Chapter 191 The Vanished Her
Xiao Chuan quickly finished a bowl of rice, proving the saying "a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home," and then opened another boxed lunch, gulping down half of it in a few bites.
"What's so strange? Can't girls beat boys?" He poured a rich, savory sauce over the rice, covering it with bamboo shoots and minced meat from the broth. With a quick stir, it became the "priceless" dream rice.
"That's not what I meant. Your sister Pearl often beats the boys." Wu Zhongguo and Shen Zhenzhu exchanged a knowing glance, then Wu Zhongguo asked Xiao Chuan, "What grade is Hu Xiaolei in, given how good she is?"
"She's just started junior high, and she might get a guaranteed spot in the senior high. All the girls in our senior high want to compete with her." Xiao Chuan looked at his father with a puzzled expression, reluctantly picked up the last piece of Dongpo pork, chewed it for a moment, and said, "Why are you asking this?"
Wu Zhongguo replied dismissively, "Just asking, trying to start a conversation."
The sports facilities at the affiliated high school of the sports institute are excellent. Shen Zhenzhu looked at Hu Xiaolei, who was walking alone on the playground. After walking two laps on the track, Hu Xiaolei sat on the steps and talked to the physical education teacher.
Hu Xiaolei shook her head, not knowing what the PE teacher had said.
Chen Zhenzhu strolled over leisurely and finally heard the PE teacher angrily say, "If you don't take the physical exam, your guaranteed admission to high school will be over! What kind of athlete doesn't take a physical exam? You have good grades, but you don't deserve this? Do you even respect your teacher?"
Hu Xiaolei's voice had a neutral quality. She lowered her head and stroked the upper of her soccer cleats, saying, "I don't like strangers looking at me."
The PE teacher said angrily, "There's a limit to being willful! Is it that easy to get into our high school? So many promising players from the city and provincial teams are competing for it. They're geniuses too, why don't they refuse the physical exam like you? Who do you think you are compared to them? You're not going to get the physical exam!"
Hu Xiaolei said in a low voice, "I really don't like it."
Seeing that she wouldn't listen to reason, the PE teacher, who already had little patience, stomped his foot in anger: "This is the last chance. If you miss the opportunity for admission without a physical exam, don't blame me."
Hu Xiaolei had already anticipated this outcome. She pulled her collar up to her neck and said in a low voice, "The high school entrance exam is over. I didn't want to continue studying after I got my junior high school diploma. If the school hadn't asked me to come, I wouldn't have wanted to continue studying at all."
"Your parents are really foolish!" The PE teacher cherished the promising student in front of him, and it was not good to say harsh words in front of the child. He sighed and said, "I will talk to your parents again, and you should think it over carefully."
Refusing a medical examination?
Shen Zhenzhu strolled back slowly, her hands behind her back.
The doubts were amplified once again.
Judging from Hu Xiaolei's behavior patterns, physical characteristics, and gait, it's highly likely she's a boy. However, this speculation requires supporting evidence.
The strangeness surrounding Hu Xiaolei and Shi Lina bothered Shen Zhenzhu. Without a complainant or a victim, the question arose: could she intervene, and how should she intervene?
"Feeling strange" is a subjective description, lacking a clear complainant or victim, meaning there is a lack of direct accusations and clues. Conducting in-depth investigations of citizens or minors based solely on subjective feelings infringes upon their legitimate rights and involves issues of the public power of the police and the protection of citizens' privacy.
Shen Zhenzhu's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed, and she blurted out, "By the way... Article 6 of the Public Security Code clearly states that the statutory duties of the People's Police include 'preventing, stopping, and investigating illegal and criminal activities.' The Public Security Bureau has the right to investigate suspected illegal and criminal acts, and the investigation is initiated based on reasonable suspicion."
Wu Zhongguo understood what she meant, patted Xiao Chuan on the shoulder and said, "Go back and stop talking nonsense, study hard."
Xiao Chuan picked up the last grain of rice, took a bite, stood up, and said, "You all know how well I keep my mouth shut. I'm leaving. I failed the English vocabulary dictation test, hiccup... The teacher will make me copy it a hundred times."
