The Hanlan Case Files

The rain in Linyuan cannot wash the blood from beneath this city.

Starting twenty-six years ago, eleven women were murdered in the northern suburbs of Linyuan and the neighboring city's Harbor District. The crimes bore striking similarities, yet remained unsolved, earning them the name "the case of the century" among locals. The emergence of a parallel case brings the sealed files back into the light. Jing Xing, chief criminal investigation consultant, writes two words on the title page: "Reopen the case." Thus begins a shocking manhunt spanning a hundred cases and thirty-six months.

From murder and fraud to human trafficking, drugs, bombings, and high-IQ crimes staged as social experiments, every seemingly isolated case bears the same ring-shaped impression. Su Ji, the sharp-tongued forensics technician, lives by the creed that data never lies, but people do. Cui Lan, a prosecutor obsessed with procedure, guards against every move. And behind the scenes, Yan Qingci, who leaves only handwriting and never shows their face, calmly watches the game they set in motion, wiping their fingertips with a silk handkerchief.

Old evidence is a time capsule, and silent crime scenes can speak. When Jing Xing realizes his opponent is not one person but an entire network, what he must dismantle is no longer just a case, but a crack in an entire era.

The truth may be late, but it will never be absent.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.