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

Chapter 499 Fishhook
Zhang Gensheng sized up the "uninvited guest" before him and asked, "Are you from the city?"

Zhang Gensheng's Mandarin is much better than his wife's, although it also has a strong accent.

“Yes, I’m from the city,” Zhou Yi replied with a smile.

Zhang Gensheng's wife, who was standing nearby, asked impatiently, "How is Shuanzi? What is he doing in the city now?"

Zhang Gensheng immediately pulled her into the house, cursing her a couple of times as if to say that there was still some work to be done and that she should go and do it.

But it was clearly just to get his wife away.

"What did Shuanzi say to you?" Zhang Gensheng asked, while his body made a slight backward leaning motion.

This is a reaction that indicates you're ready to run at any moment.

No wonder this beast was able to hide for thirty years; it really is true that caution is the best policy.

However, Zhou Yi already had a feeling about it. He guessed it from the peasant woman's eagerness to ask about "Shuanzi's" situation and the tone of her voice.

This plug must belong to their son.

It's just impossible to determine how many sons they had, or whether this Shuanzi was the one who later went to jail and "brought shame to his father."

Faced with Zhang Gensheng's question, Zhou Yi calmly replied, "Shuanzi told me that the chickens they raise are all natural, very healthy, and of very good quality. He especially said that Uncle, your chickens are famous for miles around."

As he spoke, he gave Zhang Gensheng a thumbs up.

Zhang Gensheng was stunned when he heard Zhou Yi's words.

Zhou Yi immediately realized he was in trouble, thinking to himself, "Oh no, I've been flattered too much."

Just when he thought things were about to go wrong, Zhang Gensheng suddenly couldn't help but grin and say, "Did my Shuanzi really say that?"

Zhou Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

"This brat has some conscience at least; he knows his dad doesn't earn money easily. I'm not bragging, but my chickens are fed better than people. I feed them fine grains. Look at their plumage, look at their quality."

Seeing his smug expression and lowered guard, Zhou Yi knew that the other party believed him.

In fact, from the moment the peasant woman uttered the word "Shuanzi," Zhou Yi knew that this was an easy way to fool her.

After all, this is not the era twenty years from now, when you can buy a smartphone from a major brand for 599 yuan, when network coverage is ubiquitous, and when elderly people in rural areas are having the time of their lives watching short videos.

In 1997, rural people were practically blind; their only sources of information were radio and television. And in the Northwest, not every household had a television.

Therefore, once young people go out to work, they are basically cut off from their families. Even if they come back occasionally, they can't talk about many details.

Especially for those who are not doing well, after all, we have only heard of people being afraid of "wearing fine clothes in the dark", not of a drowning dog showing off how wet he is.

In addition, Zhou Yi speculated that someone like Zhang Gensheng's son, who didn't study hard in school and ended up in prison as an adult, couldn't possibly stay in such a small place.

So I took a gamble.

In fact, the gamble paid off, thus successfully dispelling Zhang Gensheng's suspicions.

However, Zhou Yi knew he couldn't let his guard down, as the other party was a murderer who had been on the run for thirty years in his previous life.

As expected, after showing off his listless chickens for a while, Zhang Gensheng casually asked, "Young man, what's your name?"

Zhou Yi calmly replied, "My surname is Sun, you can just call me Xiao Sun."

"Oh, Xiao Sun, judging from your accent, you're not from around here?"

"Yes, she's not from here. But my girlfriend is from our former Beixian County."

Which village are you from?

“It’s in Yangjiagou, the town next to ours, Shacao Town. Go west after entering the village, and that’s the third house. That’s my girlfriend’s house. I just happened to be coming back with her, and I remembered that Shuanzi said your chickens are good, so I thought I’d buy some for our restaurant.” Zhou Yi said, taking out a cigarette and handing it to him.

Zhang Gensheng asked in surprise, "You own a restaurant?"

Zhou Yi laughed heartily: "Uncle, you're so funny. Look at me, I don't look like a boss at all. I'm just someone who runs errands for the boss."

"Oh... I was wondering why you didn't look like a big boss. Besides, with my son Shuanzi's personality, he'd never have any contact with bosses."

Zhang Gensheng took a puff of the cigarette Zhou Yi had given him and nodded in approval.

"Let me tell you, if you want to buy chickens, you've come to the right place. Those country bumpkins in the city, what good food have they ever eaten? They're all fast-grown, fed feed like crazy. They can't compare to mine at all."

