When antique restorer Xie Xun’s fingertips touch an ancient painting, and criminal profiler Lu Shiyan’s gaze settles on a case file, they are drawn into the “Echo Theater,” a realm formed from the obsessions of unresolved crimes.
Xie Xun can trace fragments of past crimes left behind on objects, but is prone to empathizing with the victims. Lu Shiyan can deconstruct suspects’ behavioral logic, but is often swept up in the killers’ way of thinking. Forced together as a formidable duo, they must piece together the truth behind cold cases in scenarios such as a drowning mystery at a Republican-era calligraphy and painting shop, a locked-room murder at a rain-soaked guesthouse, and an inheritance conspiracy tied to a funeral that repeats endlessly. They do so by combining their complementary skills in tracing physical evidence and psychological profiling.
Behind the scenarios lie the cultural relic theft case for which Xie Xun was falsely accused, the wrongful blame Lu Shiyan bears for a failed profile, and the “mastermind behind the theater” who is manipulating everything. With every scenario they solve, they draw closer to clearing their names and exposing the real culprit. But the theater’s rules are cold: trust is a blade, empathy is a trap, and even their alliance may be part of a carefully woven web of crime.
When ink from ancient paintings overlaps with the neon lights of the city, and the wronged souls of the Republican era intermingle with modern-day shadows of crime, this infinite-flow hunt for a killer is only just beginning.
