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The two investigators exchanged glances, unsure what to say.

Bai Yuesheng only felt more wronged. Sitting on the hospital bed, he cried nonstop, nearly sobbing himself into convulsions.

"I never thought things would turn out like this!" Bai Yuesheng hiccupped through his tears. Dressed in a loose blue-and-white-striped hospital gown, he sat sickly on the bed, pale-faced with an injury on his forehead. He looked frightened and helpless, pitiful enough to stir anyone's sympathy. "I really didn't do it on purpose."

Through his tears, Bai Yuesheng recalled that he had merely been lying facedown on the desk, drinking while waiting for Gu Jiuque to return. Later, when he started feeling dizzy, he ran over to sleep on the kang bed by the western window—

"It was always like that before." With red-rimmed eyes, Bai Yuesheng explained, "Gu Jiuque's family was strict with him. When he was little, his grandparents often kept him at home to paint and practice calligraphy. They wouldn't let him go out to play at all. I felt sorry for him, so I often climbed trees and sneaked into their house to play with him."

This time had been the same. He had only wanted to wait for Gu Jiuque in the Western Wing. He had never expected the beer bottle he casually left on the desk to fall over and smash the jade incense burner sitting there. Nor had he expected the ashes in the burner to set the entire room ablaze.

The investigators in charge of examining the fire scene knew Bai Yuesheng was telling the truth.

Based on the traces left at the fire scene, combined with Bai Yuesheng's own statement, the testimony of the convenience store owner at the alley entrance, and nearby surveillance footage, it was clear that after Bai Yuesheng first left Gu Family Mansion that afternoon, he had gone to the convenience store at the alley entrance and bought a twelve-pack of beer. After drinking ten bottles by the nearby lotus pond, he put the remaining two into his backpack and climbed over the wall into Gu Family Mansion.

The surveillance footage showed that Bai Yuesheng had already been somewhat drunk by then. Though no one knew what had happened after he entered Gu Family Mansion, considering that Gu Jiuque only dragged him out of the Western Wing after discovering the fire, Bai Yuesheng indeed did not seem to have started it deliberately.

After all, the situation in the Western Wing had become so dangerous that even the doorframe and roof beams had burned through. As Bai Yuesheng had said, if he had truly set the fire on purpose, there would have been no reason for him to stay in the room and sleep at the risk of his life.

One could even say that if Gu Jiuque had not discovered the fire and rescued him in time, it was hard to say whether Bai Yuesheng would even be sitting safely in a hospital bed now, crying over the tragic experience of having his confession rejected.

As for the minor cuts and scrapes he got from the broken glass along the window frame when Gu Jiuque dragged him out, they were nothing at all in the eyes of the doctors and investigators!

"Your family really should thank Gu Jiuque properly. If he hadn't rescued Bai Yuesheng from the burning Western Wing, who knows what might have happened!"

Clearly, the investigators had also heard that the Bai family couple wanted to extort the Gu family. They could not help speaking up for Gu Jiuque. They did not want to see a young hero who had bravely saved someone from a sea of flames have his heart chilled by the ugliness of reality.

The Bai family couple looked embarrassed and hastily echoed, "Of course! Of course!"

"I'm also grateful to Gu Jiuque for risking his life to save me from the Western Wing, but I really didn't set fire to their house on purpose." Bai Yuesheng repeated himself again and again. While thanking Gu Jiuque for saving his life, he defended himself. "How could I possibly do something like that? I like him so much!"

"I was just too angry at the time. I've known Gu Jiuque for so long, but that was the first time he ever told me to leave—and it was after he rejected my confession..." Bai Yuesheng lowered his head dejectedly. "Drinking really causes trouble. I'll never drink again. Could you please help me plead with the Gu family? I really don't want to go to prison!"

Bai Yuesheng looked at the investigators pleadingly.

The Bai family couple hurriedly chimed in, "Yes, yes! Officers, you must investigate this thoroughly. My son has always been timid. He doesn't even dare set off firecrackers during holidays. How could he possibly deliberately set fire in someone else's home? This is all a misunderstanding!"

"Besides, if that Gu brat hadn't insisted on throwing Shengsheng out, my son wouldn't have gone off to drown his sorrows in alcohol. If he hadn't drunk, he wouldn't have burned the Western Wing. At the end of the day, it was that Gu boy who lacked basic hospitality and threw out a guest first. So Gu Jiuque should bear at least half the responsibility for the fire at Gu Residence!"

Bai Yanliang racked his brains to defend them, refusing to take responsibility for Bai Yuesheng setting fire to Gu Residence.

Yet no one paid any attention to his sophistry. Whether Bai Yuesheng had acted deliberately or accidentally, the fact remained that he had burned down the Gu family's Western Wing. The Bai family had to compensate for those losses. In fact, if this fire had not fortunately resulted in no casualties, Bai Yuesheng would have faced even more serious legal consequences.

Even now, Bai Yuesheng's situation was far from optimistic. Though the fire at Gu Family Mansion had caused no casualties, the fire department's preliminary estimate put the direct property damage at well over one million yuan—

Under the relevant laws of the country, causing a fire through negligence that resulted in direct property losses exceeding one million yuan could, in serious cases, lead to a prison sentence of three to seven years. And Bai Yuesheng had just come of age.

"It would be best if your two families could reach a private settlement." Considering Bai Yuesheng's young age and how well-behaved he appeared, the investigators ultimately offered their advice.

"I knew Shengsheng wouldn't deliberately set fire to my family's home. I never wanted him to go to prison either. Everything I said was just said in anger. As long as Uncle Bai and Aunt Tao are willing to compensate my family for our losses, my family won't pursue the matter." After learning the cause of the fire and hearing Bai Yuesheng's tearful defense, Gu Jiuque spoke with a face full of regret.

Yet in private, Gu Jiuque did not believe a single word Bai Yuesheng said!

Thanks to Jade Celestial Pivot's clairvoyant ability, Gu Jiuque had personally seen that Bai Yuesheng, who had pretended to be unconscious when the Western Wing caught fire, had actually been fully awake.

He had not been drunk at all, nor had he lost the ability to move. He had deliberately stayed in the burning Western Wing, waiting for Gu Jiuque to rescue him!

As for why Bai Yuesheng had done this, Gu Jiuque thought of how, in his previous life, he had been knocked unconscious by a falling doorframe, only for the bloodstained Jade Celestial Pivot to be snatched away by Bai Yuesheng. Together with Bai Yuesheng's repeated mentions of the Gu family heirloom, Gu Jiuque could conclude that Bai Yuesheng had come for Jade Celestial Pivot.