Song Zhihe is a government employee who holds fast to her principles and follows the rules to the letter.
Jiang Yan moves through the gray areas, a man who doesn't dare put even his real name on any register.
They are parallel lines that should never have crossed, yet the same sealed old ledger binds them together.
On an analysis report from the Linjiang blood bank, she finds her missing brother's name among a series of foreign codes.
In the secret records at the Mengna border crossing, he keeps records of deadly trades hidden beneath one piece of old clothing after another.
They have never met, not even once, yet together they search through the records left by the dead, holding fast to an old matter no one dares mention.
The moment the empty eleventh slot on the wall is finally filled, all the calm shatters.
Song Zhihe investigates the truth only to learn why her brother never returned after going out to "take care of something."
Jiang Yan secretly traces people's movements to find out where the ones who mysteriously disappeared back then went.
When the words "self-collected" emerge from the ledger, they finally see the cruel truth:
Some people manage to remain alive only because someone secretly erased their names from the death register for good.
She stays firmly behind the scenes, never entering the fray herself.
He remains in the shadows, never making a name for himself in public.
The most heart-pounding confrontation is never a close-quarters fight. It is two people a thousand miles apart, each quietly protecting the page in the case file that belongs to the other.
