Chapter Summaries

After a typhoon threatened to spread radioactive contamination from untreated water discharged by the island nation, Xu Chen and Song Tian received emergency alerts as the country activated its highest-level public health response. Xu Chen contacted his family, while campus and government authorities began coordinating preparations as the typhoon approached.

• Xu Chen and Song Tian watched news about contaminated water discharges and worried about their possible effects.
• A nationwide level-one public health emergency response was announced as air-raid sirens sounded and the typhoon approached landfall.
• Song Tian explained that untreated water and radioactive aerosols carried by the typhoon could threaten coastal and inland areas.
• Authorities ordered residents to shelter, avoid rainwater and contaminated food, and follow evacuation instructions; Xu Chen received alerts and reached his family.
• Song Tian said he had no one to call and hinted that his family situation was complicated.
• Central Comprehensive University, local authorities, and the military began coordinating supplies, reserves, transportation, and emergency support.

Students at the Coastal Meteorological Bureau and medical staff developed a mysterious condition that made them stare at a typhoon map and murmur “Taihao.” The suspected mass hysteria spread to Central Hospital, where officials ordered emergency isolation as doctors discovered more infected staff.

• Dr. Wang’s students stared at the typhoon map and murmured “Taihao,” while doctors found no physical cause and suspected mass hysteria.
• Dr. Wang learned the students would be transferred to Central Hospital for treatment, but the emergency doctor began murmuring “Taihao” after the ambulances left.
• Central Hospital’s doctors discussed treating the students and investigating how the condition spread.
• A physician reported that Physician Wang and a psychiatric nurse had also begun showing symptoms, prompting the hospital director to invoke infectious disease procedures.
• Dean Feng and other doctors found Physician Wang and the nurse murmuring “Taihao” inside an isolated office.

As relentless rain forced Xu Chen and Song Tian to remain in their dorm, Dean Yang assembled a medical support team to investigate the mysterious Taihao disease. The doctors volunteered to travel to the outbreak’s source despite Dean Yang’s warning that they might die, and he revealed his plan to stop further medical teams—and, if containment failed, eliminate every source of infection.

• Xu Chen worried that the rain could cause flooding and radiation exposure, then received a call from Grandpa Yang, who gave him Ouyang Xing’s number and warned him to keep his phone on in case an infectious disease broke out.
• Song Tian identified Ouyang Xing as a handsome academic prodigy, and Xu Chen joined Song Tian’s game after classes were suspended because of the storm.
• At the provincial hospital, Dean Yang told doctors that Taihao had an unknown transmission route, could infect people despite airtight protective suits, and caused patients to speak only the word “Taihao.”
• Dean Yang announced that he would travel to the outbreak site with a medical support team and warned that the team could be lost, after which further medical personnel should be kept away and treatment plans abandoned.
• Dean Yang said that if isolation failed, every source of infection should be eliminated, but none of the doctors withdrew their applications.

Dean Yang arrived at Central Hospital and found that doctors had discovered no clear cause for the patients’ illness. A typhoon wind field map emerged as the only suspected source of transmission, and Yang’s team began further examinations while the other doctors continued investigating the video.

• Dean Yang and his medical team examined six isolated patients but found no visible abnormalities beyond effects of prolonged bed rest and poor health.
• Dean Yang questioned Xiao Wu, who said the medical teams had found no pathogen or transmission route despite extensive testing.
• Xiao Wu told Dean Yang that patients at weather stations in Kuanghai, Changping, and Fangjiang had developed the same symptoms.
• Xiao Wu explained that investigators found the patients had all watched an animated typhoon wind field map before falling ill, and the Academy of Sciences suspected the map was connected.
• Dean Yang learned that members of Xiao Wu’s team had also fallen ill while studying the video, then instructed his doctors to take the equipment and conduct more examinations.

Dean Yang and the doctors learned that the military suspected Taihao infectious disease could spread through sound and began collecting infected patients’ voices. As Dean Yang investigated why only four weather stations had cases, he discovered that the Fangjiang station had recently been upgraded and asked Xiao Wu to print an email that might help explain the outbreak.

• Dean Yang received a military message reporting that Taihao infectious disease had spread to three more locations, and chemical defense units arrived at the hospital.
• The military leader told Dean Yang that the Academy of Sciences suspected the illness could spread through sound, and the earpieces were designed to block it.
• Dean Yang and Xiao Wu considered whether the military’s theory could be right and questioned why infections had appeared at only four meteorological stations.
• Xiao Wu found that the Fangjiang weather station had been renovated and fitted with the latest weather radar the year before last.
• Dean Yang asked Xiao Wu to log into an email account and print its contents.

