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

Chapter 368 The Corpse in Nansha River (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
One day in December 2023.

Provincial capital, municipal bureau.

A young policeman knocked on the door and asked, "Old Zhou, are you there?"

The sign hanging on the door reads "Third Archives Room".

The door was opened from the inside, revealing a room full of filing cabinets, with only a table in the corner.

Zhou Yi, whose temples were turning gray, glanced at the newcomer through his reading glasses: "Little Jiang, which file do you need to access this time?"

"Starting on May 6, 1997."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yi was stunned. "Five or six? The massive case?"

Xiao Jiang said, "Back in 2017, the ministry announced that the Hongda case, as a special case, would not be subject to the statute of limitations. So, as is customary at the end of the year, we need to review those major backlog cases again to see if there are any new leads."

Zhou Yi sighed and turned to walk towards the filing cabinet: "What clues could there be? It's been twenty-six years. There are no fingerprints or DNA of the murderer. You can search the case file to pieces, but it won't do any good."

Xiao Jiang didn't say anything, but just made a helpless expression.

"Old Zhou, I heard you're from Hongcheng? Were you involved in this case back then?"

Zhou Yi smiled helplessly: "I was younger than you back then, and I was just a beat cop at the police station. How could I have been qualified to get involved in this case?"

"They said you used to be quite capable, and if you had been involved in this case back then, the outcome might have been different."

Zhou Yi shoved a huge stack of case files into Xiao Jiang's arms. "Amazing? Amazing, I get to look at files here?"

Xiao Jiang looked at the case files in his arms and was startled: "So many?"

“That’s only a third of it, there’s more!” Zhou Yi turned around and continued to take files from the filing cabinet, complaining, “So why are you doing this formalism? The files are already in the computer, you can just look at them on the screen, why do you have to come and retrieve the original files?”

"Signing in a bit, Xiao Jiang, let me tell you, you're responsible for returning the original files you took. I have a list here, and if even one piece of paper is missing, I'll hold you accountable."

Xiao Jiang said with difficulty, "Should I put it on the table first? I'll go find a box; there are too many of these."

"Go ahead, go ahead." Zhou Yi waved his hand.

He moved another pile of documents onto the table, then rubbed his aching back.

Suddenly, he noticed a corner sticking out of the file.

He pinched the corner and tried to push it back in, but it was covered with files and couldn't fit.

They had no choice but to pull out the file, and discovered that it contained the personal information of Lu Xiaoshuang, the victim in the Hongda case.

The piece of paper with a corner poked out was a yellowed photograph.

Zhou Yi stared at the photo in his hand, somewhat dazed.

This photo was taken at a school event after Lu Xiaoshuang graduated from high school and received her university admission letter. In the photo, Lu Xiaoshuang is smiling as brightly as the sun.

This wasn't the first time Zhou Yi had seen this photo. Every document and every piece of important information from the massive case was deeply etched into his mind.

But every time he saw a photo of the victim, who was actually around the same age as him, he had a strange feeling.

It's as if Lu Xiaoshuang in the photo is crying out for help!

He looked at the photo and smiled helplessly and sadly: "If I were involved... hah... what could I possibly change..."

Suddenly, he seemed to hear a long, drawn-out whistle.

……

"Team Leader Shi, what did you say? My train just sounded its horn, so I can't hear you very well."

As the train whistle faded into the distance, Zhou Yi, sitting in the middle bunk, was so nervous that his palms were sweating.

He actually heard it clearly, but he couldn't believe what he heard, so he had to ask again.

"You're on the train? So you're on your way back?" Shi Tao asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, Sister Qiao, Xu Nian, and I are on the train back to Hongcheng. We'll arrive first thing tomorrow morning."

Zhou Yi's voice trembled slightly, which made Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian, who were sitting below, stand up.

Qiao Jiali mouthed, "What's wrong?"

Zhou Yi waved his hand frantically, his facial muscles twitching involuntarily.

This startled Qiao Jiali, because in all the time they had known each other, apart from the time she almost beat up Xu Jiaguang in anger because of Xu Xinxin, she had never seen Zhou Yi so nervous.

"Where's Lao Wu?" Shi Tao asked over the phone.

Zhou Yi felt like he was about to explode, but his rationality told him, "Calm down! Calm down!"
"Captain Wu and the others are in Lujiang. Captain Shi, repeat what you just said. What exactly happened?"

Shi Tao also noticed that Zhou Yi's voice sounded a bit off, so he quickly said, "Oh, it's like this, a few minutes ago the command center received a report that someone found a gray travel bag containing shredded human tissue in the eastern section of the Nansha River in Nanming District."

Upon confirming this with Shi Tao again, Zhou Yi's mind went blank.

He felt a sudden darkness engulf him, and a tightness in his chest made it hard to breathe. He braced himself against the bed with one hand to regain his balance.

