Salt Frost [Crime Investigation]

A city’s lifeblood is rusting, and the truth is the only antidote.

In the bitter winter of 2025, homicide squad captain Yu Yan takes on the bizarre poisoning of a pregnant woman, only to discover breathing metallic crystals beneath the victim’s skin. A gold-plated fountain pen engraved with plum blossoms and a string of quality-inspection codes spanning thirty years lead her into the unsolved mystery of her mother’s fall from a building. In the yellowed laboratory logs, every date blurred by tears reenacts today’s tragedy.

When salt frost in the water-supply network begins to devour newborns’ pupils, and her own DNA becomes a red flag in the criminal database, Yu Yan discovers:

Forensic pathologist Lu Chen’s agarwood beads absorb the memories of the dead.

Environmental expert Lin Shu’s tattoo conceals the coordinates of the city’s underground lifeline.

And the lullaby her mother hummed before dying is actually the code to reverse the countdown.

Deep in the corroded pipes, the crimes of 1995 are surging forth under water pressure. Before the clock reaches the seventh gear, Yu Yan must strip the truth from a blood-red puzzle: aim a police gun at her mother’s gravestone, or use a scalpel to cut open her own heart as it slowly turns to metal.

When the salt crystals in the quenching pool boil for the last time, someone chooses to prolong their life with lies, while she will make the truth crystallize in blue blood.

Can you hear the underground pipes groaning? The countdown has begun.