Chapter Summaries

After Tao Junhui and Su Xiyan returned to the station, the team divided up to investigate Ding Peixin and Gu Xue. Su Qiao went to meet Sun Zhihao, who had something important to tell her but made a request unrelated to the case.

• Tao Junhui and Su Xiyan returned to the station in a tense mood, and Tao Junhui called a meeting about the case.
• Su Qiao and the team discussed their suspicions about Gu Xue and focused their investigation on Ding Peixin and Gu Xue.
• Tao Junhui assigned Su Qiao to trace Ding Peixin’s movements, Little Li to watch Gu Xue, and the veteran team members to search for clues about Ding Peixin.
• Su Qiao visited Du Muhan in the autopsy room, then prepared to review surveillance footage from the night Ding Peixin went out.
• Little Li told Su Qiao that Sun Zhihao wanted to see her, and Sun Zhihao made her an unexpected request unrelated to the case.

Su Qiao learned that more than twenty-six million yuan in valuables had disappeared from Sun Zhihao’s safe and suspected his wife, Ding Peixin, had taken them. She left with a photograph of the missing property for Tao Junhui, while promising to paint Sun Zhihao a costly painting after the case ended.

• Sun Zhihao told Su Qiao that jewelry, diamonds, and gold bars worth around twenty-six million yuan were missing from his Underground Room safe.
• Sun Zhihao said only he and Ding Peixin could open the Underground Room and safe, and admitted he had stayed quiet because he expected to recover the valuables later.
• Su Qiao took Sun Zhihao’s photograph of the valuables and promised to paint him one of her paintings after the case ended, for five to ten million yuan or more.
• Su Qiao handed the photograph to Little Li and told him to deliver it to Tao Junhui.
• Little Li asked whether he could see Su Qiao’s painting when it was finished, and she dismissed his surprise at its price as ignorance.

Su Qiao investigated where Ding Peixin had gone and planned to search an abandoned district in the western suburbs. Du Muhan teased her about their supposed marriage, but Su Qiao insisted that she would not discuss a wedding until the case was closed.

• Su Qiao found no recent Black Market trades in gemstones or gold bars and considered whether Ding Peixin had sold them privately.
• Su Qiao traced Ding Peixin's taxi ride to an abandoned part of the western district and decided to investigate the area herself.
• Du Muhan asked Su Qiao whether she planned to sell a painting to Sun Zhihao and claimed the painting was their marital property.
• Du Muhan offered to marry Su Qiao immediately, but she said the case could not close until they found Ding Peixin.

Su Qiao found the telephone booth Ding Peixin had used and traced the number she called, giving the bureau a new lead. The number belonged to a high school student whose phone had been stolen, leaving the identity of the person behind the case unresolved.

• Du Muhan worried about Su Qiao going alone to the old district, but she told him to go home and rest.
• Su Qiao searched the old district that afternoon without finding anything unusual, then returned the next day and discovered a nearly abandoned phone booth that still worked.
• Su Qiao reported that Ding Peixin had called from the booth and gave the team the number she had traced.
• Yu Qiang checked with the telecommunications company and learned the number belonged to a male high school student whose phone had been stolen on a bus.
• Tao Junhui said the phone theft showed how cunning the person behind Ding Peixin's disappearance was.

Su Xiyan tracked the stolen phone to Wang Yan, and Tao Junhui’s team injured him while trying to arrest him. After Wang Yan explained how he found the phone, the team realized they had caught an unwitting user rather than the person behind the crime, and the real mastermind remained at large.

• Su Xiyan traced the phone to Wang Yan and gave Tao Junhui his details and location.
• Tao Junhui led a team to arrest Wang Yan, who fell from the second floor and was rushed to the hospital.
• Su Qiao questioned whether Wang Yan could be involved in the murder and urged the team to keep investigating the phone thieves.
• Tao Junhui ordered Yu Qiang and the others to trace who the thieves had sold the phone to.
• Wang Yan woke and explained that he had found the phone by a trash heap behind the bar, while his injuries left him at risk of paralysis.

