I am a super cop

Chapter 3016 The Failed Experiment

The bathhouse owner certainly knew what the police were saying, and he knew that doing so was the right thing to do.

The key issue is that they lack confidence, which is why they complain.

The experiment continued, and Gu Chen and the others waited from day to night, and then from night to day again.

After 24 hours, Gu Chen checked the time and then reminded Zhao Guozhi beside him, "Time's up."

"Okay, we can start the testing now," Zhao Guozhi said.

Gu Chen nodded silently, then reminded the police officer holding the keys, "All teams, immediately take the equipment and go to each community to test the data."

"Yes." The police officers, standing in rows, immediately followed the previous plan, taking the house keys provided by the residents and carrying the equipment, and began to go to each household to test the carbon monoxide content.

Gu Chen, along with his team members, went directly to the apartment building where the incident occurred.

Gu Chen first led everyone into the first floor to begin testing the carbon monoxide levels in the room.

Everyone was nervous, or rather, it felt like a major exam, and everyone was worried about the final result.

This is because the gas was released after 24 hours, and it was directed at the sewer of the bathroom boiler room.

In addition, the rooms on the first floor were in a closed state with the doors and windows closed.

Therefore, everyone was provided with a gas mask when entering the room.

The instrument in my hand is constantly detecting the final data.

What puzzled Gu Chen was that after the coal-fired boiler continuously emitted exhaust gas for 24 hours, only a tiny amount of gas was detected in the entire first-floor room where the incident occurred, far less than the 0.32% that would cause death. This left Gu Chen in a dilemma.

“Junior Brother Gu, there is carbon monoxide present, but only a tiny amount,” Lu Weiwei said, looking at the data on the instrument.

Gu Chen sighed softly: "At least it shows that the gas emissions from the bathroom can affect the residents on the first floor."

“But the carbon monoxide content is very low, far below the level that would cause death,” Yuan Shasha said, puzzled.

At this moment, Officer Wang was also conflicted, so he quickly suggested, "Let's not worry about that for now, let's go to the sixth floor and take a look."

"Okay." Everyone agreed, and then they rushed to the sixth floor.

This is the location where Pan Xu and his girlfriend He Lili died.

When the two died, the takeout packaging was still intact, and the computer was still powered on.

Therefore, the deaths of the two people occurred suddenly, which is why everyone was full of expectations for the house, hoping to find the problem in the room.

To everyone's disappointment, after careful testing, there was indeed some carbon monoxide in the room, but it was only a tiny amount, far from enough to cause death.

"Impossible! How could this be?" Lu Weiwei was also puzzled when she saw the data.

Because if the root cause cannot be detected, all efforts will be in vain.

Seeing that Gu Chen remained silent, Lu Weiwei quickly went to his side to comfort him, saying, "Junior Brother Gu, it's alright. At least it shows that your reasoning was correct."

“Yes.” Yuan Shasha, who was standing nearby, quickly came over to comfort her.
"At least the detected levels were low, but our reasoning is correct. This may not be the cause of Pan Xu and He Lili's deaths."

"Impossible." While everyone was comforting Gu Chen, Gu Chen calmly analyzed the situation:

"If there's any place that can produce huge amounts of carbon monoxide, it's the boiler room in the bathroom right now."

"Moreover, the time of death of Pan Xu, He Lili, and the resident on the first floor coincided with the period of renovation of the bathroom boiler room."

"And the boiler room staff also admitted that during the rectification, the exhaust pipe was indeed connected to the sewer first, and the ventilation pipe was only connected after the external exhaust pipe was installed."

After walking back and forth twice, Gu Chen continued his analysis:
"In this way, the timing matches perfectly, which doesn't seem like a coincidence to me."

“But only the first and sixth floors had problems,” Yuan Shasha said.

“There are other floors too, we can go and check them,” Officer Wang reminded them at this moment.

Gu Chen nodded silently and said without further ado, "Yes, there are other floors. Let's check all the other floors in this unit right now."

