Miss Zuo Ying

Zuo Ying was once a celebrated criminal investigation expert at Huanyang University and a distinguished figure in the legal community. Yet her downfall came at the hands of her own daughter, Zuo Yang, who brought her to trial on criminal charges. Just as Zuo Ying stood on the verge of a death sentence, the court abruptly altered her punishment, ordering her confined to an insane asylum instead. Solving the case catapulted Zuo Yang up the ranks. But not long after, a string of murders erupted across the city, and when she proved unable to crack them, she had no choice but to turn to her mother for help. Standing before the woman who had once given her love and now stirred in her a complicated, indescribable tangle of emotions, Zuo Yang felt a thin sheen of sweat form on her cheeks. "My darling daughter, if a little pleading is all it takes to win my help, then why not?" Zuo Ying said, glancing at the newspaper in her hand and smiling as her eyes narrowed. The shackles on her wrists were impossible to miss—so which of them, in truth, was the caged bird?