Episode 1 recap: Bian Jie, who had been missing for three years, was found.
The story takes place in a county called Zhaoyang, where three teenagers went missing near the Flying Dragon game arcade. After receiving a report, the police began a full-scale search. Two of the missing teenagers were third-year middle school students, Bian Jie and Wang Shuai. The third was a social acquaintance named Du Yi.
The head of the criminal investigation team, Wang Shi Tu, was familiar with Bian Jie's stepfather, as Bian Jie was the same age as his own son and they were schoolmates. They had crossed paths when picking up their children from school.
Bian Jie's stepfather, Jin Man Fu, cooperated with the police investigation. According to Jin Man Fu, although Bian Jie was not his biological son, they had lived together for ten years, and Bian Jie was no different from his own son.
After investigating, the police found no evidence that Jin Man Fu's business competitors were maliciously involved. Wang Shi Tu received a new lead after visiting the game arcade - a human trafficker named Guo Gui Zhi had been to the arcade, and the owner said she had interacted with the three missing children. Therefore, Wang Shi Tu believed they should start with Guo Gui Zhi, but the police officer Qin Yong, who was sent to assist with the investigation, thought it was too early to draw conclusions and was more inclined to believe it was a homicide case.
Qin Yong and Wang Shi Tu had different views on the same case, and Wang Shi Tu did not want to waste time, so he proposed conducting separate investigations. Wang Shi Tu caught Guo Gui Zhi, but she claimed she was not involved with the three missing teenagers. Qin Yong spoke to Jin Man Fu and Bian Mei Zhen, the couple, to understand if anything unusual had happened the day before the child's disappearance, but Bian Mei Zhen was mentally unstable, muttering about a water ghost.
This was because when Bian Jie was 10 years old, he had nearly drowned and developed a high fever for several days, constantly mumbling that he had been caught by a water ghost. During the interrogation of Guo Gui Zhi, Wang Shi Tu lost control of his emotions. He knew Guo Gui Zhi had been trafficking children for 20 years, and he showed her a photo of his own child, asking if she had seen him. Guo Gui Zhi realized the child in the photo was similar to Wang Shi Tu and guessed it was his child, stating that she might have seen him.
However, Guo Gui Zhi was very arrogant and did not want to cooperate with the police. She claimed the children had died of illness during transportation. Wang Shi Tu almost physically attacked her, but was held back by his subordinate. Now, after several days of investigation, both Qin Yong and Wang Shi Tu had found no clues, and Wang Shi Tu knew the trail had gone cold.
The 417 Task Force has temporarily disbanded, and they will continue the investigation once there are new leads. Years later, Bian Jie saw a thief stealing an auntie's money on a bus. He discreetly took the money back from the thief, intending to return it to the auntie's bag, but was discovered by the passengers and mistaken for the thief, so he was taken to the police station. There was another person on the bus who recognized Bian Jie based on the mark on his arm.
Bian Jie is now unable to defend himself, and the police can only keep him in custody. The person who recognized Bian Jie on the bus was very anxious - he claimed to be Bian Jie's uncle, named Bian Yu Tang. Bian Yu Tang said that Bian Jie had gone missing three years ago, and the family had been extremely worried. However, Bian Jie did not seem to have any memory of this uncle, though Bian Yu Tang was able to accurately state that Bian Jie had gone missing on April 17, 1993.
It seems the old 417 case can be reopened now. Qin Yong has become the team leader, and Wang Shi Tu is still the deputy team leader, much to the chagrin of the police chief, who is Qin Yong's longtime brother. Qin Yong has brought Bian Jie's sister, who recognized her brother and broke down in tears, but Bian Jie seemed rather cold and detached, as the concept of family has become blurred to him after three years.
Further investigation revealed that Bian Jie was not the thief. Qin Yong and his sister took him home, and on the way, the sister bought him new shoes at a shoe store. However, a troublemaker appeared in front of Bian Jie, and he became terrified, but luckily Qin Yong and his sister were there to protect him.
On the way home, Qin Yong wanted to briefly discuss the disappearance of Bian Jie and his companions years ago. Bian Jie said that as long as he could remember, he had been by a river, and that he had been forced by a man named Qing Ye to steal money from a den of thieves. But when Qin Yong asked about the whereabouts of Wang Shuai and Du Yi, Bian Jie avoided the question, implying that he had been involved in a conflict with Wang Shuai that resulted in him accidentally stabbing him, and that he and Du Yi had fled.
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