Blazing Armor

LZjeStscfuupSglTable of Contents

Chapter 160

Gong Yingxian said in a deep voice, “He told me something that even we didn’t know.”AGtRyBlxnyEcmyhMmYmDRtXKtACXBb

oXjpFpTHskQZoet

“What?”FbjDJjyBrihvvttJqMhEmcoFtjngJP

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“Do you remember how we analyzed the arson and how it was disguised as a suicide based on the structural model of my house, the restored scene photos, and the evidence?”HDuRbwwZSytCMrGkaRosZevXKhnbKu

GmRGzZbVmMYMQto

“I remember.”MOjBvbkEqzFSZUAyLIPwYpLXZhvWcb

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“At that time, we believed there were two points of ignition. The first point was the kitchen, where many pieces of evidence were lost due to the explosion. The second point was the living room sofa, which the murderer set on fire to fake a suicide and to facilitate their escape. Considering how the murderer entered my house and how they escaped, the kitchen window had a security grille, so no one could get in through there. The murderer could only have entered and exited through the front door. Therefore, whether the door lock showed signs of being tampered with is crucial. Because of this, the first person to enter the house… is a suspect.” As Gong Yingxian spoke, he stole a glance at Ren Yi’s expression.DQnoyXwHrLRccXoSNgiwRbdTElVdRI

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Ren Yi didn’t pay much attention: “Continue.”hxXMxBObjowiUhRVleJCWHMBwlYMhB

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“As long as the door lock is intact, it can prove that no outsiders entered my house, which would also prove that it was my father who set the fire inside. Now, what if the living room door lock was originally fine? What if the murderer never used the living room door to come and go?”VZvCZQvjXBhZtQxWtrOmuarqRYiraT

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Ren Yi frowned: “Then how did they get in? Your house only has the front door and… could it be the garage? But we dismissed the garage from the start. The garage also has doors, a roll-up door and an entrance door. Tampering with the door lock would leave traces, and didn’t you say that the garage door could only be closed with a remote control when leaving?”InsPecgVQthghuqwdiJSqTlYZKqQJT

oXYTfqCgzhhTbgG

“Yes.”eNWCKHxhtdEtioCIsczMJBjcqJQUAW

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Ren Yi was a bit confused: “So, according to you, getting in would require breaking two doors, and leaving would need a remote to close the door. That’s much harder than using the living room door.”MVEihAXhqSbZPzUEmTvmdNqSDwFUpA

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“Precisely because of this, the investigators at the time and we quickly ruled out the garage.”ORVSaWBGACHWApxTjGgBsIuzgacwpg

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“Did the murderer really enter and exit through the garage? How? How did Bai Chicheng know?”axJPcxwwlIgOVJUtduvEgXDLGNEYCJ

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“The front door of my house is a double large copper door with a total of nine locks, using the best B-grade lock core of that era. Even with professional unlocking skills and tools, it would take between fifteen minutes to half an hour to open it without damaging the lock. There are also patrols in the neighborhood at night, so tampering with the living room lock is very difficult. In contrast, although the garage has two doors, entering is easier than the living room door. First, the outer roll-up door has the most ordinary lock; with a little practice, it can be opened with a wire without leaving traces. Once opened, the roll-up door can be lifted, and the inner entrance door is an ordinary security door, which isn’t hard to open. As for whether this door has been forced open, I also want to know; this is crucial evidence. However, I searched through the investigation report, and the only description of the garage door is—‘the garage door is intact.’”JjfJAFIPtBsaIGdNfCvhANJYDYPrUv

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Ren Yi was stunned: “Which garage door?”OGtEeQnEaEtcEVdmpfIfcYzCGwaTve

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“Exactly, which garage door? Does this garage door refer to the roll-up door or the entrance door? None of the documents distinguish between these two doors; they only say the garage door is intact. I don’t know if there was a requirement in the investigation report to clearly state the condition of each door lock, or if this case was arbitrarily determined to be a suicide, leading to these details being unintentionally or intentionally overlooked.”WuWFnmCpZVTDpoZxttnPqGyalBVGDt

