Chapter 2 Chapter 2 Wow, why isn't it you guys stealing people?
As a coastal city, Liancheng began its tertiary industry transformation in the late 1980s, shifting from industry to tourism and culture.
Liancheng, known as the "Little Hong Kong of the North," has just hosted an international fashion festival. Eighteen model teams from home and abroad were invited to perform over one hundred fashion shows.
The city's tourism industry is developing rapidly, attracting a large number of travelers and bringing prosperity to the streets and alleys.
Old Huang pedaled his tricycle with great effort, and when he reached the intersection, he wiped his sweat and said, "Does it have to be this time of year to 'provide warmth'? In this sweltering heat, are we even allowed to live?"
Chen Zhenzhu sat on the back of the tricycle, happily eating an ice pop, and said with a smile, "Master Huang, give it your all, we're almost at the fishpond. This is the farthest place in our jurisdiction. Since you've come all this way, why not just deliver the Mid-Autumn Festival gift? It's also a good thing—"
"Alright, alright, stop trying to pressure me with the tricycle. If I can't ride it anymore, you'll have to switch with me." Old Huang had been slacking off at the police station, and now he'd gotten his just desserts, pedaling his tricycle for thirty minutes under the scorching sun, carrying four hundred pounds of rice and two barrels of oil.
Oh, and there was a little bastard sitting in the back.
"Go for it! Go for it!" Shen Zhenzhu cheered him on from behind, her voice high-pitched, whether she was deliberately trying to annoy him or not, but the more she cheered, the more annoyed Lao Huang became.
He was a grown man, and he couldn't let the little girl ride her tricycle while he rested on the main road. He really pushed himself to the limit and rode all the way to the fishpond.
When they arrived at their destination, they shakily got off the tricycle and sat on someone's doorstep asking for water.
Despite her short stature, Shen Zhenzhu was quite strong. She carried 100 kilograms of rice back and forth to the homes of impoverished families, which made Granny Zhao of one of the families extremely grateful.
"You've come to see me again, thank you so much." Granny Zhao poured water but didn't give it to Old Huang. Regardless of whether he had heatstroke or not, she handed it to Chen Zhenzhu first and said, "Little girl, you drink it. Granny washed the water ladle for you, so don't mind Granny."
"Grandma Zhao, don't say such things. How could I possibly look down on you?" Chen Zhenzhu took the water ladle and drank the sweet groundwater that Grandma Zhao had drawn from the well.
Grandma Zhao lives with only herself and her five-year-old daughter, and they are a key group receiving assistance in the area. They are unable to work, but they do their best to keep their home clean and tidy.
It's much better than those lazy people who wait for government assistance. They clearly have the ability to work, but their homes are bare and filthy. I've even heard that some lazy men have asked female police officers to be their wives.
Pah, shameless.
After Shen Zhenzhu had drunk her fill, she suddenly remembered that Lao Huang hadn't drunk any. She ran over, pumped the well, rinsed the ladle, and brought it to him.
Old Huang was speechless. He drank a few mouthfuls of naturally cool well water and fanned himself by pulling at his collar.
"Ahhh—Grandma, someone's dead over there!" Fenfen, who lived with her grandmother, ran over and hugged Grandma Zhao's leg, saying, "Grandma, Auntie is dead! My pregnant auntie jumped into the pond and died!"
"What?" Grandma Zhao almost lost her balance. She grabbed the doorframe and asked, "Are you serious?"
"Waaah, Grandma, I saw Auntie being pulled out of the water with my own eyes! Please come quickly and bring Auntie back to life!" Grandma Zhao and Fenfen were separated from the neighboring fishpond contractor's house by only a dirt road. From their yard, they could hear the commotion and the large crowd gathered at the fishpond not far away.
The elderly woman and the young woman were often taken care of by that man. Without saying a word, Grandma Zhao went to the convenience store: "No, we have to call the police, call the police."
Grandma Zhao forgot that Chen Zhenzhu was also a "police officer," but it's true that a murder case shouldn't be the responsibility of a small police unit.
"I'll go take a look." Shen Zhenzhu took off running towards the scene.
These days, people don't pay attention to protecting the scene; it would be terrible if it were damaged.
Old Huang tried to get up, but his legs were too weak and he almost sat down on the ground: "Hey, remember you're just a lowly police officer. This murder case has nothing to do with you. Find out what happened and come back quickly so we can notify the criminal investigation team next door."
Shen Zhenzhu ran very fast, and Lao Huang didn't know if she heard him.
Just as Fenfen had said, a lot of people had gathered on the path by the fishpond. Chen Zhenzhu, wearing an olive green uniform, walked over and asked everyone to make way for her.
Shen Zhenzhu saw a pale-faced pregnant woman lying on the ground, soaking wet, and she didn't know if she was still alive. Her pregnant belly was high, and there was blood on her lower body.
The pregnant woman who was pulled from the water had an unnatural grayish-white skin, and her mouth and nose were blocked with a lot of fine foam. The most prominent feature of her body was her round and taut abdomen.
