Chapter Summaries

Xu Yun’s Gravity Gradiometer successfully detected objects through ice and rock up to the equivalent of 3.5 meters of ice, prompting Li Hua and Ge Tongyou to celebrate its potential for finding nuclear submarines beneath Arctic ice. The group then revealed that the retired shipboard instrument belonged to Huang Yuting and offered to return it and fund her research, leaving her in tears.

• Xu Yun matched the mountain scan results against a gradient database and reported detecting preserved meat, disaster supplies, medicine, mahjong tables, cement, Type 67 wooden-handled weapons, and a retired warship component through thick rock and ice.
• Li Hua and Ge Tongyou celebrated the Gradiometer’s detection depth of 3.5 meters and praised Xu Yun, who credited Ge Tongyou and Professor Huang with helping develop the device.
• Huang Yuting declined a personal reward and asked to observe the Yongling excavation, so Li Hua led the group to a warehouse at the mountain’s center.
• Ge Tongyou explained that the retired shipboard Gravity Gradiometer had been designed by Huang Dannián and installed on a ship in his former unit.
• Huang Yuting uncovered the instrument and recognized the one she had helped assemble in 2013, then learned the base would return it to her and fund her research at Jilin University with four million yuan.
• Huang Yuting wept as she touched the instrument.

Xu Yun secured approval to use the Gravity Gradiometer to survey Yongling, while Huang Yuting signed agreements to continue the instrument’s development. At Jinling University, Weng Tong learned that USTC had developed a technology capable of mapping buried structures and wanted to collaborate on the excavation.

• Huang Yuting signed the Jilin University collaboration agreement and the Gravity Gradiometer gift agreement.
• Li Hua told Xu Yun that the higher-ups had approved his confidential survey of Yongling, and Xu Yun said USTC should contact the excavation team.
• Weng Tong saw the public announcement that the Yongling excavation proposal had been approved and confirmed that Jinling University was an applicant.
• Weng Tong told his students that surveying Yongling could take years and insisted that a major remote-sensing breakthrough was impossible in the near future.
• Tong Huaijun called Weng Tong and said USTC had developed technology that could map buried structures and wanted to work with Jinling University on Yongling.

Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun arrived in Hefei to investigate USTC’s claimed advances in surveying Yongling, where Weng Tong unexpectedly reunited with Weng Yujing and Xu Yun. At a laboratory, Academician Pan showed them a new Gravity Gradiometer and a report claiming it had identified two undiscovered sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui.

• Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun flew to Hefei while discussing the unusual USTC invitation and Weng Tong’s hope to see his daughter.
• Weng Yujing and Xu Yun greeted Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun at the airport, and Xu Yun said he had asked Weng Yujing to come.
• Xu Yun introduced Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun to Academician Pan and Professor Lu Chaoyang, and the group traveled to USTC.
• Academician Pan took Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun to a laboratory, where he introduced a new Gravity Gradiometer based on the Pangu particle.
• Academician Pan showed Weng Tong a report stating that a survey of Sanxingdui had identified two previously undiscovered sacrificial pits.

Academician Pan and Xu Yun persuaded Weng Tong that the University of Science and Technology of China’s Gravity Gradiometer could help survey Yongling, citing its discovery of two previously unknown sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui. Weng Tong agreed to act as an intermediary so the university could join the Yongling project.

• Weng Tong called Professor Chen Xiangqian, who confirmed that a survey had found two new Sanxingdui sacrificial pits, possibly larger main pits.
• Chen Xiangqian said soil-layer analysis confirmed the pits and that their contents matched the survey results.
• Weng Tong realized the Sanxingdui discovery supported the Gravity Gradiometer’s ability to detect buried structures like Yongling’s underground palace.
• Xu Yun asked Weng Tong to help the University of Science and Technology of China join the Yongling project as a full participant.
• Weng Tong agreed to act as an intermediary and urged Academician Pan to prepare the necessary documents.

