Chapter 322: Why Are You Falsely Accusing an Innocent Man?

Chapter 322: Why Are You Falsely Accusing an Innocent Man?

The stairwell was packed with people, all moving fast, all moving down.

Fortunately the fire was on the tenth floor. The ninth and tenth made up
the VIP zone, where there were never many ordinary guests and the rooms
were essentially never full. Had the fire started on the first or second
floor, flames climbing and thick smoke rolling upward could easily have
trapped the guests above. Deaths would then have been all but
unavoidable.

Wu Chen, Li Ruotai and the others hurried down, and before long they
reached the ground floor and were out of the building. A great many club
guests came out with them, and more kept pouring from the doors.

Even coming from the top floor, they had gotten out ahead of guests from
some lower ones.

Naturally, because they had discovered the fire promptly, had not
panicked, and had evacuated at once without stopping to gather anything.

They retreated to the roadside.

The area gradually became a sea of people: guests who had escaped, and
passersby who stopped to watch.

Crown Entertainment employed more than a thousand service staff alone,
and on any ordinary day the guests numbered at least as many.

Several thousand people came streaming down.

All one could say was that the building had been well planned, with
plenty of stairways and evacuation routes, and enough staff directing
the crowd. Otherwise chaos and a stampede would have been inevitable.

The fire on the tenth floor was already raging.

Thick smoke poured from the windows of Room 1029. The heat had burst its
floor-to-ceiling windows, and through the windows of nearby rooms fierce
flame could be seen inside.

Crack!

With a sharp report, the window of the neighboring room blew out from
the heat. Glass sprayed outward and fell from high above, drawing
screams from the crowd below as people scrambled clear.

It was tempered glass, shattering into granules rather than knife-like
shards, so it would not slice anyone open. Being struck by it still
hurt.

The tenth-floor fire seemed to spread faster with every moment.

Anyone looking up from the street could see it, and the decor deserved
part of the blame. The tenth floor had been finished too lavishly, with
great quantities of wood, fabric, upholstered surfaces and other
flammable material.

“Farther back! Get to the roadside!”

“Watch the glass!”

“This way! Don’t panic!”

People outside were directing the crowd as well, club security guards
and managers from the various floors. They moved the evacuated guests
farther off so falling debris would not injure them.

People still streamed from the exits on every floor. It would take time
before the building was entirely clear.

For the moment, though, the fire had not spread downward, so there was
no great danger.

As more and more people emerged, the whole area around Crown
Entertainment filled with them.

Some disorder could not be helped.

Some guests had fled in pajamas and slippers. There were even men and
women who had run out barefoot with nothing but blankets wrapped around
them.

The fire on the tenth floor grew, and had already reached the eleventh.

Dense smoke rolled straight into the sky.

Everywhere you looked was a scene out of a disaster evacuation.

After Wu Chen and the others got out they stayed by the roadside,
looking up at the building, taking in the situation around them. Tang
Jingbin still looked shaken. Whoever you were, an experience like this
left fear behind even after you made it out.

And from the look of it, with the fire starting on the tenth floor, the
eleventh had been the most dangerous place in the building.

Fortunately they had discovered it early and come straight down.

While everyone else watched, Li Ruotai was nearly frantic. Standing
nearby, he made call after call.

“Old Chen, it’s Li Ruotai. Get your squad over here fast. The club’s on
fire. Hurry!”

“Old Wang, send every ambulance you can move over here right now. To the
club. A fire. Just hurry!”

“Brother Zhou, the club’s burning. Make some arrangements. Don’t let the
reporters film whatever they like when they get here. Yeah, right…”

Known as Young Master Li of Donghai, Li Ruotai was a man practically
everyone in the city knew. He had connections everywhere: the fire
service, hospitals, television stations, all of it.

With that round of calls he was urging every fire brigade he knew to
arrive as fast as possible, having hospitals dispatch ambulances in
advance, and making arrangements about the television crews.

With so many people evacuating, and with preparations already in place,
Li Ruotai would not allow anyone to die. Some injuries, though, were
inevitable.

People twisted ankles and fell rushing down the stairs, picked up
scrapes and other minor hurts.

