On the north riverbank, four bodies, all killed the same way: strangulation marks around the neck, an eerie smile, and lycopene levels in their bodies more than a hundred times above normal.
The four murders had been deliberately scattered among case files from different years. It was only when the body of logistics company owner Zhang Debiao was discovered that the truth's iceberg began to emerge.
Detective Zheng Yi is ordered to form a five-person special task force to take on the case. But he harbors an unspeakable secret: a second personality lives inside him. By day, he's an upbeat, outgoing criminal investigator. Late at night, his other self awakens, sneaks into crime scenes, pores over encrypted case files, and leaves clues in handwriting as precise as a machine's.
For three months, “Night” helps him solve three cold cases.
Then, in the Zhang Debiao case, “Night” writes a line on a note that has never appeared before: “Someone from the Red Tide knows me.”
The clues point to the Red Tide, a cult destroyed eleven years ago. Its leader, Zhong Muzhi, was reportedly shot dead, but “Night” says he's still alive.
When the coroner discovers a mysterious compound deep in the victims' cervical vertebrae, one capable of hijacking nerve signals, the hunters on the dark web are tracked in reverse, and the mole's IP address points inside the police force. The five-person team is dragged into an abyss that stretches back eleven years.
As “Night's” true identity comes to light, and Zheng Yi discovers that all his memories from age twelve to nineteen are missing, he must face a fatal question: is the other personality inside him a shield protecting him, or the deepest chess piece his enemy has planted within him?
Hunting criminals by day, solving mysteries by night. Five team members, each with secrets of their own. One twist after another, leading straight into the deepest darkness and redemption of human nature.
