Chapter Summaries

Jiang Nantian tortured Yang Jiali while trying to learn Jiang Zhijie's whereabouts, while Qi Si and Bo Yanqi investigated the psychologist Yang Yang after Qi Si suspected he was connected to their troubles. The investigation linked Yang Yang to Yang Yi as a likely younger brother, and Bo Yanqi began explaining how Yang Yi's fabricated family history had concealed her past.

• Jiang Nantian severed Yang Jiali's pinky and ring finger when Jiang Honghu refused to reveal where Jiang Zhijie was, then ordered his men to keep both captives under watch.
• Doctors told Bo Yanqi that Qi Si's inability to speak was psychological and recommended a psychologist; Qi Si became suspicious when he learned the hospital's best psychologist, Yang Yang, had suddenly taken leave.
• Bo Yanqi investigated Yang Yang and found that the doctor's records had been destroyed in a recent system attack, while photos from nurses suggested Yang Yang resembled Yang Yi.
• Bo Yanqi and Qi Si compared Yang Yang's profile with Yang Yi's and concluded they were likely siblings, though Qi Si had never heard Yang Yi mention a brother.
• Bo Yanqi told Qi Si that Yang Yi's account of being raised by grandparents was likely false, explaining that the supposed grandparents had claimed a successful granddaughter despite villagers never seeing her, then disappeared.

Bo Yanqi and Qi Si found no new information about Yang Yi’s real identity, then learned that Li An had been chased off an overpass and plunged into the City-Encircling River. Li An remained missing as the search continued, leaving Bo Yanqi and Qi Si hoping he had survived.

• Bo Yanqi told Qi Si that Yang Yi’s background had been carefully erased and that Yang Yang’s photographs offered a new lead to investigate.
• Qi Si asked Bo Yanqi to rest with him, and they fell asleep together for two hours.
• Bai Hanzhou called Bo Yanqi and reported that Li An’s car had been chased, crashed through an overpass guardrail, and fallen into the City-Encircling River.
• Bo Yanqi ordered Bai Hanzhou to keep searching for Li An and thoroughly interrogate the captured pursuers, who appeared to be from the Old City District.
• After Qi Si woke, Bo Yanqi told him Li An had not been found, and they held on to hope that he was alive.

After Li An disappeared, Bo Yanqi helped Bai Hanzhou keep West District under control while Qi Si remained at the hospital and watched the livestream. The guests searched Stian Psychiatric Hospital for a way out and clues about Yang Yi’s missing son, but their attempt to reach the director’s office was interrupted when Gu Yun encountered a patrol officer.

• Police and Bai Hanzhou searched for Li An for over ten hours but found no trace of him.
• Bo Yanqi left Qi Si guarded at the hospital and joined Bai Hanzhou to suppress unrest in West District.
• Qi Si watched the livestream as the guests prepared to reach the director’s office, having learned that Yang Yi’s son had once been in Stian Psychiatric Hospital.
• Sun Zhufeng scouted the route to the director’s office, then signaled the group to cross.
• Gu Yun ran into a patrol officer while crossing and fled as the officer chased him.

The group entered the director’s office while Gu Yun drew the patrol away, and Sun Zhufeng left to find him. As the others searched, Qing Yaole uncovered a list connecting several guests’ relatives to Stian Psychiatric Hospital’s past experiments, while Qi Si suspected the experiment was being restarted.

• Yang Yi and the others reached the director’s office, but Gu Yun ran off to distract the patrol personnel, and Sun Zhufeng left to look for him.
• Qi Si suspected Shen Shuyu had been hypnotized with the same drug used in the old experiments and wondered whether the former test subjects were all targets.
• Qing Yaole spotted an unusual section of the bookcase and found documents listing names and the hospital’s history, while the others focused on a decoy safe.
• Yang Yi and Qing Yaole recognized her son Marquis and his sister Qing Yao on the list, leading Qi Si to connect it to a list from the orphanage director’s office.
• Shen Shuyu read that Stian Psychiatric Hospital had been exposed for illegal human experiments, and Jiang Han concluded that it had been illegitimate from the beginning.

Jiang Han revealed that Stian Psychiatric Hospital had imprisoned people from wealthy families and used them in experiments on multiple personalities. As Chen Chen investigated Zhou Xuxu’s past, she recognized her name on a list in the livestream and dreamed of a boy accepting an experiment in her place, waking in terror before dawn.

