The Wanted Detective Episode 3 Recap
> The Wanted Detective Recap
Three years after the Fengbo Lake tragedy, a new bride meets a horrifying end in a secluded hut during a stormy night, impaled by a silver needle in a manner eerily similar to Zhong Yunchi and others. Zhong Xueman, haunted by nightmares of her father, Zhong Yunchi, wakes up drenched in sweat. She visits his memorial tablet, vowing to find Xiao Beiming and make him pay for his crimes.
Soon after, she witnesses another bride brutally sewn to death in a forest, the horrifying method chillingly consistent with previous cases. The clues she finds all seem to point toward Xiao Beiming. Incensed, Zhong Xueman arrives at the Elite Constabulary Unit, demanding access to the burnt corpse case dossiers. She finds the Case File Room in disarray, with Fang Yin, Xiao Beiming’s junior apprentice and newly appointed by his uncle, casually stepping on documents while playing with crickets.
Zhong Xueman furiously criticizes the negligence and demands he restore the room to its previous order, emphasizing the importance of preserving every clue. The new chief, Fang Tianzheng, soon appears with General Huo Zongyao, the Commander of Yulin Officers. Fang Tianzheng underlines the case's gravity, instructing officers Zhu Yitie and Tong Shuang to keep all clues strictly confidential, even from within the unit, subtly referring to Zhong Xueman's presence.
He entrusts the case to the meticulous Zhu Yitie and advises the new recruit, Tong Shuang, to learn from him. Demonstrating her improved combat skills, Zhong Xueman swiftly overpowers Fang Yin and seizes a dossier. Meanwhile, Zhuge Kongyun, head of the Secret Investigation Unit, receives a report about Zhong Xueman’s interest in the burnt corpse cases, deducing it is a veiled attempt to track Xiao Beiming.
Later, Zhong Xueman visits a tea house where a storyteller captivates the audience with a dramatic tale of Yesha’s escape and the murder of Zhong Yunchi. Zhuge Kongyun approaches her, proposing a collaboration to find Xiao Beiming. He points out that the Elite Constabulary Unit has fallen out of favor with the Emperor since the Fengbo Lake incident, with major cases now handled by his Secret Investigation Unit. He notes Zhong Xueman’s fruitless three-year pursuit of copycat murderers.
He then challenges her, suggesting she harbors doubts about Xiao Beiming's guilt despite the ironclad evidence: the tightly surrounded Fengbo Lake, the victims being poisoned, and Xiao Beiming's unexplained escape and three-year disappearance. Zhong Xueman asserts her belief in evidence alone, stating her resolve to find Xiao Beiming and uncover the truth, vowing to kill him herself if he is truly guilty. In a forest, Zhong Xueman follows a clue, and Xiao Beiming suddenly appears.
He immediately denies killing her father, revealing he was the one who provided her with the clue to lead her to him. He claims he has spent the last three years relentlessly tracking the real Yesha to prove his innocence. Xiao Beiming attempts to show her evidence, pointing out that the needle marks on three recent bride victims are identical to those from the Fengbo Lake case, signifying the killer's reappearance.
Zhong Xueman retorts that his presence at the scene only implicates him further. Overcome with fury, she stabs him in the shoulder. She then drags him to a secluded tunnel, demanding the truth of what transpired on the boat. Xiao Beiming, injured, explains that he had passed out shortly after boarding and awoke to the horrifying scene, professing no knowledge of the intervening events and adamantly denying he is Yesha.
Zhong Xueman cuts him off, forbidding him from uttering that name. Zhong Xueman then seeks out Feng Qingzhuo, a renowned coroner, requesting a substance that would incapacitate someone by sealing their internal energy. Feng Qingzhuo, indebted to Zhong Xueman for saving his life, provides what he believes is a "Paralysis Pill." However, he later discovers he accidentally gave her the extremely potent and rare poison, "Blood-freezing Frost."
Unaware of the mix-up, Xiao Beiming willingly consumes the pill to prove his innocence. He challenges her, stating that if she truly believed him to be her father's murderer, her blade would have pierced his heart, not his shoulder. He pleads with her to maintain a shred of doubt and let him stay by her side to uncover the truth. Just then, a distraught Feng Qingzhuo rushes in, revealing the mix-up.
He administers acupuncture, but the frost toxin has already infiltrated Xiao Beiming's body. It is a slow-acting poison for which Feng Qingzhuo has no antidote, leaving Xiao Beiming's remaining time uncertain, though it has completely nullified his martial arts and internal energy. Upon realizing the poisoned man is the wanted Yesha, Feng Qingzhuo expresses relief that he is now harmless. As he recovers, Xiao Beiming elaborates on his theory.
He insists that upon regaining consciousness on the boat, he found his master and the others already dead, and that he himself was poisoned and shot before falling into the lake. When Zhong Xueman questions how someone could commit the murders while drugged, Xiao presents a bold theory: the existence of a "sixth person" on the boat, someone who may have been on board all along.
He admits his past arrogance in believing Yesha was a single person and now theorizes that "Yesha" is a large, malevolent organization, based on the varied death methods of past victims. He dubs the sewing murderer the "Tailor" and explains that the recent sewing murders in the capital are the Tailor's work. Capturing this person, he argues, will prove his own innocence.
He also reveals that the burning of the recent victims' bodies was a cover-up by the Elite Constabulary, led by Fang Tianzheng, to avoid further disgrace. Despite the revelations, Zhong Xueman still demands concrete evidence. Xiao Beiming then uses a map to show that the locations of the murdered brides form a pattern. Zhong Xueman recognizes it as a "Four Devils Formation," a legendary array from the kingdom's founding believed to trap souls.
With three corners of the formation marked by murders, they realize a fourth is imminent. Noting the three-day interval between cases, they deduce the final murder is set to occur in the western suburbs tonight. Zhong Xueman rushes to the location, but tragically, arrives too late, finding another new bride has been brutally murdered.
