Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Goblin Technology, Invincible Under Heaven”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Three Goblin Shells approach the Insect Tower in erratic, seemingly suicidal flight patterns. Their chaotic movements initially appear foolish, but they prove highly effective.
• The Goblin Shells combine their green energy to pierce through the swarm’s Sonic Barrier, demonstrating that they are far more powerful and specialized than expected.
• They penetrate within one hundred meters of the Insect Tower, provoking a massive insect counterattack. The swarm unleashes poison, magic, elemental attacks, and physical weapons, but the Goblin Shells evade most of them through impossible aerial maneuvers while their green energy neutralizes the rest.
• The Insect Tower collapses partway and releases enormous, highly agile insects to block the Goblin Shells. With their escape routes sealed, the Goblin Shells have nonetheless completed their purpose: creating an opening for the tank.
• Commander Maria orders the crew to fire. Kolobanov rapidly launches five additional Goblin Shells, drawing away much of the swarm and accelerating the Tower’s destruction.
• When the Insect Tower fully collapses, its core is revealed to be a woman’s head rather than an insect queen or egg. Liu Zheng immediately recognizes her as Chen Xiaoxue, the person he has been seeking.
• The tank charges across the fungal carpet toward Chen Xiaoxue. Commander Maria personally operates the anti-aircraft machine gun, effortlessly shooting down the insects that attempt to stop them.
• Liu Zheng and Kasitsin approach Chen Xiaoxue. She does not respond to questions, but briefly reacts when Liu mentions that her former security guard was an editor, confirming her identity.
• Liu gives Chen the undelivered Fish-Head Milkshake, an item that restores stamina and increases Spirit. Though expressionless and unable to drink independently, Chen consumes it desperately.
• After completing the delivery, Liu draws the Boning Knife and severs Chen Xiaoxue’s head, apparently fulfilling the mission’s final requirement.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes increasingly confident in the Goblin Shells and in his own perception. He identifies Chen Xiaoxue despite her grotesque condition and notices her nearly imperceptible response to the word “editor.”
• Commander Maria displays exceptional battlefield leadership and combat skill. She understands Liu’s intentions immediately, directs the tank crew efficiently, and personally demonstrates deadly precision with the anti-aircraft machine gun.
• The tank crew functions with practiced coordination, particularly Kasitsin and Kolobanov, whose rapid loading and firing make the Goblin Shell assault possible.
• Chen Xiaoxue is revealed to be almost completely unresponsive and physically transformed into the center of the insect nest. Her brief reaction to her former life suggests that some awareness remains.
• The Goblin Shells are established as advanced, highly agile weapons rather than useless or defective equipment. Their playful behavior reflects both their unusual nature and their confidence in their abilities.

Significant Themes

• Appearances can be deceptive: The Goblin Shells look reckless and defective, but their seemingly chaotic behavior is a highly effective combat method.
• Teamwork and coordinated sacrifice: The Goblin Shells draw the swarm’s attention and create the opening that allows the tank to reach Chen Xiaoxue.
• Humanity amid grotesque transformation: Chen’s ruined state contrasts with the small traces of identity preserved in her reaction to the word “editor” and her desperate consumption of the milkshake.
• Duty and completion: Liu treats the delivery as an obligation that must be fulfilled, even when it leads directly to Chen’s death.
• War as both exhilaration and horror: Maria and the Goblin Shells appear to enjoy the battle, while the destruction of the nest and execution of Chen reveal its disturbing cost.

Character Interactions

• Liu consults Commander Maria throughout the assault, while she responds decisively and trusts his judgment.
• Maria coordinates the crew, ordering the loaders and gunner into action and later taking over the machine gun herself.
• The crew’s smiles at Maria’s laughter recall their shared history of charging overwhelming enemy forces.
• Liu relies on Kasitsin for protection when leaving the tank and approaching Chen.
• Liu repeatedly questions Chen, then uses information about her former life to awaken a faint response.
• He completes the delivery personally before killing her, linking an ordinary act of service with a violent mission conclusion.

Chapter Summary: “Ultimate Euthanasia and Hell Broth”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng discovers that Chen Xiaoxue is inseparable from the Mycelial Mat: whenever her head is cut off, it melts into the fungal mass and regenerates. She is effectively the broodmother sustaining the insect colony.
• Using the white pill given to him by the security guard, Liu Zheng offers Chen Xiaoxue “Ultimate Euthanasia.” After an emotional breakdown, she accepts the pill and dies peacefully, with a faint smile on her face. Liu records her final appearance with the DV camera.
• Chen’s death causes the insects to lose their collective control and flee. The Goblin Shells pursue them, while Liu realizes that the Mycelial Mat could potentially recover if another broodmother emerged.
• Captain Maria orders the tank crew to fire the “Hell Broth” shell. The shell spreads green flames that transform Chen’s remains, the Mycelial Mat, the surrounding soil, and the jungle into boiling poisonous liquid. The Eleventh Floor is effectively destroyed, and the fleeing insects die in the toxic flames.
• Liu returns to the elevator and finds the wounded attendant, Jennifer, waiting for him. She explains that she stayed because she feared he would be unable to descend. He warns her that surviving him once does not guarantee she will survive a future encounter, though she clearly hopes to benefit from associating with him.
• Back on the first floor, Liu shows the security guard Chen Xiaoxue’s final image. The guard gives him a single-use item called the Editor’s Insights Book, which may be useful to the Novelist. Shortly afterward, the guard fades into digital data and is absorbed into the office phone, which then explodes as the building’s defenses reactivate.
• Rather than returning immediately to Bloodstained Restaurant, Liu visits Mummy Clinic. He brings Cheng Xiaomei, whom he rescued from the company, to find work there, and asks Nile Doctor to bury Xiao Li.
• Nile Doctor agrees to employ Cheng Xiaomei under reasonable conditions and offers to remove parasites from her body using a grotesque but effective treatment. He also agrees to mummify Xiao Li so that her body will not be recycled.
• Liu then returns to the Delivery Passage, where the rest of his crew rises to greet him.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates both ruthlessness and compassion. He kills Chen Xiaoxue because she cannot otherwise be freed from the Mycelial Mat, but he first gives her the opportunity to accept euthanasia voluntarily and preserves her final image.
• His actions establish him as a powerful and feared figure: the destruction of the Eleventh Floor makes even dangerous City Hall entities unlikely to provoke him.
• Chen Xiaoxue is revealed to be more than a human transformed by the Mycelial Mat; she is its living broodmother. Her final howl expresses love, attachment, resentment, and despair before she regains enough composure to accept death.
• The security guard completes his final duty by giving Liu the Editor’s Insights Book, then sacrifices or dissolves himself once the office building’s systems restart.
• Jennifer, the elevator attendant, shows resourcefulness and opportunism by waiting for Liu and attempting to establish a connection with him despite her fear.
• Cheng Xiaomei begins a new life after being rescued, though she reacts resentfully to Liu’s abrupt arrangement of her employment. She also carries parasites that require treatment.
• Nile Doctor continues to act as both physician and employer, displaying his eccentric but practical willingness to help Liu’s acquaintances.

