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

Chapter 376 (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote) Wildfire Cannot Burn Out
Whether in the previous life or this life, Zhou Yi had never been to the Lu family where Lu Xiaoshuang lived as a dependent. He only learned some information from the case files of the previous life and some media reports later.

Lu Xiaoshuang rarely mentioned the Lu family to him, except for her concern for her grandmother.

She's just a 19-year-old college freshman who has to work part-time to earn her living expenses and tuition. How could she possibly take care of an old lady?

When Zhou Yi and Qiao Jiali entered the courtyard, the environment was better than Zhou Yi had imagined. Although it was dilapidated, it was at least not as dirty and messy as the place where Tao Cong had been arrested lived.

An old man in the north-facing room was washing vegetables. He looked up at the two people and asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"Sir, do Lu Guozhong and Lu Guoliang live here?" Qiao Jiali asked.

The old man pointed to a few rooms on the east side and said, "Looking for Old Lu's family? They live over there."

Qiao Jiali certainly didn't know the exact location of the Lu family's residence, because the household registration information only showed the address of the tenement courtyard.

"But they've all gone out," the old man added.

"went out? Where did they go?"

"I don't know, but they either went to their mother-in-law's house or went out to have fun," the old man laughed. "They live a carefree life, spending money today and going hungry tomorrow if they don't have any."

Zhou Yi nodded. He realized that his second uncle's family were indeed the same kind of people—living for the moment.

It's strange, isn't it? In this world, there's always a lame donkey paired with a broken millstone, and a scoundrel paired with a shrew.

It proves the saying: "People who are not family will not enter the same door."

Qiao Jiali asked, "Have both families gone out?"

The old man said, "The old lady is at home."

"Tang... Yuezhen?"

"Yes, you can ask the old lady where her two sons are and when they will be back."

"Thank you, uncle."

Qiao Jiali and Zhou Yi exchanged a glance and walked towards the rooms on the east side.

The three rooms on the east side, the middle and the two on the right, appear to be bedrooms, with the doors tightly closed.

Only the door on the left was open, but it was pitch black inside.

Zhou Yi looked up and saw that there was a small attic above the room on the left.

So this is where Lu Xiaoshuang lives.

"Is anyone home?" Qiao Jiali asked, standing at the door.

Inside the room, there was a heavy smell of cooking oil and a hint of mold.

The two peeked inside and saw that the room, which was not large to begin with, had been divided into two rooms.

On one side is the kitchen, where the stove, made of red bricks and wooden planks, is piled high with all kinds of pots and pans. Years of accumulated grease have covered every corner of the kitchen with a layer of dark, greasy grime.

On the other side is a narrow bedroom, separated from the kitchen by a wooden partition.

There was a window at the far end of the bedroom, through which one could vaguely see a bed and a figure sitting beside it.

Zhou Yi remembered that Lu Xiaoshuang had mentioned that her grandmother had hearing problems, so he raised his voice and called out, "Is anyone there?"

Sure enough, the people inside reacted, turned their heads to look this way, and then came out of the house.

"Who are you looking for?" An elderly woman with a full head of silver hair slowly walked out of the house and asked the two of them with a puzzled look.

Qiao Jiali was about to take out her ID when Zhou Yi stopped her with a gesture, and then she saw Zhou Yi shake his head slightly.

Qiao Jiali immediately understood his meaning, fearing that the old lady might overthink it.

He then smiled and asked loudly, "Are you Xiaoshuang's grandmother?"

Upon hearing her granddaughter's name, the old lady immediately smiled. Although her hearing was poor, she was still quite energetic.

"Are you from Xiaoshuang's school?" the old lady asked warmly.

Qiao Jiali and Zhou Yi nodded in agreement.

But the old lady's next words made their hearts sink.

The old lady asked, "Why hasn't Xiaoshuang come back? She said last time that she would take me to see something when school was out for Labor Day."

Zhou Yi knew that Lu Xiaoshuang probably wanted to take her grandmother to see a hearing aid.

This was something she had wanted to do for a long time, and it was undoubtedly very important to her.

She had no reason to break her promise, unless...

Zhou Yi forced a smile and said loudly, "Grandma, there's an event at school, and Xiaoshuang has been assigned an important task. We can't do without her, so she asked us to come and tell you that she'll definitely come back to see you next time."

Zhou Yi told this white lie for two reasons: first, he couldn't bear to, and second, given Lu Xiaoshuang's personality, she would definitely only tell her grandmother good news and not bad news, so the old lady couldn't possibly know anything.

The old lady sighed and said, "Oh, I don't want her to buy me anything. I know this child is sensible. I just hope she can live a better life, be well-fed and clothed, and be happy. I'm a useless old woman. I've made Xiaoshuang suffer too much. I'm so sorry to her parents."

As she spoke, the old lady lifted the corner of her clothes and lowered her head to wipe away her tears.

The case files from the previous life, as well as some news reports, did not mention Lu Xiaoshuang's grandmother's situation. They only mentioned that on the first anniversary of Lu Xiaoshuang's death, her parents committed suicide in front of her grave.