Dean Yang questioned Xu Chen about trolley problems to assess his values and whether he could serve as an anchor against Taihao. Xu Chen’s answers reassured Dean Yang, but Dean Yang showed signs of mental strain as the support team dwindled.

• Xiao Wu brought Dean Yang documents comparing weather-station equipment, and they suspected high-resolution monitors might be linked to the infections.
• Dean Yang requested a high-resolution monitor and the original typhoon wind-field data, then called Xu Chen and asked him three trolley-problem questions.
• Xu Chen said he would not sacrifice a stranger to save five people, might sacrifice himself to save many, and would always protect his family at others’ expense.
• Dean Yang reviewed psychologists’ analysis of the call and concluded Xu Chen was truthful and potentially a stable anchor.
• Xiao Wu warned Dean Yang that most of the support team had lost awareness and showed him a report indicating Dean Yang had mild anxiety, paranoia, and possible delusional speech.

Xu Chen was recruited to observe a rare infectious disease case at Nanhua Central Hospital, then brought under heavy security and made to sign a confidentiality agreement. Qi Kangmei revealed that the case involved an apparent Aspergillus flavus infection, and Xu Chen was horrified by the photographs and examination report.

• Xu Chen learned that Grandpa Yang had added him to a medical internship team, and Ouyang Xing came to bring him to the hospital.
• Ouyang Xing persuaded Xu Chen to join the team by offering to help with his required report, and Xu Chen agreed to board the waiting bus.
• Xu Chen noticed the bus was armored and found armed soldiers guarding the hospital’s underground garage before the team surrendered their phones and signed confidentiality agreements.
• Qi Kangmei briefed the students on the disaster and handed them case documents about a corpse covered in fungal growth.
• Xu Chen read the Aspergillus flavus fungal infection report and struggled to stomach the corpse’s condition.

Xu Chen read the report on a deadly Aspergillus flavus outbreak in Taiping Town and examined specimens that showed the fungus had extraordinary activity and vitality. Academician Qi told the students they had been recruited to help find a solution, leaving Xu Chen alarmed at the danger and his own involvement.

• Xu Chen learned how a fisherman ate a moldy large yellow croaker and became the outbreak’s first patient, infecting his family and others who treated him.
• The doctor in charge documented the disease and transmission, tried to treat patients and himself, and died after fighting the infection for a week.
• Academician Qi presented sealed specimens, and the students examined the fungus under microscopes.
• Ouyang Xing warned that the spores were active, and the students discovered that warming the slides made them move and grow.
• Academician Qi explained that the fungus had exceptional infectivity and vitality and said the students’ schools had been tasked with finding a solution.
• Xu Chen realized he had been brought into a dangerous research effort despite believing he was only there to make up the numbers.

Ouyang Xing, Xu Chen, and the other researchers examined a patient whose Aspergillus flavus infection had defeated every treatment and seemed able to bypass the body’s defenses. They learned the fungus could infect nearly all living things except fungi and bacteria, and saw signs that it was spreading inside the isolation chamber.

• Academician Qi explained that the fungus’s unusual infection mechanism let it breach skin and evade the body’s immune defenses.
• Xu Chen asked whether the patient was safe, and Academician Qi assured the group that they would observe from outside the isolation chamber and use robotic arms.
• The group went upstairs to inspect the critically ill patient, whose body was covered in fungal growth and whose infected tissues were dying.
• A doctor said experiments showed the fungus could infect nearly all living things except fungi and bacteria, with mammals most susceptible.
• Xu Chen noticed fungal threads on the chamber wall and yellow growth on a robotic arm, suggesting the fungus was spreading.

Xu Chen watched the patient deteriorate as experts investigated the mutated Aspergillus flavus and prepared an experimental antifungal drug. Reviewing a mycologist’s findings, Xu Chen noticed a possible inconsistency in how the fungus spread, though he could not yet identify what was wrong.

• Over three days, state-backed teams of researchers determined that the fungus’s spores were toxic, could penetrate skin, and could parasitize the stratum corneum.
• Xu Chen watched the patient’s fungal infection worsen until his tissues began liquefying, while Ouyang Xing prepared to test a drug that had damaged animals’ livers.
• Xu Chen questioned why Dean Yang had assigned him to the medical group, and Ouyang Xing said Dean Yang had his reasons.
• Xu Chen read a report suggesting the fungus had been artificially cultivated and spread spores especially actively from plants, while preferring to parasitize mammals.
• After hearing students discuss failed antifungal treatments and possible effects from fluorouracil drugs, Xu Chen suddenly realized something about the report.

