Old-School Detective: Hardcore Manhunts in the 1990s

In 1995, in Hefeng City, the city of steel, a murder in an apartment block pierced the seemingly calm facade of state-owned enterprise reforms like a needle.

The case put veteran detective Zhang Jianjun’s retirement plans on hold. Faced with an almost perfect crime scene, with no signs of forced entry, no usable fingerprints, and only half a blurry muddy footprint and the neighbors’ evasive testimony, he sensed a familiar, dangerous presence: this was no spur-of-the-moment murder.

Li Ming, his new apprentice and a top graduate of the police academy, had his head full of modern criminal psychology. But under his mentor’s scolding to use “old-fashioned methods,” he had to learn to measure every corner of the city with his own feet. Without surveillance cameras or DNA evidence, they had to reconstruct the victim’s final 48 hours. An old ration coupon found by chance and a work log filled with numbers became their only leverage in breaking the deadlock.

Yet the deeper they dug, the more elusive the truth became. Witnesses “lost their memories” at crucial moments, key evidence vanished, and the obstacles to the investigation seemed to come from within the force... Everyone wore a mask, and every word carried a hidden edge. Zhang Jianjun and Li Ming had no idea they were drawing closer to a secret buried for more than a decade. That secret was bound up with both the city’s glory and its pain, and the killer might be standing right under the spotlight, smiling as they watched their every move...