Synopsis: A tragic massacre in their childhood completely changed the fate of the Liao brothers. Will they break through the darkness for self-redemption, or will they descend into the abyss of vengeance?
✨A drama full of plot twists that does a lot of atypical things. Good crime/thriller with sincere and profound storytelling. The kind of drama best gone into blind✨
♥ indicates favourite whump episodes
⚠️Trigger Content: Usual action/thriller CWs (graphic violence, mild gore, etc), human trafficking, violence against women, sexual assault (implied and briefly shown), animal death, suicide, self-harm (all graphic and shown)
⚠️⚠️Some SPOILERS will be found, proceed with caution⚠️⚠️
Whumpee: Liao Siyuan portrayed by Wang Zi Qi
Ep 1 | (in past) Watching home burn down, crying | Guilt over someone's death.
Ep 2 | Locked in a room which was lit on fire, coughing, calling out for help, growing weak, PTSD trigger from the trauma, DID episode triggered (secondary personality takes control), jumps off balcony, lands on the ground, trying to get up but can't, bleeding from the head, passes out | In hospital bed, hooked to IV, stitches visible on his forehead. Expresses guilt over loved one's death, comforted.
Ep 3 | None.
Ep 4 | Concerned for friend, threatened with friend's life, told to jump off building to save friend, distressed | Enraged.
Ep 5 | PTSD trigger, hunched over, coughing | Arrested, in hand cuffs, questioned.
Ep 6 | None.
♥ Ep 7 | Falls off scooter, bloody elbow, blood staining white clothes | Upset, very briefly fought, pinned onto rooftop vent, kicked in the chest, stumbles back and hits his head against surface, falls onto the ground and faints. (in mind palace) Distressed, falls, panting | Hospitalized, calling out for brother in his sleep, given sedatives against his will | Concern for him.
Ep 8 | Drink spiked, vision blurs, falls to the ground, semi-conscious but in a drugged state.
Ep 9 | Saved from getting shot.
Ep 10 | None.
Ep 11 | Held at gunpoint, thrown against wall.
Ep 12-13 | None.
Ep 14 | Hit in the head with a wooden plank, protecting ally, hit in the back with wooden plank, falls down stairs, choked with wooden plank, saved.
Ep 15 | Distressed, restrained, crying.
♥ Ep 16 | Car crashed into x2, protected, DID episode triggered (secondary personality takes control), shot at repeatedly, in a trance, crashes car and it tumbles over, groaning, struggling to crawl out of car wreckage, bleeding from the head, blood staining white shirt, labored breathing, disoriented, concern for loved one, restrained, handcuffed | Locked in interrogation room, cuffed to chair, emotional, angry, teary-eyed, scolded, blamed for loved one getting hurt, monitored while he has a breakdown. Told he needs treatment for his mental illness, emotional, crying, says he can't let loved one die again.
Ep 17 | Repeatedly hit with a branch, scolded, dissociating, having an DID episode, PTSD trigger, says he should and wanted to die with his family, emotional, crying.
Ep 18 | Emotional.
Ep 19-21 | None.
♥ Ep 22 | Pushed to the ground, kneed in the head and knocked back to the ground, blood on his face, unmoving on the floor in the rain | Bruise and cuts visible on his face | Hit in the back of the head and knocked unconscious. Wakes up handcuffed on the ground in a sound-proof room, coughing, too weak to move due to having been drugged, saved, passes out due to drugs, concern for him | Hospitalized and in a coma (off-screen)
Ep 23 | No appearance.
Ep 24 | Still comatose in the hospital, concern for him, regains consciousness.
Ep 25 | None.
Ep 26 | (back to when he was hospitalized) Weak, moving about despite injuries | Lying on the ground, coughing, labored breathing | Crying.
Ep 27 | Crying | Trembling.
Ep 28 | Emotional, crying.
Whumpee: Liao Zhibai portrayed by Sunny Sun / Suen Yeung
Ep 1-13 | No appearance/none.