Significant Themes

• Death as release: Chen’s death is framed not simply as an execution but as an act of mercy, allowing her to escape a monstrous existence.
• Humanity versus instinct: The insects regain their suppressed human instincts after the broodmother dies, suggesting that intelligence and identity have been buried beneath biological control.
• Destruction and containment: “Hell Broth” does not merely defeat the enemy; it permanently contaminates and neutralizes the entire area, showing the extreme methods required to contain supernatural threats.
• Work and survival: Employment is treated as essential in Metropolis. Even rescued or damaged individuals must find a role, while Liu repeatedly acts as a rescuer, employer, and informal job broker.
• Memory and understanding: The Editor’s Insights Book, Chen’s photograph, and the security guard’s final gift emphasize the importance—and difficulty—of understanding people and preserving what remains of them.
• Pragmatic compassion: The chapter repeatedly balances grotesque violence with small acts of dignity, such as granting Chen a choice, burying Xiao Li, and finding Cheng Xiaomei a place to work.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Chen Xiaoxue: Their final exchange is quiet and tragic. Liu offers euthanasia rather than forcing her to remain trapped, and Chen eventually accepts it.
• Liu Zheng and Captain Maria: Maria directs the final attack, ordering the loading and firing of the Hell Broth shell.
• Liu Zheng and Jennifer: Liu warns her not to assume she will survive another encounter, while Jennifer’s smile reveals that she sees him as a potentially valuable protector or connection.
• Liu Zheng and the security guard: The guard confirms the mission’s completion, rewards Liu with the Editor’s Insights Book, and gives him a final warning before disappearing.
• Liu Zheng and Nile Doctor: Liu negotiates both employment for Cheng Xiaomei and burial for Xiao Li. Nile agrees, but makes clear that Cheng must prove useful.
• Liu Zheng and Cheng Xiaomei: He gives her a new job and his contact information, while she responds with quiet resentment at being left behind so quickly.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the battle, Liu Zheng says farewell to Captain Maria and her tank crew. The crew members voluntarily burn themselves out, sacrificing their remaining existence after fighting alongside him.
• Captain Maria gives Liu Zheng a final “gift”: a Golden Star Tank Medal bearing a tank emblem resembling Kitty. She hopes he will one day witness the beginning of a new era.
• The tank’s driver warns Liu Zheng that Maria’s hopes cannot be fulfilled merely by opposing City Hall; the true enemy is broader. Liu Zheng insists he is only a delivery worker and has no grand revolutionary ambitions.
• The driver reveals that Kitty recorded the number of enemies destroyed by Liu Zheng’s “Hell Broth,” but refuses to tell him until Liu Zheng pays. After receiving money, he ejects Liu Zheng from the tank and drives away.
• Liu Zheng summons Red Dragonfly and gives it the rules for the upcoming cooking competition between White-Feather Chicken and Guokou Tangzi. Red Dragonfly agrees to serve as the impartial judge.
• Red Dragonfly explains that the medal may help protect Liu Zheng from Unnamable entities, especially in the Garbage Processing Plant. If he encounters one, he must not fight or communicate with it; he should display the medal and flee.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Delivery Department and discovers that he unexpectedly has free time. He spends over an hour helping Cow-Horse analyze a Chinese chess endgame printed beside erotic imagery in an inhuman adult magazine.
• White-Feather Chicken calls to announce that the soup for the cooking contest is ready. They arrive carrying an extravagant ruby-adorned soup pot, which they claim is merely decorative and worth over ten million.
• During their conversation, Liu Zheng casually admits that he recently blew up part of an office building. Rather than being shocked, White-Feather Chicken becomes interested and suggests that Liu Zheng help blow up another building.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains reluctant to become a hero or revolutionary. His actions are motivated by personal conscience and immediate practical concerns rather than ideology, though others increasingly view him as someone capable of influencing the future.
• Captain Maria and her crew receive a dignified final farewell. Their sacrifice shows their devotion to the dream of a renewed “fiery red era,” even though they know they will not live to see it.
• The tank driver displays a sarcastic, mercenary personality, but also shows concern for Liu Zheng by warning him about the medal and the Unnamable. His teasing relationship with Liu Zheng becomes more familiar and comedic.
• Red Dragonfly continues to act as a reliable authority figure and impartial judge. It shares dangerous information with Liu Zheng despite its connection to City Hall, suggesting a degree of trust or goodwill.
• Cow-Horse is revealed to be bizarrely absorbed in solving a chess puzzle from a pornographic magazine, emphasizing its eccentricity and obsessive personality.
• White-Feather Chicken appears increasingly reckless and destructive. Instead of condemning Liu Zheng’s bombing, they show enthusiasm and even invite him to participate in another explosion.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and legacy: Maria and her crew willingly disappear so that their cause may someday continue through people like Liu Zheng.
• Reluctant responsibility: Liu Zheng rejects grand ideals, yet repeatedly receives symbols, knowledge, and tasks that place him closer to larger conflicts.
• The danger of forbidden knowledge: The Unnamable represents threats that cannot safely be understood, described, or confronted directly.
• Absurdity and dark comedy: Serious matters—revolution, eldritch entities, death, and destruction—are constantly undercut by jokes about money, pornographic chess puzzles, delivery work, and explosives.
• Trust amid opposing factions: Although Red Dragonfly is associated with City Hall, it gives Liu Zheng crucial advice, showing that personal alliances do not always follow institutional loyalties.