“…” Wu Zhongguo closed his eyes and said self-deprecatingly, “In terms of learning, this kid really takes after me.”
Before the bell rang for the end of get out of class at the affiliated high school of the sports institute, many junior high students were already looking around from the windows.
Before we knew it, many stalls had appeared at the school gate, selling everything from fried rice noodles and fried noodles to fried sausages, grilled skewers, stinky tofu, and sesame cakes.
"Hu Xiaolei climbed over the wall and came out." Chen Zhenzhu took out sunglasses from her pocket, put them on, and said, "She's heading towards the car anyway, why don't we check on her?"
Wu Zhongguo strode forward and said, "It's just on our way, why would we be following an underage girl?"
Hu Xiaolei often climbed over the school wall early. She didn't want to use the school toilets, so she would climb over the wall and run to a public toilet at the corner of the street where there were few people.
"The men's restroom?" Shen Zhenzhu stopped and glanced at Wu Zhongguo. "Go in?"
Wu Zhongguo said, "Minor privacy?"
“Go ahead and do it, I’ll cover for you,” Chen Zhenzhu said. “Hu Xiaolei’s household registration book definitely lists her as ‘female,’ so we have ‘reasonable suspicion’ that Hu Xiaolei’s parents are involved in falsifying information. Therefore, it is only right for them to be investigated.”
"That's enough." Wu Zhongguo strode toward the men's restroom, whistling, "Ugh, I'm about to burst."
A short while later, Hu Xiaolei poked her head out of the men's restroom.
Just then, the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class at the affiliated junior high school. Students with better physical fitness than those in regular junior high schools rushed out of the classrooms like a group of agile antelopes.
Hu Xiaolei quickly came out of the men's restroom and hurried towards the Hejian residential area. She kept her head down the entire time, her back view showing loneliness and dejection.
"Old Shen." Wu Zhongguo came out shortly after, nodded and said, "We can check now. That rascal, he's developing quite well."
The two returned to the car, and Chen Zhenzhu started the Mantou No. 2, slowly driving out of the alley.
Sitting in the passenger seat, holding his seatbelt, Wu Zhongguo said, "Why would a man dress as a woman? It's really strange. Some families would love to have a son."
Chen Zhenzhu turned the steering wheel, weaving with difficulty between the stalls, slowly inching along behind the groups of students: "Isn't he Hu Caizhi's biological son?"
"Hu Caizhi? Hu Xiaolei's father?...That's possible." Wu Zhongguo rolled down the car window and shouted to the children walking outside, "Students, make way!"
Shen Zhenzhu didn't want to honk the horn and scare the future buds of the motherland. Wu Zhongguo shouted, but it had little effect. He leaned back in his chair with regret and said, "Captain Shen, how do we find a starting point?"
"As the old saying goes, one lie requires a thousand more to cover it up," Chen Zhenzhu said. "We happen to be free of cases right now, so let's make a call to report this first, and then we can go and ask around at the hospital where Hu Xiaolei was born."
Whether it's infidelity or a mix-up at birth, there are bound to be clues.
What were the parents' motives for falsifying citizens' information? How much information was falsified? Whether the people involved were aware of it all needs to be investigated.
"You have a good memory," Wu Zhongguo said.
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Last time Shi Lina was arrested, I noticed her accent was off, so I took a look. She was at the railway hospital, two stops away from Bai Zhou KTV."
“Back then, many women gave birth at home and would give the midwife five or ten yuan,” Wu Zhongguo recalled. “It was already quite good if pregnant women could go to the hospital.”
There is heavy traffic at the T-junction in front of the railway hospital.
Patients and their families lined up in long queues at the outpatient desk, while doctors and nurses hurried along.
"The files are in the old building across the street." Shen Zhenzhu asked the registration staff, who then called a logistics officer.
After checking Shen Zhenzhu's documents, the logistics officer called the archives. The archives staff couldn't find the information on the computer and told him that he needed to check the paper records.
With the logistics officer leading the way, Wu Zhongguo muttered to Shen Zhenzhu, "The people at the railway hospital are really nice. I've seen them talk to the old folks with great patience, going over and over again."
