Chapter 476: Jade Buddha Case
"A normal person would carry a lot of luggage on the train, even for a short trip. It's impossible for them to go empty-handed. Add to that your old classmate's ruffian attitude and foul language, and you're most likely a pickpocket."
Zhou Yi analyzed in a low voice that before the rise of mobile payment, people had to carry cash when traveling long distances, and there were the most thieves at train stations.
When Zhou Yi went to Anyuan before, he took the opportunity to deal with a group of pickpockets because Zhang Xianglan’s wallet was stolen.
This is also the reason why he and the train conductor became friends. He asked an acquaintance of the train conductor to buy the two sleeper tickets for him.
The gang that was taken down last time was just one of hundreds of gangs.
After all, there are so many trains coming and going every day, and there are different theft gangs on each train.
Killing one does not affect the others.
So this time when he took the train, Zhou Yi had no intention of catching thieves. After all, he was in the serious crime squad and was in charge of homicide cases.
The pickpocket on the train is under the supervision of the train police, and he is also on vacation.
But unexpectedly, Jiang Guiyou came to the door on his own initiative and even set his eyes on Lu Xiaoshuang. It was impossible not to deal with him.
"I really don't have anything valuable on me, and I've never paid money in front of him." Lu Xiaoshuang said.
Pickpockets don't steal things randomly. They first look for your money in which pocket and then wait for an opportunity to strike.
So the old saying goes, when you are out, don't show off your wealth.
"Jiang Guiyou is not after your money."
These words made Lu Xiaoshuang stunned, and she understood instantly. No wonder he kept saying things like girls change a lot when they grow up, keeping a man in college, and being pretty.
It turns out he had bad intentions from the beginning.
"He sticks to you like a dog-skin plaster. If you don't dislike him and drive him away, he'll take advantage of you. He'll find a chance to put some drugs in the water you drink. And then, when it's late at night and everyone is asleep, you have no idea what he'll do."
Lu Xiaoshuang didn't think Zhou Yi was exaggerating, because she was so unfriendly to the other party, and the other party still refused to leave. If she treated him well, it would be terrible.
She was so scared that she grabbed Zhou Yi's arm and said, "It's so scary, thank goodness you came."
Zhou Yi smiled, pinched her face and said, "It's okay, I'll deal with him later."
At this time, the conductor came with a clean quilt and enthusiastically changed Zhou Yi into it.
Before leaving, the conductor said, "If that guy comes to bother you again, just call the police. We've seen a lot of people like him. They're not afraid of anyone except the police."
Zhou Yi smiled and thanked the conductor.
Lu Xiaoshuang smiled and said, "If you're afraid of the police, then that's easy. You're just walking into trouble."
Zhou Yi put his bag on his bed, and then took out a lot of food from the bag. In addition to the necessary change of clothes, his bag was filled with food.
A lot of prepared food, snacks and drinks.
"Brother Yi, why do you carry so many things?"
"It's been over thirty hours, and I've already bought too little. I'm worried it won't be enough. But it's okay. The train attendant can come and buy more later." Zhou Yi said, opening a bag of cooked food. "Eat this first. It's hot, and it will go bad if left out for too long."
Zhou Yi placed the food on the small table by the window on the lower bunk, then opened a can of Jianlibao and handed it to Lu Xiaoshuang.
Then he stood up and took the bag of cooked food and asked the two guys on the upper bunk to have some.
The older man on the upper bunk of Lu Xiaoshuang was not polite, but the middle-aged man on the upper bunk of Zhou Yi smiled and waved his hand to refuse.
Lu Xiaoshuang looked at the pile of food on the table, then looked at Zhou Yi opposite her, and felt warm in her chest.
If this is her ordinary life, then she thinks such ordinary life is the most beautiful thing.
As soon as Zhou Yi sat down, a chicken wing was handed to his mouth.
Zhou Yi looked at Lu Xiaoshuang holding the chicken wings, then pushed her hand back and stuffed the chicken wings into her mouth.
Lu Xiaoshuang was a little confused, and Zhou Yi smiled and said, "I'm going to the bathroom first, you eat first."
Then he turned and walked out of the compartment, heading in the direction the conductor had just left.
The conductor who was checking tickets looked up and saw Zhou Yi walking towards her, and smiled.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi came over and whispered, "Excuse me, but which car is the accompanying police officer for this train?"
The conductor was startled and asked quickly, "Is that guy here looking for trouble?"
"No, I have something I want to talk to the conductor about."
"Let's chat?" The conductor looked at Zhou Yi suspiciously and asked, "Comrade, which unit are you from?"
Zhou Yi reached out, took out his ID and handed it over.
The conductor took it and took a look at it, and his eyes immediately became clear.
After getting the information he wanted, Zhou Yi put away his ID and turned to leave.
The conductor looked at his back and suddenly muttered, "This guy looks familiar. Have you seen him on TV?"
Lu Xiaoshuang didn't eat too much. Firstly, she was used to being frugal, and secondly, she didn't have the habit of eating snacks.
