Introduction
It has been a while since I watched any drama with either Zhang Ruoyun or Sandra Ma/Ma Sichun as the lead, so I was curious when I heard about this drama. When I read the synopsis, it seems intriguing. When I watched the drama, it was more than just intriguing. It’s heart-wrenching, but with a closure.
I planned to write a review for this drama, because of its number of episodes (18 only) and the mysterious nature of the story. However, there are some disturbing aspects that Light of Dawn is not just a pure mystery thriller. Therefore, I opted to write highlight articles instead. I made them as compact as possible, with spoiler tags to keep some secrets for you to reveal by watching the drama, if you prefer.
I found the picture I used as the featured image perfectly fits with the male protagonist Gao Feng’s quest to find the truth about his family. He’s holding a birthday cake with one candle, and all the characters, turning their backs on him, sit or stand looking at a portrait covered by Gao Feng. Figuratively, at certain points and degrees, these characters avoid Gao Feng to cover the truth he’s looking for.
Another drama poster, no less captivating, is the main poster, and represents the native title of this drama that you can see in the Drama Info below. It shows the DNA double helix as a staircase. Again, Gao Feng is shown holding a birthday cake with one candle. However, at this time, it seems the birthday cake is bloody.
Drama Info
Drama title: Light of Dawn (Native title: 人之初)
Alternative title: Ren Zhi Chu, Birth, The Beginning of Life
Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Drama
Aired: 27 Dec, 2025 - 7 Jan, 2026
Episodes: 18 | Duration: 45 min.
Director: Li Lu (李路)
Screenwriter: Chen Yu (陈宇) - also the novel writer
Adapted from the novel "Xue Yuan Xiang Dui Lun" (血缘相对论) by Chen Yu (陈宇). No English translation found.
Where to watch: WeTV and Viki
The Meaning of the Native Title
The native title, 人之初 (rén zhī chū), is a type of the Three Character Classic (三字经, San Zi Jing), the embodiment of Confucianism suitable for teaching young children for easy memorization. The triplet of characters is the first of four verses that state the core credo of Confucianism, that is, that human nature is inherently good, as developed by Mencius, a Chinese philosopher.
The full verses are:
人之初 (rén zhī chū) People at birth,
性本善 (xìng běn shàn) Are naturally good (kind-hearted).
性相近 (xìng xiāng jìn) Their natures are similar,
習相遠 (xí xiāng yuǎn) (But) their habits make them different (from each other).
OST
These official links below are two of several OST songs in this drama:
等光来 (Wait for the Light to Come) by Zhou Shen (周深)
执 (To Hold) by Shan Yichun (单依纯)
Trailers
I found the trailers are highly aesthetic and cinematic. The trailer below could be the concept trailer. Its lack of dialogue forces me and the audience to focus on the visuals, music, and sound effects, creating a suspenseful mood.
The next trailer has dialogue, and I could say the trailer focuses on the protagonist Gao Feng, and even has his monologues. It highlights the star power and acting performance of the leading actor Zhang Ruoyun.
Synopsis
Orphan Gao Feng has long hoped to find the truth about his family after learning that he was adopted, but his mission takes an unbelievable turn when a car crashes into a statue in the middle of a town square and unearths human remains that appear to be related to his family history. The incident connects him to Wu Fei Fei, a woman from a wealthy family that holds plenty of dark secrets, especially from her father Wu Guo Hao. As Gao Feng and Fei Fei strike up an uneasy alliance and investigate what happened, they delve into a complex web of concealed truths, complex family legacies, and a long-hidden crime that will change both of them forever. (Source: Viki)
Characters
Character Chart
Let me briefly explain the character chart, column by column:
Column 1: Gao Feng and Wu Fei Fei
Column 2: Gao Feng’s adoptive mother and father, the detective, and Fei Fei’s husband.
Column 3: A mysterious woman, Gao Feng’s ex-girlfriend, and the lion statue.
Column 4: A skull, and Fei Fei’s father
Column 5: The 1990s friends, and Feifei’s father-in-law.
The character’s explanations are shown below:
Main Characters
Zhang Ruo Yun (张若昀) as Gao Feng
An orphan who is determined to find his roots, he is stubborn and meticulous. He was adopted by Gao Dahua when he was a child. Because his adoptive father opposed his applying for the police academy to find his biological parents, the two were estranged for many years. After Gao Dahua’s mysterious death, Gao Feng did not believe the conclusion that he died of illness.
Ma Si Chun/Sandra Ma (马思纯) as Wu Fei Fei
The daughter of the chairman of Penglai Group, a smart and capable CPA. To help her father consolidate the group’s position, she accepted the marriage with Xu Zhiyang.