The logistics staff walked with a brisk pace and had sharp ears: "Our hospital is known for its good attitude. In fact, we all serve the people. When patients come to see a doctor and feel unwell, if we are nice to them, we can reduce their anxiety, which is also good for their condition."
“That makes a lot of sense,” Shen Zhenzhu said. “When I was little, I was afraid of going to the hospital because the nurses who gave me injections always yelled at me. My anxiety made my skin tight and I even bent the needle once. If they were gentler, I wouldn’t be so scared.”
"Of course, there's scientific support for it." The logistics officer smiled, walked up the short steps into the corridor, and knocked on the door of the archives room.
The staff member on duty poked his head out, took out a key, and opened the door to one of the archives rooms: "Officer, the files from 1970 to 1980 are all here, categorized by birth year and date. They're too old for our computer system to process yet."
"It's alright, we're sorry to trouble you. We'll find it ourselves," Chen Zhenzhu said.
The logistics officer rolled up his sleeves and said, "That would take forever. Solving cases is like performing surgery for us; every second counts. Come on, Xiao Wang, you help us look too."
Xiao Wang chimed in, "Won't this interfere with the secrecy surrounding the investigation?"
The logistics officer belatedly realized, "Oh, right, I almost forgot about that. You guys keep looking, and if you can't find it, we'll come help you again."
Shen Zhenzhu smiled and said, "Thank you, thank you for the railway hospital's great support of our work."
During their lunch break, Shen Zhenzhu and Wu Zhongguo spent a lot of time going through birth records.
"It's going to be tough." Wu Zhongguo opened the window. Although the archives room had been tidied up, it still had a musty smell of dust from years of accumulated dust.
Shen Zhenzhu opened another file folder, containing records from November 1978. She crouched down under the bookshelf, placing the papers on her knees and meticulously examining them with her fingers. Suddenly, she saw "Mother's Name: Shi Lina" and perked up: "Found it!"
Wu Zhongguo put down the file he was holding, pulled Chen Zhenzhu up, and looked at it together: "A baby girl was born at 2 a.m. on November 5th. Where did this baby girl go? Was she switched?"
Shen Zhenzhu looked at Shi Lina's pregnancy report with a sullen face. It clearly stated, "Pregnancy weight: 153 jin. Height: 160 cm. Liancheng household registration."
“The ‘Shilina’ I saw was less than 160 cm tall. Xiao Min registered her as 156 cm.” She put away the record and said softly, “It’s not where the baby girl went, but where the real Shilina and her child went.”
Wu Zhongguo said, "No wonder he speaks with regional accents and has regional lifestyle habits. It doesn't make sense if he's not the person himself."
Xingwang Construction Company's residential building construction site in the central district.
After lunch break, the migrant workers gradually returned to work.
The site manager stood by the narrow cement platform at the entrance, letting the migrant workers walk over it one by one.
An accident occurred at a construction site in the same city where a worker fell from a height while intoxicated, causing the project to be suspended. The person in charge here came up with the idea of having the workers walk in a straight line to determine if they were intoxicated.
"Walking around all day, where would we find so much alcohol to drink?" A migrant worker carrying a safety helmet walked past impatiently.
People lined up behind him and followed, the five-meter distance becoming a safety net for their lives. He said dismissively, "They're just trying to find a way to fine us. After I go home for the New Year, I'm never doing this again."
"If you don't do it, plenty of others will," the foreman said, hands on his hips, pointing at him. "Get out of here, next one."
Hu Caizhi ran into the construction site from a distance, bowed and scraped behind the contractor who was more than ten years younger than him, and whispered, "Old Huang has been drinking. He downed half a jin of strong liquor in one go."
The foreman, his eyes fixed on the people walking in a straight line ahead, turned his head and asked, "Who were you drinking with?"
Hu Caizhi named four names in a row.
The contractor took out his wallet, pulled out ten yuan, and stuffed it into his hand.
"Thank you, thank you." Hu Caizhi took the money and was about to run away when the foreman yelled, "Are you brainless? Get back here!"
