After eight o'clock, nothing happened, and the usual scene unfolded before her every morning. At nine o'clock, there was still nothing unusual. Whether it was the conversation between the waitresses, the sound of cleaning, or the sound of footsteps walking quickly along the corridor, it was all the same as before. If there was any change, it was that these everyday sounds seemed new to her.
Nine fifty. Cheng Mingxiang was cleaning the guest room with an electric vacuum cleaner when the phone in the room rang. Despite the loud noise of the vacuum cleaner, she sensed someone was getting up and walking toward her.
"Cheng Mingxiang, there is a person named Guo Song calling you. It's an outside call."
Guo Song was the last name Mrs. Guan used when she called.
"Are you Miss Cheng Mingxiang, Zhao Kuan's wife?" the man on the phone asked.
"Yes."
"There was a fire in your house last night. The situation is very serious. Please come back immediately."
"Okay, I'll rush back right away."
After hanging up the phone, she realized that she had forgotten to ask who the other party was and how serious the situation was. Maybe because the other person said it as expected, she naturally forgot to ask.
After getting out of the taxi, she realized that the situation near her home had completely changed. The narrow alley was full of water, and crowds of people gathered around it. The smell of burning smell hit their nostrils. Traces of the blockade were left at the scene, and broken ropes fell into the puddles. It may be that when the fire broke out last night, the police put up a cordon to prevent onlookers from breaking in. A long, wet fire hose stretched on the ground, and a red fire truck was parked next to it. Onlookers also gathered nearby.
Cheng Mingxiang walked with her head down, and no one noticed that she was the victim of the fire. She walked to the second blockade. Two houses in the familiar residential area were completely destroyed, and one was half-destroyed. The charred beams were still emitting a slight black smoke. The smell was so terrible that every time she breathed, Inhaled the thick smell of smoke.
Cheng Mingxiang's home was completely destroyed, her belongings were scattered everywhere, and there was water under her feet. Looking around, the sky there suddenly became wider, forming a new horizon. In the messy fire scene, there were four or five people holding pickaxes, sometimes gathering, sometimes looking under the rubble, and occasionally talking, and firefighters could also be seen in the meantime.
The other completely destroyed house was the home of Cheng Mingxiang’s neighbor, and the partially destroyed house was the family that set up a stall selling oden in front of the station at night. Several young men gathered in the half-ruined room. The homeowner was probably thanking them for their disaster relief, but I saw the oden lady wearing a white apron bustling in and out, holding a tray with twelve or thirteen teacups on it in one hand, and a teapot in the other.
Cheng Mingxiang didn't say hello to anyone else, and everyone had no time to pay attention to her. They were all busy cleaning up the mess. Cheng Mingxiang didn't see the body. It might have been buried under the ruins where white smoke was rising, or it might have been at the spot where four or five people were exploring. People who came to provide relief moved furniture that nearby residents had urgently moved into their houses. Many people walked in the mud and watched the aftermath of the disaster. Someone tapped Cheng Mingxiang on the back. Cheng Mingxiang looked back and saw that he was the owner of a liquor store on the corner. He had a long face and his eyes were usually dull, but today they were particularly sharp and lively.
"Come here." He said softly to Cheng Mingxiang.
She followed him, her socks black with sewage.
"Sister-in-law Guan," the wine shop owner whispered as he walked side by side with her, "she spoke too late. If she had spoken earlier, she would have contacted you right away."
She didn't know the true meaning of her words. Was it Mrs. Guan who discovered the fire?
"Such a serious thing happened, but I don't know where you are. Sister Guan is not thinking clearly and can't speak clearly. I finally found out that you work at the Fangxian Hotel, so I just called you to tell you to come back. This is also the first time I know that Sister Guan called you using the name Guo Song."
After this explanation, Cheng Mingxiang finally understood that Mrs. Guan had been reluctant to reveal her whereabouts. Sister-in-law Guan did not tell anyone about Cheng Mingxiang's work at "Fangxian Hotel" and kept this secret responsibly. The liquor store owner blamed the mentally retarded Mrs. Guan for the delay in the notice.
