The coroner and the concubine doctor pursue the murderer in the Dali Temple

Chu Yunxi and Wen Rulan separated from the crowd and walked in, first persuading the onlookers to evacuate. Chu Yunxi shouted, "Everyone go home, it's already late, our Dali Temple will investigate the cause of this fire, it's not safe here yet, everyone go first."

Wen Rulan also helped to disperse the crowd. Chu Yunxi tried to take a few steps towards the fire scene, and a wave of heat hit her in the face. The temperature inside was still very high, and there were some small flames that had not been completely extinguished. She didn't dare to go in for the time being.

"Let's wait for a moment. We can only go in after the fire is completely extinguished. There is no way there are any living people inside." Wen Rulan said while standing behind Chu Yunxi.

Chu Yunxi felt heavy in her heart, and after a long while she said "hmm" softly. The two of them walked around the perimeter of the fire scene and found nothing. There were too many people who had just come to put out the fire, and the footprints here were already a mess.

There should have been two thatched houses here, but now only an empty frame was left after being burned. The middle of the fire was pitch black. It was too dark for Chu Yunxi to see the bodies inside. Her nose was filled with a pungent smell that was very choking.

Chu Yunxi looked at the not-so-big house and was puzzled, so she asked, "Brother, this house isn't that big, why didn't the people inside escape after the fire?"

"Maybe they are all asleep." Wen Rulan had just heard what Chen Tianzhi said. "In fact, we all know that a large part of the cause of death after a fire is respiratory failure and suffocation caused by inhaling a large amount of high-temperature smoke. Maybe when they wake up, it is too late. The large amount of carbon monoxide suffocates them and there is no way to escape."

At the moment, this possibility seems very high, and Chu Yunxi can't think of any other explanation.

After waiting for a while, Xiao Mubei and Li Jinghong came in a hurry with several constables. Xiao Mubei saw Chu Yunxi as soon as he arrived. He hurried over to look Chu Yunxi up and down and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I haven't gone in yet." Chu Yunxi pointed to the fire scene. "It's just been completely extinguished. The temperature is still very high. We have to wait a little longer."

Several constables lit torches, illuminating the surroundings. Chu Yunxi walked forward and looked into the fire. This time she saw several human figures lying facedown in the middle of the fire, and they had almost turned into charcoal at this moment.

"How many people are there inside?" Xiao Mubei couldn't see clearly, so he asked Chu Yunxi.

"I heard there are four more." Chu Yunxi told Xiao Mubei what Chen Tianzhi said, "There is still one person alive. Doctor Lu is trying his best to save him, but I think his burns are quite serious. I'm afraid the situation is not optimistic."

You have to know that third-degree burns are extremely difficult to treat, and most importantly, systemic infection is prone to occur. Even in the era before Chu Yunxi, systemic infection often occurred in the intensive care unit, resulting in the patient being unable to be saved. What's more, now there is not only a lack of sterile environment, but also a lack of professional nursing personnel.

So Chu Yunxi was very worried about that person.

There are five people in the family, and four of them have died. If he could survive, there would be a single child left in the family. But if even he couldn't survive, the family would be truly destroyed.

After waiting for a while, the fire inside was completely extinguished, and Chu Yunxi walked into the fire scene carefully. Xiao Mubei followed her, and Li Jinghong also came in with the detectives, looking around to find the source of the fire.

Chu Yunxi first checked the fire scene and found four bodies. They had all been burned into charcoal and their original appearance could not be recognized at all.

Chu Yunxi squatted beside a corpse and began to examine it. Xiao Mubei asked, "Could they have been killed and then burned to destroy the evidence?"

Chu Yunxi said as she checked: "It doesn't look like that at the moment. Your Highness, look, the body's eyes are closed, the outer corners of the eyes are not blackened by smoke, and there is no soot or charcoal inside his eyes."

Xiao Mubei looked carefully and found that it was indeed the case. He asked, "What does this mean?"

Chu Yunxi said, "When people encounter a fire, they will close their eyes tightly to protect themselves in the smoke due to their self-protection mechanism. As a result, the outer corners of the eyes will form goose claw-like changes that are not blackened by the smoke. This is called outer canthus wrinkles. In addition, closed eyes will cause the tips of eyelashes to be burned. This is called eyelash disease. These are all characteristics of burns before death. This proves that the deceased was indeed burned to death, and was not incinerated after death."

So that's how it is. Xiao Mubei understood. Chu Yunxi said, "And the deceased had his hands clenched into fists, which is also one of the characteristics of burns before his death. This is also because the deceased took a protective posture during the fire. Your Majesty, look at his mouth and nose. There is soot in them. This means that he was still breathing during the fire, so there are traces of soot in his mouth and nose. Combining all of the above, it can be determined that this person was burned to death."

Chu Yunxi examined the other three bodies again and came to the same conclusion as before: the four bodies in the fire were all burned to death.

It seemed that there was no doubt. Chu Yunxi ordered the four bodies to be brought back to the Dali Temple. She went back to do a detailed inspection. At this time, Li Jinghong said: "We found the fire point. It should be that the oil lamp was overturned and ignited the screen. Then the fire spread to the roof and finally it was out of control."

Chu Yunxi went over and saw an overturned oil lamp on the ground. Next to it was a fallen screen, which had been burned to the point that only the frame was left.

Chu Yunxi frowned and said, "That's not right."

"What's wrong?" Xiao Mubei and Li Jinghong looked at her in confusion.

Chu Yunxi explained, "Before you came, my senior brother and I discussed this. This house is not big, why didn't the family escape when the fire broke out? It stands to reason that it is relatively easy to escape from such a small house. My senior brother guessed that maybe when the fire started, the family fell asleep, and it was too late when they found out about the fire, so they didn't escape. But the question is, since the family was asleep, why did they light the oil lamp? The people on the Seventh Floor Street are very poor, and oil lamps are also high-consumption items for them. Do they really sleep with oil lamps lit every night? Moreover, even if they did sleep with oil lamps lit, there was no wind tonight, so how did the oil lamps fall?"

This is indeed a contradiction that cannot be explained clearly. Xiao Mubei and Li Jinghong also agree. Xiao Mubei said: "Unless, in addition to the five people in the house, there was another person, who knocked over the oil lamp and escaped. The five people in the family missed the best opportunity to escape in their sleep and were burned to death."