Hu Caizhi chuckled and walked behind the cement platform to join the queue, but his coworkers tacitly forbade him from cutting in line.
Hu Caizhi walked in a straight line at the back, then turned around and saw Lao Huang and the others entering the construction site gate. A hint of sneer flashed in his eyes.
The foreman walked straight over, sniffed the area, and without telling them to walk in a straight line, pointed outside and said, "Get out, get out, you're not allowed to work today!"
Old Huang said, "I can walk in a straight line, so I took a sip."
The contractor ignored them and told them to leave.
"You're so selfish! Is it worth it for ten yuan?" one of the migrant workers said to Hu Caizhi. "You're making a scene for everyone."
"How am I selfish?" Hu Caizhi said shamelessly, "I was thinking about the safety of Lao Huang and the others. Didn't you see the slogan? 'Safety First'."
Hu Caizhi carried the cement bags on the ground up the steps, making many trips back and forth. He took off his old T-shirt, which was in the way, and sweat rolled down his back. The red string of the jade Buddha hanging around his neck had faded.
He had worked in the countryside in his early years and was quite strong. He seemed selfish, but he was willing to work hard for his family.
"Old fox, someone's looking for you." The foreman stood under the scaffolding and shouted, "Come down!"
Hu Caizhi threw down the cement bag and looked down. Seeing that Shen Zhenzhu and Wu Zhongguo were unfamiliar faces, he picked up his clothes from the ground, shook them, wiped his face, and put them on: "You're here."
As he went downstairs, he habitually touched the jade Buddha, saying, "Bless me."
Shen Zhenzhu and Wu Zhongguo, dressed in plain clothes, walked to a corner and waited for Hu Caizhi to come over.
"Hu Caizhi, is that right? We're from the Municipal Public Security Bureau. We'd like to ask you about something." Shen Zhenzhu didn't mention that she was from the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Investigation Division.
Hu Caizhi had expected an older police officer to speak, but seeing that the young female police officer was several sizes younger than him and smiled politely, he felt a little relieved: "It's me. What do you need me for?"
Shen Zhenzhu said, "We found that your child Hu Xiaolei's personal information is incorrect, and we would like to ask you why."
Hu Caizhi's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "How could that be? How could my daughter be a boy—"
Shen Zhenzhu said, "If you don't want to tell the truth, then come back with us and we'll talk."
Hu Caizhi glanced at the silent Wu Zhongguo, scratched his head somewhat embarrassedly, and sighed, saying, "This... this is really hard to say."
Wu Zhongguo said, "To be honest, without hiding anything, we will investigate and find out the truth."
Hu Caizhi said dejectedly, "Why are you suddenly asking about this? Did someone report us?"
“No one has reported it,” Shen Zhenzhu said. “The child is grown up; do you think you can hide his male characteristics?”
Hu Caizhi sighed again and asked Chen Zhenzhu, "Can I have a cigarette?"
Shen Zhenzhu said, "Say what you want before you draw."
Hu Caizhi took the cigarette off his ear, tugged at it in his hand, hesitated for a long time before finally speaking: "The child is not mine."
While taking notes, Chen Zhenzhu asked, "And what about your child?"
Hu Caizhi's face suddenly turned as red as a pig's liver, and he said in shame and anger, "I don't have any children."
Wu Zhongguo played the bad cop, raising his voice and saying, "Just say it all, don't make me squeeze out the toothpaste!"
Hu Caizhi crushed his cigarette, threw it on the ground and ground it up, then wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Back then, when my wife gave birth to a girl, everyone who came to visit said she didn't look like me at all, but rather like the cook at the state-run restaurant in front of our house. I thought my wife couldn't possibly betray me, but when I was at home in confinement after giving birth, she ran off with the cook, taking the baby with her!"
Hu Caizhi is still very angry when he recalls what happened 15 years ago.
His face flushed red, and he gritted his teeth as he said, "When I came back from the countryside and got a job, the first thing I did was to take good care of her parents. I have no parents, so I treated her parents as my own. I never imagined she would betray me."
Shen Zhenzhu frowned and asked, "Then who is the current 'Shi Lina'?"
