Episode Summary
A new body found in a dumpster links a current murder to a fourteen-year-old cold case involving a dead artist. The victim is identified as Hu Jie, the friend of the original cold case victim. Forensics reveal the killer uses a fountain pen and is left-handed. The investigation leads to an art agent named Ruan Mingyu, who flees when Han Feng connects him to the original crime scene.
Spoiler Alert
The Staged Crash
Han Feng looks at the crime scene by the lake. Something is off. The taxi's gear shift was in neutral. The tire tracks tell a specific story. He figures the killer murdered the driver first. Then they pushed the car into the water. It was a setup.
Zhu Qingyue is back at the station. She is injured but refuses to rest. She claims she saw the suspect from the Li Yiqi case. She almost got run over trying to get a look at him. She gives a description to the sketch artist. The result is vague. The guy was wearing a mask.
A Body in the Trash
A sanitation worker finds a corpse in a dumpster. It is a gruesome sight. The victim is a young woman. Her face is destroyed. Her fingerprints are burned off. There are no cameras around. Qi Sizhe performs the autopsy. The cause of death is a severed right carotid artery. The wound is very specific.
Zhu Qingyue remembers an old file. The wound looks exactly like a cold case from fourteen years ago. Han Feng and Qi Sizhe go to meet the detective who handled that original investigation.
The Cold Case
The victim fourteen years ago was Fan Jiangxue. She was an artist. She loved painting in the mountains. The case went cold because of limited technology. Fan had a best friend named Hu Jie. They usually painted together. Hu Jie skipped the trip on the day of the murder. Her family sent her abroad immediately after the incident.
Su Huaining gets a hit on the database. He finds a girl with a tattoo matching the body in the dumpster. She just returned from overseas. Qi Sizhe looks at the photo. He recognizes her immediately. The new victim is Hu Jie.
The Missing Pen
The team visits the old crime scene. It is a run-down hut in the woods. The old report says a fountain pen killed Fan Jiangxue. The medical examiner found ink inside the wound. They never found the murder weapon. The scene was scrubbed clean. They only found a single hair without a root. Fan Jiangxue’s painting from that day was missing.
Police raid Hu Jie’s current home. Her parents are still out of the country. The apartment is full of art. Most are signed "H." One painting on the table has no signature. Hu Jie was in the middle of copying it. The forensics team finds blood everywhere. It is in her bedroom and the bathroom. Someone tried to wipe it up. This is where she died.
The Left-Handed Painter
The cold case file arrives at the station. The unsigned painting has prints from a third person. Experts analyze the brushstrokes. The artist was left-handed. It wasn't Fan Jiangxue or Hu Jie. Fan was an amateur. Hu Jie’s work looks like she was just copying this mystery artist.
Qi Sizhe compares the two murders. The weapon is the same type of pen. The target is the same artery. But the technique is different. The killer is faster and cleaner now. Su Huaining checks the DNA evidence. The hair from the old crime scene does not belong to Hu Jie.
The Chase
Zhu Qingyue tracks Hu Jie’s movements before she died. She went to a restaurant. CCTV shows her arguing with a man. The man is Ruan Mingyu. He is her art agent. He claims the fight was about a business deal. He denies knowing the first victim, Fan Jiangxue.
Han Feng visits Ruan Mingyu’s home. He spots a painting on the wall. It is identical to the unsigned one in Hu Jie’s apartment. The signature reads "Ruan." Han Feng asks him if he has ever been to Lijia Town. Ruan Mingyu panics. He bolts out the door. Han Feng chases him.
