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

Chapter 382 Xiao Bing's Suspicion (Fourth update today, please vote)
"Xiao Bing, 32 years old, unmarried, a local of Hongcheng."

"I was admitted to the French Department of Hongda University in 1983 and graduated in 1987. In the same year, I stayed on as a teaching assistant in the School of Foreign Languages."

"I was promoted to lecturer in 1993, which is not a fast pace."

According to the household registration information, Xiao Bing has no relatives now. His parents passed away in 1976.

Shi Tao couldn't help but ask, "Did they die in the same year?"

Zhou Yi nodded: "Yes, the household registration information shows the same date of cancellation. The applicant was Xiao Bing's grandfather. Xiao Bing should have been only eleven years old at the time."

"Later, Xiao Bing's guardian became his grandfather, Xiao Fugui, but Xiao Fugui also passed away five years later."

"So currently, Xiao Bing's household registration only lists him as the only person."

Xie Guoqiang asked, "What are the reasons for suspecting Xiao Bing?"

"Firstly, it's because Xiao Bing participated in the rescue of the hostage situation at the food street. He was the one who took the knife from the assailant Zhao Bin. However, he left after the assailant was subdued. The situation at the scene was quite chaotic, so his information was not recorded. I only confirmed it by chance when I met him at the hospital afterward."

"Furthermore... Xiao Bing and Lu Xiaoshuang have met in the school cafeteria; they know each other." Zhou Yi hesitated for a moment, subtly blurring his own presence in the situation.

This was also Wu Yongcheng's idea after hearing his report, because in front of the bureau chief, it was still necessary to downplay the relationship between Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang, since so many eyes were watching during the meeting.

This deeply moved Zhou Yi, because Wu Yongcheng used to be someone who always talked about principles, but now he was so protective of his own, which was something Zhou Yi hadn't expected.

At the same time, he also began to regret his earlier enthusiasm in introducing Xiao Bing to Lu Xiaoshuang.

He thought Xiao Bing was a trustworthy person, mainly for three reasons.

First, Xiao Bing's willingness to risk his life to save someone in that situation makes him seem like a good person. Furthermore, he might be the one who helped Lu Xiaoshuang escape the harassment of the White Hair gang in her previous life, although Zhou Yi couldn't confirm this, it was just a speculation based on the circumstances.

Secondly, Xiao Bing is a teacher at Hongda University, and within the school, he is closer to Lu Xiaoshuang than I am. In case of any emergency, Lu Xiaoshuang can find him more readily than I can find someone from afar.

Thirdly, and most importantly, when Zhou Yi was sorting through the massive case files from his previous life in his own dark room, he specifically recalled the investigation records about Teacher Xiao.

Then he was ruled out as a suspect.

Because the investigation team's logic was divided into several layers, the first layer focused on investigating Lu Xiaoshuang's direct associates, relatives, classmates, teachers, etc., all of whom underwent a comprehensive and detailed investigation.

The second layer consists of specific groups of people, including medical workers, butchers, and chefs, who possess professional dismemberment skills both on and off campus.

The third tier consists of students who have been disciplined for violating school rules and regulations; these individuals have a certain potential for self-degradation.

After finding nothing in the first three layers, the task force expanded its investigation to the last layer, namely the entire large population of young and middle-aged people who might have the means to commit the crime.

Xiao Bing falls within this final layer of investigation because he never taught Lu Xiaoshuang, so they had no academic connection; he also doesn't fit the specific group of people with the ability to dismember bodies, and he has no criminal record or complaint history.

By the time the investigation reached the final layer of the perimeter, the task force was exhausted. The pressure from above and public opinion was immense, and the investigation was being conducted in a broad, scattershot manner, making it impossible to conduct the in-depth and comprehensive investigation that had been carried out earlier.

The main focus of the investigation was to confirm whether the interviewee knew and had contact with Lu Xiaoshuang through the interviewee's subjective description and the objective corroboration from those around them.

