Starring Chen Jianbin, who acted as the emperor in Empresses in the Palace and Chen Xiao, from A Dream of Splendor, iQIYI’s suspense-crime series Thirteen Years of Dust has been a hot topic of discussion of late. The two leads collaborating for the first time are a police mentor-apprentice pairing in the series. Despite their age difference of 17 years, shows no problem communicating with each other.

Chen Jianbin is full of compliments for Chen Xiao whom he says possess the virtues of a good actor and he appreciates how they can easily communicate about the way they should act, “He’s really good, it’s as if we’ve known each other for a long time, it’s easy to get into character”.

The series follows the serial killing mystery that happened in the city of Nandu back in 1997. Left unresolved, the killer reappears once again 13 years later and Chen Jianbin and Chen Xiao are back together to attempt to crack this mystery and bring the killer to justice. In this story that extends over 13 years from 1997 to 2010, the two leads’ style had to be changed to better fit the generation they were in.

Wei Zhengrong (starring Chen Jianbin) in 1997 plays Lu Xingzhi’s (starring Chen Xiao) hot-tempered yet skilful mentor who was best known for his collared leather jacket fit. Now, the once resolute criminal policeman turned free and easy civil police, not only is a house husband who buys and cooks for the family after work, he also often dons a pair of slippers and singlet while holding his child’s bottle in his hand, creating a huge contrast.

Luy Zhixing on the other hand was just a newbie in 1997 who vomits whenever he sees a dead body. However, his female cosplay look, which was forced on him by Wei Zhengrong to investigate a case and earned him a disgusted look even from Wei Zhengrong himself, left the net laughing and commenting, “although this look is hilarious, Chen Jianbin’s reaction is even funnier!” This is also Chen Xiao’s third time cosplaying after doing so in Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Above The Clouds. 13 years later, Lu Zhixing has matured into a competent criminal police who to much confusion divorced from his wife Yang Man (starring Nina Chuai) despite their happy marriage.

Thirteen Years of Dust follows the story of a serial killing case in 1997 which was left unresolved. 13 years later, this mysterious killer reappears once again and the mentor-apprentice pairing reunited once again to resolve the case. In this cross-generation and time incident, this spate of killing is one that extends over 13 years and is one that is fast paced yet filled with plot twists, creating two lines of mystery, making the final verdict one everyone is looking forward to.

To emphasise on the difference between the killings that happened in 1997 and those in 2010, the production crew even went through the extent of recreating the vibes from the 90s. With the whole series filmed in a film city, the ruins, police station and more were all made from scratch, showing the effort that went into the whole making process.