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

Chapter 497 I'm Not Leaving (Seeking Monthly Tickets for a Chance to Win Big Prizes)

Zhou Yi hung up the phone and walked back into the house with a serious expression.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense, and everyone began to eat in silence.

Zhou Yi lowered his head, taking small bites of rice while pondering what to do next.

Miao Genhua's suicide is already very strange.

Fortunately, he didn't die.

As a result, Ma Weichang disappeared again.

According to Zhao Liang, Ma Weichang left yesterday after they left, and no one knows where he went.

Then last night, Miao Genhua took six sleeping pills. Fortunately, her family member in the next bed discovered her and quickly called the nurse, saving Miao Genhua's life.

Because of the accident, the hospital needed to contact the family, so they called the phone number Ma Weichang had left.

But I can't get through; it keeps saying the phone is switched off.

Since it was the middle of the night, I assumed the other person had turned off their phone to avoid disturbing their sleep.

After emergency gastric lavage, Miao Genhua is out of danger. The hospital tried to contact her family again this morning, but still couldn't get through.

Then a nurse suddenly remembered that the police had come looking for them yesterday.

So they took the initiative to call the police, and the command center contacted the Shacao Town Police Station. Only then did Zhao Liang and the others realize that something had happened.

They split into several groups: one went to the county hospital to find Miao Genhua, another went to the city to find Ma Weichang's ex-wife, and the third went to the quarry in Xipinggou.

Therefore, the Shacao Town Police Station mobilized almost its entire force to find Ma Weichang.

But this person seems to have vanished into thin air; they can't be found anywhere. Moreover, it seems that since leaving the county hospital yesterday, this person has disappeared and hasn't contacted anyone.

Director Chen and his colleagues believed that Ma Weichang might have fled to avoid punishment.

His sudden disappearance reminded them of the unusually intimate behavior he had shown Ge Fangfang, as mentioned by the Miao people.

Zhao Liang thought so too, because when they asked Ma Weichang about this issue yesterday, he was very agitated, which Zhao Liang felt was a sign of guilt.

His exact words to Zhou Yi were, "We must have alerted him yesterday, which is why he got scared and ran away."

Zhao Liang told Zhou Yi these things not because he wanted Zhou Yi to help him again, but also because it was impossible to explain too many details over the phone.

He just chatted with Zhou Yi for a bit, just like before.

After saying that, he wished Zhou Yi a safe journey and expressed his hope to meet him again in the future so that he could learn from him again.

But Zhou Yi's heart was in turmoil.

No, something's not right about Miao Genhua's suicide.

Ma Weichang's disappearance is also suspicious.

This case is getting stranger and stranger.

Lu Xiaoshuang knew that Zhou Yi probably wouldn't leave unless the problem was resolved.

The last time she saw Zhou Yi with such a solemn expression, it was also because of a child.

It was the first time we ate dumplings at Zhou Yi's parents' house that Qian Lailai was kidnapped for the second time.

Lu Xiaoshuang, of course, had no idea what had happened back then; Zhou Yi never talked to her about the case.

During the time she stayed at Qian Hongxing's house, Yao Yuling told her everything about Qian Lailai's ordeal, which also made her understand why Qian Hongxing and his wife were so grateful to Zhou Yi.

She was just about to ask Zhou Yi whether we should leave or not.

Two car horns sounded outside.

Lu Guohua quickly put down his chopsticks and said, "The car should be here. It's a bit early."

He quickly walked out after saying that.

Su Xiuying followed her out, and soon a burst of greetings could be heard from outside.

"Brother Yi, is the situation serious?" Lu Xiaoshuang asked.

Zhou Yi said with a serious expression, "Something's wrong with this case. Something's wrong from the very beginning."

"So...should we still leave?"

Zhou Yi lowered his head, staring at his rice bowl without saying a word.

After a moment, he made his decision, looked up and said, "Let's go!"

