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

Chapter 379 (Second Update, Please Vote) Good People Get Good Fortune

Mo Youyou had wanted to ask this question for a long time, since she had seen Zhou Yi on TV and knew that he was not an ordinary policeman, but a criminal investigator.

Furthermore, he didn't come alone; a policewoman came with him, which shows that he wasn't there for personal matters.

The fact that the criminal police were there on official business made one hesitant to think too much about it.

“It’s just a routine investigation, don’t worry.” Although Zhou Yi was worried to death himself, he still comforted him. “By the way, if you go back to school tonight, don’t tell anyone else that we came to see you.” Zhou Yi paused and then said, “If… you find out that Xiao Shuang has gone back to school, make sure she calls me immediately.”

Mo Youyou nodded quickly, but she felt even more nervous.

After Qiao Jiali finished her call, Zhou Yi handed over the questioning to her, and she learned more about Lu Xiaoshuang's personal situation.

Zhou Yi already knew all of this; the information he asked earlier was different from what he had learned in his previous life.

After asking about everything, the two said goodbye. Zhou Yi gave Mo Youyou his phone number and told her to call him if she remembered anything else.

No sooner had Zhou Yi and the others left than the bedroom door opened, and Mo Youyou's aunt came out.

"Youyou, what's wrong?"

Mo Youyou said worriedly, "The classmate who sleeps in the bunk below me may have gone missing."

"Is it the girl you mentioned who helped you right after the start of the semester?"

"Hmm." Mo Youyou recalled the first day of school registration. Her parents brought her to school to register that day, but because of her father's carelessness, he accidentally left the bag containing her admission notice and tuition fees in the flower bed next to the bus stop.

When the family arrived at the school, they realized their bag was gone. They rushed back to retrieve it, but the bag was already gone.

This almost drove the family of three crazy with worry. They lost so much money, and the most crucial thing was that there was an admission notice among the money.

Seeing that there was no other way, she could only go to the school to ask what to do in this situation and whether she could register first, and her father would go back to get the money and send it over immediately.

After all, going to school is the most important thing.

After verifying Mo Youyou's identity information, the teacher at the registration desk took out a bag and asked her if it was hers.

The family was overjoyed to see the bag, but they were even more astonished when they opened it.

The admission notice is still in the bag, and more importantly, the tuition and accommodation fees are all paid in full.

Mo Youyou quickly asked the teacher what was going on.

The teacher said that a freshman found it near the bus stop. After waiting for a long time and no one came, he realized it was a huge admission notice and brought it over.

The family was overjoyed and wept tears of happiness. They hurriedly asked the teacher what the new student's name was, wanting to express their gratitude properly.

The teacher said there were so many people signing up today that she couldn't remember their names. But she remembered that this girl came to sign up alone, carrying a quilt and a patched old schoolbag, which suggested that she was in rather difficult circumstances.

The teacher's words truly moved the family of three, but it was a pity they couldn't know the little girl's name so they could thank her in person.

The person who found her college acceptance letter and tuition fees was none other than Lu Xiaoshuang.

When she and her parents arrived at the dormitory, Lu Xiaoshuang was no longer there, as she was rushing to get to work.

After settling in, her parents took a car and went home.

Lu Xiaoshuang returned to the dormitory before it closed. She greeted the two bunkmates, but she didn't think about it in that way.

The next morning, when she went to class, she happened to see two patched marks on Lu Xiaoshuang's old schoolbag and was startled.

Only after asking did they learn that the person who found her college acceptance letter was indeed Lu Xiaoshuang.

Both were surprised, marveling that this might be what they called fate, and their relationship naturally grew much closer. After Mo Youyou told her parents about it, they gave her three hundred yuan to thank the person, but Lu Xiaoshuang insisted on refusing it.

Later, Mo Youyou learned how difficult Lu Xiaoshuang's conditions were. She often had to work part-time to earn money for living expenses and tuition. Before she met Zhou Yi, she had very little time to spend with other people.

Switching to a lower bunk was the only thing she could think of that wouldn't hurt the other person's pride but could still help.

"Nothing will happen. My mom always says that good people are always rewarded," Mo Youyou murmured.

In the police car on the other side, Qiao Jiali noticed that Zhou Yi seemed to be slowly recovering.

He has returned to the composed Zhou Yi who was so mature for his age, and it is truly remarkable that he was able to do that.

But what she didn't know was that Zhou Yi was forcing himself to stay calm, like someone trying to hold down a boiling pot lid.

"Sister Qiao, there are two major points of doubt now."

"The first one is that girl named Xu Liu. From Mo Youyou's description, we can confirm that this girl harbors inexplicable hostility towards Xiao Shuang, the specific reason for which is unknown. However, the sweater was cut up the very night I gave it to Xiao Shuang, so it couldn't have been done by an outsider. I've been to the large girls' dormitory; the security is quite strict, and outsiders can't get in." "Therefore, it's highly likely that it's this girl named Xu Liu. She has the motive and the environment to commit the crime, and she definitely needs to be investigated thoroughly."

