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

Chapter 537 A document

Ding Chunmei said that after saying goodbye to Zhou Yi in Hongcheng, she came to Wuguang.

First, I rented a place and settled down.

Then, through a friend's introduction, I successfully joined the Wuguang Metropolitan Daily.

However, the main reason she was able to get the job so smoothly, besides being recommended by acquaintances and having previous work experience at Hongcheng TV Station, was that she signed a labor contract.

These are what are known as contract workers, those without official positions.

From this point of view alone, her sacrifice was enormous.

Zhou Yi remembered that she had said that she had joined Hongcheng TV Station through campus recruitment and started as an intern, which meant she was guaranteed a permanent position.

In state-owned enterprises, having a formal employment status gives you a superior position.

After successfully joining the company, she was mainly responsible for the news section on people's livelihood, which was her area of ​​expertise.

More importantly, Li Chong was a reporter for this section of the Wuguang Metropolitan Daily before his death.

Because in their past communications, Li Chong had mentioned his work content and focus, as well as the training and recognition he received from the newspaper's leaders.

Six months ago, Li Chong confidently told her in a letter that the leaders thought he was proactive, self-motivated, and capable, and that he should be able to be promoted to associate senior professional title by the end of the year.

Unexpectedly, six months later, instead of good news, bad news came.

Ding Chunmei said that she kept Zhou Yi's words in mind and did not rush to investigate Li Chong's matter after joining the company. Instead, she focused on securing her job at the newspaper.

Because she also knew that if she left the newspaper, there would be no way to investigate the matter concerning Li Chong.

"Have you mentioned Li Chong to anyone at the newspaper?" Zhou Yi asked.

Ding Chunmei shook her head: "No, I have never mentioned my senior brother's name on my own initiative."

"After you joined the newspaper, did anyone intentionally or unintentionally mention Li Chong to you?"

"No, not at all." Ding Chunmei said with a hint of sadness in her eyes, "In fact, for more than a month, no one in the newspaper has mentioned my senior brother's name."

Zhou Yi wasn't surprised by this; after death, everything is the same, and in the workplace, everyone is just a colleague.

Perhaps in the immediate aftermath of Li Chong's suicide, many people would have discussed it privately and gossiped about it.

But after a while, everyone went back to doing what they were supposed to do.

Moreover, in state-owned enterprises, one must be even more careful in speaking and acting.

The fact that no one mentioned it to her means that no one has ever doubted Ding Chunmei's identity.

Then, Ding Chunmei added, "Strangely, not only has no one mentioned my senior brother, but I haven't found a single page of his past information either."

Ding Chunmei explained that the newspaper's news workflow involves reporters submitting their first drafts, signing off on the drafts, and then handing them over to the editorial department for review.

The editorial department has a three-stage review and proofreading process to ensure the accuracy and quality of the press release, as well as to assess the authenticity and news value of the content, thereby determining whether to publish it, its placement on the page, and its priority.

She made an excuse to check the records of past issues of the Wu Guang Metropolitan Daily, because according to regulations, the original and finished copies of each issue of the newspaper must be preserved for easy verification and comparison.

To put it bluntly, it's about holding people accountable after something goes wrong.

Newspapers are something you can only find the latest ones on the market; the old ones are usually either pasted on windows or walls, or lying in the latrine.

Only the newspaper's archives have the most complete collection.

“I have confirmed that there were articles written by my senior in the newspapers that had already been published, and his name was listed as the byline.”

"What kind of information are you referring to?" Zhou Yi asked.

Ding Chunmei said, "It refers to those articles that were not published. Journalists can't just write whatever they want and get it published. Many times, the news articles that journalists write are not published for various reasons."

Zhou Yi instantly understood what she meant.

Ding Chunmei continued, "There are some differences between television stations and newspapers. In a newspaper, a reporter's article will go through three levels of review: the editor, the director, and the editor-in-chief."

“In normal work, if a reporter thinks a news story is valuable, he will communicate with the editor in his department. After reaching an agreement, the editor will submit the first draft. After the editor reviews and modifies it, it will be submitted to the head editor or editor-in-chief in charge of the department for review.”

"Only after the editor-in-chief approves it will it be submitted to the editor-in-chief. Finally, only with the editor-in-chief's approval can the news be published."

“Besides the first round of review, there will inevitably be some rejected drafts during the second and third rounds of review,” Ding Chunmei said worriedly. “So far, I haven’t found a single rejected draft left by my senior.”

Zhou Yi recalled that Ding Chunmei was 25 years old and had been working for two or three years. Li Chong was two years older than her, so he should have had about five years of work experience.