Zhou Yi sneered inwardly. "These few droopy chickens of yours, I'd be afraid they'd be sick if you gave them to me to eat."

But he asked earnestly, "Uncle, how much are your chickens?"

Upon hearing that the price was being discussed, Zhang Gensheng immediately perked up and said, "You're Shuanzi's friend, so I won't rip you off. These free-range chickens I raise myself usually sell for thirty-one each, but I'll give them to you for twenty-one today. Your boss runs a restaurant, right? Take all of these. I also have a basket of free-range eggs in my house; consider it a gift from your uncle."

Zhang Gensheng spoke with great enthusiasm, but Zhou Yi cursed inwardly.

This guy is a real rip-off. He really thinks I'm a sucker. At the prices here, a chicken only costs eight to ten yuan at the farmers' market. This bastard not only doubled the price, but also acted like he was the one who was losing out.

"Uncle, this price is a little bit high."

"If you're going to put on an act, do it properly," Zhou Yi said, feigning difficulty.

"This isn't tall at all. I feed my animals with refined grains, which are very nutritious."

"How about this? My boss's budget for me is eighteen yuan a chicken. I can buy all the chickens you have, but I can only give you fifteen yuan. But you have to give me a receipt..." Zhou Yi said with a mischievous smile, "The receipt has to say eighteen yuan a chicken, okay?"

Zhang Gensheng understood instantly, and pointed at the other person with a wicked grin.

Actually, I was overjoyed. Fifteen yuan a piece, I made a killing!

A couple of days ago, someone wanted to buy them, but he offered five yuan each, and the person turned around and left.

This is like the God of Wealth sending money to me, sending me such a sucker.

Zhang Gensheng looked conflicted and reluctantly said, "For Shuanzi's sake, fine! But you have to agree on this: you have to take all the chickens in here."

"Well, I want them all."

Zhang Gensheng suddenly asked, "Little Sun, how did you get here? How are you going to take all these chickens with you?"

Zhou Yi pointed in the direction of the village entrance and said, "My friend drove here, but there was a small problem. He's fixing it, and it'll be fine in a bit."

"That's good. Let me count how many there are in total," Zhang Gensheng said excitedly as he stubbed out his cigarette.

"By the way, Xiao Sun, are you paying today?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi immediately took out her wallet, deliberately showing off the several hundred-yuan bills inside, and said, "Of course, look, I brought all my money with me."

Upon seeing the money, Zhang Gensheng beamed with joy, readily agreeing, and then began to seriously count the chickens.

Zhou Yi knew that his plan was only just beginning.

"Uncle, why doesn't Shuanzi stay home and raise chickens with you?" Zhou Yi asked casually.

"With his pathetic appearance, raising chickens? Forget it, as long as he doesn't cause me any trouble. Sigh... I was hoping he would make something of himself, but he dropped out of school halfway through, which infuriated his mother and me."

As Zhang Gensheng counted, he kept rambling on and on, and even brought up the matter of Shuanzi dropping out of school.

Zhou Yi knew that this was the absurd reason why he killed someone in a fit of rage ten years ago.

Since you brought it up yourself, that's perfect.

Zhou Yi blurted out, "Hey, I don't like going to school either. I get sleepy as soon as I see a book, and I just can't concentrate on reading. I don't want to study!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Gensheng, who was counting, suddenly paused, turned to look at Zhou Yi, and asked with some suspicion in his voice, "Really?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Zhou Yi noticed Zhang Gensheng looking at him. He knew that the other party had taken the bait.

Although Zhou Yi is not a top student from a prestigious university like Lu Xiaoshuang, she is a model of upright character and integrity.

My grandfather was a veteran of the War of Resistance against Japan, my parents were steelworkers, and he was a policeman—a policeman for two generations.

He exudes a sense of righteousness.

To put it bluntly, someone like him wouldn't be fit to be an undercover agent, because he'd be too easy to arouse suspicion.

However, Zhang Gensheng was blinded by the unexpected windfall, and now, after hearing Zhou Yi's words, he couldn't help but have some doubts.

Then he heard Zhou Yi continue, "My cousin is a good student, and the adults in my family have always liked to compare me to him since I was little, saying that he's good at this and that, and that I'm nothing. But it really made me angry, and I was filled with resentment. Then one night, he came home late from school, so I secretly followed him. When we got to a secluded place, I picked up half a brick and smashed it on the back of his head."

