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

Chapter 558 Accidental Injury
Director Wang said that Qin Chao comes from a single-parent family; his parents are divorced, and he usually lives with his mother.

Although his parents were divorced, Qin Chao's family was not poor, because both his parents had good jobs and the family was well-off.

This is actually the reality for most families of students attending art schools; their circumstances may not be great, but they won't be too bad either.

Because children from poor families couldn't afford to study art, especially in the late 1990s.

After listening to Zhou Yi's analysis yesterday, Director Wang asked Teacher Tian, ​​the homeroom teacher of Art Class 2 (1), to go to Qin Chao's home for a home visit with him.

Judging from his demeanor when he spoke about this, Zhou Yi guessed that Director Wang was planning to interrogate Qin Chao thoroughly and force him to admit to spreading rumors about Zhu Lingling.

This way, he can make a good impression on the school leaders.

After all, student management was his job, and to be able to "see through every trick in the book" and "discover every male student's schemes" was quite a prestigious thing.

But when they arrived, they found that no one was home at Qin Chao's house.

I asked their downstairs neighbors and learned that Qin Chao's mother was very busy with work and often worked overtime and came home late.

As for Qin Chao, he may have gone out to play ball, but the neighbors don't know exactly where he is.

Director Wang left the school after Zhou Yi and the others left, so it was still early at the time.

After hearing from Teacher Tian that Zhu Lingling's home was not far away, Director Wang decided to visit Zhu Lingling's home first, and then come to find Qin Chao after that.

Director Wang has never been to Zhu Lingling's home, or rather, home visits are not his responsibility; they are usually the job of the homeroom teacher.

If the head of the teaching affairs office really has to make a home visit, it's unlikely to end well.

Therefore, Zhu Lingling's grandmother was very apprehensive about the arrival of the two children, and kept saying that the two children's parents were working abroad, and she could only take care of the children's food and drink, and could not take care of their studies.

He even asked anxiously if Lingling had done something wrong at school.

"Later, the old lady said she wanted to cook, so Teacher Tian and I had a private talk with Zhu Lingling." Director Wang said excitedly, "Officer Zhou, you were right! Zhu Lingling admitted that Qin Chao really liked her, secretly wrote her love letters, and even secretly slipped gifts into her schoolbag."

Zhou Yi was not surprised by the result and asked, "Did Qin Chao formally confess his feelings to her? Or rather, formally declare his pursuit of her?"

Director Wang shook his head, but then grimaced halfway through, so he had to give up and said, "No, Zhu Lingling said that Qin Chao has never expressed his feelings for her in public, it's all done secretly."

Shen Jiale asked in confusion, "They've already written love letters, doesn't that count?"

Before Director Wang could answer, Zhou Yi said, "The love letter wasn't signed, was it?"

Director Wang's eyes lit up immediately: "Officer Zhou, you're amazing. Yes, including the love letters and the little gifts, Zhu Lingling said they were all done behind the scenes."

"Then how did she know it was Qin Chao and not someone else?" Shen Jiale asked again.

Zhou Yi smiled to himself, thinking to himself that this kid was quite naive.

Director Wang replied, "Officer Shen, don't think these students are just kids. Some young people these days have very complicated minds. Take Qin Chao for example, Zhu Lingling said he was stalking her."

"track?"

“Yes, local students here can choose to be day students, while students from other places are required to live on campus. So Zhu Lingling and Qin Chao are both day students. Zhu Lingling told us that Qin Chao often followed her after school, and she caught him three times. In addition, she secretly compared the handwriting during PE class, so she confirmed that these love letters and gifts were all from Qin Chao.”

Hearing this, Zhou Yi frowned. Director Wang had previously said that Qin Chao was introverted, but now it seemed that he was more than just introverted.

Secretly sending love letters and gifts is understandable; after all, which girl doesn't dream of love, and which boy doesn't feel romantic?

The fact that it's traceable presents some problems.

If it's just occasional tracking, it's not a big problem. People might do it out of curiosity or for short-term purposes.

If it can be followed up repeatedly over a long period of time, then it can no longer be explained by introverted personality.

