Reborn in 97, I solved a cold case at the Municipal Bureau

Chapter 256 Light (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
"Did my mom not give the baby away?" Tang Xue suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Zhou Yi was taken aback by the sudden question.

"Baby, he..." Tang Xue bit her lip and asked in a trembling voice, "Is he still alive?"

These two questions caught Zhou Yi off guard, because they completely confirmed that Tang Xue was "completely unaware of anything and had been deceived by her mother."

Zhou Yi wondered, could this also be something Yao Fenfang taught him? To make Tang Xue appear more innocent?
But why go through all that trouble? Isn't keeping quiet the safest way?

Zhou Yi composed herself and asked with a smile, "Why do you think that?"

This question clearly caught Tang Xue off guard, and she was visibly flustered.

Clearly, the person who taught her to ask those two questions didn't expect Zhou Yi to throw the question back at her with a counter-question.

"Did you discover something unusual?" Zhou Yi asked when she stopped talking.

But Tang Xue reverted to her previous state of not answering any questions.

In the end, Zhou Yi had no choice but to give up, leaving behind the bread and paper cups before pushing open the door and leaving.

The moment the door closed, he heard Tang Xue sobbing softly inside.

Zhou Yi returned to his office and told Qiao Jiali and Shi Tao about the situation.

Then he waited alone until Gu Changhai and the technical department returned. The on-site investigation found a kitchen knife and a hammer, hidden in the innermost part of the master bedroom wardrobe, wrapped in a bed sheet. Bloodstains were found on the sheet, which required further testing and analysis.

Meanwhile, bloodstains were found in several crevices in the bathroom. After the squat toilet was removed, a piece of bone about five millimeters long was found stuck in a bend in the sewage pipe, which has been sent for forensic examination.

Zhou Yi left the Municipal Bureau and rode his bicycle into the quiet city.

It's so quiet around me, just like the day I was reborn.

But he didn't know how much evil and sin of humanity was hidden beneath such tranquility.

His figure gradually faded into the distance, leaving only his shadow, elongated by the moonlight, like a solitary traveler.

……

Zhou Yi returned home and went inside.

As soon as I reached out to turn on the light, someone sat up on the sofa.

Zhou Yi was startled, but when he saw that it was Lu Xiaoshuang, he breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door behind him.

"Xiao Shuang? Why didn't you go back?"

Still half asleep, Lu Xiaoshuang rubbed her eyes, called out "Brother Zhou," then looked up at the wall clock and was instantly wide awake. "Oh no, how did I fall asleep?"

He stood up and started to walk out.

Zhou Yi grabbed her arm: "Where are you going?"

"Go back to school."

"You must be half asleep. The dorms are already closed at this hour. You can sleep in the room tonight, and I'll sleep on the sofa."

Lu Xiaoshuang waved her hands repeatedly: "No, no, I'll sleep on the sofa. You've been working hard all day, you need to rest."

“It’s okay, it doesn’t matter where I sleep. My mom says I sleep like a pig, I can fall asleep as soon as you give me a pillow.”

Lu Xiaoshuang scratched her head sheepishly: "I saw your room was a bit messy, so I tidied it up a bit, and then I thought I'd just sit there for a little while and then go back. But somehow I fell asleep."

"Oh right, Brother Zhou, the cake." Lu Xiaoshuang opened an aluminum lunchbox on the table, which had the name of the Second Steel Plant printed on it.

The box was filled with fresh cream cakes, but they didn't look very appealing. It seemed that they had been pressed down with a spoon to make room for more.

“There’s so much, I can’t possibly finish it all by myself.” Zhou Yi said, turning around and going into the kitchen. He took out two spoons and handed one to Lu Xiaoshuang. “Let’s eat some together. The weather is getting warmer now, and it will spoil easily if we leave it until tomorrow.”

"No, I've already eaten."

"I'll be too full if I eat all this, and I won't be able to sleep for a while, so please help me out." Zhou Yi wasn't really hungry; the cafeteria lady had given her too much for dinner, and she didn't feel hungry at all.

Lu Xiaoshuang took the spoon and said, "Then... I'll just have two bites. Eating more will make me fat."

The two started eating cake from their lunchboxes when Lu Xiaoshuang suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no, this is terrible!"

"What's wrong?" Zhou Yi asked hurriedly.

"I forgot to bring birthday candles. I should have lit them so you could make a wish and then blow them out," Lu Xiaoshuang said, biting her lip.

"I thought it was something important. No need, I'm not a child, why would I make a wish?"

"That won't work. Do you have any candles at home?"

Seeing that he couldn't persuade her otherwise, Zhou Yi could only smile helplessly and start looking for candles.

But when he found only a half-used white candle, his lips twitched: "This doesn't seem very auspicious."

So he stuffed it back in and then shrugged at Lu Xiaoshuang.

"Wait a minute, I have a plan." Lu Xiaoshuang said, running into the kitchen, then bringing back a box of matches. She picked out the best-looking one and gently stuck it into the cake. Then she took out another match and said to Zhou Yi, "After I light it, you quickly make a wish. You probably have... five seconds. No, you also have to blow out the match; you can't let it go out on its own."

