by Lei Mi
Also inside Fang Mu and Tai Wei found a dignified, very well-kept woman arguing with two policemen.
"Wait a few days and we'll see," she was telling them. "How can you expect Linyue to answer any questions in the condition she's in?"
The two policemen appeared to be in an awkward situation. "We understand your daughter's condition very well," said one with distinct politeness. "But she is the only person to have been in close contact with the killer. The sooner she can provide us with any helpful clues, the sooner we can crack this case."
"Well, that will just have to wait!" said the woman decisively. "My daughter must be fully rested." Then seeing Tai Wei enter the room, she snapped, "Who are you?"
The two policemen looked back and nodded. "Captain Tai."
"You're their commanding officer? Perfect," she said. "Then I'll ask you; when can those doorkeepers outside leave? Or do you take us for criminals as well?"
"For now they're going to have to stay put," said Tai Wei, looking around the empty room. "Where's your daughter?"
Deng Linyue's mother didn't answer him. Instead, a dark look covered her face. "Well then, is my husband going to have to give your department director a call?"
Tai Wei met her eyes for a moment. "I can't give you all the specifics," he said coldly, "but it is very likely that the killer is still after your daughter." He paused. "So then, how about it? Still want us to leave?"
All the color immediately drained from the woman's face. After several seconds she managed to squeeze out a few words. "In…in that case, perhaps things should continue like this for now."
A toilet was flushed in the bathroom, and then two nurses emerged and helped Deng Linyue into the room.
Her face was deathly pale and her hair was tied up in a bun. She wore a cast on her shoulder and her arm hung in a sling in front of her chest. Seeing Fang Mu, she smiled weakly and said, "It's you." Then nodding toward the woman, she continued. "This is my mom. Mom, it was these two who rescued me."
Deng Linyue's mother looked a little embarrassed. As if to make up for her disrespectful behavior from before, she forced a smile and waved for them to each have a seat.
The two nurses helped Deng Linyue to lie down and then placed the blanket over her. They raised the bed so she could talk comfortably with her visitors.
Curled up under the snow-white covers, she smiled at Fang Mu. "Thank you for coming to visit me."
"I came to visit Liu Jianjun." As soon as the words left his mouth, Fang Mu realized they were a bit rude, so he quickly added: "And you as well."
For a moment, she looked a little embarrassed, but she quickly regained her composure. "Oh, how is he?"
"He finished surgery, and the doctors have said he's no longer in danger."
Deng Linyue's mother snorted disdainfully.
Opening his briefcase, Tai Wei took out a notebook and pen. "Ms. Deng, would you be able to tell me a little about what happened last night?"
At once Deng Linyue's face grew even paler. Her breathing sped up with anxiety and her eyes filled with tears. Obviously, she was not yet able to get past what had happened to her.
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.
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 Jiangbin City University 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."