In Heilongjiang Province, 1999, the dismembered parts of a human body appear in shipments of coal in different cities. Detective Zhang Zili (Liao Fan) is assigned to investigate. The dead man is identified as a coal worker named Liang Zhijun, according to an identification badge next to some of the remains. Zhang and his partners (including Wang) go to interview a potential suspect and his brother. The suspect kills two of Zhang's partners before Zhang shoots the brothers while getting shot by one of them. Zhang survives. Wang and Zhang return the ashes of Liang to his widow Wu (Gwei Lun-mei), an employee at Rong Rong Laundry. Wu buries the ashes at the base of a tree just outside Rong Rong Laundry.
