Lei Mi - Profiler

"Then what should we do? At this point, it doesn't seem like we have any evidence to prove it was him."

Fang Mu thought for a moment. "We both saw the killer, and you even chased him for a little while. So what do you think? Does Sun Pu fit the bill?"

After racking his brain, Tai Wei said, "Their heights are about the same. But that night the killer was wearing a long, hooded windbreaker and the light was very dim. I can't be certain it was the same guy."

Feeling a little disappointed, Fang Mu said nothing.

Seeing the kid's expression, Tai Wei quickly changed the topic. "How's your research going on the passage?"

Fang Mu's face grew even gloomier and he just shook his head.

"You think the passage might have something to do with Professor Qiao's disappearance? I had an idea about this," Tai Wei said. "So the passage was torn out of a school textbook, right, and Professor Qiao's occupation just happens to be teaching. You think it could be hinting that the seventh victim is going to be a teacher?"

"Most likely not." Fang Mu thought for a moment. "When the passage was found, Professor Qiao hadn't yet gone missing. I don't think the killer was expecting Professor Qiao to come visit him, so the seventh victim will probably be someone else."

"So is there nothing we can do then?" cried Tai Wei impatiently.

"That's not true either. Tai Wei, you are an excellent investigator, so right now you need to look into everything having to do with Sun Pu. If he really is the killer, and if Professor Qiao is still alive…" Fang Mu paused and raised his voice, doing his best to appear unaffected by what he was saying, "…then Sun Pu must have hidden him somewhere. If you keep tabs on Sun Pu's whereabouts, perhaps you'll be able locate Professor Qiao."

"All right, I'll go make the necessary preparations." Tai Wei stood up, and then suddenly slammed his fist down on the desk. "No matter if the target is Professor Qiao or anyone else, we won't let him succeed this time!"

He strode to the doorway, but just as he opened the door, he abruptly turned around and said, "Kid, you'd better be pretty careful yourself."

Fang Mu glanced at his backpack which he'd tossed on the bed. The military dagger was still inside. He looked up at Tai Wei and nodded.

The nightmares arrived on schedule.

The shadowy, headless figures crowded quietly around Fang Mu's bed. Without a word, they watched as Fang Mu struggled desperately, and yet couldn't move at all.

Even though he didn't open his eyes, Fang Mu sensed that amid these dead specters, there were a few new members.

Qu Weiqiang, Wang Qian, Tang Yu'e, Jin Qiao, Xin Tingting, Thomas Gill, Meng Fanzhe, Dong Guizhi, Zhang Yao…

All of you…

A hand pressed against his shoulder.

"Actually, you and I are the same."

Suddenly, Fang Mu could move his neck.

He swung his head around.

Sun Pu was smiling at him.

Over the past few days, that face had appeared in Fang Mu's mind more than any other image. Fang Mu was already more familiar with it than with his own face.

The look in his eyes when he reached a crucial point in class. The way the corners of his mouth curled when he was smiling, or his eyebrows knitted when he was thinking deeply about something. The faint twinkle in his eyes whenever he glanced at Fang Mu.

At this moment, the owner of that face was standing at the lectern and enjoying the worshipful looks of the students sitting before him.

"All right, that's all the new material for today," Sun Pu said, placing the chalk back on the blackboard and then clapping off his hands. "But we still have fifteen minutes until class is over, so let's play a little game."

The students, who a moment before had been packing up to leave, now returned their attention to Sun Pu.

"I have here several questions from an intelligence test. Supposedly, the American F.B.I. gave this test to several dozen psychologically aberrant criminals and their answers were all identical, proving that, mentally, they really were different than the average person. Now listen to these questions, and perhaps we'll find that there's a potential criminal genius sitting among us right now."

Excitement went through the students, as if they all felt that being psychologically aberrant would be really cool .

"First question," Sun Pu began. "One evening, an engineer who had once been stationed at a South Pole research station to set up the solar panel array was eating the meat his wife had fixed him for dinner. Thinking that the flavor was very unusual, he asked her what kind of meat it was. 'It's penguin,' she replied. Hearing this, the engineer's face fell, and he stabbed himself in the throat with his fork."

The students all gasped.

Sun Pu continued. "My question for you is: Why?"

So this is what he was talking about , thought Fang Mu.

One year ago, Fang Mu had happened across these same questions, and out of curiosity, had tried to answer them. There had been seven in total, and he had gotten five right. As a result, the test determined that he had a strong tendency toward psychological aberration.

The other students, however, had never seen these questions before. They soon began calling out theories, and the classroom grew noisy. But when no one was able to get the question right, Sun Pu finally revealed the answer: The engineer had once been stranded, and one of his colleagues was killed. Afterwards, he and several others had been forced to eat what he was told was penguin meat so that they could survive until the rescue party showed up. When he tried the actual penguin meat that his wife gave him, he realized that what he had eaten before was actually the flesh of his dead colleague.

Hearing this, several of the students made squeamish faces, like they wanted to vomit, but most were already waiting excitedly for the next question.

Sun Pu continued the test.

Question Two: A man who had been suffering from a chronic ailment looked everywhere for a doctor who could help him. Finally he found a hospital where he was completely cured. But on the train back home, he suddenly began to cry hysterically, injured several other passengers in his frenzy, and then broke the window and leapt out of the train. As a result, he fell beneath the wheels and was crushed to pieces. Why?

As the students enthusiastically discussed the question, Sun Pu walked leisurely around the classroom, his hands behind his back, stopping every now and then to shake his head at a student's answer.

Finally one of the students answered correctly: the man's chronic ailment was that he had gone blind. After being cured, the man believed that he had permanently regained his sight, but then when the train went through a tunnel, the darkness made him think that he had gone blind again, and in his disappointment he leapt from the train and committed suicide.

"Very well done," said Sun Pu, clapping his hands. "Ten points onto your final grade!"

This development made all the students as excited. As the kid who got it right sat there blushing, his classmates all looked at him, some with admiration and some with envy, while everyone waited anxiously for the next question.

Question Three: A man and his female friend were strolling beside a river when the woman lost her footing and fell in. Although she struggled to stay afloat, she quickly went under. Panicked, the man immediately jumped in, but he was unable to save her. Several years later, while walking past the scene of her drowning, the man saw an old-timer fishing on the riverbank. When the man saw that the fish the old-timer had caught were completely clean and free of seaweed, he asked him why they didn't have any seaweed on them. The old-timer replied that there was no seaweed in this river. Hearing this, the man threw himself in the river without another word, committing suicide. Why?