Episode Summary
Qi Sizhe gets suspended after confronting Huang Zhengming. Police break Ding Youmei's alibi, revealing she killed both Liu Yuanyuan and her mother out of greed and jealousy. Li Yiqi is murdered in the hospital by a mysterious figure. The killer's trail leads to a new crime scene where a mute girl, Zhai Xixi, has been pushed to her death, sparking a conflict between her father and brother.
Spoiler Alert
Qi Sizhe Gets Benched
Qi Sizhe decides to play detective on his own terms. He sneaks into Huang Zhengming’s office and starts digging. He strikes gold with a research paper about pupillary light reflexes and the midbrain. He doesn't wait to analyze it. He confronts Huang Zhengming immediately with the paper in hand.
This backfires hard. Huang Zhengming loses it. He starts screaming about trespassing and threatens to sue. Before Qi Sizhe can even ask about the connection to Li Ming, Huang passes out cold. It’s a mess. Chief Bai Nian gets the complaint from Huang, and the neighbors back it up. He has no choice. He suspends Qi Sizhe right then and there.
The Good Girl Mask Cracks
Zhu Qingyue and Wan Guoxin drag Ding Youmei back into the interrogation room. The "innocent student" act is over. Her private life is chaotic, and she stops pretending otherwise. Wan Guoxin throws down photos of her with various guys. He points out a missing button from her coat. It matches the one Liu Yuanyuan’s mother tore off before she died.
Ding Youmei panics a little but tries to bluff. She claims tons of coats look like that. She points out her mother already confessed. Zhu Qingyue doesn't buy it. She steps out and grabs a random phone. She comes back and lies. She tells Ding Youmei that Liu Yuanyuan’s mother bought a doll with a hidden camera inside. She shows the phone to Ding Youmei as "proof."
That breaks her. Ding Youmei’s psychological defense crumbles. She screams about the money. She hated that Gao Huilan kept funding Liu Yuanyuan and her mother. She felt that money belonged to her after her dad died. She admits she went to find Liu’s mother. She watched the woman die and did nothing.
A Hammer and a Cover-Up
The confession gets darker. Liu Yuanyuan eventually found Ding Youmei with that button. Ding Youmei had the nerve to say she was "freeing" them from their miserable lives. She threatened Liu Yuanyuan to stop asking for money. Liu Yuanyuan snapped and grabbed a knife.
Ding Youmei turned the situation around. She ended up holding the knife to her own throat. Gao Huilan walked in on this nightmare. She pushed Ding Youmei aside and realized her daughter was a killer. Gao Huilan fell to her knees. She begged Liu Yuanyuan to keep quiet. She promised every cent she had to make it up to her.
This set Ding Youmei off. Hearing her mother promise money to the "outsider" made her snap. She grabbed a nearby hammer. She smashed Liu Yuanyuan’s head in. She pried the button from the dead girl's hand. Then she looked at her mother and manipulated her into the cover-up. She knew Gao Huilan would protect her no matter what.
Graveyard Shift
The team grabs dinner together. Zhu Qingyue fills Qi Sizhe in on some office politics. Han Feng actually went to Chief Bai to beg for leniency. He wanted to share the punishment with Qi Sizhe.
Later, Qi Sizhe visits Yu Fei’s grave. He notices someone left bags of nuts on the tombstone. Han Feng shows up shortly after. They talk about the suspension. Han Feng drops some intel. Huang Zhengming was already cleared during the "Raw Diamond" case investigation. Also, that watch Huang wears really was a gift from Li Ming.
Chaos at the Hospital
The hospital erupts into chaos at night. A fire alarm goes off. Everyone scrambles to evacuate. In the confusion, a figure in a white lab coat slips into Li Yiqi’s room. They inject him with something lethal. Doctors try to save him, but Li Yiqi dies.
The police track the suspect. The trail leads to an apartment complex. Coincidentally, a girl just fell to her death there. They find the suspect’s car at a nearby construction site, but it’s torched completely. The evidence is gone.
The Girl Who Fell
The victim from the fall is Zhai Xixi. She was mute. Her father, Zhai Shanjun, claims the house was empty when he got home. He says he followed neighbors downstairs and only then saw his daughter’s body.
The family dynamic is volatile. Zhai Xixi’s brother, Xiaoshan, comes home and loses it. He charges at his father. He screams that the dad killed his sister. The kid gets so worked up he triggers a heart attack and faints on the spot.
Qi Sizhe looks at the scene. He doesn't think this was suicide. He spots a bent clothes-drying rod on the balcony below. He also checks the body and sees bruising on Zhai Xixi’s ankle. Someone pushed her. This is a homicide.