Zhou Yi deliberately gritted his teeth and said viciously, "I'll make you study hard, I'll make you go to university, I'll make you live a good life in the future. I kicked and punched you, and I felt so good."

When Zhou Yi said this, he turned to look at Zhang Gensheng.

Then they noticed that Zhang Gensheng's face had turned black.

Zhou Yi knew that the fish had bitten the hook and was dead.

These words were said on purpose to him, to deliberately provoke him.

This is both a fishing hook and a test for Zhou Yi to finally determine whether Zhang Gensheng is the murderer in the case ten years ago.

The facts are already clear.

His eyes betrayed him.

His eyes held fear, tension, wariness, and a hint of ferocity. This was not the look a normal person would have.

"Uncle, are you done counting?" Zhou Yi asked, pretending not to know anything.

Zhang Gensheng snapped out of his daze and said somewhat flusteredly, "I...I didn't count it all. Why don't you count it again? I'll go inside and get some paper and pen to write you a receipt."

"Okay, thank you for your help."

Zhang Gensheng forced a smile and said, "It's alright, you count first, count them clearly."

He turned around and walked into the east-facing room, his face filled with murderous intent.

Zhou Yi stood in front of the chicken coop, smelling the chicken droppings and looking at the filthy chickens inside, knowing that success or failure depended on this one move.

He first lowered Zhang Gensheng's guard and made him relax his vigilance.

Then, when he was most relaxed, Zhou Yi suddenly recounted a scene that resembled a murder he had committed, in an attempt to provoke him.

This sudden shift from relaxation to tension can push a suspicious person to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

If you start asking all sorts of questions right away, it's easy to arouse the other party's suspicion. Once they're on guard, they can just kick you out, and there's nothing they can do about it.

Given Zhou Yi's current unique situation, it's impossible for him to resort to "setting up a private court" to force Zhang Gensheng to talk in order to gain the opportunity to participate in the investigation of the Xipinggou case.

If you try to slowly extract information, the uncertainty is too high, and there isn't enough time.

Therefore, the best way is to force Zhang Gensheng to have the idea of ​​killing him to silence him.

Caught red-handed!
This is the only way to capture the other party immediately and then pry them open!

Zhou Yi was confident that as long as he was prepared, subduing a farmer in his fifties would be no problem at all.

So from the moment Zhang Gensheng turned to leave, Zhou Yi was on high alert, paying close attention to every move behind him.

The chicken coop faces west, so he is currently standing with his face to the east and his back to the west. He appears to be slowly counting the chickens in the coop.

But in reality, his gaze was fixed on the ground, because it was afternoon, the sun was in the west, and the sunlight was coming from behind him, so his shadow was stretched forward.

He was waiting, waiting for Zhang Gensheng's shadow to appear.

His prediction soon came true.

There was no sound from behind, but a shadow slowly appeared on the ground.

Zhou Yi knew that Zhang Gensheng was about to make a move.

He saw the shadow holding something in its hand, and it was already getting close to him.

He knew the time had come.

"This number is wrong." Zhou Yi muttered to himself, but suddenly turned around.

At the same time, Zhang Gensheng brought down his sickle!

If Zhou Yi hadn't been on guard and hadn't noticed the shadow, and hadn't dodged while turning around, the blade would have been aimed squarely at his head.

That old man went too far; he was trying to kill me with one blow.

With a "bang," the sickle struck the wooden planks of the chicken coop, startling the chickens inside, who immediately sprang to life, running around frantically and squawking.

How could Zhou Yi give him time to retaliate? He suddenly delivered an elbow strike, slamming it down hard on the hand holding the sickle.

Zhang Gensheng let out a scream as the sickle slipped from his hand.

The next second, Zhou Yi used his elbow as a hand, grabbed his injured hand with both hands, and with a backhand grappling move, he pushed the man down and pressed his knee firmly against his back.

Zhou Yi had used this move many times, because it was the move he was most proficient in at the police academy, and it was also the most useful move when arresting people.

It appears simple and unadorned, but it can effectively restrict the opponent's movements; Zhou Yi has already developed muscle memory for it.

Zhang Gensheng was pinned down and couldn't move at all. With the slightest force, his twisted arm joints felt like they were about to break, causing him excruciating pain.

He kept screaming and cursing in his dialect, but Zhou Yi kept pressing him to the ground.

The yard was just ordinary land, and there was a lot of dried chicken droppings on the ground, which had now covered his face!
The peasant woman who was hoeing the land in her private plot behind the house heard the commotion and rushed over.

