The Suspended Lake

On the day his mother left home, sixteen-year-old Xia Linnan pointed at the door and shouted, "Go." A year later, he opened her notebook and found a single line: "Traveling north and south, bound by the sentiments of mountains and waters." Shanshui County is defined by these very elements—mountains and a lake. Beneath the water’s surface lies a thousand-year-old ancient city, submerged forty years ago, while the lakeside hides an unsolved case that has remained cold for a decade. In the summer of 2002, a skeleton was unearthed in the same forest where Xia Linnan had once played. The estimated time of death coincided exactly with the moment his mother disappeared one year prior. As the vortex of this investigation sweeps up everyone involved, Xia Linnan realizes he will not be waiting for his mother’s return. Like the ancient city buried in the deep waters, the truth remains hidden, yet Xia Linnan does not stop diving deeper. This journey marks a unique coming-of-age, woven through dual timelines spanning ten years. Beneath the surface of crime, people both obscure and illuminate one another in their search for answers.