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.
"I love it," she said, carefully placing the music box in her bag. She looked up at Fang Mu and smiled sweetly. "Thank you."
At the next table, the girl was complaining that the ring was too small. Sweating, the boy there finally managed to squeeze it onto her pinky.
Seeing this, Fang Mu and Deng Linyue couldn't help but look at each other and laugh.
Du Yu and Zhang Yao walked over, arm in arm. She had given him a pair of Nike basketball shoes and he already had them on.
"What do you think? They're Scottie Pippen Nike Air Throwbacks. Slick, huh?" Du Yu smiled with pleasure.
"Enough," said Zhang Yao with a smile. "Look how pleased you are with yourself." She nudged his head playfully, and then turned to Deng Linyue. "Linyue, we're going to go do karaoke soon. You guys should come!"
Deng Linyue looked at Fang Mu, as if waiting for his approval.
Du Yu pulled Fang Mu over to him and said, "You don't need to ask — he's coming for sure!"
Three cabs pulled up out front of the Night Flyer karaoke club and let out more than a dozen young people. Before Fang Mu had even gotten out, he saw Du Yu emerge from the cab ahead of him talking on his cell phone. A few seconds later, however, whoever he was speaking to must have hung up, leaving Du Yu staring at the screen with a baffled look on his face. When Zhang Yao walked over to find out what was going on, the phone suddenly rang again. Although Du Yu picked it up and said "Hello" a few times, it seemed as if the person on the other end wasn't saying a word, so he hung it up and shrugged at Zhang Yao. She just stood there, a suspicious look on her face.
Everyone else then filed into the club, leaving only Fang Mu, Deng Linyue, Du Yu, and Zhang Yao outside. Gesturing wildly, Du Yu was trying to explain something to Zhang Yao, but she just smiled coldly, as if she didn't believe anything he was saying.
Deng Linyue walked over and said something to Zhang Yao, and then clasped Fang Mu's arm and led him into the club.
"What happened?" he asked her.
"I don't know; probably some kind of misunderstanding. We should just go inside and let them be for now," she told him. "Zhang Yao said that she'd come in soon."