Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1) (43 page)

Fang Mu looked up. "Meng Fanzhe isn't the killer. The killer is someone else."

"Then so what? Why don't you just not worry about it? Why don't you just let the police do their jobs? Why don't you just be a normal student?"

He smiled bitterly and shook his head. "Impossible." He held her attention. "There are so many things… You just wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand? Tell me!" She sat down beside him and wiped away the tears forming. Her eyes never leaving his face.

He looked steadily into her bright and innocent eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but all he managed to say was, "You…don't need to know."

She stared at him until he looked away.

After a few long moments, she dried her eyes and slowly stood up. She walked to the door. "No matter what," she said in a quiet, soft tone, "I hope you know that regardless of what happens, I will always be by your side."

She opened the door and left.

For an instant Fang Mu wanted to call her back, hold her close, and whisper to her, "I'm sorry... forgive me."

But he didn't do a thing, just sat there and watched her disappear.

A few days later, Tai Wei called to say that Li Weidong had sent police to recheck the apartment, but because the scene had already been fairly heavily disturbed, it was impossible to determine if someone had been there before Fang Mu arrived. Additionally, interviews with the neighbors had turned up nothing of value. The police also searched through the apartment several times, and were certain that the letter Fang Mu mentioned was not at the scene.

Although Tai Wei didn't offer any official opinion over the phone, his position was already clear: the letter did not exist. Someone had to be lying, but whether this was Fang Mu or Dong Guizhi, he didn't know.

Fang Mu didn't feel like arguing with him, so after saying a few brief words, he quickly got off the phone. Sensing that Deng Linyue had been listening in to his conversation, he said without looking over at her: "That was Tai Wei. He called about the
Suijing
City
investigation."

Sure enough, Deng Linyue had been true to her word. For the past few days, she had stuck close to Fang Mu at all times, except when they were asleep. No matter what time he left his dorm, she was always waiting for him outside.

But she was also speaking less and less. Even when they were eating, she often wouldn't say a word. Many times, Fang Mu would happen to look up at her and find that she was staring back at him.

The look in her eyes was no longer the warm, soft gaze from when they first got together; now it carried the hint of a close examination. It made him nervous when she looked at him like that, and when their eyes met he often had to look away in defeat after a few seconds.

At night, when he would walk her back to her dorm, Deng Linyue would always stand silently outside of it several minutes. He stood beside her, smoking or just looking off into the distance, not saying a word either. Often, she would turn and walk into her dorm without the least bit of warning, and though Fang Mu waited for her several times, he never saw her turn and come back as she had that one night before.

They hadn't kissed in a long time.

At one point Zhang Yao came to talk with Fang Mu. She told him that over the past few days Deng Linyue had been acting very strangely. Often Zhang Yao wouldn't see her all day, and then when Deng Linyue returned to the dorm at night, she would go straight to bed. One time, Zhang Yao woke to find Deng Linyue crying under her covers late in the night. When she asked her what was wrong, Deng Linyue just answered that she'd had a nightmare and wouldn't say anything else.

With the hint of a threat in her voice, Zhang Yao told Fang Mu that Deng Linyue had once asked her if she had made the right choice in being with Fang Mu. "If you don't start acting a little nicer to her," Zhang Yao said, "I'm afraid she might dump you!"

Fang Mu didn't really care whether Deng Linyue dumped him or not, but hearing how sad she sounded, he couldn't but feel a little sorry. When she invited him to a Christmas party, he immediately said yes.

For
Jiangbin
City
University
students, Christmas was easily one of the best-loved holidays. Even though it was a foreign holiday, these black-haired, yellow-skinned students celebrated it with even more fervor than Chinese New Year. By mid-December, all the restaurants, flower stores, and gift shops around the school had begun promotional activities, the campus was covered with over-the-top advertisements and posters, and everywhere one looked was the image of that red-hat-wearing, white-bearded old man. Girls began looking forward to the gifts they would receive, while boys began saving their money, either for a gift that would make their girlfriend smile or one that would capture the heart of a girl they'd long admired.

Despite the festive atmosphere, Fang Mu hardly caught the Christmas fever. Previously, when he had been single, he had never given any thought to the holiday. But although he still felt the same way, when Du Yu asked him if he wanted to go shopping for Christmas gifts, he forced himself to tag along.

Du Yu strolled around the Guomao shopping mall as patiently as a girl, frequently stopping to ask Fang Mu what he thought of some item or whether another was actually so nice. Each time Fang Mu just shrugged and said: "It's all right." Soon Du Yu began to feel that having Fang Mu help him choose a gift hadn't been the smartest idea in the world, so he ignored him and kept looking on his own. Freed from his duties, Fang Mu walked leisurely along after him, hands in his pockets.

He may have been bored, but this kind of relaxed afternoon was hard to come by. After being so tense for so long and after all the terrible things that had happened, he found it truly satisfying to stroll around, with a light heart and an empty mind.

While passing a counter covered with little knick-knacks, Fang Mu happened to catch sight of a small glass globe. The glass gleamed so brightly that he stared at it for an few extra seconds. Noticing this, the young saleswoman immediately called him over in a warm and enthusiastic tone. Seeing no reason not to, Fang Mu walked over to take a closer look.

