Quick Transmigration: What to Do When the Male Supporting Character You Saved Becomes Obsessed with

Chapter 371 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (82)

He frowned, carefully read the page again, closed the notebook, placed it on the passenger seat, and started the car.

When he returned to the municipal bureau, Wu Qidong was just coming back from a meeting and was slightly taken aback when he saw him.

"Vice Captain, I'm ready," Jin Shuhe signaled first.

"Ha, young people are so healthy!" Wu Qidong patted him on the back: "Where are you all?"

"Sister Lü and Brother Wen came back this morning and should be resting now. The others have gone to make visits."

"Hmm, what's that thing you're holding?" Wu Qidong's thermos contained dried sea buckthorn fruit. His voice had become hoarse from all the meetings lately, and all parties were pressing this case very hard.

He took another disposable cup to make coffee, but the water wasn't hot enough and there were still undissolved coffee powders on it. He tilted his head back and gulped it down.

"I took this commemorative album from Mr. Wang's house. It was given to Zheng Qingping by her students when she was teaching in a rural area."

"Any clues?" Wu Qidong asked casually.

“…I think so.” Jin Shuhe hesitated for a moment.

Wu Qidong immediately perked up: "What?"

“I’m not sure, because it’s not a direct clue, it’s just that I feel…” Jin Shuhe explained.

"Tell me first!" Wu Qidong didn't care. Now that the case is under investigation, he had to investigate any possible direction!

“Then I’ll go wake up Sister Lü and Brother Wen. This is the clue they came back from their business trip yesterday.”

"go with!"

A short while later, Qin Wen and Lü Chun walked into the office. Lü Chun was a little better, at least she had washed her face.

Qin Wenze was practically a homeless man. When he entered the office, Wu Qidong was taken aback: "Wow! Although we don't need to pay too much attention to personal image here, you can't be completely careless, can you?"

"I haven't even opened my eyes yet, and this kid is already acting like he's summoning a ghost!" Qin Wen touched the prickly stubble on his chin: "I'll go shave later."

As he spoke, he secretly glanced at Lü Chun, but she didn't even give him a second glance.

"Xiao He, what did you find?" Lü Chun asked excitedly.

"Sister Lü, look here." Jin Shuhe turned to a page in the commemorative album.

The commemorative album that the students bought with their own money back then had very rough paper.

The neat and tidy handwriting of the children makes it even more precious and important.

When Lü Chun came in, she had already flipped through a few pages. The children's language was very immature, and they used pinyin to replace words they didn't know.

She looked at the page Jin Shuhe had pointed to, and her brows furrowed immediately.

This page was probably written by a young child, but the handwriting wasn't as careful and deliberate as others'; instead, it was very messy and forceful.

Not only that, there were also traces of smearing, which were black and looked rather unpleasant at first glance.

What's even more unsettling are some of the words in it.

Most of the other children's writings were blessings for Zheng Qingping, hoping that Teacher Zheng would be happy and joyful...

They hope that Teacher Zheng will not forget them. They will definitely write to Teacher Zheng in the future and visit her when they grow up.

As the former principal said, many of them referred to Teacher Zheng as "Mama Zheng".

Lu Chun also saw the word "mother" on that messy page.

But that's precisely where the discomfort lies...

The child wrote: Didn't you say you'd be our mother? That you'd let us treat you as our mother? If you were our mother, why did you leave?

Why don't you stay and keep us company?

You're lying! You're a liar! You're just like my mother, a hateful person, I hate you!

There was another sentence that had been completely erased. Even when Lü Chun looked closely, she couldn't make out what was written underneath.

Touching it, even after so many years, you can still feel the indentation, which shows how much force was used when it was smeared and how angry it was when it was written.

When the other children wrote down their blessings, they all left their names.

But this page has no name.

Qin Wen took the notebook, examined it carefully, but couldn't figure out what had been erased: "How come this child..."

"Do you know who it is?" he asked Jin Shuhe.

"I found it..." Jin Shuhe was looking at the group photo, matching the names on the back with those in the booklet, eliminating possibilities.

“But… how old was that child back then? Just because of this little kid’s comment?” Wu Qidong hissed.

While it's true that you should investigate any leads, this... doesn't even qualify as a lead.

“When I was a kid, I also wrote bad things about our homeroom teacher in the teacher evaluation!” As Jin Shuhe was halfway through his sentence, Qi Silang, who had just entered the office, raised his hand to signal, and then felt everyone’s eyes on him.

