Chapter 461 Empty Number
Zhou Yi knew that the surname Li was very common.
But Wu Guang, a newspaper reporter named Li, taught them how to call the police when they were at their wit's end and asked the county bureau to arrest Wu Yuemei.
It was hard for Zhou Yi not to think of someone, Ding Chunmei's senior brother, Li Chong.
The journalist who wrote with his pen as a torch and his heart as a witness.
In order to confirm whether it was him, Zhou Yi asked Aunt Ding if the reporter had left them contact information or something.
Aunt Ding quickly said yes, at home.
Zhou Yi asked grandma, grandpa and Lu Xiaoshuang to rest first, and he and Lu Tiezhu went to visit Aunt Ding's house.
Grandpa gave Zhou Yi a flashlight and told him to remember the way back and not to take the wrong path.
It was just after eight o'clock and the countryside was already pitch dark.
Only a faint light was still shining through the windows of every household.
Zhou Yi gave the flashlight to Lu Tiezhu, and he led the way.
Zhou Yi walked at the end, watching the short, hunched-backed Ding Lanying staggering, fearing that she might fall accidentally.
This was the first time Zhou Yi walked down the street of Guang Village at night. In the past, his grandparents would never let him go out at night, because in their eyes, Zhou Yi would always be a child.
"Be careful." Zhou Yi noticed that Aunt Ding slipped and almost fell, so he held her arm.
Zhou Yi was startled by this support. He knew that the old lady was very thin, but because she was wearing a long-sleeved shirt made of coarse cloth, he couldn't tell how thin she was.
Because the old lady's arms were almost skin and bones, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they looked like they had been exploited to the point of having their marrow sucked out.
When we arrived at the old lady's house, it was two low bungalows with no lights on and it was pitch black.
Aunt Ding went to push the door, and the door hinges creaked.
After the lights in the room came on, Zhou Yi finally saw what was inside the room clearly.
It was a very ordinary rural house, not as poor as Zhou Yi had imagined. The walls were painted with lime, but the beams inside the house showed that the house was old.
The outer room contained a stove, tables, chairs, benches, and various sundries, with some cheap children's toys placed in the corner.
"You...you guys sit down for a while, I'll go look for it." Aunt Ding said, and went into the inner room.
After the lights in the inner room came on, Zhou Yi finally saw clearly.
There is a bed, a large wardrobe, and a TV cabinet with a black and white TV on it, which is the only electrical appliance in this house.
There was a torn baby calendar stuck on the window of the inner room.
I didn't see Aunt Ding's son or her husband.
Zhou Yi and Lu Tiezhu did not sit down, but stood at the door. Aunt Ding in the inner room was rummaging through the drawers and cabinets, but it was obvious that the things could not be found immediately.
Zhou Yi asked quietly, "Brother Tiezhu, why don't I see her son Yao Xi?"
Lü Tiezhu replied, "Xizi works in town. Since the child died, he rarely comes back, leaving the old couple to depend on each other."
"Depending on each other? What about Uncle Yao? There's no one in this room."
Lu Tiezhu stretched out his hand toward the door and said, "After Xizi gets married, Aunt Ding and Uncle Yao will live outside."
"Outside?" Zhou Yi walked out curiously. He didn't see any other houses just now.
"There." Lu Tiezhu pointed to the darkness on the right.
Zhou Yi took the flashlight from him and shone it in that direction.
When the faint flashlight illuminated that direction, he was stunned for a moment.
It turned out that there was another one next to the two brick and tile bungalows. It was made of old wooden boards and wood, covered with straw. It was short and small, only slightly better than a doghouse.
In rural areas, this kind of house is basically used to store firewood and sundries, and I have never seen anyone living in it.
Zhou Yi couldn't imagine how the old couple managed to survive living in such an environment every day.
Perhaps their grandchildren are their only hope, like a lonely lamp in the long night.
In the end, the light went out.
The only courage that kept them going was probably the extravagant hope that Wu Yuemei would be shot.