The investigation into Xiao Bing proceeded in this manner. Through him and his colleagues, the task force confirmed that he had no connection with Lu Xiaoshuang and had an alibi for the time period of the incident, thus naturally excluding him from suspicion.

It was precisely because of the investigation results from the previous life's special task force that Zhou Yi lowered his guard.

Although he didn't entrust Lu Xiaoshuang's safety to the other party because of this, he didn't give a definitive answer when Lu Xiaoshuang asked him in the cafeteria that day.

But at least to some extent, this gave Lu Xiaoshuang the impression that Xiao Bing was trustworthy.

So when he learned that someone was using his information to lure Lu Xiaoshuang, Xiao Bing immediately came to his mind.

After all, Xiao Bing had suddenly appeared when he was chasing that suspicious person near Daguan Street.

Although the household registration records confirmed that Xiao Bing's address was indeed near Daguan Street, he still had doubts about this Teacher Xiao.

To deceive Lu Xiaoshuang under one's own name, three elements are required.

First, they are people Lu Xiaoshuang knows.

Second, people who know about their relationship with Lu Xiaoshuang.

Third, Lu Xiaoshuang would not doubt the person who told her that she had "entrusted him to deliver a message".

Xiao Bing was the only person he could think of who met all three criteria.

Once doubts arise, the direction of thinking about the problem will naturally change, which led Zhou Yi to have several doubts.

First of all, was it a coincidence that Xiao Bing was at the food street that day?
In this life, he was the one who rescued Lu Xiaoshuang, thus gaining her absolute trust.

Based on the fact that Bai Mao's gang didn't make a big fuss in the previous life, and considering their testimonies at the time, it's reasonable to infer that Xiao Bing pulled Lu Xiaoshuang away, thus preventing an accident from happening.

As the person who saved Lu Xiaoshuang, and given his status as Teacher Hongda, would he also gain her absolute trust, just like he did?
The next question is, if he saved Lu Xiaoshuang and gained her trust, then theoretically, after the major case occurred, this person should be one of the key investigators.

Unless he completely severed ties with Lu Xiaoshuang after the food street incident, causing the matter to genuinely fade away and no one at school knew they knew each other, and during the subsequent investigation, he deliberately concealed the matter to avoid trouble—after all, when the investigation reaches the final layer and a large-scale net is cast, everyone is already on edge, and it's not impossible that some people would deliberately hide things to avoid suspicion. Another possibility is that after the food street incident, he continued to secretly interact with Lu Xiaoshuang and used some reason to get her to conceal their relationship from those around her, which is why no one knew, and Xiao Bing naturally wouldn't be included in the core investigation scope.

After all, a French lecturer from a foreign language college and a first-year student from an accounting college are normally completely unrelated, and no one would make that connection.

But if that's the case, then Xiao Bing is practically a perfect suspect. In other words, the task force in the previous life traced him back to this person, but missed the opportunity.

The last question arose instantly after Zhou Yi obtained Xiao Bing's household registration information.

Xiao Bing's household registration information clearly shows that he has no relatives left, and the entire household registration book only contains his own page.

But when I met him at the hospital, he had just opened a bag of medicine.

His exact words to himself were that his family members were in poor health, and that it was a chronic illness.

If someone's household registration only lists themselves, where do their family members come from?

Thinking back to the previous life, after the forensic doctor examined Lu Xiaoshuang's body parts, he concluded that she had not been sexually assaulted. Is it possible that the murderer did not fail to commit the act, but was like Long Zhiqiang, unable to do so?
Zhou Yi, of course, did not reveal all his suspicions, because it involved a lot of information from his previous life.

He only mentioned a few key points: Xiao Bing saved Lu Xiaoshuang, and Lu Xiaoshuang trusted him to a certain extent; someone used his name to lure Lu Xiaoshuang to a certain place, and then Lu Xiaoshuang disappeared; Xiao Bing may have some physical or psychological illnesses that he is hiding.

After listening to Zhou Yi's report, Xie Guoqiang nodded thoughtfully and then asked, "Zhou Yi, do you usually have close contact with this Lu Xiaoshuang?"