Character Interactions

• Maria and the tank crew share a solemn farewell with Liu Zheng before sacrificing themselves.
• The tank driver alternates between mocking Liu Zheng, extorting him for information, and offering genuine survival advice.
• Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly discuss the cooking contest, delivery restrictions, City Hall, and the mysterious protective medal.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse spend an unusual period together studying a chess endgame, creating a comic domestic scene.
• White-Feather Chicken interacts with Liu Zheng in a mixture of culinary professionalism, extravagance, and destructive enthusiasm, ending the chapter by proposing another building demolition.

Key plot points

• White-Feather Chicken hires Liu Zheng to destroy a nearby lottery shop and kill its occupants, especially one person she despises. Liu agrees only if she supplies the delivery order and explosives, lets him cancel if the job violates his moral limits, and owes him a favor instead of paying him. She accepts, handing him a pot worth one million—which burns his tentacles.
• Cow-Horse criticizes Liu for negotiating so boldly with a department head, while also backing him up when White-Feather Chicken threatens him.
• Liu prepares to deliver sesame tofu to Guokou Tangzi at Yakuza Sento. He notices Ghost Hand’s serious back wound still shows no improvement.
• Before leaving, Liu asks Weaver Lady for the location of a relative who sells spider silk. She indicates a shop roughly twenty kilometers away and confirms it sells lingerie.
• Liu travels there in an F1 car driven recklessly fast by his taxi driver, then finds a cave-like shop sealed with spider silk. Using Weaver Lady’s molted shell, he disguises himself as her and enters.
• Inside, he finds a brightly lit cave with a cardboard box beneath the chandelier. A figure inside initially speaks in spider language, but, once Liu approaches, addresses him in human speech and recognizes that he is not Weaver Lady.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Zheng remains pragmatic and cautious: he accepts dangerous work but sets boundaries and insists on a favor rather than a fee. His negotiation also shows growing confidence, though Cow-Horse calls it reckless.
• White-Feather Chicken reveals intense hatred toward someone connected to the lottery shop and is willing to pay extra for a cruel death. Her temper flares during the negotiations, but she ultimately accepts Liu’s terms.
• Cow-Horse acts as Liu’s intimidating support and comic foil, while later helping translate Weaver Lady’s chirps. His teasing, including his interest in lingerie, maintains the chapter’s irreverent tone.
• Weaver Lady appears more animated when she keeps her eyes closed, suggesting her social anxiety may be linked to being looked at. She refuses Liu’s joking offer to give her double eyelids.
• Ghost Hand silently rejects Liu’s concern about its persistent wound, leaving its condition and intentions unclear.
• The cave’s occupant abruptly exposes Liu’s disguise, ending the chapter on a cliffhanger.

Significant themes

• Trust and negotiation: Liu agrees to cooperate only with safeguards, reflecting the uncertain alliances of the setting.
• Compassion amid brutality: His insistence on a moral limit contrasts with the casual violence and threats around him.
• Disguise and deception: Liu’s transformation lets him enter the cave, but the occupant sees through him, raising questions about identity and perception.
• Dark comedy: Threats, burns, dangerous travel, and awkward personal remarks are treated with comic irreverence.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng infiltrates the Weaver Spider’s cave disguised in Weaver Lady’s molted shell, hoping to purchase special silk for a new uniform for the Bloodstained Restaurant’s driver.
• The Weaver Spider sees through the disguise and demands either an All-Insect Banquet or Liu Zheng himself as payment. It seals the cave and attacks him with an army of “toys”—preserved bodies animated or controlled by spider silk.
• Liu Zheng initially suffers severe injuries in the darkness because he cannot see the attackers. He eventually tracks one by binding its arm with a tentacle and cuts it apart with his Boning Knife.
• After being overwhelmed by continuous attacks, Liu Zheng activates the Enhanced Heart of the Ocean by consuming a Deep-Sea Bursting Multi-Headed Abalone. His wounds rapidly heal, his strength increases, and he becomes capable of destroying the toys one after another.
• He climbs over the pile of defeated creatures until he reaches the crystal chandelier, eliminating the Weaver Spider’s entire wave of attackers.
• When the lights return, Liu Zheng discovers that the corpses are carefully preserved “toys.” He attacks the cardboard box containing the Weaver Spider, discovering that its physical material is extraordinarily durable.
• Liu Zheng threatens to summon a Tindalos Hound using the Chew Toy, implying that the creature may target the Weaver Spider trapped inside its box-like enclosure. This forces the Weaver Spider to negotiate.
• The Weaver Spider first names a price of one hundred thousand for the special silk, but Liu Zheng deliberately insists it should cost five hundred thousand. After the Weaver Spider accepts, Liu Zheng immediately prepares to negotiate compensation for his expensive abalone as well.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng displays increasing confidence, ruthlessness, and willingness to exploit psychological weaknesses. Even after being badly beaten, he remains arrogant and turns the battle around through preparation and clever item combinations.
• His ability to use the Enhanced Heart of the Ocean reveals his resourcefulness: he combines seemingly ordinary items to gain rapid healing, increased endurance, and a decisive combat advantage.
• Liu Zheng also shows strong negotiating instincts. Rather than simply accepting the Weaver Spider’s price, he manipulates it into agreeing to pay more, then attempts to recover the value of the abalone he consumed.
• The Box Weaver Spider is established as powerful, cruel, and highly opportunistic. It treats its niece and victims with equal callousness, viewing both food and family relationships in purely transactional terms.
• Despite its confidence, the Weaver Spider becomes cautious when Liu Zheng demonstrates that he can destroy its toys and potentially summon a Tindalos Hound. Its willingness to negotiate shows that it is not fearless, only calculating.
• Weaver Lady, though absent from the confrontation, remains important because Liu Zheng obtained her molted shell and used an All-Insect Banquet to secure it.