Unlike later years, job hopping was not as frequent in the 1990s. Many college graduates would stay in one company for a long time after graduation and internships.

If Li Chong had worked at the Wuguang Metropolitan Daily for five years, it's impossible that he wouldn't have left behind a single page of discarded manuscripts.

"Could it be that his family took all his belongings when they came to collect them?" Zhou Yi asked. "Have you contacted his family?"

Ding Chunmei's eyes reddened slightly, and she shook her head, saying, "I don't have his family's contact information."

Then he added, "Even if his family took away his personal belongings, these drafts do not belong to him personally, and it is impossible for his family to take them away."

Zhou Yi thought it made sense. Ding Chunmei had said that when a press release is published, a list must be provided, and such a list would not be allowed to be taken away by the family.

Have you found any other people's rejected drafts?

Ding Chunmei replied, "Yes."

From this perspective, the matter becomes quite clear.

Li Chong must have discovered something and was planning to write a news report about it and make it public.

Exposing problems is the mission of journalists, and also their weapon.

However, it encountered resistance during internal review and the manuscript was withdrawn.

Thus, this manuscript became his death warrant.

Li Chong's "suicide by jumping off a building" was to kill someone to cover his tracks, and cleaning up the discarded drafts was to destroy evidence.

It's still unknown what Li Chong discovered, but it's definitely not a criminal case like murder or arson, otherwise, given his personality, he would have called the police immediately.

It must be some kind of socially significant news, and a serious one at that, to warrant such a fatal outcome.

There's definitely a mole inside the newspaper.

Retracting manuscripts and cleaning up discarded drafts are tasks that outsiders can't handle.

Moreover, this mole must be at least the editor-in-chief of the newspaper; otherwise, he wouldn't have the power to pressure Li Chong.

"Ding Chunmei, who is in charge of the People's Livelihood News section? Tell me their information." After saying that, Zhou Yi waved his hand, opened his suitcase, took out paper and pen, and handed them to Ding Chunmei.

"Not only the person in charge of the local news section, but also the names and information of other leaders in your newspaper. Write them all down, as far as you know."

Ding Chunmei took the paper and pen and nodded.

"Oh, and when you called me earlier, write down who was nearby, and I'll look them up later."

Ding Chunmei nodded repeatedly and began to write.

As someone who works with words, Ding Chunmei writes very quickly and her handwriting is also very beautiful.

Moreover, Zhou Yi discovered that she not only wrote down her name, but also her gender, approximate age, job title, responsibilities, height, and physical characteristics.

After finishing writing, she handed it to Zhou Yi and said, "There are some details I'm not sure about. I can add more later."

Zhou Yi took it and looked at it, saying, "No need, just having the name is enough. I'll look up the rest."

He paused for a moment when he saw the name of the editor-in-chief of the local news section. The man's name was Qi Dongqiang.

He casually asked, "Does this Director Qi have an older brother?"

"Huh?" Ding Chunmei shook her head in confusion, "I'm not quite sure about that."

"His brother might be named Qi Delong."

Ding Chunmei was clearly still unaware of what was going on, since this joke didn't appear until the 2008 Spring Festival Gala.

"Officer Zhou, how did you know that?"

Zhou Yi smiled and said, "I'm just guessing. Qi Delong, Qi Dongqiang, Qi Delong Dongqiang, right?"

Ding Chunmei then understood, and burst out laughing, which eased the atmosphere slightly.

Zhou Yi folded the paper and put it away, then continued, "Did you meet the editor-in-chief and chief editor during your interview?"

"I met with Editor-in-Chief Qi. He was in charge of the interviews. Originally, it was said that Editor-in-Chief Hu Guangwei would have a few words with me before making a decision, but later the newspaper informed me that Editor-in-Chief Hu was away on a business trip, so he wouldn't be able to talk to me and I should go directly to the newspaper office to report for duty."

"Did Editor Qi ask about your school during the interview?"

"Yes, I asked. But I didn't mention my senior, and he didn't say anything like there are people from your school here either."

Zhou Yi nodded. Theoretically, it's a bit far-fetched to suspect a relationship between the two just because they graduated from the same school.

Besides, Ding Chunmei and Li Chong were not in the same graduating class; after all, the school has graduates every year.

What's truly strange is that Ding Chunmei resigned from her tenured job at Hongcheng TV and came to Wuguang, which raises even more suspicion.

She wasn't from Wuguang, and she didn't have any relatives or friends here.

