Early the next morning, Liu Faming, director of the bureau, was entrusted by He Donglan, secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, to personally take Wuping and others to eat a local special breakfast, and sent Zhou Fuxi, Cen Jiashang, deputy captain of the criminal police, and two other policemen to assist. He repeatedly explained that if any difficulties were encountered, the investigation team could directly ask him or Secretary He for help.

Lu Qingqing knew that this was He Donglan's instructions, and she didn't like such a special courtesy, but considering that everything was to solve the case, not for her own personal gain, so she let it go, if she went to He Donglan with this matter, it would be hypocritical.

According to Wu Ping's arrangement, the investigators were divided into two groups, and he himself and Xu Yu went to Qinglong Village, Qiaoshui Township, where the educated youth were in the queue to conduct field investigations; Gao Ge and Lu Qingqing stayed at the county public security bureau to review the files of the suicide case of the educated youth. In the evening, go back to the county guest house to meet. Zhou Fuxi and Cen Jiashang and the other two criminal policemen, Wu Ping was inconvenient to transfer, so they arranged it by themselves.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the police car stopped at the gate of the Qinglong Village Committee in Qiaoshui Township. The road from the village to the village was not hardened, the potholes were difficult to walk, and the day before, it had just rained, and the road was covered with water and the cars were splashed with mud.

The village council is located on the edge of a small river, which is so swollen that it is about to overflow. Opposite the village committee is a flat farmland, where most of the early rice has turned yellow and is ready for harvest.

Far away, before entering the gate of the village committee, I heard a noisy sound inside. Zhu Fang, the director of the police station, and the director of the village committee greeted each other at the door, and after a brief introduction, they walked into the village committee together.

The intention has long been explained that the village director was responsible for gathering all the people who knew the deeds of the youth in the conference room, and they were gossiping and discussing endlessly. Over the past few years, people have gradually forgotten the past, especially some bad things, and no one wants to be the first person to be mentioned and be criticized by others. Now, when there is an opportunity for them to discuss it justifiably, the conversation box suddenly opens up and is out of control.

"Be quiet." Director Zhu Fang motioned for everyone to stop the discussion, "Let me introduce to you, this is Wu Ping, deputy captain of the Criminal Police Brigade of the Simao County Public Security Bureau, ......" Zhu Fang introduced it to the villagers from beginning to end, and when he saw that they were listening carefully, he continued: "The purpose of our coming, I believe that the director has made it clear to you, and your task today is to speak freely about the things that happened in the village about the educated youth, but one requirement, you must tell the truth." Now, I would like to ask Captain Wu Ping to give you a few words. Zhu Fang took the lead in applauding.

Wu Ping was already very impatient with Zhu Fang's nonsense, "I will say a few words, thank you for your help to the police, and next, please go to the small room in the back in order to cooperate with our investigation." ”

The room at the back of the conference room was really small, but it was clean and cleaned up in advance by the people of the village council. A table is in the middle, pen and paper are ready. Zhu Fang and the accompanying criminal police maintained order outside, and Wu Ping, Zhou Fuxi, and Xu You were questioned inside.

The villagers walked in and out one by one, and the matter of the educated youth going to the countryside gradually became clear:

In 1970, seven senior high school students from Simao County Middle School responded to the call of the state and went to Qinglong Village, Qiaoshui Township, Zixian County, a poverty-stricken area. We know that they are Wu Chang'an, Cao Guisheng, Wei Chi Revolutionary, Lu Anzhi, Zheng Gan, Yuan Liuyang, and Shi Jing. The seven of them eat and live together, have a good relationship, and they use the knowledge they have learned to benefit the local people and bring great changes to the village. The older generation of people over 50 years old is very impressed with them.

From 1970 to the beginning of 1976, everything was normal for 6 years, until May 1976, a strange thing happened: Shi Jing was pregnant, and soon, the news spread throughout the village, and on the evening of the same day, Yuan Liuyang, one of the seven, died mysteriously. In this regard, the police investigation turned out to be suicide.

Regarding Shi Jing's pregnancy and Yuan Liuyang's suicide, the villagers have different calibers, and on the whole, there are probably several relatively similar statements: one is that Shi Jing and Yuan Liuyang have been in love for a long time, but they are unmarried but do unsightly things. One is that Shi Jing couldn't stand the hard life of cutting in the queue and wanted to return to the city through a shortcut, so she had an affair with a certain leader, and finally the leader broke her promise, and Shi Jing could only eat the bitter fruit. There is another theory that Shi Jing and Yuan Liuyang have a deep-rooted relationship, and they are forced to get married due to realistic conditions, and the love between the two is not tolerated by the other five people, they tricked Shi Jing to the hill outside the village**, Yuan Liuyang found out and went to save people and was killed by them. However, some people say that Yuan Liuyang did commit suicide, and he can't accept the fact that Shi Jing was trampled on.

Rumors are just rumors after all, and there is no evidence to prove which of the villagers' claims is true.

Xu You listened to the whole questioning and made a detailed record. In the small room, he experienced a great torment in his heart.

Shi Jing is his mother, and according to Cao Guisheng, Yuan Liuyang is his father, and he is willing to believe this statement, even if the villagers' comments further confirm that the root cause of Cao Guisheng's mother's death was that they were ruined by the five people.

