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

Chapter 462 The Upright Official (A Case Has Arrived)
Xiaguang Village, Zhou Yi's maternal grandmother's home.

Three low bungalows, surrounded by a fence, with trees, a well, a yellow-haired mongrel dog, and a chicken coop in the yard.

There is a winding stream nearby, and not far away is the lush and green Yunxia Mountain.

Smoke curled from the chimney, and laughter filled the house.

Besides Zhou Yi's maternal grandparents, her maternal uncle's family and her paternal aunt's family also came. Her maternal uncle from the city will bring his wife and children back for dinner tomorrow.

Zhou Yi's maternal uncle's family has two daughters, the older one is the same age as Lu Xiaoshuang, and the younger one is fifteen years old.

Zhou Yi's generation has already implemented the one-child policy, and generally there is only one child in the family.

If they have more children, they will be fined. For families like Zhou Yi's parents', who are employees at the steel mill, they will lose their jobs.

So when my maternal uncle's family had their second daughter, they kept it a secret. After the baby was born, she was raised by her grandparents until she was three years old before they dared to bring her home.

However, back then, people who had a second child did so in order to have a son.

But things didn't go as planned, and the second child was also a daughter, so the eldest uncle had no choice but to accept his fate.

My second aunt also has a daughter, who is sixteen years old this year.

My aunt and uncle, on the other hand, both had sons.

Zhou Yi introduced them one by one, and Lu Xiaoshuang greeted them one by one.

Zhang Qiuxia, being such a gossip, had already boasted to her family about how well Zhou Yi was doing, how he had found a beautiful, sensible girlfriend who was also a graduate of a prestigious university.

So both my second aunt and eldest uncle said the same thing to their daughter who was in middle school: "Go quickly, if you don't understand anything, go ask your older sister. Your older sister is a college student."

Zhou Yi's older cousin is named Zhang Xuan. After graduating from junior high school, she failed to get into high school. After playing at home for two years, she turned eighteen last year and was arranged by her parents to work in a factory.

In the countryside, if a girl cannot change her fate through education, she basically only has two paths: either go out to work or be married off early, have children, and repeat the life of her parents.

Zhang Xuan was the latter; she was a timid person, not good at speaking, and submissive.

So in her previous life, she got married at the age of twenty through a matchmaker, and gave birth to a daughter the following year.

Unfortunately, Zhou Yi's cousin's husband was no good. When his child was only five years old, he was detained for soliciting prostitution. His uncle even called Zhou Yi at the time, hoping to ask him to use his connections to get the child out.

Even if Zhou Yi had those connections back then, he wouldn't have been able to help.

After he got out, he kept quiet for two years. He stopped going to prostitutes, but then he started hooking up with a woman who used to work as a hairdresser in the south, which caused chaos at home.

Zhou Yi chatted with her grandparents in the kitchen for a while, then came out and saw Lu Xiaoshuang teaching her two younger cousins ​​to do their homework. She smiled.

But not seeing Zhang Xuan, I went outside and found her standing in front of the chicken coop, lost in thought.

"Xuanxuan," Zhou Yi called out as he walked over.

"Brother," Zhang Xuan responded, then looked down at the flock of chickens.

How's work lately?

"It's just like that, nothing interesting."

"The small factories in town are really not very interesting. Why don't you go to the city to enroll in a training course or something, learn some skills, and then find a job in the city?"

Zhang Xuan shook her head and said, "My dad won't let me go to the city. He says it's not safe for a girl to go out. He says I should find a good family to marry into in a couple of years and have children soon."

Zhou Yi felt helpless, but this wasn't really his uncle's problem. He was just a rural laborer with limited understanding. In his mind, this was the right thing to do, and besides, it wasn't illegal or against the rules.

"Never mind what your dad thinks, what do you think?"

Zhang Xuan was silent for a moment, then shook her head and said, "I don't know. I'm actually quite envious of my older sister."

The older sister she was referring to was naturally Lu Xiaoshuang, but she called her that because of Zhou Yi. In reality, the two were the same age, and Zhang Xuan was even three months older than Lu Xiaoshuang.

“My sister goes to a prestigious university, so she’ll definitely be successful in the future. So people are really different. But I just can’t concentrate on my studies. I get sleepy as soon as I start reading.”

Zhang Xuan said somewhat sadly, "I don't know what I want to do, I only know that I don't want to get married so early."

Zhou Yi felt helpless after hearing this, because that's the truth; not everyone knows exactly what they want.

Many people are ordinary people who go with the flow and move forward in accordance with the development of the times and history.

But their ordinariness does not mean they are incompetent.

