Volume Two: Portrait - Chapter 10: The Five-Pointed Star on the Door
June 30, 2002, Yokohama, Japan, World Cup final, Brazil vs. Germany.
Since the start of the World Cup, all the small restaurants near the school gate have been providing live football viewing services. Today is the final, and all the restaurants are packed with people.
Fang Mu and a few classmates were sitting in a Sichuan-style restaurant called "Guangyuan." In front of them were several bottles of beer, the table was piled with peanut shells and edamame skins, and several plates of cheap stir-fried dishes had already been wiped out. The situation at the other tables was similar. Everyone was staring at the 21-inch color TV hanging on the wall. The boss was busy punching the calculator behind the bar, feeling ecstatic in his heart, thinking how great it would be if the World Cup were held every month.
Fang Mu had been dragged here by Du Yu, Zou Tuanjie, and Liu Jianjun. He didn't want to come originally, but since there was nothing else to do, he decided to join in the fun on one condition: they wouldn't go to the barbecue shop.
The people in the restaurant naturally divided into two factions: one supporting the Brazilian team, and the other supporting the German team. Fang Mu didn't really understand football, and besides Ronaldo, he couldn't name the other players on the field. Seeing that Du Yu and the others were all supporting the Brazilian team, he temporarily became a Brazilian fan without any principles.
In the first half, neither side made much progress. The Brazilian team seemed more passive from the looks of the game, and the German team had several good opportunities, but unfortunately, they didn't capitalize on them. During halftime, the fans in the restaurant were watching the halftime replay and loudly debating who would win the championship, with some even betting on their late-night snacks. It wasn't until the start of the second half that everyone's attention returned to the TV. As a first-time football fan, his supported team wasn't performing well. Fang Mu initially found it uninteresting, slowly drinking beer and eating peanuts, but he gradually got caught up in the emotions and occasionally found himself shouting along with the others.
The Brazilian team successfully counterattacked in the frontcourt, Ronaldo passed the ball to number 10 (Du Yu told him number 10 was called Rivaldo), Rivaldo took a long-range shot from outside the penalty area. The ball's power wasn't great, and the German goalkeeper Kahn easily prepared to cradle the ball in his arms, but unexpectedly, the ball bounced off his chest and slipped out of his hands.
"Don't relax!" a big guy at the next table shouted. His voice had barely fallen, and Ronaldo quickly struck, pushing the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal. The Brazilian team led 1-0!
The small restaurant was filled with a burst of excitement, followed by cheers and curses.
"Kahn was too relaxed," the big guy shook his head, "this ball came along the grass, he should have used his body to press down, using his hands to cradle it was easy to slip. Kahn was too confident."
"Hehe, how professional," Zou Tuanjie laughed.
"Oh, idol, can you not disappoint me," the big guy stared at the screen with a disappointed expression similar to Kahn's.
"Qu Weiqiang, from the physics department," Liu Jianjun whispered to Fang Mu, "the goalkeeper of the school's football team."
"Oh, no wonder."
The German team started to desperately counterattack, but they repeatedly missed scoring opportunities. In the 79th minute, Rivaldo skillfully dribbled in front of the penalty area, and Ronaldo's right-footed low shot scored in the bottom left corner of the goal, securing the victory.
The German team's fans were relentless in their criticisms. Qu Weiqiang sighed and said, "The Brazilian team must have studied Kahn's technical characteristics in advance. He's most afraid of this kind of low flat ball."
The game ended with Brazil winning the championship, and the field was filled with flying paper scraps as Rivaldo ran around the field draped in the Brazilian flag.
Once the game ended, the university students either cheered with raised arms or left with their heads down. Qu Weiqiang loudly yelled, "Boss, bring me four more bottles of beer. I'm taking them with me." The petite girl who had been watching the game with him all along quietly tried to stop him, "Don't drink anymore, you've already had so much today."
"Mind your own business?" Qu Weiqiang glared, "This game is so depressing, can't I have a drink?"
The petite girl pouted and fell silent.
Fang Mu wasn't particularly concerned about the result of the game; it was just that he had drunk too much beer and his bladder was uncomfortable. He hurried back to the dormitory and went to the bathroom to relieve himself.
Fang Mu returned to the dormitory feeling relaxed, but saw Du Yu standing at the door, vigorously rubbing the door with a cloth.
"What's wrong?" Fang Mu asked as he shook off the water from his hands, "What are you wiping off?"
"I don't know who painted it," Du Yu pointed to the door, "maybe someone played a prank."
Fang Mu looked up and saw several traces that hadn't been wiped away on the door, probably drawn with a large marker, haphazardly.
"What did they paint?"
"It looks like a five-pointed star," Du Yu frowned, "damn, who's so boring."
"A five-pointed star?" Fang Mu looked around the corridor, and all the doors of the surrounding dorms were clean.
"You haven't wiped it off yet?" Liu Jianjun poked his head out from across the door.
"Soon," Du Yu wiped vigorously, and the marks on the door finally disappeared.
"Damn, it's really annoying, it looks a bit like Alibaba and the Forty Thieves." Liu Jianjun made a face.