The long-tongued woman and the self-proclaimed Taishan Beidou are two of the most striking characters in the village. The long-tongued women were responsible for disseminating everything they thought was inappropriate for the customs and the times, in order to demonstrate their versatility and speed in grasping information, and they undertook the entire task of spreading Shi Jing's murder and Yuan Liuyang's suicide to the three towns and four towns. Of course, Taishan Beidou will not speak easily, they regard themselves as venerable, and those who speak easily will be crowned with impatience, impetuousness, and impragmatism. She is only a victim, but the shackles of vulgar etiquette show no sympathy for her, and finally drive her to the end of her fate.

Today, in the small room, those long-tongued women and the only remaining Taishan Beidou put all the shackles of that time on Shi Jing.

Xu You finally couldn't help it, snapped the ballpoint pen in his hand, and slapped it the table. Everyone was shocked by his action, and closed their mouths and said no more. Wu Ping and Zhou Fuxi looked at him and asked him what was going on? Xu You's fists were clenched, the green tendons on the back of his hands were swollen, and his eyes were red, "Shi Jing and Yuan Liuyang are both victims, and they are already dead, you shouldn't accuse and insult the deceased like this." Xu Yu gritted his teeth, and he felt a burst of warmth in his throat, as if something was about to flow out.

What made Xu You even more unbearable was that in addition to their verbal slander against their mother Shi Jing, they also brought Cao Guisheng in. Xu You was raised by Cao Guisheng, and Cao Guisheng did not participate in insulting Shi Jing.

"Xu You, pay attention to your words and deeds." Wu Ping felt that Xu Yu was about to explode, and hurriedly suppressed him with words. Wu Ping has not been in contact with Xu You for a long time, but he can see that Xu You is a withdrawn and indifferent person, such a character is very suitable for handling cases, but it is also easy to go to extremes. He couldn't completely guess what the reason for Xu You's anger was, and for the time being, he thought that Xu You couldn't listen to these foul words. It can only be for this reason, otherwise Xu You has no reason to be angry because of strangers' abuse of strangers, Shi Jing, Yuan Liuyang and those gathered in the village committee are all strangers to him.

But how experienced Wu Ping is, he has an extra eye on Xu Yu's reaction.

It was already half past five in the afternoon when the questioning ended, so let's stop for today. Zhu Fang kept everyone to have dinner in Qiaoshui Township several times, so that he could enjoy the friendship of the landlord, but Wu Ping refused, firstly, he did not like such a banquet, and secondly, he was in a hurry to go back and meet Gaoge, he wanted to know how the progress over there was soon, and time waited for no one.

After returning to the county seat and having a meal in the canteen of the Public Security Bureau, Zhou Fuxi strongly invited him to get together at the best hotel in the county. Zhou Fuxi couldn't understand the real reason why Wu Ping was personally received by He Donglan, secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, and thought that Wu Ping had a close relationship with Secretary He, so he wanted to get close to and win him over.

Wu Ping rejected Zhou Fuxi like he rejected Director Zhu Fang.

Gao Ge and Lu Qingqing were still stuffed in the archives, and after they checked the archives, they stayed in it to analyze and discuss, and they had eaten unconsciously. The five of them met at a roadside food stall to have a quick snack and immediately returned to the guest house.

The place of discussion was in the Wuping room.

Wu Ping took a cigarette, lit a cigarette, and quickly spit out smoke.

Lu Qingqing has always respected Chang, and Wu Ping has a very high status in her mind, she admires Wu Ping's courage to speak the truth and dare to directly challenge authority, and even more admires Wu Ping's ability to judge cases. But she didn't like secondhand smoke and hurriedly covered her mouth and nose with her sleeve.

"Haha" Wu Ping laughed out loud, "I'm sorry, Comrade Qingqing." Wu Ping hurriedly snuffed out the cigarette butt, "Let's talk about the situation over there first." Wu Ping looked at Gao Ge and Lu Qingqing.

"We have carefully looked at the file many times, and the conclusion of the Public Security Bureau that year was suicide." Gao Ge replied.

"Suicide, Yuan Liuyang, or Shi Jing." Wu Ping asked.

"Yuan Liuyang and Shi Jing both committed suicide."

"But Shi Jing's body was not found." "According to villagers, Shi Jing disappeared shortly after Yuan Liuyang's death, but because witnesses said they saw Shi Jing jump into the river, the police closed the case as a suicide," Ms. Lu said. ”

"Who are the witnesses?" Wu Ping asked.

"A villager in Qinglong Village, Qiaoshui Township, his name is Zhang Baobao." Lu Qingqing replied, she wrote down all the important clues in her notebook.

"When I was investigating Wu Changan's case before, I sent Ah Bao to his hometown of Linxian, and according to Wu Changan's uncle, Yuan Liuyang died by suicide, but I didn't hear him mention Shi Jing's death. This is a new clue, ask Zhang Baobao tomorrow. Wu Ping's eyes lit up, which was his usual reaction when he found an unknown clue.

"What happened to Yuan Liuyang's death? The results of our investigation have many theories, one is that he committed suicide and was insulted by Shi Jing because he couldn't bear it. As soon as it is said that he died by him, the murderers are five other people who are also educated youths, namely Wu Chang'an, Cao Guisheng, Wei Chi Revolutionary, Zheng Qian, and Lu Anzhi. Wu Ping said.

"My dad is a murderer?" Lu Qingqing was highly nervous.

"It's just gossip, and there is no evidence that Yuan Liuyang died by him." Gao Ge said that he was comforting Lu Qingqing.

"It's not going to come out of nowhere." Wu Ping held his chin in his hand, he was thinking.