Dear readers,

To help anyone interested in crime and thrillers to understand my fanfiction, I've written a brief summary and provided an overview of the major characters. Those who know the series can skip the summary. Those who want to watch it and don't like spoilers should watch the series first. It has 26 episodes and is highly recommended to crime fans.

Disclaimer: This story is a what if fanfiction for the Chinese crime series Be Reborn, published on Youtube via the Chinese channel Youku with English subtitles (optional automatically generated German subtitles). The rights to the characters and the series Be Reborn are owned by Yang Dong and the channel Youku.

    I am not making any money from this story and it is not to be considered canon, but just a fictional what if story based on Be Reborn. The cover image is one of the two official cover images of the series and was posted on DramaWiki. The rights to it are also owned by Youku.

Side note:  In Chinese it is common to write the last name/surname first and the first name afterwards. Characters with ranks are usually addressed as their rank followed by their last name. Thus, Luo Jian for example, is usually called Captain Luo.

Summary of episodes 1-24

During a visit to the local museum Zhuang Wenjie notices that his favorite painting Water Lily has been replaced by a fake. He reports the theft to the police and soon finds himself in the middle of a criminal case, because the thieves tried to frame him for the theft in order to blackmail him into working for them. Wenjie pretends to agree, but secretly cooperates with the police, allowing Captain Luo and his team to catch the thieves and foil the leader's plan to kill Wenjie. 

    When Ding Shenhuo learns that Wenjie survived, he agrees to answer Captain Luo's questions, but he wants to give the answers to Wenjie only. During the interrogation, he transmits a Morse code to Wenjie, with a clue about objects located in a locker of a swimming hall that can lead Wenjie to a person through whom he can find out more about his father's death 12 years ago. He baits Wenjie with the hope that his father may still be alive. 

    While Wenjie follows up on the clue and hides the secret message from Captain Luo, the police investigate another case. At the swimming pool, Wenjie encounters a hooded woman (Li Shuting) whom he is able to trick in order to get his hands on the objects (a palm print and an iris). Later, we learn that the woman is a thief the police are searching. Wenjie manages to find Li Shuting. Before she falls to her death while fleeing from the police, she warns Wenjie not to investigate further, because what he is looking for is what she is fleeing from.

    Shortly after, a suicide occurs at the university. The police begin to investigate and Wenjie does his own research. Wenjie finds out that the man (Li Anfu) responsible for the suicide is apparently in the swimming pool club. At the same time, Captain Luo and his team find out that said man is responsible for a series of frauds. When they go to arrest him, they are stopped by a colleague of Captain Luo, Captain Su. This is because Li Anfu is working with a group of smugglers that Captain Su and her colleagues are after. 

    Meanwhile, the smugglers find out that Wenjie has the iris, take his friends hostage, and kidnap him in order to get the iris. During his captivity, Wenjie learns that the smugglers are working with someone they call Monsieur, who is apparently the same man behind Ding Shenghuo. Wenjie manages to escape and receives help from a mysterious man who suddenly appears at the warehouse where Wenjie was held captive. After escaping, Wenjie immediately contacts the police, whereupon the smugglers and Li Anfu are eventually arrested. However, he keeps quiet about his encounter with the mysterious man, who turns out to be the new tenant of his old childhood home, Mr. Xu, a watchmaker posing as a former friend of his father.

 Mister Xu deliberately feeds Wenjie half-truths about the past to gain his trust. Under the pretext of helping him to uncover the secrets of the past, he persuades Wenjie to embark on a dangerous mission to steal the painting Luoshen, which has appeared at an illegal auction. To do this, they must mingle with the guests at the hotel where the auction is taking place.

    In the meantime, Captain Luo, on his own, unravels the case from 12 years ago, in which his teacher at the time died under mysterious circumstances. His investigation eventually leads him to the hotel where the auction is to take place. There his path crosses with that of Wenjie. Wenjie partially lets Captain Luo in on his plan to steal Luoshen in order to use it to trap Monsieur (the mastermind behind the events surrounding Ding Shenghuo, Li Shuting and the events 12 years ago). He asks Captain Luo to contact his people so that the police can catch the criminals involved in the auction in the act.

What if...

    To prevent Monsieur from getting the painting, Wenjie steals it and finally hands it over to the police. At this point, the new timeline starts.

Characters

Zhuang Wenjie - outstanding law student, in his final year of study, who comes from a family of thieves and became involved in various criminal cases that, in a broader sense, had something to do with his father's disappearance 12 years ago

Lin Zhiyue - childhood friend of Wenjie's who is studying at the same university and who is very important to him

Sun Zhijian - fellow student, buddy, and third best student

Luo Jian - police officer, rank captain.

Jiang Hao - police officer in Captain Luo's team

Pang Dazhi - police officer in Captain Luo's team

Liao Shuang - police officer in Captain Luo's team

Su Ying - colleague of Captain Luo with the rank of Captain, leads her own unit and cooperates with Captain Luo's department in the current case

Xu Zhengqing (Monsieur) - watchmaker, boss of a crime syndicate that mainly smuggles cultural artifacts

Dai Meng De - an accomplice of Xu Zhengqing, who specializes in passport forgery.

Ding Shenghuo - thief who stole the painting Luoshen 12 years ago together with Wenjie's father and served 10 years in prison for the theft, when he was released he wanted to take revenge and almost killed Wenjie

Ding Wei alias Xiao Dao - former member of Ding Shenghuo's group of thieves who received a suspended sentence and now works for Xu Zhengqing

Also mentioned are:

Liao Detong - head of a large company and art collector who had a good relationship with Wenjie's father but was involved in smuggling art objects

Li Shuting - thief who worked for Xu Zhengqing but has since died