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

Chapter 498 Amateurs, please don't cause trouble.

Outside the Huangniu Town farmers' market, the driver sat in his vintage car, looking on with longing.

Zhou Yi had been inside for a while, and he didn't know what the situation was like.

Although Zhou Yi told him he was going to buy tofu, he didn't believe it at all. He thought tofu could be bought in Shacao Town, so why go all the way to Huangniu Town to buy it?

Therefore, the driver was certain that he had come to catch the bad guys.

He had even imagined Zhou Yi causing a ruckus at the farmers' market and bringing the bad guys to justice.

It's estimated that Zhou Yi will be bringing the prisoner out in a little while.

Therefore, he was even more nervous than Zhou Yi.

But after waiting and waiting, Zhou Yi finally came out from inside.

The problem is, he didn't bring any bad guys with him; he came out alone.

He just had several plastic bags in his hands, filled with something.

He stared intently at Zhou Yi until he sat in the passenger seat.

"How is it?" Zhou Yi asked impatiently as soon as he sat down.

"How about what?"

"Catch the bad guys!" the driver said excitedly.

Zhou Yi didn't answer him, but instead handed him several plastic bags of different colors.

The driver took it and asked, "What's this? Body parts?"

Zhou Yi had just taken a sip of water, but before he could swallow it, he spat it all out.

"Master, what are you thinking about?"

The driver opened the bag, paused for a moment, and turned to Zhou Yi with some disappointment, asking, "You...you really came to buy tofu?"

Because the bag Zhou Yi handed him contained a piece of tofu.

To be precise, each bag contained tofu.

Zhou Yi didn't take it seriously: "Oh, right, I said I came to buy tofu."

"Alright, so where are we going next? To the county?" The driver couldn't understand Zhou Yi's actions at all.

"Good morning. We'll head to these places next," Zhou Yi said, placing a piece of paper with several addresses written on it on the dashboard.

The driver picked it up and looked at it, then immediately became excited again.

"So you went to gather intelligence."

Although he didn't know what the address on the paper meant, he knew that Zhou Yi had just found it out.

That's right, Zhou Yi came to the farmers' market to investigate clues.

If you want to find someone to buy soybeans, you have to find someone to buy soybeans.

If you want to find soybean product workshops that buy soybeans, you have to look for small vendors who sell tofu.

So Zhou Yi came to the Huangniu Town farmers' market to look for clues.

He asked each and every household, searching one by one, refusing to believe he knew the answer range. He even tried searching backwards without finding anything.

If they can't find it today, they'll check again tomorrow; he just won't believe it.

He didn't ask in vain; he bought a piece of tofu from each shop he asked, since his current behavior wasn't exactly legitimate.

The problem is that farmers' markets usually sell the same type of products in one area.

So these bean product vendors would see him buy from one shop and then ask him about it.

When he bought from the fourth shop, the owner smiled and said, "Young man, just ask whatever you want, don't buy anything else. I just saw you telling someone that you're a policeman."

Zhou Yi showed his identification, but to avoid trouble, he only showed the police badge and did not open the box.

So he got four addresses from the farmers' market.

These are all workshops where merchants source their goods.

These days, let alone small towns, even in big cities, this kind of business wouldn't warrant mass production in factories.

Because the corresponding preservation and transportation capabilities are far from being developed.

The vendors told him that this was already a lot; in the old days there were only two.

The other two businesses started after seeing that others were doing well.

After clarifying the situation, Zhou Yi decided to go find the two veteran mentors first, since the case was from ten years ago.

After checking the address, the driver drove forward while looking for directions.

He was from Shacao Town. Although he often came to Huangniu Town, he was not as familiar with it as the people from his hometown.

"Master, how did you come to the conclusion that there were body parts inside?" Zhou Yi asked cautiously.

Because a normal person is unlikely to think in this direction, his professional habits led him to test the driver.

"To be honest, I love watching police and gangster movies, especially Hong Kong movies like 'Detective Investigation Files.' They're so good! Zhang Dayong, Li Zhongyi, and his girlfriend, Gao Jie."

Judging from the driver's excited chatter, he must be a true fan of police and gangster movies.