Lu Xiaoshuang was stunned for a moment: "Leave?"

Zhou Yi got up and walked outside. At the intersection, there was an old car that looked quite old. Lu Guohua and his wife were chatting with the driver.

As Zhou Yi walked over, he heard the driver say, "No rush, there's not much work to do this afternoon anyway."

Lu Guohua turned around and saw that Zhou Yi had come out, followed by his daughter.

"Master, can I hire your car this afternoon?" Zhou Yi asked as he took out a cigarette and handed it to him.

The driver took the cigarette, looked at it, and asked in confusion, "Aren't you going to catch a bus in the county? It shouldn't take this long to get there."

"That's right, I'm going to the county, but not now. I need to take care of some things elsewhere first."

The Lu family of three looked at each other in bewilderment.

The driver, unaware of the situation, said, "Then you'll have to pay for the fare separately. I'm only giving you a discount because of Teacher Lu..."

Before the driver could finish speaking, Zhou Yi interrupted, "Return the fare that Teacher Lu gave you to him, and I'll give you a day's car rental fee at the normal price."

Upon hearing this, the driver was overjoyed and quickly took out the money to return to Lu Guohua.

Lu Guohua took the money and asked doubtfully, "Zhou Yi, will you still make it in time? Don't miss the bus."

"Uncle Lu, we're not leaving for now."

"Not leaving?"

"Well, just think of it as my occupational hazard acting up. I won't feel at ease leaving until some problems are resolved."

Zhou Yi knew that, from an outsider's perspective, he was meddling in other people's business. As a policeman from Hongcheng, he was interfering in cases thousands of miles away, which was ungrateful of him.

But in Zhou Yi's view, a policeman is a policeman. Even though there are regulations, his sense of justice in punishing evil and upholding justice remains unchanged.

Moreover, he now believes that cases that come to him on their own initiative mean that they are "destined" to be solved by him!

"Then can I stay at home for a few more days?" Lu Xiaoshuang asked.

Zhou Yi nodded: "I can't say for sure how many days it will take right now."

"What about Wu Guang's side..."

"It's okay, I'll call Captain Wu later and have him take care of it."

Zhou Yi checked his pockets and found his police ID and wallet were still there, so he said to the driver, "Sir, let's go now."

Su Xiuying asked, "Won't you eat something else?"

"It's alright, Aunt Su, I'm full."

As they were about to get on the bus, Lu Guohua said, "Zhou Yi, give me the tickets you bought."

"Train ticket?"

"Yes, I'll go and refund it to you. I can get a lot of money back."

"Uncle Lu, to get a refund, you have to go to the big city next door, which is a long way." Back in 1997, there was no online ticketing system, so it didn't support refunds in different locations. You had to get a refund in the place where you bought the ticket.

"It's alright, it's alright. It's summer vacation anyway, and I'm free. The refund for the ticket is more than the fare for the long-distance bus, right?" Lu Guohua said with a pained expression, after all, every penny counts.

"Brother Yi, let my dad go, it's fine," Lu Xiaoshuang said.

"Alright, Uncle Lu, please be careful on your journey." Zhou Yi took out the two return tickets he had bought earlier from his wallet and handed them over. "If it's too late tonight and there are no buses back, please find a hotel to stay in for the night. Don't try to save this little bit of money."

Lu Guohua took the ticket, carefully put it away, and nodded: "Don't worry about it."

Zhou Yi got into the car, patted the driver's seat and said, "Driver, let's go."

"Alright." The driver turned the steering wheel and made a U-turn.

The three members of the Lu family stood at the intersection, watching the vintage car slowly disappear into the distance.

Lu Guohua glanced at the bicycle beside him and said, "Luckily, I didn't return the bike. I'll go to town to catch a bus now. Xiuying, go and say hello to Old Yang later. I reckon I'll have to return the bike to him tomorrow."

"Alright, go ahead and make sure you lock the car properly, so no one steals it," Su Xiuying instructed.