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“Impossible. The fire investigation back then was still the police’s job. Although I can’t be certain, how could such an important detail about the door lock be overlooked? Now, when we conduct fire investigations, we also have to carefully check doors and windows. However, we only write it in the report if there’s an anomaly in a specific place. If all the doors and window locks show no anomalies, we only need to write that there are no signs of external damage. So, if the investigation report states that the garage door is intact, then it is intact, and there’s no need for special inspection. The condition of the lock is obvious; even if the investigators wanted to conceal it, it would be too obvious.”vFfkdhcbyKekYSJpJlclcraBkmvWuD

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“If they are all intact, then what Bai Chicheng told me doesn’t make sense.”goMhJpTckPcpCyXLbZBqHXxQRaDVon

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Ren Yi’s heart tightened: “What did he say?”wLewaCBzjuZrbfbCvmLxoEDOrRJama

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“He said the murderer did not go through the living room door; he entered and exited through the garage.”yWRtjsbXnnADuBAdSwfZejytpTBcyJ

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Ren Yi’s eyes widened: “How could he know? Moreover, it seems impossible for the garage door… Wait, you just said the garage door can be lifted once the lock is opened? Then why can it be lifted by human force but not lowered? Perhaps the murderer left and then lowered the roll-up door from the outside.”hLWnhMpQKbLGdwYFiZSAsVdnuvmfkF

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Gong Yingxian shook his head: “I said the garage door cannot be lowered from the outside; that was investigated. Although my garage door is also called a roll-up door, it’s not the thin kind you might imagine. My roll-up door is made of several long metal plates spliced together, weighing over two hundred pounds. When opened, it slides into the garage ceiling along three tracks. It cannot be rolled up; it’s more accurately called a lifting door. When you unlock the garage door from the outside, an adult male can use inertia to lift it, but when leaving, this door is over two meters high on the ceiling. With an adult male’s height and weight, even if he climbs a ladder to reach the roll-up door, how could he pull down a door that weighs dozens of pounds more than himself while on the ladder?”EXJLDkKrJEUHhSAmsNRAYPQZcDubvE

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“The more you say, the more confused I get. Don’t you think this is more absurd than the guess that the murderer entered through the living room? First, we don’t know if there are signs of damage on the garage entrance door. Second, the issue with the roll-up door also cannot be explained. It seems more reasonable for the murderer to have entered through the living room door.”RcycnIhMNYrsmdrvTraWIIbGBqqpxL

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“I also refuted Bai Chicheng like this at the time. Do you know what Bai Chicheng did?”DfMHCGGHtsxKzcecnueCjgSQxiwZrQ

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“What?”hDfidTrMoGiNVuSZyyvDqhkaIVbmoz

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“He ignited Yue Xingu, and then he told me that now the only thing Yue Xingu knows is what he knows. He has evidence to prove that the murderer entered through the garage door, so I must help him escape. If he is caught, he won’t say a word.”bVZqwqVomZIvveykcMXBBzevihpAou

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Ren Yi gasped.KzpfyVKyHiwQmYHUXfeMUxYFxtagIT

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“I considered all kinds of possibilities. I can no longer doubt your father in my heart, so I tried to think through Bai Chicheng’s reasoning: if the living room door is intact, then the murderer must have entered through the garage door.”JbPHsvrPdxvFwmvdXGHuAvPxIcvZUJ

eEdtRoLYqkWrmrz

Ren Yi looked at Gong Yingxian, waiting for him to continue.keZQSBSPETpgBSxBPIvwNhzlKCpmCE

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“The murderer entered your house through the garage, poured accelerant in the kitchen, living room, and on the stairs. At this point, there are two possibilities: first, to ensure his own safety, he did not set the fire at that moment but opened the kitchen window, left through the garage door, returned to the ground, and threw the fire in through the kitchen window. Second, he set the fire before leaving through the garage, and the kitchen window was blown open.”hbDyMjbdIjsPHWvgscZRTvkCEGVdtW

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“And then? The two doors of the garage are still a problem.”BNwiNJCFufrVtjXpLgJvfHcsMGAmak

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“If there is a person who can, after entering the house, take your father’s keys, enter the underground garage, lower the roll-up door, and disguise the entrance door as having been damaged by firefighters.”sqYjtGuAcMaKCdriBLAVGAbIjOYgiu

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Ren Yi’s eyes widened: “You…”VJtzQTXtFhhbCwAySISFVZwKtHiiCU

