Episode Summary
A hit-and-run killing a cheating wife leads Detective Xu Xiao to uncover a conspiracy involving a terminally ill driver, a wronged husband, and a mysterious connection to a decades-old cold case, while a quirky archivist's cryptic clues might hold the key to solving a gruesome dismemberment murder.
Spoiler Alert
Episode 1: Recap & Spoilers
The episode opens with a bang on a rainy night. We see a dude's feet approach a car. He gets in, scoping out the scene. A fancy car rolls up, and a woman – dressed to the nines – greets the driver with a flirty wave while chatting on her phone, totally unaware of her surroundings. The guy in the first car starts the engine and floors it, heading straight for her!
Cut to: flashing police lights. The area's taped off around the woman's body. Detective Xu Xiao shows up, greeting a traffic cop he knows from way back. He asks what's up with the investigation. Turns out, the car that hit her didn't have a dashcam. Xu Xiao finds a family photo near the scene. The victim's husband is there, putting on a real tear-jerker performance. Xu Xiao notices something fishy. The guy in the photo doesn't quite match the driver who confessed. The driver claims he was drunk, but he's answering questions a little too smoothly. Xu Xiao checks the victim's purse and finds three condoms. He realizes this ain't just a drunk driving accident. The husband's over-the-top (and tearless) grief seems totally fake. Then, Xu Xiao gets a call about another case – a seriously messed-up dismemberment murder!
The team quickly gets together, and the police establish a special task force with Xu Xiao in charge. Xu Xiao figures the actual murder scene is far from where the body was dumped because a young woman wouldn't live way out in the sticks like that. This makes the investigation a real pain.
The next day, Xu Xiao is late because he slept in after taking sleeping pills. The task force gets a new, bigger office. Lao Gao, Xu Xiao's buddy, calls with some crucial info: the driver has a terminal illness and was paid 500,000 by Doctor Hou, the victim's husband's doctor, to off Hou's wife. Apparently, she was cheating on him and wouldn't give him a divorce, so the doctor wanted payback.
Meanwhile, Xiao Xing is in the archives, digging through missing persons files. The archivist, Lin Guoqiang, is quick to lend a hand. He recognizes the photo Xiao Xing shows him and remembers a similar case from back in the day. He rushes to Xu Xiao. Xu Xiao respects Lin Guoqiang, a former hero, but is a little annoyed that Xiao Xing blabbed about the case. Lin Guoqiang insists he just guessed. Xu Xiao, sensing Lin Guoqiang might have a lead, asks him what he's thinking. However, Lin Guoqiang starts rambling about yin and yang and the five elements. Xu Xiao politely brushes it off as irrelevant. Lin Guoqiang is bummed, but Xiao Xing stops him from pushing it.
With no solid leads, Xu Xiao decides to revisit the crime scene. Lin Guoqiang, back in the archives, can't shake the feeling that he's onto something. Xu Xiao spends two days searching for the missing body parts, but comes up empty. He starts to wonder if there's something to Lin Guoqiang's talk about the five elements. Lin Guoqiang returns home feeling down, where his neighbor, Zhang Yanni, welcomes him warmly and offers to cook him dinner. Back at the station, Xu Xiao is called into the office by Chief Yang, who wants to know why there's no progress in the case. Xu Xiao asks for more people to help find the rest of the body, but Chief Yang says no way.
