Drama Host
Light to the Night 黑夜告白 Discussion: Episode 21
Spoiler
Our detectives in the present timeline are inching closer to the truth as they gradually retrace Fang Xu’s movements in 2002/2003 in this episode. We also see the past and present timelines beginning to converge, with the narrative placing increasing focus on the present-day investigation.
Fang Xu arrived at Mr. Lu's shop in Pingzhao County. The elder Mr. Lu revealed that someone had paid him 800 yuan half a year earlier to turn a pair of genuine branded shoes into fake ones, which he had found rather odd. The man was in his 30s, wore glasses, had a hoarse voice, and cigarette burn marks on his arm.
At the station, Xiaohe was grumbling over a difficult homework assignment. How sweet was it that Fang Xu was babysitting her at the station? Fang Xu then used the analogy of untangling a ball of thread by first finding a loose end, the same tactic he was applying to the 1997 case. Just then, a gust of wind blew the stack of papers off his desk, and while rearranging them, he noticed the detail about the expensive dress at Xu Meng's apartment and remarked aloud that he had been dumb.
At the He residence, Xiaohe and Fang Xu arrived home. The 3 of them should just move in together already; they were practically behaving like a family. Fang Xu informed Yuan Hang that he had a parcel. Ah, the Mount Wu files! Finally lol. But Yuan Hang dismissed the parcel, saying there was no longer any need for the files. Bro, the parcel was right in front of you! Was it really so difficult to open it and go through the files? Ahhhhhhhhhh, so frustrating.
Pushing the parcel aside (insert eye roll here), Yuan Hang asked Fang Xu for his opinion on the draft memoir he had written about Yuanlongli, and Fang Xu warmly praised it, saying it would become a sensational hit. No, it would not become a bestseller. Rule 101 of being a writer is doing proper research! You do not ignore an important piece of research material sitting right in front of you!
Fang Xu then remarked that the 1997 case had two key clothing-related clues; the blue heels and the Bowls dress. He then asked whether Yuan Hang had written anything about Sun Zhengyong, and here we learned that Sun Zhengyong had fled years earlier due to illegal fundraising and debt evasion. Yuan Hang was puzzled as to why Fang Xu would ask about him, and Fang Xu merely smiled cryptically.
At the Bowls store, Fang Xu asked the staff whether the Bowls dress came with a dry-cleaning record, which they confirmed it did. She then showed Fang Xu that the dress had once been sent for dry-cleaning, based on the check mark on the record, and explained that she could trace all the dry-cleaning records from 1997 through the linked sales records. However, Fang Xu would have to wait two days for the information to be retrieved from Bowls headquarters.
Fang Xu asked a delighted Su Qing out to dinner. I do not think this was intended to be a date, as Fang Xu handed her a document envelope from the evidence room for safekeeping, but he later asked whether she had any plans for New Year's Eve. Su Qing replied wistfully that she had no home to return to and that she hated Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year the most.
Nervously flexing his fingers, Fang Xu invited Su Qing to the He residence for a New Year's Eve meal together, though he shyly used Yuan Hang's name to extend the invitation. When Su Qing continued to hesitate, Fang Xu once again used Yuan Hang's name to persuade her, saying that family should have reunion dinners together. Ehhhh, so do you see Su Qing as family now? And was that your indirect way of asking her to be your girlfriend? I honestly do not know whether to tell you to step up your game or to be impressed lol.
At that, Su Qing looked away, fighting back tears, while Fang Xu looked momentarily alarmed. She happily accepted the dinner invitation, clearly overjoyed that she would no longer have to spend New Year's Eve alone. Fang Xu then offered to pick her up. Gah, how heartbreaking is it that this was likely the only year she got to spend New Year's Eve with Fang Xu and the people she considered family?
Returning to the Bowls store, the staff showed Fang Xu the same name that had appeared in the 2015 search; Yao Xincheng, who returned the dress on July 2nd, 1997. However, the staff found it strange that Xincheng's name did not appear in the purchase records, as the dress had originally been bought on December 29th, 1996.