If the mole within the newspaper is truly vigilant, it's not impossible that he would suspect her.

"By the way, how do you explain your departure from the TV station?" Zhou Yi asked, this was crucial.

Ding Chunmei said somewhat embarrassedly, "I lied and said... I was sexually harassed by a certain leader, and he even secretly made things difficult for me, leaving me with no choice but to leave the TV station."

“Oh, that reason… is acceptable,” Zhou Yi said. Because this kind of thing is quite private, and she certainly couldn’t name names, it would be difficult to get a reliable answer even if one wanted to inquire.

Ding Chunmei wasn't the most beautiful girl, but she had regular features, a clean and refined demeanor, and shoulder-length short hair, which gave her a dashing and heroic aura.

Using this as an excuse is also convincing.

"So during your time at the newspaper, you didn't reveal your relationship with Li Chong, nor did you inquire about Li Chong, and no one intentionally or unintentionally tested you?"

Faced with Zhou Yi's questions, Ding Chunmei shook her head repeatedly.

Zhou Yi asked seriously, "Since you haven't been exposed, why did you go to the place where Li Chong used to rent a house to ask the landlord about the situation?"

After Ding Chunmei arrived in Wuguang, she seemed to heed my advice and was very careful.

Although she had checked Li Chong's old articles at the newspaper office, she couldn't find them, so no one else knew what she was looking for.

In this situation, why did she suddenly choose to go to Li Chong's rented apartment to inquire?

Zhou Yi couldn't understand.

He knew that the two had been in communication for a long time, so it was reasonable for him to know Li Chong's address.

But now is not the time.

Moreover, Li Chong's remains and belongings have already been taken away by his family, so what is the point of her going there again?
"Officer Zhou, I know I shouldn't have done this, but... I found a letter."

"Faith? What faith?"

"An anonymous letter was sent to the newspaper office, and the recipient was my senior's name."

Ding Chunmei said that on July 24th, her colleague asked her to help sort out the mail.

The newspaper received a large number of letters every day, which was a common phenomenon before the internet became widespread.

There were submissions, suggestions, praise, and criticism; newspapers and magazines also had reply slips or prize draws.

Therefore, any large newspaper or magazine would receive a flood of letters.

Ding Chunmei said that important work-related letters are usually sent by registered mail.

Therefore, most of the mail sent by regular mail is not important and needs to be sorted regularly, just like it was at the TV station before.

Among a large pile of letters, she inadvertently saw one that simply read "To Li Chong, Wuguang Metropolitan Daily," without a signature.

She was startled, because this was the first time she had ever seen information related to Li Chong at the newspaper.

When no one was looking, she secretly hid the letter.

That day she was completely distracted, her heart pounding.

She wanted to find an excuse to go out and see what the letter actually said.

But I'm afraid of being discovered.

She finally made it off work and rushed back to her rented room. After closing the door, she opened the letter with trembling hands.

There was only one sheet of paper inside, with two lines of text written on it.

—Reporter Li, please keep that document safe; it's more important than our lives.

—8 PM on July 30th, meet at the usual spot by Donglin Bridge. I've found someone willing to help us, and things will soon be clear.

There was no signature, no other trace.

Ding Chunmei said that her mind went blank at that moment.

She burst into tears when she saw the phrase "more important than your and my lives".

After crying, she held the letter, overwhelmed with emotion.

Because the letter contained several important pieces of information in just two short lines.

First, Li Chong possessed a very important document.

Secondly, the person who sent the letter was very close to Li Chong; at least in this matter, they were comrades-in-arms.

Third, this person has arranged to meet with Li Chong, so this person must know a lot about Li Chong. As long as they keep the appointment, things will be much easier. Moreover, this person must have found some very strong allies who can resolve the matter behind the scenes.

She was so excited that she barely slept all night, because she was trying to figure out where the document mentioned in the letter was.

This document is undoubtedly the key to everything, but the problem lies in the tone of the letter writer, and the document is in Li Chong's hands.

There was definitely no newspaper office; not even a single old, discarded draft remained.

It could be among Li Chong's personal belongings, but she doesn't have his family's contact information, so she can't confirm it.

However, after careful consideration, she felt that it was unlikely that the document was among the belongings.

If this document truly concerned the life and death of two people, Li Chong would definitely have hidden it.

After thinking it over, she could only think of one place: the rented room where Li Chong had lived for several years.

So the next day at daybreak, she couldn't wait to rush to the place where Li Chong had lived.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yi exclaimed in surprise, "This letter is a trap!"

(End of this chapter)