General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Justice in the Dark (光·渊)

Justice in the Dark (光·渊) is a 30-episode Chinese live-action suspense drama adapted from the danmei novel Silent Reading (默读) by the author priest, starring Zhang Xincheng as Pei Su (裴溯) and Fu Xinbo as Luo Weizhao (骆为昭).¹ It premiered on Youku on February 18, 2023, was pulled after eight episodes, and reached its complete form only in 2025 through the Japanese broadcaster WOWOW.²

Key fact	Detail
Native title	光·渊; earlier working title 深渊 (Abyss); also known as The Light in the Night and 光・淵 (Kōen) in Japan²^•³
Source material	Silent Reading (默读), a suspense danmei novel by priest¹
Episodes / runtime	30 episodes, about 50 minutes each²
Leads	Zhang Xincheng as Pei Su; Fu Xinbo as Luo Weizhao⁴
China broadcast	February 18, 2023 on Youku, eight episodes, then delisted in July 2023¹
Japan broadcast	WOWOW, March 7 to June 20, 2025, full 30 episodes²
Director / writers	Qiu Zhongwei; screenwriters Li Lin, Yang Xia, and Zhang Jing⁵
Setting	Year 253 of the Neo-Civilization, where crime is debated as linked to "Apaths" with zero-degree empathy⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The story opens in Year 253 of the Neo-Civilization, where whether Apaths are at the root of a sky-high crime rate has become a touchy public question.¹ The death of a deliveryman leads investigators to a criminal syndicate, and the killer turns out to be an Apath; the case is closed, but Luo Weizhao, captain of the investigation team, suspects it is not that simple.⁶ Subsequent cases, including missing persons, a car accident involving a rich businessman, and the murder of a missing university student, push more Apaths into the spotlight, and Luo comes to suspect that the intern investigator Pei Su, a wealthy heir versed in criminal psychology, may also play a role in them, with a mastermind orchestrating events behind the scenes.¹^•³ In the ending, the syndicate is dismantled and the public learns that genes are not the sole deciding factor for one's character and morality.¹

Adaptation and censorship

The drama is a dangai adaptation, a live-action version of a danmei (male-male romance) novel in which the same-sex relationship is downplayed or cut to pass Chinese broadcast review.⁷ In 2021 China's broadcast regulator issued a ban on such adaptations, forcing productions to cut content or change titles and names to clear censorship, and Justice in the Dark was one of these cases.⁴

The changes went beyond the romance. The title was changed twice, from Silent Reading to Abyss (深渊) and then to the final 光·渊, and both lead characters were renamed: the novel's Fei Du (费渡) became Pei Su (裴溯) and Luo Wenzhou (骆闻舟) became Luo Weizhao (骆为昭), names chosen for similar sounds and mouth shapes.⁴^•⁸ Even Luo Wenzhou's cat, named Luo Yiguo in the novel, was renamed Pingdiguo (frying pan).⁸

To preserve the novel's substantial crime cases without reworking them, the production moved the story into a science-fiction frame: an alternate civilization called the Neo-Civilization (新元文明), in the disorderly city of Xinzhou, where some people carry abnormal gene sequences that leave them unable to empathize with others.⁸ These "zero-degree empathizers," called Apaths in the English synopsis, are treated as born criminals, and "gene crime" is the society's defining problem.⁶^•⁸ The Chengdu Business Daily account notes that the approach preserved the novel's cases to a considerable degree: the first murder case was lifted almost directly from the book, and the well-known "broken-flower dress" case involving juvenile crime was filmed with its key line kept, though the perpetrator's age was changed.⁸

Production

The drama was directed by Qiu Zhongwei, written by Li Lin, Yang Xia, and Zhang Jing, and produced by Youku and New Style Media.⁵ The Japanese official site promotes it as the work of the same production team as the hit drama The Untamed (陳情令), which passed 10 billion views, with producer Yang Xia.⁹ The supporting cast includes Zhao Zhiwei, Liu Yihong, and Xiao Yu.¹⁰

Broadcast history

Suspension in China. The series was originally planned for release in February 2023 and dropped eight episodes on Youku on February 18 with almost no promotion; the official account posted a single poster and then went silent.¹^•⁸ Despite the low-key rollout it became one of the most discussed dramas of February 2023, reaching the top of the platform's hot search list, but no further episodes arrived and it was completely delisted from all official channels in July 2023.⁸^•¹

Japanese release. In March 2025 the Japanese network WOWOW began streaming the complete 30-episode version under the title 光・淵, marketed with the slogan "Bromance Suspense."¹^•¹¹ Episodes ran weekly from March 7 to June 20, 2025.² The series later became available to stream in English on Youku.¹

When the Japanese broadcast began, Chinese online discussion of the drama was blocked: the show's fan discussion forum (超话) was closed and related hashtags could not be searched, which viewers noticed and debated widely.¹¹

Reception and controversies

Chinese reception in 2023 was split. Some viewers criticized the pacing and narrative as confusing, while readers of the novel praised its faithfulness and binge-watched the eight released episodes.⁴ Zhang Xincheng's styling as a corporate president drew particular mockery, with the new internet phrase "又油又姨" ("greasy and auntie-like") coined to describe the heavy, feminized makeup, a sharp contrast with his earlier sunny screen image.⁴

Shortly after launch, the production apologized after its art team used a photograph of BLACKPINK's Rosé without permission in a scene showing a missing-person victim's photo; the image was removed and apologies were issued to the singer, her fans, and her agency.¹²

Japanese viewers rated the completed series favorably, with Filmarks users giving it 4.1 out of 5 across 137 reviews, and Drama-Otaku readers 9 out of 10 across 14 reviews.¹³^•³

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026