Lei Mi - Profiler

"It's you?"

"It's me, Professor Qiao, it's Fang Mu." He quickly asked, "How did you end up here, sir?"

Professor Qiao shook his head, his lips curling into a bitter smile.

" Aye , don't ask." He sighed. "I'm old…an old fool. I thought I could convince him to turn himself in. I thought he was still the same obedient, diligent student from all those years ago."

"You mean Sun Pu, right?"

"Oh? So you know then?" Professor Qiao was momentarily stunned. Then he laughed faintly. "I really was right about you."

"Save your energy, Professor Qiao. I'm going to get you out of here!" Helping him to lean against the bars, Fang Mu stood and looked the cage over more thoroughly.

With Professor Qiao inside, the cage had to weigh well over 200 pounds. Moving it would be extremely difficult, not to mention getting it out of the pool and up onto the first floor. His only chance was to open the lock, get Professor Qiao out, and then decide on his next step.

After locating the lock, Fang Mu weighed it in his hand. The thing was solid. Pulling out his knife, he inserted the point into the keyhole and fiddled with it lightly. It wasn't going to work. Not only would this not open the lock, it would likely break the knife as well.

He raised his lighter and looked around. The place was empty; there was nothing around that could be used to get the lock open.

After thinking for a moment, Fang Mu remembered the prison cells full of chairs and desks on the first floor. There had to be an iron bar or something along those lines inside one of them. Squatting back down in front of Professor Qiao, he said, "Wait one moment, sir. I'm going to go find something to get this cage open."

But before the words had even left his mouth, he heard something rumble overhead.

A beam of light shot down, illuminating Fang Mu's face.

Dizzy from the light, Fang Mu quickly shielded his eyes with his hand and looked up.

There was a square opening in the ceiling overhead. Through it shone a flashlight beam.

Someone else was in the bunker.

Even though his vision was blurry from the light, Fang Mu could still vaguely make out that it was a man.

"Who are you?"

Fang Mu's heart began to beat fast. Was it the police?

The man didn't answer, just chuckled darkly.

In an instant, an ice-cold feeling gripped Fang Mu's heart. He knew exactly who it was.

Before he could think anything further, something else appeared in the man's hand and then a terrible-smelling liquid came pouring down.

Although Fang Mu dodged back instinctively, one of his sleeves was still soaked with the stuff. But Professor Qiao had nowhere to hide and was drenched all over.

Fang Mu sniffed his sleeve. A chill ran through his body.

It was gasoline.

The man above disappeared, leaving only the square opening. A thin beam of light shed down from it, as if it were a single eye, watching them with evil intent.

For a moment Fang Mu was scared stiff. Then he scrambled toward the cage."Professor Qiao…"

"Stay back!" said Professor Qiao sternly.

Fang Mu stood where he was, not daring to move, not daring to flick on his lighter.

Amid the darkness, he stared stiffly at the cage only a few steps away. He could faintly see that Professor Qiao was slowly sitting up, his eyes alive, as if he were pondering some difficult problem.

After several seconds, Professor Qiao spoke. "Fang Mu," he said, knocking against the bars of the cage. "You once saw someone burned to death, correct?"

Taken aback, Fang Mu couldn't help but respond. "Yes."

Professor Qiao snorted. "So that's what this is," he muttered to himself. "No wonder he kept me alive this whole time." His voice rose. "Fang Mu, will you listen to me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Sun Pu is probably going to return very soon. Now don't go anywhere and listen to me." Professor Qiao's voice slowed. "Previously I once criticized you very harshly for helping the police to solve a crime. Do you remember?"

"Yes, I remember."

"I'm old, so old that I didn't dare let my best student put himself to the test, fearing that I would make the same mistake twice." Professor Qiao paused for a moment. "I admit that I was mistaken. You and Sun Pu are different. Therefore you must make it out of here alive. No matter what, you need to stop him."

"Professor Qiao…"

"Are you listening?" Professor Qiao barked in a stronger tone.

"I'm listening," Fang Mu said, forcing the words out through growing despair.

"Good, you're a good kid." Professor Qiao seemed to have used up all his energy and his voice grew softer and softer. "Now go. Get out of here as fast as you can."

Tears filled Fang Mu's eyes as he realized that this would be the last time he would ever speak to Professor Qiao. He took two steps back, watching through blurry vision as the professor slumped against the bars of the cage.

He ran forward and knelt beside the cage. "Professor Qiao, Professor Qiao…" The tears burned a hot steam down Fang Mu's face. "I can't let you stay here alone…"

"You really won't listen," said Professor Qiao, his voice unusually gentle. "Are you crying? It seems you're not as outstanding as I thought."

A rough, bony hand stroked Fang Mu's face in the dark.

"There's nothing scary about death," Professor Qiao said softly. "What's scary is living without a soul. Sun Pu is a soulless person. That's the biggest difference between you and him. Now go and do what you have to do, using your own methods." A burst of evil laughter echoed from overhead.

Fang Mu looked up. The dark figure was once more looking down through the opening.

He brought his hand up, light coming with the movement. He was holding a mass of burning paper.

"No!" Before the words had even left Fang Mu's mouth, the flaming mass had already dropped from the man's hand.

Fang Mu watched wide-eyed as the paper floated closer down to them, twirling, burning, frequently giving off sparks that spun in the air like a beautiful dance of death.

An enormous force suddenly pushed hard into his chest, knocking him back nearly six feet.

In that instant the flaming mass fell through the bars of the cage.

The flaming paper ignited into a ball of fire, roaring flaming light into the previously pitch-black water dungeon.

There was a brief cry from Professor Qiao and then nothing more. He twisted amid the raging flames, his hands tightly gripping the bars of the cage, his whole body shaking.

Fang Mu watched from where he had fallen, watching open-mouthed as Professor Qiao struggled amid the flames.

A scorched odor filled the air…that old familiar scent.

The scent of death.

Suddenly, everything around Fang Mu disappeared. The water dungeon, the cage, Professor Qiao, all of it vanished without a trace…

He was standing in a flaming hallway.

The doors on either side of him were ablaze. He could see the burnt and twisted bodies of Fourth Brother and Wang Jian lying in Room 352.

Where am I?

Someone slowly stood up against the wall. It was Sun Mei. She no longer looked human. She opened her arms. Bones were sticking out. The strips of clothing still covering her bloody flesh smoked and fell to the floor, piece by piece.

"Don't kill anyone else…"

Sun Mei rocked back and forth as she walked slowly toward Fang Mu.

"Don't kill anyone else…"

Why did you have to bring me back?

Why?

Hold me, said an unknown voice. It doesn't matter if you're Sun Mei or Wu Han, I just need to feel the warmth.

Even if it's the feeling of death.

All these years, all this death. I'm already too tired.

Please let me give up.

"Are you listening?" That stern voice. He knew it was Professor Qiao.