sinovels Chapter 112 The Long Night Is Hard to End
Chapter 112 The Long Night Is Hard to End
The month after "The Silent Truth" aired, the entire internet seemed to be weighed down by something heavy.
On Douban, Weibo, WeChat Moments, and various forums, a massive wave of discussions surged forth, unstoppable.
But those sounds were different from usual.
Normally, after watching a show, viewers discuss things like "That plot twist was amazing," "That acting was phenomenal," and "Will there be a second season?"
This time, people are talking about something else.
Is Jiang Yang worth it? Is justice still justice if it's delayed? If you were in his shoes, what would you choose?
There are no standard answers to these questions, but many netizens are trying to answer them.
When it received an 8.8 rating on Douban, some people were already describing it as "the best show of the year".
But what no one expected was that as the series progressed, the ratings did not decline after a high start like most online dramas; instead, they rose against the trend, reaching 9.6 and eventually stabilizing at 9.5.
Nearly one million people rated it, and more than 70% gave it five stars.
Some netizens have coined a new term to describe this phenomenon: "opening high and then crashing low".
It's not just a typical strong start and upward trend; it's the kind that gets higher and higher, more and more explosive.
Some attribute this to the solid foundation of the original novel "Tea in Early Spring," others to the director's ingenious three-line narrative structure, and still others to Bai Yu's portrayal of Jiang Yang's transformation from high spirits to withered state.
These are all correct.
What truly transformed this drama from "a good drama" into "a phenomenon" was its ability to resonate with the soul of the times.
A promising young prosecutor sacrificed his career, family, reputation, and freedom in order to investigate a wrongful conviction, and ultimately even lost his life.
He wasn't unaware of the immense cost; he simply felt that some burdensome tasks had to be undertaken by someone.
After Jiang Yang was released from prison, he stood on the street looking for work, knocking on doors one by one, only to be rejected by each and every one of them.
Later, he repaired cell phones. Then he fell ill. Lying in his hospital bed, he said to Zhu Wei, "I'm not afraid of dying, what I'm afraid of is that after I die, no one will care about this matter."
This sentence was cut into clips and forwarded countless times on various platforms, bringing tears to the eyes of countless netizens.
A netizen wrote a passage in a long comment, which was later shared tens of thousands of times—
"Jiang Yang is the rarest kind of person in this era. He knows there's a wall in front of him, but he still tries to bang his head against it. He knows he can't break through, but he still tries. It's not that he doesn't feel pain; he just feels that if even he stops trying, then no one will ever push this wall down."
Another widely discussed topic is the bystander.
Those in the show who didn't stand up for Jiang Yang—his classmates, his girlfriend, and those who knew the truth but chose to remain silent—became the main targets of attacks in the bullet comments and comment sections.
People say, "If you hadn't asked him to investigate the case, he wouldn't have gotten into trouble later," and "He was sexually assaulted but didn't dare to report it to the police; he's selfish."
One article's title puts this sentiment very bluntly—
Should "bystanders" who are not brave enough be blamed?
A passage from the article was later repeatedly quoted: "It is precisely because we feel a deep sense of powerlessness in the face of the power of evil that we direct our angry fire at imperfect good. Heroic deeds deserve praise, but ordinary people who, after weighing the pros and cons, still harbor good intentions and contribute even a little bit of their strength should also be recognized. If hesitation, entanglement, and retreat are met with the shame of being treated as villains, then the threshold for doing good is far too high."
These words were like a bucket of cold water, making many people calm down and rethink—if it were me, could I do what Jiang Yang did?
A well-known law professor on the internet has also taken notice of this drama.
He posted a Weibo post speculating that the screenwriter must have a legal background or at least studied law.
Because the details about procedural justice and judicial fairness in the drama are not something that laymen could write.
The point he made precisely hits the core difference between "The Silent Truth" and most suspense dramas: it's not about "how to solve a case," it's about "why the law is important."
One netizen commented, "The law not only restrains bad people, but also good people. Zhang Chao, Zhu Wei, and others were motivated by justice, but they still have to bear the legal consequences of their actions. This is the dignity of the law."
After the show aired, many people began to re-examine the word "justice." It was no longer just a word in textbooks, but something that a person had earned over ten years, with their career, family, freedom, and even their life.
Someone asked: Is it worth it?
On Douban, someone replied: "Justice has always been a luxury, and it comes at a price. Kneeling and begging for justice from the highest officials is a castrated form of justice. True justice is earned by standing tall, unafraid of bloodshed and sacrifice; it is about facing death to live."
Some people raised another question from a different perspective: "Jiang Yang and his team already had witnesses and physical evidence, so why did they orchestrate these events to attract public attention?" The answer was: "The drama's main message is the power of public opinion. Public opinion is a perfect embodiment of the power of numbers, but it's also a double-edged sword." "The problem has always been there; as long as it doesn't affect your interests, no one will care. That's reality."
These words are not meant to insult anyone, but rather to describe a common predicament that everyone has experienced to some extent.
The more profound impact comes from the repeatedly mentioned term—"social mystery." Some critics say that works that focus on character development and behavior rather than relying on tricks and deduction are typical examples of social mystery. The reason social mystery resonates so widely today is precisely because "the mystery's surface may be the tragedy of an individual victim, but the answer is the tragedy of society and the times."
"The Silent Truth" wasn't the first to do this, but it was the most thorough. It made viewers realize that suspense dramas don't have to be just about "guessing who the murderer is"; they can discuss truly weighty topics like judicial fairness, corruption, and wrongful convictions. One review stated, "This drama tells a story about judicial justice in the form of a detective drama… touching on many sensitive social issues such as corruption and wrongful convictions, greatly pushing the boundaries of how suspense dramas can engage with reality."
At the industry level, this drama also brought a beautiful conclusion to the Mist Theater series. From *The Hidden Corner* to *The Long Night*, both dramas achieved scores above 9 on Douban, a feat almost unprecedented in the history of Chinese dramas. More importantly, *The Long Night* proved the feasibility of the advanced on-demand model for high-quality content. Many netizens commented in the live chat, "Paying for good dramas isn't a big deal." This indicates that some users are beginning to accept and endorse the "paying for quality content" model in practice.
Netizens are saying things like, "This drama made me realize I've been living too lightly," and "After watching it, I don't know how to evaluate my own life." Others say, "Jiang Yang made me believe that there are still people in this world who are living life seriously."
After watching the last episode, Duan Lei sat in the dark for a long time. The feeling of tightness in his chest was more unbearable than crying.
After a long time, he opened his phone and typed a line in the notes: "If one day I encounter a path that I need to choose, I hope I can remember that there was once a person named Jiang Yang."
Perhaps this is what "The Silent Truth" leaves behind: It makes you, after you've cried, think about every day I've lived, and whether I've done anything worth remembering.
Even in the long, dark night, some people risked their lives to light lamps. And those who watched this drama at least remembered the image of that lamp in their hearts.