Conspiracy

The wind chime by the door rang. Twelve years after seeing Lin Yusen again, Song Ran found her feelings complicated. She was an orphan who had been abandoned, and on that snowy day, Lin Yusen had taken her home. Their happy life had been as brief and fleeting as a beautiful bubble. Strictly speaking, this was their second reunion. The first had been twelve years earlier, at the source of all the darkness.

The bones of the son of Song Ran's second set of adoptive parents were unearthed in an abandoned vegetable well back in her hometown. When policewoman Wang Beibei came knocking, the truth surrounding Song Ran was like a basin of water that only grew darker the more it was washed. No one could have imagined how many hidden stories were tied to her.

Behind the dried-well skeleton case lay one bloody school story after another. Many people were trapped in the mire, unable to escape. Some turned to darkness, while others ended their lives far too soon. All of it seemed to be connected to Song Ran in countless ways, and Lin Yusen, who had always stayed by her side, didn't seem like an outsider either.

When Song Ran smiled, she seemed to be wrapped in a soft light, but her eyes were always clouded over. When she was alone, she was like a lifeless doll sitting in a shop window.

Everyone who had spent time with Lin Yusen thought he was gentle to the bone. He could cook and do housework, and his medical skills were superb. He seemed too perfect to be real.

Note: This is a story that delves into the dark side of human nature. The overall tone is quite bleak. There is no golden finger or exhilarating revenge plot, and the male and female leads are ordinary people.

Character notes: Both leads are obsessive and unstable.

Content warnings: The female lead has been married and has a husband (though he's dead). Both leads have dark pasts and are not sexually inexperienced.

Theme: Even the ordinary and powerless have a reason to keep living