Ep 14 | (in past) stabbed in the upper arm.
Ep 15-17 | No appearance/none.
Ep 18 | (all in past) Tackled from behind and held in a headlock, fought | Distressed. Finding last message of loved one after death, cut visible on his cheek, crying, screaming | Shot, fell into river, and rescued (off screen), unconscious on the ground, coughing water | Crying | (presently) Emotional, crying.
Ep 19-20 | No appearance/none.
Ep 21 | (all in past) Accelerated heartrate, unwell | Betrayed by friend, restrained and held at gunpoint, arrested.
Ep 22 | Emotional, punched, yelled at, kicked in the chest and pinned to the ground.
After this episode the narrative keeps going back and forth from past, distant past, and present.
Ep 23 | Shot at, protected, in shock witnessing friend die in front of him | Handcuffed | Locked in interrogation room, cuffed to chair.
Ep 24 | (in past) handcuffed with a bag over his head, delivered to the enemy.
Ep 25-26 | Couple of whumpy scenes from the full scene in ep 27.
Ep 27 | (in past) Legs chained and in handcuffs, punched, coughing, falls to his knees and hunched over in pain, bleeding from head, nose, and mouth, groaning, punched and knocked to the ground x2, stabbed in the neck with a pen, gasping, in shock, falls to the ground.
Ep 28 | (in past) Shot in the shoulder, bleeding,
Whumpee: Shu He portrayed by Zhang Yu Jian
Ep 1 | Bitten in the arm
Ep 2 | No appearance/none.
Ep 3 | Hit in the arm with a baton, thrown onto the floor, lured into a room and locked in with antagonists, fought, hit with a chair, falls to the ground, in shock.
Ep 4-6 | No appearance/none.
Ep 7 | Angry, punched.
Ep 8-10 | No appearance/none.
Ep 11 | In a gunfight, briefly fought.
Ep 12-20 | No appearance/none.
Ep 21 | (in past) Thrown against tree and falls to the ground, repeatedly beaten, bracing himself, saved.
Usually I would have timestamps for a lot of the triggering content mentioned above, but most are such a big part of the drama, and I had forgotten to write them down for the first half, so I decided not to do it at all. Just be aware that it's a very heavy drama and there are lots of triggering topics all throughout.
Trope of the day: “Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before”
_
“Are you insane!?”, Caretaker asks, their brows raised in confusion and rage. They knew that the other has a death wish, but this? This exceeds their own expectations. “Don’t bother answering, I mean of course you are!”, they snap and turn around to take a deep breath.
Whumpee is still leaning against the wall, their arms crossed before their chest. “Listen, if we don’t do something, we will be dead within the hour. You have better ideas? Any other secret options I might not know about?”
They look each other in the eyes, nothing said between them. Because Caretaker cannot come up with a better plan.
Still, that doesn’t make Whumpee’s plan any better or less dangerous.
There is a smirk on Whumpee’s face. A smirk even Caretaker wants to slap away because they know what that means. “Listen, we need-“
“Hey, we have been through this three times by now. Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before, okay? And I am still alive,” Whumpee interrupts them and shrugs their shoulders before they finally move away from the wall.
“But I still think that … wait, what!?”, Caretaker asks as the realisation hits them, but Whumpee has used their confusion to run ahead and do as they planned.
If they really should survive, Caretaker is going to murder them themselves for scaring them like this.
The Whumpee has two Caretakers probably cause they’re a reckless little shit: A and B.
A and B do not get along at all, but both are willing to take a bullet in order to save the Whumpee.
However, this time they couldn’t take the bullet for Whumpee, and neither wants to allow the other to fully take care of Whumpee. A and B try to work together to save the Whumpee’s life, moving around one another and in a constant screaming battle.
The question is, do they manage to get past their arguments and save the Whumpee, or do they make the situation worse and force a third Caretaker to come in?