Hu Caizhi felt a little embarrassed and said in a low voice, "She's a prostitute. She was raped and kidnapped, and she ran away from somewhere with a child. I lost my wife and child and was afraid of being ridiculed, so I became indifferent to matters of the heart. She knelt down and begged me to take her and the child in. Seeing that she looked a bit like Shi Lina, I went along with it and let her and the child use Shi Lina's identity."
Chen Zhenzhu asked, "What's this one called now?"
Hu Caizhi shook his head: "Nobody knows her original name. They're used to calling her 'Shi Lina'."
Wu Zhongguo couldn't help but ask, "Don't Shi Lina's parents have any objections?"
Hu Caizhi said, "The two elders were in poor health and relied on me to support them back then. After Shi Lina eloped with someone, they felt ashamed and couldn't bear the shame. They were about to hang themselves, but I stopped them. People have to live, and the two elders felt that Shi Lina had wronged me, and they also felt sorry for the mother and child, so they had to let the child dress up as a girl and take over the household registration. Over the years, they have developed feelings for each other."
Shen Zhenzhu asked skeptically, "Are you really that selfless?"
Hu Caizhi twitched the corner of his mouth: "If you really want to say it... actually, we don't have the money to get married again. She can manage the household, earn money, and is also good-looking, so we'll stay if we want. If she runs away again, I won't lose out."
"Did she mention where her hometown is? Has she not been back for so many years?"
“Her hometown is in Hushi, but she has no memory of it and can’t remember the exact location. She also suspects that her parents sold her and is afraid to go back.”
Do you have any photos of your ex-wife?
“I burned all the photos and things; it’s heartbreaking to see them,” Hu Caizhi said. “We got married through an introduction. She didn’t work, so I supported her. She’s heartless. She… sigh, after all these years, I’ve forgotten what she looks like. To be honest, I’ve only been with her for two years, not even as long as I’ve been with my current wife.”
Shen Zhenzhu carefully observed his expression, her brows furrowing. She closed her notebook and said, "If it's convenient, could you take the child to the hospital for a checkup tomorrow?"
Hu Caizhi said in astonishment, "I've told you everything, why do you still need to examine the child?"
Wu Zhongguo said, "He can't keep using the identity of a girl forever, can he? Will he stop studying, stop getting married, and hide at home for the rest of his life?"
Hu Caizhi shut his mouth and nodded: "Okay, okay."
After asking a few more questions, Hu Caizhi answered clearly and without any objections.
After arranging a time to go to the hospital with Hu Caizhi, Shen Zhenzhu got into the car and said, "Based on his words alone, we can't determine whether Shi Lina really eloped with a man. At present, she is considered a missing person."
Wu Zhongguo said, "I never expected that their family had kept it a secret for fifteen years. No wonder Hu Xiaolei's sports performance was so good; she's obviously a boy."
Back at the criminal investigation team, Xiao Bai said to Shen Zhenzhu as she entered, "The city of Hu called back, saying that the missing persons records from 1975 to 1980 are incomplete and they cannot provide any clues."
Chen Zhenzhu put down her bag, took a sip of water, and asked, "What about us?"
Xiao Bai said, "There are five missing women around this time period, none of whom match our age or height."
Wu Zhongguo came in after washing his face outside. While wiping his face, he said, "Running away in those days wasn't easy. Could it be like Shi Lina now, where someone found another person's identity and impersonated her?"
Chen Zhenzhu said, "That would be best."
As it was almost time to leave work, Zhao Qiqi returned from outside and reported to Shen Zhenzhu: "Sister Zhenzhu, I asked Shi Lina, and she said she couldn't remember many things from before, but the rest matched what Hu Caizhi said. Also, the original residents of the joint-construction community don't remember the former Shi Lina, nor do they know about the homeless person being taken in. They only know that Hu Caizhi returned to the city from his hometown and worked on a construction site. The residential buildings in the joint-construction community were built separately, and Hu Caizhi's family was the first to move into Building No. 1 after it was completed. The neighbors have an impression of the current Shi Lina, but they have no impression of the former one at all."