Zhou Yi breathed a sigh of relief; otherwise, he would have suspected that the driver might have killed someone in the past.

Soon, the driver found the first bean product workshop, which was not too far from the farmers' market, less than two kilometers away.

Seeing that the driver was about to get out of the car, Zhou Yi quickly pressed him down and told him to wait for her in the car.

The driver looked at Zhou Yi with a disappointed expression, like a resentful woman.

Zhou Yi ignored him; fellow amateurs shouldn't cause trouble.

This small workshop didn't even have a signboard; the word "tofu" was simply written in black ink on the outer wall.

Zhou Yi went inside; the room was dimly lit.

Two seconds later, he adjusted to his surroundings and could see the situation inside.

The room wasn't big; it mainly contained some old, handmade equipment, and raw materials were piled up in the corner.

On the left-hand side as you enter, there are several plates containing tofu and other soy products.

It was simply covered with white gauze, without any other hygiene precautions.

Zhou Yi noticed that there were quite a few flies.

But as the old saying goes, "A little dirt won't hurt you."

However, there was no one inside, since it wasn't the time to make tofu.

Those who do this job are a bit like those who sell breakfast. They usually work at night because they need to ensure the food is fresh and deliver it to the small vendors so they can catch the morning market.

So it's normal that work isn't starting during the day.

"Is anyone there?" Zhou Yi called out.

"They're here!" A voice came from the back door. It sounded young and spoke in the local dialect, but it was only two words, which Zhou Yi could still understand.

This is the outer room, with a courtyard behind it. After a while, a short young man walked in through the back door.

When I saw Zhou Yi, I was stunned for a moment.

Because the workshop deals in wholesale, not retail, there are rarely any unfamiliar faces.

"What do you want to buy?" the young man asked in his dialect.

Zhou Yi replied in Mandarin, "Excuse me, I'm not buying anything, I'm a police officer."

He then showed his identification, saying, "I'd like to ask you something."

Because it was too dark, the young man leaned closer, then saw the police badge on the badge and asked in surprise, "Wha...what's up?"

"Don't be nervous, I'm just here to ask about someone. I'm looking for someone who can supply you with soybeans."

"What does that mean?" The young man didn't understand.

"You make bean products, so you must buy the soybeans from other people, right? Are there those dealers who specialize in buying soybeans from farmers and then reselling them to you? I'm looking for someone who does this kind of business."

The young man nodded in sudden realization: "Let me think about it."

Seeing that the young man was probably not even twenty years old and would definitely not know about what happened ten years ago, Zhou Yi added, "I'm sorry, the person I'm looking for, I'm not sure if he still does soybean harvesting now, but he did it ten years ago. Why don't you ask your family members to come out and I'll ask them? I'm afraid you might not know."

"Sir? Wait a minute." The young man turned his head and called out a few times in dialect towards the back door. Zhou Yi couldn't understand it, but he knew the meaning. He only understood that the young man was calling for "Grandpa".

After a while, a hunchbacked old man in his seventies came out with a cane and spoke to the young man in dialect.

The young man pointed at Zhou Yi and said a few words. Zhou Yi immediately smiled at the old man and said, "Hello, sir, I'm a policeman. I'd like to ask you something."

"My grandpa can't speak Mandarin," the young man explained.

Therefore, the young man had to translate for the rest of the conversation.

This also led Zhou Yi to discover something that contradicted his own understanding.

When Zhou Yi clearly stated his request, saying that he wanted to find someone who had bought soybeans ten years ago and sold them to them, because he heard from people at the farmers' market that they were the people who had been making tofu the longest in Huangniu Township.

Unexpectedly, the old man replied that in the past, they did not buy soybeans from dealers, but went to the countryside to collect them during the day, then ground them into tofu at night, and then took the tofu to the market to sell the next day.

In other words, apart from planting soybeans, everything else is handled in a streamlined process.

This made Zhou Yi suddenly realize, "That's right, in the past, conditions were poor, so we did everything we could ourselves and earned whatever money we could. Buying soybeans from dealers was more expensive, so it was definitely better to go to the countryside and buy them ourselves."

It seems that my thinking is still limited by the times.

