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

Chapter 433 [Bonus Chapter] Ice and Dew
White Dew, 1982.

Sixteen-year-old Dong Lu had just finished school and was walking down the road with her schoolbag on her back.

She was admitted to a good high school this year, but it's a bit far from the welfare home; it takes almost an hour to walk there.

Of course, she couldn't afford a bicycle. She knew the situation at the welfare home very well. The occasional meat dish they ate was something the old director had to scrimp and save. How could she possibly dream of owning a bicycle?

Anyway, walking is fine. If you walk fast, you can finish in fifty minutes.

Summer is alright, since the days are long anyway.

She was more afraid of winter because the nights were long, and it might get dark halfway through a day's walk.

Her greatest fear since childhood has been the dark.

So she hoped she could walk faster, even faster, and ideally never be caught by the darkness.

Last week she discovered a shortcut that would save her about 500 or 600 meters if she went through that road.

The road was a bit deserted, with very few pedestrians, which made her a little scared.

So she decided to take the shortcut for now, and then take the main road when winter came.

This shortcut crosses a bridge over a rushing river.

Today, as she approached the bridge, she saw a thin boy standing by the river not far away.

There was a schoolbag at the boy's feet.

Dong Lu glanced at it casually, but just then she saw the boy on the shore sticking out one foot.

If the boy takes one more step forward, he will fall.

Dong Lu immediately shouted, "Hey! Don't jump!"

The shout startled the boy, who involuntarily pulled his foot back.

The boy turned around, and Dong Lu saw a handsome face with wet tear stains.

The boy glanced at her, bent down to pick up his schoolbag from the ground, and ran away.

Dong Lu immediately gave chase, shouting "Don't run!" as she ran.

Two young figures ran against the current along the shore.

After running for five or six minutes, the boy's pace gradually slowed down, and he finally bent over, panting heavily.

Dong Lu's breathing was steady, but fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

"Why...why are you chasing me?" The boy asked, bent over, one hand pressing against his diaphragm, panting heavily with a pained expression.

Dong Lu pointed at him and said, "I...I'm afraid you still want to jump into the river and commit suicide."

"I didn't!" the boy said stubbornly.

“I saw it all, and you still say you didn’t.”

The boy straightened up and turned to leave, but Dong Lu grabbed him.

The boy was stunned, staring at the girl in front of him as if she were a lunatic: "Let go of me!"

"Don't let it go!"

"open!"

"I won't let you go. What if you jump into the river again?"

"Let go! Let go..." The boy tried to break free, but found that he was not as strong as the other person. His eyes reddened and tears welled up in his eyes.

Dong Lu was stunned. She hadn't expected the other person to cry. She immediately let go of his hand and said, somewhat at a loss, "You...you don't cry...I'll let go, okay? But you have to promise me you won't jump into the river again."

The boy turned his face away, wiped his eyes with his sleeve, and said, "You're so annoying."

On the riverbank, a young boy and girl sat side by side on the grass, with the rushing river in front of them.

"Were you bullied by your classmates?" Dong Lu asked.

The boy said with a straight face, "It's none of your business."

“What’s there to be afraid of if someone bullies you? Fight back! If you can’t beat them, bite them. If all else fails, just run away. A gentleman takes revenge even after ten years.” Dong Lu said, waving her slender arms. As a child without parents, she knew how to protect herself from a young age.

The boy turned to look at her and said, "Why are you so unlike a girl?"

"Tch, you're not like a man at all," Dong Lu said, pouting.

Upon hearing this, the boy glared at her angrily.

Unexpectedly, Dong Lu laughed: "Yes, yes, that's the expression. If anyone dares to bully you again, just glare at them, glare at them until they die."

The boy was taken aback by her unconventional approach, and suddenly lost his temper. He turned his head, looked at the river, and said, "You're really strange."

Dong Lu nudged him with her elbow and asked, "Hey, do you still want to commit suicide?"

The boy turned around again, the fiery red sunset reflecting on his face.

"I...can I tell you a secret?"

……

The boy said that six years ago, in the summer right where he was standing, his parents tried to save a child who had fallen into the water, but neither of them made it back up.

“Actually, at that time... my mother used her last bit of strength to push the child to the shore. I heard my mother struggling and shouting in the water, saying, ‘Pull him up quickly, pull him up quickly.’”

“But…but my mind went blank at the time. I…I didn’t know anything. I just stood there like an idiot, watching my mom and that child get swept away. If I…had reached out, that child wouldn’t have died, and my parents wouldn’t have died in vain.”

The boy, tears streaming down his face, sobbed uncontrollably, "I killed them... Waaah..."

As he cried, he suddenly felt a hand gently stroking his hair, just like when he was a child lying in his mother's arms.

He looked up at the girl beside him, his eyes brimming with tears.

The girl looked at him tenderly and stroked his head like she was petting a kitten.

"This is not your fault. How old were you back then? If you had reached out to pull him out, you might have fallen into the river instead."

"But……"

“Your parents are both wonderful people, but think about it, if you had fallen into the river and drowned, how heartbroken and guilty would you think they would be?” Dong Lu said earnestly. “They would die with their eyes wide open in disbelief.”

Seeing that he had calmed down, Dong Lu withdrew her hand, hugged her knees and murmured, "No matter what, you at least still have parents. They love you very much and are incredibly kind people. Unlike me... I don't even know who my parents are or what they look like."

The boy was stunned: "You..."