Significant Themes

• Deception and counter-deception: Liu Zheng disguises himself, but the Weaver Spider sees through him. Their confrontation then becomes a battle of manipulation and intimidation rather than strength alone.
• Predatory family relationships: The Weaver Spider’s readiness to have its niece’s meal removed from her stomach underscores the brutal, transactional nature of the Weaver-Spider Clan.
• Resourcefulness over brute force: Liu Zheng survives not by overpowering the toys initially, but by identifying their location, using his equipment intelligently, and combining the abalone with another item.
• Negotiation through threat: Both characters attempt to control the exchange by threatening violence. Liu Zheng ultimately gains leverage by proving he can destroy the Weaver Spider’s defenses and invoke an even more dangerous entity.
• Humor amid violence: Liu Zheng’s sarcastic comments about mummies, copyright fees, and inflated pricing contrast with the grotesque battle, maintaining the chapter’s darkly comedic tone.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and the Weaver Spider exchange constant sarcasm and threats, each testing the other’s limits.
• The Weaver Spider attempts to intimidate Liu Zheng by trapping him in darkness and sending its toys against him.
• Liu Zheng reverses the power dynamic by destroying the toys, challenging the durability of the box, and threatening to summon a Tindalos Hound.
• Their hostile confrontation ends in an absurd commercial negotiation: the Weaver Spider agrees to sell the silk for five hundred thousand, while Liu Zheng immediately tries to charge it for the abalone he used during the fight.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng confronts Box Weaver Spider over the destruction of its “Super Invincible Royal Supreme Deep-Sea Bursting Multi-Headed Abalone.” Using intimidation and threats to blow up the shop, he negotiates compensation.
• They settle on a reduced payment: a length of special spider thread, one hundred thousand currency, and custom-made red lingerie plus a cherry-blossom keyboard mat.
• Box Weaver Spider produces the thread and items. Liu Zheng also gives it insect remains he collected earlier, attempting to repair their strained relationship because he may need the spider’s specialized skills later.
• Liu Zheng returns to the car and travels back to Rose Street. After greeting the French Plane Tree, he enters the Sewer and returns to Shelter.
• The children greet him enthusiastically, especially Galiya, who is excited about the documentary Liu Zheng filmed for them.
• Liu Zheng returns the DV camera to Red Ghost and suggests allowing the children to visit the surface or bringing them educational and recreational materials in the future.
• Red Ghost refuses to let the children leave Shelter and then warns Liu Zheng that he should not return. The chapter ends with Red Ghost asking him directly, “Who are you?”

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains aggressive, opportunistic, and fond of coercion, but he also shows practical generosity and concern. He deliberately gives Box Weaver Spider food to maintain a useful relationship and offers to bring the Shelter children toys, books, and films.
• Box Weaver Spider is revealed as highly intelligent, argumentative, anxious, and business-minded. Though it resents Liu Zheng, it ultimately compromises and fulfills his custom order.
• Red Ghost becomes more guarded and suspicious of Liu Zheng. Despite trusting him enough to accept the documentary, it recognizes that his identity and motives may be dangerous or unclear.
• Galiya and the children clearly regard Liu Zheng as a trusted and exciting visitor, greeting him with genuine affection.
• The driver misunderstands Liu Zheng’s complaint about using a life-saving item, creating a brief comic exchange.

Significant Themes

• Negotiation versus coercion: Liu Zheng’s “business deal” is shaped by threats, blackmail, and mutual exploitation rather than ordinary commerce.
• Transactional relationships: Even acts of kindness—such as Liu Zheng giving the spider insects—are partly motivated by future usefulness, though genuine sympathy is also emerging.
• Trust and suspicion: Liu Zheng is welcomed by the children but increasingly questioned by Red Ghost, emphasizing the gap between his public behavior and his hidden identity.
• Innocence amid danger: The children’s cheerful singing and excitement contrast sharply with the threatening world outside Shelter and the violent nature of Liu Zheng’s activities.
• Identity and belonging: Red Ghost’s final question suggests that Liu Zheng’s origins, loyalties, or true nature may soon become a central issue.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Box Weaver Spider engage in a hostile but humorous bargaining session, trading insults, threats, and concessions before reaching an agreement.
• Liu Zheng attempts to soften the relationship by giving the spider insect remains, though the spider insists that the gesture will not make it like him.
• Liu Zheng and the driver share a comedic misunderstanding about his “life-saving item.”
• Liu Zheng receives an enthusiastic welcome from Galiya and the other children, reinforcing his role as a beloved visitor.
• His conversation with Red Ghost shifts from gratitude and cooperation to caution and confrontation, ending on a suspenseful question about Liu Zheng’s identity.