Xu Yun and Academician Pan traveled to Beijing to join the Yongling excavation project, where the team coordinated a survey using the Gravity Gradiometer. The chapter ended with Jiang Chenggu announcing that the survey of Yongling’s underground palace would begin at 8:20 a.m. two days later.

• Weng Tong arranged for the University of Science and Technology of China to become a partner in the Yongling excavation, and Academician Pan traveled to Beijing with Xu Yun and their colleagues.
• Academician Zhang Zi'ang welcomed the group and brought them to the Archaeological Research Center, where they met the project team.
• Jiang Chenggu presented the university’s cooperation agreement, and Academician Pan signed it, officially adding the university as a project partner.
• Secretary Wang and Zheng Aiqiu agreed to coordinate aircraft access, visitor restrictions, and local arrangements for the survey.
• Academician Pan recommended applying for two hours of flight time, and Jiang Chenggu scheduled the underground-palace survey to begin at 8:20 a.m. two days later.

Xu Yun and the survey team began preparations to probe Emperor Jiajing’s Yongling underground palace while timing their work around passing reconnaissance satellites. The chapter ended with the team facing a two-hour-and-eighteen-minute window before the next satellite arrived.

• Wang Tong and Zhang Ying set out to visit the Ming Tombs, but learned their tickets had been canceled because the scenic area was closed for a survey involving Xu Yun.
• Xu Yun, Zhang Zi'ang, Weng Tong, Tong Huaijun, Academician Pan, and the rest of the team waited outside Yongling until the excavation committee authorized their entry.
• The convoy passed through Yongling’s gates and reached Baocheng, where Zheng Aiqiu explained the mausoleum’s layout and the team unloaded its survey equipment.
• Jiang Chenggu told Xu Yun and Academician Pan that the survey would begin at 8:20 a.m. and that the team had to finish before a QuickBird satellite passed over Beijing in two hours and eighteen minutes.

Xu Yun and the survey team completed the Gravity Gradiometer scan of Yongling’s underground palace while disguising the operation and detecting outsiders who had intercepted the decoy signals. The results described the Rear Hall’s four coffins and revealed a sealed container with three mercury-bearing pellets inside Emperor Jiajing’s coffin.

• Jiang Chenggu’s team deployed decoy remote-sensing drones, while tourists and covert signal interceptors watched from outside the Heavy Gate.
• Jiang Chenggu told Academician Pan and Xu Yun that the work-trace recorder had detected the interception, and the security team identified the interceptors but let them leave under surveillance.
• Xu Yun and Zhang Han launched the disguised Gravity Gradiometer drone and surveyed nine points beneath Yongling’s underground palace.
• Zhang Han brought the drone down after more than an hour, and Xu Yun examined the completed survey report.
• Xu Yun found a gradient shadow inside Emperor Jiajing’s coffin and identified a sealed container holding three round objects with a strong mercury signature.

Xu Yun and the others used the Gravity Gradiometer to survey Yongling, discovering Jiajing's likely immortality pill, burial crowns, and fish inside the flooded tomb. The scan then revealed an unexpected dry tomb chamber beneath the nine known chambers, leaving the team poised to investigate a hidden second level.

• Xu Yun reported that Jiajing's coffin likely held a Mercury-containing immortality pill and a gold object, while the other coffins contained burial crowns and phoenix crowns.
• Xu Yun and Tong Huaijun learned that Yongling's side halls held burial goods but no books, ruling out the Yongle Encyclopedia as their contents.
• Xu Yun discovered at least five fish in the tomb passageway, and Weng Tong explained that floodwater could have carried them inside through a damaged drainage system.
• Xu Yun described the flooded Front Hall and Middle Hall, the sand-blocked Tunnel vault, and their burial goods.
• Xu Yun revealed that the Gravity Gradiometer had detected another tomb chamber beneath the nine known chambers, and that it contained no standing water.

Xu Yun’s gravity survey confirmed a dry lower chamber beneath Yongling’s Ninth Hall, packed with boxes of book-like materials that closely matched the Yongle Encyclopedia. The experts concluded that the chamber was a sealed copper box lined with Golden Silk Nanmu, leaving the discovery’s contents poised for investigation.