When she was investigating the truth, she found that her biological mother, Li Hongyue, was closely related to an old case.
Wang Jing Chun (王景春) as Wu Guo Hao
Chairman of Penglai Group, he is a man of great wisdom and deep scheming. To protect his daughter, Wu Feifei, and consolidate the group’s position, he did not hesitate to weave lies.
On the surface, he is a kind father who is eager to protect his daughter, but in fact, he is the key figure who connects all the old cases and new mysteries.
Supporting Characters
Qu Meng (Tiffany Tang) – singer (1990s)
Yang Wen Yuan (Eric Le Yang) – journalist (1990s)
Zhang Jing (Sa Rina) – Gao Feng’s adoptive mother
Xu Zhi Yang (Ren Bin) – Wu Fei Fei’s fiancé
Xu Peng (Feng Lei) – Xu Zhiyang’s father and co-founder of Penglai Group
He Xiao Hong (Wang Ju/Naomi Wang) – Qu Meng’s best friend (1990s)
Hong Yue (Xu Bai Hui) – Wu Fei Fei’s mother (1990s)
Long Yu (Cheng Xiao) – Gao Feng’s ex-girlfriend
Su Min (Lei Jia) – Criminal Division detective
My Rating
My rating for this drama was based on MyDramaList’s scoring system, which is from 0.0 to 10.0. For any drama/movie/show I completed, I gave a minimum rating of 6.0 to appreciate the hard work of the production team, and to adjust to MyDramaList’s overall score base. From 6.0, this drama has additional scores of:
My final rating is … [will rate after I finish the second part of the article series].
Highlight Episodes 1 to 8
Episode 1: Orphan
2018, Binchuan City.
A car crashed into a stone lion statue. Old bones were found inside.
Gao Dahua, Gao Feng’s adoptive father, passed away from Stage 4 liver cancer.
A mysterious woman inside a taxi told Gao Feng that his adoptive father didn’t die of illness.
Later, the mysterious woman left a birthday cake for Gao Feng, through the taxi driver, and asked him to go to the stone lion statue in Penglai Square.
Gao Feng stood in front of the lion state and read a note on top of the cake: “Guess who you are!”
The scene when Gao Feng laughed and cried at the same time amidst the rain upon reading the note is SO heartbreaking! Good acting, Zhang Ruoyun!
Episode 2: Princess
The prologue showed that Wu Feifei had just killed a woman, by pushing her down the stairs.
Who did Feifei kill?
Wan Dan, Xu Zhiyang’s mistress.
Why did Feifei kill the woman?
Feifei wanted to marry Xu Zhiyang, not because she loved him, but to consolidate her father’s position in Penglai Group. Xu Zhiyang was the son of late Xu Peng, one of the Penglai Group founders. Feifei met Wan Dan to give her money and told her to get out of the city. Wan Dan threatened her, and they fought. Feifei accidentally pushed Wan Dan down the stairs.
In this episode, the identity of the person who drove the car into the lion statue was also revealed.
Who was the driver?
It was Wan Dan. She didn’t die, and Feifei’s father cleared up Feifei’s mess by taking Wan Dan to a private hospital.
The princess
Episode 3: Charm
We were back to Gao Feng with the cake. He found the woman who shouted from inside a taxi and who also gave him the cake.
What was the connection between the woman and the case?
She worked at the cake shop. The day before Gao Dahua died, he went to the shop and waited for someone. That person never came. Gao Dahua made a phone call and talked to a woman. The woman witnessed him crying bitterly. After Gao Dahua died, the police came to the cake shop asking the woman about him. The police warned her not to tell Gao Feng. She thought his death was suspicious, and Gao Feng ought to know about his father. She ordered the cake with the note and gave it to Gao Feng through the taxi driver.
Gao Feng discovered more about his adoptive father, and that he had looked for her until the day he died.
Just as Gao Feng was about to give up looking for his biological mother, the police knocked on the door. What happened?
In the process of identifying the bones found inside the lion statue, they found DNA matches between the bones and Gao Feng’s DNA, as he registered as bone marrow donor.
Episode 4: The Wedding
Despite the mess Feifei made, her wedding with Xu Zhiyang proceeded. Of course, Daddy Wu cleared their messes.
The bliss of their wedding was tainted by the police investigating Wang Dan crashing into the statue.
Is it possibly caused by Wang Dan’s revenge?
Wang Dan was pregnant with Xu Zhiyang’s child. On the day Feifei pushed her down the stairs, she lost the child, and the doctors had to remove her uterus to save her life. Wang Dan might deliberately retaliate and crash into the statue.
