Introduction
The drama’s primary tagline on the posters is, “To find the truth, you must face the darkness within.” This reflects the protagonist’s journey as a forensic doctor who must confront both grisly crime scenes and his personal trauma to solve his girlfriend’s death.
There are six cases in this drama. The last one is seen in a showdown with the final villain, which gives closure to the main case stated in the synopsis. Because of the mysterious nature of the cases, I wrote a highlight article on the drama, with an intention to reveal as little as possible. I let you enjoy finding out more about the details by watching the drama!
The highlights consist of:
- Introduction of the individual case in each section
- The killer and the motive in the individual case (in a spoiler tag)
- The progress of the main case in each case section
- The killer and the motive in the main case (in a spoiler tag)
- The closure of the main case
Drama Info
Drama title: The Truth Within (Native title: 剥茧)
Alternative title: Bo Jian, Peel Off the Cocoon
Genres: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Aired: 29 Dec, 2025 - 9 Jan, 2026
Episodes: 21 | Duration: 45 min.
Directors: Zhuang Xuan Wei (庄绚维) - chief director, Li Jin Rui (李晋瑞), and Chen Guan Zhong (陈冠仲)
Screenwriters: Zhuang Xuan Wei (庄绚维), Wei Tian Yi (魏天一), Wang Ting (王婷), Wang Yu Wei (王昱为), and Huang Huai Ying (黄怀英)
OST: Full album (YouTube fan account)
Where to watch: Youku
Trailer
Synopsis
Qi Si Zhe is Licheng Police’s youngest forensic medical examiner. He discovers that there may have been a hidden figure pulling the strings that led to a car crash that killed his girlfriend, Yu Fei, and decides to join He Cheng’s major crimes unit to continue his investigations.
While there, he gets involved in mysterious and strange cases – a body wrapped in cobwebs and a missing body that ends up in the formalin sink in his lab, among others. Together with detectives Zhu Qing Yue and Han Feng, he gets closer to the truth behind Yu Fei’s death, and everything seems to be pointing to the deadly drug called Raw Diamond. (Source: MyDramaList)
Characters
Main Characters
Luo Yun Xi (罗云熙) as Qi Si Zhe
Director of the Forensic Medicine Office of the He City Public Security Bureau, calm, wise, and meticulous. He is good at peeling off the cocoon from the slightest traces, and his professional ability is extremely strong. He treats every autopsy rigorously to restore the truth. After his girlfriend Yu Fei died in a mysterious car accident, he took the initiative to investigate the truth. He formed an iron triangle of investigation with Zhu Qingyue and Han Feng. The clues gradually pointed to the Raw Diamond illegal drug case that involved the death of his girlfriend.
Cya Liu (刘雅瑟) as Zhu Qing Yue
As the deputy captain of the criminal investigation team, she is frank, straightforward, decisive, and efficient. Her observation is as keen as a scanner, which can quickly lock in the clues and flaws. When she first met Qi Sizhe, she experienced constant conflicts due to differing case handling concepts, but gradually established trust and formed a tacit understanding. She is not only the backbone of criminal investigation, but also the cohesive bond in the team.
Jiang Qi Lin (江超) as Han Feng
The captain of the criminal police brigade is calm and experienced. He used to be a narcotics police officer, carrying the past secret of his comrades’ sacrifice. As the stabilizing force of the iron triangle of detective, he is good at coordinating the overall situation and controlling the rhythm. Although he had old grudges with Qi Sizhe and was dissatisfied with his cross-border investigation, he always recognized his professional ability. He initially doubted Qi Sizhe’s motives, but later became his strong ally.
Supporting Characters
Gao Yuan (Fei Qi Ming) – forensic examiner, Qi Sizhe’s assistant
Chen Chu Chuan (Liu Huan) – psychiatrist
Wan Guo Xin (Liu Tuan Zuo) – senior police detective
Su Huai Ning (Li Jia Hao) – rookie police detective
Li Xiao Xi (Wang Qian Guo) – rookie police 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:
+1.0 for the compelling cases. While the main case was a straight drug-dealing case, the subcases serves as a microcosm for societal ills, tackling issues like flawed education systems, criminal networks disguised as support services, and the dark side of human nature.
