Chapter Summaries

Zhang Heng confronted the college student about his suspicious presence at the riverbank, but the man panicked and refused to explain. Zhang Heng left when the college student’s mother arrived, then learned from his grandfather that the man had once been hospitalized after a breakdown over a failed relationship.

• Zhang Heng went to the college student’s home and said he knew the man had been at the riverbank the previous night.
• The college student tried to escape through a second-floor window, but Zhang Heng caught him and brought him back inside.
• Zhang Heng showed the college student the newspaper report about the three drowned children, but the man only pleaded for him to leave.
• When the college student’s parents returned, Zhang Heng escaped through the window and saw the man’s mother close the curtains.
• Zhang Heng asked his grandfather about the college student and learned that romantic trouble had led to his breakdown and hospitalization.

Zhang Heng returned to the college student's home at midnight and found signs that the student had been dragged away. He discovered that the student and his parents were all missing, and the neatly made bed suggested they had left without haste.

• Zhang Heng learned from his grandfather that the college student's parents had appeared to act out of necessity, but he remained puzzled by the student's genuine terror and decided to visit again at night.
• Zhang Heng climbed into the college student's bedroom and found it empty, with scattered belongings and a door left ajar.
• Zhang Heng searched the home and found a slipper, a clump of hair, and other signs that someone or something had dragged the college student away.
• Zhang Heng investigated a shadow on the kitchen door, realized it was only a mop, and noticed that no one had reacted to the noise he made.
• Zhang Heng entered the master bedroom and found the college student and his parents missing, while the carefully made bed suggested they had left leisurely.

Zhang Heng struggled through school after staying awake most of the night worrying about the college graduate and his family. He found the college graduate at a convenience store, where the man seemed calm and said he had finally come to terms with his heartbreak.

• Zhang Heng stayed up until nearly dawn watching the college graduate’s home, then rushed to school and copied Bai Qing’s biology homework before it was collected.
• Bai Qing questioned Zhang Heng about his exhaustion, and he remained distracted by the college graduate’s safety and the mystery surrounding the drowned children.
• Zhang Heng arranged to meet Bai Qing on Sunday to collect her weekend homework, then took a taxi home to reach the college graduate before his parents returned.
• Zhang Heng spotted the college graduate at a convenience store, looking well-groomed and chatting with the cashier.
• The college graduate recognized Zhang Heng, shook his hand, and said he had come to terms with his heartbreak because love was not everything in life.

Zhang Heng realized that the college student he met at the convenience store had been replaced, though he could not prove it or identify the enemy. He decided to stay cautious and investigate while questioning whom he could trust, even in his own home.

• Zhang Heng noticed the college student's sudden recovery and questioned him about the shaved patch on his head.
• The college student claimed he had fallen, but Zhang Heng knew the wound and missing hair came from being forcibly pulled out.
• Zhang Heng asked the college student to pay for an ice cream and concluded that the man did not remember their earlier interaction, confirming his suspicion that he had been replaced.
• Zhang Heng decided not to confront the suspected impostor, choosing instead to gather evidence and prepare for the possibility that he had already been exposed.
• Zhang Heng returned home and found his grandfather practicing calligraphy, but now even the old man seemed unfamiliar to him.

Zhang Heng suspected that the college student’s family had been abducted and went to the apartment complex’s Monitoring Room to search for evidence. He forced the attendant to let him view the surveillance footage by threatening to expose his secret recordings.

• Zhang Heng tested a potato and rice from his grandfather’s curry on a living Lego kitten, saw no bad reaction, and told his grandfather he was going out to meet Qin Zhen.
• Zhang Heng packed his tools and a USB drive, planning to check the apartment complex’s surveillance footage for evidence of the college student and his family being taken away.
• The Monitoring Room attendant refused to let Zhang Heng view the footage without police authorization.
• Zhang Heng revealed that he knew the attendant secretly recorded videos of female residents and stopped him from destroying evidence.
• The attendant let Zhang Heng into the Monitoring Room and agreed to let him watch the footage, though he tried to limit the viewing time and forbid copying it.