Zhou Yi has always believed that a person is worthy of respect as long as they do not commit crimes, break the law, or violate discipline, and can support themselves and their families and pay taxes to the country.

Ordinary is great.

After thinking it over and over, Zhou Yi couldn't think of any way to help his older cousin, so he decided to become a charlatan.

“Xuanxuan, last time I met a master, and I also had your birthday told to him. The master said that you must never marry someone born in the Year of the Dragon, nor can you marry someone surnamed Liu, because people born in the Year of the Dragon and those surnamed Liu are incompatible with you and will bring death to your parents!” Zhou Yi said with great seriousness.

"Huh?" Zhang Xuan was stunned.

"Just tell your parents that I specially consulted a master from Mount Wutai to calculate it."

"Oh, then I'll go find my dad." Zhang Xuan walked away, a little confused.

Zhou Yi thought to herself, "This is all I can do to help. At least I can ruin things with that scumbag brother-in-law from my past life. As for who she'll meet in this life, that's up to fate."

As I was pondering this, I suddenly noticed something rubbing against my feet.

Looking down, I saw it was my grandmother's mongrel dog.

"Oh, Big Yellow, did you miss me?" Zhou Yi squatted down and petted the dog's fur.

Suddenly he noticed someone behind him, turned around and saw Lu Xiaoshuang.

"Finished tutoring, Teacher Lu?" Zhou Yi asked with a smile.

“Yes, your two cousins ​​are both quite smart; they understand things very quickly.” Lu Xiaoshuang squatted down.

"Dahuang, call me 'sister'," Zhou Yi teased the dog.

"If he actually calls you 'sister,' you'll be terrified; he's practically a spirit."

"Don't worry, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, no spirits are allowed. Even the Dragon King would have to be a mudfish." Zhou Yi joked. "But Da Huang is quite smart. You see, the first time you came, it knew you were one of its own and didn't bite you."

Lu Xiaoshuang reached out and stroked Dahuang's head, and it immediately lay down on the ground, enjoying the touch.

"Hey, you're such a womanizer," Zhou Yi said with a laugh, patting Da Huang's head.

"Officer Zhou can even tell fortunes? He figured out that I was born in the Year of the Dragon and that my surname is Liu. That's incredibly accurate!" Lu Xiaoshuang suddenly said.

Zhou Yi was startled; they had overheard what he had just said. He quickly covered up his lie, saying, "How could I know that? It was the master who calculated it, the master." This time, he truly understood what it meant to tell one lie and then have to tell ten more to cover it up.

No wonder criminal suspects always have such obvious flaws when they lie; they are indeed more likely to be exposed the more you ask them questions.

It seems I should try to say such things less often in the future, especially in front of Lu Xiaoshuang.

Zhou Yi had a feeling that he might have inadvertently revealed something before.

"Then... has the master calculated for you what kind of person you would choose?" Lu Xiaoshuang asked with a smile.

"The master said..." Zhou Yi was about to speak when the big yellow dog on the ground suddenly barked twice.

Then Grandma's voice called from inside the house: "Time to eat!"

“I’m here,” Zhou Yi replied.

……

Another unique feature of rural areas is that people like to visit each other's homes after dinner, especially in the summer.

The villages at the foot of these mountains are especially cool at night. Many people sit in their courtyards to cool off, fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans. When guests come over, they sit on small stools, chat for a while, and cut a watermelon, enjoying a very pleasant time.

Zhou Yi's mother, Zhang Qiuxia, grew up in the countryside and was used to visiting other people's homes from a young age. Later, she lived in a steel factory dormitory where her neighbors were all coworkers, so she especially enjoyed visiting and chatting with them.

This is why many elderly people become unhappy after being taken to the city by their children to live with them, because the boundaries between neighbors in the city are very strong, and many people don't even see their next-door neighbors more than a few times a year.

That's how relationships between people gradually drift apart.

Today, Old Zhang's grandson came over with his girlfriend, so naturally, all the neighbors came to visit in the evening.

Everyone praised Zhou Yi for his success and Lu Xiaoshuang for being beautiful and down-to-earth. In the countryside, this is the highest praise one can give to a man or woman.

The smile on Zhou Yi's maternal grandfather's face never stopped. The next day, her maternal grandmother told Zhou Yi that her maternal grandfather was still smiling foolishly in his sleep last night, which startled her.

There was a family in the village surnamed Lü. Their youngest son, Lü Tiezhu, was a grassroots police officer at the Yunlai Town Police Station. He was four or five years older than Zhou Yi, and they had played together when they were children.

I saw him during the Spring Festival this year. At that time, Zhou Yi had just started working at the police station, and Zhang Qiuxia even told him to learn more from Lü Tiezhu's experience.