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“The living room front door was also damaged by external force, but it was damaged out of necessity during the firefighters’ rescue. So for the investigators, it is ‘intact’; this is a ‘damage’ that does not raise suspicion, a ‘conditional intactness.’”RwKlkDzfeiCiCyatJrjZUGkmSSUctM

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Ren Yi fell silent, knowing what Gong Yingxian was about to say next.TKcGrIqtGUNqItvnYrNAGkOjlLwXMg

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“Then this person could absolutely not be the old captain, because as the squad leader, your father must have been the one at the forefront, so he was the first to break down the living room door. After entering, he would have been the first to go upstairs to rescue people, but he would have directed others to check various places for trapped individuals and dangerous items.”tSKtsdSkwAOXWZoRZJmgTwAVVIbYfn

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“You mean, the murderer’s inside man could be someone from my father’s squad?”bdcaPilhLzfGTbNXHSZNXNncgWvTqz

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“This is one possibility, and Bai Chicheng said just that. He also said he has evidence to prove this and to identify who that person is. This missing information is precisely what Zhang Wen secretly altered or stole, fearing we would uncover the truth.”oLHaqJQsJlmRmBtBlCcZlCFIEhgmhT

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Ren Yi’s complexion grew paler. His father’s comrades were a group of uncles who had watched him grow up. He had eaten at every one of their homes and received red envelopes from each of them. Suspecting these people was not much easier than suspecting his father. He hesitated and said, “Just like you said, this is only a possibility. So far, there have been three possibilities in this case: first, the official investigation; second, our analysis from last year; third, the current one. Too much time has passed, and the evidence is so chaotic that I have no confidence in any of these guesses.”gUbFiFgMovUeazXqFWAkjLGNbvWDHM

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“Now we can only make a judgment after seeing the so-called evidence from Bai Chicheng. But I believe he must have something important in hand, or Yue Xingu told him something significant. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so clear about the arson case in my family.”MTxHYJtetUQdCacAquDlluyOwGcoNS

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“What about the person? Did he give you anything?”CCwBMqKcqHwRfXmGefRWRHgqWhsXfP

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Gong Yingxian shook his head: “I’ve locked him up in a place. I plan to starve him for a few days; it will be easier to interrogate him when he’s weak.”YZCLaocIfCMNYXlSwbjiXnJXUuZtrC

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Ren Yi shook his head: “You’re taking such a big risk to help him escape just for this? Even if it’s illegal?”EdgpdMZKoBbFvvxvdxheJeMNTGSarU

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“I haven’t broken the law. I didn’t kill Yue Xingu; I was forced to leave by Bai Chicheng.” Gong Yingxian said calmly, “Although these days are a bit tough, I must take risks to uncover the truth. Moreover, I’m confident I can use Bai Chicheng to lure out Purple Flame. Bai Chicheng knows too many secrets about Purple Flame. I think Purple Flame wants Bai Chicheng to die in that hotel, but there seems to be some issue between the two. Perhaps Bai Chicheng isn’t ‘devout’ enough; he doesn’t want to die. He knows he’s at a dead end—either death or capture—and he wants freedom.”qrdoNousQJbwoiFUJJfOggVtLfNkGG

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“The police don’t say that. They say the audio recording from the scene is unfavorable to you, and the evidence found at Zhang Wen’s residence is also unfavorable to you. Moreover, the underground parking lot shows you weren’t coerced when you left.”dbTHsIXyHbroBJZQugdNWBxqBzIVtW

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Gong Yingxian narrowed his eyes: “Purple Flame has gone to great lengths to stop us from investigating the case from back then. They’ve tried to murder us, kill Zhang Minde to silence him, threaten Yue Xingu to take the blame, and frame you. After all these failed attempts, they decided to frame me. The situation has developed to this point, which precisely proves that there is a higher, more powerful force behind Purple Flame helping him, or that Purple Flame is serving that person. If the case from back then is thoroughly investigated, it will definitely touch the interests of big figures, so my father became the scapegoat.”sYkblVUVmrdynxhoUuomtrfjbGzCHX

iOmWwtVcxnuqNDL

Ren Yi had some doubts in his heart, but the amount of information he was receiving was too overwhelming for his brain to process: “…So, what do you plan to do next?”jKwLhCiaoiITPZFxuPdufmrXUEALNr

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“Ren Yi, you need to help me. After dark, please accompany me to a place.”DrvKJAfRoAlrLUzLdzVtovWjCTMtaV

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