But thinking about it, Grandma's ending would probably be very sad.

Zhou Yi dared not think about it further.

"Grandma, you said Xiaoshuang was supposed to come back, did she tell you herself?" Qiao Jiali asked. "Huh? What? My hearing isn't very good, you'll have to speak louder," the old lady said, tilting her ear to the side.

Qiao Jiali raised her voice and began to ask questions, such as when she last saw Lu Xiaoshuang and whether she knew any close friends of hers.

The old lady was getting on in years and became less perceptive about such matters, failing to notice anything amiss.

But Zhou Yi knew that these routine investigations were basically worthless in the grand case.

While Qiao Jiali was asking questions, Zhou Yi looked around the room and noticed an old bamboo ladder leaning against the wall. Several sections of the bamboo were cracked and had been reinforced with wire wrapped around the outside.

There was a square opening in the ceiling above the ladder, about 60 or 70 centimeters in size, which was covered with a wooden board.

"Grandma, is this where Xiaoshuang lives?" Zhou Yi asked loudly, pointing to the hole above.

Qiao Jiali and the old lady looked in the direction he pointed. The old lady nodded: "Yes, she slept with me when she first came. Later, I cleaned up the attic where we used to store miscellaneous items. Her grandfather built it himself when he was still alive."

"Can I go up and take a look?" Zhou Yi asked.

The old lady nodded.

Zhou Yi moved the ladder over, leaned it against the wall, and then climbed up.

As soon as he stepped on it, the bamboo beneath his feet made a cracking sound, which startled Zhou Yi.

However, after looking down, he saw that the bamboo had not completely split open, so he slowly continued to climb up.

Qiao Jiali held the ladder, repeatedly telling him to be careful.

Actually, the ceiling height of the house is very low. With Zhou Yi's height, he could jump to the top.

So Zhou Yi climbed a few steps and bumped into the wooden plank. He reached out and pushed it, and the plank was pushed aside.

The old woman's voice came from below: "There's a light switch on the wall to your right."

Zhou Yi reached out and groped around in the dark attic, and found a rope.

With a click, the switch went off, and the warm yellow light illuminated the dark attic.

Zhou Yi climbed up and tried to stand up, but before he could straighten his back, his head hit the wooden planks of the roof.

I bumped right into the spot where I'd been injured on the train last night, and a sharp, piercing pain shot through me.

Zhou Yi could only squat down because he realized that the height of the attic was only about 1.5 meters, which meant that even if Lu Xiaoshuang was here by herself, she couldn't stand up straight.

This attic was mentioned in the case files of the previous life because the police had conducted a comprehensive investigation of Lu Xiaoshuang's main residence, which was the dormitory and the attic, in an attempt to find some useful clues, but unfortunately, nothing was useful.

Even though he knew there were no clues in the attic, Zhou Yi still wanted to take a look.

He wanted to see what the place she had lived in for six years was like.

The attic was very small, not even the size of a 1.5-meter double bed.

The walls were made of wooden planks, covered with old newspapers, presumably to cover the gaps between the planks.

The bed was simply a door panel raised with bricks, supported by bamboo poles at the four corners, with a mosquito net hanging on it. Although it was simple, the bedding on the bed was folded neatly.

There is a square window on the south-facing side that can be opened, which is the only natural light source in this attic.

Zhou Yi pulled back the curtains hanging on the window, and the sunlight outside shone in, bringing a touch of warmth to the cramped attic.

In front of the window, there were tables and chairs. The tables were the kind used in schools, small and old, as if they had been picked up from the ground.

In the corner behind him, several cardboard boxes were neatly stacked. Zhou Yi opened the top one and glanced inside; it was a box full of books.

Under the dim light overhead, Zhou Yi picked up a notebook and looked at it; it was a senior high school English notebook.

The notebook was filled with densely packed notes of knowledge points. Lu Xiaoshuang's elegant handwriting and neat, clean paper gave one the illusion that she had just written them yesterday.

Zhou Yi suddenly felt a sense of disorientation, as if Lu Xiaoshuang were sitting in the chair behind him, doing her homework.

It's hard to imagine that she spent more than two thousand nights in this tiny attic.

He couldn't imagine how cold the attic would be in winter, or how damp it would be on rainy days.

He couldn't imagine how hard the girl living in that small attic had studied to finally get into a top university with excellent grades.

He couldn't imagine how Lu Xiaoshuang managed to maintain her love for life and her yearning for the future under such harsh living conditions.

Such a powerful life force is contained within her small body.

Wild fire, in spring.

"Xiao Shuang, don't die, I still want to take you to see the sunrise." Zhou Yi murmured to himself.

He put the notebook back in its place, checked the other items in the cardboard box, and finding nothing unusual, moved the top box aside.

At this moment, Qiao Jiali asked from below, "Zhou Yi, how is it?"

Just as Zhou Yi was about to answer that he hadn't found anything, he opened the cardboard box underneath.

Inside were some faded old school uniforms.

He casually flipped through the pages, but his movements suddenly froze.

Because at the very bottom of the box, there was a white sweater.

(End of this chapter)