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

Chapter 394 Violation of Regulations
Late at night, Wu Yongcheng returned to his residential compound, exhausted.

Since the dismemberment case occurred, he has not rested for many days. Moreover, the special task force has now entered Hongda to carry out a large-scale investigation and evidence collection. There are still many things to investigate.

He discussed it with several people in charge of the task force and decided to divide the people into two groups and implement a rotation system.

They dedicate themselves to work during the day, while at night two groups take turns going home to rest, get a good night's sleep, and replenish their energy.

This ensured the progress of the investigation without dragging everyone down.

After all, no one knows how long it will take to solve this case.

So he was able to go home tonight, which was also the first time he had been home since returning from Lujiang.

Actually, he didn't care at all whether he went home or not, since he would be alone anyway. However, since he was the one who brought it up, he couldn't make an exception for himself and put his comrades in a difficult position.

Go upstairs, take out your keys, and open the door.

Just as he was about to enter, he suddenly turned around abruptly, pointing the gun at the darkness behind him.

He lives in an old-style residential area where there are no lights in the stairwell.

"Come out!" he shouted into the dark stairwell.

Using the light from the window, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.

"Captain Wu, don't shoot, it's me." When Zhou Yi said this, he was stunned for a moment, and felt like his head was going a little bald.

After seeing clearly, Wu Yongcheng put away his gun and said, "Say something next time, in case I accidentally shoot you."

As he spoke, he walked straight into the house, but didn't close the door.

Zhou Yi understood and quickly followed him inside, closing the door behind him.

The house was small, a one-bedroom apartment. The shockingly simple furnishings revealed that this was Wu Yongcheng's sleeping quarters, and it had virtually nothing.

No wonder he's always volunteering for duty even though he's already a deputy branch leader; it really doesn't matter whether he goes back to his home or not.

Even the air felt desolate.

"Have you eaten?" Wu Yongcheng asked.

"have eaten."

"Fine, there's nothing I can do if you didn't eat it anyway. My family doesn't even have a bag of flour."

Zhou Yi's lips twitched slightly. "Then why are you asking me?"

There was only one table and three chairs in the living room, one of which had a broken backrest.

Wu Yongcheng sat in the chair, took out a crumpled cigarette pack from his pocket, lit one, and then threw the cigarette pack and lighter to Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi pulled over another chair, sat down, and lit a cigarette.

Under the incandescent light, two grown men sat across a table, silently smoking.

Wu Yongcheng was a heavy smoker after all; Zhou Yi hadn't even finished half of his cigarette when Wu Yongcheng had already smoked it all.

He stuffed the cigarette butts into an empty can on the table, which was full of cigarette butts.

"Who did you ask for our address?"

"Team Stone."

Wu Yongcheng nodded: "I can guess, after all, not many people know my home address. Tell me, why did you come back from the provincial capital and not go back to work at the bureau, nor go home, but came to my place so late at night?"

"Captain Wu, what is the content of the anonymous report?"

Wu Yongcheng wasn't surprised; he just squinted at Zhou Yi and asked, "Who told you about this? Shi Tao or Chen Yan?"

Zhou Yi replied, "Qin Beihai, Old Qin."

Wu Yongcheng was surprised: "You saw Old Qin?"

"Yes, I stayed at Old Qin's house last night, which is why I came back a day late."

Wu Yongcheng nodded; this was indeed beyond his expectations.

"You want Old Qin to vouch for you and get you into the special task force?"

"Yes!"

"What did Elder Qin say?"

“He can recommend me to the leaders of the provincial department, but only if I can resolve the issue of the anonymous report first.”

Upon hearing this, Wu Yongcheng inwardly clapped his hands in satisfaction. Zhou Yi's ability to persuade Qin Beihai had resolved the final hurdle in his thinking these past few days.

He already had a way to deal with the whistleblower incident, but there was still one key issue that he couldn't resolve.

Zhou Yi has now resolved this crucial point himself.

But he couldn't tell Zhou Yi his thoughts in front of her, because Zhou Yi would definitely not agree.

"So how do you plan to resolve this?" Wu Yongcheng asked.

"Captain Wu, at the very least, I need to know what this anonymous report is all about, and what the report contains?"

Wu Yongcheng stroked his chin: "This involves the work of the special task force, and it would be against regulations for me to tell you this, it's not appropriate."

Zhou Yi quickly pulled out a cigarette and handed it to Wu Yongcheng, then lit it for him. "Captain Wu, if I can resolve the anonymous tip, I can join the special task force. If I'm in the task force, then knowing information about them won't be against the rules, right? So that's practically the same as knowing information about the task force being compliant with regulations. Besides, I'm forgetful; I'll forget what I heard as soon as I leave this room, and I'll remember it again once I'm in the task force," Zhou Yi said with an almost fawning smile.

He knew that what he was saying was sophistry and nonsense.

But the fact that Wu Yongcheng allowed him into his home shows that he had already made up his mind.

My whole rambling was just to give the other party a way out.

Wu Yongcheng smoked a cigarette, frowning but saying nothing.

Zhou Yi couldn't help but feel nervous, after all, Wu Yongcheng was the deputy branch captain, and one thing at a time.

Suddenly, Zhou Yi thought of an even more reasonable explanation.

