Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1) (46 page)

Looking at Fang Mu's red, puffy eyes, Zhao Yonggui said, "You were the first to discover the body, correct?"

"Yes."

"Did you notice anything unusual at the time?"

Fang Mu thought about it and then said, "No, nothing."

"Then how did you know that someone would be in the pool?"

"I heard two girls talking about how the outdoor pool was unexpectedly filled with water. Also, while at Meng Fanzhe's house, I saw two symbols on the window –"

"Enough!" Cutting Fang Mu off, Zhao Yonggui glanced over at Tai Wei. "Are you still insisting that we caught the wrong person?"

For a moment, Fang Mu was speechless, and then as he was about to argue with Zhao Yonggui, he saw Tai Wei nod at him to keep quiet.

"In a little while we're going to take you back to the station to get your statement," Zhao Yonggui said. Without another word, he walked over to the other side of the pool.

On the way to the city bureau, Fang Mu couldn't resist asking Tai Wei, "Why does Zhao Yonggui always act like that towards me?"

Tai Wei hesitated for a moment. "You need to understand his perspective. Although the Meng Fanzhe case was closed without a trial, the bureau commended Zhao Yonggui and me. There's no way he's going to be able to accept your telling him that we made a mistake. Also, I don't think he really trusts in your methods."

Fang Mu considered this for a moment. "In that case, do you trust me?"

Tai Wei was silent for a long time. "We'll see."

It was already afternoon by the time Fang Mu got back from the police headquarters. Standing in front of his door, key in hand, he felt a weighty hesitation. If Du Yu was in the room, he didn't know what he should say to him.

He opened the door. The room was empty. Seeing Du Yu's new Nikes still sitting neatly beside his bed, Fang Mu felt a catch in his throat.

One day ago, he would have been more than happy to list all of Zhang Yao's many faults. But at that moment, all he could think of were her positive qualities.

If only I could open the door right now and see Du Yu and Zhang Yao quickly leap off his bed as if they hadn't just been hooking up
, Fang Mu thought,
for that I would trade anything
.

The room was eerily quiet. Fang Mu found himself desperately wishing Du Yu would appear before him. He felt there was so much he wanted to say to him.

And yet, if Du Yu really did appear, what was he supposed to say?

Should he apologize? But that seemed so pointless. It wouldn't change a thing.

With his thoughts in conflict, he sat there in silence. The sun went down and the moon rose, and then the first rays of dawn lit the morning sky. Fang Mu never moved or said a word. People kept knocking on the door, but he ignored them. All he wanted to hear was the sound of a key sliding into the lock and opening the door. Yet at the same time, he was worried that in that moment he would be so frightened that he would hide.

That whole night Du Yu never returned.

Fang Mu didn't move until, after a day and a night of sitting there and not eating, his stomach began hurting him worse than he could endure. He finally got up and went to the dining hall.

The hall was packed. The recent murder had not affected people's appetites in the least. The victim was someone else; their bodies were their own. So as before, what they cared about most was whether the steamed buns were a day old, whether the soup had cockroaches in it. To them, those were the things that mattered.

There was a long line for food. Head down, Fang Mu went and stood at the end. The person in front of him glanced back. Suddenly the student gasped and jumped back a step. His face filled with fear, he stared at Fang Mu and then grabbed the person next to him, saying, "You see that! It's him! Let's get out of here!"

As the two of them hurried off to another food station, the rest of the line turned and looked back at Fang Mu, who was still standing at the end. Then, as if by tacit agreement, everyone scattered at once, allowing Fang Mu to walk up to the front. As they hurried away, everyone had the same expression on their face: panic.

The cafeteria worker himself was stunned. He stared at Fang Mu for several seconds, and then yelled roughly, "Hey, are you gonna order food or not?"

Gritting his teeth, Fang Mu walked slowly forward, feeling as if the looks from everyone's eyes were stabbing into him like needles.

His vision started to blur and the short distance in front of him suddenly felt as long as a football field. "A bowl of porridge and two tea eggs."

Fang Mu sat in a corner of the dining hall and ate his breakfast. Although he kept his head down the whole time, he could still feel everyone's eyes as they watched him and hear their voices as they whispered to each other.

No one would sit anywhere near him, making the area around his table seem like a strange no-man's land.

It was like he was a poisonous plant with long, spreading vines, and if anyone got too close, their life would be at risk.

After eating half his breakfast, he found his appetite was gone, so he got up and quickly left the dining hall.

As soon as he entered the third floor corridor, Fang Mu saw that a big mess had been made in front of his door. His computer monitor and tower were sitting on the floor, covered by a bunch of his clothes. A crowd of people were standing around his open door, watching the person inside.

Had Du Yu returned?

He hurried forward, reaching his room just as Du Yu threw his blanket out the door. Seeing Fang Mu, Du Yu seemed to pause for an instant, but then he bent over, grabbed Fang Mu's washbasin from beneath his bed, and tossed it outside.

Fang Mu dodged out of the way and the washbasin smacked against the opposite wall, causing his soap and toiletries inside to fall to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Fang Mu asked.