+1.0 for the acting of the leading actor Luo Yunxi, portraying the protagonist Qi Sizhe as powerful and unshaken despite his personal trauma. Also, compelling character arcs and solid performances from the entire cast.
+1.0 for the visuals. The cinematography is gritty, with a moody and high-contrast visual style. Filmed on location in Yunnan, the production focuses on a realistic, “down-to-earth” look that contrasts with the bizarre nature of cases (ex. silk-wrapped victims and preserved bodies). Kudo to the two Taiwanese directors who are experiences in directing dark mystery/thriller dramas.
My final rating is 9.0/10. A few inconsistencies in the last two episodes, with a drop in quality of directing/storytelling. I read that the show originally was planned for 24 episodes, but got censored down to 21 episodes.
Case Recap
Prologue: Qi Sizhe’s Nightmare
The drama started with Qi Sizhe’s nightmare. In the dream, he was driving at high speed, chased by a car. Sitting next to him, a woman was having difficulty breathing and was sweating profusely. Presumably, she was Yu Fei, Sizhe’s girlfriend. Suddenly, a White Truck of Doom (China has it, too!), hit Sizhe’s car from the side, causing the car to roll several times and land upside down. A man got out of the truck, lit his lighter, and threw it onto the leaking gasoline. The car exploded.
No, that was not a dream. Two years after the automobile accident, Sizhe returned to the police station to work as a forensic doctor. It only took him one year to achieve the rehabilitation effect that others could achieve in three to five years. When asked if there were any other reasons for his return this time, Sizhe did not tell the truth. Everyone wondered if he was transferred here specifically because of the previous incident.
Case 1: Lolita Murder Case (Episodes 1 to 3)
A man, Li Yiqi, fell off a building and was in a coma. He had been in contact with a drug dealer, Jiang Fei, at a nightclub. A few days later, Jiang Fei was found dead in the bathtub. Qiu Lanzi, a forensic intern, also died in the forensic room.
Sizhe became a suspect for both deaths because he had appeared at the crime scenes many times, according to the surveillance footage, and the last person Qiu Lanzi saw was also Sizhe. Qi Sizhe had followed Li Yiqi and Jiang Fei because he suspected they were somehow connected to Yu Fei’s death. Qiu Lanzi must have found something on Jiang Fei’s body before she died. Qiu Lanzi died of acute potassium cyanide poisoning.
After Sizhe had been cleared of suspicion, the investigation shifted to Zhang Lu, a woman who loved to cosplay in Lolita fashion. Jiang Fei had given her money and clothes. Zhang Lu also happened to be Qiu Lanzi’s high school classmate, and they had been seen quarrelling. Moreover, she was also an intern researcher at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry. The police arrested Zhang Lu, but Sizhe said she was not the murderer.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Sizhe suspected that someone had tampered with Jiang Fei’s autopsy report. This person knew about the pharmacological anatomy and the internal case handling process of the Public Security Bureau, and even had the opportunity to access the case data. Only an insider met these characteristics.
The killer was Dr. Zhao, another forensic examiner. The motif was revenge. Jiang Fei used to sell the illicit drug Raw Diamond. Dr. Zhao’s teenage daughter tried to commit suicide in the bathtub after taking the drug. Although she was rescued, she became a vegetative person. After hearing the name Jiang Fei in the police station, Dr. Zhao pretended to be Zhang Lu to approach Jiang Fei, gave him the lethal medicine, and then used her expertise to frame Zhang Lu.
Case 2: Deadly Cone Spider Web (Episodes 3 to 7)
One night, a girl covered in wounds knocked on the door of a butcher shop. She said a man in black had been following her. After rescuing her, the owner, Huang Hao, called the police. When the police arrived, they found Huang Hao dead, and the girl vanished.
