Profiler (Fang Mu Eastern Crimes Series Book 1) by Lei Mi Page A

the end of your life, if you want those who have misunderstood you to know the truth, then please, trust me. Tell me what happened."
    Ma Kai seemed unmoved. But then several seconds later he again raised his head. "Many people believe I'm a homicidal monster, don't they?"
    Fang Mu nodded.
    Ma Kai smiled wanly and shook his head. "None of you understand. I didn't want to kill anyone."
    "What do you mean by that?"
    Ma Kai didn't respond. He just stared at the blank wall behind Fang Mu. Again his body began to rock.
    Fang Mu thought for a moment. Then he grabbed a pack of cigarettes and offered one to Ma Kai. "Would you like to smoke?"
    Ma Kai looked up. He stared at the cigarettes on the table before him. Then he slowly shook his head, a look of scorn flashing through his eyes.
    Seemingly indifferent, Fang Mu lit one for himself and took several deep drags. A cloud of smoke soon filled the air between him and Ma Kai. He sensed that Ma Kai's eyes were following the rising smoke. At last they came to rest on the cigarette in Fang Mu's mouth.
    Suddenly he blurted out: "Smoking is bad for your health."
    Fang Mu immediately seized on this topic: "Oh, well, in that case, how do you feel about your health right now?"
    Ma Kai stared at Fang Mu for several seconds. Finally he shook his head. "It's not good."
    "In what way is it not good?"
    The muscles in Ma Kai's face twitched. Then he looked away and his voice grew soft. "I have severe anemia."
    "But the doctor already examined you and said your blood is completely normal."
    "What do they know?" said Ma Kai, his voice rising abruptly. At once his body straightened up and he whipped his hands out from between his legs. "I know my own illness the best! My father died from blood sickness, my older brother, too, and as for me, sooner or later all the blood in my body will dry up, and I'll die like a crumbling, old mummy. I know it's true."
    "You don't trust the doctor's diagnosis?"
    "You're all liars. You all want me to die. You'd never help me. I pay you money, you give me blood! But suddenly they say it's not okay. What kind of logic is that? Why is it not okay? My father was lying on the hospital bed, his face growing paler and paler. I knew his blood was slowly drying up. Then they gave him a transfusion and he could walk, he could eat, he could talk with me. Why won't they give me a transfusion? They want me to die. That's why. I know it."
    "So what did you do?"
    "I won't die, not like my father and my brother, lying on the hospital bed, withered to nothing. I won't do it," he said heatedly. "I will save myself!"
    Fang Mu sat there in a daze, as if he had just received an electric shock. All of a sudden, the words in his ears seemed to grow farther and farther away….
    One library card. Eleven trembling students. Chen Xi, her long hair fluttering. A devil's banquet: the twisted bodies of Fourth Brother and Wang Jian, burned black as charcoal.
    And him .
    A scorched odor filled the air. The person before him blurred. He looked close. A smiling mouth, wriggling slowly open:
      Actually, you and I are the same.
     
    Click. The tape recorder abruptly stopped.
    With a start, Fang Mu snapped back to reality. Ma Kai's nervous chatter continued to sound in his ears:
    "…she was such an ample woman. Her cheeks were so flushed. I followed her all the way back to her building corridor…When I forced my way inside she still thought I was going to rob her…" He chuckled to himself.
    "Why always women?" asked Fang Mu as he changed the tape.
    "Because their blood is clean and soft and easy to absorb. Male blood is too thick, too coarse."
    "Really? How do you know?"
    "It's just what I think."
    "In that case, why this woman?"
    Ma Kai was silent for a moment. He seemed not to have considered this question. After thinking about it for a while, he scratched his head and said, "No reason, really. I was walking along, I saw her, so I followed."
    "You never considered whether there might be someone