Chapter Summaries

Fu Qian found the abandoned car and revived the seemingly dead Katon Diggins by filling it with gasoline. Katon confirmed Fu Qian was new to the area and gave him directions as they continued toward the old man’s destination.

• Fu Qian inspected an ornate, loaded revolver and reasoned about his role as the old man’s driver.
• Fu Qian found the black car and saw that the old man inside had no heartbeat.
• Fu Qian poured gasoline into the car, and Katon Diggins opened his eyes and resumed his heartbeat.
• Fu Qian explained that he had gotten lost and repeated the shopkeeper’s explanation for buying a first-aid kit.
• Katon confirmed that Fu Qian had never been there before and gave him directions toward a red-surfaced road.

Fu Qian drove Old Man Katon to a small settlement so Katon could begin fulfilling his wish list. Katon reunited with Lucy at her home, where a table of food and drink awaited them.

• Old Man Katon called Fu Qian Anke and revealed that Fu Qian had been hired after an interview to drive him.
• Fu Qian followed Katon's directions past an abandoned motel and across a stone bridge to a small settlement.
• Katon invited Fu Qian to join him and led him to a house with an orange-red roof.
• Katon knocked on the door and greeted Lucy, explaining that he had come because she once asked him to see her cat.
• Lucy reminded Katon that her cat had died decades earlier, but he said that did not matter.

Fu Qian watched Katon arrive at Lucy’s family home to see her and the long-dead cat, despite Lucy’s efforts to send him away. Katon entered and went upstairs, while Lucy eventually invited Fu Qian inside.

• Fu Qian observed Lucy’s family gather at the table as Lucy’s husband demanded to know who he and Katon were.
• Lucy explained that she and Katon had not seen each other in decades and urged him to leave.
• Katon ignored Lucy’s husband and asked whether her old bedroom was still the first room upstairs.
• Lucy’s husband slammed the door into Katon, but Katon pressed inside and headed upstairs despite Lucy saying the room now belonged to Wendy.
• Fu Qian reassured Lucy and offered to wait with Katon, and Lucy invited him into the house.

Fu Qian joined Lucy’s family for dinner and asked her to explain her past with Katon. After hearing how Katon left without returning, Fu Qian went upstairs to find him, where Katon praised Fu Qian for not using his gun.

• Fu Qian sat down to dinner with Lucy’s family, and Wendy reacted to him with open hostility.
• Lucy’s husband challenged Fu Qian’s presence, but Fu Qian said he was receiving guidance from Katon and warned that the old man might return even if the police took him away.
• Fu Qian asked Lucy how she and Katon had met, and she told the family that Katon had left without coming back to see her.
• Fu Qian thanked Lucy for the meal and went upstairs to hurry Katon along.
• Katon praised Fu Qian for not using his gun, and Fu Qian replied that Lucy had probably expected him to use it back then.

Fu Qian accompanied Katon to Lucy’s family home, where Katon revisited memories of his youth and explained why he had never returned to see Lucy. They left without resolving the meaning of Katon’s strange regret, and Katon moved on from the first stop on the Wish List.

• Fu Qian identified the gaps between the buildings as the path the calico cat had used to leave Lucy’s room.
• Katon recalled that the cat returned by the window twice but used the front door on its final trip.
• Fu Qian asked why Katon had never come back, and Katon said he had wanted to visit and had time but simply had not gone.
• Fu Qian and Katon left Lucy’s family home after Fu Qian apologized to the people waiting outside.
• Katon told Fu Qian to head back and resumed giving instructions for their journey.

Fu Qian drove Katon to a derelict inn after leaving Lucy’s family, where Katon checked in and lay down in a ruined room. Watching him, Fu Qian wondered whether Katon had stayed there before and where the doctor who was Katon’s father was now.

• Fu Qian and Katon left Lucy’s home without the family opening the door again, and Katon asked Fu Qian whether he had eaten.
• Katon told Fu Qian to drive to a deserted inn, then said Lucy’s family did not matter to him and neither did the cat.
• Fu Qian drove into the inn’s overgrown courtyard, where another rusted car sat beside the building.
• Katon told Fu Qian to stay in the car, went through the lobby as if checking in, and disappeared into a room.
• Fu Qian saw Katon remove his coat and lie stiffly on a bed in the wrecked room, then wondered whether Katon had stayed there before and where his doctor father was.

Katon revisited the abandoned Far View motel and began reenacting a disturbing memory from his stay there. As midnight passed, he entered a neighboring room and acted as though he were talking to someone in bed, eventually pressing a pillow down over their head.

• Fu Qian suspected Katon had begun the second item on his Wish List while they waited at the motel.
• Fu Qian watched the motel’s clock tower as midnight approached.
• Katon opened his eyes and sat upright after the midnight chimes.
• Katon put on his coat and entered the room beside his.
• Katon stood beside the bed, pressed a pillow down as if smothering someone, and spoke to the unseen person about their illness.