While Han Feng chased the man in black relentlessly in the forest behind the mountain, Sizhe found bloodstains outside and followed the trail. The man in black was injured and said he had seen the murderer. Sizhe found many cocoons hanging up like dolls in the cave. After the dolls were taken down and Sizhe cut open the cocoons, inside were things that looked like animal carcasses. Going further inside the cave, the police discovered a huge spider web that resembled an altar, with more dolls hanging from it, including some that appeared to be corpses.
This case had a lot more details; I wouldn’t spoil more.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Li Shuting. She/he killed classmates Liao Yunsheng, Ye Yingying and was about to kill Xie Yaoqi, if the police hadn’t rescued her. The motive was hatred/revenge. Li Shuting was an intersex (someone with variations in sex characteristics). Li Shuting once heard Liao Yunsheng tell Xie Yaoqi and Ye Yingying about seeing Li Shuting in the men’s toilet, which made his emotions completely collapse. Just as he was about to cut his wrists and commit suicide, he saw a spider crawling over, and he felt that he had been saved by the spider. Li Shuting said that those who mocked him should die.
Sizhe saw that the killer had the same hallucination as his girlfriend did, caused by the phototropic reaction of the illegal drug Raw Diamond. He then asked Han Feng, who chased Li Yiqi, the man who fell off the building in the first case. Han Feng felt that the hallucinations of this second case’s killer and Li Yiqi were indeed similar, but even if the same new drug could be found in the two, it could not be compared with the Raw Diamond case of that year. Sizhe made it clear that even if there was only a glimmer of hope, he would not give up investigating the truth of Yu Fei’s death. He suspected that someone was researching new drugs based on the Raw Diamond, or was conducting secret experiments on a specific group of people.
Case #3: Human Jigsaw Puzzle Mystery (Episodes 7 to 11)
The bureau received a report of the disappearance of a girl named Li Yuanyuan. She had been taking care of her seriously ill mother until her death. Li Yuanyuan had insisted that her mother was murdered, and later Li Yuanyuan also disappeared mysteriously. The reason why the local police station transferred the case was that Liu Yuanyuan had bought a knife before she disappeared.
At the same time, human bones were found near the railroad, and the police team was dispatched. The railroad police said that they found a figure during the patrol, which seemed to be a woman. The test results of the unknown powder on the bones showed that it was phenolic resin, which was resistant to high temperature and was often used to stick emery to the grinding wheel.
Zhu Qingyue and Han Feng suggested that the two cases should be followed up together, because the police found that Liu Yuanyuan had bought oxalic acid and hydrochloric acid, and the forensic examiners had smelled a pungent smell on the bones.
New bones were found. Witnesses said they saw the person throwing the bones, but it was too dark to see the person’s face. The clothing fragments at the scene were very similar to Liu Yuanyuan’s. Then, bags of human bones were found in many places. Sizhe and Gao Yuan pieced the bones together bit by bit and found that they did not look like the bones of one person but like those of multiple victims. The bones collected so far came from at least ten people! However, no DNA could be extracted from the bones. The DNA left on the clothing fibers found at the scene was mostly from Liu Yuanyuan.
Although Liu Yuanyuan bought strong solvents and knives, Sizhe analyzed that the murderer’s method of handling the body was very high based on the bones. That high school graduate would not have any relevant knowledge. Liu Yuanyuan couldn’t decompose ten people in four or five days. Zhu Qingyue and Han Feng also felt that Liu Yuanyuan was not the murderer at all.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Ding Youmei, who was Liu Yuanyuan lookalike. The motive was hatred/self-defense, but it was quite complicated. The mother, Gao Huilan, accidentally found that Ding Youmei and Liu Yuanyuan are doppelgangers. Ding Youmei’s academic performance was very poor, and her father was very angry. Gao Huilan proposed that smart Liu Yuanyuan take the university entrance exam for Ding Youmei. For a repayment, Gao Huilan did surgery on Liu Yuanyuan’s mother.