Li Ruobing stood at the roadside with Wu Chen, her arm through his,
looking up at the building and studying their surroundings.

Li Ruotai was frantic. Li Ruobing did not look worried at all. She only
frowned slightly.

“You had A-Tai set the fire?” She tilted her head suddenly and whispered
into his ear.

“Why are you falsely accusing an innocent man?” Wu Chen glanced at her
and answered softly.

“Stop pretending.” She narrowed her eyes at him.

In her own mind she was already certain. Wu Chen had told Li Ruotai to
burn the place.

Li Ruobing had known for a long time about the idea of burning Crown
Entertainment so the club would have a reason to suspend operations. Wu
Chen had raised it the first time he met Li Ruotai, over lunch, and she
had been there.

So she understood that tonight’s fire was no accident. Li Ruotai had
arranged for someone to set it deliberately and dress it up as an
accidental blaze.

But.

Under normal circumstances, even if Li Ruotai wanted to set the plan in
motion, he would never have chosen tonight. Any other day would have
served. Why tonight of all nights?

Sun Yongzhang and Tang Jingbin were both meant to stay at the club
tonight. She and Wu Chen had been upstairs themselves only minutes ago.

And before arranging to burn the place, Li Ruotai had not even warned
his own older sister.

He had simply done it?

That made no sense. The decision could not have been Li Ruotai’s.

And Li Ruobing could think of no one else her younger brother would obey
in a matter like this.

No one except Wu Chen.

“Was it you?” She kept her eyes narrowed on him and asked again.

Wu Chen glanced at her, held her gaze, and then suddenly smiled.

“We’ll talk when we get back.”

She understood.

That answer amounted to an admission. He was the one who had told Li
Ruotai to burn the club tonight.

She looked again at Li Ruotai, still making his frantic calls, and
thought suddenly that her little brother’s acting had improved.

Waa-waa, waa-waa…

Sirens rose down the street.

The nearest fire brigade had arrived.

Wu Chen turned to look, then raised his wrist and checked the time.

A few minutes later almost everyone in the building had been evacuated.
Most of the cars in the underground garage had been driven out as well.
Some left at once with their passengers; others stayed, and the whole
street was congested.

Fortunately the road and the sidewalks were both wide enough that the
fire engines arriving behind could still get through.

By then Wu Chen’s group had moved to the intersection, and their cars
had been brought over and parked nearby.

“Brother Tang, I’m truly sorry. I never expected anything like this
today…” Sun Yongzhang said.

“It’s nothing. Ah! Who could have expected a fire out of nowhere? I’m
fine. I’ll find a hotel in a while.” Tang Jingbin waved it off.

Ring, ring, ring…

A phone rang.

Sun Yongzhang’s.

He took it out and saw Ding Ruilong’s name. He answered. “Hello,
Ruilong.”

“Mr. Sun, our boss is in surgery. He asked me to call you,” a man said
on the line.

“Surgery? What happened to him?” Sun Yongzhang’s expression changed.

“What happened was…” The bodyguard explained. He did not tell the truth,
but he laid out a version of events.

Sun Yongzhang’s face shifted again and again as he listened. At last he
said, “All right, I understand. I’ll make arrangements.”

When he hung up he looked straight at Li Ruotai.

“A-Tai, arrange something for me. Heyi Grand Hotel—make a call over
there…”

“Heyi Grand Hotel… what’s happened?” Li Ruotai looked slightly lost.

“Ding Ruilong is staying there. Just now his gun went off and blew
apart. Someone’s dead, and Ding Ruilong’s hand is injured. He’s already
at the hospital, in surgery, but there’s going to be trouble at the
hotel…” Sun Yongzhang laid it out.

As he spoke, he glanced at Wu Chen without meaning to.

By the time he finished, nearly everyone had glanced at Wu Chen.

Their expressions were strange.

An hour ago Wu Chen had said Ding Ruilong would go to the hospital
tonight.

And Ding Ruilong had gone to the hospital.

But because a handgun blew apart in his hand? How could Wu Chen possibly
have known that in advance?

Once again Tang Jingbin felt the hair rise along his back. All at once
there was something terrifying about Wu Chen.