Liu Sanquan, an official with the County Emergency Management Bureau, carried on a year-long affair with his subordinate Ye Zhi behind his wife’s back. He pressured Ye into getting pregnant so she could take his wife’s place, then publicly beat his legitimate wife, Ma Jingyi, at a kindergarten. The Liu family held power over land, public security, finance, and transportation. They planted false evidence at every turn, destroyed surveillance footage, seized the body, and rushed it to be cremated, all in an attempt to make the truth disappear. A forensic examiner, a female prosecutor, and a social media journalist pursued the case against the tide. In this 250,000-character work of social realism, the grisly truth comes to light: seven blows with a blunt weapon, a final act of suffocation, and a scene bleached clean. The story tears away the veil that concealed those in power. In the end, the fourth uncle is punished by association, the parents receive life sentences, and Sanquan is sentenced to death. Roses bloom again amid the ruins.
