Lei Mi - Profiler

According to their initial interviews, the police discovered that the victim had been assigned to Dormitory 4, Room 611, but that he had been living off-campus with his girlfriend in a rented apartment since the beginning of the semester. With the help of the victim's former roommate, the police found the apartment. They knocked on the door for a long time but received no response. After locating the landlord, they were let inside. The scene was unimaginable, but it was also exactly what they had expected.

Wang Qian, Qu Weiqiang's girlfriend, had been killed as well, and the apartment was thick with the smell of blood. After entering the bedroom, the police found her naked corpse lying on the floor. Her head pointed north (toward the bedroom door) and her feet south (toward the open window), and her limbs were spread-eagled on the floor. After taking a closer look, the police discovered that the body had been hacked into six pieces (head, torso, legs and arms) and then pieced back together as if still whole. Even though a medical syringe was found inserted in the victim's chest on the underside of her left breast, the medical examiners determined that the actual cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation-seemingly by hand, based on the marks on the victim's neck. According to the autopsy, the victim had long since lost her virginity. There were also signs that she had been violently raped prior to her death, but there was no trace of semen in her vagina, meaning that the killer must have used a condom.

The murder scene was located in a residential area near JiangbinCityUniversity. The couple's apartment was on the left-hand side of the second floor of a small, three-story building. Their bedroom window had its screen torn open and overlooked a bicycle shed. Because of the hot weather, all the windows in the apartment had been open on the night of the murder, which had allowed the killer to climb onto the bicycle shed, break through the screen and then sneak into the apartment. On the bed were found a large amount of blood, hair, and skull fragments. These were brought in for testing, and identified as belonging to Qu Weiqiang. As a result, it was believed likely that this had been the scene of his murder. But even though two people had been killed here and one of them hacked apart, the apartment hardly resembled a slaughterhouse, and not a single fingerprint or footprint was found. Someone had cleaned the place well.

Because the murder was committed on the anniversary of the Communist Party, the director of the PSB initially took great interest in it. However, once it was clearly established that the crime had no political undertones, it was handed off to the State Enterprise and Nonprofit Institution Investigative Division.

A double homicide. Immediately the case raised an uproar at JiangbinCityUniversity, and the school began actively cooperating with the police to help solve it. Campus security was also greatly strengthened, as was supervision of the dormitories. A direct result of this was that all the young couples who had been covertly living off-campus were forced to return to their respective dorm rooms. A less direct result was that all those students who liked studying in lonely corners of campus after dark were now often treated to live shows of a most intimate variety.

Uniformed police could often be seen on campus interviewing students, especially the victims' friends and classmates. More than once the school's soccer coach suggested that the police should investigate Jiangbin City's other university soccer teams. When they ignored him, he decided to hold a retirement ceremony for Qu Weiqiang's jersey on his own.

Even though everyone had finals, the jersey retirement ceremony still attracted a lot of people, Fang Mu among them.

It was held on the soccer field. Qu Weiqiang's teammates had formed two lines, and in front of them were the team captain, co-captain and two others, each holding the corner of a soccer jersey and walking slowly and solemnly toward the north goal, while everyone else followed. There a table had been set up, and on it stood a very large, framed picture of the deceased, a soccer ball, and Qu Weiqiang's old cleats. When the team members reached the table they lined up on either side, standing tall with their hands behind their backs. The team captain bowed three times before Qu Weiqiang's picture, and then withdrew a slip of paper from his pocket and began to read aloud.

The speech was mainly a retelling of how Qu Weiqiang had first joined the team and the "outstanding contribution" he had made. The wording was ornate and the content rousing, but it all did seem rather suspiciously over the top. For example, saying that the deceased was an "impregnable god of the goal" and "the future hope of China's soccer world" might have made onlookers think that Wang Dalei had died rather than Qu Weiqiang. Still, the speech was well-received, and by the end tears were rolling down the faces of all the straight-backed players. (Translator’s note: Wang Dalei is a young hotshot Chinese goalie.) Most of those in the audience were also drying their eyes.

When the speech was over, the team captain sprinkled some liquid over the jersey and then used his lighter to set it on fire. In an instant the "1" on the back was engulfed by flames. Before the team captain could react, the jersey had been reduced to a ball of fire, burning his hand and causing him to drop it on the turf. The smell of burning fabric and plastic filled the air. A moment later, the stadium manager cried out and came running over. When he reached the still-burning jersey, he stamped wildly on it until the fire was out. This upset the members of the soccer team, who immediately surrounded the manager and began shouting at him.

But the manager was just as angry himself. "You can have whatever ceremony you want, but don't start any fires!" he yelled. "If the turf is ruined, are you guys going to pay for it?"

Both sides continued to jostle and shout at each other until they had left the stadium, each saying they would be speaking with the university president to get the matter straightened out. Thus the ceremony ended, leaving only Qu Weiqiang's half-burned jersey smoking sadly on a patch of scorched turf. Glancing back at the ceremonial table, where Qu Weiqiang's picture had been knocked over in the confusion, Fang Mu laughed bitterly, and then followed the crowd out of the stadium.

Returning to his dorm, he was surprised to find Tai Wei sitting on his bed reading a book. At this point Fang Mu still bore a bit of a grudge against Tai Wei from last time, so he just ignored him.

But Tai Wei didn't seem to care. Grinning at him, he said, "Where have you been? I've been waiting for you all day."

"Is there something you wanted to say to me?" Fang Mu asked coldly. Still, in the back of his mind he felt a shiver of fear. What had happened now?

"Oh, nothing in particular. The bureau just sent us down here to investigate a case, so I figured I'd stop by and say hi."

"What are they doing sending you here?" Fang Mu paused to think for a moment. "Not for that double homicide? A case like that wouldn't normally belong to the vice squad."

"You really know a lot kid," Tai Wei said, chuckling. "Actually, that case belongs to the State Enterprise and Nonprofit Institution Investigative Division. When I heard some of them were heading down here to look things over, I decided to tag along. So how's it going? You doing all right?"

"I'm fine; thanks for asking," said Fang Mu brusquely, as he sat down in his desk chair.

Tai Wei laughed. "You're still mad at me, huh?" He asked, not seeming to mind at all. "I admit that what I did was perhaps a little bit less than ideal, but I figured that if I couldn't give you an award, then at least you should get some commendation from your school. I was taking a risk, too, you know. If the director finds out he's going to hit the roof."