Long-term stalking and surveillance of others is an abnormal psychological state, which may indicate paranoid personality disorder, disordered personality, or antisocial tendencies.

In short, these are potential criminals, because if this behavior progresses to the next stage, it could lead to intimidation, imprisonment, rape, assault, or even murder.

So if Zhu Lingling's words are true, then Qin Chao's personality is not just introverted, but gloomy.

"Director Wang, has Qin Chao done anything else excessive to Zhu Lingling?"

Director Wang answered decisively: "Yes!"

"Zhu Lingling said that once, she found that a bottle of beverage she had left in her desk tasted a little off..." Director Wang said, his expression slightly embarrassed. "She said it tasted fishy."

"A fishy smell? What kind of fishy smell?" Shen Jiale clearly didn't understand what was going on and pressed for an answer.

Director Wang chuckled awkwardly twice and remained silent.

Shen Jiale looked at him with a puzzled expression, then turned to look at Zhou Yi with a confused expression.

Zhou Yi, however, spoke two words with complete composure!
Old detective, what kind of bizarre things haven't you seen?

The moment those two words were uttered, Shen Jiale was embarrassed, his face turning red as he scratched his head in embarrassment.

Zhou Yi smiled and asked, "Director Wang, did Zhu Lingling tell you this herself, or did you guess?"

Director Wang said boldly, "I guessed. How could a young girl like her know anything about this?"

Zhou Yi nodded without speaking. Although Director Wang had just told Shen Jiale that these young people were complicated, when it came to making his own judgment, he still thought Zhu Lingling was an innocent and naive female student.

Zhou Yi had never met Zhu Lingling in person, so he couldn't tell whether Director Wang was judging by appearance or was prejudiced by the second possibility he had mentioned.

"How can she be sure that Qin Chao did it?" Zhou Yi asked.

She said that while she was drinking it, she noticed Qin Chao hiding nearby and watching her suspiciously. She realized the drink tasted off, so she threw it away without drinking it.

Shen Jiale asked, "She didn't even tell the teacher about something so outrageous?"

"Yes, this is indeed a dereliction of duty on our part. The homeroom teacher failed to pay attention to the students' situation in time, and I severely criticized Teacher Tian at the time."

But Zhou Yi knew that unless he was caught red-handed, telling the teacher or calling the police would ultimately lead to nothing.

"Director Wang, so Zhu Lingling is denying that she invited Qin Chao to her home?" Zhou Yi asked.

Actually, there's a logical inconsistency here. Qin Chao said that Zhu Lingling invited him to her home because she wanted to ask him for help with her professional courses.

But if Qin Chao is a pervert who has stalked or even committed indecent acts, Zhu Lingling, as a normal person, would only keep her distance and would never invite him to her home.

Director Wang said, "Of course, she swore she never took Qin Chao home. I even asked her grandmother if anyone was home on June 14th."

Zhou Yi felt that such inquiries were of limited value.

According to Qin Chao, the incident occurred in mid-June, almost two months ago.

Unless there are specific memory points, it is difficult for older people to have such good memory.

Sure enough, Director Wang said, "It's a pity that it's been too long, and the old lady can't remember clearly. But she's certain that Zhu Lingling never brought any classmates home, and she can't cook either."

Zhou Yi had no reason to doubt what Zhu Lingling's grandmother said, because if the old lady wasn't visiting relatives or traveling far away, it was unlikely that she wouldn't be at home for meals, since the elderly's living space was very small.

Therefore, Zhu Lingling's swearing that she has never brought anyone home is highly credible.

The real question is whether the "Zhu Lingling's house" that Qin Chao mentioned is the same Zhu Lingling's house that Director Wang saw!
"Director Wang, did you ask Qin Chao what his exact address was when he said he went to Zhu Lingling's house?"

"Hey, what's there to ask? I didn't even get a chance to ask."

"What does this mean?"

Director Wang pointed to his left shoulder and said that after he and Teacher Tian left Zhu Lingling's house, they returned to Qin Chao's house. It was already dark by then.

However, no one was home at Qin Chao's house, which aroused Director Wang's suspicion that Qin Chao might have fled to avoid being discovered for his actions.

