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

Chapter 375 A weed (please vote)

Sitting in the chair, Zhou Yi looked up and said firmly, "Captain Wu, I'm fine."

"Zhou Yi, now it's just you and me. Answer me one question."

"what is the problem?"

"Are you and that girl Lu Xiaoshuang in a relationship?"

Zhou Yi slowly shook his head and said, "Not for now."

Wu Yongcheng instantly understood; the word "temporarily" explained everything.

"I don't need to go over the case-handling procedures; you should understand them. Since you're not in a romantic relationship, it's just a normal social relationship. As long as it doesn't affect the fair handling of the case, you don't need to recuse yourself."

"Thank you, Captain Wu."

"Don't thank me too soon. If... I mean, if the deceased really is Lu Xiaoshuang, then this case will be related to Hongcheng University, and the situation will become more complicated. There's a high possibility that the provincial department will intervene, or even set up a special task force to lead the case." Wu Yongcheng took out a cigarette case, handed one to Zhou Yi, lit it, and said, "At that time, my word won't count."

Zhou Yi understood Wu Yongcheng's meaning.

In principle, when a homicide occurs, criminal investigators must recuse themselves according to relevant regulations if the parties involved in the case or their relatives have a close social relationship with the investigators. In order to avoid affecting the impartial handling of the case, they need to recuse themselves voluntarily or involuntarily.

Wu Yongcheng asked this question both as a routine matter and to give Zhou Yi a reason not to avoid the question.

He was well aware that Zhou Yi did not want to be excluded from the case, but rules are rules.

He could only let Zhou Yi say it himself before he would give Zhou Yi a break.

However, this only applies before the deceased's identity is confirmed. Once confirmed, the special status of the deceased as a freshman at Hongda University changes the nature of the case.

When the provincial authorities take charge, Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang's close relationship will definitely be discovered, and they will most likely have to act according to regulations.

Unless someone with significant influence takes the initiative to support Zhou Yi, he will have no choice but to take a leave of absence and wait for the outcome.

"Captain Wu, if it really comes to this, don't worry, I will follow the organization's arrangements."

Zhou Yi suddenly felt like slapping himself twice. He had approached Lu Xiaoshuang in the first place to prevent her from being harmed again in this life.

Unexpectedly, this has now become the reason why he might be kicked out of the case investigation.

Zhou Yi, you've really outsmarted yourself and ended up trapping yourself.

Soon, Chen Yan returned and said that the technical department had already started the testing and would send over the results as soon as they were available.

Wu Yongcheng said that simply extracting and testing blood samples is not enough; they also need to be compared and matched with Lu Xiaoshuang's blood type.

However, blood type testing is not a standard requirement in university entrance physical examinations, so they had to check Lu Xiaoshuang's medical records and blood donation records.

Zhou Yi immediately said, "Xiao Shuang has donated blood. I heard her mention it. At the end of last year, the school organized a volunteer blood donation drive, and she went."

In fact, Lu Xiaoshuang had never mentioned this to Zhou Yi. This information came from the case files of the major case in her previous life, and was found by the police.

But he couldn't wait any longer. Now that he had made it clear that he suspected the deceased was Lu Xiaoshuang, he didn't want to take any detours.

“Okay, I’ll contact the blood management center right away,” Chen Yan said.

After a while, Qiao Jiali brought back Lu Xiaoshuang and her family's household registration files.

Zhou Yi already knew all this, but he still picked up Lu Xiaoshuang's household registration file.

In the ID photo in the file, Lu Xiaoshuang looks very young, wearing a school uniform, with her hair in a ponytail, and her gaze is calm and firm.

Zhou Yi gently ran his thumb across the photo. Since it was a freshly printed black and white copy, the ink was still wet, and as his finger traced it, Lu Xiaoshuang's face in the photo began to blur.

At this moment, Zhou Yi heard Qiao Jiali say, "Captain Wu, how about I go with Zhou Yi to Lu Xiaoshuang's family? She has a grandmother who is over seventy years old."

Wu Yongcheng thought about it and felt that it was indeed more prudent.

Qiao Jiali then called Zhou Yi to set off.

When getting into the car, Qiao Jiali took the initiative to walk towards the driver's seat.

"Zhou Yi, Xiao Shuang is a smart girl. Don't worry, she will definitely be safe and sound."

Qiao Jiali had a question in her mind: Did Zhou Yi know or have a premonition of something beforehand? That's why he became so agitated when he heard about the discovery of dismembered bodies on the train.

Because she recalled the night they ate mutton stew on the food street, when Lu Xiaoshuang asked her why Brother Zhou always seemed so worried about her safety.

At the time, she didn't pay much attention and told Lu Xiaoshuang that Zhou Yi was very responsible and that was just his personality.

What I didn't tell Lu Xiaoshuang was that her brother Zhou might have feelings for her, which is why he was so worried about her.

But now that I think about it, it feels like Zhou Yi knew all along that Lu Xiaoshuang would get into trouble.

But she didn't intend to ask any further questions, because it wasn't important.

She believed in Zhou Yi.

The most important thing now is for Lu Xiaoshuang to be safe and for Zhou Yi to not be defeated.

Lu Xiaoshuang's father is named Lu Guohua. He is 49 years old this year and is the eldest son in the family.

In 1972, due to the Down to the Countryside policy, I went to the Northwest. On the barren and impoverished Loess Plateau, I worked with a group of equally weak and powerless educated youths to reclaim wasteland.

