Lei Mi - Profiler

Seeing her daughter's reaction, Deng Linyue's mother quickly spoke up. "I told you not to ask her. Can't you be considerate of the victims? Come back in a few days and we'll see." She rose to her feet, her expression telling them to head for the door.

Having no other choice, Tai Wei placed his pen and pad back in his briefcase. "All right then, make sure to rest up," he said to Den Linyue. He turned to her mother as he stood up. "We'll be back in a few days."

Fang Mu was about to follow him to the door when Deng Linyue called him back.

"Fang Mu," she said, doing her best to sit upright, "what room is Liu Jianjun in? I want to go see him."

Her mother cut off the idea at once. "I won't allow it! How can you go see him in the state you're in?"

Tai Wei gave the mother a dark look, and then turned and strode out of the room.

Helpless, Fang Mu gave Deng Linyue a little wave and then quickly followed Tai Wei out. As soon as they left, they could hear Deng Linyue and her mother arguing quietly.

"Christ!" said Tai Wei, lighting a cigarette. Ignoring the "No Smoking" sign in the hallway, he took several deep drags and then said, "That woman is too goddamn difficult!"

Not knowing whether he was talking about Deng Linyue or her mother, Fang Mu vaguely tried to calm him down, saying "Well, she is in a delicate situation."

"The whole thing's a mess," continued Tai Wei. "The father's some senior cadre, and so far he hasn't been willing to cooperate with us in the least." He tossed his cigarette away. "These are our two witnesses. One's in a coma, the other won't talk. How the hell are we supposed to continue the investigation?"

He waved to a nearby policeman: "You! Go ask the doctors when the boy is going to wake up."

The policeman immediately nodded and then sprinted downstairs.

For a few moments Tai Wei just stood there, hands on his hips, nearly panting with rage. Suddenly he said: "So what do you think is going to happen next?"

Fang Mu was caught off-guard. "What? What do you mean happen next ?"

"What's the killer's next move going to be?" asked Tai Wei impatiently. "Will he look for another opportunity to finish off the girl? Or if he chooses someone else for the sixth murder, who's he going to copy this time?"

"How should I know?" replied Fang Mu angrily.

But Tai Wei had a point. What was the killer going to do next?

This time the killer had failed to complete his crime, and had also not left any clues behind at the scene. It brought up many questions: How were they supposed to prevent the next murder? What kind of victim was he going to choose? Deng Linyue or someone else instead? Everything was unknown.

It was as if an empty white space had suddenly appeared on the test paper in the middle of an exam. What were the next questions going to be? No one knew.

"Oh, it's you?"

"Yeah. Were you on the phone? I don't want to disturb you."

"It's no problem. I just finished."

"You asked me to come by. Is something up?"

There was a laugh. "It's nothing important. You just haven't been here in a while. I want to see how you were doing."

"Oh, I'm doing fine. Your complexion is looking a little off. Are you sick?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a little cold."

"You have a temperature?"

"No. Really, it's nothing."

"Should I go with you to the doctor?"

"No, no, no. Now back to my question. How are you?"

"I'm good."

"Still scared of roll call?"

"I don't think I am. I really have to thank you. I feel like I'm just about over it completely."

"Really? Are you certain about that?"

A few days later Liu Jianjun finally began to speak. Haltingly, he did his best to tell the police what happened that night. According to him, he had planned to tell Deng Linyue he loved her in the gymnasium after the game. He had borrowed the key from the stadium caretaker at lunch the day before, and had also asked him all about operating the broadcast booth's spotlight and microphone. Then during the game, he told Deng Linyue to wait for him on the basketball court after everyone had left. Everything went as planned, but just as he reached the most critical part of his romantic display, someone suddenly attacked him from behind and knocked him out. He had no idea about anything after that.

Eventually, Deng Linyue was also able to calmly recall what happened to her that night, and she described it for the police in detail. But because of the darkness and her extreme terror at the time, she could only attest that the killer was a man standing at least 5'7".

Fang Mu and Tai Wei had also seen the killer that night, and in fact Tai Wei had even chased him, but because of the darkness and their distance away, the attacker hadn't made a distinct impression on either of them.

There was something else the police were interested in, too: How had the killer known that Deng Linyue would be in the gymnasium by herself?

He had specifically removed a screw from the locker she was using that night, changing the 9 to a 6. This showed that he had already made Deng Linyue his target, and his actions made it clear that he knew she would be using locker nine and would be alone in the arena after the game. In which case, he had to be among those privy to this information.

This thought encouraged the police to no end, because it meant the scope of their investigation could be drastically decreased.

But after looking into it, they found themselves disappointed again.

Liu Jianjun said that he hadn't told anyone about his plans for that night. This meant that there were only two times when someone else could have overheard what was going on. First, while Liu Jianjun was borrowing the key from the arena caretaker and asking him how to use the equipment. Or second, when he asked Deng Linyue to wait for him after the game. But according to Liu Jianjun, no one else had been around while he spoke to the caretaker. As for the caretaker himself, a police investigation confirmed that he had nothing to do with the crime. Therefore, this first possibility was eliminated.

As for the second possibility, police closely investigated the cheerleaders and fans that had been near Deng Linyue at the time, and confirmed that none of them had been involved.

The investigation into the locker number also similarly ground to a halt. According to the other cheerleaders and their teacher supervisor, when they received their locker room keys in the gymnasium corridor, they were surrounded on all sides by a throng of fans streaming into the arena, so it would be impossible to determine who might have heard what locker number Deng Linyue had received.

In other words, the unfortunate events from that night did not help the police make any substantial headway toward cracking the case.

What was most preoccupying Tai Wei, however, were a pair of the numbers: six or seven? Which one would be next?

The way Fang Mu saw it, the killer was an exceptionally cruel individual dead-set on carrying out his plan. He would not give up easily, so the next victim would likely still be number six. As for whether he would try again for Deng Linyue or choose someone else, at this point it was impossible to say. This was why Fang Mu and the police both felt that they should maintain tight security over the girl while continuing to monitor all areas on campus relating to the number six.

Fang Mu went to visit Liu Jianjun several more times, his motive having less to do with their friendship than his own guilt.

Liu Jianjun had suffered a depressed skull fracture, which had caused serious brain bleeding. Although he was no longer in critical danger, some of the effects would be permanent. On several occasions, when Fang Mu had watched him drink rice porridge from a bowl, Liu Jianjun's head and hands would begin to violently shake and this often spread to his entire face and body. Seeing this, Fang Mu felt the strong impulse to throw himself before Liu Jianjun and ask for his forgiveness. But he never did. Instead he would just quietly leave the ward, hide himself in the bathroom and smoke one cigarette after another.