The skeletal remains of a six-year-old child who died twenty years ago appear before Shen Xingtong, a criminal police officer and forensic doctor. Who could be so cruel as to kill a child? The discovery enrages the officers. Though twenty years have passed since the crime, they are determined to find the killer.
After dark, a fashionable young woman named Min Cong is murdered by the river. Shen Xingtong’s partner, Lao Zhou, is a former head of the criminal investigation division nearing retirement. He realizes the case resembles a bloody murder from eight years ago: the killing of a female student at Steel Institute. That case cast a shadow over his career.
As the cases are investigated together, Shen Xingtong applies the latest forensic techniques, carefully peeling back one layer after another. Each time, it seems they have found the killer, but they always hit a dead end, and one suspect after another is eliminated.
Drawing on his wealth of investigative experience, Lao Zhou travels far and wide, going door to door to gather evidence. At last, he uncovers a lead from twenty years ago: an elderly engineer adopted a child from the countryside so his son could obtain an urban household registration.
At a case analysis meeting where the crime is reconstructed, an argument unfolds over the goodness and evil of human nature. The conclusions send a chill through everyone present.
A single evil thought can unleash tragedy upon the world.
When the truth is revealed, Han Gang faces the father who sacrificed everything for him and seeks revenge through the principle that every cause has its consequence.
The police arrive in time, and the real culprit is brought to justice.
Shen Xingtong reflects that this is a terribly heavy full stop.
The world is beautiful. It would be even better without evil.