When Liu Yuanyuan’s mother’s illness had relapsed, Ding Youmei went to meet Liu Yuanyuan’s mother and took away her medicine. Ding Youmei was angry because her mother kept giving Liu Yuanyuan money. Liu Yuanyuan’s mother died, and Liu Yuanyuan found Ding Youmei’s coat button in her hand. She met Gao Huilan and Ding Youmei, and wanted to stab Ding Youmei. Gao Huilan begged Liu Yuanyuan for her mercy, but Ding Youmei killed Liu Yuanyuan with a hammer.
To follow up Sizhe’s investigation into his girlfriend’s death, he and his senior, the psychiatrist Chen Chuchuan, discussed their late friend, Li Ming, who had prepared the Raw Diamond drug formula. Sizhe wondered if there was a leak. Gao Yuan gave Sizhe the comparison results of the drug ingredients in Li Yiqi and the second case killer, and the drug ingredients in the two people did not match.
One of the suspects in this case was a university professor named Huang Zhengming. In the interrogation room, he looked at the light above his head, his hands still trembling uncontrollably. Sizhe looked at Huang Zhengming’s watch and remembered that he had seen Li Ming wearing it before. When Sizhe asked Huang Zhengming about the watch, the professor was very irritable and did not answer Sizhe’s question. Later, Sizhe secretly went to his office and found a research paper on the pupillary light reflection area and the pretectal area of the midbrain. For his action, Sizhe was suspended by his boss.
Case #4: Death Insurance Policy (Episodes 11 to 13)
A girl fell from a building. Her name was Zhai Xixi, and she was mute. Her father, Zhai Shanjun, said that there was no one at home when he returned. As soon as Zhai Xixi’s younger brother Xiaoshan returned home, he rushed to Zhai Shanjun and yelled that he had killed his sister, then he fainted from a heart attack.
From the situation at the scene, Zhai Xixi should not have jumped off the building to commit suicide. When checking the house downstairs, Sizhe found that the clothes pole on the balcony was bent, and Zhai Xixi’s left ankle was bruised. Sizhe suspected that Zhai Xixi had been murdered.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Liu Qing, who was a volunteer in the hospital, ran a QQ group chat record with all members who had thoughts of suicide. Liu Qing was pathologically altruistic; she genuinely believed Zhai Xixi and other victims loved their families enough to sacrifice themselves and use their own lives to relieve their families’ pain. Zhai Xixi took out an accidental insurance policy for three million yuan, and the beneficiary was Zhai Xiaoshan. Zhai Xiaoshan thought that he killed his sister, because he introduced her to this group chat he had joined.
One victim of this group had a medicine bottle with the same imprint like the medicine bottle found in the second case killer’s house. This victim said that everyone in their group had such medicine, and she had taken it before jumping off the building.
Case #5: The Missing Oil Painting (Episodes 14 to 17)
A sanitation worker found a body in a trash can. There were no cameras near the scene. The deceased was a young woman. In addition to her face being destroyed, the fingerprints on her hands were also destroyed. Sizhe performed an autopsy. The cause of death was a massive hemorrhage of the right carotid artery. The wound was very special. There were no missing persons that matched the description. Zhu Qingyue recalled an unsolved case from 14 years ago. The wounds in the two cases were very similar. Sizhe needed more information to determine whether the methods of the murderers in the two cases were consistent. So Han Feng took Sizhe to visit the police who handled the case that year.
The victim of the cold case was named Fan Jiangxue, who liked to paint and often went to the back mountain to sketch. Because there had never been such a heinous murder in the small town, and the investigation conditions were limited more than ten years ago, the case has remained unsolved. Fan Jiangxue’s friend Hu Jie often went to the back mountain to sketch with Fan Jiangxue, but Hu Jie did not go on the day of the incident. After the incident, Hu Jie was arranged by her family to study abroad. The body in the trash can was Hu Jie’s.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Hu Jie for killing Fan Jiangxue with the motive of jealousy. Chen Chuchuan, the psychiatrist, for killing Hu Jie, with the motive of anger/revenge. Fourteen years ago, Chen Chuchuan met Fan Jiangxue in an art exhibition and fell for her. However, her friend Hu Jie liked the psychiatrist. One day, Chen Chuchuan went to see Fan Jiangxue painting on the mountain. Out of jealousy, Hu Jie intentionally brought flowers for Fan Jiangxue, knowing well she was allergic to flowers. When Fan Jiangxue showed a severe allergic symptom, Chen Chuchuan tried to rescue her with the emergency pen, but it was crooked, and Fan Jiangxue died.