After Zhou Yi came back, the two of them ate and chatted for a while. Lu Xiaoshuang cleaned up the remaining things and started reading.
Zhou Yi originally thought that she was reading something, but it turned out that she was actually reading a professional book.
"Student Lu, you are too studious. You make other students feel ashamed of themselves." Zhou Yi teased.
"No, I fell behind on my studies a while ago, so my final exam results this semester weren't very good, so I wanted to consolidate what I missed. Also, the tax bureau's department has started assigning me more complex work, and I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it later, so I have to hurry up and study."
The previous delay she mentioned was actually the more than half a month of leave during the Hongda case, which was force majeure.
"Then you study, I'll go for a walk."
Lu Xiaoshuang asked, "Brother Yi, are you going to look for Jiang Guiyou?"
"Don't worry, I know what to do."
After hearing what he said, Lu Xiaoshuang didn't say anything more and lowered her head to continue reading.
…
This train starts from the provincial capital, passes through Hongcheng, and then goes all the way to cities in the northwest.
Lu Xiaoshuang's hometown is in a small village called Yangjiatun.
Lu Xiaoshuang said that when her parents sent her to the city to take the train, she first took the village ox cart to a nearby town, then found a car to go to the county town, and then took the county bus that only ran twice a day to the city, and then took a long-distance bus from the city to catch a bus in a nearby big city.
It takes a long time just to get out of Yangjiatun.
Moreover, the places in her memory, whether in the county or in the city, were all very old.
Although it is also a county town, it is far inferior to the suburbs of Hongcheng.
So considering that he had to report to Wuguang on August 1st, Zhou Yi chose a return ticket on the 29th when arranging the round-trip tickets, so that he could return to Hongcheng on the night of the 30th and go to Wuguang on the 31st.
But I guess I will have to leave Lu Xiaoshuang's house on the 28th.
I should be able to stay here for five or six days.
Zhou Yi actually wanted to leave earlier, wanting Lu Xiaoshuang to stay at home for a few more days. After all, she hadn't been back for six years.
But my previous physical condition was a bit difficult, so this was the only arrangement.
Zhou Yi knew that Lu Xiaoshuang's parents would most likely never leave the village in this lifetime.
It’s not that they don’t want to, but that they can’t let go.
Many educated youth were unable to leave the countryside after going there, not because they were unwilling to do so, but because many of them got married in the local area and had unbreakable relationships.
Since the reform and opening up, people have become more and more flexible, and a person will no longer be locked in one place.
So for people like Lu Xiaoshuang's parents, both of whom were educated youth, the policy did not force them to stay there, even though they had settled down there and their household registration was in the local area.
But the real reason why the couple didn't leave was because of the children there, one after another like Lu Xiaoshuang.
Lu Xiaoshuang told Zhou Yi that when she was thirteen years old, on the way to catch a train, her father Lu Guohua told her that she was actually lucky because she was the child of an educated youth. She could go to Hongcheng to study and receive a better education. In the future, she could go to high school and take the college entrance examination, make a name for herself, and become a useful person to society.
But the people who have lived on this yellow land for generations, and their children, are not as lucky as you. The only way for them to get out is to study.
Before Lu Guohua established Yangjiatun Primary School, most children in the village did not even go to school. Even if some went to school in nearby towns, they would drop out after two years.
The reason is simple: adults don’t think reading is useful at all.
This kind of concept is prevalent in many backward areas, and not just in the 1980s and 1990s. Zhou Yi knows that even after entering the new century, this phenomenon is still very common.
What Lu Xiaoshuang's parents couldn't let go of were the children born on the loess land.
Lu Guohua wrote heartfeltly in a letter to his daughter: I want these children to be like you, to go out and see the world outside, to have a better life, instead of being like their fathers and grandfathers, who have to work hard in this place, facing the loess and back to the sky, for generations to come, to farm.
Lu Xiaoshuang showed Zhou Yi the letter her father wrote to her, and Zhou Yi was deeply moved by the enthusiasm between the lines.
So he knew that Lu Xiaoshuang's parents would not leave that land.
Therefore, he had made preparations in advance to accompany Lu Xiaoshuang home this time and prepared some special gifts for her parents.
Even Lu Xiaoshuang didn't know about this gift, it was a real surprise.
…
After walking through the carriages, Zhou Yi came to the door of a room and knocked.
A man inside asked, "Here we go."
As he spoke, the door opened and the person inside looked at Zhou Yi and was stunned.
Zhou Yi was also stunned. It turned out to be an acquaintance. It was one of the two railway policemen he met on the train to Anyuan, named Zhu Mingxiang.
That time, they arrested Uncle Li and his gang in such a hurry that they didn't even leave their names. However, after the Hongda case was over, Zhou Yi later went to recognize them, after all, they were colleagues.
He asked another railway police officer to buy this ticket.
"Zhou Yi? Why is it you?"
"Officer Zhu, what a coincidence, isn't it?"
"Hey, just call me by my name, or Lao Zhu. We're all family, there's no need to be so distant." He then pulled Zhou Yi into the room and said, "Come in and sit down."
