At the beginning of spring in 1915, Qin Muzhi "died" on the battlefield. On the same day, a family in Nanjing gave birth to a baby boy with a knife-shaped birthmark on the back of his neck.
Twenty-two years later, reporter Shen Du was ordered to interview Qin Muzhi's widow Wen Hengzhi. She was widowed for half her life and was known as "the most heroic woman in the Republic of China".
The moment Shen Du walked into Qin's mansion, Wen Hengzhi knocked over the tea cup.
It wasn't because of his face - that face was exactly like her dead husband's.
It was because the birthmark on the back of his neck was exactly the same shape as the weapon she used to kill her husband.
One after another, dusty and mysterious cases emerge one after another: veteran suicide, secret files stolen, dancers killed, unnamed tombstones... Each case is like an invisible hand, pushing Shen Du towards the same answer -
Qin Muzhi is not a hero, he is a traitor
Wen Hengzhi is not a martyr, but a murderer.
And she had been a widow for twenty-two years, not waiting for him to come back, but waiting for someone to pay off his debt.