Su Qiao and Du Muhan investigated the discovery of Ding Peixin’s body in a well at an abandoned Taoist temple on Seven Peaks Mountain. The team suspected Wang Yan had killed her and stolen the valuables, but Su Qiao questioned whether Ding Peixin would have returned for him, especially when compared with Sun Zhihao.

• A team member summoned Su Qiao after students found Ding Peixin’s body in an old well on Seven Peaks Mountain.
• Su Qiao changed shoes, collected her briefcase, and left with Du Muhan for the crime scene.
• The team recovered Ding Peixin’s battered body and found no jewelry, diamonds, or gold bars at the temple or nearby.
• Team members blamed Wang Yan for killing Ding Peixin and taking the valuables, while Su Qiao questioned whether she would have risked returning for him.

After Ding Peixin was murdered, Su Qiao and the police searched for the person who had secretly helped her. Su Qiao spotted a suspicious figure in the surveillance footage, giving the exhausted team a new lead.

• Su Qiao questioned whether the lecherous-looking man could have helped Ding Peixin, while Tao Junhui ordered the corpse taken back for Du to perform an autopsy and surveillance footage checked.
• The police shifted their search to whoever had been helping Ding Peixin and struggled to review the crowded holiday footage from the past ten days.
• After watching through the night, Su Qiao noticed a person in a black trench coat who appeared only twice along the route.
• Su Qiao pointed out that the short, sturdy figure seemed to pass the cameras quickly as if trying to avoid being seen.

Su Qiao connected the suspicious figure on surveillance to Gu Xue, also known as Gu Yunting, who had disguised herself as a man. The team prepared to catch her after Su Qiao explained how the disguise and the figure’s unusual neck gave her away.

• Su Qiao noted that the suspect appeared on only two of twenty-six cameras along the route to Seven Peaks Mountain.
• Li realized the footage was recorded five days ago, one day after Ding Peixin secretly returned from Basha Island.
• The team suspected the disguised figure might be Wang Ting, but Su Qiao identified the person as Gu Xue, or Gu Yunting.
• Su Qiao explained that Gu Xue could fake a male build, height, shoes, and Adam’s apple with a disguise.
• Su Qiao said the suspect’s walk and disproportionately slender neck revealed that she was Gu Xue.

Su Qiao’s evidence persuaded Tao Junhui to move against Gu Xue, who was undergoing reconstructive surgery. As the arrest teams set out, Su Qiao rested with Du Muhan and discussed their plans to marry and honeymoon.

• Su Qiao pointed out a mole matching Gu Xue’s and Tao Junhui ordered an arrest warrant and an immediate arrest.
• Su Qiao gave Tao Junhui the location of the Plastic Surgery Hospital, and he split the team between searching Gu Xue’s home and arresting her.
• Su Xiyan reflected that Tao Junhui still could not forgive her for leaving him during the storm and remained unable to let go of Su Qiao.
• Su Qiao rested in the dissection room while Du Muhan brought her honey water and massaged her shoulders.
• Su Qiao and Du Muhan talked about getting married and taking a honeymoon, and Du Muhan began to answer her question about how he had slept before they met.

Su Qiao learned that Gu Xue had been arrested at Plastic Surgery Hospital and went to question her. Gu Xue stayed unnervingly calm and said she envied Su Qiao for having everything she had dreamed of.

• Du Muhan told Su Qiao he feared letting go of her and loosely held her as they tried to sleep.
• Police arrested Gu Xue at Plastic Surgery Hospital after she came in to have her nasal implant repaired.
• Little Li told Su Qiao that Gu Xue had refused to speak unless she saw her.
• Su Qiao met Gu Xue in the Interrogation Room, where Gu Xue said she envied Su Qiao.

Su Qiao confronted Gu Xue about her choices and drew her into discussing the crimes she had helped set in motion. Gu Xue defended her actions and explained her resentment toward Xia Xiaolin, but the chapter ended before she finished describing her grievances.

