Fang Mu cut him off. "What about the car? The killer needed a car to commit his crimes, so where's Meng Fanzhe's? And you don't expect me to believe that he killed Jin Qiao and skinned Xin Tingting in his own dorm room, do you?"
"Renting a car would not have been a problem. And he most likely also rented a place somewhere off-campus to commit his crimes."
"Rented a place? Then why'd he bring all this stuff to his dorm room? Wouldn't it be a lot safer to just leave it in his apartment?"
For a moment Tai Wei couldn't respond.
The door suddenly opened and Deng Linyue ran in, breathing heavily. Du Yu followed behind her, a tray of food in his hands.
Deng Linyue froze when she saw Tai Wei, but rather than say hello to him, she immediately turned to Fang Mu. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
Seeing the gauze on his finger, she made an alarmed outcry, rushed closer and took his hand.
"My God! You're injured and it's still bleeding! We need to get you to the hospital." She looked Fang Mu up and down, speaking rapidly before he could reply. "You're not hurt anywhere else, are you? I'm sorry, I'm sorry; I only just heard the news. I came too late."
She seemed about to cry, but Fang Mu pushed away her hand and continued to stare at Tai Wei, waiting for him to answer his last question.
Tai Wei ignored Fang Mu's questioning look and opened the documents to the photo of the hammer.
"You came just in time," he said to Deng Linyue. "Look here. Was this what the killer was holding on the night of the crime?"
Deng Linyue looked at the photo. "It seems…like it was. Yes, it does look like it." But noticing Fang Mu's stern expression, she quickly added, "I'm not really sure. Aren't all hammers the same? Oh, I don't know, I don't know!"
Tai Wei glared angrily at Fang Mu, slammed the folder closed, and then stood up. "I'm going to go. Keep your phone on and don't run off anywhere in the next few days. As soon as there's any news, I'll let you know." He grabbed his briefcase and left.
The dorm was enveloped in silence. Du Yu looked at Deng Linyue, and then at Fang Mu. He pointed to the food on the desk. "You should eat something, Fang Mu. I bought you breakfast."
When Fang Mu didn't say anything, Deng Linyue smiled apologetically and said, "Thank you, Du Yu."
"I guess I'll be going then," Du Yu said, grabbing his backpack. On the way out, he whispered to Deng Linyue, "Make sure you look after him."
After Du Yu left, the dorm room fell into an even more unbearable silence. For a while Deng Linyue sat quietly beside Fang Mu, but when she saw that he wasn't going to say anything, she took the food tray and tried to hand it to him. "You should really eat something."
When Fang Mu wouldn't take it, she scooped a spoonful of rice porridge and lifted it toward his mouth.
He turned his head away. "I don't want to eat. You should go. I want to be alone for a while."
Having no other choice, Deng Linyue placed the tray back on the desk. In a soft voice, she said, "I'll stay with you."
He shook his head. "Don't bother. You should head back."
She bit her lip. Her voice rose despite herself. "Do you really…find me so awful?"
He considered her for a moment, and then said helplessly, "No. There's just nothing you can do to help me."
"There's nothing I can do to help? How can you not need my help at a time like this?" She suddenly stood up. "I know your emotions are painfully raw at this moment, and although I don't understand what happened or why that person wanted to kill you, I still want to be a consoling shoulder for you. Can't you be a little warmer to me?"
"No!" His voice leapt to an angry tone. "Do you really understand me? Do you know what kind of person I am? Do you know the burden you'll have to bear if you're with me? You can't do it!"
"What makes you think I can't? After what I went through, what else could be too much for me?"
Not wanting to argue with her any further, he stood up and opened the door. "Either go or don't go, but if you stay, I'm leaving!"
Tears were now running down her face. Deng Linyue could only stand there and stare at him for several seconds. Then she bolted past him and ran out of the room.
As Fang Mu watched her figure disappear down the end of the hall, he was awash in both unspeakable guilt and exhaustion.
Deng Linyue, you don't understand. The scariest part isn't knowing what he's going to do; it's having no idea when he's going to do it.
One day later, Tai Wei called to tell Fang Mu that the blood on the black sheet was proven to be Jin Qiao's. This, combined with Tai Wei's account of the killer's appearance from when he'd chased him through the gymnasium and the library record which proved that Meng Fanzhe had taken out all the books in May of 2002 — which closely conformed to the dates of the murders — made it appear Meng Fanzhe really had been the perpetrator.
That day, Meng Fanzhe's mother arrived at the school.
Meng Fanzhe's father had been dead for a long time, so his mother was there alone. As soon as she heard the news, she hopped on a train and rushed to JiangbinCity. Because her heart was not strong, she had already fainted twice in the university president's office.
It was Zou Tuanjie who told Fang Mu the news. When Fang Mu saw the woman himself, it was noon of that same day.
An older, white-haired woman, she was escorted by two policemen up to Meng Fanzhe's room to gather his effects. As soon as she saw the police tape outside his door, she began to sob.
Several students from the law school, including Fang Mu, stood outside Meng Fanzhe's room and watched his mother haltingly open the door. As soon as she walked inside, she looked all around, as if she was expecting to see Meng Fanzhe and hear him say, "Mom, you've come." After her gaze swept the room, she knelt beside his bed, pulled his blanket beneath her nose and inhaled as intensely as she could. She began to wail, an anguished cry of misery and loss. After she cried for a long time, the policemen reminded her why she was there. She slowly stood up and organized her dead son's belongings.
Because the majority of Meng Fanzhe's things had been taken by the police as evidence, there only remained enough affects to fill his mother's small travel bag. As she left the room, holding the last things her son had left on this earth, she suddenly said to one of the policemen, "Would I be able to see the boy that my son attacked? I just can't believe my son could ever kill someone."
The man's eyes rested for a second on Fang Mu's face down the hall before he said tersely to the woman, "No, that won't be possible."
At once everyone's eyes fell on Fang Mu.
He paid no attention to them, just watched as Meng Fanzhe's mother hobbled down the hall and then disappeared through the door at the end.
The watching students weren't yet ready to leave. They continued to crowd the hall, and every now and then one would look over at Fang Mu and whisper something to the people around him.
With what seemed to be a great deal of determination, Zou Tuanjie walked over to him. "Fang Mu, why did Meng Fanzhe want to kill you?"
Fang Mu stared at him for a few seconds. "I don't know."
Fang Mu really didn't know. For the past two days, he had been going over and over everything that had happened between him and Meng Fanzhe, and he couldn't find a single motive for the guy to want to kill him. There was also too much of a disparity between Meng Fanzhe and the killer Fang Mu had theorized; while he often reminded himself that his profiles were never going to be perfectly spot-on, these differences were simply too great.
However, a few things were undeniable: Meng Fanzhe had marked the equation of "7" on Fang Mu's door, and then tried to kill him. Also, a lot of evidence had been discovered in his dorm room.