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was held in the school's largest, multi-level lecture theater. The class had only just begun when a tall, strapping young man burst into the classroom. It was Tai Wei, and he walked straight to the Japanese professor, withdrew a card from his pocket, waved it in the professor's face, and then whispered something in his ear. At once, the professor grabbed the microphone and said:
    "Fang Mu, where is Fang Mu?"
    "I'm here." From one of the corners of the theater, a bespectacled student rose to his feet.
    "Our comrade from the Public Security Bureau would like a word with you."
    In an instant the theater went silent. All eyes left the PSB agent, swept the room with an audible whoosh , and fell on Fang Mu.
    Fang Mu stood in place, seeming to ignore all the curious, astonished, suspicious looks shot in his direction. He just stared at Tai Wei, eyebrows knitted together.
    Tai Wei waved at him, as if to say " Let's go "
    Fang Mu put his belongings into his backpack, and then in front of all the gazing eyes, descended the steps one at a time and followed Tai Wei out of the room.
     
    Tai Wei said nothing as they drove to the crime scene. Fang Mu remained silent as well.
    Sure enough, they were seeing each other again because another life had been lost. This made it very difficult for Tai Wei to think of something appropriate to say. And strangest of all was the kid sitting beside him. Tai Wei expected "What happened? Where are we going?", but Fang Wu didn't ask these or any other questions, for that matter. He just stared out the window, not saying a word.
    Suddenly, the strange kid opened his mouth. "Isn't this the Brilliant Pearl Residential Area?"
    Tai Wei looked around. "Yeah, you're right." All of a sudden he realized that this was where the first murder had taken place.
    A few minutes later, he parked his jeep outside Bright Gardens , the worker dorms for the Jiangbin City Machine Plant.
    Bright Gardens was built during the eighties. At the time, the Jiangbin City Machine Plant was a large-scale, nationally famous, state-owned company with excellent pay and benefits for its workers. During the days of government-allotted housing, the apartments of Bright Gardens were some of the few seven-story buildings around. But circumstances change with the passage of time. All across the city, huge, modern buildings were springing up one after another, each taller than the last, and today these towering, 20-year-old apartment blocks looked terribly rundown.
    The crime had taken place in Unit 3 of Building 2, Apartment 401 . The scene was already sealed off when Tai Wei and Fang Mu arrived. After stepping over the police cordon, they hurried up to the fourth floor. All around them police rushed upstairs and down; many shot puzzled looks at the backpack-wearing, bespectacled kid accompanying Tai Wei.
    Tai Wei walked inside 401. It was an old-fashioned, one-bedroom apartment, roughly 120-square feet. Several medical examiners and technical personnel were busy inspecting the body, snapping pictures and scouring the crime scene. The place was crowded to capacity. A policeman who had arrived earlier told Tai Wei that the victim, a single woman, had only just rented the apartment. The owner was hurrying to the scene.
    The dead woman didn't appear older than 35. She was lying on her back, naked from the waist up, her head pointing south and her feet north. She had been torn open from throat to abdomen with a sharp object. Her ribs and organs were visible.
    "How's it looking?" Tai Wei asked, patting one of the medical examiners on the shoulder.
    "Cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. The murder weapon was a nylon cord; some of the investigators already located it. Time of death was no more than two hours ago."
    Tai Wei looked at his watch. "In other words, she probably died sometime between two and two-thirty?"
    "Correct."
    Killing someone in broad daylight—this guy was too savage. Muttering to himself, Tai Wei looked around for Fang Mu,