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

Chapter 472 I'm not done with you yet!

The wad of cloth in Zhou Yi's hand must have been cut from his sleeve.

Although the cut was clean, the overall shape was very irregular, and you could tell that the person cutting the strip of cloth had a shaky hand and was in a panic.

Moreover, judging from the bloodstains on the cloth strip, it should not be a minor injury.

Judging from this wad of cloth, someone was definitely injured and had been bandaged.

This illustrates several points.

First, the injury was likely accidental. If it were intentional, there would be little to no need for bandaging.

Secondly, the injured person's condition is probably not very good. At least the fact that this piece of cloth was left here, and the bloodstains on it, indicate that the injury was not serious and had not been relieved, and that the bandage had been changed.

Third, these bears didn't even have basic medical supplies, which is why they resorted to cutting off sleeves.

Fourth, the direction they were looking in was correct.

Zhou Yi shared his idea with Lü Tiezhu, who immediately wanted to continue the search.

Zhou Yi then took out his radio, intending to report to Ni Jianrong that since the location was correct, they should send more people to search, which would be more efficient.

To facilitate the search, they made records on the trees along the way.

This is the most primitive method. After all, it was 1997, and many technologies and equipment were outdated, making it impossible to pinpoint the location of search and rescue personnel through location tracking.

This is also what annoys Zhou Yi about these ungrateful students, because every rescuer faces danger when they go into the mountains.

Sure enough, something even worse happened soon after.

Perhaps due to interference from the heavy rain, the radio kept making a buzzing sound and couldn't establish a connection.

Zhou Yi tried several times without success and had to give up.

"Brother Tiezhu, let's go." Zhou Yi said helplessly, "If we wait any longer, someone might really die."

"it is good."

The two continued walking forward despite the torrential rain.

Zhou Yi walked along, pondering the situation.

Although someone was injured, based on my memories from my previous life, this should be an accident, not a criminal case.

I just don't know if anyone died in this accident.

Besides impairing visibility and travel speed, the torrential rain also brought greater dangers.

Because it is a mountain, there is almost no flat land; the ground is sloping everywhere.

The torrential rain caused the soil to be constantly washed away, making the ground extremely slippery.

Although the two of them walked very carefully, as if on thin ice, Lü Tiezhu still slipped and fell.

Zhou Yi reacted quickly, rushing over and grabbing the other person.

But due to inertia and the slippery ground, he also fell down.

The two of them slid down uncontrollably.

Fortunately, there are plenty of trees in the mountains.

Just as Lü Tiezhu was about to crash into a tree, he slid past it.

Zhou Yi, who had grabbed his arm, immediately adjusted his posture, seized the opportunity, grabbed the tree with one hand, and used the other hand to pull Lu Tiezhu tightly.

The immense inertia, combined with Lü Tiezhu's weight, caused Zhou Yi's left shoulder to slam hard against the tree trunk.

Despite the intense pain, he clung tightly to the tree trunk.

This has finally eased the downward trend.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, something unexpected happened.

Something fell out from under his raincoat and slid quickly down the ground.

Zhou Yi exclaimed, "Radio!"

Lu Tiezhu noticed it too and quickly reached out to stop him.

But it was too late. They could only watch helplessly as the radio slid down and disappeared from their sight.

After regaining his balance, Lü Tiezhu carefully climbed up a nearby tree and hugged the trunk, panting.

Zhou Yi was finally able to relax a bit.

"Zhou Yi, I'm sorry, it was all my fault..." Lu Tiezhu said remorsefully.

"Brother Tiezhu, it's not your fault. Humans can't fight against nature. I'm just glad you're okay." Zhou Yi said, rubbing his left shoulder. That bump was quite severe, and it was probably swollen.

"If I had known, I would have just stayed there to take shelter from the rain." Lü Tiezhu's tone was clearly dejected and frightened.

"There's no other way. Let's stay here for a while. It's been raining for almost an hour. It should be getting a little lighter by now."

"Hey, what if one of these guys accidentally falls and gets hurt? That would be so unlucky! How could these students do something so dangerous? They'll regret it so much if they really hurt someone else!"

