Lei Mi - Profiler

"Don't bother. I'll call you soon." Afraid that Tai Wei would yell at him, Fang Mu quickly hung up.

"Come on, we should head back," he said, taking Deng Linyue's arm. "Otherwise Tai Wei is really gonna let me have it."

As Fang Mu walked Deng Linyue back to her dorm, she seemed to emerge from her previous state of nervous excitement. She didn't say a word the whole way.

When they reached the dorm, she stopped and looked down, as if she was waiting for him to say something.

He stood there silently for a while, feeling the awkwardness. At last he managed to say, "You…should really head up to your dorm."

She sighed quietly, lifted her head and stared at him for several seconds. Finally, she said softly, "You're not going to give me a kiss before you go?"

He immediately flushed bright red. "Right here…? It's a little crowded, isn't it?"

At first she didn't reply; just gazed off into the distance. After a long time she spoke in a hushed manner. "Fang Mu, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."

"Yeah?"

"That night we…when we kissed, you were so emotional. Crying, in fact. Can you tell me why?"

When he didn't respond, she asked, "Was there someone you…once loved and were never able to forget?"

He turned his back to her, not wanting her to see his eyes fill with tears.

"Can you tell me?" she asked gently.

After a long moment, his trembling voice finally answered. She leaned closer to hear.

"There was once a girl I really loved," he admitted, "but I never told her how I felt…and then before I could, she died…"

She made a muted gasp, shaking her head. "My God. How did she die? Was she sick?"

"No." He closed his eyes and made an effort to summon all his fortitude. "She was murdered. The killer was one of my roommates."

"What? But…why?" She couldn't suppress her astonishment.

Fang Mu could no longer reply. He couldn't even stand upright. Crouching down, he buried his face in his hands, his shoulders twitching violently as the memories caught up with him again. He felt a small hand press tightly against back, and then Deng Linyue's arms wrapped around his shoulders. Her face closed in to his and he felt her hot tears fall on his neck.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have asked you. I know there's pain in your heart. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

Deng Linyue held him close, as if she was trying her best to ease his shaking, and in that moment, her comfort eased into him.

She closed her eyes, absorbing his pain. He needs my protection, too, she thought, as I need his.

Fang Mu held his phone away from his temple as he slowly climbed the stairs. Tai Wei was shouting angrily on the other end of the line. Fang Mu didn't have to hold it close to his ear to hear what the cop was saying.

"…I'm telling you right now, you pull this again and I won't be so forgiving!" came Tai Wei's irate tone.

At this point Fang Mu already deeply regretted his rash behavior from before, so he understood how Tai Wei felt. If either he or Deng Linyue had been nabbed by the killer after they split up and left the EducationBuilding, the consequences would be too awful to contemplate.

And so Fang Mu endured the tongue-lashing and repeatedly promised that it would never happen again. Once Fang Mu had said everything he could, Tai Wei abruptly hung up.

Du Yu wasn't around when Fang Mu got back to his dorm, but there was a note on his desk. It was from Du Yu, saying that he and Zhang Yao were going to an all-night movie theater and he wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

Fang Mu secretly thanked his lucky stars. If Du Yu were around to see his red eyes, he would definitely ask what was wrong. After getting yelled at by Tai Wei, Fang Mu had no desire to get tangled up in yet another person's endless questions.

Fang Mu took off his jacket and grabbed his toiletries from under his bed. He grabbed his washbasin and left the room.

While brushing his teeth in the bathroom, he heard loud cursing from the other end of the hallway. Moments later, a stainless steel food bowl and several books came flying out of one of the rooms.

With his toothbrush still in his mouth, Fang Mu walked out of the bathroom. He could see someone standing in the hallway outside of the room, swearing at whoever was inside; however, the person inside was saying nothing — just throwing one thing after another into the hallway. Clothes, books, basketball shoes, bedding — a huge pile had soon formed outside the room.

Fang Mu knew it was Meng Fanzhe's dorm room and that the guy cursing in the hallway was Wang Changbin, Meng Fanzhe's roommate. Which meant that the person throwing all the stuff out of the room had to be Meng Fanzhe.

What was going on? Fang Mu wondered. Meng Fanzhe was normally a decent, well-behaved guy. What had made him flip out like this?

If it went on much longer, Fang Mu was pretty sure it would come to blows.

He ducked back into the bathroom and after quickly spitting out his toothpaste, grabbed his toiletries and hurried over to Meng Fanzhe's dorm room.

A bunch of people were already there, watching what was going on. Wang Changbin was no longer swearing, now just standing there with his hands on his hips, angrily watching Meng Fanzhe throw item after item out of the room. At this point he looked more helpless than enraged.

Just as Fang Mu walked to the front of the crowd, Meng Fanzhe threw what seemed to be Wang Changbin's final possession out of the room and then slammed the door in Fang Mu's face.

Looking at all the stuff on the floor, Fang Mu asked Wang Changbin:

"What's going on? How did this happen?"

"That SOB is crazy!" said Wang Changbin gloomily.

Zou Tuanjie and several other guys crowded around and helped Wang Changbin pick up his stuff

"Why don't you crash in my room for the night?" Fang Mu offered to Wang Changbin. "Du Yu's not coming back until tomorrow."

"No need," said Wang Changbin, firmly refusing. He pointed at Zou Tuanjie. "I'm staying in his room, Liu Jianjun's not around either."

Fang Mu nodded and then turned back to the door. When he tried to open it, he found it was locked.

He knocked lightly. There was no response.

He tried again, a little louder this time. "Meng Fanzhe," he said, "it's me. Why don't you open the door?"

Something shattered against the door and then fell to the ground. It sounded like a glass cup.

Fang Mu jumped back in surprise.

Now other people were getting angry. Zou Tuanjie held Fang Mu back. "Just leave him alone. He's out of control."

Unable to do anything else, Fang Mu crouched down and helped Wang Changbin organize his things.

After everyone had helped Wang Changbin move into Zou Tuanjie's room and put his stuff away, Wang Changbin took out a pack of cigarettes and handed them out. While they all smoked, someone asked him what exactly had happened.

"Man, don't even ask," he said."You know that cat Meng Fanzhe's been raising? Normally he treats it like it was his own son. But the thing is just so goddamn annoying. Not only has it shit on my bed who knows how many times, once it even pissed on one of my textbooks. The smell was so bad that when I brought the book to class the next day, everyone around me was covering their noses."

Several people laughed. Interrupting them, Zou Tuanjie said, "You guys normally get along pretty well. Why didn't you say something to him?"

"We do normally get along well, and if that's all that had happened I actually wouldn't be this mad," said Wang Changbin, pulling at his hair impatiently, "but you guys don't understand. For some reason this guy has recently changed a hell of a lot. Every day he's either sitting in the room staring into space or off missing somewhere, and he never goes to class. I've tried talking to him several times, but he just ignores me. Then late one night I woke up to go to the bathroom, and when I opened my eyes he was sitting straight up in his chair mumbling something to himself. At first I was puzzled. If he was memorizing something why didn't he turn on the light? But then when I listened closer I heard what he was saying. Can any of you guess what it was?"