Chapter 158: Such an Ending

Zheng Tan's perception of the surrounding environment became increasingly keen, and he also strongly trusted his intuition; precisely for this reason, Zheng Tan regretted coming here out of curiosity to watch the show.

No matter how strong the curiosity, no matter how unwilling to miss an opportunity, one cannot gamble with one's life. Even if it's just a cat's life, it must be cherished; being alive is better than dying for no reason, or being implicated—even if this threat is not aimed at Zheng Tan himself.

At this moment, Zheng Tan did not know that the fur from his back to the tip of his tail had stood on end due to inexplicable fear, and he also had no spare energy to feel the bodily changes brought about by this inexplicable fear.

To be safe, leave here!

And just as Zheng Tan was about to slip away, in the split second before his gaze moved away from inside the house, through the gap between the slats of the old venetian blind on the window, he saw a scene he had never witnessed in his human life plus his cat life.

Flames suddenly ignited from Lai Er's body!

No one was seen pouring gasoline, nor was anyone seen lighting a fire.

It just started burning like that.

If Zheng Tan's keen intuition is ignored, this situation can be said to have no warning signs.

From Zheng Tan's perspective, he could not see Lai Er's facial expression; he could only see the masked person on the computer screen who remained calm or rather indifferent, and the eerie firelight reflected from the screen……

Lai Er always thought Chen Zhe was a hotheaded fool who would reveal his flaws at the slightest scare; from the first two cases, Lai Er could guess the method of the crime, although no solid clues were left at the scene, but Lai Er was certain the perpetrator was Chen Zhe—the fish that slipped through the net back then. He had even planned his subsequent actions: as soon as Chen Zhe showed a flaw, his men would surely find this person who had been hiding for years, and even if they didn't catch him now, it wouldn't be far off.

But he never expected such an ending.

Only at the moment of losing consciousness did Lai Er realize that he had never understood the person appearing on the screen before him. Whether it was the chubby kid over two hundred catties whose light was blocked by his sibling sister in memory, or the masked assassin silently killing on the computer screen in front of him.

When engulfed by the flames, Lai Er made no sound, did not call for help, did not utter a painful wail, and hardly moved—not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't.

Lai Er's hands rested on the chair's armrests, and beside his right hand lay a small device; pressing its button would summon the guards outside to rush in immediately. Yet he didn't even have that chance.

Zheng Tan watched the person seated in the chair inside the room, engulfed in flames. Moreover, remarkably, the flames burned only above his knees; from the calves down to the shoes were not within the fire's envelope. The flames looked scorching, and Lai Er, seated in the chair, changed at a visible speed due to the burning.

Strangely, the flames did not spread widely.

There was no fire source, Lai Er did not smoke, flammable and explosive items could not possibly exist in the room; Lai Er's men had already cleaned the building once, not leaving any suspicious hazardous items, and Lai Er had always been cautious, even moving the table holding the laptop. Yet why did this suddenly happen? Zheng Tan could not figure it out. Could it be that Chen Zhe's laid "trap" had not been discovered by Lai Er's people?

Suddenly, Zheng Tan thought of something.

Once while strolling around Chu Hua Da Xue, Zheng Tan happened to hear several students discussing a similar phenomenon. They called that phenomenon—human spontaneous combustion.

Perhaps, in the historical records of those cases, human spontaneous combustion indeed had no other deliberate human factors, but the event unfolding before his eyes told Zheng Tan that at least this matter absolutely involved human agency. Zheng Tan would not believe even if beaten to death that Lai Er was summoned to this room by someone who had lain low for years to take revenge, then burned to this state, merely by coincidence!

Once, many people thought that evildoers bursting into flames was "God's punishment"; however, from a scientific standpoint, what exactly is spontaneous combustion?

Fat, alcoholism, static electricity, atomic reactions, even the widely accepted wick effect cannot truly explain the essence of this phenomenon; otherwise, human spontaneous combustion could not be listed among the world's top ten unsolved mysteries.

Perhaps Chen Zhe solved this riddle, or perhaps he had contact with the person who solved it, or perhaps it's something others couldn't imagine, even those dismissed as fanciful; but regardless of the situation, what is happening now is truly unfathomable and genuinely frightened Zheng Tan to the core.

Zheng Tan recalled those students who discussed the human spontaneous combustion phenomenon saying that, in this phenomenon, the body parts set on fire can be completely incinerated within a short twenty minutes.

Regardless of whether this is the so-called human spontaneous combustion phenomenon, regardless of whether it is revenge or something else, and regardless of what is happening inside the house, Zheng Tan now only wants to get far away from here, this place that makes him feel creepy.