Upon seeing her husband pinned to the ground, she frantically screamed in her dialect.

Zhang Gensheng, lying on the ground, shouted in dialect, "Hit him! Kill him!"

Although the peasant woman was holding a hoe, she was clearly terrified, hesitating and unsure whether to lift it or not.

Zhou Yi turned and glared at him, then shouted, "Police! Put down your weapons!"

With a dull thud, the farmer's hoe struck the ground.

The word "police" made Zhang Gensheng forget to struggle.

"Zhang Gensheng, what were you doing when you went to the countryside to collect soybeans ten years ago?" Zhou Yi twisted his hand and questioned him sternly.

"How...how did you know?" Zhang Gensheng instinctively asked, revealing his lack of confidence.

He was just good at hiding; he wasn't particularly cunning or scheming.

Zhou Yi said coldly, "Confess honestly! What did you do back then? Don't think no one saw it; God is watching!"

Zhang Gensheng said with a mournful face, "I really didn't mean to kill him. I was just angry and couldn't stand his smug face, so I wanted to teach that kid a lesson. I... I didn't expect that once I put the weight down, he wouldn't move."

“I was startled. Seeing that no one was around, I dragged him to the cowshed next door and then ran away.”

"I heard later that the kid died." Zhang Gensheng looked like he was about to cry, and slapped the ground with his face, shouting, "Officer, it's not my fault, he was just too weak. My son Shuanzi got beaten a lot by me when he was a kid, and he's still fine."

Zhang Gensheng's heartfelt "confession" infuriated Zhou Yi to the point of gritting his teeth.

In his eyes, the responsibility actually lies with the victim because the victim was too weak to withstand a beating!

"Zhang Gensheng, ten years ago you killed an innocent child, and now you intend to kill me. You have committed countless evil deeds and your sins are heinous. Just wait for the judgment of the law!" It was a pity that Zhou Yi was not wearing handcuffs, otherwise, handcuffing him at this moment would have been a huge deterrent.

"Get up!" He pulled the man up from the ground.

At this point, Zhang Gensheng was completely limp.

Zhou Yi pointed to the sickle stuck in the chicken coop and said to the farmer, "You're not allowed to touch this knife, or anything around it. Leave it as it is! Touching it is illegal, understand?"

The peasant woman, stunned and speechless, nodded mechanically.

……

On the road at the village entrance, the driver wiped the sweat from his forehead, then ran back to the driver's seat to try it out, and found that the car could start normally again.

Overjoyed, he ran out of the car to close the hood.

Just as I closed the door and was about to get in the car and drive towards the village, I saw Zhou Yi return.

His eyes lit up immediately, because this time Zhou Yi wasn't carrying a plastic bag.

Instead, they were holding someone captive.

The person he was holding by the back was covered in dirt, with his head down, and his legs seemed to be out of his control as Zhou Yi pushed him forward.

The driver was overjoyed and ran over, jumping and skipping, asking excitedly, "Is it him? Did you really catch him this time?"

Zhou Yi's face was originally ashen, but he was amused by the driver's comical behavior and asked with a smile, "Sir, is there a rope in the car?"

The driver retorted, "Don't you have handcuffs?"

"I was on temporary assignment; I was on vacation," Zhou Yi said vaguely.

The driver remembered what Lu Guohua had said when he asked him to pick up the person, and immediately believed Zhou Yi, nodding repeatedly. "Yes, yes, yes, will the hemp rope used for tying up pigs work?"

"Row!"

The driver jogged back to the car to get the rope.

In no time, with the driver's cooperation, Zhang Gensheng was tied up.

When they tied his hands, the driver tightened the rope with all his might, causing Zhang Gensheng to scream in pain.

Zhou Yi told him to just tie him up properly; if he tied him up too tightly, the blood wouldn't circulate properly and he would die.

Although the driver loosened his grip, he muttered, "These kinds of bad guys deserve to have their hands chopped off and their feet stomped off!"

Knowing the car was repaired, Zhou Yi put the tied-up Zhang Gensheng in the back seat, and then sat in the back seat himself to watch.

Tell the driver to go directly to the county, to the county public security bureau!

Although he had only lent a hand to tie someone up, the driver, who had just had his fill of fun, was more excited than anyone else.

One step on the gas, one turn of the steering wheel.

This old car, which was almost falling apart, actually did a beautiful drift on the spot, and then sped away, kicking up a cloud of dust!

(End of this chapter)