• Gu Xue told Su Qiao that she had envied Su Qiao’s looks, career, freedom, and lack of family burdens.
• Su Qiao argued that Gu Xue had been trapped by her own choices and the twisted responsibility instilled by her family.
• Su Qiao reminded Gu Xue how she had encouraged Xia Xiaolin to seduce Sun Zhihao and provoked Ding Peixin into plotting against Xia and her unborn child.
• Gu Xue dismissed the others as fools and blamed Xia Xiaolin’s greed for her own involvement.
• Gu Xue said she had only wanted Xia Xiaolin to keep her plastic surgery secret and help her stay with Liu Songyuan, then complained about the hostility ugly people faced.

Gu Xue vented about the cruel treatment she endured over her appearance, and Su Qiao challenged her for hiding her plastic surgery and accepting extortion. Gu Xue said she had broken up with Liu Songyuan, then described Ding Peixin’s unhappy marriage and asked how Su Qiao had persuaded and helped her.

• Gu Xue condemned Sun Zhihao for insulting her publicly when she confessed her feelings.
• Su Qiao told Gu Xue that everyone could seek happiness but criticized her for hiding her past and letting Xia Xiaolin threaten and extort her.
• Gu Xue said she had broken up with Liu Songyuan and no longer felt attached to him.
• Gu Xue asked how Su Qiao had persuaded Ding Peixin and helped her after she killed someone.
• Gu Xue mocked Ding Peixin for discovering her husband Sun Zhihao’s infidelity and hypocrisy only after years of marriage.

Gu Xue explained how she had manipulated Ding Peixin into confronting Sun Zhihao and Xia Xiaolin by revealing their relationship and betrayal. Su Qiao recognized that Gu Xue had targeted Ding Peixin’s deepest fears, and the chapter ended with Gu Xue describing how Ding resolved to make Sun and Xia suffer.

• Gu Xue said she had shown Ding Peixin photos and details about Sun Zhihao’s former girlfriends, causing Ding to break down.
• Gu Xue said Ding blamed her for the revelations, so she told Ding that Sun Zhihao and Xia Xiaolin had been together for over half a year and that Xia was pregnant.
• Su Qiao guessed that Sun Zhihao had sent Xia Xiaolin away with money to have an abortion, and Gu Xue confirmed it.
• Gu Xue said she had told Ding that Sun Zhihao had secretly taken contraceptives because he never intended to have a child with her.
• Gu Xue said Ding finally decided that if she could not have a good life, Sun Zhihao and Xia Xiaolin should not expect one either.
• Su Qiao recognized that Gu Xue had used Ding Peixin’s deepest concerns to push her toward action.

Gu Xue confessed that she had planned Ding Peixin’s scheme against Sun Zhihao for a promised five million, then killed Ding Peixin when her disobedience threatened to expose her. She explained that the Sun family’s valuables tempted her to change her plans and gamble on a better life for herself and her family.

• Gu Xue admitted that she devised Ding Peixin’s plans and arranged to disable surveillance cameras along the route she had chosen for disposing of the body.
• Su Qiao realized Ding Peixin knew where the body was because she had wanted to frame Sun Zhihao, not hide the corpse forever.
• Gu Xue said she killed Ding Peixin because her disobedience and exposure risked leading the police back to her.
• Gu Xue revealed that Ding Peixin had promised her five million, which she hoped to use to buy houses for herself and her family and gain Liu Songyuan’s parents’ approval.
• Gu Xue explained that Ding Peixin had told her the basement safe held more than twenty million in jewelry and gold, and that she decided to steal it after Ding Peixin strayed from the plan.

Gu Xue told Su Qiao how her family’s demands and her own choices had left her overwhelmed, and Su Qiao urged her to stop living by others’ expectations. Gu Xue regretted that they might have become friends if she had not made those choices.

• Gu Xue described how her parents pressured her to send money home and support her younger siblings, while she struggled with her own expenses and debts.
• Su Qiao told Gu Xue that supporting her parents was her responsibility but raising her siblings was not, and advised her to leave Ding Peixin with Sun Zhihao.
• Su Qiao said Gu Xue’s jealousy and greed had helped bring her to this point, and Gu Xue admitted she understood where she had gone wrong.
• Gu Xue said she had suspected this day might come but did not regret it, while Su Qiao urged her to break free from others’ expectations and live for herself.
• Gu Xue wondered whether she and Su Qiao might have become best friends if she had not done those things.