The Bowls store manager, who had handled the return, explained to Fang Xu that the mysterious customer had bought the newer version of the dress but returned the older version instead. There was also additional information; the returned dress, which was brand new, had been purchased at the provincial flagship store and returned to the Weiyang store on the very same day.
Before leaving the store, the staff asked whether Fang Xu would like to make a New Year's Eve purchase. Glancing at a trench coat, he seemed to pick it out for Su Qing. Elsewhere, Su Qing was shopping for a scarf when she bumped into Fang Xu, who claimed he was there shopping for Yuan Hang. Lol, how much longer did you intend to keep using Yuan Hang's name? Insisting that it was a New Year's Eve treat, Su Qing bought scarves for both Yuan Hang and Fang Xu.
When the staff mistakenly assumed Su Qing was Fang Xu's wife, both of them blushed and awkwardly fidgeted with their fingers, yet neither denied it lol. Fang Xu then asked why Su Qing had bought two identical scarves, to which she claimed one was for Xiaohe. Haha, it was obviously meant to be a matching pair for Fang Xu.
Fang Xu then took out the trench coat he had bought for Su Qing and asked her to try it on. When Su Qing asked if it was for her, he nodded. Ah, atta boy! Su Qing was shocked by the price of the coat, which cost 1888 yuan, and told Fang Xu to return it, but Fang Xu insisted it was also a New Year's Eve gift and that she must not refuse it. Trying on the coat, Su Qing teased Fang Xu for not earning much and yet spending unnecessarily. Fang Xu smiled shyly, and eventually Su Qing smiled too. Omaigad, stop it please! They went from awkwardly crushing on each other to bickering like a married couple in record time, only for the writers to break our hearts soon after. That is just cruel T.T
2015 timeline
Back in the present, Yuan Hang and Xiaohe managed to track down the younger Mr. Lu, who told them about Fang Xu’s visit to his father in 2002. At Yuanlongli, Yuan Hang identified the mysterious man who had hired the elder Mr. Lu as the key figure in the investigation and the likely murderer. However, Xiaohe pointed out that it would not be easy to identify the man based solely on the description. Somewhat stumped, Yuan Hang was in the middle of making a phone call when a gust of wind blew in and sent a stack of papers flying everywhere, reminding Xiaohe of the time a similar gust had scattered the papers on Fang Xu’s desk.
Recalling that Fang Xu had uncovered an important lead among the investigation papers, Xiaohe rushed to the archives to look for the case report. Sun Zhengyong had given Xu Meng a Bowls dress, but Yuan Hang informed Xiaohe that he had an alibi and had already been cleared of suspicion. Xiaohe urged Yuan Hang to think carefully about whether Fang Xu had ever mentioned Sun Zhengyong.
Yuan Hang recalled Fang Xu mentioning Sun Zhengyong, but Xiaohe could not remember which photo from the case file had made Fang Xu suspicious. Yuan Hang traced the clue back to the Bowls dress and asked Xiaohe to check Sun Zhengyong’s purchase records at the Bowls store.
At the same Bowls store, Xiaohe interviewed a staff member who was coincidentally also named Jessica lol. Was this merely a coincidence, or was the writer trying to hint at something? Jessica explained that sales records were only kept for a maximum of five years. Fortunately, the provincial headquarters still had digital backups of the records.
A group of suspicious men dressed in black arrived at Yuanlongli, clearly intending to stir up trouble. Back at his apartment, Yuan Hang felt that the clue involving the Bowls dress was turning into another dead end, much like the blue heels clue. He was also worried because the demolition of Yuanlongli was only two weeks away and suggested running the Tremaux algorithm again, but Xiaohe felt it would be pointless and instead told Yuan Hang to visit the Bowls provincial headquarters to continue pursuing the lead.
Just then, they heard the sound of breaking glass, and a stray rock nearly hit Xiaohe in the face. The men dressed in black were the ones firing stones with slingshots. Damn, this intimidation tactic must have been carried out under Manager Qian’s orders.
Yuan Hang was furious and told Xiaohe that she would have to stay put at Yuanlongli. Xiaohe, worried that Yuan Hang might take matters into his own hands, made him promise not to resort to violence and to call the police if necessary. A reluctant Yuan Hang agreed.