"As soon as Director Wang heard it was a dismemberment case, he immediately called your Third Brigade's office, but no one answered after calling for a long time. He went to your office and found no one there. He happened to run into me and said that you seemed to be away on some case. So I thought I'd give you a call, and you can call me on your way back."

Zhou Yi closed his eyes, his chest heaving rapidly.

"Team Leader Shi...are you going to the scene now?" Zhou Yi asked.

"No, weren't you all out? So Captain Ni personally led a team to the scene, I think they just left."

"Thank you..." Zhou Yi was about to say thank you, but the tightness in his chest and the cramped space of the middle bunk where he had to bend over made him feel like he was about to explode.

He suddenly started coughing violently, and the coughing got worse and worse until his whole back arched.

He felt like he was suffocating, like a drowning person whose lungs had run out of air.

He threw down the phone, jumped out of bed, rushed into the hallway, flung open the overhead window, and desperately breathed in the cold air.

Because he jumped off the bed too fast and violently, his head hit the edge of the upper bunk with a loud bang, startling everyone.

The train sped along the tracks, the endless night outside the window filled his lungs with cold air, making him feel alive again.

However, his mind was in complete chaos, and he was unable to calm down and think things through properly.

Today is only April 30th, isn't it? Why, why have body parts been found?
Why was it suddenly brought forward so much?

Or is it not a body part from a major case? Or is it from another case?
But in the previous life, during this time period, there were no other cases in Hongcheng besides the Hongda case.

Why is this happening?

And... who exactly is the owner of that bag of body parts?

He didn't even dare to think about that name, fearing that if he did, everything would come true.

He was terrified. He was afraid that everything would be the same as in his previous life, that independent and kind girl who was full of hope for life and the future was murdered and cut into more than three hundred pieces.

If the outcome of this life is the same as before, what's the point of his rebirth? He might as well stay in that archives room, shrink back like a turtle, wait for retirement, and live out this failed life.

A cold wind howled through the window into the carriage. A burly man with a fierce face leaned out of the car and pointed at Zhou Yi, yelling, "Are you crazy? Close the window right now!"

Hearing the cursing, Zhou Yi turned around and glanced back, which frightened the big man so much that he immediately dared not speak.

Because Zhou Yi's eyes were wide open in anger, as if he were about to breathe fire, and more importantly, his right cheek was covered in blood.

Upon seeing this, the burly man quickly shrank back and dared not utter a word.

Qiao Jiali and Xu Nian were terrified. The blood was flowing from Zhou Yi's head, obviously from the impact when he rushed out of the bed.

"Zhou Yi, you're bleeding." Reminded by Qiao Jiali, Zhou Yi touched his face and realized it was covered in blood.

Xu Nian quickly took out a simple first aid kit from her backpack, asked Zhou Yi to sit down, and wiped away the blood and treated his wounds.

On the mobile phone on the bed, Shi Tao was still saying "hello, hello" when Qiao Jiali picked it up and said, "Team Leader Shi, this is Qiao Jiali. What's going on?"

A few minutes later, Qiao Jiali hung up the phone and walked to Zhou Yi's side.

Shi Tao's words truly shocked her. Another heinous dismemberment case had occurred. The two cases in Donghai Community had only been solved not long ago. Why was Hongcheng so unsafe lately?

Even so, Zhou Yi's unusually strong reaction still puzzled her.

"Zhou Yi, are you alright?" Qiao Jiali asked.

Zhou Yi didn't speak, but Xu Nian said, "He bumped his scalp but didn't break any bones. The wound isn't deep, and it's been disinfected. There shouldn't be any major problems."

She also felt strange. When she disinfected Zhou Yi's head wound with iodine, Zhou Yi seemed completely unaware and didn't even feel any pain.

Unbeknownst to them, in those few short minutes, Zhou Yi's mind was in turmoil, like a raging storm.

But at this moment, he forcefully suppressed the immense panic, tension, and confusion within him.

He was a police officer, a criminal investigator, and he knew that he had to calm himself down and think things through at this moment.

He sat in the aisle of the carriage, pondering the information provided by Shi Tao.

The location where the first bag of body parts appeared was basically the same as in the previous life.

The rough features of the travel bag and the body parts are also consistent.

Therefore, it can be concluded that this is a major case.

But the timing is different; this life is a full week earlier!
If there are no problems with my rebirth, then the trajectory of all the cases in this life should be the same as in my previous life.

If anything changes, there's only one possibility: the existence of this reborn individual has caused a shift in the course of the entire case!

Suddenly, his hope was rekindled.

If the time is different, then the victim may also be different!
That's right, without evidence, it doesn't mean that the person who was dismembered was Lu Xiaoshuang!

(End of this chapter)