• Xu Yun and Academician Pan confirmed that a dry chamber lay beneath the Ninth Hall and contained eighteen boxes filled with book-sized organic materials.
• Weng Tong calculated that the boxes could hold about 11,700 books, and Tong Huaijun noted that their dimensions matched the Yongle Encyclopedia before Weng Tong insisted the books could not be it.
• Lu Chaoyang and Zhang Zi'ang questioned how the lower chamber could remain dry and comply with Ming tomb regulations, prompting Academician Pan and Xu Yun to explain that it was a buried, sealed box rather than a conventional underground palace.
• Xu Yun revealed that the buried box had an outer copper layer and an inner lining of Golden Silk Nanmu.

Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun realized the Golden Silk Nanmu lining Emperor Jiajing’s underground palace might be Dragon Scale Pattern wood, potentially explaining its decline since the Ming dynasty. The team recognized Yongling’s excavation could be a major archaeological discovery, but Jiang Chenggu warned that the excavation itself had to avoid repeating Dingling’s mistakes.

• Weng Tong and Tong Huaijun discussed the rare Golden Silk Nanmu lining the bronze box beneath Emperor Jiajing’s underground palace.
• Tong Huaijun proposed that the lining was Dragon Scale Pattern Golden Silk Nanmu, and Weng Tong connected it to the wood’s mysterious decline beginning around the Wanli era.
• Weng Tong explained that the lining could account for the missing imperial reserve, since it covered enough area for nearly twenty coffins.
• Xu Yun gave Jiang Chenggu the Gravity Gradiometer report, and Jiang Chenggu confirmed that the survey had revealed promising artifacts and structural data.
• Jiang Chenggu cautioned the group that the excavation was only beginning and that they had to avoid repeating the damaging Dingling excavation.
• Jiang Chenggu, Weng Tong, and the others turned toward Zhang Zi'ang as they considered the need for a flawless Yongling excavation plan.

Zhang Zi'ang used Gravity Gradiometer data to assess Yongling and found that its tomb passage had collapsed, complicating access to the underground palace. Xu Yun’s question made Zhang Zi'ang realize they could use the instrument to drill straight down instead of following the passage.

• Jiang Chenggu asked Zhang Zi'ang for excavation advice, and Zhang Zi'ang proposed analyzing the Gravity Gradiometer data on-site before making a plan.
• Xu Yun helped import the survey data into the Chinese Academy of Engineering system, and Zhang Zi'ang presented Yongling’s foundation measurements.
• Zhang Zi'ang and Weng Tong compared Yongling’s platform-base structure with the Xiyan Pond Jin tombs, while Xu Yun recalled the suspected identification of Sima Jin.
• Zhang Zi'ang revealed that gravity-gradient readings showed Yongling’s tomb passage had collapsed after soil shifts and flooding, making access difficult.
• Xu Yun asked why the team had to follow the tomb passage, and Zhang Zi'ang realized they could use the Gravity Gradiometer to drill straight down.

Zhang Zi'ang proposed excavating and lifting Yongling’s Rear Hall intact so the team could remove the Bronze underground palace without damaging its Golden Silk Nanmu lining or the Yongle Encyclopedia. After discussing the engineering challenges and Zhang’s confidence in the plan, Jiang Chenggu asked him to prepare a proposal for higher-level review.

• Zhang Zi'ang realized the Gravity Gradiometer’s detailed readings could help the team identify a safe way to access the underground palace, but warned that Yongling’s unstable soil made digging a tunnel risky.
• Zhang Zi'ang explained that cutting into the Bronze underground palace could damage its Golden Silk Nanmu lining, then proposed removing the Rear Hall before lifting the underground palace to the surface.
• Xu Yun and the others considered the plan, and Xu Yun concluded that the Rear Hall’s size, contents, and sealed door could allow it to be detached without disturbing the rest of Yongling.
• Zhang Zi'ang cited deep underground construction and the relocation of a massive boulder as examples showing that lifting the Rear Hall from more than thirty meters underground was feasible.
• Zhang Zi'ang estimated a conservative 99.5 percent chance of success, and Jiang Chenggu asked him to prepare a plan for higher-level review.

