Unable to Let Go

In Jianghe City, a mountain metropolis in southwest China, a brutal daylight murder shatters the routine of the local Criminal Investigation Unit. Meng Yue, an unemployed woman in her early thirties, is stabbed to death in a busy alley while clutching her stomach. Before succumbing to her injuries, she uses her own blood to write the name "Chen Xuelin" on the pavement. The crime scene is chaotic, with bystanders capturing the aftermath on their phones, but no one witnesses the actual stabbing. The murder weapon, an eighteen-centimeter fruit knife, is found nearby with no fingerprints, suggesting a calculated killer who wiped the handle clean yet left the bloody blade behind.

Li Zhong, the seasoned captain of the Criminal Investigation Unit, takes charge of the case. His initial investigation reveals that Meng Yue was an orphan who had recently returned to her hometown after years away. Her phone contained only three contacts: one was a woman named Mo Wenli, and the other was a journalist named Shi Hua. The name Chen Xuelin, however, leads to a dead end. Records show that a Chen Xuelin, a former associate professor at Jianghe University and a celebrated academic genius, died four years prior. Li Zhong suspects that the blood-written name is a clue pointing to the murderer, but the timeline presents an impossibility: a dead man cannot kill.

The investigation quickly pivots to Mo Wenli, who is arrested after surveillance footage places her in an argument with Meng Yue moments before the murder. Mo Wenli, a woman with a criminal record for intentional homicide, claims she did not kill Meng Yue. During interrogation, she drops a cryptic statement: "A living person can kill someone." She insists that she was framed for the death of Chen Xuelin four years ago and that the current victim was trying to expose the truth. Shi Hua, the journalist, is also summoned. He reveals that he and Mo Wenli were once close, and that all three—himself, Mo Wenli, and Meng Yue—were connected to Chen Xuelin during their university days. Shi Hua suggests that Li Shuxuan, Chen Xuelin’s widow, may hold the key to understanding the connections between the deceased and the living.

As Li Zhong digs deeper, he uncovers a web of secrets. Meng Yue was not merely an unemployed graduate; she was a former high school teacher who resigned under mysterious circumstances and had been secretly donating nearly a million yuan to charity. Her death has drawn significant media attention, partly due to Shi Hua’s articles, which have painted Meng Yue as a philanthropist and hinted at a conspiracy surrounding Chen Xuelin’s death. The public pressure mounts on the police to solve the case quickly. Li Zhong visits Meng Yue’s modest apartment, where he finds evidence of a close bond with her deceased twin sister, Meng Huan, who passed away earlier in the year. The cleanliness of the apartment and the preserved belongings of her sister suggest that Meng Yue was haunted by her past.

The narrative shifts between the present investigation and flashbacks to the university days of Shi Hua, Mo Wenli, and Meng Yue. These memories reveal a complex triangle of friendship and unrequited love, centered around the charismatic but enigmatic Chen Xuelin. Shi Hua harbored feelings for Meng Yue, but she was distant and reserved. Mo Wenli, on the other hand, had a volatile relationship with Chen Xuelin, which ended with her imprisonment for his murder. The text implies that Chen Xuelin’s death was not what it seemed, and that Meng Yue’s murder is a continuation of a tragedy that began four years ago.

Li Zhong realizes that the case is not just about a random murder but is tied to a cold case that was never properly resolved. The blood-written name is not an accusation against a ghost, but a message from a victim who knew she was dying and wanted to clear the name of the wrongfully convicted. The story direction points toward a re-examination of Chen Xuelin’s death and the potential involvement of Li Shuxuan. As the police close in, Shi Hua and Mo Wenli are forced to confront their pasts and decide whether to cooperate with the authorities or protect the secrets that have defined their lives. The tension builds as the line between the living and the dead blurs, and the true motive behind Meng Yue’s murder begins to surface.

The climax of the early chapters sees Li Zhong deciding to perform an autopsy on Meng Yue’s body to uncover any hidden clues, while simultaneously investigating Li Shuxuan. The narrative suggests that the solution lies in the intersection of the two cases: the murder of Chen Xuelin and the murder of Meng Yue. The characters are bound by a shared history of trauma and betrayal, and the truth about who killed Chen Xuelin—and why Meng Yue was silenced—remains the central mystery driving the plot forward.