The abdomen was the same size as when the mother was alive, but the life inside had vanished along with her. The whole scene was silent, except for the sound of water dripping from her clothes and hair, creating a suffocatingly silent image of life abruptly ceasing at its most vigorous stage.
Suddenly Fenfen burst into tears, and immediately her older brother and sister-in-law, as well as her husband's family, also began to cry.
"Did you try to resuscitate him? Did you perform artificial respiration?"
"What kind of breathing?"
Even though Shen Zhenzhu knew she was dead, she still hoped for a miracle.
She reached out and pressed on the pregnant woman's chest, wasting no more time. Using the first aid knowledge she had learned in her previous life, she lifted the woman's neck and began to perform chest compressions and help her breathe.
"Hey, what are you doing?" The pregnant woman's husband, Niu Xin, asked, his eyes red, trying to get Chen Zhenzhu up.
Shen Zhenzhu slapped his hand away: "Don't interfere with me!"
Niu Xin choked up and said, "Thank you, but... but she's really dead, sob sob sob. Why did this tragedy happen to me? My wife and child are gone together. I'd rather be dead."
Such a sorrowful cry brought tears to the eyes of the fishermen and tourists gathered around.
"No one is allowed to touch my wife, my wife, my child, waaaaah!" Niu Xin grabbed Chen Zhenzhu's shoulders and forced her to get up.
Shen Zhenzhu stood in front of the pregnant woman, swayed slightly, and almost slipped into the fishpond due to a sharp pain in her forehead.
The pregnant woman's older brother had come to visit his sister, but unexpectedly witnessed his in-laws retrieving her from the water.
He hurriedly helped Chen Zhenzhu up, and said with great grief, "Be careful... Oh, thank you for helping Tingting with first aid... I... I really can't understand why she would commit suicide when she was perfectly fine."
Niu Xin, who is dark-skinned and chubby, choked up and said, "It was me. I shouldn't have argued with Tingting, which made her jump in in a fit of anger."
"She's pregnant with your child, and you're still arguing with her?!" Tingting's older brother angrily grabbed Niu Xin by the collar and punched him to the ground.
At this moment, Granny Niu rushed out and angrily shouted, "How dare you hit my son! It was your shameless sister who knew she was pregnant with another man's child and was too ashamed to face anyone, so she threw herself into the river and committed suicide!"
Tingting's older brother stood there stunned: "Say that again?"
Niu Xin got up from the ground and said sadly, "It's true. Someone saw her getting into a physical altercation with a fishmonger a few months ago. I argued with her about it."
Granny Niu stood beside Tingting's body and cursed, "My son wasn't even home at the time! She was carrying a bastard's child, why can't people say that?"
Tingting's sister-in-law, who was still holding Tingting and crying, stood up and wiped away her tears upon hearing this, saying, "We know what kind of person Tingting is. Don't try to smear her just because she's dead! We don't even know if she jumped in herself or was killed by your in-laws!"
"Nonsense! She jumped into the pond because she was too ashamed to face anyone!" A woman next to Granny Niu shouted. "Everyone knows that while my brother was away for those few months, everyone knew she was having an affair!"
Tingting's older brother was furious. When he saw Chen Zhenzhu standing motionless beside her sister's body, he pushed her and said, "Officer, you can't let them make false accusations! She's dead, and she doesn't even have a good reputation?"
Shen Zhenzhu suddenly gasped for breath, as if she had just been suffocating.
This action startled Tingting's older brother.
Seeing that Shen Zhenzhu's face had turned pale, Niu Xin sneered and said, "Look how scared she is. You think she can back you up when she's just a lowly police officer from the local station?"
“My grandma has already called the police, and the officers will be here soon.” Fenfen squeezed through the crowd, pointed at Niu Xin’s nose and said, “You’re not allowed to talk about Sister Pearl like that, and you’re not allowed to talk about my aunt like that!”
Niu Xin's sister said with a forced smile, "You're still young, you don't know what 'stealing someone' means."
Shen Zhenzhu clutched her forehead, which throbbed with excruciating pain, and looked at Niu Xin's sister in astonishment, then at Niu Xin, whose nostrils flared with disdain. She uttered a statement that shocked everyone: "Why wasn't it the two of you who were cheating on me?"
Niu Xin was immediately enraged: "What?! What do you mean?! That's my own sister!"
Did the brother and sister have an affair?
The crowd immediately erupted in excitement, including many regulars who had traveled a long way to fish at the pond.
Someone pointed at her and said, "Officer, those two are siblings, you can't just say things like that!"
Shen Zhenzhu rubbed her aching forehead. She could have lied under any other circumstances, but she had just suddenly "seen" Tingting's "time rewind" before her death—
A note from the author:
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[This article involves professional knowledge related to criminal psychology and forensic medicine, and is derived from professional books such as "Criminal Psychology," "Forensic Medicine," "Behavioral Psychology," and "Micro-expression Psychology," as well as online resources.]
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