Zhou Yi snorted coldly and said, "Brother Tiezhu, you're wrong. If something really happens, this kind of person probably won't even know what regret is!"

Just from what Shen Chunlin said earlier, it's clear that this group of people only know how to shirk responsibility and don't know how to reflect on their own problems.

It's what's commonly known as a "giant baby".

It's not easy to find even one pair of these giant babies, but to actually find eight of them is truly amazing.

"Brother Tiezhu, let's search for another half hour after the rain subsides a bit. If we still can't find them after half an hour, then let's turn back."

Now that the radio is lost and there's no cell phone signal, even if they find someone, they can't call for help immediately. Moreover, visibility in the mountains is very poor right now, so Zhou Yi doesn't plan to take any more risks.

After that slip, Lü Tiezhu had already been considering retiring.

He didn't know where he would end up if Zhou Yi didn't grab him; maybe he would crash into a tree and stop, or maybe there would be a cliff in front of him.

He was a policeman, but he was unwilling to sacrifice himself for a group of people who didn't deserve to be saved.

Because police officers are ordinary people too, and they also have families!
After seven or eight minutes, the rain subsided considerably.

The two of them caught their breath and, as Zhou Yi had suggested, continued searching for a while longer.

The two climbed back to a relatively flat, elevated spot, and then carefully moved forward, their hands ready to grab onto the tree trunks nearby at any moment.

About ten minutes later, the rain had basically stopped.

But the road ahead had become muddy and impassable.

Zhou Yi shouted, "Is anyone there?"

His voice echoed through the mountains and forests after the rain.

Then it slowly fades away.

There was no response from ahead.

Zhou Yi called out a few more times, but there was still no response.

Lu Tiezhu advised, "Zhou Yi, forget it, let's go back."

Zhou Yi nodded.

Just as the two turned to leave, a faint voice suddenly drifted from ahead.

"Help……"

A man's voice, soft but clear, reached their ears.

The two men stopped immediately, and Lü Tiezhu asked, "Did you hear that?"

Zhou Yi nodded vigorously: "I heard you!"

Then he turned around and shouted in that direction, "Is there someone over there? We are police officers, we're here to rescue you. Say something, we're here to find you!" Zhou Yi shouted loudly.

A little over a minute later, the sound came again, a bit louder than before, but not by much.

"Save me, please save me." It was the same voice, choked with sobs.

Zhou Yi and Lü Tiezhu exchanged a glance and headed in the direction from which the sound came.

"Don't be afraid, we're coming to rescue you right away!" Lü Tiezhu shouted.

Following the sound, we searched for a while, guided by the beams of two flashlights and the sound itself.

Zhou Yi and Lü Tiezhu finally spotted a figure lying almost paralyzed on the ground under a towering tree.

The two rushed over and saw that it was a boy who was completely soaked.

Clearly, he had nowhere to hide from the recent downpour.

And thankfully it was just a downpour, without any lightning; otherwise, under such a towering tree, one wouldn't even know how they died.

"Hey, are you alright?" Seeing that the other person was losing consciousness, Lü Tiezhu immediately patted his face and asked loudly.

"Zhou Yi, you're burning up, you have a fever."

Zhou Yi reached out and touched it; it was indeed very hot.

"Save me...please save me..." the boy muttered weakly, clearly his previous response had exhausted all his strength.

Zhou Yi brushed aside the boy's soaking wet hair, shone a flashlight on it, and examined the boy's eyes.

"His pupils haven't dilated, there's still hope." Zhou Yi took a closer look and realized she recognized the boy.

It was the same guy who threw up in the car a couple of days ago and was shunned by his companions.

Zhou Yi slapped his face and shouted, "Yao Li, your name is Yao Li, right?"

Hearing someone call his name, Yao Li's hazy consciousness cleared slightly. He looked at Zhou Yi. "You...you're...that older brother from that day?" At this critical moment, blaming was pointless. Zhou Yi said, "Yes, it's me. Why are you alone? Where are the others? Where did they go?"

Upon hearing this question, Yao Li suddenly burst into tears: "Waaah... I injured my leg... They thought I was too slow... that I was a burden... and told me to wait here... They went to find someone to help... Waaah... I thought I was going to die here..."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi and Lü Tiezhu's faces darkened.