Fourteen years later, after Hu Jie came back from overseas, she met Chen Chuchuan. Hu Jie said that she deliberately put flowers to stimulate Fan Jiangxue’s allergies. Out of anger, Chen Chuchuan picked up a pen and stabbed Hu Jie to death.
Case #6: Original Sin (Episodes 17 to 21)
Wan Guoxin, the senior detective, died in the police car, while Cui Hao, whom he found in the hospital to be a suspect in the case, died not far from the car. Cui Hao was the suspect in the killing of Li Yiqi, who was in a coma at the hospital. Cui Hao was responsible for drug supervision and inventory counting at the hospital. Wan Guoxin suspected Cui Hao because of ether and digoxin. Digoxin was the drug that caused Li Yiqi’s death, and Wang Chen, a victim in the fourth case, had a large amount of ether in his body.
After the initial autopsy, it was determined that, according to the scene, Cui Hao should have stabbed Wan Guoxin, and Wan Guoxin shot and killed Cui Hao before he died. However, Sizhe denied Han Feng’s inference based on the condition of the body and the distance between Cui Hao and the police car.
Who was the killer and what was the motive?
Wang Bo, a criminal who was imprisoned four years ago for intentionally wounding others, disappeared after being released from prison. Cui Hao, who was in the police car when Wang Bo approached them, helped him kill Wan Guoxin by stabbing him with a scalpel. Cui Hao was later silenced. Both motives were definitely to cover up the illegal drug operation.
The above incident, the killing of senior detective Wan Guoxin, was only the tip of the iceberg of what was to come in the last episodes of this drama. I wouldn’t spoil those episodes for you, since they were the climax of Sizhe’s personal quest for the truth of the death of his girlfriend, as well as the police’s mission to take down the drug-dealing operation. However, I’m pretty sure you’re wondering what happened to Sizhe’s girlfriend.
The Death of Yu Fei
What happened that night, as seen in Sizhe’s nightmare?
Li Ming, Sizhe’s junior, found the molecular formula of the new drug. He also had the idea of mass-producing the new drug, because he wanted to use the money to earn funds for the research of depression drugs. Later, Chen Chuchuan advised him not to, but there was no turning back. Li Ming’s university professor, who was also Chen Chuchuan and Sizhe’s teacher, must research the drug to cure his wife Lin Guifen and Chen Chuchuan, who both had depression. Wu Yongchang emphasized that when he was developing medicine, the leader of the drug-dealing ring contacted him.
About Yu Fei, Wu Yongchang told Han Feng that he had met Li Ming on the night Yu Fei had the accident, and Yu Fei was tied up in the room for the test subject. Wu Yongchang asked Li Ming to inject Yu Fei with a new drug. Li Ming was soft-hearted and didn’t want to harm her. Wu Yongchang then injected Yu Fei with the drug, and Li Ming was pushed out to be a scapegoat. Just as Qi Sizhe found his girlfriend and drove her away, Wu Yongchang sent someone to cause a car accident.
Conclusion
The Truth Within emphasizes that uncovering the truth often comes with complex moral burdens. While the path to justice is harsh, full of twists and turns, the final resolution (the “peeling of the cocoon”) provides necessary closure for the characters and society.
The audience might not be a forensic examiner like Qi Sizhe, or a member of the law enforcement corps. However, the message taken from the protagonist’s action is universal. Grief as a motivator for justice. Sizhe is driven by a personal tragedy of losing his girlfriend in a suspicious accident. His journey suggests that personal loss can be channeled into a professional commitment to ensure no other victims’ stories go untold.