Then he introduced Zhou Yi to another colleague of his: "This is Lao Shen, my colleague. This is Zhou Yi, from the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Hongcheng Public Security Bureau. He was the one who helped Lao Xu and I arrest the gang last time."
Zhou Yi greeted Lao Shen, and Zhu Mingxiang pulled Zhou Yi to sit down and asked him where he was going on this business trip.
Zhou Yi shook his head and said that he was on vacation and was going back to his hometown with his girlfriend. He also mentioned that he had asked another railway police officer, Lao Xu, to help him buy train tickets.
"Zhou Yi, do you still remember the old guy you helped us catch last time?" Zhu Mingxiang asked.
"Is it the one called Uncle Li?"
"Yes, that's the old guy."
"What's wrong with this person?" Zhou Yi asked curiously. Since the other party mentioned it, there must be some explanation.
"Have you heard about the Sun Guobin case in 1979?"
Zhou Yi frowned, recalling in his mind what this Sun Guobin case he was talking about was.
The case happened in 1979, which is 18 years ago. I really need to recall it carefully.
But after thinking about it, I couldn't find any matching case.
I thought to myself, did I accidentally hit my brain?
Seeing that he had no reaction, Old Shen beside him said, "You are really something. The case you are talking about is a case of our railway police. How could the city police know about it?"
Zhu Mingxiang slapped his forehead and said, "Hey, blame me, blame me."
When Zhou Yi heard this, he felt lucky. It turned out that his brain was not damaged. It turned out that this was not a system case at all.
He had no access to the case files of the Railway Police in his previous life, so he naturally didn't know about the Sun Guobin case that Zhu Mingxiang mentioned.
At this time, Zhu Mingxiang said, "You may not know about the Sun Guobin case, but you must have heard of the Jade Buddha case, right?"
Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment, because this statement did sound familiar, as if he had seen it on TV or somewhere else before.
Finally, after thinking about it, I remembered that I seemed to have heard a rumor from my mother when I was a child.
So he asked, "Is this the jade Buddha that was unearthed from the Liuliqiao Towel Factory?"
Zhu Mingxiang nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, that's it. You're from Hongcheng, right? I knew you'd guess what it was when I mentioned the Jade Buddha. This story was quite mysterious back then."
Zhou Yi remembered that this was how his mother described the incident.
There is a towel factory near Liuli Bridge in Qingshan District. It is poorly managed and on the verge of bankruptcy.
As if things weren't bad enough, the factory building collapsed after a heavy rain.
During the emergency repair of the factory building, the workers dug up an ancient tomb under the factory building.
At the beginning, this kind of thing was not as standardized as it is now, and there was no procedure for reporting to the relevant departments.
The factory director took the workers to dig up the tomb and said that they dug out a lot of things. The most valuable one was a jade Buddha statue the size of a palm.
It is said that when the jade Buddha statue was dug out, the sky, which was originally covered with dark clouds, suddenly cleared up and the sun came out.
Everyone said that the natural phenomenon was because the jade Buddha was spiritual. Later it seemed that the factory director wanted to sell the jade Buddha to save the towel factory.
Then strange things began to happen. First, the factory director died, then the jade Buddha disappeared, and then, the people who had dug the grave that day met with accidents one after another, either dead or disabled.
It is said that the rumor at that time was extremely strange. It was said that the grave under the towel factory contained an ancient person who had died a violent death in a miserable way, so he had great resentment. This jade Buddha was placed there to suppress the resentment.
As a result, the jade Buddha was taken out by them, and the tomb owner's resentment could no longer be suppressed, and began to retaliate. None of the people who participated in the grave digging that day could escape.
In short, it was quite creepy and scared a lot of people back then.
When Zhou Yi told the rumor he heard from his mother when he was a child, Zhu Mingxiang and Lao Shen burst into laughter.
Zhu Mingxiang said: "This is how things are when they spread among the people. The more they spread, the more outrageous it becomes. In fact, it is not the case at all."
Zhou Yi asked, "Is this Sun Guobin you're talking about the person in charge of the towel factory?"
Zhu Mingxiang nodded. "You'd say he's a professional, right? That's right. This Sun Guobin was the director of the Liuliqiao Towel Factory. The factory did unearth an ancient tomb, and they did find the Jade Buddha inside. But Sun Guobin was the only one killed in the whole thing; not a single worker was killed."
"Then how did it get spread like this?"
"Hey, one is that rumors are spreading like wildfire. You know, when things get out there, many people will exaggerate and make the story more and more exaggerated. Another is that Sun Guobin was indeed murdered."
When Zhou Yi heard that Sun Guobin was murdered, he had no impression of this person.
That means this was a homicide that happened on a train.
Zhu Mingxiang said: "We later investigated and found that a worker had his leg broken by a falling beam while digging a grave. He was extremely superstitious and believed that the ghost in the grave was harming him. That's it, nothing else happened."
"Then how did Sun Guobin die?"
Old Shen said, "Sun Guobin died on the train. He was strangled with fishing line in the train toilet. The jade Buddha he was carrying disappeared."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