Zheng Tan glanced at the side of the house; seeing no one passing by, he immediately jumped down. It was somewhat high, and Zheng Tan had not undergone any cushioning; moreover, because he had just witnessed the event with his own eyes, his whole body still felt a bit stiff; when he landed, his legs ached a little, but Zheng Tan couldn't worry about that now—getting away was the priority.

As Zheng Tan ran along the road, he saw two people at the intersection answer a phone, their faces drastically change as they ran inside; he knew that something had happened at Lai Er's place and should have been discovered, but at this moment, Lai Er was certainly already dead.

This road was not the one Zheng Tan had previously followed Lai Er's subordinate into; it was another road leading to the main street. The flow of vehicles and pedestrians on the main street also raised the temperature of this street considerably.

There was sunlight, but the sky seemed veiled by a layer of haze; the sunlight was not pure, or perhaps psychological factors predominated; in any case, Zheng Tan felt no warmth from the sunlight at all, and instead that shivery feeling lingered, not completely disappearing after leaving that place.

He jumped onto a flowerbed, squatted inside to rest, and eased the pressure from the sudden fear and unease just experienced. He had always thought he still had some courage, but now he doubted it.

His breath had not yet settled, the fear had already faded, Zheng Tan took a deep breath, preparing to use the breathing relaxation method Jiao Ba had once mentioned to relieve himself, but before he could exhale half of it, he almost choked.

He saw several tall buildings.

These high-rises are still relatively noticeable in this area; although not very close, they are not far either. There, is the residential complex where La Mei Shu—Chen Zhe—lives.

He should have thought of this earlier. Streets between streets are naturally connected; Zheng Tan hadn't noticed before, partly because the residential area between here and there is separated by a block of old apartment buildings, and his previous observation angle was wrong, so he hadn't realized this. However, Zheng Tan felt the main reason was his lack of familiarity with this area.

As it turned out, La Mei Shu Chen Zhe had always been this close. Does that mean Chen Zhe had long ago decided to set up this trap, waiting for Lai Er to walk into it?

Without a doubt, Lai Er certainly died, burned to death. But at the same time, Zheng Tan believed that even if the police arrived, they would fundamentally find no solid evidence to prove this fire was man-made. Suspicion is one thing, but evidence is essential; without evidence, without clues, everything is just empty talk.

Zheng Tan carefully recalled what he had learned, as well as what he had experienced today, and everything he had witnessed firsthand.

Without a doubt, Chen Zhe understood Lai Er very well, knowing he would surely come here and stay alone in the room. The room's windows had venetian blinds; he knew Lai Er would certainly pull them down, so even if a fire broke out inside, outsiders would not notice it immediately, making it impossible to rescue Lai Er in the shortest time; by delaying, the chance of Lai Er coming to grief here increases, especially with this bizarre method of ignition and burning.

As for the monitors dismantled by Lai Er's subordinates and the suspicious hazardous items they found, they were probably just smoke grenades released by Chen Zhe. As for the "things" they spoke of, Zheng Tan does not know what they are, and now he does not want to find out; at times like this, it's better to just be an ordinary cat.

Looking around, it was now impossible to slip back via that small path; Zheng Tan did not want to run into Lai Er's people. So he glanced behind, then looked ahead at those few high-rises, decided to go forward, make a circuit, and incidentally check the situation at La Mei Shu's place—this time not entering his home, just looking from outside the building, to see whether that avenger was there, and then leave to return to the Dongqu Dayuan of Chu Hua Da Xue to wait for dinner.

Zheng Tan's plan was excellent; it both satisfied his curiosity, which had been scared into shrinking to a slit after the recent incident, and kept him within a safe range.

After climbing over the wall into the complex, Zheng Tan arrived at the base of the building where La Mei Shu lived; La Mei Shu was at home then, the indoor lights were still on, and from downstairs Zheng Tan could see the swaying silhouettes inside.

While Zheng Tan was pondering whether La Mei Shu's fellow was planning to flee after finishing his revenge, or thinking of something else, he happened to see Chen Zhe opening the door to the balcony. Zheng Tan almost jumped aside like A Huang did, startled like a kangaroo.

Suppressing the urge to flee immediately, Zheng Tan tried to act like other cats, feigning ignorance and leaving it at that, when he heard the person on the balcony shout: "Hey, black cat!"

Zheng Tan ignored it.

Chen Zhe shouted a few more times, and Zheng Tan had no choice but to look over. At the same time he wondered: in the past, would he have been burned down to just four cat paws with no tail left?

But he also had to admit that, at this moment, facing Chen Zhe—this person affectionately called La Mei Shu by the children—Zheng Tan did not feel that inexplicable unease he had sensed outside the room where Lai Er had stayed. (To be continued…)

ps: (2.10)

ps: Students interested in the mystery of human spontaneous combustion can go search for related materials.