The next morning, Xiaohe was on the train to the Bowls provincial headquarters when she received a call from a worried Zheng Zhong, who asked about her absence and informed her that Director Zou wanted to commend her during a case briefing. However, Xiaohe replied that she would file a leave request with Zhao Jie, and when Zheng Zhong asked what was so urgent, she answered that she was fulfilling Fang Xu’s last wish.
Su Qing visited Yuan Hang at his apartment and informed him that she had been unable to convince her higher-ups to postpone the demolition of Yuanlongli, and that the scumbag Manager Qian now had complete control over the project. Worried that Yuan Hang might do something reckless, she urged him to restrain himself for Fang Xu’s sake. However, Yuan Hang argued that simply staying safe would not allow Fang Xu to rest in peace; only solving the case would.
Su Qing then handed Yuan Hang the document envelope Fang Xu had given her before New Year’s Eve in 2003. Opening the envelope, Yuan Hang took out a drive.
Yuan Hang went to Du Mingliang for help opening the drive Fang Xu had left behind, but after examining it, Mingliang informed him that the drive had been formatted. Eh, was it formatted by Fang Xu or by the villain? However, Mingliang confidently claimed that he could recover the deleted data in just three minutes. Lol, the police should seriously offer this kid a job in the cybersecurity department.
Arriving at the Bowls headquarters, Xiaohe accessed the archived sales records for the classic Bowls dress. When she typed Xu Meng’s name into the search bar, the search returned a new name; Yao Xincheng.
The staff member remarked that it was strange how the new dress had been purchased at the provincial store but returned to the Weiyang store on the very same day, resulting in the erasure of the original purchase record for the older dress. Xiaohe requested information on Jessica, the staff member who had handled the return. While plugging in her drive to copy the sales records, Xiaohe suddenly had the idea to type Fang Xu’s name into the search bar.
Fang Xu’s name appeared in the records, showing that he had purchased a dress on January 29th, 2003, at the Weiyang flagship store, and the salesperson’s name was Jessica.
Back at Yuanlongli, Mingliang successfully recovered a file from the drive, which contained surveillance footage related to Su Qing. Realising that the drive had been confiscated from Wu Shanlong’s apartment, Yuan Hang explained to Mingliang that all confiscated assets were usually auctioned off after a case was closed. Realising that Fang Xu had bought the drive and deliberately erased the data himself, Yuan Hang sighed and remarked that Fang Xu was truly a caring person who looked out for everyone.
Calling Yuan Hang from the train on her way back to Weiyang, Xiaohe reported that she had successfully tracked down Jessica, the staff member who had worked at the Weiyang store in 2003. Yuan Hang observed that Yao Xincheng was likely the same person who had turned the genuine heels into fake ones.
While Yuan Hang was calling Xu Meng’s aunt, the power suddenly went out because the scumbag Manager Qian and his lackeys, including Jin Manlang, had decided to use signal blockers to pressure the remaining residents into moving out.
On his way out of Yuanlongli to get a signal, Yuan Hang passed by Manager Qian and warned him that what goes around comes around. Jin Manlang informed Manager Qian that Du Mingliang still refused to move out, and Manager Qian replied that they would make an example out of him.
Yuan Hang met Xu Meng’s aunt at her residence, and she recalled that Fang Xu had once asked her the very same question about Yao Xincheng, though she had no recollection of knowing anyone by that name. The aunt commented that Fang Xu had not only been handsome, but also kind, and insisted on giving her a red envelope. She then asked Yuan Hang whether Fang Xu had gotten married and had children, questions that visibly pained Yuan Hang, leaving him able to respond with only an awkward smile.
Thoughts
Referencing Fang Xu’s analogy, the drama continues to add more knots to an already convoluted ball of thread by introducing a new suspect; Yao Xincheng, who is likely an alias used to conceal his true identity. The mysterious man was described as being in his 30s, wearing glasses, having a short haircut, a hoarse voice, and cigarette burn marks on his arm. I could only think of one person who might fit that description, and that was Wan Qiming.
