chapter 1

Twenty years ago, a shocking tragedy occurred in my hometown that made headlines across the country.

A couple reported that their nine-year-old daughter had gone missing.

A month later, on North Barren Mountain.

Beneath two blooming Datura plants, all that remained of the girl was a skeleton-her flesh and internal organs were nowhere to be found.

The skeleton was so clean that even the most skilled butcher, using a boning knife, could not have stripped the meat so thoroughly.

Everyone present at the scene gasped in horror.

Due to exposure to the elements, animal attacks, and the limited forensic technology at the time, the police were never able to find the culprit, and the case ultimately became a cold case.

After seeing his daughter’s remains, the girl’s father became mentally unstable. While riding his bicycle, he went against traffic on a fast lane, was struck, thrown more than ten meters, and died instantly.

The girl’s mother was utterly devastated. After burying her husband, she came to the side entrance of the Public Security Bureau late at night, took pills and slit her wrists to commit suicide.

With the blood from her wrists, she wrote four large characters on the blue brick ground: “Daughter died in vain.”

She curled up on the last stroke of the word “death,” her eyes open in death.

Her husband was an orphan, and her own family had only a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old younger sister.

In the end, the police helped the younger sister handle the bodies.

According to custom, relatives must close the eyes of the deceased.

But no matter how hard the younger sister tried, her older sister’s eyes would not close.

Later, the younger sister leaned close to her sister’s ear and gently whispered, “Sister, she will not have died in vain.”

A single tear of blood slowly trickled from the corner of her sister’s eye, and her eyes gradually closed.

This case caused a huge sensation at the time.

Although I was still very young then, I thought to myself that if I ever became a police officer, I would make sure to bring justice to that girl.