Lei Mi - Profiler

Zou Tuanjie secretly told Fang Mu that Deng Linyue had only visited once, after which she never returned. But as soon as Liu Jianjun was first able to walk, he had struggled up to the fifth floor to go see her. At the time, Deng Linyue's relatives had blocked him from going inside, claiming she was asleep.

So Liu Jianjun had just stood there, tears streaming down his face as he yelled incoherently at the closed door. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

To Fang Mu, this insight felt like a knife to the heart.

The JiangbinCityUniversity school authorities also visited Liu Jianjun several times. After determining the extent of his injury, they recommended that he take a year off from school to get better. Liu Jianjun's parents were extremely grateful to them. However, their son's graduate advisor told them in private that in this matter the school bore a clear responsibility, and that they should sue for just compensation. But his parents, both of whom came from working class backgrounds, would not go along with this. The way they saw it, their son had nearly been disabled from the attack, so for the school to offer him a year off was already an enormous kindness. How could they repay that with a lawsuit? Hearing this, all Liu Jianjun's advisor could do was shake his head and sigh.

Amazingly, only two weeks later Deng Linyue was back on campus.

Even though she had been the killer's main target, her injuries were much lighter than Liu Jianjun's. Thanks to the cotton jacket she had been wearing the night of the crime, her shoulder blade had suffered only a minor break. Add to this the superb care and proper nutrition she had received in the hospital, she was able to quickly return to school.

When Du Yu passed this information on to Fang Mu, he didn't pay much attention to it; he just thought it was strange that Deng Linyue hadn't returned to her hometown. When Tai Wei heard the news, he put it another way: since it was highly likely that the killer would make Deng Linyue his next target, the safest thing for her would be to return home for the time being.

Then something far more surprising happened. That afternoon, Deng Linyue unexpectedly gave him a call.

"Hello, is this Fang Mu? It's Deng Linyue."

"Oh, how are you?" he asked her.

"I'm fine. So it's like this: I want to treat you to dinner. Are you free?"

"Treat me to dinner?" The phone call surprised him, and the invitation shocked him. "Why?"

"To thank you. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be here."

"You don't have to do that. It was just good timing, that's all."

"Oh no, I won't let you decline. I'm treating you and that's that! Wait for me outside the school gates at five o'clock tonight." Saying this, she hung up.

Fang Mu sighed and hung up the phone. When he turned around, he saw that Du Yu, nosy as ever, had been listening in. "What should I do?"

Without a shred of embarrassment at having eavesdropped on his friend's conversation, Du Yu grinned and said, "You go of course. What else needs to be said?"

Fang Mu shook his head. "I don't want to go. It seems…too awkward."

"Ah, stop being such an old lady and go. You want me to lend you some cash?" Du Yu reached for his wallet.

Fang Mu was about to make fun of him, tempted to say, You're so excited it's like she invited you, when his spirits suddenly fell. "If you're still thinking the same thing as before, then I'm not going to go."

Du Yu abruptly stopped what he was doing. The smile disappeared from his face. "What are you trying to say? That since Liu Jianjun is still lying in the hospital I'm trying to get you to take advantage of the situation? Don't forget," he said, looking Fang Mu in the eye, "that when a girl invites you out you need to go. It's a matter of etiquette."

Fang Mu thought about it and realized his friend was right. It was just one meal; refusing would seem a little narrow-minded. "All right, I'll go."

At 5 p.m. Fang Mu approached the school gates as planned. From far away he could already see Deng Linyue's tall, slender frame.

"Sorry I'm late," he said when he reached her.

"You're not," she said. "I just got here early. I was worried you wouldn't come."

He just smiled in reply.

"I also realized I don't know what you like to eat. Where should we go?"

"Wherever. I like everything." He pointed at the line of small restaurants outside the school gate. "Why don't we grab something at one of these places. We don't need to do anything too expensive."

"No way, not after you saved my life." She smiled and tilted her head. "Let's go downtown and find something a little nicer."

After they hailed a cab, Deng Linyue told him she was taking him to the restaurant at the Shangri-La. Fang Mu nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise — that was a five-star hotel. At a place like that, dinner for two would cost at least a thousand renminbi, so he firmly declined.

Deng Linyue didn't argue. Laughing, she said, "Then we won't go. I once ate a meal there that cost over 3,000 renminbi and not one dish was any good."

In the end, the two of them decided on a Korean restaurant called Papa's.

The restaurant was mostly filled with young couples. The warm tones, dim lighting, and sultry-voiced singer expressing her emotions onstage all gave the place an air of romance.

The waiter enthusiastically recommended the "Sweetheart Meal" to Fang Mu and Deng Linyue, but Fang Mu immediately declined and ordered the barbecue meal instead.

Du Yu was continually mentioning this place to Fang Mu, but until then Fang Mu had never been. First of all, he had no girlfriend, so for him to go and spend that kind of money seemed a little stupid. And second of all, he had always thought that Korean food was only good for cold noodles and kimchi and not much else. When the waiter brought the food over, however, Fang Mu discovered that not only was it beautifully prepared, it smelled unexpectedly delicious as well.

He was not a talkative person, so he just buried his face in his food and ate. Deng Linyue didn't seem to care and stayed silent as well.

Eventually Fang Mu began to feel that just eating in silence as they were was a little awkward, as well as impolite, so for the first time he looked up at Deng Linyue. Just then she was spooning soup into her mouth. Her arm movements still looked a little stiff.

"Your injury…" he said, "how is it?"

She did not immediately answer him. After putting down her spoon, she laughed brightly and said, "I thought you were planning on ignoring me the whole meal."

He was a little embarrassed. "Of course not. It's just that I'm not much of a talker."

She laughed again. "Oh, I figured that out a long time ago." Realizing that she was talking about that time in the dining hall, he was even more embarrassed.

Seeing his discomfort, Deng Linyue quickly changed topics. "My injury is essentially fine," she said, rotating her arm slightly. "It just hurts a little sometimes. But I don't think it's a big deal."

"Why didn't you go back home to get better? I'm sure it's a lot nicer there. Safer, too."

"My family was saying the same thing, but I didn't want to go. Oh, that's right." She leaned forward slightly. "Last time that policeman said that the killer might try to attack me again. Is that true?"

After thinking about this for a moment, he decided not to tell her the real situation to avoid scaring her unnecessarily. "The guy's just a lunatic. And he's not necessarily going to come after you again. You don't need to worry."

"Gosh, I don't know what's been going on with our school this year; so much bad stuff has happened." She sucked on her straw. Suddenly, her expression grew mysterious. "So, master sleuth, are you helping the police investigate the case?"

Fang Mu was taken aback. "Not at all. I hardly have that kind of talent."