The globe was actually a music box, or at least made up the upper half of one. Underneath it was the musical portion, a small and square box made of plastic. Inside the glass globe was a scene in miniature: a young man and woman standing side by side under a streetlight, with her leaning happily against his shoulder. Small white flakes were scattered around inside the globe, looking much like snow.

The saleswoman flipped a switch on the bottom and at once the miniature scene came to life. The streetlight inside switched on, the snowflakes swirled through the air, and tinkling music started to play. All the while, the two sweethearts were pressed close, snow floating all around them.

A ghost of a smile crossed Fang Mu's lips. It was snowing.

He thought of the smell of bare branches in the cold air.

... of the crunch of feet walking through snow.

... of a long ponytail tickling his face.

He then thought of two new sweethearts under a streetlight, first standing apart, and then pressing together.

"It's even prettier if you look at it at night," said the saleswoman, interrupting Fang Mu's thoughts.

"How much is it?" he asked, taking out his wallet.

By the time he finished paying, Du Yu had emerged from the crowd, a small plastic bag in his hand.

Seeing Fang Mu, he smiled. "So you bought something, too. What is it?" He grabbed the paper box out of Fang Mu's hand and opened it. "A music box? Where's your creativity? This kind of thing hasn't been popular in years."

Fang Mu laughed. "How about you? What did you get?"

Du Yu chuckled. "Actually, mine is a little over the top." He carefully removed a small, exquisite-looking box from the plastic bag. "It's Poison perfume by Dior, four-hundred-fifty renminbi."

"You sure got some deep pockets, huh?"

"I'm positive Zhang Yao is going to like this," said Du Yu, beaming with joy.

12/24: Christmas Eve.

The foreign languages grad school class of 2003 had rented a large conference room in one of the downtown hotels for the Christmas Eve party. Everyone was splitting the bill. The only requirement was: If you were in a relationship, you had to come as a couple.

Dinner was buffet-style, and while everyone ate, people took part in various skits and performances. Having no interest in this, Fang Mu sat at a table beside the window, quietly eating a plate of fried chicken and fruit salad and looking at the heavy car traffic outside.

The room was very hot and the window beside Fang Mu was covered in water droplets. Bored stiff, he used his finger to draw a design on the glass. After a little while, he realized that he had been drawing the two strange symbols he had seen that night at Meng Fanzhe's house.

What did they mean?

From the start, Fang Mu had been certain that Meng Fanzhe was not the killer. In which case, if it really was the doctor who had arrived at Meng Fanzhe's house before him, then whatever he had written on the window must have been meant for Fang Mu to see.

Could it have been a clue to the next murder?

He looked at the symbol on the left, the "9" with a line through the middle, and shook his head.

If Deng Linyue had been six and he had been seven, then there was no way the next one could be "nine". Therefore, the symbol before him most likely wasn't nine.

Besides, this 9 had been written very strangely. Not only was there a line through the middle, but also, unlike the way most people write 9; where the bottom half slants slightly to the left, this one ran straight down, almost perpendicular to the ground.

Rather than a 9, could it instead be the letter q?

As for the one on the right, no matter how he looked, it appeared to be an A.

Then if they were both letters, why was one uppercase and the other lowercase?

While Fang Mu was racking his brains over this question, Deng Linyue's reflection suddenly appeared in the glass.

She had been dancing for a while, and now her face was red from the heat and she kept fanning her neck with her collar. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing really."

"Why aren't you over there having fun?"

He laughed. "I can't dance. You should go enjoy yourself; don't worry about me."

She covered his hand with her own. "Then I won't go either," she said softly. "I'll stay here with you."

At that moment, the student who was emceeing the party called loudly, "Next we're going to exchange presents. Time to show your S.O. how deep your love goes!"

Taking her hand away, Deng Linyue rifled excitedly through her bag. In the blink of an eye, she was holding a small gold-colored metal box.

She presented it to Fang Mu. "This is for you! Merry Christmas!"

"Oh, thank you." Taking the beautifully-made box from her, Fang Mu saw that the word "Zippo" was written on the side. He understood: It was a lighter.

"Open it up and took a look." Deng Linyue's chin was resting on her palms, her elbows on the table, an expectant look in her eyes.

He opened the box. Inside was a limited-edition Eternal Star Zippo. He knew its market price had to be over 1,200 renminbi. Lifting the cover, he flicked the flint wheel, and a flame whooshed out of the top of the lighter.

"Like it?" she asked, winking at him. "But I still don't want you to smoke too many cigarettes. Now, how about mine?"

Fang Mu hesitated for a moment, then handed her the wrapped box.

Beaming, Deng Linyue undid the wrapping paper. As she took out the box, a boy at the next table noticed it and snorted derisively. Looking over, Fang Mu saw that the boy was just placing a ring on his girlfriend's finger.

"Wow, how beautiful," Deng Linyue said, ignoring the boy. She smiled and held the music box to her heart. "Where's the on switch? Oh, don't tell me; I want to find it." Reaching under the box, she flipped it on and the music began to play.

The streetlight glowed. The snowflakes whirled.

She set the globe on the table and resting her chin on her crossed arms, watching the two sweethearts press together at the center of the snow globe. She watched all the way though, until the song ended.