Chapter Summary: “What Men and Women? We’re All Workers”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Ghost confronts Liu Zheng about his identity, repeatedly asking who he really is. When Liu Zheng begins explaining his origins and the system’s survival mission, he suddenly forgets crucial information.
• Red Ghost reveals that staying in this world gradually erases a person’s memories, including their identity, origins, and purpose. The dead inhabitants are immune to the process because they have already forgotten what they once lost.
• To restore Liu Zheng’s focus, Red Ghost strikes him on the forehead with a hammer, temporarily stabilizing his thoughts.
• Liu Zheng says goodbye to the children in the Sewer. Galiya gives him a hair flower, and the other girls promise to make her another one. Liu Zheng realizes he should have brought the children gifts and resolves to buy them clothes and hair flowers during his next visit.
• Liu Zheng then visits Yakuza Sento, where Jinzi and Guokou Tangzi immediately argue over who has the right to claim him as a customer. Their confrontation becomes a territorial dispute between the Yakuza Sento and the Ultimate Flavor Group.
• Liu Zheng dismisses their “men versus women” framing, declaring that everyone involved is simply a worker. He also warns them not to exploit him, mentioning that he has already destroyed an office building and robbed a tailor shop.
• He intimidates Jinzi by cutting open her bathrobe with his Boning Knife and stuffing money inside, reminding her that he could just as easily attack her body. Jinzi repairs her robe but privately recognizes Liu Zheng as too dangerous to consume directly.
• Guokou Tangzi warns Liu Zheng that Jinzi eats people. She then leads him into the women’s bath, where Red Dragonfly is relaxing instead of hosting a contest.
• Red Dragonfly reluctantly resumes its duties and announces a soup-stewing competition between Napoleon, head chef of Bloodstained Restaurant, and Guokou Tangzi, the former boss lady of the Ultimate Flavor Group. The competition is humorously interrupted by an advertisement break.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Learns that his memories are being eroded and becomes more aware of the danger of remaining in this world. Despite his exhaustion, he remains bold, sarcastic, and willing to threaten powerful figures. His affection for the Sewer children also becomes clearer, as does his growing sense of responsibility toward them.
• Red Ghost: Acts as both an interrogator and protector. Its hammer allows Liu Zheng to regain mental clarity, while its explanation establishes the serious psychological danger of the world.
• The Sewer children: Show affection and loyalty toward Liu Zheng, especially through Galiya’s gift and the other children’s willingness to share their own decorations.
• Jinzi: Reveals a predatory and calculating nature beneath her polite appearance. However, Liu Zheng’s threat forces her to reconsider attacking him directly.
• Guokou Tangzi: Remains proud and aggressive, defending the diminished Ultimate Flavor Group while also warning Liu Zheng about Jinzi. Her rivalry with Jinzi is intensified by her claim that Liu Zheng is an honored guest.
• Red Dragonfly: Is shown to have a playful, theatrical side. Even while relaxing in the bath, it quickly returns to its role as a contest host.

Significant Themes

• Loss of identity and memory: The world gradually strips visitors of their past and purpose, making survival a struggle to preserve the self.
• Death and forgotten trauma: The dead may appear stable, but they have already lost so much that they no longer remember what is missing.
• Work and class identity: Liu Zheng rejects the gendered framing of the argument between Jinzi and Tangzi, insisting that they are all workers competing over customers and resources.
• Power and exploitation: The characters constantly assess whether they can consume, manipulate, or profit from one another. Liu Zheng counters this predatory environment through intimidation and transactional exchanges.
• Affection amid danger: The children’s gifts provide a warm contrast to the threatening world, showing that genuine emotional bonds can survive even in a bizarre and hostile setting.
• Absurdity and parody: The bathhouse rivalry and sudden televised cooking competition, complete with commercials, undercut the chapter’s darker themes with surreal comedy.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Red Ghost: Their exchange exposes the memory-erasing danger of the world and establishes Red Ghost as a stern but helpful guardian.
• Liu Zheng and the children: Their farewell is affectionate and personal, with the children giving him a hair flower and Liu Zheng promising himself to bring them better gifts.
• Jinzi and Guokou Tangzi: Their rivalry centers on ownership of Liu Zheng as a customer and reflects their competing organizations’ hostility.
• Liu Zheng and Jinzi: Liu Zheng uses a frightening demonstration of his knife skills to deter Jinzi from treating him as prey.
• Guokou Tangzi and Liu Zheng: She protects and warns him, while he responds with irreverent humor and impatience.
• Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly: Their interaction turns a relaxing bath into an impromptu soup-stewing competition, reinforcing the chapter’s blend of danger, comedy, and absurdity.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Dragonfly begins by broadcasting an absurd advertisement for “Wahaha Authentic Brain Essence,” revealing that referees must fund their own extras and therefore take advertising jobs.
• Liu Zheng tries to exploit loopholes in Red Dragonfly’s rules by offering it money. Red Dragonfly initially refuses, insisting that accepting money could compromise its fairness and impartiality.
• Liu Zheng points out that advertising could also create conflicts of interest. Red Dragonfly realizes the weakness in its reasoning, rejects both the money and future advertisements, and destroys the surrounding advertisement projections.
• After this realization, Red Dragonfly appears to undergo a positive transformation: golden edges emerge on its wings, and it receives Liu Zheng’s congratulations. It thanks him, though it cannot think of a suitable reward.
• The cooking competition officially begins. The contestants are Guokou Tangzi, representing the former Ultimate Flavor Group, and Napoleon, head chef of Bloodstained Restaurant, whose dish is humorously named “Soup in a One-Million Pot.”
• Napoleon’s soup produces a powerful red spicy mist followed by a soothing green herbal fragrance, impressing everyone before the soup is even tasted.
• Red Dragonfly samples Napoleon’s cream-based soup and praises its complex layers, hundreds of flavor compounds, and skillful balance of salty, sweet, and spicy elements.
• Guokou Tangzi dismisses Napoleon’s soup as merely “not bad,” claiming that true soup is made not with flavor, but with the “heart of the soul.”
• Red Dragonfly then opens Guokou Tangzi’s pot. Her soup appears extremely plain: clear broth with tofu, kelp, and green onions. It begins tasting the dish, but the chapter ends before the result is revealed.

