On the third day of the first lunar month in 2000, when the entire city of Bei'an was immersed in the joy of the Spring Festival, a headless female corpse was rotting in a bed box at the Jinyue Hotel in Hongshan District. When Liu Feixia, the captain of the criminal investigation team, received the report, the Spring Festival Gala sketch was being replayed on TV, and the cold voice of the forensic doctor came from his walkie-talkie: "Female, about 18 years old, was dismembered after death and her head was missing."
This is a race against time. The counterfeit ID cards, the vandalized scene, clues to the Spring Festival closure, and the rapidly fermenting public opinion all loomed over the task force like an invisible net. The case reached a dead end when the DNA of more than 20 missing people across the city failed to match. Until Liu Feixia was in the neon-lit pedicure city when he heard the girl named "Xiaoya" tremblingly say: "There is a butterfly on Lulu's left shoulder..."
On the 2,000-kilometer pursuit from Bei'an to Qinghai, Liu Feixia not only had to fight against altitude sickness and the biting cold wind, but also faced a twisted soul: 26-year-old Sun, a murderer who was both dependent on and hated women. When he finally found the head wrapped in a hotel towel in the cave, Liu Feixia lit not only a cigarette, but also a memorial to the short life of this 18-year-old girl.