Moreover, he immediately thought of another matter, the case mentioned at the symposium in his previous life, which only mentioned that the murderer killed the victim when he went to the countryside to collect soybeans, but did not mention that the murderer's original identity was that of a tofu maker.

Perhaps it's because such details aren't necessary in case analyses, or perhaps... the murderer had actually long since stopped doing this kind of work thirty years after the crime.

Zhou Yi continued to think along these lines.

From the perspective of criminal psychology, after committing the murder, the killer could not be 100% certain whether there were any witnesses who saw him.

Human instincts drive people to seek advantage and avoid harm. Therefore, in order to avoid the risk of being suspected, the murderer would most likely give up his job of collecting soybeans in the countryside after the crime.

If what the old man said is true, he was originally a tofu maker who took over the business and started making tofu himself.

If we stop harvesting beans, we naturally can't make tofu.

He probably changed careers, so when the police arrested him, he only mentioned collecting soybeans.

So let alone twenty years from now, even ten years from now, the murderer should no longer be doing this kind of work.

Therefore, if you try to find the answer by following the normal line of thought, you may end up with nothing.

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi quickly asked the old man if there was a man who used to make tofu ten years ago but suddenly stopped, and who is now about fifty years old.

After the young man translated, the old man started talking incoherently, his expression somewhat agitated. It was clear that the person he was talking about probably had some past grievances with him.

But that's normal, after all, competitors are rivals.

But the real reason is not that competitors are enemies, but that competitors who have interests involved are enemies.

It all comes down to one word: profit!
The old man talked for a long time, and the young man was clearly getting impatient. He turned to Zhou Yi and gave him his name and address.

It's like when a leader goes on and on about "friends from afar," only to have the translation end with just one word: "welcome."

Zhou Yi thanked the two of them and then left.

"Zhang Gensheng..." Zhou Yi muttered as he walked back, "Finally found you!"

Before Zhou Yi even got close to the vintage car, he saw the driver eagerly get out and stare intently at him.

For a moment, Zhou Yi felt that this master was just like a husky.

"How's it going? Did you find it?" Based on his years of experience watching police and gangster movies, he already knew that Zhou Yi was definitely looking for the bad guys.

Zhou Yi was both amused and exasperated, and said, "Let's go."

The two got into the car, and the driver pointed to the note in front of them and said, "To the next place?"

Zhou Yi shook his head: "No need, let's go to Tuanjie Village."

The young man gave me the name Zhang Gensheng and the address of Tuanjie Village.

That's enough. He's going to meet this Zhang Gensheng.

If he is the murderer in the Huangniu Township murder case ten years ago, then today is his doomsday!

The driver was clearly more excited than Zhou Yi, and set off immediately.

Once they reached the main road, they turned around and asked, "Where is Tuanjie Village?"

Zhou Yi said helplessly, "I'm asking you."

Then the car slowed down again, and the two had to ask pedestrians on the roadside for directions.

The road to Tuanjie Village was getting bumpier and bumpier, and because of the old car, Zhou Yi felt that the car might fall apart at any moment.

However, the driver remained calm, saying that this was nothing, and that even though his car was old, he had driven on the most bumpy roads.

Less than ten minutes after saying that, the car stalled and wouldn't start no matter what I did.

The driver kept saying it was a minor issue and told Zhou Yi to wait a moment while he checked what the problem was.

Zhou Yi watched as he skillfully pulled a bag of tools from the car, then opened the hood and began inspecting it, and knew that his car had been in quite a few troubles.

Zhou Yi looked ahead and saw some low, earthen houses. Just then, an uncle pushed a wheelbarrow past.

Zhou Yi went up and asked how far it was from Tuanjie Village.

The uncle pointed to the distance in a thick local accent and said, "It's just ahead."

After thanking the driver, Zhou Yi told him that he would go ahead first. He said that if the car was fixed, the driver should wait at the entrance of the village ahead. If it couldn't be fixed, Zhou Yi didn't know what to do in this place.

The driver waved his hand dismissively, assuring him that it would be fixed in ten minutes.

Zhou Yi walked along the bumpy dirt road toward Tuanjie Village.

After entering the village, he asked around for Zhang Gensheng's address.

