Episode Summary
The police discover that Liao Yunsheng was actually the first victim, not the last, completely upending the timeline. Suspicion briefly falls on Xie Yaoqi, but the truth is stranger. Li Shuting is revealed to be an intersex man named Li Shujun who has been living as a woman. Motivated by a deep identification with spiders and rage over being mocked for his gender identity, Shuting is the true killer targeting those who humiliated him.
Spoiler Alert
The Timeline is a Lie
Liao Yunsheng is dead, and the investigation is a mess. Liao Dong is the last guy with a connection to everyone involved. His alibi holds up, but Han Feng drags him in anyway. We get a clearer picture of the group dynamic. Xie Yaoqi worked for Liao Dong and met Ye Yingying there. Xie Yaoqi brought Li Shuting into the fold later. They seemed like a happy trio.
Liao Yunsheng was the outlier. He only showed up during holidays and clearly had a crush on Xie Yaoqi. He ignored the other two girls. Liao Dong recalls one specific day that felt off. Yunsheng walked into the clinic and greeted the first two girls happily. But when he saw Li Shuting, he froze. The vibe got weird immediately. Shuting never came back to the clinic after that.
Then, Qi Sizhe drops a bomb on the timeline. Liao Yunsheng wasn't the latest victim. He was the first. He has been dead for over four weeks. The killer stashed his body in a classmate's empty house. The pattern only changed when the killer started targeting women like Li Shuting. Han Feng starts thinking differently. Maybe Xie Yaoqi isn't a victim. Maybe she killed Yunsheng and framed him. Gao Yuan backs this up. They found Xie Yaoqi’s DNA at Yunsheng’s death scene.
Chasing the Wrong Lead
If Xie Yaoqi is the killer, then Li Shuting is a liar. The cops check Shuting’s address. It’s fake. Qi Sizhe realizes they’ve been played from day one. Shuting fed them the clinic tip to steer the investigation.
Wan Guoxin digs into the school records. Shuting used a fake ID—Wang Qilong—to attend classes. Specifically, classes involving animal experiments. This explains the awkward encounter at the clinic. Yunsheng bumped into Shuting in the men's bathroom at school. Later, he saw the same person in a dress at the clinic. He knew something was up.
Zhu Qingyue tracks down the real Wang Qilong. He admits Shuting took classes for him. He clearly cares about Shuting. Han Feng tries to shake him up with crime scene photos. Wang Qilong flinches, but he keeps his mouth shut.
The Spider in the Room
We cut to a scene that clears up the motive. Li Shuting has Xie Yaoqi tied up. Shuting is unhinged, screaming that nobody actually likes Xie Yaoqi. We learn what triggered this hate. Back at the clinic, Ye Yingying saw a spider. She freaked out, stomped on it, and called it a hairy, ugly monster. Xie Yaoqi laughed and agreed that spiders shouldn't exist.
Shuting didn't see a bug. She saw herself. She identified with the monster.
Back at the station, the team tries to profile the killer. Qi Sizhe notes that killing Yunsheng mimics a female spider eating a male. But there is no reproduction involved. The mutilation of the female victims suggests a deep hatred for women. Han Feng remembers Shuting’s bag. It was full of hormone meds. He puts it together. Shuting isn't a biological woman.
The Secret Revealed
Wang Qilong finally cracks. Li Shuting is actually Li Shujun. He is intersex. They grew up as orphans together. At eight years old, Shujun decided to live as a girl named Shuting to start over. Wang Qilong just wanted his friend to be happy, so he helped cover it up.
The tragedy comes down to a loose lip. Yunsheng couldn't keep a secret. He told the girls about seeing Shuting in the men's room. Shuting overheard them. It destroyed him. He almost killed himself, but a spider crawled by. He felt a kinship with the creature. Now, he tells Xie Yaoqi that anyone who mocked him has to die.
