In 1979 He took the national college entrance examinations. Although he had only six years of formal schooling, he managed to pass and was enrolled by a branch college affiliated to Renmin University of China.

He picked up law as a major accidentally, without even knowing anything about the subject.

At university he worked very hard, and received a bachelor's degree four years later. He continued as a graduate student for a master's degree at Renmin. After graduation he became a teacher at his university for four years, then went to the United States twice to study at the law school of Northwestern University, where he got his doctoral degree in 1993.

While on average it takes three to five years to get such a degree, it took He only a little more than one year, something of which he is intensely proud. Then by the end of 1993 he returned to Beijing to continue his teaching career.

However, as his interest in law grew, which made him decide to choose it as his career, he was forced to suspend his writing because he wanted to concentrate wholeheartedly on law.

For about 15 years he did not write one line of fiction not even a short story.

"But in my heart, my love for literature never ceased to exist," he said.

While in the United States he saw many legal professionals who were also successful fiction writers. He felt his heart stir.

In 1994 he came to realize that there were not many good detective stories set or written in China. And when he talked about this with some friends, he was told he should write detective stories to combine his speciality in criminal law with his love for writing.

"That conversation made me think a lot, soon I started writing 'Mad Woman.' The original title was 'Deep Pool of Sentiment' (Qing Yuan), and it was published as a series in China Youth Daily in 1995," He said.

"To my own surprise, it had quite an impact and I even received letters from readersThat was really different from my academic work. And I enjoyed it very much because I got reactions from strangers," he said.

But a law professor who writes novels really went beyond people's imagination.

Encouraged by his success and the response from readers, He went on writing his second, third and fourth novels frenetically, almost using up every minute of his spare time. "Even while sleeping I was always thinking about the story," he said.

Will he write another detective story in the near future?

"I don't know," he said. "It depends on whether I will come across something inspiring and have the time."