Xu Chen and Ouyang Xing considered whether the patient’s Aspergillus flavus infection could be an engineered microorganism designed to spread and kill. Their discussion raised enough concern that Ouyang Xing decided to report the possibility.

• Xu Chen asked Ouyang Xing to imagine designing a microorganism that could wipe out humanity, and Ouyang Xing described one that was highly contagious, lethal, drug-resistant, and able to survive harsh conditions.
• Xu Chen pointed to the infected patient as evidence that such a microorganism might exist and suggested it spread differently through humans and other species.
• Ouyang Xing gathered available seniors to discuss the possibility and shared Xu Chen’s documents with them.
• A senior showed Ouyang Xing the patient’s record, revealing that his body temperature had remained unchanged despite severe infection and worsening condition.
• Ouyang Xing concluded the stable temperature might be linked to the Aspergillus flavus infection and decided to report the findings.

Researchers concluded that a deadly Aspergillus flavus outbreak might have been caused by a nonhuman intelligence, and reports of similar outbreaks abroad convinced officials that civilization was in danger. Unaware of the crisis his actions had helped trigger, Xu Chen left the research team with a compensation contract and read news about the widening response.

• Researchers reported that Aspergillus flavus maintained patients' body temperatures and that the chance it had not originated naturally was 46 percent, while the odds of an attack or accidental leak were low.
• The chief learned that psychologists suspected a nonhuman intelligence had released the fungus as a deterrent and might have mistaken humanity's capabilities for those of six years earlier.
• After receiving a call about large outbreaks in India and across the ocean, the chief warned that the intelligence understood humans poorly, and officials assembled a nationwide crisis response.
• Xu Chen accepted compensation and credits for leaving Ouyang Xing's research team, while Ouyang Xing stayed to help with the research.
• Xu Chen read news about troops sent to assist an island nation, water-treatment upgrades, border closures, outbreaks abroad, and new cancer drugs, then cursed the one responsible.

Dean Yang sent Xu Chen a warning to look up “Taihao,” but Xu Chen found that the world’s historical records were too damaged to provide reliable answers. The chapter ended with Xu Chen distressed at being asked to search those records.

• Dean Yang wrote “Taihao” on paper and asked the people monitoring him to pass the characters to Xu Chen.
• Xu Chen learned that the disease patient had died and that his internship assignment had ended, then opened an email from Grandpa Yang.
• Xu Chen recalled discovering that historical documents in this world were severely damaged and that many familiar place names were missing.
• Xu Chen remembered leaving the history department after realizing that its scholars reconstructed incomplete records, and he reacted with anguish to the request to look up “Taihao.”

Xu Chen searched for Taihao and found that the history and records of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were missing or unreliable. He recruited Professor Ding Xiangdong and two archaeology students to investigate the supposed Taihao Mausoleum, leaving to check its location.

• Xu Chen searched for Taihao, Fuxi, and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors but found no reliable records, and discovered that the supposed mausoleum site was marked as barren land.
• Xu Chen called for archaeology students and explained that ancient accounts of ceremonies suggested a Taihao Mausoleum whose location needed confirmation.
• Professor Ding Xiangdong arrived with students Ma Yuelong and Li Ze, and Xu Chen agreed to work with them privately.
• Xu Chen examined the archaeology team's tools and questioned Professor Ding about the name of the Luoyang Shovel, receiving an answer that left him suspicious.
• Xu Chen shared the mausoleum's location with the group so they could go investigate it.

Xu Chen and Professor Ding searched the supposed site of the Taihao Mausoleum and discovered scattered stele fragments, including a damaged Sleeping Palace Stele erected by Zhu Yuanzhang. Professor Ding planned to use Tianjing University’s technology to reconstruct its inscription, while Xu Chen wondered why the writing on the stones had been carved so shallowly.

• Xu Chen confirmed the location with Professor Ding and watched the professor’s students survey the grounds with a drone.
• Xu Chen recognized a polished granite fragment as the edge of a stele, prompting Professor Ding to organize a search for inscriptions and fragments.
• Li Ze found a written stele fragment, and Xu Chen noticed its characters were unusually shallow despite showing no signs of wear.
• Xu Chen uncovered a broken stele and identified it as the Sleeping Palace Stele erected by Zhu Yuanzhang.
• Professor Ding admired the stele’s condition and said Tianjing University could use a machine to reconstruct its damaged inscription.

Xu Chen and Professor Ding’s team discovered a sleeping hall tablet and signs of buried structures at Taihao Mausoleum, while Xu Chen questioned the archaeologists’ explanations for the tablet’s damage. The chapter ended with Xu Chen learning that no one, including Professor Ding, knew what “Taihao” meant and wondering why Grandpa Yang had asked him to research it.

