This couldn't help but cause those involved to think of a certain mythical monster-the vampire.
Over the following month and a half, two more victims were murdered in their homes. Both were women, between the ages of 25 and 35, and both were found disemboweled. A container, holding remnants of a mixture of blood and other matter, was also found at each scene.
In this mid-sized city of two million residents, homicides were common enough to be almost trivial; however these murders were so savage and strange that they raised a storm of suspicion. All across JiangbinCity, rumors were soon flying back and forth. Had an ancient vampire been revived from its thousand-year slumber? Had the biological weapons left behind by the Japanese invaders during World War II caused some terrible genetic mutation? And these were just the beginning. City Hall started paying attention, too, and they ordered the Public Security Bureau to crack the case as soon as possible.
A special investigation team was quickly established, but one week had passed since then with no progress whatsoever. Just as things were beginning to look bad, Ding Shucheng, a Changhong City Criminal Police officer visiting JiangbinCity on police business, made a startling suggestion: they should talk to a certain Criminology post-grad studying at JiangbinCityUniversity.
Tai Wei was one of the leaders of the special team, and at first he thought Ding Shucheng was joking. But the visiting officer swore he was not, and told Tai Wei the following story.
In the summer of 2001, four successive acts of rape and murder were committed in ChanghongCity. The four victims were all female, white-collar workers between the ages of 25 and 30, and after being raped, all four were strangled to death with a rope. The murders took place on the top floor balcony of four different high-rises that were then still under construction. At the time, Xing Zhisen, Ding Shucheng's direct superior and the leader of ChanghongCity's Criminal Police Unit, had just been promoted to Deputy Director of the entire Public Security Bureau, and he wasted no time in making his presence felt. After revealing the case to the local media, he appeared on television and promised that it would be cracked within two weeks. Two days later, a letter appeared on the desk of the special investigation team. Its writer had watched Deputy Director Xing's recent TV appearance, and in the letter he asserted that the killer was a sexual psychopath unable to have normal relationships with women, which caused him to exercise his desires through rape and murder. The writer even went so far as to conclude that the killer was less than 30-year-old.
At first, the policemen who read the letter assumed it was no more than the amateur effort of some detective fiction fanatic, and they ignored it. But when Deputy Director Xing heard about it, he was intrigued, and he assigned someone to investigate the letter writer's background. Once it was determined that the writer was one Fang Mu, a senior at Changhong City Teacher's College, Deputy Director Xing became very excited, and had Fang Mu brought to the station at once. After the two of them spoke privately in Xing's office for half an hour, the Deputy Director personally drove Fang Mu to each of the four crime scenes. When they returned, all the data from all four murders was brought to Deputy Director Xing's office, where Fang Mu pored over it in detail. Later that night (as according to the autopsies, the murders had each taken place between 10 and 11 pm), Fang Mu was driven back to the crime scenes. This time, Ding Shucheng came along as well. While on the exposed top floor of one of the buildings (which, at the time, happened to be the tallest of the four), the kid stood in silence for a very long time.
Finally, he said something that Ding Shucheng would never forget.
"He's not raping those women, he's raping the city!"
When they returned to the station, Fang Mu made the following suggestions to the special investigation team: First, search every seedy video playhouse in the city, especially those located near construction sites, for a right-handed, short-haired, fairly thin man between 20- and 25-years-old, standing 5'3" to 5'5", wearing glasses, a watch on his left hand and with a scratch on his left wrist, and possessing no more than a high school education. Second, conduct a citywide search of every construction team with projects underway for a man with the above-mentioned characteristics. Third, investigate the towns and villages near ChanghongCity for evidence of a former resident with said characteristics who failed the College Entrance Exam and then moved to the city to work-with an emphasis on only children with no female elders, or boys with older brothers but no sisters. He even went so far as to say that at the time of the killer's arrest, he would likely be wearing a white-collared dress shirt.
Hearing this seemingly wild-eyed speculation, the members of the special investigation team remained somewhat unconvinced; however Deputy Director Xing ordered that they begin searching for a suspect according to Fang Mu's advice. Two days later, the boss of a small video playhouse by the train station said that she knew a man who fit those characteristics; he worked at a nearby construction site. The workers from that site would often arrive in groups to watch movies, however this man always came alone, and only in the hours after midnight when pornographic films were shown. One time, while he was at the theater watching such a film, another worker from his site arrived, and at once the man blushed red from embarrassment and sneaked out. This event left a deep impression on the theater boss, and as a result she remembered the man well.
The police then traveled to the construction site in question, and with the theater boss in tow, they located the man in one of the on-site work sheds. His name was Huang Yongxiao, and he was the project's surveyor. As soon as the police produced identification and asked to see Huang Yongxiao's left wrist, the man leaped to his feet and attempted to flee, however he was quickly apprehended. After being brought back to the station for interrogation, Huang Yongxiao admitted that he had raped and killed the four women, and confessed to everything.
Huang Yongxiao was 21-year-old, a high school graduate, and a former resident of the town of Batai, near ChanghongCity. After flunking the College Entrance Exam in 2000, he decided to redo his final year of high school and retake the test; however, he failed again. Afterwards, he followed his paternal uncle and moved to ChanghongCity. There he worked on numerous construction projects, but never on any for long. Later, with the help of his uncle, he was recommended to this most recent project, and because he had a high school education, was made a surveyor. Huang Yongxiao had always impressed people as a nice, quiet young man, so it was shocking to learn that he had committed these horrifying crimes.
It also did not pass unnoticed that at the time of his arrest, Huang Yongxiao was wearing a white-collared dress shirt-which, although very old, had been washed exceedingly clean.
Fang Mu's description of the killer's appearance, family background, work environment, and lifestyle were startling close to those of Huang Yongxiao. The only discrepancies were that Huang's parents had divorced several years ago and he had no brothers, only an older sister who had gone to live with their mother and her new husband, and with whom he had long-since lost contact. But despite these errors, the officers of the special investigation team had already begun treating Fang Mu, this unremarkable-looking young man, with newfound respect. They even went so far as to wonder whether he'd actually been present during Huang Yongxiao's crimes-for how else could his judgments have been so accurate?