"Yes, I'm an orphan, an abandoned baby, and I grew up in an orphanage. But I never thought about dying. I want to live on tenaciously. They didn't want me, but I'm determined to live a decent life and show them what a huge mistake it was to abandon me!"

As the faint glow of the setting sun gradually faded, before nightfall, Dong Lu shone brightly in the boy's eyes.

"I...I'm called Xiao Bing, what's yours?"

“My name is Dong Lu,” the silvery voice replied. “Your name isn’t very good.”

"Why...why?" "That sounds so cold. How about you be called Xiao Nuan? Or Xiao Yang would be fine too."

"No! That's my name!"

"Um... Xiao Bing, could you take me back to the orphanage? I'm a little... afraid of the dark, hehe."

……

It was a summer evening in 1983.

The cicadas on the treetops kept chirping.

Under the shade of a tree by the river, the slender Dong Lu was memorizing vocabulary from an English book.

A figure on a bicycle approached from afar; the sound preceded the person's arrival.

"I passed the exam! I passed the exam!" Xiao Bing shouted excitedly.

Xiao Bing parked the car, rushed to Dong Lu, waving the admission notice in her hand and saying, "I...I..."

Dong Lu handed him a cup and said, "Don't rush, have some water first."

Xiao Bing took the cup, gulped down more than half of it, and then said, "Dong Lu, I got into the French department at Hongda University! I got in!"

"Really? Let me see it quickly." Dong Lu snatched the admission notice from Xiao Bing's hand, looked at it again and again, and her smile was even brighter than Xiao Bing's.

"I told you you'd be fine!" Dong Lu said smugly.

"Dong Lu, why don't you apply to Hongda University next year too? We can go to the same university."

Dong Lu returned the admission notice to Xiao Bing, a hint of worry on her face: "Hongda... I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult with my grades, but my teacher said I should have no problem getting into a university."

“And I’ll be eighteen next year, so I can’t stay in the orphanage anymore. If…” Dong Lu said worriedly, clutching her English book, “If I don’t do well on the exam and can’t go to university, then I’ll have to go to work… I heard they say you can earn more working in the south…”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Xiao Bing shouted excitedly, "No, you can't go to work in the south!"

Upon hearing this, Dong Lu asked him with a smile, "Why can't I go to work in the south?"

"Because... because..."

"If I don't get into university, I have to earn money to support myself. If I don't work, I'll starve."

Just a year later, Xiao Bing was already half a head taller than Dong Lu. Dong Lu looked up at him, her face slowly turning red like the sunset.

Xiao Bing stammered, "I...I can take...take care of you."

Xiao Bing looked down at the girl in front of him. The evening breeze stirred their hearts.

……

Early spring, 1988.

The night air still carried a chill reminiscent of winter.

Xiao Bing stood at the gate of the teachers' college, watching people come and go.

The streetlights had just come on, casting a long shadow over him.

Suddenly, someone tapped her on the left shoulder. Xiao Bing turned around, but didn't see anyone.

Then I was patted on the right shoulder again.

After turning around, Xiao Bing was greeted by Dong Lu's smiling face.

"Teacher Xiao, have you been waiting long?" Dong Lu smiled and threw herself into his arms, giving him a big hug.

Xiao Bing picked her up and spun her around, then said, "Hmm, the food at your school is pretty good."

Dong Lu playfully punched his chest and said, "You're so annoying! I'm just wearing too many clothes. It's so cold at night. Come on, let me warm up."

Xiao Bing reached out his hand tacitly, and Dong Lu placed her hands in his palms. Then Xiao Bing clasped his hands together, wrapped them around Dong Lu's hands, and gently rubbed them.

"Teacher Xiao's hands are so warm!" Dong Lu asked with a smile. "Teacher Xiao, what delicious food are you going to take me to eat?"

"You can eat whatever you want, it's up to you, anyway, we got paid today."

The two walked slowly forward, hand in hand.

"Aren't you afraid I'll eat you out of house and home?"

"Don't worry, I promised I would take care of you for the rest of your life."

"What if I eat myself into a big fat person?"

"I'll still take care of you."

Dong Lu hugged Xiao Bing's arm and said, "Teacher Xiao is so kind to me."

"I'm just worried you'll eat too much, and then it'll be dark when we get back."

"I'm not afraid of the dark anymore."

"real or fake?"

"Really? Because of Teacher Xiao, I don't have to be afraid of the dark anymore." Dong Lu suddenly stopped and said, "By the way, I'm going to do my internship next week."

Xiao Bing asked in surprise, "So fast? Was it arranged by the school?"

"Ah."

Where are you going for your internship?

"I teach English at Kaiping No. 3 Middle School," Dong Lu said with a smile. "Teacher Xiao, you'll have to call me 'teacher' from now on."

"Okay, okay, from now on I'll call you Teacher Dong."

"No, that sounds too old," Dong Lu pouted.

Xiao Bing was taken aback: "Then what should we shout?"

"Let's call her...Teacher Xiaolu."

Xiao Bing laughed: "Teacher Xiao Lu, why does that sound like something a kindergarten kid would say?"

"Are you going to shout or not?" Dong Lu asked coquettishly, tugging at his arm.

"Okay, okay, I'll call her... Teacher Xiao Lu."

The warm yellow streetlights overhead cast a dappled glow.

Dong Lu looked at Xiao Bing with deep affection, and suddenly whispered, "Teacher Xiao, after Teacher Lu graduates... could you... give her a home?"

……

May 30, 1990.

In the darkness, Xiao Bing's desolate voice rang out: "Teacher Xiao Lu, we're going home."

(End of this chapter)