Character Developments

• Red Dragonfly demonstrates a growing capacity for self-reflection and ethical reasoning. By recognizing that loopholes can weaken rules, it voluntarily gives up advertising and appears to evolve spiritually or morally.
• Liu Zheng continues to act as a clever but supportive figure. He tests Red Dragonfly’s logic, encourages its development, and accepts its eccentric behavior without judging it too harshly.
• Guokou Tangzi remains proud, serious, and highly confident in her cooking. She refuses to be intimidated by Napoleon’s impressive presentation and insists that technical complexity is not the same as genuine culinary quality.
• Napoleon is portrayed indirectly through his soup and reputation as Bloodstained Restaurant’s renowned head chef. His cooking displays extraordinary technical mastery and theatrical presentation.
• Red Dragonfly shifts humorously between a commercial announcer, impartial referee, and food critic, creating a contrast between its formal role and its increasingly human personality.

Significant Themes

• Rules versus loopholes: The exchange between Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly explores how humans create rules and instinctively search for ways around them. The chapter suggests that true fairness requires understanding the spirit, not merely the wording, of rules.
• Ethics and impartiality: Red Dragonfly’s decision to abandon advertising represents a commitment to integrity, even though the advertisements provide financial support.
• Appearance versus substance: Napoleon’s soup is dramatic, complex, and immediately impressive, while Guokou Tangzi’s soup looks almost completely ordinary. The competition raises the question of whether spectacle and technical complexity matter more than sincerity and essence.
• The meaning of “heart”: Guokou Tangzi’s statement that soup is made with the “heart of the soul” introduces the idea that cooking involves emotion, intention, and personal dedication rather than ingredients and technique alone.
• Humanity emerging within nonhuman beings: Red Dragonfly’s self-correction and moral growth continue the broader theme of monsters or artificial beings developing human-like values.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly: Liu Zheng challenges Red Dragonfly’s reasoning with playful manipulation, while Red Dragonfly ultimately benefits from the criticism and thanks him.
• Red Dragonfly and Guokou Tangzi: Their exchange highlights Guokou Tangzi’s seriousness and Red Dragonfly’s theatrical, sometimes unreliable humor. Guokou Tangzi becomes irritated when Red Dragonfly jokes about literal hearts.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi: Guokou Tangzi blames Liu Zheng for bringing such an unreliable referee, while Liu Zheng silently denies responsibility.
• Red Dragonfly and the contestants: As referee and commentator, Red Dragonfly enthusiastically presents both contestants, tastes their soups, and builds suspense around the eventual winner.
• Napoleon and Guokou Tangzi: Although they do not directly speak, their contrasting soups and philosophies establish the central rivalry: elaborate mastery and sensory complexity versus simplicity, conviction, and soulful preparation.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Dragonfly tastes Guokou Tangzi’s soup and gives it a brief but positive review: “Delicious.”
• He questions whether she used the special abilities of the Ultimate Flavor Group’s soup pot. Although the rules did not forbid this, he points out that the pot was supposed to be the wager and is incomplete.
• Guokou Tangzi agrees to repair the pot using her own “flesh.” Red Dragonfly rules that she has won, but only if she completes the pot before the result is finalized.
• Guokou summons the Onion-Ginger-Garlic-Pepper Quartet and begins transferring leadership of the Ultimate Flavor Group to Chili Head, making him the fifth-generation leader.
• The succession requires Chili Head eventually to stew Guokou into soup, allowing him to inherit her strength and culinary abilities. The group reacts with grief, though Guokou remains practical and orders them not to add pepper.
• Liu Zheng interrupts the ceremony and negotiates a thirty-minute limit for the match. He proposes taking the soup pot away to find a way to save Guokou from sacrificing herself.
• Though Guokou initially refuses to surrender the group’s treasured inheritance, Chili Head and the others insist they would rather lose the organization than live without her.
• Liu Zheng mocks their exaggerated emotional display and demands payment before helping. Guokou reluctantly gives him permission to take the pot.
• As payment, Guokou removes a metal fragment embedded in her neck—revealing her grotesque, nonhuman physical condition—and hands it to Liu Zheng.

Character Developments

• Guokou Tangzi: Demonstrates determination and responsibility by accepting the cost of repairing the pot and arranging her own succession. Her hardened exterior briefly gives way to genuine emotion toward her subordinates, though she quickly resumes her manipulative, practical behavior.
• Liu Zheng: Shows resourcefulness and emotional detachment. He attempts to save Guokou but refuses to be exploited, insisting on compensation and maintaining control of the negotiation.
• Chili Head: Develops from a loyal subordinate into the designated successor. His emotional resistance to Guokou’s sacrifice reveals deep devotion, and he ultimately prioritizes her life over the group’s treasured inheritance.
• Onion, Ginger, and Garlic: Join Chili Head in expressing loyalty to Guokou, emphasizing the family-like bond among the group.
• Red Dragonfly: Acts as an impartial judge, recognizing Guokou’s legitimate use of the soup pot while imposing the condition that it must be completed.

Significant Themes

• Sacrifice and inheritance: Leadership and power are passed on through the former leader’s physical sacrifice, making succession both literal and horrific.
• Loyalty versus institutions: Chili Head and the others value Guokou more than the Ultimate Flavor Group itself, suggesting that personal bonds are more important than organizational legacy.
• Trust and transactional relationships: Liu Zheng’s insistence on payment contrasts with the group’s emotional loyalty. The chapter questions whether alliances can exist without mutual trust or clear compensation.
• Humanity and monstrosity: Guokou’s detachable head, embedded metal, and transformation away from humanity highlight the strange bodily horror of the setting and raise questions about what remains of her former human identity.
• Comedy amid horror: The gruesome succession ritual is undercut by absurd dialogue, exaggerated melodrama, and Liu Zheng’s blunt mockery.

