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

Chapter 374 Lu Xiaoshuang's Hair Tie (Seeking votes at the beginning of the month)
"Brother Yan, wait for me, I'm coming right away!"

Zhou Yi hung up the phone and ran away.

He no longer had time to deal with Xiao Bing, because Chen Yan's words made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

The pink bow hair tie that Chen Yan described was exactly the same as the one he bought for Lu Xiaoshuang that day!
The day before he went to Anyuan, when he went to the school to find Lu Xiaoshuang, she was still wearing that hair tie.

Now she has disappeared without a trace, and a hair tie that did not exist in her previous life has been found strangely among the newly discovered body parts.

Everything seemed to be telling Zhou Yi that the deceased was the same person as in his previous life—Lu Xiaoshuang.

But he gritted his teeth and refused to accept the possibility unless... unless he saw the dead man's head.

Otherwise, he wouldn't believe that Xiaoshuang was dead!

In criminal cases, there is a very important principle: the investigation of a case must be based on confirming the identity of the deceased.

This is because, from a judicial perspective, only when the true identity of the deceased is confirmed does all the evidence have legal effect; otherwise, serious problems can easily arise.

The establishment of every law is almost always based on hard-won experience.

Therefore, until it is definitively confirmed that the deceased is Lu Xiaoshuang, it can only be said at most that there is a high degree of suspicion.

This is why, in the An Yuan case, both Li Youqiang and Zheng Guangming tried every means to confirm the identity of the deceased.

"Officer Zhou, go that way..." Xiao Bing was about to give Zhou Yi directions, but found that before she could even point the way, Zhou Yi had already run in the correct direction.

They disappeared in the blink of an eye.

An old man passed by and greeted him.

He smiled and replied, "Good morning, Uncle Zhang."

After the old man walked past him, the smile on Xiao Bing's face slowly disappeared.

He walked in the direction Zhou Yi had left.

Suddenly, he stopped and turned around with a cold look, glancing in some unknown direction.

There seemed to be nothing there.

After leaving Daguan Street, Zhou Yi found a motorcycle taxi on the roadside and asked the driver to go directly to Hongqi Road, and to be quick.

The driver was delighted to have a job, and he twisted the accelerator and set off.

On the way, the chaotic wind blew so hard that Zhou Yi's face stung. He didn't know if the wind had gotten into his eyes, but his eyes hurt a lot.

Why? Why is the grand case in this life so different from the one in the previous life?

Was it because of my intervention that this happened?
Is all of this my own responsibility?

He began to feel confused. Had he really done something wrong?

Shouldn't I get involved?

Are some people destined to die?
Suddenly, Qian Lailai's smiling face appeared in his mind, along with Hu Zi, Ding Chunmei, Xu Xinxin, and finally Lu Xiaoshuang's radiant white skin in the sunlight.

No! He did nothing wrong!
Even if I don't intervene or do anything, these people will still die.

The fact that he was able to save Qian Lai and the others proves that he did nothing wrong!
Whether in the past life or this life, the culprit is always at fault!

"Xiao Shuang, please don't die, wait for me!" Zhou Yi murmured.

The motorcycle taxi driver didn't hear him clearly and thought he was being spoken to, so he shouted, "Don't worry, buddy, I'm a very skilled driver, fast and steady, you won't die! Don't worry, we definitely won't die!"

Zhou Yi knew the driver didn't mean what he thought, but the last sentence seemed like a metaphor, giving him a strange sense of comfort.

As we approached Hongqi Road, the driver suddenly slowed down and exclaimed, "Damn, why are there so many police officers up ahead? Buddy, why don't you get out and walk the rest of the way? It's just ahead, and I'll give you a discount of one yuan."

Zhou Yi patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, just keep driving forward, they won't arrest you."

These police officers are all focused on searching for body parts; they don't have time to arrest unlicensed motorcycle taxi drivers right now.

Moreover, police officers and traffic police are two different police departments, and they wouldn't bother with this under normal circumstances. The driver was simply feeling guilty when he saw the police.

"You make it sound so easy, but what if..."

Before the driver could finish speaking, Zhou Yi said, "I'm a policeman too. Don't worry, I won't arrest you."

Upon hearing this, the driver instantly felt a chill run down his spine. Good heavens, was he about to fall into a wolf's den?

As Zhou Yi continued driving, he saw a bus stop sign on the side of the road. It was cordoned off, and there were many police officers at the scene, with several police cars parked nearby.

The driver stopped the car and asked nervously and curiously, "Holy crap, what's going on?"

Zhou Yi got out of the car, paid the fare, and said, "Thank you, driver. Don't just stand here watching the show, go do your business."

The driver nodded, quickly turned around and left, but kept glancing back at them from time to time, muttering to himself, "When did Hongcheng become so unsafe?"

After showing his identification, Zhou Yiliang crossed the cordon.

Everything in the trash can has been turned over, and a detailed on-site investigation is underway.

"Zhou Yi." Chen Yan poked his head out of the police car next to him and waved.

Zhou Yi quickly ran over, and before even getting into the car, he saw a large evidence bag on the vehicle, inside which was a black plastic bag.

At first glance, it looks exactly the same as the body parts found in the previous life.

Zhou Yi got into the car, took the gloves Chen Yan handed him, put them on, opened the evidence bag, and then reached out and opened the black plastic bag to take a look.

It was very strange. There was no strong, foul smell like a rotting corpse. Instead, slices of meat, about a centimeter thick and deep-fried, were neatly arranged in a plastic bag, just like the carefully cut and fried pork in a store.

At the same time, these glistening slices of meat emitted a strange odor, a mixture of rottenness and the aroma of meat.