Zhou Yi was both amused and exasperated. Who makes a birthday wish with matches?

But Lu Xiaoshuang was staring intently at the match, and the countdown had already begun.

"Three, two, one, begin."

With a hiss, the match on the cake was lit by the match in her hand, and a weak flame shot up. Zhou Yi quickly closed her eyes and made a wish.

Before the match burned out, I opened my eyes and blew out the flame.

Lu Xiaoshuang smiled contentedly and muttered to herself, "Mission accomplished."

Then he carefully scooped out the cake with the matchstick stuck to it. "Brother Zhou, what did you wish for?"

Zhou Yi said mysteriously, "I can't say, or it won't work."

"Oh, then you should eat quickly."

Zhou Yi thought to himself, "What am I supposed to wish for?" He closed his eyes and started counting down, thinking "three, two, one" in his head, and then opened his eyes to blow out a match.

As the two ate cake, Lu Xiaoshuang said, "Brother Zhou, I feel like Uncle and Auntie have something on their minds today. They've been sullen and seem to be forcing a smile."

Zhou Yi immediately remembered that the Second Steel Company had announced the first batch of laid-off employees today.

On this day in my previous life, I was returning home from the police station as usual when I learned the news from my parents. Immediately, the whole family felt heavy-hearted. My mother sighed and my father looked worried.

Zhou Yi knew she couldn't help, so she could only comfort them by saying that at least she had a job and that if she tightened her belt, her salary could still support her family of three.

But the real problem isn't where the next meal will be, but what to do with such a large group of people.

And this was just the beginning; there were more to come, one after another, until Huang Xiaomao's incident ignited the workers' emotions.

In this life, however, I have already prevented Huang Xiaomao's father from committing suicide by jumping into the river, so theoretically, Huang Xiaomao will not become the fuse that ignites the workers' emotions.

But even without Huang Xiaomao, there will still be Liu Xiaomao and Zhang Xiaomao.

If the root cause is not addressed, anyone can become the fuse for the bomb.

When Zhou Yi saved Huang Xiaomao's father last time, he had already thought it through. Rather than letting others become the fuse, he would rather take control of the situation and let his father, Zhou Jianguo, play the role of the fuse.

It seems I need to go back to the old house before going to work tomorrow and talk to my parents about what to do next.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi said, "It's nothing, it's probably just something that happened at the factory, we'll take care of it later."

Zhou Yi noticed that Lu Xiaoshuang, who said she would only eat two bites, had unknowingly eaten almost half of the food.

The two of them started digging from opposite ends of the lunchbox. At this point, Zhou Yi's lunchbox was less than half full, while Lu Xiaoshuang's was already more than half full.

Seeing that Zhou Yi suddenly stopped eating, Lu Xiaoshuang looked up in confusion and asked, "Brother Zhou, why did you stop eating?"

Zhou Yi pretended to frown and said, "I ate too much at the bureau for dinner. You have no idea how big the duck leg the cafeteria lady gave me was." As she spoke, Zhou Yi gestured, and then told Lu Xiaoshuang to eat the rest of the cake so as not to waste it.

"I originally brought this for you, but I ended up eating it instead. I feel a little bad about it," Lu Xiaoshuang said with an embarrassed smile.

"No way, it's a good thing you overslept, otherwise you don't know how miserable it is to eat cake alone."

Lu Xiaoshuang shook her head repeatedly, saying somewhat self-consciously, "I... have never eaten a birthday cake. When I was little, my mom would make me stir-fried green peppers and pork for my birthday. Last year, my grandma made me a bowl of noodles and added two poached eggs."

Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat. Lu Xiaoshuang lowered her head, a faint smile on her lips, her dark hair hanging down in front of her forehead shimmering slightly under the light.

He had almost forgotten that she had always been a girl who struggled to make a living in hardship. It was just that recently, she had become much more cheerful, which almost made him forget how difficult her journey had been.

"Xiao Shuang," Zhou Yi called softly.

Lu Xiaoshuang raised her head and looked at him.

“I feel like you’ve been different lately,” Zhou Yi said, looking into her bright eyes. “There’s a light in your eyes.”

Lu Xiaoshuang stared at him intently, and upon hearing this, she smiled and said, "Because I'm looking at the light."

……

Zhou Yi got up very early; she had gone to bed after eating cake last night.

At Zhou Yi's insistence, Lu Xiaoshuang went to sleep in the room on the bed, while Zhou Yi made do with the sofa for the night.

The sofa was too soft; it was fine for a short nap, but I would get very tired if I slept on it for too long, so I simply got up early.

When Lu Xiaoshuang woke up, Zhou Yi had already placed steaming hot buns and soy milk on the table.

"Brother Zhou, why are you up so early?"

"I'm going to my parents' place. I bought you breakfast, remember to eat it. The towel and toothbrush are new, just leave them there after you're done. I'm leaving now." Zhou Yi changed her shoes and went straight out the door.

Lu Xiaoshuang checked the time and saw that it was still early, so she folded the blanket that was crumpled up on the sofa and then hummed a light tune as she went to brush her teeth.

(End of this chapter)