Lei Mi - Profiler

Don't die! Don't die! I'm begging you…

He sprinted over the withered yellow lawn, darted around the tennis courts… He could see the outdoor swimming pool, its gray water rippling faintly.

No matter who you are, don't die!

He ran around the chain-link fence bordering the pool as fast as he could. The branches from the pine trees surrounding it struck his face, but he felt no pain. When he reached the entrance, he saw that the chain lock had already been pried off and was lying curled on the ground like a dead snake.

He pulled open the gate and ran inside.

Before him was a huge pool, already filled with water. He circled it, anxiously searching the depths. Before he had gone more than a few steps, he saw something moving underwater in the deepest part of the pool.

Someone was down there.

My God! The thought froze in his mind.

Without thinking, he took several hurried steps and then dove headlong into the pool.

The ice-cold chill spread from the tips of his fingers to the bottom of his feet. In a flash, he felt like he was going to suffocate.

When his feet touched bottom, he kicked off hard and rose back to the surface. With his head above water, he oriented himself, took a deep breath, and dove back under.

Although the water was extremely murky, Fang Mu could still see a young woman standing on the bottom of the pool. She was wearing a yellow tube top, short leather skirt, and black platform heels. Her arms were slightly raised and her head drooped, and her dyed-blonde hair fluttered with the movement of the water.

Fang Mu swam over, grabbed her clothing, and pulled as hard as he could, but she didn't move at all. Looking down, he saw that her ankles were tied to the drain with a piece of thick rope. This was why the girl had looked like she was standing up at the bottom of the pool.

Fang Mu swam back to the surface and dug wildly through his pockets. When he found the dagger, he put it between his teeth, took another deep breath, and swam back down.

As soon as he reached the bottom, he used all his strength to hack the rope in half. At once the girl's feet lifted off the bottom. Grabbing her clothing, he struggled to swim her back to the surface.

At last, using his final bit of strength, he heaved the girl onto the side of the pool. There she lay, eyes closed, not moving at all. With no time to rest, Fang Mu slapped the girl back and forth across the face, trying to wake her up. He head lolled, but her eyes did not open.

Wake up, please wake up! I'm begging you!

Lifting the girl's upper torso, he desperately shook her back and forth. The movement caused some water to trickle from her mouth. Seeing this, Fang Mu quickly hoisted her onto his shoulder and ran like madman back and forth beside the pool.

A few students who were walking by the pool caught sight of this frightening scene and ran to get a closer look. Dumbstruck, they watched as a man, who appeared to be a lunatic, sprinted about with a corpse held over his shoulder.

Fang Mu's hair had already frozen solid and his pant legs and shirt sleeves were stiff from the cold. Shivering all over, he continued to run rigidly back and forth, carrying the girl all the while.

More and more people continued to surround him. Some called the police, some whispered to each other, some cried softly, and some screamed aloud.

Fang Mu wasn't aware of any of this. His mind blank, he ran mechanically, repeating the same thing over and over to himself.

Wake up, wake up, I'm begging you…

At last, his strength gone, his legs went limp and he collapsed to the ground. The girl fell beside him.

Panting for breath, he crawled over, laced his hands over her chest and pushed down forcefully. After doing this several times, he pinched her nose closed and breathed deeply into her mouth.

Wake up! Wake up…

He repeated this several times, but the girl still didn't show any response. Still he gritted his teeth and continued on, hot tears rolling down his face.

Wake up, please wake up!

Fang Mu felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. It was Du Yu.

"Enough, Fang Mu, give it up. She's dead."

Fang Mu pushed his hands away and again placed his mouth over the girl's.

Taking hold of Fang Mu, Du Yu pulled him away from the girl. But as he did, Fang Mu reached out and, unwilling to give up, grabbed onto her hair.

The two of them fell to the ground. In Fang Mu's hand was a blonde wig.

The dead girl's hair was short and black.

Du Yu sat on the ground and stared at the corpse, his eyes wide. After several seconds he suddenly cried out: "Yaoyao?"

Fang Mu's heart sank. He clambered toward the girl and looked at her face.

Sure enough, despite the heavy makeup, she was Zhang Yao all right.

In an instant, everything around Fang Mu seemed to go silent.

He saw Du Yu kneeling over Zhang Yao's body, holding her and rocking her back and forth, calling out her name.

He saw all the people around them looking around and whispering to one another.

He saw police cars outside the pool area, their lights flashing.

He saw policemen rushing inside, yelling at the crowd to get out of the way.

But he didn't hear a sound. It was as if everything around him had become pure chaos.

Something sickly-sweet was churning in the pit of his stomach. Suddenly, he felt like he was about to explode.

"Aghh!" A howl loud enough to raise the dead roared out of Fang Mu. "Why? Why? If you want to kill me, then come and do it! Why do you have to kill so many people? Come on, kill me! Kill me !"

At once all the faces turned toward him. His features were distorted by anger and anguish, the sounds around him difficult to distinguish.

For a moment, Du Yu stared blankly at Fang Mu. Then he leapt on him and grabbed his collar. "What the hell was going on?" he demanded, shouting. At a loss, Fang Mu just looked away. He saw Deng Linyue staring at him from the crowd, her expression terrified.

Two police officers pulled Du Yu off of Fang Mu, and then someone else hauled Fang Mu to his feet and pushed him toward the exit.

The crowd automatically parted to let them through. All the faces were turned towards them, their expressions suspicious or panic-stricken or both. Fang Mu walked stiffly, a dull look in his eyes as the person behind him pushed him through the crowd and out of the gate. After they had walked for some ways, Fang Mu struggled to look back. It took him a long time to recognize that the man behind him was Tai Wei.

"Let's get you back to your dorm," Tai Wei said, his voice unusually gentle, almost soft, as he held tightly to Fang Mu's shoulders.

When they reached Fang Mu's dorm room, Tai Wei maneuvered the soaking, shivering student onto his bed and wrapped him in his blanket. He tossed him a towel, but Fang Mu just let it fall to the floor.

Sighing to himself, Tai Wei opened Fang Mu's dresser.

"Where do you put your clothes?"

As soon as the words left Tai Wei's mouth, Fang Mu threw off his blanket, staggered to his feet, and tried to run out the door.

Tai Wei quickly stopped him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm…I'm going back there…" Fang Mu mumbled, pushing Tai Wei away from him.

"Oh, yeah, and what are you gonna do?"

"Search the scene!" said Fang Mu, the past hour's defeat suddenly exploding out of him. "Bastard! Bastard! I swear I'll get you!"

Tears welled and fell from his bloodshot eyes. His lips were pale and shaking.

Tai Wei grabbed hold of him firmly. "Let us take care of this."

Struggling with all his might, Fang Mu threw Tai Wei off him. When he flung open the door he ran smack into Du Yu.

Du Yu didn't say a word, just shoved Fang Mu backwards.