Zhou Yi glanced at it and then resealed the evidence bag. "Didn't the forensic doctor come?" Zhou Yi asked.

Chen Yan shook his head helplessly: "We're too busy. This is already the third bag we've found today..."

Zhou Yi was not surprised. With such a large-scale and targeted search, body parts would naturally be found one after another. The location where this bag of body parts was disposed of was exactly the same as in his previous life.

"I was originally planning to take the evidence back first, but you just happened to say you wanted to come over."

"Brother Yan, where's that hair tie?" Zhou Yi asked, his voice trembling.

“Here it is.” Chen Yan took out a small evidence bag from the side and handed it over.

When Zhou Yi took it and saw it, even though he was mentally prepared, he still felt heartbroken.

Because inside the transparent evidence bag was a pink hair tie with a bow.

It's exactly the same as the one Zhou Yi casually bought for Lu Xiaoshuang that day!
There were still very obvious bloodstains on the hair tie.

"Is there anything special about this hair tie?" Chen Yan asked.

"Brother Yan, let's go back to the station first. Go back and find Captain Wu; I have something to say to him!"

Seeing Zhou Yi's ashen face, Chen Yan stopped asking questions and started the police car.

Throughout the journey, Zhou Yi kept the evidence bag containing the hair ties in her hand.

He remembered that day when he and Lu Xiaoshuang went to the orphanage to visit Xu Xinxin. For some reason, Lu Xiaoshuang didn't tie her hair in a ponytail as usual, and Zhou Yi noticed that she kept flipping her hair.

While shopping at the store, he happened to see a row of hair ties hanging on the shelf, so he took one and secretly paid for it at the checkout.

He remembered that there were many more identical hair ties on that shelf.

Is it a coincidence?

If he were Zhou Yi, an ordinary citizen, he would tell himself it was a coincidence and he should try to think of the best-case scenario.

But as a criminal investigator, Zhou Yi's professional instincts told him that he had to think of the worst-case scenario.

Back at the station, Chen Yan first sent the bag of body parts to the forensic lab. The forensic team was working on a detailed autopsy of the body parts, while Xu Nian was busy at various scenes where new body parts had been discovered.

This hair tie should, in principle, be sent to the technical department for testing first, because it has bloodstains on it, which are very important pieces of evidence.

But seeing that Zhou Yi kept holding onto the evidence bag, he didn't say anything.

In the Third Brigade office, everyone was present except for Jiang Biao.

Looking at the evidence bag Zhou Yi had placed on the table, Wu Yongcheng asked suspiciously, "Zhou Yi, what are you thinking?"

Zhou Yi took a deep breath and said, "Captain Wu, I might recognize this hair tie."

One sentence shocked the other three people.

"What? Where have you seen me before?" Wu Yongcheng asked hurriedly.

Zhou Yi's words shocked the three of them again: "This hair tie might be something I bought."

Zhou Yi felt a lump in his throat, but he still managed to say those words.

He knew that instead of letting his imagination run wild, it was better to focus his investigation on "confirming that Lu Xiaoshuang might be the deceased."

This approach is more effective and efficient than working alone, whether it's conducting investigations, deploying police resources, or mobilizing manpower.

Police work as a collective, not as individuals. Without coordinated efforts, even the most skilled detective is like a cook without ingredients.

This is the level of rationality he maintained as a veteran criminal investigator despite experiencing such a significant psychological shock.

Zhou Yi said, "I bought this hair tie for Lu Xiaoshuang."

Of course, everyone in the Third Brigade knew who Lu Xiaoshuang was, especially Qiao Jiali, who particularly liked this sensible girl.

Although they were unaware of Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang's interactions outside of work, they all knew that the two had a good relationship.

"Are you suspecting that the deceased is Lu Xiaoshuang?" Wu Yongcheng asked in surprise.

Zhou Yi nodded, feeling his head was very heavy.

“No way…” Qiao Jiali quickly said, “These kinds of hair ties are very common, it must be a coincidence.”

Zhou Yi then said, "Xiao Shuang... she's been missing since yesterday afternoon. I've contacted the school, sent people to her house, and even checked my house, but I couldn't find her anywhere." Earlier, on Daguan Street, when Qian Hongxing went to find the administrator, Zhou Yi called Grandpa Ma at the Ergang dormitory's gatehouse and made up an excuse to ask Grandpa Ma to come to his house and knock on the door. Grandpa Ma said he knocked until his hand went numb but there was no response from inside.

This shows that Lu Xiaoshuang never went to her own home.

Qiao Jiali was stunned. She instantly recalled Zhou Yi's unusual behavior on the train last night.

Could it be... could it be that Zhou Yi had some premonition back then?

Wu Yongcheng picked up the evidence bag and handed it to Chen Yan: "Send it to the technical department and have them extract the blood from it for testing immediately. Tell them to give us the results as quickly as possible, and say it's my request."

Chen Yan nodded and immediately ran out with the evidence bag.

“Zhou Yi, don’t rush. Don’t forget, in a murder case, before the victim’s identity is confirmed, all possibilities exist,” Wu Yongcheng said.

"Captain Wu, I understand the reasoning."

"Here's what we'll do next. Since there's a possibility that the deceased is Lu Xiaoshuang, let's focus our investigation on that. Xiao Qiao, immediately gather all the information related to Lu Xiaoshuang. Then we'll split into two groups: you and I will go to the school to investigate, while Zhou Yi and Chen Yan will investigate her family. Biaozi, let him continue searching for body parts outside."

"Okay, Captain Wu, I'll be right there." Qiao Jiali said and left the office.

In the Third Brigade office, only Wu Yongcheng and Zhou Yi remained.

Wu Yongcheng patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Zhou Yi, do you want to rest for a bit?"

(End of this chapter)