"Captain Wu, the discoveries made before the special task force was established are still under the jurisdiction of our Third Brigade, right? So I won't ask about the investigations after the special task force was established; I'll just ask about the cases before that, the cases within our own Third Brigade. Is that alright?"

After hearing Zhou Yi's words, Wu Yongcheng thought for a moment and finally blurted out, "That makes some sense."

Zhou Yi knew it had worked, so he quickly pressed for details about what had happened.

Then, Wu Yongcheng told him what happened after he left, how the special task force was established, what the anonymous report was, and why Lu Xiaoshuang became a suspect.

On the evening of May 1st, after Lu Xiaoshuang was rescued from an abandoned mine in Xinbei Town and taken to the hospital, Zhou Yi stayed with her.

He did not participate in the subsequent investigation of the case.

But Wu Yongcheng and his men were not idle. First, they sealed off the entrance to the abandoned mine and prepared to search and explore the mine.

Wu Yongcheng was certain that Lu Xiaoshuang, a perfectly healthy young woman, could not possibly have disappeared for more than thirty hours and then gone to the mine on her own.

So it must have been forcibly controlled by someone and thrown into the mine using some method.

However, no police officer in the entire city bureau had ever encountered the task of going down into the mine to conduct on-site investigations; in other words, no one had any experience in this area.

This was a rather troublesome matter. Wu Yongcheng did not act rashly, but first went to find out the situation and hoped to obtain the mine map.

However, due to various historical issues, the situation in these mines in Xinbei Township is quite chaotic.

The town mayor, who was pulled out of bed, told Wu Yongcheng that in the later stages, coal production continued to decrease, and the mining rights were subcontracted layer by layer.

The coal mine owners who later took over the mines became extremely ruthless and unregulated in their pursuit of profit. They didn't even bother with mine blueprints; many mines were illegally mined without being reported.

This is also the reason for the rapid depletion of underground coal resources in Xinbei Township.

Take the mine they're investigating, for example. It's not just a single mine; it's a cluster of mines connected together because they started digging from different places and the construction process was irregular. They ended up digging into places they'd already dug.

Therefore, the interiors of these mines are winding and interconnected, and the cost of burying them is too high. The local area simply cannot afford to pay for it, so the only option is to seal the entrances in the most cost-effective way.

Hearing this, Wu Yongcheng looked very serious. Even he didn't know that there was such a place in Hongcheng. Wouldn't these abandoned mines be perfect places to dump and hide corpses?
This is serious! It seems I need to report this to my superiors and resolve this safety hazard.

But at the same time, he also had a question.

Is the person who dumped Lu Xiaoshuang here the same person who committed the dismemberment crime?

If so, why would this person choose to scatter the body in various places instead of moving all the body parts over here and throwing them into this mine?
Obviously, the probability of being discovered is much higher if the body is dumped outside, and isn't it more convenient to throw the dismembered body parts inside than to throw a living person inside?

If not, then it means there may be two cases: one is a dismemberment case, and the other is a kidnapping and murder case.

That night, Wu Yongcheng didn't dare to make any rash moves. He simply sealed off the cave entrance, sent people to keep watch, and decided to wait until dawn.

The town mayor said that these mines are actually quite dangerous. First, the space is narrow, and if the police go in to conduct an investigation, they can only enter one by one, and they have to tie ropes around their waists, otherwise it is easy to go astray.

Secondly, due to improper mining practices, the mine shafts are at risk of collapse at any time, and many parts inside may have already collapsed.

Third, the harmful gases inside are very dangerous. Not only are they harmful to the human body if inhaled, but they may also explode if they come into contact with an open flame.

It is very dangerous for someone who has no experience in mining to go down there.

When Zhang Jun sent people down to rescue them, he found people from this town who used to work as miners.

Therefore, the police made the necessary preparations the next day before sending people in to investigate.

However, the entire exploration process lasted from morning until night, and it was quite difficult.

Because those going down are not allowed to bring radios, in case static electricity in the circuit causes a methane explosion, no one can bear the responsibility.

Because people from several towns had gone down to rescue people, the distance from the cave entrance to where Lu Xiaoshuang was found was basically destroyed, making it difficult to extract valid footprints or other traces.

According to the townspeople who went down into the cave at the time, after they found Lu Xiaoshuang, they first dragged her out. When she was about 20 meters away from the cave entrance, they called for help from the people above to come down and lift her up.

The location where Lu Xiaoshuang fell was about fifty or sixty meters away from the cave entrance, but it wasn't a straight line.

The investigators located Lu Xiaoshuang at a fork in the road by tracking the drag marks.

Then, they continued to check along the left and right sides of the fork in the road and found many traces of crawling on the ground. These traces were very messy.

Based on these traces, Wu Yongcheng deduced that Lu Xiaoshuang must have crawled through the dark mine for a long time, just to find an exit.

She crawled because she had no protective measures, not even a mask. After inhaling harmful gases, she experienced adverse reactions, which forced her to crawl on the ground.

When Wu Yongcheng mentioned this information, Zhou Yi appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, she was heartbroken.

He could hardly imagine how desperate Lu Xiaoshuang must have felt, crawling forward bit by bit in the pitch-black mine, with no idea where the entrance was or how long she would have to crawl to escape.

(End of this chapter)