"Wu Yuemei has also been arrested. Why doesn't she go back to live in the house? This house is leaking and the conditions are so difficult." Zhou Yi said.
"Uncle Yao refused to do so. He refused to drink even a sip of water in the house. He was so stubborn."
"Found it...found it." At this time, Aunt Ding's voice came from the room.
The two turned back, and Aunt Ding handed a business card to Zhou Yi.
When Zhou Yi took it and looked at it, his eyes lit up.
As expected!
The business card reads, "Wuguan Metropolis Daily", reporter, Li Chong.
Zhou Yi really didn't expect that they would intersect in this way.
"How did this reporter find you?"
"I don't know either. He said he heard it from someone else."
"When was the last time you contacted him?"
Aunt Ding shook her head and said, "No... I don't remember. He originally said he would definitely help us, but then Xizi called him once and the call went dark. Xizi said it was a disconnected number."
Zhou Yi looked at the business card in his hand. There was no mobile phone number, only the newspaper's landline extension number.
Any number that can be printed on a business card cannot be an empty number.
Therefore, Yao Xi contacted Li Chong after Li Chong had gotten into trouble.
However, given the nature of this incident, Zhou Yi felt that it should have nothing to do with Li Chong's suicide.
"Aunt Ding, can I take this business card first?"
Ding Lanying nodded.
After Zhou Yi said a few more words of comfort, he and Lu Tiezhu left Aunt Ding's house.
Standing at the intersection, Zhou Yi looked back and saw Aunt Ding close the door, and then the thin figure slowly walked towards the shed next to her.
When they reached a fork in the road, the two stopped.
Lu Tiezhu asked with some concern: "Zhou Yi, there's something I'm not sure whether I should say or not."
"Brother Tiezhu, you say."
"Although you're from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Municipal Bureau, this isn't your Hongcheng after all. I'm afraid it's difficult for you to handle this matter, right?"
There is nothing wrong with what Lu Tiezhu said. Just like the time when Zhou Yi went to Anyuan, handling a case in a different place requires an application procedure.
"Well, I know, but Brother Tiezhu, you don't have to worry. I know what I'm doing. I'll go to the town tomorrow to find Yao Xi and find out the situation." Zhou Yi had just specifically asked Yao Xi what he was doing in the town and where he lived for this purpose.
He had some important questions to ask the other party.
"Are you planning to go to the county?"
"Let's see." Zhou Yi replied ambiguously, "Brother Tiezhu, it's okay. Just focus on your own matters and don't worry about me."
Zhou Yi knew that the other party was worried that he would drag him to the county bureau to find someone, so he immediately changed his tone.
He didn't want to make things difficult for Lu Tiezhu so as not to cause him trouble.
He had to go to the Yunshan County Bureau, but Zhou Yi had already thought about what to do after he got there.
Sometimes people can't be too rigid and have to take some shortcuts.
I now know quite a few leaders from provincial and ministerial departments, so I have to make good use of their resources.
In addition, I will be transferred to the Wuguang Municipal Bureau next month. It shouldn’t be a big problem to understand the situation a month in advance.
Of course, this matter cannot be told to Lu Tiezhu. The villagers don’t know what a provincial or ministerial leader is, but he does. Who knows how the news will spread.
Just look at Aunt Ding and you will know that this cause and effect comes from her nagging mother.
After saying goodbye to Lu Tiezhu, Zhou Yi walked back with a flashlight.
On a rural night at the foot of Yunxia Mountain, there is a hint of coolness in the air.
Zhou Yi walked on the narrow path, waving a flashlight.
For some reason, he has never been afraid of the dark, let alone ghosts, since he was a child.
At an age when other children were afraid of the dark and even more so of ghosts, Zhou Yi was not afraid at all. When it came to the crude ghost stories that were popular in his childhood, other children looked terrified, but Zhou Yi sneered and started to find fault.
This may be due to the fact that his grandfather told him war stories since he was a child.
If the executioner is not afraid of ghosts, he must be very violent.
As for the old soldiers who went to the battlefield to defend their country and kill the devils, even the devils would flee in panic when they saw them.