Fang Mu laughed, "Then I'll draw a five-pointed star on all the doors in the building later."
At night, Fang Mu suddenly woke up.
There was a rustling sound in the dormitory. Fang Mu struggled to open his eyes and scanned the room slowly in the dim moonlight.
Suddenly, Fang Mu held his breath.
There was a person standing in front of the closed dormitory door.
Fang Mu tried to reach under the pillow to grab the military knife, but his body seemed frozen, unable to move. He tried to open his mouth to wake up Du Yu, but the sound was stuck in his throat, and he couldn't shout.
Cold sweat started to trickle down, Fang Mu struggled desperately, staring at the person at the door.
The person seemed unaware that Fang Mu had woken up, with their back facing him, slowly gesturing on the door of the room. With each movement of their hand, the area they touched caught fire.
No! Fang Mu felt himself trembling. There was a smell of burning in his nose.
On the door, a burning five-pointed star.
The person slowly turned around, and in the firelight, Fang Mu saw Wu Han's unrecognizable face.
No—
Suddenly, there was a glaring white light in front of him. Du Yu's voice sounded, "Fang Mu, Fang Mu, what's wrong?"
Fang Mu finally opened his eyes, in a daze, and saw Du Yu's shocked face.
"What's wrong, having another nightmare?"
Fang Mu struggled to sit up, pushing Du Yu away and looking at the door.
The door was clean, with nothing but two class schedules, and nothing else.
It was a dream.
Fang Mu felt relieved, and lay down, feeling the dampness underneath him. He reached out and felt his cold sweat had soaked the bedsheet.
"Are you okay?" Du Yu handed him a towel.
"Thanks, I'm fine, you should go to sleep." Fang Mu took the towel and wiped his face and neck.
Du Yu turned off the light, and the room fell silent again.
But Fang Mu couldn't sleep.
Clearly, this dream was completely different from the almost identical nightmares he had experienced before.
A five-pointed star? What does it represent?
It couldn't possibly be a symbol of unity under the leadership of the Party.
The five-pointed star is one of the earliest symbols related to natural worship in the world, and it is also the most perfect and concise symbol in geometry. The five-pointed star initially represented women but was later distorted into a symbol of pagans. In modern times, it has become a symbol of war.
Could someone be challenging me to a duel?
Fang Mu found it amusing to think about.
Stop thinking about it, didn't I promise myself to be a simple, ordinary person?
After that, Fang Mu slept heavily. If it weren't for Du Yu calling him to have breakfast, he didn't know what time he would have slept until.
The two of them slowly walked to the cafeteria, chatting as they walked. People hurried past them, and at first, Fang Mu didn't pay attention. But soon, he realized something wasn't right; the people on campus seemed to be running towards one direction: the sports field.
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"What's going on?" Du Yu stopped a student from the foreign language department.
"Not sure, I heard someone died on the playground."
The sports field was located in the northwest corner of the campus, with a standard football field in the middle covered with rare plastic grass, surrounded by a rubber track. At the moment, there were several police cars with flashing lights parked outside the sports field. As they entered the sports field, there were at least a few hundred people gathered near the north goal. The surrounding stands were also crowded with excited and fearful students.
Before reaching the front, Fang Mu saw Liu Jianjun squirming in the crowd, straining to look. He walked over and patted him on the shoulder, "What's going on?"
Liu Jianjun seemed startled when he turned around and saw Fang Mu. He smiled and said, "Hey, the detective is here?"
Fang Mu didn't pay attention to him and instead craned his neck to look, "What happened? I heard someone died?"
"Yeah, not sure who it is, too many people."
Several students in front were pushed and shoved by those behind them. They turned around to complain, but upon seeing Fang Mu, they voluntarily made way, their faces showing expressions of awe.
Fang Mu felt a bit awkward and was about to leave, but Liu Jianjun and Du Yu pushed him into the crowd.
The scene had been cordoned off by the police, and the forensic team was busy at the scene. A forensic expert carefully examined a whitish object picked up from the left door pillar.
The onlookers let out a fearful gasp; it was a hand.
Several police officers who appeared to be part of the evidence team were carefully surveying the goal area. Not far away, a police officer was holding a notebook, questioning a student in sportswear. The student looked pale, as if he might collapse at any moment.
Not long after, the forensic team turned the body over, and the stiffened corpse revealed its face. Several onlookers gasped.
"Who is it?" Liu Jianjun craned his neck, trying to get a better look. "Why does he look familiar?"
Fang Mu also felt that the deceased's clothes looked familiar, but couldn't remember where he had seen it.
"I'll go check it out over there," Liu Jianjun said, crouching down and making his way through the crowd. A few minutes later, he returned pale-faced to Fang Mu and Du Yu.
"It's Qu Weiqiang, and his hands were cut off. It's really tragic."
The news of a murder at the J University sports field created a stir. The school cooperated with the police to solve the case and stepped up campus security measures. As a direct consequence, due to stricter dorm management, all cohabitating couples returned to their respective dormitories. The indirect consequence was that students often saw romantic scenes unfolding in the dark corners of the campus during evening self-study sessions.
