Mute Accomplice

At the Nanyin Conference in Quanzhou, after 107 seconds of absolute silence, a body appeared backstage. Detective Cheng Yan identified in the recording that the missing sound was not a malfunction - it was the sound of air that had been artificially cut off. The center of the traced circle pointed to Cai Zhaolin, the youngest Nanyin inheritor that night, a musician with permanent high-frequency deafness. He had used it once to save someone seven years ago, but no one had pleaded guilty in that old case. Now Cheng Yan has his original recording in hand, and Cai Zhaolin holds Cheng Yan's modified appraisal report. One wants the truth, the other wants silence. Whoever speaks first will be exposed first.