Detective L Episode 2 Recap
> Detective L Recap
Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman followed Ma Boyuan deep into a cemetery, where they discovered him digging in his mother, Mrs. Ma's, empty grave. Luo Fei explained to Qin Xiaoman that Ma Boyuan wasn't acting out of madness, but was actually exhuming his mother's pre-arranged empty burial plot. He deduced that Mrs. Ma had secured this empty grave in advance, concerned her "unfilial son" might not properly bury her after her passing.
However, this grave now contained the body of Ma Boyuan's wife, Ruan Mengzhu. Luo Fei revealed that earlier in the day, he had deliberately misled Ma Boyuan, implying he knew the body's location and would reveal it the next morning. This was a tactic to force Ma Boyuan to come to the cemetery at night to move the corpse.
Luo Fei recounted that Ruan Mengzhu’s body was initially buried in their garden but had to be moved due to their dog's highly sensitive sense of smell, which led it to try digging up the remains. He concluded that Mrs. Ma must have suggested this "ingenious" hiding place in her empty grave.
This explained why Ma Boyuan and his mother visited the cemetery three days prior, not for traditional reasons like a tomb-sweeping day or an anniversary, but as a cover to move the body into the empty plot. Ma Boyuan, realizing he had been tricked, spotted Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman. Luo Fei instructed Qin Xiaoman to arrest him.
Ma Boyuan, however, pulled out a gun, insisting he "didn't kill anyone" and refusing to go to jail, not even for a day. He threatened to shoot if they came any closer. Luo Fei calmly warned him that while running over Ruan Mengzhu might have been an accident, killing them now would be premeditated murder. Qin Xiaoman, seizing an opportunity, lunged at Ma Boyuan. A struggle ensued, but he managed to escape, running to his car parked by the road.
Luo Fei, not carrying his customized Colt M1911, which he uses only for experiments, chided Qin Xiaoman for expecting him to stop the car with his "brain." He confidently stated that Ma Boyuan wouldn't make it out of the Shanghai French Concession. As Ma Boyuan drove frantically away, he experienced a vivid hallucination of Ruan Mengzhu standing in front of his car. Terrified, he swerved, crashing his car into an electric pole on Praia Road.
Despite his injuries, he abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot, repeatedly muttering, "I didn't kill anyone." Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman returned to the cemetery and, as predicted, found Ruan Mengzhu's body in Mrs. Ma’s empty grave. They then had to walk back home. Qin Xiaoman, exhausted, complained about Luo Fei's occasional miscalculations. Luo Fei, however, dismissed her concerns, stating that physical discomfort was minor compared to the satisfaction of solving a case.
He even jokingly told her that "a wrong route will always bring you to the right point," when they got lost. While Luo Fei was bathing, he reflected on Ma Boyuan's words and suddenly realized the case was more complex than it appeared. Later, Qin Xiaoman, having knocked without response, entered his room through the window, much to his irritation. She read aloud the police's preliminary forensic report.
The report stated that Ruan Mengzhu's body, highly decomposed and bloated, was found five days after her disappearance, making fingerprint extraction impossible. The cause of death was head trauma from being run over, consistent with a car accident. Her clothing and jewelry—a cheongsam with yellow flowers and crepe-sewing, golden heels, pearl earrings, a jade bracelet, pink ring, and red nail polish—matched the informant's description, confirming the identity as Ruan Mengzhu.
The police had found Ma Boyuan's crashed car on Praia Road, but he remained at large, despite extensive searches of hotels and other locations within the French Concession. Luo Fei, already anticipating Ma Boyuan’s hideout, asked Qin Xiaoman to leave so he could dress. While tidying up Luo Fei’s room, Qin Xiaoman discovered old case files, including one detailing the capture of a major crime syndicate leader known as "Captain" ten years ago.
She excitedly realized that Luo Fei was the legendary detective she had heard about at the Police Academy. Luo Fei downplayed his past, urging her to focus on Ma Boyuan. He then asked her to get dressed for an outing. Sensing her usual attire wouldn't suffice, he had the landlady, Su Su, help Qin Xiaoman into a more suitable gown.
As Qin Xiaoman emerged, elegantly dressed and calling him "brother," Luo Fei stared, lost in a flashback of his deceased younger sister. He remembered her excitedly showing off a new dress, only to be tragically killed by a bomb planted by Captain, a memory that remained a deep wound. Luo Fei explained that they were going to the Paramount ballroom, which he believed was Ma Boyuan's most likely hideout, being a familiar and open-all-hours place for a man in distress.