• Jiang Han explained that Stian Psychiatric Hospital had held people sent there by powerful families and used them as test subjects in multiple-personality experiments.
• Qi Si became more certain that the scenario was connected to the experiments, while Chen Chen uncovered Zhou Xuxu’s link to Morning Light Orphanage and could not reach Yu Zhen.
• Chen Chen found that Zhou Xuxu had left the orphanage before it closed and wondered who had taken her away.
• Zhou Xuxu saw her name on a list in the livestream, became unsettled, and later watched the replay of Shen Shuyu receiving an injection.
• Zhou Xuxu dreamed that a boy in a room like the hospital’s solitary confinement room offered to undergo an experiment in her place, then woke terrified before dawn.

After Zhou Xuxu woke from a dream about an unfamiliar boy, Gu Yun discovered that the medical equipment in his confinement room was real and tried to escape. The chapter ended when someone knocked softly on the locked door.

• Zhou Xuxu could not return to sleep or remember who the boy in her dream was.
• Xiang Qianchong argued with the person in charge after learning that the confinement room’s surveillance camera was malfunctioning.
• Gu Yun found that the confinement room matched Shen Shuyu’s description and contained real medical equipment.
• Gu Yun realized the escape room might be more dangerous than he had thought and shouted for someone to release him.
• Someone knocked twice on the door, and Gu Yun called out to ask who was there.

Gu Yun was rescued from the confinement room by Sun Zhufeng, but Sun Zhufeng’s unexpected knowledge and behavior made Gu Yun suspect he knew the psychiatric hospital was dangerous. Gu Yun then wondered whether Sun Zhufeng was secretly connected to the escape room.

• Sun Zhufeng unlocked the confinement room and urged Gu Yun to escape with him.
• Gu Yun stopped Sun Zhufeng and asked about the medical equipment, then noticed Sun Zhufeng had removed his lapel microphone.
• Gu Yun pointed out that Sun Zhufeng’s role and actions had been strange, including finding the confinement room and obtaining its key.
• Gu Yun asked whether Sun Zhufeng had been kidnapped too, and Sun Zhufeng asked what had made him think something was wrong.
• Gu Yun wondered if Sun Zhufeng owned the escape room, and Sun Zhufeng reacted with apparent shock.

Gu Yun suspected the escape room was involved in illegal activity after finding real medical equipment, while Sun Zhufeng questioned how Gu Yun had inferred his identity as the venue’s owner. The chapter ended after someone approached their locked room and left, and Gu Yun took Sun Zhufeng’s keys as proof that he was the boss.

• Sun Zhufeng asked Gu Yun how he had linked him to the owner of the escape room, and Gu Yun reconsidered his assumption after hearing how difficult it was for outsiders to establish themselves in G City.
• Gu Yun pointed out that the confinement room contained real medical equipment and concluded that the venue had obtained it illegally.
• Sun Zhufeng examined the dusty equipment while Gu Yun insisted it was real, then wiped dust onto Gu Yun’s uniform without him noticing.
• Sun Zhufeng heard a man approaching, locked the door, and waited with Gu Yun as the footsteps stopped outside before moving away.
• Gu Yun spotted the keys in Sun Zhufeng’s pocket and accused him of being the boss because he had them.

Sun Zhufeng told Gu Yun that he had entered the place to investigate clues connected to an eighteen-year-old kidnapping case at Morning Light Orphanage, at Third Master's request. He revealed that the convicted man had been a scapegoat and that the real culprit had begun committing crimes again.

• Sun Zhufeng teased Gu Yun before admitting that investigating the place's secrets was his main reason for coming, and Gu Yun punched him in anger.
• Sun Zhufeng pretended the punch had hurt, then caught Gu Yun's wrist and frightened him before revealing it was a joke.
• Sun Zhufeng said he had obtained a spare key by bribing a staff member, then explained that Third Master had asked him to investigate the place.
• Sun Zhufeng connected his investigation to the kidnapping case at Morning Light Orphanage eighteen years earlier, whose real culprit had escaped and started committing crimes again.
• Gu Yun asked Sun Zhufeng to speak plainly after he described the key with an elaborate metaphor.

Sun Zhufeng told Gu Yun that the Psychiatric Hospital was connected to a criminal investigation and that an undercover agent might be among their group. After they left the confinement room, a masked man appeared and vanished, leaving Sun Zhufeng puzzled about his identity and motives.

