Prime Suspect

Liren Wangzuoan17K Novel Network2020

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Word count
700K words

Tags

Male-Oriented Fiction Paranormal Mystery Local GazetteerSuspenseTwinsStrange DisappearanceDetective FictionPuzzle SolvingWeb NovelFolklore

Summary

In Laohaobao Village, stricken by two years of drought, surveyor Yan Yu firmly believes in the existence of an underground river, based on local chronicles, and joins forces with Professor Zhang Gulin from the provincial capital to dig a well in search of water. The village is shaken when twin brothers Dashuang and Xiaoshuang mysteriously vanish. Yan Yu rushes to Qinjia'ao for help, only to stumble upon villagers performing nocturnal nuo dances to worship the Dragon King, and clashes with Qin Zhong, the village chief's son. Taking Lin Xiaoyu and Heiwa with him, he searches the sea buckthorn grove through the night, gradually uncovering a deeper eeriness and malice behind the disappearances. As clues interweave, the true culprit lurks in the shadows.

Editor's review

A typical rural suspense plus folkloric supernatural route. The opening runs two threads side by side, finding water and abandoned children, with tight pacing and an atmospheric depiction of drought-village life and Nuo dance scenes. Its strengths are layered suspense and fairly rigorous logic, and readers generally praise its restrained realism; its weak points are a slow opening buildup, a somewhat jumbled blend of supernatural elements and deduction, and a rushed ending.

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Reading tips

  1. The first two chapters establish the character relationships; the Qin clan structure is key to understanding motives.
  2. Note the foreshadowing details such as the seabuckthorn grove, Nuo dance, and the burning temple; they echo the ending's clues.
  3. If you only want the deduction line, you can skip some villager chatter and focus on the evidence-gathering and confrontation scenes.

About the publisher

17K Novel Network

17K Novel Network (17K小说网) is a publishing platform centred on online literature, with 10,912 titles in its catalogue; publicly available information is limited, and its founding background and country or region are not confirmed. Judging from the existing titles, its publishing scope covers common categories such as male-oriented fiction, Eastern fantasy, urban fiction, female-oriented fiction, time-travel and alternate-history stories, and selected fiction, spanning male-oriented cultivation and urban-life themes as well as female-oriented time-travel and quick-transmigration narratives. Representative titles include Deities: Recruiting Earth Players from the Start, Rebirth of the Nine-Tailed Superstar, Quick Transmigration: When a Max-Level Boss Becomes a Toxic Dad, Supreme Pill King, My Beautiful Wife, Chaos Tang, Wind Howling through the Jianghu, and Great Qin: My Inner Thoughts Overheard by the Ancestral Dragon from the Start, most of which unfold with the length and pacing of online serialization. Representative authors include Yang Zhizhi, Yuyi Tingbing, Xuanyuan Lvedan, Zhenyong, Manyu, Wuweijiu, Meng Qingxuan and Tianyan Junran, reflecting a publishing approach built on contracted online authors and organized by genre.

FAQ

Is this book finished? How many words in total? It is finished, about 700,000 words and over two hundred chapters.
Is it supernatural or pure deduction? Both. It has rural folkloric suspense as its backdrop and deduction as its main line.
Where can I read it? It was first published on 17K Novel Network and is also available on platforms such as Tomato Novel.

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About the author

Liren Wangzuoan Author

Liren Wangzuoan is an online-fiction author about whom little verified biographical information is publicly available, and nine of his works are currently included in the catalog. Judging from representative titles such as Tang Shi, Duan Yu, Tui Guan, and The First Suspect, as well as Zuì Wò Jiāng Shān and Lingnan Grandmaster, his writing centers mainly on historical fiction and suspenseful mystery. His works are commonly grouped under history, historical novels, male-oriented fiction, suspense and the supernatural, and premium fiction. He is skilled at weaving cases and characters' fates into historical settings while building tension in mystery plots, showing a broad range of subjects held together by a consistent style that balances storytelling with genre appeal. Although details of his personal life remain unclear, the continued publication and reissuing of several works suggest a steady readership and a degree of market recognition in these genres.