In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed. One of them is still a police officer at the local police station, while the other has become a rising star in the city's criminal investigation division.

Lu Tiezhu looked at Zhou Yi's ID in his hand with envy in his eyes. They were both police IDs, but the difference was huge because they were from different units.

"Oh, this is wonderful, wonderful." Lu Tiezhu wiped Zhou Yi's ID card with great care and said to the person next to him, "Look at the words 'Criminal Investigation Detachment' written so well, so impressive."

Zhou Yi smiled.

"Zhou Yi, how did you do that? You skipped three grades in a row! I've never heard of anything like that before," Lu Tiezhu asked, reluctantly handing the documents back to Zhou Yi.

From the police station to the branch bureau and then to the municipal bureau, that's a jump of three levels. Moreover, Lü Tiezhu knew that neither the Zhang family nor the Zhou family had any relatives in official positions, so this seemed unbelievable to him.

"Brother Tiezhu, it was just a coincidence. I happened to be involved in a case, helped out a bit, and then caught the eye of the leaders at the Municipal Bureau, who made an exception and transferred me there," Zhou Yi said vaguely.

"Really? Then this leader is truly your benefactor."

At this moment, someone next to him asked, "How much is the difference in rank between you and Zhou Yi now?"

Upon hearing this, Lü Tiezhu exaggeratedly said, "Then the two of us are worlds apart now. Zhou Yi is one of the 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals who fought Sun Wukong, while I am just a fish hiding in a corner when Sun Wukong made trouble in the Dragon Palace."

Hearing his description, everyone burst into laughter. Zhou Yi couldn't help but laugh and say, "It's not that exaggerated. I don't have any rank. I'm just like Brother Tiezhu, a people's police officer."

Amidst their laughter and conversation, Zhou Yi noticed another figure approaching from outside, hurrying along the fence without even noticing as the figure passed by.

Everyone fell silent and turned their attention to this person.

It was Zhou Yi's grandmother who spotted her and called out, "Aunt Ding, you've gone too far!"

Everyone burst into laughter. Aunt Ding, who was outside, finally came to her senses and quickly walked back in through the door.

Because the light was too dim, Zhou Yi couldn't see Aunt Ding's face clearly from the front. He could only see her clearly after he got closer and used the dim light from the eaves.

She was an elderly woman in her sixties. I think I had seen her before, but I don't remember her very well.

When Zhou Yi saw the old lady, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Not for any other reason than that Aunt Ding's face looked very unpleasant.

Something's up.

Zhou Yi's maternal grandmother was a shrewd woman, and she obviously knew something. She brought over a small stool and advised, "Aunt Ding, some things are in the past, so don't think about them anymore. Take it easy and have another child while the young couple is still young."

Grandma's words made Zhou Yi's bad premonition even stronger. Did this mean that something had happened to her child?

Aunt Ding was very thin, like a withered old woman. She had lost some of her teeth, and her teeth were sparse. In addition, her clothes were patched, which clearly indicated that she lived in relatively difficult conditions.

She didn't sit down, but pointed at Zhou Yi and asked his grandmother, "Sister-in-law, is this your grandson who's an official in the city?"

Grandma Zhou quickly explained, "Being a policeman is about catching bad guys, not being an official."

Aunt Ding nodded with unfocused eyes, muttering, "It's good to catch bad guys, it's good to catch bad guys."

Suddenly, the next second she did something that shocked everyone.

She knelt down in front of Zhou Yi with a thud and began to kowtow, shouting, "Your Honor, you must do justice for my grandson!"

This unexpected scene startled everyone.

Zhou Yi quickly went to help her up, but Aunt Ding lay on the ground and refused to get up, only crying.

"Come and lend a hand!" Grandma called out to the women nearby.

In a flurry of activity, everyone managed to pull Aunt Ding up from the ground.

There's no doubt there's something fishy going on here!

After a while, Aunt Ding's emotions calmed down.

Zhou Yi then spoke up: "Aunt Ding, I'm not some high-ranking official, I'm just an ordinary policeman. But if you really encounter any problems, you can tell me, and the police will not ignore you."

"Sigh..." Aunt Ding sighed deeply and started crying again, "My grandson, my grandson was killed by that wicked woman, and you police didn't even execute her. There's no justice, no law!"

Zhou Yi turned to look at Lü Tiezhu and asked him what was going on.
Lu Tiezhu looked somewhat embarrassed.

"Aunt Ding, who is this bad woman you're talking about?" Zhou Yi asked.

Aunt Ding gritted her teeth and said, "It was that bitch, my daughter-in-law! She killed my grandson, she killed her own son!"

(End of this chapter)