"What's wrong? Didn't you give your teachers feedback when you were in school? My homeroom teacher in third and fourth grade didn't like me. He kept saying I had ADHD and kept calling my parents. I remember he kept telling my mom to take me to the hospital to get checked out!"

"What did you write?" Lü Chun glanced at him sideways.

“I wrote it truthfully! Who would have thought that the teacher could see it after we finished writing it? After that, he disliked me even more.” Qi Silang raised his eyebrows: “I don’t have ADHD, I’m just full of energy.”

"You wrote that you hate him too? And you wrote it several times?"

"No."

"That's the normal way a child thinks when they hate someone. This child... didn't write anything specific. He was clearly being nice to the teacher, which is why the other children called him 'Mom,' but he really hates this teacher who was nice to him. Even though he's young, this kind of mentality isn't quite right." Qin Wen flicked him on the forehead.

"Oh, right." Qi Silang rolled his eyes at Qin Wen. "I'm quite annoyed with him right now, isn't that normal?"

“Yeah, that’s perfectly normal,” Lü Chun replied without turning her head.

"Hey! Haven't I been good enough to you?" Qin Wen teased.

"But isn't this a bit far-fetched?" Qi Silang thought about it carefully and still felt it was rather unfounded.

"These victims, the way they address each other, seems to include the word 'mother,' and I feel there's a connection..."

Lü Chun and Jin Shuhe shared the same opinion.

“Okay, investigate, but don’t make a big fuss yet. First, find out who this child is and what his movements are like. Without solid evidence, we can’t do anything else.” Wu Qidong made the final decision. Jin Shuhe and Lü Chun were both people in the group with very accurate intuition.

Sometimes solving cases is a matter of timing; it relies on a bit of inspiration, or even luck.

Not every page of the commemorative album has a name. Jin Shuhe compared the name with the photo and the handwriting.

Zhang Jianhe.

Jin Shuhe finally identified the child, asked Lü Chun for the old principal's phone number, and called him.

“Zhang Jianhe…that lad from the Zhang family…I know him.” Upon hearing the name, the old principal thought for a moment: “When he was a child, all the kids in the village called him Cripple, he was just a kid.”

The old headmaster sighed: "No one in his family takes care of him. His father gambles every day and has gambled away everything the family has given him. When he was a child, his leg was run over by a rickshaw on the dirt road. It wasn't properly healed, and there was no money to get it checked out. So one leg is a little longer than the other, and he walks with a limp."

“How can a child know good from bad? Just laugh at him, no matter how you try to persuade him.”

The old headmaster paused for a moment: "Why are you asking about this child?"

“Oh, I found some things related to Professor Zheng Qingping here,” Jin Shuhe replied naturally.

"Oh, is it a letter to Teacher Zheng? For a long time after Teacher Zheng passed away, they would still write to her from time to time. But as time went on, they probably forgot about it."

"It's normal for Zhang's child to write to Teacher Zheng. Back then, Teacher Zheng was the best to him because he was in poor health, and Teacher Zheng took special care of him..."

The former principal recalled: "His family was poor. With his father, not a penny could be spent on the child. Teacher Zheng would not give him money, but would buy him food and let him eat in her dormitory, or buy him clothes to wear."

"Could you tell us about what happened back then? We'd like to know more about Teacher Zheng." Jin Shuhe skillfully steered the conversation back to Zheng Qingping himself.

The old principal didn't think much of it: "Besides helping this child, Xiao Zheng helped many other children back then. She paid out of her own pocket to buy cotton-padded clothes and gloves for the children because many of their hands were cracked from the cold."

"Most of the children's parents are grateful to Teacher Zheng, but there's Zhang Jian and his father..."

The old principal hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice: "He heard the child calling Xiao Zheng 'Mom,' and he even went to harass Xiao Zheng! He went to Xiao Zheng's dormitory and said that Xiao Zheng should really be the mother of his child!"

Jin Shuhe frowned in disgust.

"He was drunk at the time and was talking nonsense outside Xiao Zheng's dormitory. Then Xiao Chen, who came with Xiao Zheng to teach in the village, beat him up! That's how all those rumors started circulating in the village. There's absolutely no truth to it! Xiao Zheng and Xiao Chen are both upright people!"

The former principal probably knew that some people were spreading rumors during today's visit, so he made a point of clarifying the situation.

But then, the old principal's next sentence stunned both Jin Shuhe, who was typing, and Lü Chun, who was listening nearby.

