Chapter Summaries

Ammon studied the modern world online while surviving by secretly using computers in empty houses, and he considered how to reach regions where a child like him might survive. As he headed toward a school to buy dinner, a pursuer tracked him, and the chapter left their group preparing to catch him before school let out.

• Ammon read online jokes and realized how risky it would have been to register for Mobile Payment using a stolen ID number.
• Ammon charged his phone and used a computer in an empty house, then checked his map and weighed the obstacles to traveling to the Middle East, Southeast Asia, or South America.
• Ammon considered using an adult as a spokesperson or bluffing people with a false identity, but recognized the risks of either plan.
• Ammon noticed someone following him and vanished from the street before the pursuer could keep sight of him.
• The follower reported Ammon's counter-reconnaissance skills to a partner, who warned that they needed to act before school let out.

Ammon suspected that the people following him were connected to the traffickers and headed for the Police Station to deter them. The police caught him there, and his escape attempt left them wondering whether he had been trained as a child assassin.

• Ammon reasoned that the traffickers' associates might be pursuing him and decided to seek safety near the Police Station.
• Ammon bought a utility knife and made his way toward the Police Station while officers secretly followed him.
• The old policeman concluded that Ammon might mistake them for traffickers and ordered the officers to close in.
• A uniformed policeman approached Ammon outside the Police Station, but Ammon tried to flee and attacked after being grabbed.
• The officers restrained Ammon with padded handcuffs, and the old policeman said they needed to investigate his history before the orphanage.

After the police captured the serial passion-murder culprit, they struggled to decide what to do with seven-year-old Ammon and veteran detective Li Anbang offered to adopt him. Li Anbang brought Ammon home for dinner, suspecting his father and older brother might reveal more about his past.

• The police debated how to handle Ammon, whose dangerous skills made returning him to the orphanage seem unsafe, and Li Anbang volunteered to adopt him.
• Li Anbang asked Ammon about his name and family, and Ammon said he did not know his surname but remembered a father and an older brother.
• Li Anbang took Ammon home, confiscated his stolen phone, and made him dinner while quietly observing him.
• Li Anbang uploaded Ammon's information about his father and older brother to the Police Station's shared cloud drive.
• Li Anbang called Ammon to dinner, and Ammon decided to find out what the policeman was planning.

While eating with Li Anbang, Ammon learned that Adam, Ammon, Abraham, and Jacob were names associated with religious figures in this world, leaving him shaken by the possibility that he was in the future. When Li Anbang confirmed that Christianity used the cross as its symbol, Ammon reacted with alarm.

• Li Anbang asked Ammon for his family members' names, and Ammon said his brother was named Adam.
• Li Anbang searched online and told Ammon that Adam and Ammon were names of mythological or religious figures.
• Ammon asked about Abraham and Jacob, and Li Anbang identified them as biblical ancestors.
• Ammon mentioned Medici, whom he called an idiot who had taught him to deceive people, making Li Anbang suspect Medici was part of a criminal organization.
• Ammon asked Li Anbang about the Bible and Christianity, then learned that the cross was Christianity's symbol and reacted with alarm.

Li Anbang questioned Amon about his age and schooling, then agreed to buy him a phone and religious texts while keeping him under his care. At the Police Station, Li Anbang and his colleagues suspected Amon was connected to a group using Christianity as a cover and planned to investigate further.

• Li Anbang asked Amon how old he was and urged him to attend school, but Amon said he had already learned what he needed and asked whether Li Anbang would let him go.
• Li Anbang told Amon he needed to live with him for a while and offered to buy him a smartphone, a Bible, and other religious texts and myths.
• Li Anbang reported to his colleagues that Amon might have come from an organization built around Christianity, possibly using religion as a cover.
• The officers debated how Amon had ended up alone and decided to follow their usual procedures for investigating transnational criminal groups.
• Li Anbang returned home with a phone, books, and dinner ingredients while the officers arranged surveillance near his home and agreed to check religious groups in Korea and the Far East.

Ammon struggled against his growing attachment to Li Anbang and planned to escape before he was sent to school. When he used a homemade device to disable the surveillance cameras, the police were left stunned by his ingenuity.

• Ammon studied the world through books while the police analyzed his online activity and behavior.
• Ammon resolved to escape because he feared becoming attached to Li Anbang and assimilated into ordinary life.
• The Major Crimes Unit planned to let Ammon attempt an escape so they could follow him toward his father's organization, while Li Anbang stayed out of the operation.
• Li Anbang told Ammon that he would start school in September, strengthening Ammon's resolve to leave.
• Ammon used a homemade device to plug into a wall outlet and turn the surveillance feeds to static.

Ammon used his Signal Jamming Device to escape the police surveillance network and headed out of the city in a taxi. The police followed him by drone while trying to understand his unusual technical and psychological skills.

• Xiao Liu explained that Ammon's device had interfered with the surveillance cameras, and the unit chief ordered the police to keep watching him and preserve the device if possible.
• Ammon used his knowledge of the city to evade observers and decided to leave as quickly as possible after disabling the cameras.
• Ammon got into a DiDi Taxi by convincing the driver that he regularly traveled alone to a piano class outside the city.
• Two police officers tracked Ammon with a drone and discussed his counter-surveillance skills and the possibility that a criminal organization had trained him.