• Sun Zhufeng explained the situation to Gu Yun, who became eager to investigate after learning that a human was behind it.
• Sun Zhufeng said they would avoid the others because an undercover agent might be among them, then led Gu Yun out of the confinement room.
• Sun Zhufeng and Gu Yun opened the door and found a masked man standing silently in the corridor.
• The masked man called Sun Zhufeng a rat, and Sun Zhufeng questioned him about who he was and why he was there.
• Gu Yun pulled Sun Zhufeng back in fear, then noticed that the masked man had disappeared.
• Sun Zhufeng searched the empty corridor and wondered why the man had appeared and what he wanted.

Qi Si dreamed he had returned to childhood and was trapped in the confinement room, where a man experimented on him and tried to make him surrender through drugs, hypnosis, and the electric chair. Qi Si resisted until the dream ended, leaving the man's identity obscured.

• Qi Si woke in the confinement room in a child's body and found himself strapped to the electric chair.
• A man in a white coat appeared, called Qi Si unusually calm, and approached him with a syringe.
• Qi Si struggled against the injection, but the man injected him and warned that he would be subjected to an experiment.
• The man tried to drug and hypnotize Qi Si, then activated the chair's mechanisms when Qi Si kept resisting.
• Qi Si endured the man's attempts to break his will, while the man's interest in him grew.

Qi Si recalled how he became the man's exclusive test subject after trading his cooperation for Shen Shuyu and Bo Fuyu's release. He woke from the dream understanding why his younger self had made that desperate choice.

• Qi Si secretly learned to recognize the man's hypnosis and planted a suggestion in himself that silenced him whenever anyone approached his deepest secret.
• After an escape attempt failed, the man imprisoned Qi Si in darkness for a week and tortured him with drugs, electric shocks, and hypnosis.
• The man brought Shen Shuyu and Bo Fuyu into the room and experimented on them, prompting Qi Si to offer his cooperation in exchange for their release.
• Qi Si convinced the man that the experiment depended on him, and the man erased Shen Shuyu and Bo Fuyu's memories and sent them home.
• Qi Si woke from the dream and stared at the ceiling, understanding his younger self's despairing decision.

Qi Si remembered that he had lived two lives and realized he had once risked himself to protect his family from the novel’s fate. He concluded that the world had diverged from the novel and wanted only to live his own life with his family.

• Qi Si recalled that he had died of a terminal illness in another life before awakening as a newborn in the Qi Household.
• Qi Si remembered discovering that he was cannon fodder in a novel and feared that the Qi Household would be destroyed and his brother killed.
• Qi Si understood that he had saved Bo Fuyu and Shen Shuyu during their kidnapping because he feared their deaths might endanger his family by disrupting the world.
• Qi Si woke as dawn broke and realized the world had already diverged from the novel’s original plot, so it could now exist independently.
• Qi Si accepted that he did not need to be the protagonist and only wanted to live well with his family.

After Li An disappeared, Bo Yanqi went to the West District to help Bai Hanzhou control a revolt and revealed that he had founded and funded the district. When Lei Ming challenged his authority, Bo Yanqi answered with violence.

• Bo Yanqi left Qi Si to help Bai Hanzhou handle unrest in the West District.
• The West District members objected to Bo Yanqi's presence, and Bai Hanzhou revealed that Bo Yanqi had founded the district and financed its growth.
• Lei Ming challenged Bo Yanqi's right to interfere and sought to use Li An's absence to seize power.
• Bai Hanzhou reflected on the failure to find Li An as Bo Yanqi abruptly hit Lei Ming with a chair.

Bo Yanqi helped Bai Hanzhou crush Lei Ming’s attempt to challenge his leadership of the West District. After Bai Hanzhou revealed that Bo Yanqi was Li An’s big brother, Lei Ming and his men were left afraid and uncertain about what to do next.

• Bo Yanqi knocked Lei Ming unconscious with a chair, and Bai Hanzhou’s men joined the ensuing brawl while pretending to break it up.
• Bai Hanzhou called an end to the fight and told the assembled men they would now discuss business.
• Bo Yanqi demanded that anyone who rejected Bai Hanzhou’s leadership speak up, warning them to leave the West District if they challenged him later.
• Bai Hanzhou revealed that Bo Yanqi was Li An’s big brother and had taught Li An his fighting skills.
• Lei Ming woke and demanded proof, but Bo Yanqi challenged him to fight again, and Lei Ming refused because he was injured.
• Bo Yanqi warned Lei Ming’s men to leave or stay out of his way, and they exchanged fearful, hesitant looks.