Zhang Zi'ang's excavation plan for Yongling received approval, and the first phase began with a carefully supported cut-and-cover excavation. While the work proceeded, Xu Yun discovered that a mocking reaction image of him had gone viral; the chapter left him anticipating the discovery of the rear hall and the Yongle Encyclopedia.

• Jiang Chenggu told Zhang Zi'ang that the higher-ups had approved the plan in principle and set the excavation's start date for March 1, 2023.
• Zhang Zi'ang showed Xu Yun and the team the excavators, retaining structures, and massive ZAT18000H crane that would support the phased excavation.
• Jiang Chenggu, Academician Pan, Zhang Zi'ang, Weng Tong, and Tong Huaijun held the groundbreaking ceremony, after which machinery began work at Yongling.
• Xu Yun checked Weibo during the livestream and found that the hashtag #ThisYearI'mCursedByXuYun and a mocking image of him had gone viral; Chen Shanshan sent him the same image on WeChat.
• Zhang Zi'ang estimated that the excavation would take twelve or thirteen days at best, leaving Xu Yun expecting the rear hall and the Yongle Encyclopedia to be uncovered soon.

Xu Yun rushed to Beijing with Academician Pan after Old Wang suffered a near-fatal pulmonary embolism, then visited him in the hospital. Old Wang reassured Xu Yun and urged him to continue developing the Gravity Gradiometer’s particles; after leaving, Xu Yun postponed entering the jade seal instance until Old Wang’s observation period ended and the next day’s lawsuit hearing.

• Academician Pan received news that Old Wang was critically ill, so he and Xu Yun hurried to Beijing Hospital.
• Hou Xingyuan told them Old Wang had suffered an acute pulmonary embolism from a blood clot but had survived the most dangerous stage.
• Director Liu confirmed Old Wang was stable and said he wanted to see Xu Yun, who spoke with him through an intercom in the ICU.
• Old Wang told Xu Yun not to blame himself, asked him to extend the Pangu particle’s lifespan for a future Gravity Gradiometer satellite, and encouraged him by saying the younger generation was not fighting alone.
• Xu Yun returned to his lodgings with Academician Pan and decided to delay entering the jade seal instance until Old Wang’s condition was clearer and attend the marketing-account lawsuit the next day.

Meng Liang struggled with returning to the Beijing subway stop near the university that had expelled him, but Meng Dongguo respected his wish and took him by taxi to the Supreme People's Procuratorate. At the Supreme People's Court, Prosecutor Chen Ling explained to Xu Yun that the high-profile trial would clarify whether victims must be notified of public criminal proceedings, a decision that could bring Xu Yun further pressure.

• Meng Dongguo realized Meng Liang feared passing the subway station near his former university and offered to take a taxi instead.
• Meng Liang agreed to avoid the Batong Line, so he and Meng Dongguo left their hotel and headed for the Supreme People's Procuratorate by taxi.
• Xu Yun photographed himself beside the Supreme People's Court's ancient Chinese honey locust tree before meeting Prosecutor Chen Ling.
• Chen Ling told Xu Yun that the trial would address whether victims must be notified to attend public prosecutions.
• Chen Ling explained that victims should count as parties entitled to notice, then warned Xu Yun that taking part could expose him to more pressure.

Xu Yun agreed to appear as the sole victim in the Supreme Court’s livestreamed trial of the 2.9 cyberbullying case. During the hearing, Chen Xuting pleaded guilty but learned that Yang Jie had transferred the foreign payments into an online gambling site using his own linked withdrawal card.