Although everyone was disappointed, the testing work still had to be completed.

So, following the previous plan, everyone checked all the homes on the entire floor.

However, the result was still that there was no problem.

As Gu Chen walked out of the apartment building, he looked rather unwell. At that moment, Director Liu arrived by car, and Zhao Guozhi greeted him at the entrance of the complex.

After exchanging a few words, seeing Gu Chen's team emerge from the apartment building, Director Liu quickly stepped forward and asked, "Director Gu, have your test results come back yet?"

"We're out," Gu Chen said slowly.

"Well... how is it?" Director Liu asked quickly.

Gu Chen sighed and slowly said, "We did detect some carbon monoxide in the residences of the three victims, but the amount was only a tiny bit, not enough to cause death."

Upon hearing Gu Chen's words, Director Liu looked disappointed and slowly said, "So, the result of this test, which led to our previous reasoning, might be wrong?"

"We can't say that yet," Officer Wang quickly interjected, standing up for Gu Chen.
"At least we detected carbon monoxide levels, which indicates that the exhaust fumes from the bathroom boiler room could indeed reach the deceased's home through the sewer pipes."

"But your indicator doesn't meet the standard; it doesn't reach the level of causing death," Director Liu reminded him, seemingly quite disappointed.

Officer Wang continued, "Theoretically, it is possible."

"But that's only in theory," Director Liu sighed and said slowly.

“Theoretical things do need to be verified by experiments, but we have conducted a 24-hour experiment here, and the result is that it is not valid.”

After a pause, Director Liu added, "But you don't need to worry. The previous plan was proposed, and this is just a speculation."

"To dispel the panic among the residents, we must find out the truth about the deaths of the three people."

"Therefore, this experiment was necessary to carry out. Although a lot of resources were used and all the residents of the community cooperated in the evacuation, no final result was obtained."

"But at least it proves that this matter has nothing to do with the bathroom, which can be considered as ruling out one possibility."

"Director Liu." Seeing the disappointment on Director Liu's face, Zhao Guozhi, who was standing to the side, quickly said:
"The other test results haven't come back yet. Let's wait and see what the test data is like in other places?"

"Alright." Director Liu nodded silently upon hearing this. So everyone stood at the door, quietly waiting for the result.

As the police officers who had been conducting tests in each building returned one after another, the test data they had collected gradually came out.

Looking at the carbon monoxide content data on the statistics table, Gu Chen was immediately plunged into a deep sense of frustration.

Because all the test data fell far short of the standards.

"Director Gu, these are the results of the tests I've seen."

After the last group of officers handed in their reports, Gu Chen sighed softly and nodded, saying, "Thank you for your hard work."

"Now the residents of the community can be moved back," Zhao Guozhi quickly said, trying to find a topic to talk about.

After exchanging a few more words with Director Liu, I watched him leave.

The police cordon around the community was gradually being removed, and some residents who were waiting at the entrance received their keys directly from the police officers and began to go home in batches.

Standing under a large tree by the roadside in the residential area, Zhao Guozhi sighed and patted Gu Chen on the shoulder to comfort him:
"Gu Chen, it's okay. At least this kind of experiment has to be done, otherwise how can we figure out where the problem is?"

"Since it's not a problem with the boiler room's emissions, let's look for other issues and see if there are any other breakthroughs."

"Okay, Director Zhao, I will learn from this experience and start the investigation again." Gu Chen knew that this was Zhao Guozhi's way of comforting him.

Of course, this difficulty cannot defeat Gu Chen.

So after Zhao Guozhi drove away, Gu Chen also went to the bathroom lobby.

Because the bathhouse owner had been keeping an eye on things inside, he straightened up considerably after learning that there were no problems, and sat there with a relaxed air.