Because in his mind, he was convinced that Qin Chao had deliberately failed to win Zhu Lingling's heart and was thus trying to frame her.

Here, Zhou Yi asked him to confirm two things.

First, let's talk about the summer classes attended by Zhu Lingling and Qin Chao.

Director Wang confirmed that Zhu Lingling had enrolled in a summer training course, and the class teacher also confirmed her attendance.

This increased the likelihood of Wang Xinkai coming to see Zhu Lingling.

However, as for Qin Chao, Director Wang said he did not enroll in the summer program. Strangely, both the homeroom teacher and Zhu Lingling confirmed that they had seen Qin Chao at school last month, but did not know what he was there for.

Director Wang suspected that he was there to spy on Zhu Lingling. The second matter concerned whether the news of Zhu Lingling's "rape" had been spread.

Director Wang inquired about this matter with both Zhu Lingling herself and her homeroom teacher, Ms. Tian.

Zhu Lingling said she had not heard any rumors that were detrimental to her, although she was worried and scared for several days after being contacted by the police that day.

Fortunately, nothing serious happened in the end.

The only time was on the day the final exams ended. She and her classmates were waiting for the bus at a bus stop near the school when she ran into Qin Chao.

Qin Chao, in a fit of rage, questioned her about why she had lied, which frightened her. The female classmate who was with her even joined in scolding Qin Chao.

Fortunately, the car arrived, and the two of them got in and drove off.

Then summer vacation started, and she didn't see him much anymore.

As for Teacher Tian, ​​he humbly apologized to Director Wang for his shortcomings in his work, because he had indeed failed to discover the situations mentioned by Zhu Lingling, including his failure to promptly check on Zhu Lingling's mental state after the police incident.

Although Director Wang was very certain that it was the second scenario that Zhou Yi had analyzed earlier, these two events made Zhou Yi more inclined to believe the third possibility.

The fact that Qin Chao appeared at school multiple times despite not having enrolled in any summer classes is already highly suspicious.

Director Wang said that no one was home when they went to Qin Chao's house the second time, and it was already dark by then.

Therefore, he strongly suspected that Qin Chao had fled to avoid punishment.

If it weren't for Teacher Tian's advice to wait and see, he would have called Zhou Yi to report it to the police.

The two waited downstairs for about twenty minutes before Qin Chao finally returned.

Qin Chao was dribbling a basketball as he walked, making a loud clattering sound. So even though it was already dark, Qin Chao's appearance immediately caught the attention of the two men.

Then it was Teacher Tian who called out to Qin Chao, and only then did Qin Chao notice the two of them.

Director Wang said that although Qin Chao looked somewhat surprised at the time, fortunately he did not intend to run away.

Director Wang asked him where he had been and why he wasn't home so late.

Qin Chao stammered that he went to play basketball nearby, and after playing basketball, he went to eat rice bowls with his friends. Because his mother was busy with work and often worked overtime, he often ate out.

Upon hearing this, Shen Jiale noticed that Zhou Yi frowned, but didn't say anything more.

He knew that Teacher Zhou must have discovered something amiss again.

"I didn't think he was going to run away, so I asked him when his mother was coming back. Since I hadn't communicated with Qin Chao's parents about this before, I felt it was necessary to have a good talk with them about his mental state."

"We were talking downstairs when suddenly a flowerpot fell down," Director Wang said helplessly, pointing to his injury. "And this is what happened. It hit me right on the shoulder, and it hurt so much."

Zhou Yi pointed to the cut on his face and asked, "And what is this?"

"Oh, I accidentally cut myself on a piece of broken flowerpot when I fell to the ground. It's nothing serious, just a minor cut."

Zhou Yi nodded: "That's good. So you didn't get to ask any further questions, right?"

"Why even ask? Teacher Tian asked someone to call 120 and they took me to the hospital. It took half the night. Later, when I was at the hospital, I was so angry that I called the police again, but they couldn't find where I fell from. The police said they couldn't do anything." As Director Wang spoke, he was so angry that he wanted to swear, but he managed to hold it back.

"What about Qin Chao?"

"I don't know, he probably just went home. I was in such a state that I couldn't take care of him at the time."