I wasn’t afraid when I was a child, and I became even less afraid later on.
It's not just because he's a policeman, but because he knows that people are much scarier than ghosts.
He had never seen a ghost harming anyone, but he had seen people harming others in various ways.
Walking back to my grandma's house, I saw from afar that the door was half-open, and a warm yellow light was shining through the gap.
A head popped out of the door and called out, "Xiao Yi?"
"Grandpa?" Zhou Yi ran over quickly when he heard the voice, "Grandpa, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Zhou Yi's grandfather opened the door and let him in, saying, "How could your grandma and I sleep if you didn't come back? Xiao Shuang hasn't slept either."
Zhou Yi looked to the left and then to the right.
On one side was grandma, and on the other was Lu Xiaoshuang. The two women, one old and one young, were looking at him eagerly.
"I'm fine now, you guys should get some rest."
Grandma said, "I'll get you some water to wash your face and feet first."
"It's okay, grandma. I can do it myself."
"Didn't grandma make it for you when you were a child?" Grandma smiled and went to get water for her grandson.
Zhou Yi and Lu Xiaoshuang smiled at each other.
After finishing everything, I went back to the house to rest.
When Zhou Yi entered the room, he couldn't help but be stunned. The bed he had made in front of him was not only covered with a mosquito net, but also covered with a mat, pillows and blankets.
Lu Xiaoshuang said, "After I told my grandma, my grandpa installed it for me."
"Then you sleep on the inner bed, and I'll sleep on the outer one. It's safer this way," said Zhou Yi.
Lu Xiaoshuang smiled: "With you here, this house is the safest place in the world."
At night, the two of them lay on their respective beds, with mosquito coils lit in the corner, emitting a faint fragrance.
There is a regular sound of frogs croaking outside the house.
It feels very summery.
"Xiao Shuang, are you asleep?"
"No."
"Tomorrow I have to go to town first, and then to the county, so climbing the mountain to watch the sunrise might be..."
Before Zhou Yi finished speaking, Lu Xiaoshuang said, "It's okay, just go ahead and do your thing. I just want to spend more time with grandma and grandpa. This is the first time I've ever called them grandma and grandpa."
"You..." Zhou Yi wanted to ask, "Have you never seen your grandparents?" But then he thought, Lu Xiaoshuang's mother was from the south. She had lived with her parents in the northwest until she was thirteen. After she turned thirteen, she came to Hongcheng. She had never been to any other place.
"My mom said that in the south, people don't call their parents grandma and grandpa, but grandpa and grandma. My mom said my grandpa passed away when she was twelve, and it was my grandma who raised them all with great difficulty. I'm still thinking about going to my mom's hometown to see my grandma if I have the chance in the future."
Zhou Yi immediately said, "I'll go with you next time."
Lu Xiaoshuang didn't say anything, and the room became quiet in an instant.
Zhou Yi also guessed what was going on. "Your grandmother..."
"Well, when my mother wrote to me last year, she said in the letter that grandma had passed away." Lu Xiaoshuang's voice was a little choked.
Even her grandmother, whom she has never met, is very important to her.
Zhou Yi didn't know how to comfort her, so he simply kept silent, because he knew that the best medicine to heal the separation of life and death is time.
The next day, when Zhou Yi woke up, Lu Xiaoshuang was already up and helping to feed the chickens.
Dahuang kept circling around her feet.
After breakfast, grandpa went to find the villagers, and then Zhou Yi took a villager’s three-wheeled motorcycle to the town.
Since the Yunxia Mountain scenic area was developed, there are a lot more people in Yunlai Town, especially during the summer vacation, after all, it is cooler in the mountains.
However, the entrance to the Yunxia Mountain scenic area is not in Xiaguan Village, but about two kilometers away from Xiaguan Village. Because the terrain there is relatively flat, the developed mountain roads are more friendly to tourists.
Yunxia Mountain is very large, much larger than the barren mountain at the junction of Hongcheng and Taicheng, so many places have not been developed, and some places are very steep. My grandfather said that only those specialized herbalists have the ability to enter the mountain.