Shen Zhenzhu asked, "Does anyone remember the rumors from back then? Like, that Hu Caizhi's daughter doesn't look like him, or that his wife is having an affair with the cook?"
Zhao Qiqi said, "No. But I think back then, if you spread rumors, you would be arrested and punished, and you might even lose your job. If you were to say something, it would be done behind someone's back. After a long time, who would remember what they said casually more than ten years ago?"
Zhao Qiqi thought for a moment and said, "But when Hu Caizhi was the first to move in, some people found it strange because the area from Bai Zhou KTV to the entrance of the community was not yet completed, making it inconvenient to get in and out."
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Brother Qi." Chen Zhenzhu sat back in her office chair, tapped her fingertips lightly on the table, and closed her eyes.
The real Shilina left no photos, had no job, abandoned her parents, and eloped with her daughter and a cook, her whereabouts remaining a mystery.
Shen Zhenzhu said, "We need to find out where the real Shi Lina and her daughter are. These are two lives lost. In addition, I will continue to search for the people who worked as chefs in the state-run restaurant back then."
"Yes, Sister Pearl."
Xiao Bai poured a cup of tea for Chen Zhenzhu and placed it in front of her. After waiting for Chen Zhenzhu to finish her work, Xiao Bai handed her her work notes from the past few days, saying, "Please take a look."
Chen Zhenzhu took the thick notebook, which contained Xiaobai's recent case-solving insights, as well as the specific process and ideas for solving the burglary case independently last time.
Shen Zhenzhu flipped to the back and saw that Xiaobai had also designed a physical training chart. After reading it carefully to the end, she said approvingly, "Comrade Zhou Qingbai is very dedicated to his work. The section chief is very pleased and hereby gives him a verbal commendation."
Xiao Bai proudly raised his chin while holding his laptop. Chen Zhenzhu smiled and said, "Allow yourself to be proud for five minutes, but don't tire yourself out."
Xiao Bai chirped, "Rome wasn't built in a day, and Sister Pearl wasn't made in a day. We must move towards our ideals, one step at a time!"
These words delighted Chen Zhenzhu, who rummaged through her drawer and found a piece of bubble gum as a reward: "As encouragement."
Xiao Bai accepted the bubble gum with both hands and bowed deeply: "Thank you for recognizing my talent, leader."
After a busy afternoon, with only thirty minutes left before the end of the workday, Chen Zhenzhu gathered everyone together for a few minutes to give a brief report on the current work progress.
Everyone sat down around Shen Zhenzhu's desk. Shen Zhenzhu first told Wu Zhongguo about her and his discovery, saying, "If there are no major cases recently, I will follow up on Hu Xiaolei's parents' situation first."
Lu Ye also spoke up: "The case of child trafficking that I've been working on these past two days has made a breakthrough. The trafficking den is under surveillance. Tonight, Xiaobai, Qiqi, and I will go and keep an eye on it, trying to catch a transaction in the act."
"OK."
Shen Zhenzhu intentionally had Xiaobai and Zhao Qiqi frequently switch partners to train their abilities in various aspects, hoping that they could be able to stand on their own after the New Year.
Lu Ye then recounted the case details at the small meeting, explaining the key points and procedures to Xiaobai and Zhao Qiqi. Shen Zhenzhu listened attentively, nodding occasionally. In child trafficking cases, both the upstream and downstream sources must be addressed; neither the buyer nor the seller can shirk their responsibility. The seriousness of the law must be used to demonstrate the protection of trafficked children.
Fifteen minutes before the end of the workday, the phone on Chen Zhenzhu's desk rang.
“If there’s nothing else, go ahead and get busy—” Shen Zhenzhu grabbed the microphone and, halfway through her walk with them, stood up and covered the microphone as she spoke to Wu Zhongguo: “At the entrance of the underground shopping mall on Qingni Street, someone attacked passersby with sulfuric acid. A male passerby’s face was disfigured, and he and another woman were taken hostage by the attacker. According to reports from people at the scene, the attacker was also carrying gasoline.”
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Author's note: See you tomorrow, there are 100 red envelopes waiting for you!
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This chapter references and modifies the "Police Law of the People's Republic of China" and online resources.
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