“那混蛋喝酒喝得整个人都酥了，挨揍了也没人帮他说话出头，只能跑了，本来以为这就完事儿了，结果张家那小子……”老校长“啧”了一声。

"That kid is too daring; he poured pesticide into his dad's cup!"

"If his dad hadn't been so drunk that day, and if the pesticide hadn't smelled so strong, he would have actually drunk it! How terrifying!"

Lü Chun and Jin Shuhe exchanged a glance.

"Is he still in the village? If so, we'd like to talk to him about Zheng Qingping, since they've had a lot of contact." Jin Shuhe's voice was completely normal.

“He’s long gone… He’s been gone for over ten years, hasn’t he?” The old headmaster calculated: “After his father died from drinking, he left. His grandparents live in another village and wanted him to come and take care of them in their old age, but he ignored them completely.”

"He has grandparents?"

"They existed back then, but they don't anymore. But the old couple and their three children, seeing that their father was unreliable, went to another village to stay with their youngest son. I heard that he was a terrible person, and his daughter-in-law scolded him every day. Their daughter was beaten and scolded by them every day when she was a child. She went out to work and then came back again. I heard that she is doing well in another place."

"The two old people have no one to rely on, so they've set their sights on this child..."

"That kid doesn't even care about his father, so why would he bother with them?" The old headmaster sighed. "It's all karma."

After hanging up the phone, Lü Chun tapped Jin Shuhe's computer screen with her fingertip: "If you ask me, this kid will definitely not be a good person when he grows up."

"I've asked the network team to check," Jin Shuhe said, standing up with the documents in her arms.

Jin Shuhe received Lu Liruan's call in the evening. Ever since hearing from Sister Liruan that his behavior was not abnormal, Jin Shuhe seemed to have calmed down a bit.

He wasn't experiencing such severe anxiety today. Li Ruan replied to his messages quickly, and Jin Shuhe felt that he was cherished by Li Ruan.

"Sister Li Ruan?"

"Xiao He, have you called Uncle Zhao?"

"Not yet." Jin Shuhe paused for a moment, then took his phone and walked out of the office. He keenly sensed that Sister Li Ruan's tone was somewhat puzzled.

"What's wrong?"

"Aunt Chen came to my shop today."

"Huh?" Jin Shuhe was also slightly surprised.

"She...brought me a few photos."

Lu Liruan explained, "It's a photo of your mother when she was young. She said she found it in her family's photo album. Back then, there were no photo studios in their village. When the photographer came to their village, many of them had their photos taken. Because there were so many photos taken in one village, the photographer would send them back after they were developed."

“She has an older sister who knows your mother. They even took a picture together. She thought it would be more meaningful to give the picture to you, so she sent it over.”

"She even asked... if I needed anyone to work here?" This was what puzzled Lu Liruan, as her shop was far from her home.

"Okay, I... understand, Sister Li Ruan."

“Hey!” Lu Liruan said, “When you’re on the phone with Uncle Zhao, don’t mention this. When Aunt Chen was talking to me, it seemed like Uncle Zhao didn’t want her to look for work outside, so let’s not say anything more, okay?” Lu Liruan gave a few more instructions.

"Okay, I understand what Sister Li Ruan means." Jin Shuhe also felt a little strange, but he did whatever Sister Li Ruan said.

After hanging up the phone, Jin Shuhe dialed Zhao Lizhu's number.

"Uncle Zhao."

"Xiao He..."

Are you busy today?

"No rush, no rush! What's up?"

Jin Shuhe recounted what she had said to Aunt Xia yesterday to Zhao Lizhu. Zhao Lizhu was silent for a while before saying, "Xiaohe, Uncle didn't mean it. Uncle doesn't... understand either."

"It's alright, Uncle Zhao. You're doing this for my own good. Yesterday, Aunt Xia told me about how you used to carry me out of there back then."

“Sigh…” Zhao Lizhu sighed deeply, “I was only thinking about you at the time. You rushed in, so I chased after you and carried you out. There were a lot of policemen inside, and I didn’t dare to look. I just kept my head down and walked out. If only I had looked more closely, maybe I could have remembered something.” He was quite regretful.

"It's okay, Uncle Zhao, I'll hang up now, okay."

Jin Shuhe stood in the emergency exit, hung up the phone, squatted down, and then sat on the stairs. There was no one there, so he could catch his breath.

"Xiao He! Where are you?" Lu Chun called.

"I am here……"

"We've found Zhang Jian's whereabouts over the years!" Lü Chun interrupted him, saying directly, "Come here quickly!"