Su Qiao confronted Su Xiyan about her biased judgment and left the interrogation area with Du Muhan after speaking with Gu Xue and Tao Junhui. Du Muhan asked when they would register their marriage and take their honeymoon, while Su Qiao said they would decide tomorrow, leaving Su Xiyan stunned by their plans to marry.

• Su Qiao said goodbye to Gu Xue and reminded Tao Junhui that everyone had to bear the consequences of their actions.
• Su Qiao mocked Su Xiyan for calling Gu Xue innocent and pitiful, then criticized her for letting personal bias affect her work.
• Su Xiyan admitted Su Qiao was capable but said she would not back down when it came to her parents.
• Du Muhan embraced Su Qiao and traded affectionate remarks with her, then asked when they would register their marriage and take their honeymoon.
• Su Qiao told Du Muhan they would decide after seeing how things looked the next day, while Su Xiyan stared at them in disbelief.

After the case was solved, Su Qiao rejected Tao Junhui’s apology, while he and Su Xiyan agreed to part ways and accept responsibility for Wang Yan’s condition. The next day, Su Qiao learned that Gu Xue had killed herself in custody.

• The police recovered the stolen jewelry and gold from beneath Gu Xue’s bed, found her disguises, and located Xia Xiaolin’s final skull fragment in the chemical plant’s wastewater tank.
• Tao Junhui asked Su Qiao if she hated him, but she dismissed him and left without hearing his apology.
• Tao Junhui and Su Xiyan admitted their mistakes, agreed to go their separate ways, and decided to await the higher-ups’ instructions about Wang Yan’s case.
• The next day, Xiao Li told Su Qiao that Gu Xue had smashed her head against a wall and died.

On the day Su Qiao and Du Muhan planned to register their marriage, Su Qiao confronted him about a book, but their meeting was interrupted by an attack from Ding Wencheng. After Su Qiao and Du Muhan subdued him, she learned who he was and attacked him again.

• Su Qiao arranged a week of leave after the National Day holiday and hired builders to construct a school nearby.
• On the day she and Du Muhan planned to register their marriage, Su Qiao found a detective casebook and rushed out to confront him.
• As Du Muhan tried to answer her, he spotted an attacker and lunged to protect Su Qiao, injuring his wrist in the process.
• Su Qiao fought back and stomped the attacker until security guards restrained her.
• The attacker revealed himself as Ding Wencheng, Ding Peixin's father, and cursed Du Muhan and his mother.
• Su Qiao slapped Ding Wencheng, and Du Muhan held her back, warning that she could go to prison.

Su Qiao confronted Du Muhan about the book connected to Gu Xue’s attack on Ding Peixin, and he explained how Gu Xue found it. He admitted he hated Ding Peixin, but his account ended before he explained why.

• Su Qiao forced Du Muhan to go to the hospital after he injured his hand, and a doctor stitched the wound.
• Su Qiao called Little Li to collect Gu, then drove Du Muhan home after he refused to stay in the hospital.
• Du Muhan told Su Qiao that he had accidentally left the book on a park bench, where Gu Xue found it, and admitted he had hoped Gu Xue would teach Ding Peixin a lesson.
• Su Qiao questioned Du Muhan’s honesty and recalled seeing him stare at Ding Peixin’s photograph.
• Du Muhan said he hated Ding Peixin because she had watched silently while he and his mother were beaten, then began to explain further.

Du Muhan told Su Qiao how he had escaped Ding Wencheng’s abuse and helped his mother after she became a vegetable. Su Qiao forgave him for what he had done, but postponed their marriage license and put him on probation for a month while he recovered from his injured hand.

• Du Muhan explained that Ding Wencheng had abused his mother and that she had falsely testified her fall was an accident.
• Du Muhan said he had run away at ten, taught himself from discarded books, and later reported Ding Wencheng and moved his mother to another facility.
• Su Qiao let Du Muhan off for his past actions but warned him not to take revenge that way again.
• Su Qiao reminded Du Muhan to protect his injured hand and follow the doctor’s instructions.
• Du Muhan asked Su Qiao for reassurance, and she put him on probation for a month before agreeing to approve their marriage license.