This question caught Zhou Yi off guard; he hadn't expected Director Xie to focus on this.

They wanted to deny it, but couldn't find a suitable reason, fearing that the more they tried to cover it up, the worse it would get.

For a moment, everyone froze, and all those present looked at him.

At this crucial moment, Wu Yongcheng spoke up.

Wu Yongcheng said, "Director Xie, it's like this, this Lu Xiaoshuang is not only familiar with Zhou Yi, but also quite familiar with people from our Third Brigade."

All eyes turned to Wu Yongcheng.

Xie Guoqiang asked him with a curious look.

Wu Yongcheng said, "Do you remember the dismemberment case in Donghai Community? The murderer, Xu Jiaguang, and the victim, Zhang Hui, had a daughter named Xu Xinxin. The little girl had nerve damage, and she wouldn't respond no matter how we tried to comfort her. Later, it was Lu Xiaoshuang who helped us settle the little girl down. She was a great help to us in this case. Xu Xinxin didn't recognize anyone else, but she recognized Lu Xiaoshuang."

Xie Guoqiang raised an eyebrow slightly in surprise and said, "Really?"

"Later, when the case was solved, our Third Brigade had a get-together, and I even invited Lu Xiaoshuang to come along," Wu Yongcheng said, pointing to Qiao Jiali. "I remember that night, Lu Xiaoshuang seemed to have stayed at Xiao Qiao's house, right?"

Qiao Jiali understood and quickly nodded: "Yes, my husband wasn't home that night, so I let her come home with me. The girl is well-behaved and sensible, and I like her quite a bit."

But in reality, Wu Yongcheng was already "drunk" at the time, and he probably forgot it himself.

Wu Yongcheng continued, "So she's not only familiar with Zhou Yi, but also with all of us. It's just that Zhou Yi saved her, so the girl naturally trusts him more, which is why the bad guys had the opportunity to take advantage of her."

Xie Guoqiang nodded: "Oh, I see... Then you all need to investigate this case even more thoroughly."

Xie Guoqiang's statement relieved the people in the Third Brigade, especially Zhou Yi. He knew that Director Xie had actually gone easy on them. Otherwise, if Wu Yongcheng had just mentioned in passing that "later it was Lu Xiaoshuang who helped," it would have been difficult to explain how things went on if they had to ask him for details.

"How do you plan to investigate Xiao Bing and Xu Liu, whom I mentioned earlier?" Xie Guoqiang asked Wu Yongcheng.

“Xu Liu is not a local, so we can’t find her household registration information. We’ll have to wait for you to contact Hongda and we’ll check her school records before we can find out more about her.”

"As for Xiao Bing, my idea is not to alarm him for now, because there is no clear evidence that he is related to Lu Xiaoshuang's disappearance. Let's start with an external investigation of him first."

Wu Yongcheng's so-called peripheral investigation actually refers to the investigation work carried out on the surrounding situation of the investigated person, in addition to the interview and evidence collection by the investigated person himself.

It means that without alerting the person, you can find out all about their situation, including how much they pay for water and electricity each month.

"Okay, we'll do it your way."

Xie Guoqiang turned to look at everyone and said, "Right now, there are two most important tasks."

"First, we must find all the body parts as soon as possible, including the victim's head and bones. We must minimize the possibility of causing public panic."

"Second, we must confirm the identity of the deceased as soon as possible. Only by confirming the identity of the deceased can we ensure that the investigation does not go astray."

"I won't say anything more. As you all know, there have been quite a few cases in Hongcheng lately, and everyone has worked very hard. But I have a feeling that things will get easier once this case is over, so let's hang in there a little longer."

This time, unlike the previous city lockdown and manhunt for Long Zhiqiang, Director Xie did not boost morale because the nature of this case was different.

In cases of murder, what leaders are most worried about is whether public opinion and panic will spread.

Sure enough, no sooner had Director Xie finished speaking than the Municipal Party Committee called.

(End of this chapter)