Zhang Heng investigated the missing phone by checking the residential complex’s surveillance footage, but discovered that recordings had likely been altered by the university student’s family. He left with copied footage and new suspicions about the family, the children’s deaths, and the university student’s actions at the riverbank.

• Zhang Heng gave the Monitoring Room attendant his building details and learned that police had already inspected footage after a reported break-in at the university student’s home.
• Zhang Heng reviewed the building and entrance footage but found no sign of the red Fit or anyone leaving after midnight.
• The attendant recalled leaving the locked Monitoring Room for ten minutes after his supervisor called, leading Zhang Heng to suspect that someone had altered the recordings.
• Zhang Heng copied the recordings, obtained the supervisor’s name, and warned the attendant not to mention his visit or secretly film residents.
• Zhang Heng concluded that the university student’s family had likely replaced people and connected them to the three children’s drowning, then questioned why the student had gone to the riverbank.

Zhang Heng considered returning to the riverbank and searching nearby surveillance footage for clues about the missing college student, while deciding not to involve Qin Zhen because he could not be sure his friend had not been replaced. On his way home, Zhang Heng encountered the fake college student in a dark stairwell, where the stranger answered his remark with an eerie, silent grin.

• Zhang Heng planned to investigate cameras near the garage and considered asking Qin Zhen to help, but decided it was safer to work alone.
• Zhang Heng visited Qin Zhen and played games with him while maintaining the appearance of an ordinary visit.
• Qin Zhen offered to help Zhang Heng win over his deskmate, and Zhang Heng tested him by asking for the name of his childhood crush, Sun Jia.
• Zhang Heng left Qin Zhen's home and found the motion-activated stairwell light broken, with the fake college student waiting below.
• The fake college student said he was carrying homemade pork jelly to Auntie Wang, then gave Zhang Heng a broad, unsettling grin.

Zhang Heng survived a fake college student’s attempt to frighten him and concluded that the impostors could not replace people at will. After failing to find clues at the riverbank, he traced the family’s car through shop surveillance footage, then met Bai Qing at Wanda Plaza.

• A fake college student met Zhang Heng on the stairs, discussed pork jelly and human cruelty, and tried to intimidate him.
• Zhang Heng realized the impostors could only threaten him for now because they could not replace him whenever they wanted.
• Zhang Heng searched the riverbank where the three children had died but found no clues.
• Zhang Heng spent a day and a half reviewing shop footage and traced the red Honda Fit’s general direction.
• Bai Qing met Zhang Heng at Wanda Plaza after her friend left, and he offered to treat her to a burger.

Zhang Heng met Bai Qing at KFC, where they ate and talked about their families and recent lives. He grew concerned by her father’s unusual behavior, and Bai Qing left for her movie after handing Zhang Heng her homework.

• Zhang Heng borrowed next week’s pocket money from his grandfather after Qin Zhen could not lend him any.
• Bai Qing paid for their meal and reminded Zhang Heng that he had once helped her when girls cornered her outside school.
• Zhang Heng and Bai Qing ate together and chatted about their weekend activities and college entrance exam applications.
• Bai Qing told Zhang Heng that her father had recently come home early and spent time looking through old photos.
• Zhang Heng asked Bai Qing to tell him if her father did anything else unusual, then Bai Qing hurried off to her movie and gave him her homework.

After a nightmare about the things gathering by the river, Zhang Heng abandoned his search there and went to the New District to earn money by joining a street race. The modified car club mocked him and his Volkswagen as he asked to race with them.

• Zhang Heng dreamed that fog obscured the riverbank and a crowd of grinning figures surrounded him.
• After waking, Zhang Heng decided to stop searching the riverbank for the night and sought a way to earn money.
• Zhang Heng borrowed his grandfather's Volkswagen and drove to the New District, where a modified car club had gathered to race.
• A club member shouted at Zhang Heng to leave, but he stopped beside them and asked if they were street racing.
• Zhang Heng asked to join the race, and a girl in a baseball cap and suspenders laughed at his Volkswagen.

Zhang Heng refused to leave the modified car club’s gathering and insisted on racing, despite the group mocking his Santana 3000 and threatening him. The club leader agreed to a race with eight cars, and Zhang Heng studied the unfamiliar route before the drivers prepared to start.