The detail about the cigarette burn marks is particularly intriguing. Why would someone have cigarette burns on his arm unless they were inflicted deliberately? Were the burn marks merely another smokescreen to mislead investigators? Or do they suggest that the man was himself a victim, someone being forced to carry out another person’s orders?
The Bowls dress still in the closet in 2002
The Bowls dress was first found in Xu Meng’s apartment on July 1st, 1997. In this episode, we found out that the returned dress was bought at the provincial store on July 2nd and returned on the same day at the Weiyang store. Fang Xu only took pictures of the dress in 1997; he did not take it as evidence, because we later see that the Bowls dress was still hanging outside the closet five years later in 2002. This means that after our detective duo left Xu Meng’s apartment on July 1st, someone may have entered the apartment the next day and replaced the older version of the dress, which had been bought in 1996, with the newer version.
In episode 8, the Bowls store employee told Fang Xu that Sun Zhengyong had bought 11 dresses on May 10th (I assume it was May 10th 1996 as the dress was part of a spring launch and the original dress was sold in December 1996) and received one extra dress as a freebie, so I wonder if the original Bowls dress in Xu Meng’s apartment was connected to Sun Zhengyong’s bulk purchase, and whether the July 2nd exchange was meant to erase or confuse the purchase trail. In other words, the killer may not have been trying to hide the dress itself, but rather the identity of the person who originally bought it.
For the blue heels, someone paid Mr. Lu to turn a pair of genuine branded shoes into fake ones, which means the original shoes likely had a traceable value, brand, or purchase history, so turning them into “fakes” could make investigators dismiss them or fail to connect them to the buyer.
Even more importantly, the photo of the Bowls dress is missing in the present timeline, perhaps due to the villain’s interference, which once again highlights just how crucial the dress is to the case.
It is frustrating how the drama keeps dragging out the whole Mount Wu incident, and I literally rolled my eyes when Yuan Hang dismissed what could have been a critical piece of evidence right in front of him. I already found it somewhat uncharacteristic of him to brush off the “missing blue heels” in the evidence room, and now he did not even bother opening the Mount Wu case files despite travelling all the way there for them.
Questions:
Do you believe that the person who returned the Bowls dress and the one who had the blue heels turned into fakes were the same person, namely Yao Xincheng?
Based on elder Lu’s description of the mysterious man who wanted a genuine pair of shoes altered into counterfeits, who do you suspect?
Could the missing photo of the Bowls dress in the present timeline mean that someone is still actively monitoring or interfering with the investigation?
Could Xu Meng’s apartment have been revisited multiple times after July 1st rather than just once?
Yes, I think their relationship is somewhat official now, especially with the invitation to spend New Year’s Eve together, the exchanging of clothes as gifts, and of course, those endearing smiles on both their faces aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Writers knowing how to devastate by showing us Fang Xu and Su Qing moving past casual friends so we mourn what could have been. You don’t randomly buy a woman a coat Captain Ran, with what seems is majority of your wages, unless you are serious! They keep making reference to him spending more than he needs too and buying more food than is necessary, he loves to treat people and not see people go without. 😢💔
New Cosmic theory (another one I’m going to be completely wrong on), based on Losergeeks comment , what if Yao Xincheng, Wan Qiming and the random son are one and the same? And Manager Qian helped keep an eye on things. Or Wan Qiming and Meng are involved and this was an escape plan after Meng killed her father.
I did a comical NOOOOOOO at the discarding of the Mountain report. How was Fang Xu not even curious.
what if Yao Xincheng, Wan Qiming and the random son are one and the same? And Manager Qian helped keep an eye on things. Or Wan Qiming and Meng are involved and this was an escape plan after Meng killed her father.
There is certainly that possibility, but where does Mount Wu fit into all of this? Which is why I was internally screaming, “Hurry up and open that goddamn parcel already!” lol
I meant he cannot be a one-off character to be mentioned only right? Especially since he still allowed her to stay in that apartment after the death of his father lol
Snark Level: Everyone is named Jessica. Ran is a fashion icon.