Character Interactions

• Red Dragonfly and Guokou: Debate whether using the soup pot’s abilities violated the wager, with Red Dragonfly ultimately allowing her victory conditionally.
• Guokou and the Quartet: She forcibly asserts authority, appoints Chili Head as successor, and manages their emotional resistance with a mixture of violence, affection, and manipulation.
• Liu Zheng and Guokou: Their exchange is combative and transactional. He offers salvation but refuses to help without payment, while she distrusts him and demands collateral before surrendering the pot.
• Chili Head and Guokou: Their interaction reveals a strong mentor-and-subordinate bond. Chili Head’s refusal to accept her sacrifice and his willingness to give up the group’s inheritance demonstrate his profound loyalty.

Chapter Summary: “Me, I’m Really Going to Die”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng examines a Killing Stone Fragment, discovering that it can either:
  • Cut living creatures and cause negative mutations, or
  • Be used as a forging material to make weapons deadlier.
• Guokou Tangzi explains that the fragment is part of a famous weapon associated with Metropolis’s Yakuza. Liu Zheng stores it rather than using it immediately.
• After leaving the women’s bath, Liu Zheng returns to Rose Street and attempts to trade two valuable soup cauldrons to the French Plane Tree.
• The tree agrees to help him locate more advanced emergency rations, but only if Liu Zheng enters its stomach to deal with the bird that originally stole them.
• Liu Zheng explains his broader plan: use the Ultimate Flavor Group to attack the Jorden Family’s factory and help revoke the Fire Mage’s wanted notice. The group is useful because it is powerful but comparatively independent and controllable.
• The French Plane Tree accepts the soups as payment after recognizing their rarity and symbolic value. It consumes both pots and is delighted by their flavor.
• As payment, the tree gives Liu Zheng a Parasite, an item that can replace the “Flesh” normally required for certain actions.
• Liu Zheng returns to the Yakuza Sento and gives the Parasite to Guokou Tangzi, who uses it to restore the damaged soup pot.
• Guokou Tangzi inserts the pot handle into her neck, allowing the Parasite to supply the flesh needed for the restoration. The process severely weakens her.
• Red Dragonfly formally declares Guokou Tangzi and the Ultimate Flavor Group the winners of the cooking competition, but the celebratory referee tap unexpectedly drives Guokou Tangzi into the floor.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to survive through negotiation, trading, and indirect strategies rather than direct strength. He demonstrates growing resourcefulness by turning valuable soups into tools for building alliances.
• He also remains pragmatic about powerful items, choosing to preserve the Killing Stone Fragment for a potentially more valuable future use.
• French Plane Tree reveals more of its transactional personality. Though sarcastic and self-interested, it is willing to cooperate when Liu Zheng offers something valuable. Its reaction to the soup shows that its tastes had become dulled by excessive drinking.
• Guokou Tangzi proves her determination and willingness to endure extreme pain to restore the soup pot and secure victory for her group. Her use of the Parasite leaves her physically weakened.
• Red Dragonfly remains cheerful, eccentric, and oblivious to the danger of its own actions, treating the competition and its violent referee duties as harmless fun.

Significant Themes

• Survival through leverage: Liu Zheng cannot overpower the major factions directly, so he links alliances and exchanges together to create larger effects.
• Value and resourcefulness: Items gain worth not only through practical power but also through rarity, symbolism, and usefulness to specific people.
• Body horror and mutation: The Killing Stone, Parasite, and Guokou Tangzi’s restoration method emphasize the grotesque physical costs of life in Metropolis.
• Transactional relationships: Nearly every interaction is framed as a trade. Even apparent friendships—such as the relationship between the tree and the bird—are described as exchanges of benefit.
• Absurdity amid danger: The bizarre humor of sento competitions, talking trees, mutated beings, and violent misunderstandings contrasts with the characters’ genuinely dangerous circumstances.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Guokou Tangzi: Liu Zheng gives her the Parasite, relying on her ability to repair the soup pot. Their exchange highlights mutual cooperation and practical trust.
• Liu Zheng and French Plane Tree: Their conversation combines mockery, bargaining, and strategic manipulation. Liu Zheng uses the soups to persuade the tree to support his larger plan.
• Liu Zheng and Red Dragonfly: Liu Zheng treats Red Dragonfly as an eccentric but useful authority figure, asking it to wait while he completes his trade.
• Guokou Tangzi and Red Dragonfly: Red Dragonfly announces her victory with a ceremonial tap that accidentally—or characteristically—slams her into the floor, ending the chapter on a comic and violent note.

Chapter Summary: “Seventeen or Eighteen Deaths by a Thousand Cuts”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Red Dragonfly defeats Guokou Tangzi in the referee match, using the Referee Baton with precise force. Although the attack leaves her temporarily helpless, it causes no serious injury. Red Dragonfly implies that the blow is partly punishment and departs on friendly terms with Liu Zheng.
• Liu Zheng mockingly delivers Guokou Tangzi’s meal by balancing the meal box on her head, then intimidates the Seasoning Quartet. He warns them not to overstep their place, claiming that anything he helps them obtain can also be taken away.
• Liu’s killing intent suddenly overwhelms the bathhouse’s hostile residents. Jinzi, who was secretly watching him, collapses after being struck by the accumulated resentment surrounding him. Liu jokingly attributes this to his “charm.”
• Back at the lounge, Cow-Horse explains that Liu did not consciously master killing intent. Instead, the resentment attached to him was redirected toward his enemies, removing the killing intent from Liu in the process.
• White-Feather Chicken arrives carrying a rack of knives, intending to punish Liu for helping Guokou Tangzi survive and win the match. It accuses him of betraying their side and causing disgrace to the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Cow-Horse initially protects Liu, arguing that White-Feather Chicken’s anger should be directed at Guokou Tangzi or at its own overconfidence. However, Cow-Horse then negotiates a compromise, pointing out that Liu is still needed to help destroy the lottery shop.
• White-Feather Chicken agrees to enter the lounge and discuss the matter rather than immediately cutting Liu apart. Cow-Horse reveals that the lottery-shop owner is dangerous and has ties to the Public Security Bureau’s Special Operations Team.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng becomes more confident and openly threatening. He uses his leverage over the Seasoning Quartet and demonstrates that the resentment surrounding him can function as a weapon, even though he does not yet understand or control it.
• Guokou Tangzi loses the match but survives because of Red Dragonfly’s restraint and Liu’s intervention. Her frustrated exchanges with Liu highlight their antagonistic but increasingly dependent relationship.
• Cow-Horse acts as Liu’s protector and strategist. It is willing to defend him, but it also sees Liu as a useful asset and negotiates to preserve his value to the group.
• White-Feather Chicken is shown to be vindictive and prideful after its defeat. Despite its hostility, it can be persuaded to cooperate when practical interests are involved.
• Red Dragonfly is characterized as strict but fair, punishing Guokou Tangzi while ensuring she is not permanently harmed.
• Jinzi and the bathhouse residents are shown to be vulnerable to the resentment and killing intent surrounding Liu.