Bo Yanqi quelled the unrest, questioned A Zhong and A Wei about Jiang Zhijie, and returned to the hospital to find Qi Si shaken. Qi Si hinted that Bo Yanqi’s nephew had bullied him, leaving Bo Yanqi’s response unresolved.

• Bo Yanqi removed Lei Ming from his position and left Bai Hanzhou to handle the remaining Old City District matters.
• Bo Yanqi told Bai Hanzhou to question A Zhong and A Wei about Jiang Zhijie, but neither man revealed anything.
• Bo Yanqi returned to the hospital with breakfast and found Qi Si awake and staring blankly out the window.
• Qi Si asked Bo Yanqi to hold him, and Bo Yanqi promised to avenge whoever had bullied him.
• Qi Si asked what Bo Yanqi would do if his nephew was the culprit, and Bo Yanqi’s hand froze.

Qi Si worried that his recovered memories might destabilize him again, while Bo Yanqi reassured him through patient affection and a shared breakfast. After they finished eating, they sat down to discuss business.

• Bo Yanqi angrily asked what Bo Fuyu had done, and Qi Si realized Bo Yanqi was not going to side with his nephew.
• Qi Si feared that unlocking more memories could bring back the confused and uncontrolled state he had experienced after being rescued.
• Bo Yanqi teased the hungry Qi Si with the breakfast he had bought, and Qi Si gave up pretending to sleep to claim his food.
• Qi Si quickly washed up, ate wontons and steamed buns, and shared a few bites with Bo Yanqi.
• After finishing breakfast and clearing away the trash, Bo Yanqi and Qi Si sat facing each other to discuss business.

Qi Si told Bo Yanqi how Bo Fuyu had endangered him and Shen Shuyu three times in their childhood. Bo Yanqi was furious, while Qi Si resolved that Bo Fuyu would not escape the debts he remembered.

• Bo Yanqi asked Qi Si how Bo Fuyu had bullied him, and Qi Si explained that Bo Fuyu had kicked him down inside an overturned kindergarten bus, causing him and Shen Shuyu to suffer serious injuries.
• Bo Yanqi admitted he had only heard the incident described as an accident and had not known what Bo Fuyu did.
• Qi Si said Bo Fuyu had also brought him along when Bo Fuyu and Shen Shuyu were kidnapped, though Qi Si believed Shen Shuyu would otherwise have been kidnapped with Bo Fuyu alone.
• Qi Si explained that Bo Fuyu had ruined their escape attempt from an orphanage by freezing in a dark passage and making noise that alerted the adults.
• Bo Yanqi cursed Bo Fuyu, while Qi Si said he could not ignore the harm Bo Fuyu had caused and believed Bo Fuyu had repeatedly dragged him into disaster.

Qi Si’s voice recovered as he discussed his incomplete childhood memories and the experiments with Bo Yanqi. After recalling that the livestream’s confinement-room NPC had injected Shen Shuyu with a drug like the one used on the children, Qi Si suspected the livestream was targeting the old test subjects and that the person behind the experiments might be inside it.

• Bo Yanqi noticed Qi Si could speak again and asked whether he had recovered his childhood memories; Qi Si said he remembered only part of them and still could not picture the person behind the experiments.
• Qi Si asked Bo Yanqi to look for Yu Zhen, and Bo Yanqi agreed; they teased each other before Bo Yanqi asked about Qi Si’s injuries.
• Bo Yanqi told Qi Si that the West District matters were mostly handled, but Li An had still not been found.
• Qi Si recalled that the NPC who injected Shen Shuyu in the livestream had used a drug similar to the one given to the children during the experiments.
• Qi Si told Bo Yanqi that the livestream seemed designed for the former test subjects and proposed that the person behind the experiments might be inside it.

Qi Si realized that a figurine had set off the chain of memories and suspicions that led him into someone’s carefully arranged trap. Bo Yanqi traced the figurine to Bo Shengan’s shop, and Bo Shengan revealed that he had won it from someone Bo Yanqi knew.

• Qi Si and Bo Yanqi concluded that someone had been guiding their actions through the orphanage, production team, cruise ship, and escape room.
• Qi Si remembered that a figurine he had bought for Qi Wang had first made him suspect that his memories overlapped with the original host’s.
• Bo Yanqi recognized the figurine as an item from Bo Shengan’s shop and called him to ask where it came from.
• Bo Shengan said he had won the figurine in a bet from someone Bo Yanqi also knew.