This is just leaving him here to die alone.

Zhou Yi turned to look at his legs; both of them were soaked in muddy water.

There was a wound about seven or eight centimeters long on his right thigh. The depth was unknown, but it was obviously quite serious. It is estimated that the strip of cloth found earlier was used to bandage his wound.

"Were any others injured?" Zhou Yi asked.

But Yao Li was terrified and could only cry incessantly.

Lu Tiezhu was both furious and speechless. This guy looked to be almost twenty years old, only three or four years younger than Zhou Yi, but now he was acting like a useless brat.

Lu Tiezhu suddenly slapped her hard across the face.

This slap not only stunned Yao Li, but also left Zhou Yi completely dumbfounded.

"Stop crying, what the hell are you crying for? Are you even a man?" Lu Tiezhu roared angrily. "I'm asking you a question! What happened to the others? Which direction did they go?"

After being stunned by the slap, Yao Li stopped crying, her eyes cleared up, and she seemed to be in better spirits.

He said, trembling, "They...they're fine. It's just...it's just me who got hurt. I tripped and fell, and my thigh was cut by a sharp rock."

Where did they go?

Yao Li pointed to a direction on his right and said, "Over there..."

Zhou Yi took out compressed biscuits and water from his backpack, fed them to him, and told him that only by eating them could he survive and get out of there.

Although Yao Li was neither tall nor strong, Zhou Yi and Lü Tiezhu could not possibly carry him out under the current circumstances.

At that point, perhaps no one will survive.

So he had to regain his strength before they helped him walk out.

Zhou Yi even took off her raincoat and gave it to him to wear.

Although Yao Li was completely soaked, there were no dry clothes for him to change into, nor was there any opportunity for him to do so.

Taking it off is even more impractical; he'll freeze to death.

Now that it's not raining, the wet clothes on his body will evaporate the rainwater and absorb the heat from his body.

Therefore, putting a well-sealed raincoat over him can effectively slow down heat loss.

Only after taking off his raincoat did Zhou Yi realize how cold it was in the mountains at night. He had been wearing the raincoat the whole time, and although his shoes and pants were wet, his clothes were still dry. Even so, he felt a bone-chilling cold.

He could only tighten his collar.

Yao Li wolfed down Zhou Yi's compressed biscuits, leaving nothing behind.

Lu Tiezhu took out his food and shared it with Zhou Yi. They had been searching for more than eight hours and were extremely exhausted.

After they finished eating, Zhou Yi and Lü Tiezhu lifted Yao Li up, one on each side.

Perhaps it was because he had eaten something to replenish his strength, or perhaps it was because his will to survive had been aroused, Yao Li's condition was noticeably better.

Given this situation, it should be possible to get out.

It would be even better if subsequent search and rescue teams arrived to provide support.

Zhou Yi took out his phone and tried it, but as expected there was no signal, so he had no choice but to put it away again.

"Brother Tiezhu, let's go." Zhou Yi's words had barely left his mouth.

A woman's scream suddenly came from deep within the dense forest.

This surprised the two of them greatly.

There are still people over there! And that scream, has something happened?
Zhou Yi hesitated for a moment, then told Lü Tiezhu that he wanted to go and take a look.

Yao Li cried out in desperation, "Please don't leave me! I beg you, I don't want to die! Waaah..."

This call put the two of them in a dilemma.

Yao Li has been found, so he definitely needs to be rescued. We can't delay too long because he's injured and has a fever, and his life could be in danger at any moment.

But that scream couldn't be ignored; so many people had come to rescue people.

“Zhou Yi, how about this, you stay here with him, and I’ll go check over there,” Lü Tiezhu said.

Zhou Yi gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Tiezhu, you stay here, I'll go check. If I'm not back in twenty minutes, you can take Yao Li and leave first."

Upon hearing Zhou Yi's words, Lü Tiezhu's heart leaped into his throat.

He knew Zhou Yi was right, that it was the best decision, but he simply couldn't bring himself to ignore Zhou Yi's life or death for twenty minutes.

But the current situation is like the trolley problem; there is simply no other choice.

Lu Tiezhu handed his axe to Zhou Yi, telling him to be careful.

