Late at night in the cold winter of 2025, psychological counselor Zhou Wanqing was found dead under the 13th building of Wutong Garden in Jiangcheng.
Surveillance surveillance showed that she never left the building after entering the building alone, and the iron door leading to the rooftop was locked, with no pry marks, and the key record was intact - she seemed to have jumped from a "non-existent space".
What's even weirder is that the autopsy found sedatives in her body, but the soles of her shoes were stained with cement used for roof repairs; an encrypted audio remained on her computer, with only one whisper:
"Do you remember the thirteenth step?"
But in this six-story old building, each flight of stairs only has twelve steps - there is no "thirteenth step" in the world.
Chen Yan, the deputy captain of criminal investigation, took over the case and uncovered a construction murder case that had been buried in dust for 20 years: a woman mysteriously fell to her death on the same numbered staircase, and the accident was classified as an "accident." But now, her daughter, who is using her psychological knowledge to find out the truth, has become the next person to "voluntarily" step out of the rooftop.
As the secret door of the maintenance channel opens, the identity of the anonymous customer is reversed, and the property manager's perfect alibi collapses, a well-designed "psychological murder" emerges -
The murderer didn't push her, he just let her see the steps that never existed but were buried deep in her heart.
"The Thirteenth Step" is a criminal investigation suspense novel with rigorous logic and fast pace.
The on-site investigation, forensic identification, digital tracking and psychological game are restored with calm brushstrokes. In the triple fog of "who did it", "why they did it" and "how to do it", the conspiracy of lies, trauma and silence is peeled off layer by layer.
When justice requires someone to count up one level at a time, the truth will not fall forever.