• Xu Chen questioned Professor Ding and Li Ze’s explanation that natural and combined forms of erosion had blurred the tablet’s writing.
• Professor Ding reported the sleeping hall tablet discovery and waited for university reinforcements while guarding it.
• Ma Yuelong found compacted earth with a Luoyang Shovel, and Professor Ding began probing for buried structures at Taihao Mausoleum.
• Professor Ding welcomed the arriving team with a sketch of the underground structures, while Xu Chen anticipated finding more historical tablets.
• Xu Chen asked Professor Ding whether he knew Taihao, and Professor Ding asked his colleagues and students but found that no one recognized the name.
• Xu Chen wondered why Grandpa Yang had asked him to research Taihao if even the historians did not know what it meant.

Xu Chen called Ouyang Xing to ask what Grandpa Yang knew about Taihao, while military officials monitored the call and used it to investigate Yang Tianyou’s connection to the Taihao Mausoleum. Yang Tianyou became obsessive when he heard the mausoleum’s name, leaving the officer with Xu Chen’s recent activities as a new lead.

• Xu Chen failed to reach Grandpa Yang and called Ouyang Xing to ask what he knew about him.
• A soldier reported Xu Chen’s call to Yang Tianyou, and the officer ordered an investigation into Xu Chen and arranged to speak with Yang Tianyou.
• At Central Hospital, the officer told Yang Tianyou that Xu Chen had helped discover the Taihao Mausoleum.
• Yang Tianyou reacted to the name by claiming Taihao was real and muttering about spiritual perception and belief until the call became useless.
• The officer reviewed the report on Xu Chen’s activities and prepared to follow that lead at an upcoming meeting.

Xu Chen found repeated cases of ancient cultural artifacts being damaged by what he suspected was special corrosion, then learned that nuclear wastewater cleanup had been assigned to his country amid troubling health reports. Meanwhile, Captain Chu’s team debated Xu Chen’s knowledge of Taihao and decided to question him gently.

• Xu Chen compared reports of damaged archaeological sites with places from his previous life and concluded that special corrosion was responsible, then saved his research document.
• Song Tian brought Xu Chen a large pizza and celebrated Island Nuclear Power paying twenty billion for the first phase of nuclear wastewater cleanup.
• Xu Chen found reports that cancer rates had risen in coastal and inland areas and recalled Senior Ouyang’s advice that oncology specialists might soon be needed.
• Captain Chu’s team discussed whether Xu Chen knew about Taihao before discovering the ancient records and reviewed his connection to the Taihao Mausoleum.
• Captain Chu proposed approaching Xu Chen directly and questioning him gently, and the authoritative voice approved the plan.

Xu Chen was summoned before military and classified officials, who showed him records of an unexplained condition linked to the Taihao outbreak. The officials sought his cooperation because of his involvement in excavating the Taihao Mausoleum, and he began studying the evidence while considering the seriousness of their attention.

• Xu Chen was brought to a conference room and introduced to Staff Officer Xu, Deputy Regiment Commander Feng, Team Leader Zhu, Captain Chu, and Mr. Ge.
• Xu Chen guessed the officials might have come because he had excavated the Taihao Mausoleum, and he agreed to cooperate.
• Captain Chu explained that an unexplained fungal condition had appeared at meteorological stations in Fangjiang and other coastal areas, prompting officials to issue warnings.
• Captain Chu gave Xu Chen a military terminal containing records about the Taihao condition and its unusual symptoms, outbreaks, and sources of transmission.
• Xu Chen found documents linking Dean Yang to the case and realized the officials had sent high-ranking representatives because they considered his knowledge important.

Xu Chen answered Captain Chu’s questions about Taihao and explained that he had fabricated parts of the ancient records to support his discovery of the Taihao Mausoleum. When pressed on how he had known its location before reading about Taihao, Xu Chen said he was born knowing it, leaving the investigators alarmed and confused.

• Xu Chen asked why Yang Tianyou believed Taihao was connected to the infectious disease, and Captain Chu asked him to share what he knew.
• Xu Chen identified Taihao as Huaxia’s cultural progenitor, but said he did not know how or where Taihao had spread the disease.
• Captain Chu told Xu Chen that investigators believed he had concealed information before the Taihao Mausoleum excavation.
• Xu Chen admitted he had known the mausoleum’s location from the start and had filled gaps in ancient texts to persuade others of his discovery.
• When Mr. Ge asked where he had learned about Taihao, Xu Chen replied that he was born knowing it.