Shen Jin is Haicheng’s top criminal defense lawyer, elegant and reserved on the outside, with a beast that has lain dormant for fifteen years within. His father, Shen Chongshan, was falsely said to have “committed suicide” in a detention center. Shen Jin intends to weave a net of justice so tight that the mastermind will sign his own death warrant in court.
Gu Ye, a former second lieutenant in an Army special reconnaissance battalion, is now a “ghost racer” in the underground racing scene. Three years ago, a rescue mission in Myanmar ended in the annihilation of his entire unit. The only survivor, he was driven into the abyss by false intelligence from the “Shepherd.” He wants blood repaid in blood, violence answered with violence.
When the “Twin Towers” financial fraud case in Haicheng reopens old wounds, the two men, each with his own agenda, are forced to work together. One believes in “the law above all”; the other in “violent retribution.” One wants to win in court; the other wants to execute his enemies in the dark. Through mutual exploitation, suspicion, and fights to the death, they go from bitter rivals to comrades who can trust each other with their backs.
Yet the “Shepherd” casts a shadow everywhere: a mole in the police force, a traitor at the law firm, corrupt military men, and a powerful business magnate. As conspiracies pile upon conspiracies, due process repeatedly fails, and violent revenge cannot heal their wounds. When Shen Jin is forced to break the principles he has upheld for fifteen years, and Gu Ye must face the PTSD demon more terrifying than death in a thunderstorm, they finally understand: some darkness can only be pierced by the light of the law; some abysses can only be illuminated by the warmth of a flame.
This is no simple clash between good and evil. It is two broken souls, in the gray zone, burning a path to the truth for each other and for the family and comrades they have lost: a road through the ashes and wilderness.