• Zhang Heng defended his Santana 3000 while the girl in the baseball cap and the club members mocked his car and refused to let him race without money.
• A Gen Z member offered to front Zhang Heng’s entry fee, but the young man in the 911 rejected the offer and ordered Zhang Heng to leave.
• Zhang Heng stayed, and when the club members surrounded him, he challenged them to race instead of fight.
• The young man in the 911 agreed to a race and said Zhang Heng would have to crawl a lap if he lost; Zhang Heng insisted that everyone race.
• Xiao K explained that the race would start at the gathering and finish at the west gate of the swimming center, with eight cars entering.
• Zhang Heng checked the route on Amap and found that the unfinished roads would test driving skill, while the club members would all race on an unfamiliar route.

Zhang Heng entered a street race in his underpowered Santana 3000 and used a hard launch and skilled driving to keep up briefly before falling to last place. As the 911 driver wondered if Zhang Heng had quit, he turned away from a construction site and continued the race.

• Xiao K sent the drivers the route information and arranged Zhang Heng’s Santana in the front row between the 911 and the Mercedes-Benz SL.
• Zhang Heng chose to race normally instead of using the Water-Melting Metal he had prepared for sabotage.
• Xiao K started the race, and Zhang Heng launched the Santana aggressively before faster cars overtook him.
• Zhang Heng gained ground at turns but fell from fifth to sixth and then last as the sports cars pulled ahead.
• The tattooed driver passed the 911 to take the lead, while the 911 driver noticed Zhang Heng’s car had disappeared and suspected he had quit.
• The 911 driver turned around the construction site rather than taking the rough shortcut through it.

Zhang Heng used shortcuts through construction sites to overcome the Santana’s inferior speed and take the lead in the race. He won after the Porsche 911 crashed while trying to follow him through the final site.

• Zhang Heng turned off the Santana’s headlights and drove through the first construction site, avoiding obstacles with the Filter Lens and emerging ahead of the other cars.
• The young man in the Porsche 911 was stunned to see the Santana take the lead, then accelerated to catch up with Zhang Heng.
• Zhang Heng gestured toward a second construction site, and the young man in the 911 chose to follow him through it rather than take the detour.
• Zhang Heng sped through the shooting-range construction site, overtook the 911, and avoided exposed rebar while the young man watched and crashed into a wall.
• Zhang Heng crossed the finish line first while the tattooed man was still taking the detour.

Zhang Heng won the race in his Santana 3000, stunning the modified car club with his driving. The club accepted the loss and agreed to pay him, while Zhang Heng calmly dismissed the baseball-cap girl’s concern that they might attack him.

• Zhang Heng crossed the finish line first and parked his Santana beside the swimming pool steps, leaving the club members stunned.
• The club members found the 911 driver unharmed beside his damaged car, where he admitted he was shaken by losing to a Santana.
• The 911 driver explained that Zhang Heng had drifted through the dark construction site with extraordinary skill, and the club decided to honor the bet and pay him.
• Zhang Heng asked the baseball-cap girl for water, and she gave him a bottle and asked whether he feared the club might hurt him.
• Zhang Heng told the girl that the club members could not beat him.

After winning 240,000 yuan from the modified car club, Zhang Heng declined their offer to hire him as a driving instructor and used their repair shop to fix the Santana. Back at school, he told Bai Qing that Teacher He was distracted because her husband was cheating on her, explaining how he had inferred it from her appearance and behavior.

• Zhang Heng collected 50,000 yuan from the modified car club and arranged for the rest of the race winnings to be delivered to their repair shop.
• The young man from the 911 offered Zhang Heng paid work teaching the club to race, but Zhang Heng declined and exchanged phone numbers with him.
• Zhang Heng had the Santana repaired and refueled, then returned home before dawn with a backpack full of money.
• During math class, Bai Qing asked Zhang Heng if he had stayed up all night, and he warned her that Teacher He was watching them.
• After class, Zhang Heng told Bai Qing that Teacher He was troubled by her husband's infidelity and explained his reasoning.

