With much effort, he helped Fang Mu change into dry clothes. Fang Mu's spirits improved slightly after the change of attire and he no longer shivered so badly.
"I was wondering," said Tai Wei tactfully, pulling Fang Mu's chair over beside his bed, "that thing Du Yu just said about your old roommates dying. What was he talking about?"
Fang Mu took several deep drags from his cigarette and was silent for a long time. "When I was in college," he said slowly, "one of my roommates had an illicit relationship with one of the building attendants. Later she became pregnant and wrote him a letter to tell him. My roommate then mistakenly believed that he had placed this letter in one of the books that he had returned to the library. And because of some unkind treatment he received soon after, he suspected that someone must have read the letter and told people what it said."
"Then what happened?"
"He was the seventh person to have checked out the book," Fang Mu relayed. "To avenge himself, he decided to kill every person who checked it out after him. By the time he discovered that no one had actually read the letter, he had already begun to enjoy the feeling of control he found by ending other people's lives. I later discovered that check-out card and realized that someone was going down the list of readers, killing one after another. The victims included one of my other roommates, as well as the first girl I ever loved… I was the only survivor."
"Is this that murder case that happened at Changhong City Teacher's College? I heard that in the end the killer also died."
"That's right." Fang Mu trembled. "He was burned to death. I was…there at the time."
Tai Wei was silent for a moment. "That's when you became really interested in criminal profiling, correct? Everything you've done, all those cases you've cracked — it was all because of this experience, wasn't it?"
Fang Mu tossed away his cigarette. He grabbed his hair with both hands and tried to smooth it down. "I don't know the best way to say this. I've been having nightmares for the past two years. I'm scared of hallways, scared of the smell of roasting meat. I don't dare get close to other people. Only by ceaselessly investigating cases and ceaselessly helping the dead find justice am I able to get a measure of peace… Because," Fang Mu paused, and then his voice suddenly dropped, "in the final analysis, the deaths of all those people — they were because of me."
Tai Wei nodded. Out of all of the human senses, smell stayed in the memory longest. At last he now understood why Fang Mu was such an unusual person, and also why the pain he felt this time, with the killer challenging him by murdering all these people, was so unimaginably severe. "The victim was Du Yu's girlfriend?"
Fang Mu nodded.
"Are you certain that it's the same killer?"
Fang Mu shook his head, smiling wryly. "You still don't believe me." He stared at the floor. "It's definitely him. He understands me extremely well; he knows how important Du Yu's friendship is to me. This was number six. Regardless of whether or not I'm seven, he's trying to destroy me psychologically, bit by bit."
Tai Wei hesitated for a moment, and then said, "When I was at the scene just now, I noticed that the place where the victim had been tied underwater was at the end of lane six."
Fang Mu stared at Tai Wei for several seconds, and then threw off the cover and got out of bed. "Come on," he said. "Let's go to the scene."
The body had already been taken away, but the crowd remained. Fang Mu was surprised to see Professor Qiao among them; he was looking at the pool and frowning. Seeing Fang Mu, he didn't even wave; just turned and left.
The police had placed a filter over the drain to collect any suspicious objects as they emptied the pool. Zhao Yonggui was standing beside the pool, staring at the slowly draining water with his arms crossed and a very dark look on his face.
Tai Wei walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Find anything, Old Zhao?"
Zhao Yonggui looked at Tai Wei and then at Fang Mu. He shook his head. "Nothing."
His answer didn't surprise Fang Mu in the least. As he watched the cops searching carefully through the waist-deep water, he really wanted to tell them that it was pointless, that the killer wouldn't have left any stray clues behind.
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!"