He now wished he could slap Yao Li twice more across the face.

Soon, Zhou Yi, carrying a flashlight and an axe, disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

……

In the dead of night, Wu Yongcheng was fast asleep.

Although being promoted to squad leader brought many more administrative and tedious tasks.

However, since there have been no murders in Hongcheng recently, Wu Yongcheng has become much more relaxed, and his daily routine has become much more regular.

Wu Yongcheng even joked with Jiang Biao and the others, saying, "Look, as long as Zhou Yi isn't around, we're all safe and sound."

So when he was woken up by a phone ringing, he opened his eyes, picked up his phone, and checked the time. It was only a little past ten o'clock.

The caller ID number was unfamiliar, but upon checking the area code, it turned out to be Wu Guang's landline number.

He instinctively thought it was Zhou Yi calling, but then he realized it couldn't be; if it were Zhou Yi, she could have just called via her cell phone.

"Hello...who is this?" he pressed the call button and held the phone to his ear.

Then, I heard a woman crying on the phone.

This startled him for a moment.

Immediately afterwards, a voice cried out, "Captain Wu, it's me."

Upon hearing the sound, Wu Yongcheng was instantly wide awake, a tremendous sense of foreboding washing over him.

He sat up abruptly and asked, "Lu Xiaoshuang? What happened? Don't rush, tell me slowly."

"What?!" Wu Yongcheng exclaimed in shock. "Zhou Yi fell off a cliff? His fate is unknown?"

"Why would he suddenly get involved in a search and rescue operation? Weren't you guys visiting his maternal grandmother?"

"Don't worry, I'm coming to Wuguang right away! Tell me your address!"

After hanging up the phone, Wu Yongcheng turned on the light, got up, quickly changed his clothes, and dialed a number with the speakerphone on.

After a few rings, the call was answered.

The other end just said "Hey".

While putting on his pants, Wu Yongcheng roared furiously into the phone, "You bastard surnamed Ni! I'll fucking kill you! Why the hell are you contacting Zhou Yi about your mess in Yunshan County?!"

"Let me tell you! If anything happens to Zhou Yi, I'll never forgive you!"

On the other end of the phone, Ni Jianrong said awkwardly, "Old Wu, please... don't get agitated. I've already arranged for everyone to search. Zhou Yi will definitely be alright. Besides... I never expected something like this to happen. The rescued college student said that Zhou Yi lost her footing on the edge of the cliff and fell off..."

Wu Yongcheng didn't want to listen to his excuses anymore and hung up the phone directly.

What a joke! How could Zhou Yi possibly lose his footing on the edge of a cliff?
He got dressed, grabbed his documents, and slammed the door shut as he left without wasting a moment.

Soon, a car downstairs turned on its lights and drove out of the residential area.

Wu Yongcheng made several phone calls in succession.

"Xiao Qiao!"

"Biaozi!"

"Chen Yan!"

"Zhou Yi is in trouble. I'm coming to pick you up now. We're going to Wu Guang to rescue Zhou Yi!"

The red taillights of the car sped away into the darkness, like the eyes of an angry beast!
……

At Lü Tiezhu's house, after hanging up the phone, Lu Xiaoshuang raised her hand to touch the tear stains on her face.

"Brother Tiezhu, don't tell anyone about this yet. Zhou Yi's grandparents are old, and we can't let them be upset," Lu Xiaoshuang said, choking back tears.

Lu Tiezhu nodded vigorously, his face full of regret.

Suddenly, he raised his hand and slapped himself twice, cursing, "I'm such a fucking bastard! I shouldn't have let him go alone."

Lu Xiaoshuang quickly said, "Brother Tiezhu, this isn't your fault. Besides, you were injured too."

Lu Tiezhu patted his left leg and said, "If that idiot college student hadn't run around like that, would I have sprained my ankle? If I hadn't sprained my ankle, I'd be looking for Zhou Yi in the mountains right now! Sigh!"

Leaving Lu Tiezhu's house and walking on a pitch-black road, Lu Xiaoshuang could no longer hold back her emotions.

She burst into tears.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a faint band of light appearing on the distant Yunxia Mountain.

(End of this chapter)