In June, during the rainy season in Haishi, three male corpses surface one after another in the Jing River.
All the victims died from a rare plant alkaloid poison. There are no signs of a struggle and no eyewitnesses. The only clue is the character "Debt," written in red ink at each scene, pointing every lead toward the Hongyuan Building Materials merger scandal from thirty years ago, and the Qin family, who built a business empire from the ground up.
Lu Ze, head of the Municipal Bureau's Major Crimes Unit, has spent ten years in law enforcement. He solves cases with an iron fist and can't tolerate the slightest wrongdoing. He gives his word that he'll catch the killer within seven days.
Following the trail, he knocks on the door of a psychology practice scented with the cool fragrance of wood, where he meets Qin Su, the least business-minded heir to the Qin family.
The man lounges on a leather sofa, twirling a silver pen between his fingers. With his aristocratic features and flippant manner, he is the very picture of an idle young gentleman who takes no interest in worldly affairs.
But in the next second, he describes a killer whose profile matches the police's assessment almost perfectly, with an accuracy that sends chills down one's spine.
Lu Ze instantly tenses.
This psychologist, who seems to have no connection to the murders, understands the killer's obsession, knows what drives the victims, and can even predict the killer's next move. He seems to walk along the boundary between light and darkness, and every part of him is suspicious.
They begin with wariness and hostility. After the investigation repeatedly hits dead ends, they form a limited partnership. Lu Ze sees the broken person beneath Qin Su's playboy disguise, sees him struggle between his family's sins and his own redemption, and watches him deliberately keep his distance while quietly passing along key clues.
He stands by the absolute letter of the law, yet can't help reaching out to the person in the abyss.
The day after a suspect is caught and the whole city believes the case is solved, a fourth corpse surfaces in the Jing River. It has been killed in exactly the same way, with the same character, "Debt," written without the slightest difference.
The copycat is caught, but the real killer remains in hiding. The blood debt the Qin family concealed for thirty years has only just begun to come to light.
After the rainy season ends, on the banks of the Jing River,
Lu Ze stands facing the sun in his police uniform, gazing from afar at Qin Su in the shadows.
One upholds the righteous path of the human world; the other seeks to atone for a lifetime of old debts.
This gaze between light and darkness is only the beginning of their story.
A stalwart police unit chief x a cool, broken profiler
Qin Su is fragile porcelain, shaped by darkness.
Lu Ze is the steady hand that holds him up and keeps him from shattering.
Qin Su believes he is steeped in sin and unworthy of love.
Lu Ze doesn't care about his past. He sees only the kindness hidden beneath his coldness, and tells him with unwavering conviction:
"You're not a monster. You've just never been properly loved."
Reader's Guide
1. Two male leads, older love interest: principled, steely crime unit chief Lu Ze x cold on the outside, broken on the inside, wealthy-family profiler Qin Su. One-on-one romance, both pure in body and heart, HE.
2. A serious crime thriller with a main plot connected by episodic cases. Slow-burn redemption, with the romance developing steadily alongside the plot.
3. All cases, characters, and organizations are fictional and have no real-life counterparts. Please don't compare them to real law enforcement procedures.
4. This volume is "First Encounter and Suspicions: The Serial Body-Dumping Case."
Theme: Fighting violence with violence is never justice. Only by upholding the law can wrongful convictions truly be overturned and crimes receive fair punishment.