"Okay, I'll lock the entrance to the police station then, let's see who dares to steal!"

Lu Xiaoshuang called out, "Dad, I guess I won't be able to make it back tonight. I'm telling you, don't spend the night on a bench at a train station."

Lu Xiaoshuang knew that, given her father's personality, he was capable of doing such a thing.

Sure enough, Lu Guohua said, "It's alright, the weather is hot now, and it's not cold at night."

"Dad, Zhou Yi said that the train station is the most thief-infested area. If you sleep at the station, you probably won't be able to keep your ticket refund. You'd better figure it out yourself."

Upon hearing this, Lu Guohua's expression changed instantly.

That won't do. How could the money be stolen? Besides, it belongs to Zhou Yi.

He nodded repeatedly and said, "Then I'll find a cheap hotel to stay in for the night."

Lu Xiaoshuang chuckled to herself; this was a case of "no one knows a father better than his daughter."

……

On the other side, Zhou Yi sat in the passenger seat of the vintage car, first asking the driver about the cost of renting the car for half a day, and then readily paid the money, even rounding it up to a whole number.

Seeing his generosity, the driver naturally became much more enthusiastic.

Ask him where we're going now?
Zhou Yi said, "The neighboring Huangniu Township."

"Alright, let's drive forward. Once we get on the main road ahead, drive for about two kilometers, then there'll be a fork in the road. Turn west and keep driving, and we'll reach Huangniu Township."

"Okay, please."

"Hey, don't be so polite. You're Teacher Lu's son-in-law, so you're one of us from Shacao Town. We may be poor here, but everyone here is a good person and very hospitable," the driver boasted.

Zhou Yi smiled slightly but didn't say anything. He could tell they were poor, but it was impossible for them to all be good people. After all, a person's character isn't directly related to their place of origin; there are bad people in the richest places and good people in the poorest.

"This Huangniu Township has now been renamed Huangniu Town," the driver said.

"Really? When was it changed?"

"It was last year, anyway, the signs and everything changed, but it's not much different. We locals still call it Huangniu Township. If you tell people Huangniu Town, some people will even tell you that there is no such place."

"Oh, I see." "Where do we go after we get to Huangniu Town?"

"Let's go to the farmers' market in town first. By the way, how many farmers' markets are there in town?"

Upon hearing this, the driver burst into laughter: "How many more could there be? If you're talking about markets for buying and selling vegetables, then there's basically one at the entrance of every village now. Everyone just sets up a stall and sells something. But a proper farmers' market, there's only one per town. Where would a local area have the money to build several?"

"What's the origin of the name 'Yellow Ox Township'?" Zhou Yi asked casually.

"Hey, you know what, it actually has a background. Do you know me?" The driver said "子" with the first tone.

Zhou Yi was taken aback: "Me?"

"That's right, Confucius, Mencius, and Lao Tzu," the driver explained, though he still pronounced them with the first syllable.

Zhou Yi suddenly realized, "Oh, oh, oh, I'm right."

He pronounced it with the third tone.

"Yes, yes, that one, Laozi." The driver couldn't quite pronounce it properly; it was still the first sound.

Zhou Yi gave up and asked, "Okay, continue."

"According to local legend, a long, long time ago, Lao Tzu came to our area. Although I don't know what he came for, he got tired and sat down to rest by the roadside. At that time, an old yellow ox came along and rubbed against Lao Tzu. Lao Tzu understood what the ox meant, so he rode away on the ox. From then on, the area was called Yellow Ox Township."

The driver spoke with great conviction.

Zhou Yi was both amused and exasperated; this unofficial history was truly outlandish.

Zhou Yi recalled that historical records said Lao Tzu disappeared after leaving Hangu Pass to the west, and his whereabouts became a mystery.

There are many versions of the story, some saying he attained enlightenment and became a saint.

Some say he lives in seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain.

