Lei Mi - Profiler

Five minutes earlier, Du Yu had called Fang Mu from their dorm room, saying that one of Fang Mu's college classmates was there to see him.

Since graduating from the Teacher's College, Fang Mu had essentially lost touch with all of his old friends, so he found it extremely surprising that one would come for a visit.

When he opened the door, someone sat up on his bed, and then in a thick Dalian accent said, "Sixth Brother, you're back."

For several seconds Fang Mu was stunned. Then without saying a word, he walked over and gave the visitor a big hug.

"Eldest Brother," said Fang Mu with a smile. (Translator’s note: In Chinese dorm rooms, it is customary to refer to one's roommates based on their age-as in Eldest Brother for the oldest guy, and then Second Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, etc. Because China's dorms are often quite packed, it is not unusual to have up to six "brothers" in one room.)

Eldest Brother was rather taken aback by this sudden show of affection. Clapping Fang Mu on the back, he said, "My man, you look exactly the same."

As they released each other, Fang Mu had tears in his eyes. Embarrassed, he quickly wiped them dry. "Eldest Brother, what are you doing here?"

"I just happened to be in the city on business, so I figured I'd stop by and see you. Man, I never expected JiangbinCityUniversity's security to be this tough. They made me register my ID number before they'd even let me up here."

"Some serious stuff has happened here over the last little while, so they're being pretty strict with outsiders."

"Oh, what kind of stuff?"

"Two students were murdered," interjected Du Yu.

"Jeez, that kind of thing seems to be happening everywhere," said Eldest Brother with a frown. Then when he noticed how Fang Mu's expression had changed, he quickly switched topics.

"You guys' dorm is pretty nice. Is this standard for graduate students?"

"Yep," said Fang Mu. "But, Eldest Brother, what have you been doing?"

"Just muddling along. I'm sure you've heard how hard it is for college graduates to get jobs these days. I've been working in the legal department of a state-run company in Dalian. The company's been having some trouble lately, so we've had to put forth some suits on their behalf, and collect from some debtors. You know, 'This isn't enough money', or 'This will do for now'-that kind of stuff. In fact, that's why I'm here today; to go see a company about some money they owe us."

Fang Mu laughed and said, "Have you been in touch with any of the other guys?"

"Second Brother went into the army. The Eldest Brother from Room Three-Fifty-One joined at the same time, and he told me recently that Second Brother is now a company-level cadre. After graduation, Fifth Brother went to Guangzhou to become a lawyer, and I hear he's doing pretty well. But truth be told, I haven't been great at keeping in touch." Eldest Brother's voice fell. "After what happened with Third Brother-when Fourth Brother died and you barely survived-you remember what it was like. We had been six close roommates, and then only four were left. Afterwards, none of us wanted to talk about it, we were all just looking forward to the day we could forget it even happened, so it was only natural that we would gradually fall out of touch."

Noticing that Du Yu had been listening in, Fang Mu took Eldest Brother's arm and said, "Come on, Eldest Brother. You've traveled all this way; let me treat you to something to eat."

At a small restaurant just outside the university gates, Fang Mu and Eldest Brother drank until their faces were red. After all, they had once been as close as brothers, so having not seen each other for two years, it was only natural that they had a lot to talk about. At first they kept interrupting one another, like a pair of old men competing to see who had the best memory, though as if by tacit agreement they both carefully avoided bringing up that tragic event. Instead, they did their best to recall all the hilarious stories and brilliant remarks they could remember from their college days, and when they couldn't think of anything else to say, they just laughed idiotically and took another drink.

After they had more or less drunk their fill, Eldest Brother suddenly clapped himself on the forehead and said, "That's right, I almost forgot. Did that journalist ever come talk to you?"

"Journalist?" said Fang Mu, a little confused. "What journalist?"

"Wasn't there a journalist that wanted to interview you?" said Eldest Brother, looking even more confused himself.

"Interview me?" said Fang Mu. "Interview me about what?"

Eldest Brother sighed. "What else? That thing with Third Brother."

Fang Mu sobered up fast. "What exactly are you talking about?"

"No need to get so excited. About three months ago I got a call from someone who said he was a reporter for the Changhong City Evening News . He asked me if I was your classmate, and I said I was. Then I asked him how he had gotten my number. It was in the alumni book, he said. Then he told me he was investigating what happened with Third Brother, because he wanted to write an article about the mental health needs of university students."

"What did you tell him?"

"Nothing much, just what I knew. However, I began to have a feeling that what this guy was really interested in wasn't Third Brother; it was you."

"Interested in me?"

"That's right, for example what your personality was like, how you behaved after everything happened. I think it was because you were the only survivor."

Fang Mu thought for a moment, and then asked, "What was this guy like?"

"While I can't say anything for sure, his voice didn't sound that old, around thirty, more or less, and he was very polite." Then, noticing that Fang Mu's brows were drawing tighter and tighter, he asked: "What's wrong? He never interviewed you?"

"No." Fang Mu shook his head.

"That's strange. What could this guy have wanted?" said Eldest Brother, visibly puzzled.

Fang Mu was thinking the same thing. He thought of the person that Librarian Zhao had mentioned over the summer.

Who was he? And what was he after?

Zhao Yonggui's trip to HegangCity turned out to be a big waste of time. At first, however, it seemed promising. Once there, he was informed by the local police that while in high school, Wang Qian was strenuously courted by a male classmate named Yan Hongbing. The problem was, his method of professing his love was a little excessive; any boy that came in contact with Wang Qian would inevitably be beaten up by Yan Hongbing and some of his hooligan friends. One time, Yan Hongbing happened to run into Wang Qian while she was being tutored in physics by a male teacher; as a result, this man was later beaten so bad he ruptured his spleen. This incident caused so much fuss that if the College Entrance Exam hadn't been coming up, Wang Qian might have changed schools. Afterwards, Wang Qian began attending JiangbinCityUniversity, while Yan Hongbing, who failed to graduate, became a jobless vagrant, and traveled twice to JiangbinCityUniversity to pester her. The second time, however, he was soundly beaten by Qu Weiqiang and his soccer teammates.

"Just you wait," Yan Hongbing was reported to have said at the time, "sooner or later, I'm going to take care of you." And as it happened, at the time of the 7/1 double murder, Yan Hongbing had left HegangCity, and his whereabouts were unknown.

This piece of information closely conformed to the murder motive suggested by Professor Qiao, and Zhao Yonggui grew excited about the prospects. So, when the Hegang police informed him that Yan Hongbing had suddenly returned, he asked them to detain him, and then drove straight through the night to Hegang to begin his interrogation.

The result was greatly disappointing. Although the story about Yan Hongbing pestering Wang Qian at JiangbinCityUniversity turned out to be true, a short time after that he had gone to Guangzhou and found work as a hired goon in an underground gambling hall. Then, while participating in an armed fight in mid-June 2002, Yan Hongbing was severely injured. On the day of the crime he was still in a hospital in Guangzhou undergoing treatment, and under strict police supervision to boot.