Fu Qian pieced together that Old Man Katon's pillow-related regret involved his father and Mr. Dawkins, though the past event remained unclear. After Katon completed another item on his Wish List, he sent Fu Qian back toward the place where they had bought gas and asked what he thought of it.

• Fu Qian inferred that Katon had once pressed a pillow over his doctor's father’s face while trying to respond to something strange happening next door.
• Katon left the room, returned to the car, and rejoined Fu Qian after completing the second item on his Wish List.
• Katon told Fu Qian to drive back to the place where they had bought gas, saying they had enough fuel.
• On the way, Katon asked Anke what he thought of the place they had just visited.

Fu Qian drove Old Man Katon around town and learned that Katon had not slept since meeting Lucy, which explained why he had aged so much. Katon led him to a buried skeleton and arranged it in a seated pose, leaving Fu Qian to watch from the car.

• Katon asked Fu Qian to review the trip, and Fu Qian gave it three and a half stars.
• Katon asked why he looked so much older than Lucy, and Fu Qian suggested that he had experienced more time than she had.
• Katon said he had twenty-four hours in every day because he had not slept since meeting Lucy.
• Fu Qian drove Katon past the locked shop and out to the edge of town, where Katon told him to wait in the car.
• Katon used a shovel to break through a shop window and the floor, then dug up a skeleton in prayer-like clothing.
• Katon propped the skeleton against a wooden frame, adjusted it to look seated, and solemnly kissed its bony hand.

Katon finished his personal list by digging up a skeleton he had buried years ago, while Fu Qian watched as his witness. Katon then proposed an additional task, leaving Fu Qian to face the next item: forcibly taking possession of something without permission.

• Katon dug up a skeleton buried underground and knelt before it while Fu Qian watched from the car.
• Katon asked Fu Qian what he thought, and Fu Qian called the discovery a time capsule.
• Fu Qian reminded Katon that the car was nearly out of gas, and Katon said everything on his list was done.
• Katon noticed Fu Qian seemed unsatisfied and offered him an additional task, which Fu Qian accepted.
• Katon told Fu Qian to get out of the car and named the next task: forcibly taking possession of something without permission.

Fu Qian helped Katon fulfill his fourth wish by taking a white car, then learned that the fifth wish, “Reflection,” would reverse their identities. The chapter ended with Katon handing him a metal pendant that Fu Qian recognized from the skeleton.

• Fu Qian concluded that Katon's earlier wishes might be connected by supernatural events and realized the fourth wish involved taking a car, not a person.
• Fu Qian hotwired the white car and let Katon take over the driver's seat.
• Katon said they had completed the fourth wish and announced the next item, “Reflection.”
• Katon explained that their identities would be reversed and handed Fu Qian a familiar metal pendant that had hung from a skeleton.

Fu Qian continued the fifth item on the list by taking Katon, who was playing his driver, back to the roadside shop and making coffee. He left Katon wondering who the coffee was for, as Fu Qian said it was meant for another friend.

• Fu Qian examined the burial offering tied to the third item and reflected that the latest list items had taught him little.
• Katon took the wheel and drove Fu Qian back to the roadside shop at his request.
• Fu Qian unlocked the shop, turned on the lights, and began preparing coffee.
• Katon left the car and entered the shop, asking why Fu Qian had brought him there.
• Fu Qian offered Katon a seat, then said the coffee was for another friend.

Fu Qian and Katon discussed Katon’s plan to examine himself by exchanging identities with a driver, while townspeople gathered outside after discovering the stolen car and pit. The driver used supernatural power and broke character, and Fu Qian singled out a plaid-shirted figure outside to remain behind.

• Katon questioned Fu Qian about the other friends he had invited, and Fu Qian said they had not arrived yet.
• Fu Qian recognized that Katon had hired the driver to become his Reflection and help him examine himself from a different perspective.
• Katon warned Fu Qian that people were converging on the shop after the area’s suppression lifted and the stolen car and pit were discovered.
• Fu Qian placed his pistol on the counter, checked its magazine, and dismissed Katon’s warning as they continued drinking coffee.
• The people outside fell silent and began to leave after the driver used supernatural power and broke character.
• Katon said the Reflection part was over, but Fu Qian pointed to a figure in a plaid shirt and told him to leave that person behind.

Fu Qian confronted Katon at the shop and deliberately provoked him into using his supernatural ability. Katon’s reluctance to rely on that power led Fu Qian to suspect that, near the end of his life, Katon was trying to live as an ordinary person.

