Dongjiang County: The Invisible Hand

Li Jing, deputy head of the provincial investigative team, has barely arrived in Dongjiang County when she encounters a bizarre case: Zhang Meng, a construction contractor, beat a man to death in the street, yet at trial the victim’s family all changed their testimony.

In a rundown teahouse in town, she runs into the boy she secretly loved back in school. Now he stoops, his fingernails caked with tea stains.

When Li Jing takes out the graduation photo she has treasured for years, a flicker of emotion finally crosses the man’s gaunt face.

On a night of torrential rain, this man, worn down by life, suddenly asks, “That case where a man was beaten to death... why did the family change their story?”

Li Jing looks out the window at the glaring neon sign of Zhang Meng’s company and, for the first time, tells an outsider the truth. Meanwhile, an invisible hand begins to slowly close around her.

(A crime novel featuring the underworld, political intrigue, investigation, and suspense. The story is told mainly from the heroine’s perspective. The hero is the person she secretly loved back in school, but his background is just as unfathomable.)