It was common to see police officers in uniforms visiting the school to interview the deceased's roommates and classmates. The captain of the school's football team hinted more than once to the police to investigate other football teams in the city. After being ignored by the police, he organized a so-called retirement ceremony for the football jersey.
Despite being in the midst of final exams, the retirement ceremony for the football jersey still attracted many students. Fang Mu was also one of them.
The ceremony was held at the football field. The entire football team lined up into two teams, and the captain and vice-captain, along with two other team members, each held the corners of a jersey, slowly and solemnly walking toward the north goal of the football field. There, a table was placed with a large portrait of Qu Weiqiang. In front of the portrait was a soccer ball and Qu Weiqiang's boots. The players walked to the side of the table, lining up on both sides, standing with their hands behind their backs. The captain bowed three times to Qu Weiqiang's portrait, then took out a piece of paper from his pocket and began to deliver a speech.
The speech roughly recalled Qu Weiqiang's joining of the team and the "outstanding contributions" he made to the team, using flowery language and emotional expressions, with some exaggeration, such as "the hope of the future of Chinese football" and "the impenetrable gatekeeper," making people mistake that the deceased was not Qu Weiqiang, but rather Wang Dalei. However, the effect of the speech was still good, with almost every player standing in tears, and most of the onlookers also in tears.
After the speech, the captain poured a liquid on the jersey and then lit it with a lighter. The No. 1 jersey of the J University team caught fire and quickly became a ball of flames. The captain was probably burned by the jersey and quickly threw it on the ground. The smell of burning woven material and plastic immediately filled the air. The sports field administrator hurriedly ran over, stomping on the still-burning jersey. The players immediately panicked, surrounding the administrator and questioning him loudly. The administrator also got angry, "It's okay to have a ceremony, but you can't start a fire. Can you afford to pay for the damaged plastic grass?" The two sides pushed and shoved each other out of the sports field, saying they were going to explain things to the principal. The retirement ceremony for the football jersey ended abruptly, with only half of Qu Weiqiang's jersey smoldering on the burnt grass. Fang Mu looked at the overturned portrait of Qu Weiqiang and smiled wryly, walking out of the sports field with the dispersing crowd.
Returning to the dorm, he unexpectedly found that Tai Wei was sitting on his bed flipping through a book. Fang Mu still held a grudge against Tai Wei from the last time, and frowned without speaking to him. Tai Wei smiled and spoke first, "What's up, I've been waiting for you."
"What do you want?" Fang Mu asked coldly, but then hesitated, could something have happened again?
"Nothing major, the Bureau just happened to be investigating a case at your school, so I came to see you."
"Why did you come?" Fang Mu considered, "Because of that murder case? Isn't that the responsibility of your detective team?"
"Hehe, you know quite a bit," Tai Wei laughed, "It's handled by the Document Preservation Section, and I heard they came to your school to investigate, so I came along. How are you doing?"
"I'm fine. Thanks for coming," Fang Mu sat down in a chair, speaking with a lack of enthusiasm.
"Hehe, still mad at me?" Tai Wei didn't seem to mind, "I admit I did something inappropriate, but I think you wouldn't want a material reward. Let the school commend you would be good. I took a risk too; the director is scolding me."
"You should be scolded," Fang Mu said and couldn't help but laugh.
"Hehe, it's not what you think. I don't know why, but our director doesn't want you to be involved in this case."
Fang Mu was about to ask why, but Tai Wei took out an envelope from his bag.
"Let's get to the point; this letter is for you." Tai Wei handed Fang Mu the envelope and stared into his eyes, his expression becoming more serious, "It's from Ma Kai."
Fang Mu was about to reach out, but hearing that it was from Ma Kai, he involuntarily pulled back, hesitated for a moment, and then took it.
It was a plain white envelope with no recipient written on it, and the letter inside wasn't very thick, light as it was held in his hand. Fang Mu turned the envelope over and saw the letter wasn't sealed.
"I didn't read it, I swear to Chairman Mao," Tai Wei saw Fang Mu look at him and quickly defended himself, "He handed it directly to me, and I handed it to you."
Tai Wei saw Fang Mu staring at the unopened envelope, "What's wrong, aren't you going to look at it?"
Fang Mu didn't answer him, just stared at the envelope.
Ma Kai, what do you want to tell me?
Tai Wei noticed he wasn't speaking, and found it uninteresting, so he got up to leave. Fang Mu didn't try to stop him, and as Tai Wei reached the door, he suddenly turned around and said:
"Ma Kai was sentenced to death in the first trial, and it will be immediately executed," he paused, "He did not appeal. If nothing unexpected happens, the death penalty will be carried out early Thursday morning." After speaking, he nodded at Fang Mu, opened the door, and left.
At 7:35 a.m., Fang Mu was awakened by a call from Tai Wei. Tai Wei told him that Ma Kai had been executed by firing squad at 2:50 a.m. that morning. It was a single bullet to the head, painless.