This spoils the entirety of 暗黑者1, please don’t read if you haven’t read the book. It’s only intended to help me go back into the story with volume 2. Also, I wrote it from memory and based on notes I took at the time, there are a lot of details I don’t remember and many things might be inaccurate.
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18 years ago, Luo Fei’s best friend Yuan Zhibang and his girlfriend Meng Yun both die in an explosion. A man who was also randomly present at the scene, Huang Shaoping, is severely injured and lives isolated.
In present day, a policeman is looking for the culprit of this old case. He is trying to trigger Huang Shaoping’s memory by showing him photographs of people using a website where a certain Eumenides invites users to give the name of criminals who escaped justice so that he can kill them. We also learn that Xue Dalin, from the Public Security Bureau, was killed by Eumenides, but I can’t remember when this was supposed to happen…
An investigative team is formed with Luo Fei, Zeng Rihua, a computer expert, psychologist Mu Jianyun, young policeman Yin Jian. They work under the supervision of captain Han Hao.
The policeman who was working on the old case is found dead by Luo Fei. Some pictures on his camera have been erased, but Zeng Rihua finds the name and address of the person whose pictures have been deleted. They find him attached to a fake bomb with a notice announcing the next victim.
The next victim is a woman accused of intentionally killing a man with her car. She received Eumenides death notice for a certain date. The police watches her closely that day, but she still gets killed. The team realises that Eumenides must have been in a hotel room near the site, they go there and find the preserved body parts of Eumenides victims with videos of their execution. One man is left alive, Peng Guangfu. He has killed one of Han Hao’s colleague in an old case and injured Han Hao. His complice was shot, but he himself got away. Eumenides has provided a way to find Guangfu.
Meanwhile, both Jianyun and Rihua have suspicions about Luo Fei. We finally learn that Luo Fei and Meng Yun are the creators of Eumenides at the police school, but it’s confirmed he his not the present Eumenides. For a while, they think that Meng Yun might be still alive and the instigators of the murders, but Luo Fei confirms her death (I remember this scene, it was so so weird).
The signal to find Peng Guangfu goes live, and Han Hao, Yin Jian, Xiong Yuan (captain of the SWAT team who joined the team), and Liu Song (who works under Xiong Yuan) go to the site. Xiong Yuan’s role is to make sure that Peng Guangfu is rescued and brought to the station. The group has to separate to deactivate a bomb, and both Xiong Yuan and Peng Guangfu are killed. The others get out alive but no one knows what really happened.
Huang Shaoping contacts Mu Jianyun and tells her to investigate a case of drug traffic from 18 years ago. She realises that Xue Dalin, the second victim of Eumenides, was in charge of the case at the time and got tremendous success thanks to his informant Deng Yulong. His secretary, Bai Feifei committed suicide (because of Guangfu, but I can’t remember why).
Jianyun wants to investigate and goes to Deng Yulong, now called Deng Hua, but she learns that he just received Eumenides’ death notice. The police knows it and wants to protect him, but Deng Hua relies on his own men, especially the reliable A Hua. When talking with Jianyun, Deng Hua is surprised that she knows about Bai Feifei, and comes to the conclusion that her source is either Huang Shaoping or Luo Fei. Talking with Luo Fei confirms that it’s not him, so he sends his men to Huang Shaoping’s place but they don’t find him.
In the meanwhile, Liu Song thinks that Yin Jian is the one who killed his superior, Xiong Yuan, because of traces of blood found in the car. Han Hao covers for Yin Jian by making the traces disappear, which only reinforces Liu Song’s suspicions.
Luo Fei understands that the man who came out of the explosion 18 years ago is not Huang Shaoping. He goes to his place but doesn’t find him. Luo Fei now knows that Huang Shaoping is in reality his friend, Yuan Zhibang. (I don’t remember how Luo Fei finds out, and I remember a trick with the bomb timing, but I completely forgot the details.)
Yuan Zhibang takes a restaurant owner hostage and says he has a bomb, He asks to talk to three persons:
First, he sees Jianyun and gives her a document she should open on her own. Then he sees A Hua and tells him that Bai Feifei was his friend. She recorded a conversation between Xue Dalin and Zheng Yulong proving that both men were doing illegal activities. Dalin got the recording back and killed Feifei (she didn’t commit suicide). Zhibang says that he has a copy of the recording and that he just gave it to Mu Jianyun. Doing this, he knows that Zheng Hua will try to kill Mu Jianyun (and will likely succeed), so in order to save Mu Jianyun, Luo Fei will certainly let Eumenides kill Zheng Hua first. Finally, he talks to Luo Fei. He tells him that after the murder of his friend Feifei, he decided to become Eumenides to kill Zheng Hua, which was his real ultimate goal, and do justice to Feifei. 18 years ago, he used Luo Fei and Meng Yun to disappear, but Meng Yun somehow saw through the plan (I don’t remember the details) and detonated the bomb sooner, leaving him injured.
We then learn that Han Hao is the one who killed his colleague at the time (again, I don’t remember the details, but maybe the two policemen were drunk when they chase Peng Guangfu and his friend, so Han Hao shot his colleague when he thought he was aiming at the two men he was chasing). Han Hao then executed Guangfu’ friend so that he doesn’t talk, did some shenanigans with the bullets and said that Guangfu was the one who shot his colleague. He has been considered a hero. His goal has always been to find Guangfu to kill him and prevent him to reveal the truth. Eumenides had found Guangfu before him and learnt the whole story. He gave a second chance to Han Hao: the chance to kill Guangfu before he is brought to the police station. That’s exactly what Han Hao did during the operation, but as Xiong Yuan was guarding Guangfu, Han Hao had to kill him too.
Yin Jian who was falsely accused, realises that the culprit must be Han Hao. Luo Fei arrives to the same conclusion when examining the shooting case and the bullets.
Eumenides tells Han Hao that he has filmed the whole scene of him killing both Xiong Yuan and Peng Guangfu. He blackmails him into helping him kill Deng Hua. Han Hao accepts with the intention of killing Eumenides instead.
Luo Fei decides to let Eumenides kill Deng Hua in order to protect Mu Jian. (I think, the copy of the recording never existing, but Luo Fei still thinks she’s in danger… maybe he thinks Deng Hua will try to kill her anyway just in case? I don’t remember). On the day of Deng Hua’s execution, Eumenides is in contact with his “complice” Han Hao. He reveals his position to Han Hao: he is disguised as one of Deng Hua’s men. Han Hao goes straight to him and kills him. We then realise that he just killed the real Deng Hua who was disguised as one of his men (while one of his men was posing as Deng Hua, probably with something to hide his face, I can’t remember). That was a trick he always used when he knew he was targeted. Han Hao is arrested.