Du Yu didn't respond, just walked over to Fang Mu's bookshelf and knocked all the books onto the floor. Then he picked them up and threw them out of the room one by one. All the people watching outside quickly got out of the way.

Fang Mu didn't move, letting book after book strike his body and legs.

This behavior enraged Du Yu, and he grabbed several more books and hurled them directly at Fang Mu's face and body.

Blood was soon flowing from Fang Mu's nose and mouth, running down his chin and dripping onto his clothing.

Zou Tuanjie had been watching and he couldn't bear to watch this, so he grabbed Fang Mu and pulled him to the side. "Come on, man," he said to Du Yu. "Don't do this…"

The words hadn't even left Zou Tuanjie's mouth when Du Yu hit him in the forehead with a book. Zou Tuanjie gave an outcry of pain and shrank back.    

Soon all of Fang Mu's belongings had been thrown into the hall. Clapping the dust off his hands, Du Yu walked out and stared at him for several seconds. 

"Beat it!" he barked through clenched teeth.

Wiping his bloody nose, Fang Mu squatted down and began picking up his things.

"Go!" yelled Du Yu, his voice rising in volume.

Seeming not to hear him, Fang Mu patiently organized his things. When he couldn't find the cap to a pen, he began carefully looking for it in a pile of clothing.

"Get out of here," said Du Yu, his voice a little quieter, but still ice-cold. "None of us want to die!"

Fang Mu stopped what he was doing, stood up and turned around. He felt Du Yu and everyone else's eyes boring into his face.

He looked at them one by one. As soon as they met his eyes, almost everyone quickly looked own. Only Du Yu glared firmly back at him.

Fang Mu looked into Du Yu's eyes for several seconds. He slowly said: "I won't leave until I've caught him."

Then he grabbed his blanket and clothes and walked down to Meng Fanzhe's already locked room. With the creak of wood, he swiftly kicked it open. He tossed his things inside, went back to the hallway, collected more, and did the same.

No one stopped him. No one helped him. As everyone else just stood there and watched, Fang Mu picked up the last of his belongings. He walked inside the room that once belonged to Meng Fanzhe and slammed the door shut.

After standing empty for several days, Room 304 finally had a new resident. Fang Mu took the left side of the room, making the bed and placing his things on the left desk and in the left cupboard. Only once everything was neatly put away did he realize that the left bed had been Meng Fanzhe's. For an instant he considered moving his things to the other side of the room, but then he took off his shoes, lay down on the bed, and that was it.

Fang Mu sized up his new lair. No one had lived there after Meng Fanzhe died, so everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. The walls were badly watermarked, as if someone had splashed them with cups of liquid. In short, the place looked awful.

Fang Mu thought and looked around, looked around and thought. After not sleeping for a whole night, his eyelids began to feel heavier and heavier, until sleep won out.

When he awoke it was already night. Even though his stomach was growling from hunger, Fang Mu had no desire to get up. The lights from the dormitory across the way shined into his dark room, sending shadows across the walls that moved faintly.

Feeling a little cold, Fang Mu involuntarily curled up under the covers. By force of habit, he glanced at the other bed across the room, but now there was only a thin straw mattress.

So this is how cold it is, sleeping alone in a dorm room.

Compared to Room 313, which had always been packed full of his and Du Yu's stuff, Room 304 seemed terribly spacious.

So spacious, in fact, that it made him nervous.

Suddenly Fang Mu wondered whether, during Meng Fanzhe's final days alone in this room, he had also laid here in the dark, silently savoring the feeling of solitude.

Until he truly lost his mind.

Will I go mad, too?

Fang Mu hopped out of bed and looked at the dim lights from the distant dormitory. Seeing them, he felt a little better, a little less alone.

First
, he told himself,
you need to get something to eat
.

But no matter what, he was not going back to the dining hall. He reached out and turned on the light and then grabbed a pack of instant noodles. He shook his kettle. Luckily, Du Yu hadn't broken it. It was empty.

Holding the kettle, he stood in front of his door for several seconds. Then, with what seemed a great deal of determination, he opened it and walked out.

Something fluttered to his feet. Fang Mu picked it up. It was an envelope with a letter inside.

He looked down either end of the hallway. It was very quiet. No one was there.

Fang Mu sat down on his bed and took the letter out of the envelope. It was from Deng Linyue; he recognized her handwriting.

My Dearest Fang Mu,

Please allow me to call you this one final time, and please believe that as I do so, I love you. Perhaps this love will gradually disappear with the passage of time, but at the very least, I firmly believe that at the moment in which I write these words, I do still love you.

By the time you read this letter, I will probably already be on my way home. Don't try to find me (although perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part; you would probably never consider looking for me if I left). I will not be returning to school for some time; I have entrusted my family with handling the necessary procedures to apply for time off.

Perhaps you will despise me. Despise me for leaving without saying goodbye, despise me for my weakness and my cowardice. I am just an ordinary girl, longing to be protected, yearning for a peaceful and romantic life. The instant you rescued me in the gymnasium, I fell in love with you. Just as when a princess is rescued by a prince, I had no choice but to fall in love with you.