When he arrived in town, Zhou Yi couldn't help but think of the group of college students.
I don't know if they followed my advice.
There are always some young people who don't know their place and do stupid things, especially when a group of such idiots get together, the chances of doing stupid things are even greater.
It’s not a pity to kill yourself, but I’m afraid of implicating innocent people.
Zhou Yi found Yao Xi in a small workshop based on the address Aunt Ding gave him last night.
Yao Xi is less than 1.6 meters tall, thin and small. He is said to be in his early thirties, but actually looks more like he is in his forties. He is just a younger version of Aunt Ding.
He was covered in dust and his clothes were extremely dirty, having probably not been washed for a long time.
He looked up at Zhou Yi warily and asked, "What... do you do?"
"Oh, my name is Zhou Yi."
Before he finished introducing himself, the other person shook his head: "No...I don't know him."
"Do you know Zhang Zhixiang? I am Zhang Zhixiang's grandson. My mother is Zhang Qiuxia. We are from the same village as you."
Yao Xi thought about it, then nodded. "I know him."
Only then did Zhou Yi realize that Yao Xi was still stuttering.
"I came to see you because your mother, Ding Lanying, came to see me yesterday." Zhou Yi pulled out his ID and said, "I'm a police officer."
When Yao Xi heard the word "police", he was obviously stunned and looked at Zhou Yi with some fear.
"But don't be nervous. I'm not here to see you as a police officer. I'm here to find out more about the situation as a neighbor."
As soon as Zhou Yi finished speaking, Yao Xi lowered his head and turned away.
Due to the huge height difference and the fact that he was looking down, Zhou Yi couldn't see his expression at all.
He quickly chased after him.
"Don't be afraid. I'll just ask a few questions and then leave."
But Yao Xi just muttered, "I...I have to go back to work...I still have to earn money for...my dad's medical treatment. Don't...don't come looking for me."
His unusual reaction made Zhou Yi a little unsure of the situation. He didn't know whether he was deliberately avoiding or was simply dull.
At this time, a middle-aged man pointed at Zhou Yi and asked, "Hey, what do you do?"
Zhou Yi knew there was nothing he could do, so he pulled out his ID and said, "Police."
But he did not say he was performing official duties.
The middle-aged man should be the owner of a small workshop. He was obviously aware of Yao Xi's situation and stopped talking.
But Yao Xi always avoided Zhou Yi and refused to answer any questions.
Zhou Yi finally understood why Wu Yuemei acted so arrogantly in the Yao family. With Yao Xi's cowardly character, he might not even dare to get angry even if someone rode on his neck and shit on him.
But the question still needs to be asked.
"Yao Xi, autopsy is not what you think it is. It is a scientific method."
"You're the child's father. Just agree in principle. You don't have to worry about your parents' opinions. Older people are sometimes not open-minded enough."
After listening to what Lu Tiezhu said last night, Zhou Yi already had a plan. It was useless to persuade Aunt Ding, so the only one he could persuade was Yao Xi.
But Yao Xi remained indifferent, as if he didn't hear Zhou Yi's words at all.
Zhou Yi was annoyed by his stubborn attitude and shouted, "Yao Xi, the child died in mysterious circumstances and is now lying in a freezer at the county funeral home. As a father, you are so cold-blooded! Don't you want justice for your child?"
This sentence finally made Yao Xi react.
He stopped what he was doing and turned to glare at Zhou Yi.
The thin man said coldly: "That bastard is not my son!"
Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment. This look and this tone actually came from a man like Yao Xi?
Did he already know that Yao Huanhuan was not his biological son?
So it doesn't matter what the child's cause of death is?
That's not right. If he had known it from the beginning, no matter how cowardly a man was, he would never let his parents suffer so much for someone else's child.
"Yao Xi, have you visited Wu Yuemei in the detention center recently?"
Zhou Yi thought about it while lying in bed last night. Wu Yuemei was released and then arrested again. The key in the process was Li Chong's intervention.