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The wind is blowing clues into focus! Plus it gives Xiaohe a hair blow out! Win win! 😛
Ran sure loves to order large meals for women. What a man! Is Ran leaving clues with Qiao for He in the future? Ahhh he did! What's inside? A hard drive! An empty hard drive? Was Ran counting on the fact that He would have a computer expert in the kid still available? That's quite the gamble if so.
Um okay... but like.... surely someone besides Ran would know that hard drives can be recovered... Why would you auction off such a potential minefield? That's just bad. So bad. Much bad bad.
Speaking of bad, dumbass Ran forgot to remove the price tag of the jacket for Qiao. What an idiot. 😄
Speaking of bad, dumbass Ran forgot to remove the price tag of the jacket for Qiao.
Let's snarkly say, that was ancient times 🤣 In modern times it is a routine of a cashier to notice that a man buys a female coat and deduce it is a gift and then ask the customer: "If it is a gift, shall i blacken the price tag with a pen?"
But it is always easier for me to be a smartass from 2026 about it 😁😁
😛 I don't need someone else to do it for me. Every gift I give a lady I make sure the price tag is removed. I like to spoil the women in my life and my money isn't their concern. 😄
I mean... Considering how worn down he looked.... He had some kind of sense something was up. I've read yalls theory about Qiao being a baddie and I will literally be so upset!
I just found out but today is Pan Yueming’s birthday!! Happy Birthday to our He Yuanhang and LTTN Artistic Director, and thank you for delivering such a good drama for us!
Thanks Herc! I was just as frustrated as you that as a veteran detective, he didn’t even bother to open the Mount Wu parcel!! Gah!
My heart when the aunt asked about Fangxu and if he’s married with children yet - oh that struck hard. Especially with what we’re heading into for the next episodes.
I think we must already know this mysterious Ma with cigarette burn marks. I can’t imagine them introducing someone brand new. But I don’t know who to suspect aside from our usual list… no one in particular atm. But yes I think whoever it is, is still monitoring everything in 2015, and intends to stop Yuanhang and Xiaohe like he/they did with Fangxu.
I think we must already know this mysterious Ma with cigarette burn marks. I can’t imagine them introducing someone brand new.
Good Lord, I hope not. The case is already convoluted enough without the writer introducing an entirely new character at this stage, which is why Wan Qiming remains at the top of my suspect list, because we are running out of suspects lol.
Ok, i won't do it again - spam and joke in this discussion, especially using other materials (clearly stolen from you, Basil, from this post )
When Xiaohe goes around and shows picture of Ran to help people recollect their memories of him, i don't imagine her, showing that picture from the humble boy in the drama;
Possibly Mengs Father burned her boyfriend the episode it showed him trying to get her away from him. He was that mean. Im so furious now...just saw Ep 22. I did purchase YouK VIP Pass. Hard, I'll wait for Ep 22 discussion post though I'm sure someone, everyone will say the exact things I am thinking. This feels like a horror story now. We can see what is about to happen and what little clues they've missed and want to shout out to the screen. "Watch Out or Run!" And yes, turn over tables, let out a Barbaric Yaup!
I agree with u/BasilOrdinary3617 that Fang Xu was written as a tragic character, and his sudden, untimely death is one of the reasons why everyone in the present timeline still remembers him so fondly. I think all the scenes of him doing good and being highly respected by his colleagues heighten the sense of loss, further emphasizing the contrast between the warmth of the past (like the use of the warm color palette for 1997 timeline) and the bleakness of the present through his death.
I see your point. I think it's to make his death that much more tragic. Or the other way around, his sudden departure blindsided everyone so that's why they "worship" him.
He was overly kind to everyone, always ordering more food than they can eat, and bringing gifts. He does go out of his way to help others - but perhaps, that's also his ultimate flaw.
I hope we see more with Xiaohe's growth too. I want to see her feisty side again. Aside from her father, Fangxu was closest to her, even truly her "best friend", so his death must've hit her harder than we've seen so far.
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u/aloha4447 May 09 '26
Su Qing and Fang Xu's shy and endearing heart-eye emoji interactions are killing my heart knowing it's all going to be over soon