• Chen Ling explained that Xu Yun would be the sole designated victim at trial, and Xu Yun agreed to cooperate with the Supreme Court.
• Little Liu escorted Xu Yun into Criminal Tribunal No. 1, where he took his seat as reporters and the defendants’ families watched.
• He Qiong opened the livestreamed trial, and Chen Ling presented the cyberbullying charges and evidence of overseas payments to the defendants.
• Xu Yun accepted the prosecution’s account, while Chen Xuting initially remained silent and then admitted she did not dispute the facts.
• Chen Xuting asked for leniency, claiming the authorities had frozen the foreign payment before she could spend it.
• He Qiong revealed that Chen Xuting’s money had gone to an online gambling site and that Yang Jie’s name was on its linked withdrawal card, prompting Chen Xuting to accuse him of lying.

He Qiong exposed Yang Jie’s attempt to blame Chen Xuting, then began the derivative trial of the April 23 XX University cyberbullying case. When Ni Menglin claimed Meng Liang had secretly photographed her, Wang Yujie produced library footage proving he had not, leaving Ni Menglin exposed.

• Yang Jie admitted using Chen Xuting’s bank card to conceal his gambling funds, but He Qiong challenged his claims that Chen Xuting had forced him into his actions.
• He Qiong questioned Guo Fang and the troll-farm suppliers, then concluded the main cyberbullying trial and began the April 23 XX University case.
• Meng Liang and Wang Yujie entered court as witnesses, and Chen Ling summarized how Ni Menglin and Ding Xiaxia had spread false claims and personal information about them.
• Ni Menglin denied fabricating her accusation and challenged Meng Liang to prove he had not photographed her.
• Wang Yujie presented library footage showing Meng Liang had not used his phone during the study session, and Ni Menglin collapsed into her seat.

The court heard Wang Yujie’s testimony and concluded the 4.23 case, clearing Meng Liang’s name and convicting Ni Menglin and the other defendants. It then heard Zheng Ping’s online harassment case and several related cases, before issuing sentences and adjourning.

• Wang Yujie testified that she had preserved surveillance footage proving her and Meng Liang’s innocence, but the university had rejected their request for a public clarification.
• Ni Menglin confessed, and Meng Dongguo posted that Meng Liang had finally been cleared after 1,167 days.
• Chen Ling presented Zheng Ping’s case, and her grandfather wept as the nine defendants admitted their crimes.
• He Qiong heard several further online harassment cases, including one involving a young girl doxxed by a celebrity’s fans.
• He Qiong announced prison sentences for the defendants, including twenty years for Ding Xiaxia, eighteen years for Huang Long, and four years and eight months for Ni Menglin, then adjourned the court.

After Meng Liang and Wang Yujie were vindicated, Meng Liang learned that his former university had punished Ge Yiqing for his role in the April 23 incident. As he left the courthouse with his father and Wang Yujie, Xu Yun called to ask whether he would consider continuing his studies at USTC.

• Meng Liang and Wang Yujie discussed their plans after the trial, and Wang Yujie told him she had already resigned from the school.
• Meng Liang reunited with his father, Meng Dongguo, and the three agreed to celebrate their vindication with a meal.
• CCTV.com reporter He Huai interviewed Meng Liang, who then saw the university's announcement removing Ge Yiqing and apologizing to him and Wang Yujie.
• After leaving the courthouse, Meng Liang received a call from Xu Yun, who invited him to consider returning to school at USTC.

After the Supreme Court cleared Meng Liang and Wang Yujie, Xu Yun offered Meng Liang a chance to resume his undergraduate studies at the University of Science and Technology of China and invited Wang Yujie to work at Huadun Biotech. Meng Liang and Wang Yujie accepted the opportunities, leaving the group to begin a new chapter in Hefei.

• Meng Dongguo invited Xu Yun to meet him, Meng Liang, and Wang Yujie at a restaurant after Xu Yun raised the possibility of Meng Liang returning to school.
• Xu Yun explained that the University of Science and Technology of China would support Meng Liang's return to undergraduate studies if his original student registration could be restored, but warned that he would need to overcome years of lost study.
• Meng Liang vowed to work hard and prove himself, then toasted Xu Yun to celebrate the opportunity.
• Xu Yun offered Wang Yujie a paid probationary position as a media manager at his company, Huadun Biotech, in Hefei.
• Wang Yujie accepted Xu Yun's offer and looked forward to working with him.