"You must be shocked."
"ah?"
"There's something I must tell you." He said in a consciously plaintive tone.
"Madam, you have to hold on...your husband passed away because of this fire."
Cheng Mingxiang suddenly felt as if her whole body was on fire, trembling with fear.
"When I learned that there was a fire in your house, the flames had already burst out, and there was no way to save your husband. In addition, he had difficulty moving, and finally..."
"Ah..." Cheng Mingxiang nodded weakly, trembling all over.
"Do you hear me clearly? Madam, please cheer up. The fire started in your house."
"..."
"The police from the police station and the fire department just conducted an investigation. The situation is consistent with what Mrs. Guan said... It's all to blame for the coal stove. I heard that Mrs. Guan added briquettes to the coal stove before she left. I don't know if it was because of the fire. The furniture was burned by the coal stove placed next to the door. In short, the biggest cause of the fire was the fire caused by the stove fire accidentally. Sister Guan didn't pay special attention to fire prevention because of her bad brain. "
"My husband...where is my husband?"
Emotions of relief and excitement surged into Cheng Mingxiang's heart at the same time.
"At the police station."
"Police station?" Cheng Mingxiang was surprised.
"Because we couldn't find a place to bury the body for the time being, we put it in the police station for the time being. We will go there now."
The liquor store owner seemed particularly enthusiastic. He led Cheng Mingxiang towards a man standing in the ruins with his arms folded.
"Thank you for your hard work."
The man was about forty years old, with a Chinese-shaped face, a crew cut, and his whole face looked angular. He whispered something to the wine shop owner, seeming to mention Cheng Mingxiang. Cheng Mingxiang intuitively felt that the man should be a policeman.
The man raised his Chinese-character face and greeted Cheng Mingxiang: "You are my wife, unfortunately, your husband has passed away." His tone was not particularly regretful, "I heard that you have been working elsewhere?" the man who looked like a policeman asked.
"Yes."
"You are not at home, so you must be frightened... According to the investigation, the fire started in your home. Did you keep the fire in your home all night?"
"Yes, because my husband has been bedridden and couldn't keep out the cold with just a brazier, so Mrs. Guan would add briquettes to the coal stove before she left."
"Really? It seems that the fire was caused by the fire in the coal stove."
"..."
"I may want to ask you some questions later."
Cheng Mingxiang nodded to him and left. The words of the man who looked like a policeman made her uneasy. The so-called "I may ask you some questions later" doesn't mean she is suspected of arson, right? If the police thought this unknown fire was suspicious, the liquor store owner who enthusiastically informed her would not have missed it, and she would have been taken to the police station immediately. Cheng Mingxiang thought that she must not mess up her position. Right now, even if she looked a little hasty, she might be suspected by the police, so she had to behave calmly and naturally.
"The person who discovered the fire," the liquor store owner walked up to Cheng Mingxiang and said, "is the old insurance salesman next door to you. This old man has a strange problem. When he gets up in the middle of the night, he likes to go to the roadside to relieve himself. At one o'clock in the morning Half a year later, when he came out to relieve himself, he saw a fire under the roof of your house. He was so frightened that he came and knocked on my door, so I quickly called 119..."
Cheng Mingxiang knew that it was after one o'clock in the morning, not long after she poured gasoline on it.
"The old man said that if he hadn't discovered it early, it would probably have caused a catastrophe. He also said that if the fire truck had been delayed by five minutes, the whole area might have been burned down. After all, it is a residential area with crowded houses nearby. , fortunately the fire truck arrived in time..."
The owner of the wine shop whispered in Cheng Mingxiang's ear again: "None of the neighbors noticed the fire in advance. The old insurance salesman said that he was too tired during the day so he slept deeply at night; the one selling oden, the business We had to wait until dawn, so we left the child at home... Your husband is so pitiful, even if he found his house on fire, he couldn't escape even if he was sick. I think he must have suffered a lot before he died."
Cheng Mingxiang couldn't help lowering her head.