Qin Xiaoman, unfamiliar with such places and unable to dance, felt out of place. Luo Fei, a skilled dancer himself (taught by Su Su, his landlady, a former famous dancer), patiently guided her. He then instructed her on how to efficiently search a crowded space: "demarcation, classification, exclusion, and filtering." By ruling out dancers, performers, and those actively seeking attention, they narrowed their focus to the scattered customers and waiters, particularly searching for a drunkard.
Qin Xiaoman soon spotted Ma Boyuan in a private booth. As they approached, Ma Boyuan tried to flee, firing his gun into the air, causing panic among the patrons. Qin Xiaoman gave chase through the chaotic ballroom, eventually tackling and arresting him outside. Back at the police station, Detective Superintendent Savoy chastised Qin Xiaoman for the public disturbance caused by the shooting at Paramount, which had made newspaper headlines and angered the chief of the Municipality.
Detective Ye Changqing mocked Qin Xiaoman's choice of attire. Qin Xiaoman sharply retorted, criticizing Ye Changqing for initially dismissing Ruan Mengzhu's disappearance as a simple runaway case, and stating that his failure to address serious crimes in uniform made him the greater joke. Savoy, after further admonishing Qin Xiaoman, assigned her to assist Ye Changqing in Ma Boyuan's interrogation.
Luo Fei, unable to directly participate as he wasn't an official police employee, instructed Qin Xiaoman to record every detail for him. Savoy then told Qin Xiaoman she could pick up her service pistol, as she was now performing field duties. During the interrogation, Ma Boyuan continued to maintain his innocence, insisting he didn't kill anyone and claiming he saw Ruan Mengzhu's ghost the previous night, which caused him to crash his car. Qin Xiaoman found his "ghost" story outlandish.
She pressed him on the details of the car accident: if Ruan Mengzhu was clutching the right side of the car door, why did he continue to drive to the right? Just as he was about to answer, Ma Boyuan’s lawyer, Wu Qingfeng, arrived and secured his immediate bail.
Wu Qingfeng argued that the "murder" was merely a traffic accident, the "hiding of the body" was done by the gatekeeper, and the "assaulting of police" was self-defense because Qin Xiaoman initiated physical contact without showing her badge. Qin Xiaoman returned home infuriated, venting her frustration on a punching bag. Luo Fei, however, remained calm. He told her he believed Ma Boyuan might not be the actual murderer but a victim himself.
He pointed out two major inconsistencies from Ma Boyuan's account. First, the road was supposedly blocked by a gardener's trolley, forcing Ma Boyuan to drive on the right. Yet, Luo Fei knew the Ma family had long dismissed their servants, and their neglected garden showed no signs of a gardener's recent work.
Second, recreating the accident, Luo Fei demonstrated that if Ruan Mengzhu fell backward from the passenger door as Ma Boyuan described, her legs, not her head, should have been run over. Her head being "badly mutilated" while her legs were "good" was a significant anomaly. Qin Xiaoman then recalled Ma Boyuan's "nonsense" about seeing Ruan Mengzhu's ghost on Praia Road before the car crash. This detail immediately galvanized Luo Fei.
Luo Fei and Qin Xiaoman revisited the accident scene on Praia Road. Luo Fei discovered that the section of the streetlights where the accident occurred had its wires recently and deliberately cut, creating a dark zone. He explained this was done to impair drivers' vision as they transitioned from a brightly lit area. Coupled with the strategically placed gardener's trolley forcing traffic to the right, he deduced these were deliberate actions.
Luo Fei pointed out a dense bush nearby, suggesting it was used to hide a third person who was present during the car accident, not as a witness but as the true killer. He stated that Ruan Mengzhu's death was not an accident or suicide but a meticulously planned murder. To support his theory, Luo Fei revealed male footprints in the bush, size 40, with a distinctive pattern that didn't match Ma Boyuan, the gatekeeper, or Mrs. Ma's small feet.
These footprints confirmed the presence of an unknown assailant. Luo Fei declared his intention was to "catch a ghost." He then confronted Detective Superintendent Savoy, revealing that the male footprints in the bush, size 40 with a distinctive pattern, exactly matched the shoes Savoy was wearing. Luo Fei also recalled that on his first visit to the Ma residence, he noticed the living room wall was filled with family photos, but none of Ruan Mengzhu.