• Fu Qian invited the Plaid Shirt shopkeeper into his own shop, despite Katon’s surprise.
• When the shopkeeper questioned whether Fu Qian’s gun was real, Fu Qian fired it and wounded Katon instead.
• Fu Qian pointed the gun toward the shopkeeper and asked Katon why he disliked his supernatural self.
• Katon tried to use mental influence on Fu Qian, but it had no effect.
• Fu Qian reflected that Katon had repeatedly waited until he had no choice before using his supernatural power.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about what he truly wanted, then turned his attention to the terrified shopkeeper, Lei Meng. He left Lei Meng with advice to keep the best coffee beans ready for Bernard or Loretta.

• Fu Qian tested whether Katon would reveal what he wanted, but Katon denied understanding and prepared to attack.
• Fu Qian invited the Plaid Shirt shopkeeper inside and reassured him that Katon would survive his wound.
• Fu Qian held a gun to the shopkeeper's head, learned his name was Lei Meng, and told him he was going to die.
• Lei Meng admitted he hated his job and could not think of anything he wanted to do.
• Fu Qian advised Lei Meng to buy the best coffee beans and make coffee for Bernard or Loretta if either visited.

Fu Qian pushed Lei Meng to give Bernard and Loretta free coffee, explaining that the routine mattered even if it changed nothing. After leaving Lei Meng’s shop safely, Fu Qian and Katon returned to the car, where Old Man praised Fu Qian’s performance, and Fu Qian moved on to the next item on the list.

• Fu Qian told Lei Meng to set aside coffee for Bernard and Loretta, and insisted he do it simply because Fu Qian had told him to.
• Katon understood Fu Qian’s approach and praised his guidance, then urged them to leave because the coffee was awful.
• Fu Qian left payment and tossed Katon’s holster and pistol beside Lei Meng before walking out with Katon.
• Old Man praised Fu Qian’s performance in the car, and Fu Qian thanked him for helping make Lei Meng less likely to shoot them.
• Fu Qian noted that the fifth item on the list was complete and volunteered for the next task.

Fu Qian drove Katon back to the abandoned hotel as Katon explained his connection to the Unjust and the power he had gained. Katon revealed that the last item on his list was to die in his sleep.

• Katon told Fu Qian that he knew about the Unjust and the old Warehouse, and Fu Qian showed him the pendant he had taken from a dead man.
• Katon explained that the Unjust belonged to a group who prayed to their own true selves and had invited him to join them.
• Katon said he had refused because he believed he had already achieved what the group sought.
• Katon admitted that he tested his gained power by giving the Unjust an ascension, but that power had also kept him from visiting Lucy's house and caring for his father.
• Fu Qian drove Katon to the abandoned hotel, where Katon revealed that his final list item was to die in his sleep.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about his final wish and learned that the old man had planned for him to remain involved regardless of his willingness. Fu Qian’s observation about the hotel clock led Katon to reveal that his father’s visit had involved the same unusual group—and a disturbing method of treatment.

• Katon told Fu Qian to stay in the car and explained that he still did not trust him enough to reveal the plan for his final wish.
• Fu Qian asked what Katon’s original plan would have been if he had refused to help, and Katon said he would still have brought him inside.
• Fu Qian aligned the Cross Star Pendant with the hotel clock and suggested that someone had removed the clock hand to ruin the hotel’s prospects.
• Katon agreed that the group had removed the hand and said his father had also sensed the hotel’s potential.
• Katon revealed that his father had come to treat a patient who belonged to the unusual group, and that he and the other “unjust ones” had eaten one of their sisters as part of the treatment.

Fu Qian questioned Katon about how he discovered his father’s secret and learned that Katon had gained Supernatural Power that night. Katon explained how the Unjust’s experiments had harmed the area’s business, then invited Fu Qian to come with him.

• Fu Qian asked Katon why his father had brought him to the feast and why he had left his room that night.
• Katon said he had sneaked outside after hearing his father return and discovered his father’s secret when he reached the parking spot and gained Supernatural Power.
• Katon said he stayed by the car instead of visiting Lucy, then watched his father and confirmed what was happening.
• Katon explained that he found the Warehouse and met another self-deceived member of the Unjust, whom he later killed.
• Katon said the Unjust’s experiments had caused strange incidents that hurt local business, then invited Fu Qian to come along, and Fu Qian agreed.

Katon brought Fu Qian to the room where his father had once lived and prepared to enter a long sleep, reflecting on their past. He asked Fu Qian to help him die peacefully if necessary, then closed his eyes.

• Fu Qian considered how the Unjust might have treated Mr. Dawkins’s experience as a model for transcendence and why the hotel had become significant to them.
• Katon thanked Fu Qian and left without sharing more details.
• Katon told Fu Qian that his father had stayed inside the room for a day and a night before emerging, and that they rarely kept in touch afterward.
• Katon asked Fu Qian whether he liked dreaming, then explained that he had prepared to enter death and sleep for a long time.
• Fu Qian offered to help Katon die peacefully if the situation called for it, and Katon accepted before closing his eyes.