Gu Chen entered the boiler room, freeing himself from all police officers' surveillance. As he passed through the bathroom corridor, the bathroom owner, sitting on the sofa, sighed and said firmly:
"Now you can prove that this has nothing to do with me, right? Look at the mess you've made, causing such a huge commotion, I haven't been able to do business for the past two days."

"Furthermore, your investigation of my bathroom will seriously damage its reputation."

"I'm sorry," Gu Chen said, offering an apology without arguing with him.

"Our investigation will continue, and we will provide you with some financial compensation for any inconvenience caused."

"Hehe, there's no need for that." Seeing Gu Chen's comment, the bathhouse owner chuckled, then couldn't help but retort:
"You're also investigating a case, right? I'm quite innocent too. Since you haven't found anything, can I continue operating here?"

"Okay." Seeing the bathhouse owner's sarcastic tone, as if he was deliberately trying to make fun of Gu Chen, Lu Weiwei stepped forward and echoed him.

Then everyone left the bathroom together.

……

……

8 PM, Furong Branch Office.

Frustrated, the group sat listlessly at their desks.

At the beginning, everyone had some ideas for the investigation, but now they have absolutely no ideas or clues.

Officer Wang lay back in his seat and stared blankly for a while before turning his head to look at Gu Chen, who was sitting in his seat.

At this moment, Gu Chen remained seated upright, still deep in thought.

Officer Wang sighed and asked Gu Chen, "Gu Chen, what do you think is the reason for this?"

"I've seen the data from this experiment, and what puzzles me is why only these two households tested positive for carbon monoxide, while the levels in the other households were much lower?"

Gu Chen was just saying it casually.

Upon hearing Gu Chen's words, Lu Weiwei, who was lying on the table, immediately sat up straight, turned to look at Gu Chen behind her, and asked:

"Junior Brother Gu, are you saying there's a problem with the statistics?"

"Yes." Gu Chen was still thinking, and said calmly:

"I have reviewed all the statistics from this experiment. Almost all residents were not significantly affected, and the carbon monoxide levels were negligible."

"But we were able to detect a certain amount of carbon monoxide only on the first and sixth floors of the unit where the incident occurred?"

"Although the levels are not fatal, the levels for these two households are slightly higher than those for other households."

Following Gu Chen's reminder, Officer Wang said without hesitation, "I've looked at that data sheet. It's only a tiny bit more, extremely small. It doesn't prove anything."

“No, that actually explains something.” Gu Chen retorted as soon as Officer Wang finished speaking.

Officer Wang turned to look at Gu Chen and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Although it is only a tiny data value, I think it has some reference value because the number after the decimal point is almost negligible, but the value is still higher than that of other residents."

“In other households, it is almost impossible to detect carbon monoxide, but it can be detected in these two households.”

Taking a deep breath, Gu Chen continued, "I still believe that the gas emissions from the bathroom were the key to this death, and there may have been a problem with our testing methods."

"Or rather, there was a problem in one of the links."

"Method? Steps?" He Junchao sighed helplessly after hearing Gu Chen's explanation.

"But Gu Chen, the experiment is already over. You're not going to come back and do a few more experiments, are you?"

"To be honest, I think so."

As soon as He Junchao finished speaking, Gu Chen chimed in.

He Junchao was dumbfounded and reminded Gu Chen, "Gu Chen, don't go crazy. If you conduct an experiment, you'll have to relocate the entire neighborhood. If you do it once, will people be willing to cooperate with you for their own safety?"

“But if you do it again, I estimate that many people in this community will not be happy, since it will seriously affect everyone’s lives.”

“Yes, Gu Chen, if we were to conduct another experiment, I estimate the results would be similar, since we followed the normal procedures for each step,” Officer Wang added.

Yuan Shasha hesitated for a moment, then reminded him, "Senior Brother Gu, our people have been keeping an eye on the boiler room. All the procedures are being carried out according to the normal procedures for the bathroom boiler room, so there are no problems."

"But what's the point of doing it again? Wouldn't the result be exactly the same?"

……