Just as Zhou Yi had predicted in Ge Fangfang's case, unfamiliar faces are very likely to arouse the vigilance of local villagers.

Zhou Yi could clearly feel the villagers looking at him with scrutinizing eyes. He regretted not bringing the driver along, since he was a local and it would be easier to question him.

But what's done is done, and there's no use in regretting it now.

Fortunately, when he asked at the third house, there was a little girl of eleven or twelve years old who could speak standard Mandarin and gave him directions.

Zhou Yi looked around and didn't see any adults, only this little girl doing housework, and a six or seven-year-old boy helping her.

"Little friend, are your parents not home?"

The little girl nodded: "Yes, Grandpa and Grandma went to work in the fields, and Dad and Mom work in the city."

So there are already left-behind children here. Zhou Yi reminded them to be careful at home.

Then we walked along the country road toward Zhang Gensheng's house.

The little girl told him that Zhang Gensheng's family raised a lot of chickens, had a big chicken coop, and it smelled terrible.

If you can smell chicken manure, it means you're almost there.

Sure enough, not long after, Zhou Yi smelled chicken droppings, accompanied by the noisy squawking of chickens.

It seems that Zhang Gensheng switched from running a tofu business to raising chickens.

That makes things easier. Zhou Yi hadn't even figured out what excuse to use to test the other party, or how to make up a story for the local county bureau afterwards.

Zhou Yi followed the smell of chicken droppings to a house with three low mud-brick rooms, two facing south and one facing east.

The chicken coop faced west and was made of broken wooden planks and wire mesh. The whole place, including the chicken coop and the small yard, was dirty and messy.

Zhou Yi covered his nose and called out, "Is anyone there?"

"Who is it?" a woman inside asked in dialect, and then a peasant woman wearing a headscarf came out.

Judging from his appearance, he's probably close to sixty, but people from the countryside often look older because they've weathered many storms.

Therefore, he speculated that the peasant woman was Zhang Gensheng's wife.

"Auntie, are you home alone?" Zhou Yi asked with a smile, glancing into the house at the same time.

"What do you do?" the peasant woman asked in confusion, speaking in her local dialect but trying to incorporate a bit of Mandarin into her speech.

"You're here to buy chickens? I've heard that your chickens are very well raised."

Upon hearing that she wanted to buy chickens, the farmer's wife smiled through her dark wrinkles and asked, "Are you Shuanzi's friend?"

Zhou Yi didn't know who Shuanzi was, but since the other party had said so, it was a good opportunity to build rapport, so he nodded and said, "Yes, I heard it from Shuanzi."

"Wait a minute," the peasant woman said, shouting twice at the top of her lungs.

Zhou Yi immediately became fully alert, because she was calling out Zhang Gensheng's name.

After a while, Zhou Yi saw the back door of the middle room facing south open, and a figure carrying a hoe walked in through the back door.

"What's wrong? Why are you shouting like that?" The man tossed the hoe against the wall, wiped his sweat with the towel around his neck, and asked impatiently.

The peasant woman pointed at Zhou Yi and said, "Shuanzi's friend, here to buy chickens."

Upon hearing this, the man quickly came out.

Zhou Yi finally got a clear look at the other person's appearance: short and stocky, with a round face, dark skin, and sparse white hair at the temples.

He looks like a very ordinary farmer.

But Zhou Yi keenly noticed a subtle anomaly.

When the man looked at himself, his right upper eyelid tightened slightly because the muscles below his brow bone bulged slightly.

This is an instinctive micro-reaction stemming from a guarded attitude towards oneself.

Under normal circumstances, when a person is relaxed, the upper eyelid droops naturally.

Zhou Yi was all too familiar with this reaction; only fugitives who had committed crimes would react this way.

This is different from people who are born with a bad temper. There are naturally people with bad tempers, but their first reaction when they see a stranger is not wariness, but hostility.

Hostility means I'll attack you at any time.

But the precaution is that I first determine whether you have any ill intentions towards me, and then I decide what to do.

"Are you Shuanzi's friend?" Zhang Gensheng asked.

Zhou Yi smiled sincerely and said, "Yes, Uncle, I've finally found you."

(End of this chapter)