"But similarly, I don't think she could commit the crime of murder and dismemberment. Let's put aside whether a freshman girl has the physical strength and mental fortitude to dismember and dispose of a body. Just considering her hatred for Xiaoshuang, it wouldn't reach that level."

Qiao Jiali listened carefully to Zhou Yi's analysis, and then asked, "Why?"

"First of all, the reason why she hates Xiaoshuang is unknown even to Xiaoshuang herself and her roommate Mo Youyou. This means that the reason for the hatred is not very serious. If it were a financial or emotional dispute that would clearly cause a murderous impulse, it would be impossible for it not to be known by those around her in a collective living environment like university."

"So it's highly likely that it's some rather inexplicable reason. Xiao Shuang may have offended her without her knowledge, causing her to harbor resentment towards Xiao Shuang and then resort to sarcastic remarks."

"Secondly, there's the act of cutting up the sweater. If the conflict between the two was already serious from the beginning, even to the point where Xu Liu was contemplating murder, then she wouldn't have done something as low as cutting up the sweater."

There's another logic to this: in the previous life, there were no means of venting anger like cutting off a sweater.

The murderer of such a major case couldn't possibly be so impatient; otherwise, it wouldn't be called the number one unsolved case.

This act of cutting a sweater is very much in line with the kind of venting behavior that immature girls might do.

Although the tattered sweater and the dismembered body seem somewhat similar, if the information gets into the hands of the media, it will probably be used to make a big fuss.

Qiao Jiali nodded: "Yes, I think your analysis makes a lot of sense. Logically speaking, this behavior doesn't match that of a murderer capable of dismembering a body. The second point of doubt you mentioned, are you referring to Xiaoshuang saying she was going to find you?"

"That's right, someone must have used my name to lure her somewhere."

"Zhou Yi, when was the last time you contacted Lu Xiaoshuang?"

"On the evening of April 26th, I spoke to her on the phone through the dormitory manager's office. At that time... everything seemed normal."

"In other words, the change may occur between the 27th and the 30th."

Zhou Yi shook his head: "No, on the night of the 29th, Xiao Shuang told Mo Youyou that she was going back to see her grandmother, and she didn't mention going to see me at all. So most likely, she received this deceptive information sometime on the morning of the 30th."

"Moreover, the time span of this kind of information cannot be very long; in fact, the shorter the better, because the longer it is, the greater the probability of it being exposed."

Moreover, there is a huge risk here for the person who deceived Lu Xiaoshuang.

That means if Lu Xiaoshuang discovers that the other party is lying, he will be completely exposed, because he knows that Zhou Yi is a policeman. If he fails to deceive Lu Xiaoshuang, he will be suspected by Zhou Yi afterwards.

Therefore, the person who deceived Lu Xiaoshuang did so knowingly despite the risk of exposure.

That's a very serious problem. They took a huge risk to lure Lu Xiaoshuang away, and then she disappeared without a trace. That very night, they found her dismembered body.

It seems that Lu Xiaoshuang is in grave danger.

But Zhou Yi was thinking about another problem: luring, kidnapping, murdering, meticulously dissecting the corpse, deep-frying the meat slices at high temperatures, and finally dumping the body in more than ten locations.

Is it possible for these crimes to be committed in less than nine hours, or even less?

His assessment while on the train was that if it was a skilled professional killer, there would be enough time.

This judgment has a premise: the deceased was cut into more than three hundred pieces according to the dismemberment method used in the previous life.

But now, the method of dismembering the body in the case has changed! It has become much more complicated than in the previous life. According to Song Yiming, just the bag found in the Nansha River alone contains three hundred pieces.

In other words, the victim may have been shredded into thousands of pieces, and all of these pieces of meat should have been deep-fried at high temperatures.

This horrific method of dismemberment involved more than ten times the workload of the previous life.

Unless the murderer is Superman, how could they possibly do that?

In her previous life, it took almost four days from Lu Xiaoshuang's disappearance to the discovery of the first bag of body parts.

It's worth noting that when Xu Jiaguang murdered and dismembered Zhang Hui, it took him an entire night just to process the human tissue. The subsequent handling of the bones and skull required even more effort and time.

I have a feeling that this case has become very strange in this lifetime.

Qiao Jiali's voice pulled Zhou Yi back from her reverie. She said, "According to your logic, the person who lied to Xiaoshuang could only be someone from the school."

"Yes, Sister Qiao, you're right. In such a short time, it's impossible for Xiao Shuang to come into contact with people outside of school."

Qiao Jiali said, "Since she is someone from the school, there are two ways. The first is to conduct a door-to-door investigation to see who Lu Xiaoshuang had contact with or spoke to before noon yesterday. The second is to investigate people who are close to her, her classmates in the same major, and her teachers. We need to investigate the whereabouts of these people and conduct an in-depth investigation of all those who did not have time to prove it yesterday afternoon."

She sighed, "I just don't know if Captain Wu has managed to get things sorted out with the school yet. Without the school's cooperation, it will be very difficult for us to find these people."

Zhou Yi said with a sharp look in his eyes, "I already have someone I highly suspect!"

(End of this chapter)