Episode 5: Bestie
Two women were persons of interest:
One was an older woman, wheelchair-bound, whom Feifei saw at her wedding. She was photographed approaching Wan Dan while she was at the hospital. Her name was Aunt He.
The second one was none other than the woman who worked at the cake shop. Her name was Li Churan.
Feifei and Gao Feng were somehow connected:
They were both somehow ‘pulled’ into the lion statue to hear a song. When he was a child, Gao Feng’s mother always sang a song to him, which he kept remembering until now. Feifei, too, her mother, who died from post-partum depression, told her that she could go to the statue if she felt lonely. Feifei and Gao Feng met for the first time under the statue. Since then, they had been talking at the bar run by Long Yu. Feifei regarded Gao Feng as her ‘best friend’ although they never revealed their names.
Late Gao Dahua’s involvement at the case.
He apparently had worked at Penglai International Club as a cook, at the same time as Gao Feng’s biological mother.
Episode 6: Awake
This episode takes us back to the early 1990s, and we are introduced to all the characters in the 1990s.
Why did the word “Awake” or the better translation, “Wake up,” become a theme in this episode?
At first, Qu Meng woke up Yang Wen Yuan, who was asleep, in the middle of the railroad while the train was coming. She threw her necklace with a ball pendant and yelled, “Wake up!” Did he try to commit suicide?
After Yang Wen Yuan found out that Qu Meng worked in a so-called Penglai International Club, a social club which was actually a brothel, he put up a sign with “Awake” or “Wake up!” as a call to action.
Episode 7: Turning Smile
I assumed the “turning smile” meant a smile that turned someone’s life away. Qu Meng smiled at Yang Wen Yuan after she found him not dead, being hit by the train, as he woke up and moved away from the railroad.
Now, no matter how badly Yang Wen Yuan was beaten, threatened, bribed, etc by the owners of the Penglai International Club, he insisted on turning Qu Meng and other Penglai’s workers away from the dark life.
Upon knowing that Gao Feng was Qu Meng’s son and that Gao Feng was determined to find out what happened to his mother, the owners of the Penglai International Club tried to bribe him not to continue. However, Gao Feng refused.
This scene below was so cinematic. What was this about?
When Feifei and Gao Feng met again. Gao Feng stated that they were not from the same world, but they had been friends for two years. He always wanted to find out the truth about his family, while she wanted to avoid the truth about her family. Feifei wanted to go abroad with her husband, while her daddy would clear up things.
Episode 8: Follow A Dream
After the talk with Gao Feng, Feifei decided not to go abroad, much to the anger of Daddy Wu.
It seemed Gao Feng followed clues through dreams that came to him. The current dream was about a house. What was this house about?
The house was rented by Yang Wen Yuan and Qu Meng to store evidence in the form of sex tapes. Apparently, the owners of Penglai International Club videotaped the sex scenes between their girls and the customers, possibly for future blackmail. Qu Meng collected the tapes and hid them in the house. However, the Club found out about the missing tapes and followed the two. Yang Wen Yuan was killed later.
Who is the woman in a wheelchair?
The identity of Aunt He was revealed in this episode to the audience, but not to Gao Feng and Feifei. Through Aunt He’s memories of the 1990s, it was implied that she was Li Hongyue, Feifei’s biological mother. Now it made sense, she went to see Feifei’s wedding.
Gao Feng and Feifei seemed to be working together to reveal the past. Did they?
Feifei seemed to be affected by Gao Feng’s challenge during their meeting on the bridge to find out about her family’s past. However, they didn’t completely trust each other, yet, since they practically stood on opposite sides. On the scene below, Gao Feng stated that he found the house in his dream, which could provide clues. However, he tested Feifei, who followed him with her father’s men. It was just an abandoned house, though the scene was cinematic with dark and light shadows.
Conclusion
I watched the types of confrontation to cooperation in dramas, which were mostly because of misunderstandings between the two parties, or they had personalities as different as night and day. Not in this drama, though. The protagonists have pretty much conflicting interests and stand on opposite sides. Gao Feng discovered that the bones are linked to his long-sought biological identity. Simultaneously, Wu Feifei realized the bones may implicate her father in a crime from twenty years ago. Their initial confrontation arose as Gao Feng’s relentless search for the truth threatened to expose and destroy Wu Feifei’s family and corporate standing.
At this time, Gao Feng and Feifei were still full of resentment, confusion, and suspicion toward each other, despite they had been ‘besties’ for two years. No worries, things will come through in the second/final part.