It doesn’t matter where Li Chong learned about this matter. Journalists are very perceptive and have many information channels.
He was thinking about how Li Chong got the Yao family to go to the county bureau to report the case.
After thinking about it, there is only one possibility, reporting the case under the name of abuse.
The crime of abuse in 1997 was a crime that could only be dealt with upon complaint (fourth tone), so reporting the case under this name was actually two different cases from reporting the case at the police station before.
Whether there is a direct or indirect connection between Yao Huanhuan's death and Wu Yuemei's behavior cannot be confirmed before an autopsy is performed.
However, the bruises on the child's body were visible to the naked eye. Coupled with the testimony of the Yao family and the record of previous police reports, it is most likely that Wu Yuemei was arrested again on suspicion of abuse.
However, the efficiency of the Yunshan County Bureau is really too low. It has been more than two months since the child was in trouble, and the case has not been closed yet?
Moreover, if Yao Xi was able to visit Wu Yuemei in the detention center, it would mean that Wu Yuemei was under administrative detention for public security, because criminal detention does not allow family members to visit directly and must go through a lawyer.
Zhou Yi felt that the county bureau here seemed to be doing things in an irregular manner.
After Yao Xi said this, he stopped talking.
Zhou Yi knew that he couldn't get anything out of this person. This kind of person has a stubborn and eccentric personality, and is sometimes even more difficult to deal with than some criminal suspects.
It seems that I can only go to the county to inquire about the situation.
Zhou Yi took the same route to the county as yesterday, because this was the only route from the town to the county, and it required a long wait.
While waiting for the bus, Zhou Yi called Wu Yongcheng.
"Captain Wu, it's me."
"I know it's you. Didn't you go hiking?" Wu Yongcheng, who was sitting in the captain's office, answered the phone, feeling a little scared.
Why are you calling yourself when you are on vacation?
"Captain Wu, I'm being transferred to the Criminal Investigation Division of the Wuguang City Bureau next month, right?"
"Yeah, you got the notice. It's four months until the end of the year. Didn't you and Chen Yan just finish the provincial training two days ago? How dare you ask me this?"
"Are you familiar with the leader of the Criminal Investigation Detachment here in Wuguang?"
"It's okay. Didn't they come to support us when we captured Long Zhiqiang last time?" Wu Yongcheng asked in a deep voice, "Don't tell me something happened to you again?"
Zhou Yi smiled a little awkwardly.
But Wu Yongcheng was frightened by this smile.
"What case? Is it serious?"
Zhou Yi quickly explained: "It's a small case, a small case." Then he briefly explained the matter.
After listening to this, Wu Yongcheng asked, "So you think Wu Yuemei intended to kill her own son?"
"I'm not sure about that, but her abuse of Yao Huanhuan is certainly irrational. Add to that what Yao Xi just said, and if Wu Yuemei knew from the beginning that Yao Huanhuan wasn't Yao Xi's child, and her hatred for the child stemmed from that, then the possibility of it being intentional is very high."
Wu Yongcheng nodded. He understood the situation clearly. The case wasn't complicated. It was just that the investigating authorities were somewhat inactive, and the individuals involved were probably uncooperative, which led to the long delay. "But you have to know that it's very difficult to get the death penalty in cases like this."
Zhou Yi nodded. "I know, but it's better than being sentenced to two or three years without knowing what's going on. Two or three years, with reduced sentence, he'll be out soon. It won't hurt a single bit for a wicked person like him."
Wu Yongcheng knew his character and did not advise him to mind his own business. Instead, he asked him if the case was now under the jurisdiction of the Wuguang Municipal Bureau.
"No, it's not at the municipal bureau. The local county bureau is in charge."
"County bureau? Which county?" Wu Yongcheng asked.
"Yunshan County, my grandmother's home is in this county."
"Yunshan County Bureau..."
Zhou Yi heard the tone of the other party was not right, and asked hurriedly: "Captain Wu, do you know anyone here?"
"Yeah." Wu Yongcheng said helplessly, "You also know this person."
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