood there. The clearer marks in front of the footprints indicated that she had tiptoed to reach something, and the white component in the footprints confirmed she had just come from the storage room.

Lu Siyu looked at Li Ting’er and said, “Unfortunately, while the fire area last night was large, it didn’t reach this part. The flour-covered footprints you left are enough to prove that the flour buckets are related to you. The power outage last night was not an accident but intentional… After the explosion, in the confusion, you didn’t have the chance to restore the circuit breaker, leaving it in the off position.”

Li Ting’er probably hadn’t expected that the fire hadn’t affected that part, and the typhoon hadn’t blown it away, preserving her footprints perfectly.

Even the most meticulous plan will leave traces. Now, the relevant evidence had emerged.

Upon hearing this, Li Ting’er blinked and realized where she had made a mistake. Despite her continued denial, she stubbornly argued, “I don’t understand what you’re saying. I almost got burned to death in the fire last night…”

“Last night, the fire started suddenly with thick smoke. The cake maker Yang Ling didn’t even have time to escape and was burned alive. How did you, as a child, calmly get out of bed, put on shoes, and run out of your room?” Lu Siyu asked her.

Li Ting’er looked at Lu Siyu with her large, innocent eyes, remaining silent. She was exceptionally beautiful, pure, and angelic, deserving of all the best descriptions.

Unfortunately, these were only outward appearances.

Lu Siyu’s voice was cold and unfeeling, ruthlessly exposing her facade, “Because you were originally hiding in the front hall. You had enough time to escape. To play the victim, you deliberately didn’t run out early. You hid under a safer table in the kitchen, made crying sounds, and then pretended to faint.”

Layer by layer, the criminal process and evidence were laid bare.

Last night, they risked their lives to save the true culprit of the explosion from the fire.