The Jiangyuan Lane Mystery: The Truth Deep in the Old Alley

Chapter One: The Gloom of Jiangyuan Lane

Shanghai, 1945. This Oriental metropolis, battered by years of war, was gradually regaining its former prosperity on the surface. Yet in the city's hidden corners lurked countless secrets and crimes unknown to the world. Jiangyuan Lane was a narrow, shadowy alley, thick with the pungent aroma of soy sauce and vinegar, yet shrouded in gloom. Zhan Zhoushi was an ordinary woman who lived in Jiangyuan Lane. Gentle and frail by nature, she had been dealt a cruel fate. Her husband, Zhan Yunying, was hot-tempered and a hopeless drunk, and he often beat her. In that era when men ruled over women