In the autumn of 1999, demolition at Huai'an's old steelworks uncovers a skeleton buried for five years beneath the foundations.
Lin Huai, a female forensic pathologist suspended from duty and lying low, is temporarily recalled to examine the remains. The marks on the bones are clearly from a blade. This was no disappearance or accident.
She thinks it's just a cold case. But the moment she meets Shen Du, a police officer newly assigned from elsewhere, she is plunged into a bloody cycle that has lasted six years.
From 1993 to 1998, someone dies every June 17.
Police officers, accountants, section chiefs, directors, forensic pathologists, archivists... Everyone with knowledge of the truth is systematically eliminated, year after year, with their deaths disguised as accidents, medical retirements, or disappearances.
Shen Du has come from far away to reopen the case.
Six years ago, on June 17, his older brother Shen Chuan was investigating corruption at the steelworks when someone pushed him from a building to his death. He was the first victim of this string of murders.
And Lin Huai has carried the pain of that same day for six years.
Her fiance, Zhao Mingyuan, a forensic pathologist, uncovered the pattern behind the June 17 murders. He was silenced and became the final martyr in this ritual.
One death at the beginning, one at the end. Two cases of injustice.
Each of them bears the weight of a crime no one dares speak of. They go from mistrusting each other to entrusting their lives to one another.
A web of powerful protectors covers the truth, while a mole in the police station has been tampering with cases for years.
At last, the old bones see daylight, and justice is done.
The six-year cycle of bloodshed finally comes to an end in 1999, with the two of them standing side by side.
This is an original mystery novel by the author. The setting, characters, and plot are all fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental.
