February 15, 2018 — Lunar New Year's Eve.Night had fallen over City H, but every window glowed with festive warmth. In the city's most affluent villa district, a three-story European-style mansion blazed with light. Red lanterns and paper cuttings adorned every corner, the air rich with the scent of celebration.
Su Jianguo and his wife, Li Fang, had prepared every detail of the reunion dinner themselves. The long table was filled with auspicious dishes. Their 17-year-old daughter, Su Wanqing, sat beside her mother, radiant with joy. One hand was secretly stacking orange peels into a tiny tower; the other, holding chopsticks, reached for her mother's favorite dish—braised sea bass.
"Dad, is the company giving out New Year bonuses this year?" she asked with a playful glint in her eyes.
"You little money-grubber," Su Jianguo chuckled, gently tapping her forehead. "Of course the employees are getting theirs. As for you—get your grades up, and your bonus doubles!"
Laughter filled the room. On the TV, a Spring Festival sketch played; outside, fireworks painted the sky in dazzling hues. In that moment, Su Wanqing thought happiness would last—just like this dinner, warm and everlasting.
But disaster struck the next second.
Bang!A deafening crash shattered the laughter. The front door was kicked open with force. Snow and the acrid scent of gunpowder swept in.
Three masked men stormed into the dining room, silenced pistols in hand. Their movements were swift and precise—their target clear. They raised their weapons at Su Jianguo.
"Dad!" Su Wanqing screamed. But her voice was instantly drowned by gunfire.
Bang. Bang. Bang.Three bullets pierced Su Jianguo's chest. He fell backward, the sound of shattering dishes mixing with Li Fang's heart-wrenching scream.
"Jianguo!" Li Fang lunged toward him, only to be struck down—one bullet through her shoulder, another between the eyes.
Blood sprayed across the red paper cuttings, staining the fish on the table.
Terrified, Su Wanqing instinctively crawled beneath the table, trembling, her hand clamped over her mouth. She watched helplessly as her mother collapsed beside her father, their fingertips touching—never to hold each other again.
One of the killers moved toward the table, sensing her presence. Her pupils shrank. She wanted to run—but her body wouldn't obey. A heavy blow struck the back of her head, and darkness swallowed her whole.
—
"On Lunar New Year's Eve, Su Jianguo, chairman of the Su Corporation, and his wife, Li Fang, were shot and killed in their home. Their only daughter, Su Wanqing, is in a coma. Police are investigating the case."
The news sent shockwaves through society.
The case was immediately designated a top-level investigation. A special task force was formed under the City Bureau. Among its members was a fresh graduate from the police academy—Lu Chenzhou, the mayor's son, who had earned top honors and volunteered to join the case.
But not everyone welcomed him.
"Who is he? The mayor's kid? He thinks he can handle a case like this?""This is just political theater. The Sus are business royalty—why let a rookie mess around?"
Lu Chenzhou said nothing in response. Instead, he buried himself in case files—autopsy reports, photos, every statement. He knew one thing: if he couldn't crack this case, his background would forever overshadow any merit.
He immediately retrieved all surveillance footage from the villa district. The perpetrators had entered and exited during camera blind spots, leaving behind only one blurry frame in a nearby alley. Worse still, the crime scene yielded no fingerprints or tools.
Six days in, Lu Chenzhou discovered a small metal object in the bushes beneath the kitchen window—a carabiner. Most assumed it belonged to a gardener or cleaner. But Lu insisted on sending it to the forensic lab.
Three days later, results came in: traces of engine oil and skin residue on the carabiner matched a known hitman—code-named "Old Ghost." He was linked to several shady jobs for the Zhou Corporation, though never convicted.
A lead had emerged.
Lu Chenzhou dug into past disputes between the Su and Zhou corporations. Just a month prior, Su Jianguo had pulled out of a joint real estate project with the Zhous, costing them over 100 million yuan. In a recent interview, Su had publicly vowed to sever all "high-risk partnerships"—isolating the Zhou family in the business world.
It was a motive—but not yet proof.
Lu made a bold choice: lay a trap. He assigned undercover agents to tail "Old Ghost" and fed false intel, baiting the Zhou Corporation into reaching out again.
Three months later, the task force raided an abandoned shipyard near the coast, capturing "Old Ghost" and his crew. In their hideout, they found weapons, disguises, encrypted communications, and—most damningly—a ledger detailing the Zhou Corporation's payment for the assassination.
With irrefutable evidence, the syndicate was dismantled. The Zhou leader was arrested, and the case made national headlines.
Meanwhile, Su Wanqing finally awoke from her coma—but she did not speak. Doctors diagnosed her with severe PTSD. She could not face gore, nor express her emotions.
Lu Chenzhou visited the hospital, but lingered at the door, unable to enter. He didn't yet know that this girl would become a forensic pathologist—or that his persistence had already planted the seed of redemption in her soul.
The snow had stopped. The chime of the new year faded into memory.But that blood-red New Year's Eve would forever mark the beginning—of their twisted, entangled fate.