Bai Qing confided in Zhang Heng about her parents’ troubled marriage, and he invited her to go somewhere with him on Friday. After school, Zhang Heng investigated the past of the three children killed by the creatures and went to one child’s elementary school.

• Bai Qing told Zhang Heng that her parents often fought and that she had recently found her mother crying alone.
• Zhang Heng reassured Bai Qing, and she finished a worksheet for him before they agreed to meet after school on Friday, with friends accompanying them.
• Zhang Heng decided to investigate what the three children might have discovered before the creatures attacked them.
• Zhang Heng found the name of one child’s elementary school and its homeroom teacher in a news report, then went to the school.
• Zhang Heng told the gatekeeper that he had booked the badminton court to get inside.

Zhang Heng investigated Lin Sisi’s school and interviewed her teacher, Li Yan, posing as a reporter to gather information about the dead girl and the other drowned children. Li Yan revealed that Sisi had written about aliens disguised as humans shortly before her death, leaving Zhang Heng with a possible clue to the nonhuman beings in the instance.

• Zhang Heng entered Lin Sisi’s classroom and learned from a memorial display that she had been quiet, withdrawn, and interested in astronomy.
• Zhang Heng photographed Li Yan’s information from a school document and later called her while posing as a reporter named Song.
• Zhang Heng interviewed Li Yan at a café and obtained Lin Sisi’s home address and the fact that the other two children lived in the same residential complex.
• Li Yan told Zhang Heng that Sisi’s journal had claimed aliens were living among humans in disguise and preparing to replace them.
• Zhang Heng asked who had seen the journal and whether Li Yan had told anyone about it, then urged her to forget the story.

Zhang Heng tried to trace the missing college student's red Fit while arranging concert tickets for Bai Qing and Qin Zhen. His investigation led him to an underground parking garage, where a group of men confronted him for meddling.

• Zhang Heng returned home, had dinner with his grandfather, and asked Qin Zhen to arrange four VIP tickets to GEM's concert.
• Zhang Heng visited Lin Sisi's residential complex, but her parents refused to be interviewed, and a security guard said the three children often went off together.
• Zhang Heng tracked the red Fit toward the eastern side of the city, but it disappeared near an area of declining state-owned factories and mines.
• Zhang Heng went into a nearby underground parking garage to check its surveillance footage and found the lights flickering and the duty room empty.
• Eight or nine men armed with tools surrounded Zhang Heng, and their leader warned him to stop meddling in other people's business.

Zhang Heng fought off the men hired to ambush him and learned that the college student had arranged the attack. The surveillance footage was gone, but Zhang Heng believed he was close to the place the college student’s family had gone and planned to continue investigating through interviews.

• Zhang Heng offered the gang leader six thousand yuan to leave and reveal who hired them, but the leader demanded more money.
• Zhang Heng fought the gang, drove most of them away, took back his money, and forced the leader to identify the college student as the contact.
• Zhang Heng concluded that the college student’s family had switched cars at the garage and that the footage had likely been deleted, so he planned to question nearby residents.
• Zhang Heng ended his investigation for the day, went home, and paid Qin Zhen for four concert tickets after checking their QR codes.
• Qin Zhen celebrated getting to attend the concert for free and stopped asking Zhang Heng who the two girls were.

On Friday, Zhang Heng showed Bai Qing and Chi Jia two VIP tickets to GEM's concert, arranging to meet Bai Qing at the Route 102 bus stop. Bai Qing and Chi Jia prepared to go, while Zhang Heng concealed that he was taking Bai Qing to avoid rumors at school.

• Bai Qing wore a new short dress, and she and Zhang Heng exchanged compliments before she said she had invited Chi Jia.
• The homeroom teacher scolded the restless students and threatened to assign more homework, while Zhang Heng copied the homework Bai Qing passed him.
• As the final class ended, Chi Jia hurried to Bai Qing and asked where they were going that night.
• Zhang Heng produced two VIP tickets to GEM's concert, and Chi Jia nearly revealed that he had given them to her and Bai Qing.
• Zhang Heng claimed he had asked a scalper to buy the tickets, then told Bai Qing to meet him at the Route 102 bus stop.