Within this story is a potentially really great one if the drama had dared to push the boundaries of its storytelling a bit more. Set against the "evil" city of Heyang, where bad deeds go unpunished, our righteous male lead Pan Yue seeks to find his long-lost beloved Yang Caiwei and to right the wrongs of the past. Along the way, we meet a multitude of characters including the charismatic if headstrong Zhuo Lanjiang and Caiwei's plucky friend Bai Xiaosheng -- and solve some murder mysteries.

It turns out that with each case solved, we are closer to solving the ultimate mystery -- who is the mastermind behind the deaths of Caiwei's parents and the dark deeds in Heyang? That, unfortunately, is never fully fleshed out. Our villains' motivations are presented only in broad strokes, making the ultimate confrontation a bit of a letdown both thematically and dramatically.

Which is not to say the drama is terrible -- far from it. Some of the stories within the main tale are quite moving such as the case of the Gu family and that of the twins and the academy. They show quite effectively the potential darkness within people and the struggle to overcome it without resorting to too much exposition, which is unfortunately present in other cases and parts of the show. If the drama had explored this theme than just at the surface level - the complexities of humankind and our capacity to do both great good and evil - it would have made for a very compelling drama.

As it is, this drama is worth the watch for the interesting cases (which actually are nicely interwoven with the overarching plot and our characters' arcs), a well-paced romance story, and some great performances from both main and guest/supporting cast alike. Liu Xueyi as Pan Yue and Li Geyang as Zhuo Lanjiang were standouts to me.