Zhou Yi's expression turned somewhat serious, and he hurriedly asked, "Director Wang, does Qin Chao have a telephone at home?"

"Yes, let me look for it." Director Wang said, starting to flip through the numbers with his right hand, and quickly found a number.

Zhou Yi frowned and took out his phone to dial Qin Chao's number.

It was only then that Director Wang noticed something was wrong with Zhou Yi's reaction and asked worriedly, "Officer Zhou, is...is there a problem?"

Zhou Yi didn't turn on the speakerphone; instead, he held the phone to his ear, but he could still hear the waiting tone coming from the receiver.

This means no one answered the phone.

After waiting a while longer, Zhou Yi finally put down his phone.

"Director Wang, when you were hit by the flowerpot, were you on the south or north side of Qin Chao's house?"

Director Wang thought for a moment and said, "North...north, I think. Teacher Tian and I were waiting for Qin Chao at the entrance of the building."

Zhou Yi immediately stood up and said, "Let's go, let's go to Qin Chao's house now. Director Wang, are you still feeling alright? If you are, could you give us directions?"

Director Wang quickly nodded and said, "No problem."

Soon, the police car drove out of the art school.

But this time, there were no eyes watching the police car outside the art school.

In the police car, Shen Jiale drove to the address provided by Director Wang.

Zhou Yi said, "Brother Jiale, turn on the alarm."

Shen Jiale was very surprised, because the sound of sirens indicated an emergency mission.

"Okay." He nodded and did as instructed, without asking any further questions.

Immediately, the siren blared, accompanied by the flashing red and blue lights on the roof of the police car.

The sound of the police siren immediately made Director Wang in the back row very nervous, as if he were facing a major enemy.

He couldn't help but ask, "Officer Zhou, what... what exactly is going on?"

"Qin Chao may be in danger," Zhou Yi said in a deep voice.

"Huh?" Both people in the car were startled.

"Why?" Director Wang asked, no longer caring about the pain in his body.

Zhou Yi replied, "It's not the second possibility, it's the third possibility, it must be the third possibility."

Director Wang thought for a moment and asked, "Are you saying Qin Chao wasn't lying?"

"Yes, Qin Chao didn't lie. The one who lied was Zhu Lingling."

Director Wang was even more bewildered.

Zhou Yi explained, "If it's just writing love letters and giving gifts, there's nothing abnormal about it. Seventeen or eighteen-year-old boys might be shy, and it's normal for them to express their affection in this way. But according to Zhu Lingling's description, Qin Chao is not only like that, but he is also someone who has been stalking people for a long time and has committed perverted and indecent acts."

"If Zhu Lingling's description is true, then Qin Chao should be a person with a dark, paranoid, and unsociable personality. Such abnormal behavior is often caused by serious psychological problems."

"I originally thought that Qin Chao's psychological problems might be caused by his parents' divorce."

"But you said earlier that the reason he came home late was because he went to play basketball nearby and had dinner with friends before coming back."

Director Wang nodded: "That's right."

"Basketball is a team sport that requires a group of people to play together to have fun. It's not very exciting to play alone. The fact that Qin Chao can play basketball and come home late shows that he's not just doing this for the first time, but has already gotten used to it."

"While playing basketball isn't necessarily related to whether someone is introverted or extroverted, it at least shows that he has friends and loves the sport, which doesn't fit the personality traits of someone who is dark-hearted, stubborn, and unsociable."

Shen Jiale nodded repeatedly as he listened. The young man knew that team sports like basketball and football were great ways to motivate a person and build social relationships.

It did sound completely contradictory, and he finally understood why Zhou Yi had frowned earlier.

Director Wang couldn't help but say, "That...makes some sense."

"It's normal for teenagers to have sexual urges because they have a lot of energy. But exercise itself can consume energy and relieve these urges. Considering Qin Chao's daily routine of playing basketball until dark before going home, he shouldn't be so obsessed with Zhu Lingling."

“But none of that matters!” Zhou Yi changed the subject. “The important thing is that flowerpot that hit Director Wang.”

"What...what do you mean?"

Zhou Yi turned his head and said, "This flowerpot wasn't meant for you; you were just an innocent bystander."

(End of this chapter)