Zhou Yi recalled a story that they did indeed travel westward and then arrived at Louguantai in Zhouzhi. Louguantai is also known as the Scripture-Speaking Platform, a sacred site of Taoism. It is said that Lao Tzu preached Taoism here and died.

But Louguantai is not close to Huangniu Township, after all, the Northwest is a vast area.

In Lao Tzu's time, places like Huangniu Township were probably still completely uninhabited wastelands.

More importantly, when did I ever ride an old ox?

Zhou Yi said, "How come I remember riding a blue ox?"

The driver was taken aback, turned to look at him, and asked, "Green... Green Ox?"

Zhou Yi nodded: "It seems that the historical records describe him riding a blue ox."

"Oh... I see." The driver was immediately a little embarrassed.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze, and neither of them spoke.

After a while, the driver added, "Did his blue ox die of exhaustion halfway there? So he switched to a yellow ox?"

“Uh…” Zhou Yi didn’t know how to answer.

He patted the dashboard and said, "Master, this car of yours is quite old."

Because they were already on the main road, and the road surface was relatively flat, Zhou Yi noticed that the car was still shaking.

He initially thought it was because the road was rough, since he had gotten used to the bumpy ride over the past few days.

But when he looked at the road ahead, it seemed fine, which puzzled him.

Then I realized that it wasn't the road that was shaking, but the car.

He immediately thought of Chen Peisi's movie "Old Car" and thought to himself, "I hope it doesn't fall apart like in the movie."

The driver, however, said smugly, "It's a third-hand car, cheap, just for fun."

Good heavens, it's been through three hands? If it changes hands again in two years, it'll be just like in the comedy sketches, "When this car arrived, it was all over the place."

Zhou Yi took out the piece of paper he had written that morning from his pocket. On the front of the paper, three words were written in very neat handwriting: “Letter of Complaint”.

He unfolded the letter and looked at it, then slowly tore it in half, then in half again, until it was finally torn into a small piece, which he then waved out the open car window.

The piece of paper flew out instantly.

The anonymous whistleblower letter was originally intended to be left at the local county bureau when I went to the county.

Just like when Chen Gengyun went to the municipal party committee building and left the letter reporting himself.

The letter, written from the perspective of a "concerned citizen," stated that he had once heard a man who went to the countryside to collect soybeans boast that he had beaten a child to death for speaking disrespectfully to him. At the time, "he" was too young to take it as a scare tactic, but recently, after hearing about the tragedy that occurred in Huangniu Township ten years ago, he found the man suspicious and hoped that the police could investigate. The letter also noted the man's age.

This was the reporting method Zhou Yi could think of, which might be more effective than making a tip-off call.

Because letters are presented in written form, they can contain a higher density of information.

Zhou Yi deliberately included a "flaw" in his letter: although he remained anonymous, he also mentioned that he was young at the time. This detail would make the police feel that it was more authentic, and that it was a "local youth" who reported him.

Key letters are one-way messages, leaving room for imagination.

However, phone calls are interactive and can be recorded, making it easy for vague reports to shift the police's focus to investigating the whistleblower.

Why would someone use a public phone to report something?
Why report anonymously?
Why can't this person be found?
How did the whistleblower obtain this information?
The informant doesn't have a local accent, so they might not be a local. Is there a possibility that they are deliberately trying to mislead the police and provide false information?
He was a veteran detective, and he knew all too well the unnecessary trouble this might cause.

Then the gain outweighs the loss.

So he came up with this idea.

Although it may take some time and we will need to wait for the results.

But compared to waiting another twenty years to solve the case, this is already the best solution.

But now, due to a sudden change, the letter is no longer of any use.

He wanted to use the Huangniu Township incident as a "pledge of allegiance" as a condition to get the local county bureau to give him special treatment and allow him to participate in the Xipinggou case.

Although Zhao Liang didn't say it, given the current situation, the Shacao Town Police Station could only report and request assistance.

