Chinse Drama 2022

The Crack of Dawn (Chinese Drama Review & Summary)

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• Genre: Life, Thriller, Mystery
• Release Date: 27 January 2022
• Origin: China
• Cdrama: 24 Episodes

Cast

• Ma Si Chun as Li Xiao Nan
• Luo Hong Ming as Wang Cheng
• Liu Kai as Su Rui (Husband)
• Zhang Yao as Yu Hong (Mistress)
• Lang Yue Ting as Chen Mu (Policewoman)
• Gao Xu Yang as Shen Qiang (Policeman)
• Zhang Ben Yu as Song Hu/Tiger
• Coco as Huang Hui Lan(Xiaonan’s mother)
• Yuan Wen Kang as Liang He Yu (Brother-in-law)

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Episode 1

A fisherman found a body face down on the river.

Who is he?

Meanwhile, Li Xiao Nan was viewing a house that was going for a good price because the owner would like to go abroad.

She loved the house so much, she told the seller that she would take it.

Her husband, Su Zong, was annoyed that she did not consult him on such a major thing but she told him that she was paying the deposit herself.

Xioanan is a top seller at the real estate agency she works for.  But at night, she and her husband have a part-time job for cooking and selling street food.

It was rewarding at first but a hood was playing dirty by putting dead bugs on his food and then complaining about it.

But the hood was not really the problem.  Her husband in more sinister.

When she was sleeping, he took her mobile phone and had a look at it and did whoever knows.

At 2am, she woke up having an asthma attack but her inhalers were empty.  Her husband took his time looking for an inhaler for her.

Episode 2

It looks like her husband had done something with her account.

Anyway, Xiaonan went to her mother and grandma and asked to borrow 100,000 for the house deposit.  Her mother scolded her because her husband is a no hoper.

Anyway, grandma gave her her pension book which made Xiaonan feel guilty.

A former school classmate came to her work to ask her to sell a two-bedroom apartment for him.

The place was quite far so she asked to borrow her husband’s car.

The classmate was Wang Cheng and he’s quite cute.

Suddenly the brake malfunctioned and they ended up in an accident and in the hospital.

Wang Cheng does not trust Su Rui at all.

Su Rui heard about the strong current and decided to go with Xiaonan to the river to commemorate her sister’s death but probably try to drown her.

Anyway, he had really been trying to kill her because he was up to his neck in debts.

He pushed her in the river.

Episode 3

I love the mystery of this drama.

The body on the first few frames on episode 1 is Su Rui.  But who killed him?

Xiaonan?

Xiaonan’s mother?

Wang Cheng?

Tiger, the gangster?

Brother-in-law?

Yu Hong, the mistress?

Anyway, Su Rui’s body was found face down on the water.  He had a big bruised on his head.  After forensic, they found that he was hit from the back.

Anyway, the police got Xiaonan to identify the body, they then quizzed her, which annoyed her.

Meanwhile, her mother went to see her manfriend who was a chef.  Apparently, she borrowed his car the night before.  The manfriend said they should wash the car.

The police went through the call log of Su Rui’s phone and found that he had several missed calls from Yu Hong.

Yu Hong is Xiaonan’s work colleague.

After further investigation, the police found out that Su Rui and Yu Hong were lovers and meet regularly in a motel.  They even met that day.

The young policeman was shocked that Su Rui would be having an affair when he was not even married a year yet to Xiaonan.

Yu Hong had a bloodied blouse which she tried to wash but the bloodstains did not come off so she threw the blouse into the bin outside.

Episode 4

Xiaonan went back to her apartment and found notices from Tiger that Su Rui needs to pay his loan.

Xiaonan’s in-laws came to see Xiaonan.

The mother-in-law was going mental blaming Xiaonan for killing Su Rui.

They were interrupted by a knocking on the door.

It was the police who said prosaically that Su Rui was having an affair with Yu Hong for months, three months at least.

This shut up the mother-in-law for a while.  But she went absolutely mental again when she followed Xiaonan into an insurance firm trying to claim the insurance payment in the life of Su Rui.

The mother-in-law created such a scene claiming that Xiaonan murdered her son for the money.

Xiaonan had to drag her out.  She then showed the MIL the notice from Tiger about the loan.  She called Tiger who wanted his money.  She told Tiger that she doesn’t have the money but her parents-in-law had a small house that could be used to pay the loan.

This really shut her mother-in-law and said that her son’s loan had nothing to do with them.

Xiaonan said that if she create any more troubles and then the insurance does not pay then they all had to pay.

She left the apartment with a suitcase leaving most of their things in the house.  Her mother-in-law was asking her how could she just leave?

Meanwhile, Yu Hong found out that Xiaonan actually had known the affair for a long time, almost from the start.

Episode 5

Yu Hong went to the wake of Su Rui and created havoc by slapping Xiaonan for her hypocrisy.  Yu. Hong revealed that Xiaonan knew all along that Yu Hong was sleeping with Su Rui. Yu Hong also revealed that she was pregnant but she lost her baby.

Su Rui’s mother got so upset and blamed Xiaonan for stressing Yu Hong and now there is no one to carry the Su bloodline.

Later, Xiaonan met up with Yu Hong.

Yu Hong started to say that what happened was all a conspiracy or rather planned by Xiaonan.

Xiaonan disabused her of the idea because she said she had never had Yu Hong tied up and drag to her husband’s bed.  Yu Hong wanted her husband and went for him.

With this truth, Yu Hong could not refute it.

Chen Mu, the police officer is beginning to suspect that there is more to Xiaonan and the case to meet the eyes.

Wang Cheng is stalking Xiaonan while Tiger is asking Xiaonan to pay up.

Episode 6

Xiaonan moved out again of her mother’s house because she does not want to involved them with her problems.

It looks like Xiaonan is a victim of domestic violence.

The police found out about it and interviewed her.  She related that at first, she thought Su Rui was a like-minded person who likes the simple life but he wanted to get riched quickly and dabbled in stocks and also play poker online until he amassed a lot of debt.

He then asked her for the money she saved for a deposit for a house and when she would not give it to him he beat her up and tried to drown her in the bath.

He then used her as collateral to Tiger.  He said that she’s a good earner and will pay his debts.

Officer Chen and Shen Qiang went to find Tiger but he bailed out but Officer Chen had alerted the highway patrol and police so they arrested Tiger for questioning.

Her latest landlady threw her out because someone graffitied the apartment about her.

She went to Wang Cheng to take him up on his offer of a bedroom rental.  But he looks like he had a hidden agenda.

Episode 7

Wang Cheng got curious of Xiaonan so while she was away he took her locked laptop to a hacker friend and opened her files.

He and the friend saw something surprising or shocking but it was not shown yet.

Meanwhile, Yu Hong felt guilty about Su Rui.  The last time they were together in their lovenest, she smacked him the head which caused him to bleed and collapsed on the floor.  She left him hurriedly but when she returned he was not there.

Yuhong was missing Su Rui so she went to the cemetery to be with him.  She got so depressed after drinking the bottle of alcohol she brought with her.  She then slashed her wrist and called Xianan to tell her that she will be meeting Su Rui soon with their child.

Episode 8

The ending of this episode is tantalising.

Wang Cheng had a woman locked up.  She looks like a mannequin.  Is she the dead sister of Xiaonan?!!!