Zhou Yi's family had never experienced anything like this. Firstly, none of the four siblings in the Zhou family had a high level of education. Before Zhou Yi went to police academy, the most educated person in the family was the fourth son, Zhou Jianye, who had a high school diploma. However, by the time Zhou Jianye graduated from high school, the Down to the Countryside Movement had already ended.

Secondly, the Zhou family belonged to the steelworkers' family, which gave them preferential treatment in such matters.

Zhou Yi remembered that the files of the Hongda case contained detailed information about the Lu family.

Lu Xiaoshuang's grandfather was also a scholar. Before liberation, he was a private school teacher and seemed to be quite famous in Hongcheng.

The large courtyard where the Lu family lived was passed down from his grandfather and used to belong to the Lu family.

Later, due to various reasons, there were fewer and fewer houses in the courtyard, until only three facing east remained.

When Lu Guohua went to Northwest China, Lu Xiaoshuang's grandfather had already passed away. Later, Lu Guohua met Lu Xiaoshuang's mother, Su Xiuying, in the Northwest. The gentleness of the southern woman was like a soft flower in the barren Northwest, touching the heart of this northern intellectual.

The couple held their wedding in the simplest way on the Loess Plateau: a "double happiness" character, a pair of red candles, two red flowers, two bowls of noodles, a bowl of meat, their trust in each other, and their hopes for the future.

Lu Xiaoshuang was born the following year on the day of Frost's Descent.

Meanwhile, in Hongcheng, the Lu family's remaining two sons also got married and started their own families.

Unfortunately, of the three sons of the Lu family, the best one died; the remaining two were not good people.

Compared to Zhou Yi's second uncle, Zhou Jianjun, they are basically evenly matched.

In the previous life, in addition to the basic investigation of the case, the case also received widespread social attention due to its special nature.

Numerous media outlets rushed to report on the case, and Hongcheng TV even produced a special program to follow up and reveal the truth.

The Lu family's situation was thoroughly investigated by the media.

Besides the Lu family, four other families lived in the courtyard.

These four households became the focus of media interviews, and many details about Lu Xiaoshuang's daily life were exposed, arousing public outrage.

For example, when Lu Xiaoshuang came to Hongcheng, her parents gave her more than 200 yuan, which was originally intended to pay her tuition and buy textbooks. However, her second aunt took it away under the pretext of safekeeping, and then refused to give her money whenever she needed it.

For example, the money that Lu Xiaoshuang's parents saved by scrimping and saving was misappropriated and divided among her second and third uncles, almost delaying Lu Xiaoshuang's registration for high school. It was only because the school took the initiative to contact her because of her excellent middle school entrance exam results that the problem was resolved.

There were many other miscellaneous things, such as thirteen or fourteen-year-old girls having to wash dishes and clothes for the family every day, their hands turning red and swollen like radishes in the winter. They couldn't eat at the table and had to huddle in the kitchen with their grandmother. The sons of the second and third sons wouldn't eat without meat, so Lu Xiaoshuang often ate pickled vegetables with white rice.

Sometimes, the neighbors in the tenement couldn't bear to see her like this and would secretly bring her some food.

And you can't let the wives of the second and third sons see this, one has a fiery temper and curses like a machine gun, and the other is sarcastic and can roll her eyes to the sky.

Lu Xiaoshuang's living place was extremely simple, a small attic built above the old lady's house. She had to climb up and down a ladder for six years.

Despite the hardships of life and the constant criticism and grievances of living under someone else's roof, none of these sufferings defeated this girl.

She was like a wild grass growing vigorously among the roof tiles of a tenement courtyard, reaching towards the sun.

But one day, it was suddenly trampled underfoot.

Television, radio, and newspaper reports on the major case and Lu Xiaoshuang evoked empathy among countless people for this girl.

They wept for her death, grieved for her unfortunate life, and were angry at the various grievances she suffered in Hongcheng and in the home she thought was her family.

This triggered a chain reaction, starting with the second and third sons of the Lu family being beaten by angry mobs.

The second son, Lu Guozhong, had two front teeth knocked out at the factory; the third son, Lu Guoliang, had his tricycle used for hauling goods smashed; the second son's wife was covered in excrement when she went to the public toilet; and the third son's wife was fired from her job.

The two sons of the second and third sons were also isolated and discriminated against at school, which led to them dropping out of school one after another and drifting into society, even though they were not good students to begin with.

But these retributions did not make them realize their mistakes. Instead, they intensified their slander and defamation against Lu Xiaoshuang, who died with her eyes wide open. They said that she had a puppy love in junior high school and seduced male classmates. They said that after she went to university, she became a mistress to a married man, wanted to climb the social ladder, and forced her lover to marry her, which is why she was killed.

These rumors spread like wildfire in society, tarnishing Lu Xiaoshuang's reputation.

In the end, it even evolved into the claim that Lu's lover was a high-ranking official in Hongcheng, so the police couldn't solve the case and were actually protecting the murderer.

These outrageous and baseless rumors spread like wildfire, eventually forcing the authorities to intervene and release the autopsy results showing that Lu Xiaoshuang's hymen was intact and undamaged, thus silencing those vile mouths.

This world is full of injustices; people suffer in life and are stigmatized after death.

　Update notification
　　Given that the recent plot has angered everyone to the extreme, I've thought that no amount of explanation can replace a more sincere approach.

　　From June 1st to 3rd, for three days, in addition to the original two updates in the morning, two more updates will be added each afternoon for three consecutive days.

　　I just ask for your support with your votes, thank you.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)