Therefore, he needs to go to Huangniu Township first, and based on the vague information from his previous life, find the murderer who has escaped legal punishment for ten years as soon as possible.

Then go to the county bureau to find their leaders and openly explain your purpose.

Of course, he would only say that it was a coincidence that he caught a murderer from ten years ago.

I'll call Captain Wu again later and ask him to give it a push; it shouldn't be a big problem.

After all, if the town police station isn't too particular, the higher-level units probably aren't much different either.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi took out his phone and dialed Wu Yongcheng's number.

This time, the phone rang once and I answered it.

"Hey, Zhou Yi."

"Captain Wu."

“I guess you’re not calling to tell me I’m on my way back, are you?” Wu Yongcheng said on the other end of the phone.

"Captain Wu, please don't call me a jinx anymore."

Wu Yongcheng's smile slowly faded: "In the case of that little girl's disappearance, another person has died?"

“The child’s mother attempted suicide yesterday by taking sleeping pills, but she was saved. However, the child’s stepfather has disappeared,” Zhou Yi said in a low voice.

The driver, however, had very sharp ears and heard it. His expression changed immediately, and he pricked up his ears to listen carefully.

Wu Yongcheng muttered, "This case... is indeed a bit strange. So you're planning to get involved?"

"Hmm, I'd like to give it a try."

Wu Yongcheng sighed and said, "You want to try, but I'm afraid your local colleagues might not allow it. Should I try to think of a way?"

"You definitely shouldn't call them about this; they'll feel uncomfortable."

"Yeah, that's true. Unless... you can make them feel like they owe you a favor."

"Captain Wu, you're the most experienced and shrewd one. That's exactly what I meant."

Wu Yongcheng wasn't surprised at all, but Zhou Yi's comment that he was old enough made him both laugh and cry. "What do you plan to do?"

"I have a brilliant plan, but I estimate I'll have to report to Wu Guang a few days later, this..."

Before Zhou Yi could finish speaking, Wu Yongcheng patted his chest and said, "Don't worry about that, it's a small matter. I'll talk to the leaders, and I don't think Director Xie will be surprised."

"That's good, thank you, Captain Wu."

"If you need any help later, feel free to contact me."

"Yeah, I guess I'll need your help soon," Zhou Yi said, then hung up the phone.

In the office of the head of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of Hongcheng Public Security Bureau, Wu Yongcheng put down his phone and shook his head helplessly.

"That brat, he's working so hard even on his vacation. How will he ever finish solving this case?" he said, picking up the phone book and looking for Cao Anmin's number from the Wuguang City Public Security Bureau.

While searching, he muttered to himself, "With that kid gone, it feels so much more relaxed. Is it just my imagination?"

……

On the highway to Huangniu Town, the driver saw Zhou Yi hang up the phone and couldn't help but ask, "Brother, what do you do? I heard you talking about suicide and disappearances on the phone just now."

Zhou Yi replied calmly, "Police."

"Oh, really?" the driver said in surprise. "If you had said you were a policeman earlier, I wouldn't have charged you."

"It's alright, sir. We should still accept the money. We're all working people, and you have a family to support too."

The driver nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, we are all working people."

After saying that, he didn't say anything more and focused on driving.

Compared to before, he was noticeably more taciturn.

After a while, Zhou Yi noticed that there were more houses on both sides of the road, so he asked, "Are we almost there?"

The driver nodded: "Yes, we're just ahead in Huangniu Town. The farmers' market is in the town."

"Okay, just wait for me outside the farmers' market in a bit."

"Don't you need me to follow you?" the driver asked eagerly. "If necessary, I can lend you a hand and stop bad guys."

Zhou Yi chuckled to himself. Ordinary people would think that if the police were out on the scene, it must be to catch bad guys.

Little did they know that bad guys aren't so easy to catch.

"No need, I'm not going to catch bad guys," Zhou Yi said with a smile. "I'm going to buy tofu."

(End of this chapter)