Ammon tried to escape the city by walking through the countryside, while police officers tracked him with a drone. The chapter left him continuing toward the river crossing despite exhaustion, as the police discussed the possibility that an organization had trained children like him.

• Ammon paid his driver, slipped away from the piano school, and headed toward the wilderness to reach a nearby town.
• Police officers tracked Ammon by drone and switched places in their surveillance car as they followed his slow progress.
• Ammon struggled with the heat and his heavy backpack, considered returning, then forced himself to continue after blaming the current Mystery for his escape.
• Ammon rinsed his shirt in the river, ate bread, rested briefly, and set off again toward the crossing.
• Old Li and the Head of the Major Crimes Unit discussed Ammon's abilities and worried that an unknown organization might have trained other children like him.

After escaping, Ammon trekked into town, sold stolen phones, and found a bridge underpass to sleep in. The police tracked him there with an undercover officer, but they saw no sign that anyone had come to meet him.

• Ammon reached town after a grueling trek, replenished his energy at a convenience store, and continued toward the busier part of town.
• Ammon sold the phones he had stolen, unaware that the shop was raided soon after he left and its owner was mistaken for an organization member.
• Ammon ate at a Shaxian snack shop, then followed online tutorials to find a bridge underpass where he could spend the night.
• A surveillance team sent an undercover officer posing as a homeless man to watch Ammon beneath the bridge.
• Ammon offered the officer candy in exchange for a small place to sleep, then rested warily with his knife hidden in his backpack.
• The police watched Ammon through a pinhole camera and wondered why nobody appeared to meet him.

Ammon left the bridge and boarded a long-distance bus while police monitored his movements. When he noticed a woman secretly watching him, he suspected she was a human trafficker and gripped the knife in his bag.

• Ammon woke sore after his weighted run, packed his bedsheet, and made his way to the bus station.
• Ammon obtained a ticket to a nearby county town and boarded a bus after deciding that changing vehicles would make him harder to track.
• Ammon fell asleep on the bus from exhaustion while the Major Crimes Unit continued watching him remotely.
• Ammon woke suddenly and noticed a middle-aged woman holding a child secretly observing him.
• The Head of the Major Crimes Unit suspected the woman was a human trafficker and ordered Xiao Zhang to follow her, while Ammon gripped his knife and declared that human traffickers must die.

Ammon stopped the suspected trafficker at a rest stop without killing her and reported her to the police, while officers monitored him and adjusted their plan. Li Anbang worried that Ammon still wanted to kill, but the chief reassured him that the boy could be taught.

• Ammon noticed the trafficker watching him and considered torturing her, but remembered Li Anbang’s warning against taking lives.
• At the rest stop, officers saw Ammon follow the suspected trafficker and prepared to intervene.
• Ammon struck the woman unconscious, caught the baby she was holding, and tied her up in a secluded corner.
• Ammon used the woman’s phone to call 110 and report an unconscious woman and child at the rest stop.
• The chief ordered local police to handle the case and changed the officers assigned to watch Ammon after Xiao Zhang risked exposing himself.
• Li Anbang admitted Ammon had genuinely wanted to kill the trafficker, and the chief encouraged him to keep teaching the boy.

Ammon evaded the police, stole from thieves and fences to fund his journey, and traveled toward Dali as he planned to leave the country. The police debated whether to intercept him before he reached the border, while Ammon continued to distance himself from Li Anbang.

• After the police removed the trafficker and the suspected abducted infant, Ammon left by train and later stole phones from thieves at a county bus station.
• Ammon earned several thousand yuan by selling stolen phones and tricking a fence into getting arrested, then bought supplies and stole other items while leaving money behind.
• The police noticed that Ammon was trying to avoid causing trouble, and they discussed his growing journey as he prepared to set out again.
• The police learned that Ammon had bought a ticket to Dali and began a meeting about whether to intercept him before he crossed the border.
• On the bus to Dali, Ammon relaxed, bought handicrafts, visited amusement parks, and pushed aside thoughts of school as he planned to leave the country.

After being caught during his attempted escape, Ammon was returned to the city and enrolled in primary school, where he remained convinced that people around him were secretly watching him. At school, he learned about Ultraman from two classmates, while Li Anbang watched the classroom footage and considered getting Ammon some shows to watch.

• Border troops caught Ammon, and Li Anbang brought him back to the city and confiscated his gadgets.
• Ammon attended a pinyin lesson, worried that his teachers and other adults might be police watching him, and received homework as punishment for spacing out.
• Two classmates argued over which Ultraman was strongest, then explained the characters and their differences to Ammon.
• Li Anbang watched Ammon's school routine at the Police Station and considered buying or renting him Ultraman discs.

Ammon attempted to escape again, but learned that Li Anbang had been seriously injured and returned to the hospital. After Li Anbang urged him to trust the people around him, Ammon accepted defeat and ended his escape attempts.

• Ammon secretly cracked a stolen phone, left the monitored device behind, and changed clothes before setting off toward the suburbs.
• Ammon switched from the high-speed rail to a taxi and retraced the route of his first escape.
• A police officer stopped Ammon and told him that Captain Li had been injured on duty.
• Ammon handed over the stolen phone and went to the hospital, where he found Li Anbang gravely ill.
• After Li Anbang asked him to trust them, Ammon tried reciting a supernatural honorific but nothing happened, then said, "You win."