Significant Themes

• Power and leverage: Liu’s greatest strength is not only physical ability but also the influence and resources he controls. He warns others that dependence on him can easily become a weakness.
• Accidental mastery and hidden potential: Liu acquires an advanced ability—using killing intent—without deliberately learning it, suggesting that his powers are developing unpredictably.
• Pragmatism over revenge: Cow-Horse prevents violence not out of pure goodwill, but because Liu remains useful for the lottery-shop mission.
• Honor, pride, and disgrace: White-Feather Chicken’s anger stems from both personal betrayal and the humiliation of losing to an outsider, while Cow-Horse mocks its wounded pride.
• Protection within dangerous alliances: Liu is surrounded by figures who may threaten or exploit him, yet they also protect him when his usefulness or group loyalty is at stake.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu and Guokou Tangzi exchange sarcastic threats after her defeat, with Liu humiliating her by placing the meal box on her head.
• Liu confronts the Seasoning Quartet and establishes dominance through intimidation.
• Cow-Horse explains Liu’s accidental use of killing intent and envies his natural aptitude.
• Cow-Horse and White-Feather Chicken engage in a tense negotiation, with Cow-Horse defending Liu while also manipulating White-Feather Chicken into cooperation.
• White-Feather Chicken’s final revelation—that the lottery-shop owner once belonged to the Public Security Bureau’s Special Operations Team—raises the stakes for the upcoming mission.

Chapter Summary: “The Chance to Dine with the Supreme Speaker”

Key Plot Points and Events

• White-Feather Chicken asks Liu Zheng to deal with a former Special Operations Team member who now runs a lottery shop. Liu Zheng is alarmed, since the man is reportedly stronger than Cow-Horse and no longer protected by City Hall.
• White-Feather Chicken reveals the target’s unusual weakness: he is attracted to fluffy creatures with cloacas, implying birds. Liu Zheng considers asking French Plane Tree for help, particularly if it knows of a bird species capable of producing venom.
• White-Feather Chicken also warns Liu Zheng that, if he visits the target’s lottery shop, he should buy only Scratch-Off Lottery tickets bearing saliva marks.
• Cow-Horse explains that Scratch-Off tickets can award money or Welfare Points. Welfare Points can be exchanged for useful benefits such as citizenship, jobs, low-rent housing, and educational admission, though the costs are extremely high.
• The most valuable known exchange is a private meal with the Supreme Speaker, costing 100 million Welfare Points. Cow-Horse explains that such a prize is effectively unattainable and that City Hall uses the welfare system both to offer limited hope to the poor and to lure dangerous, disorderly individuals into exposure.
• Cow-Horse asks Liu Zheng to exchange any unlikely jackpot winnings for Eugenics Drug, which could increase the chances of a future child passing Birth Screening. Liu agrees immediately out of loyalty, though Cow-Horse refuses Liu’s offer to obtain another Black Koi because of the dangerous side effects.
• Cow-Horse receives a call from its superior and, after speaking respectfully, tells Liu Zheng that the boss is pleased—apparently confirming that Liu’s recent actions have been viewed favorably.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Liu Zheng remains bold, irreverent, and opportunistic. He questions White-Feather Chicken’s plan, compares the target to Cow-Horse, and refuses to be intimidated by the enormous Welfare Point jackpot. His willingness to help Cow-Horse demonstrates growing loyalty.
• Cow-Horse acts as both Liu’s superior and a source of practical information. It jokes about Liu’s ambitions, challenges him to a fight, and reveals personal desires, including obtaining Eugenics Drug despite claiming not to want children.
• White-Feather Chicken exposes more of its tragic past. It was once a pet and sexual object, and its desire for revenge has intensified after hearing about Liu’s exploits. Despite its resentment and pride, it provides Liu with crucial intelligence and even supplies Cow-Horse with liquor.
• The banter between Liu and Cow-Horse shows their increasingly familiar relationship. Their teasing masks genuine trust, while White-Feather Chicken’s cynical comments highlight the harsh social hierarchy of Metropolis.

Significant Themes

• Power and vulnerability: Former Special Operations Team membership grants no permanent safety once City Hall’s protection is removed, but innate strength still determines survival.
• Exploitation and revenge: White-Feather Chicken’s history illustrates how weaker beings are treated as property in Metropolis, motivating its desire for retaliation.
• False hope and social control: Welfare Points appear to offer mobility and security, but their extreme costs make most rewards inaccessible. City Hall also uses the system to identify and control dangerous outsiders.
• Luck versus danger: Liu Zheng’s confidence in his luck contrasts with the potentially catastrophic consequences of pursuing supernatural advantages, such as Black Koi or lottery jackpots.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Liu’s easy promise to obtain Cow-Horse’s desired drug reflects their developing bond, while Cow-Horse’s refusal protects Liu from repeating a potentially fatal gamble.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• Cow-Horse tells Liu Zheng that Si Xue wants to see him. With two hours before his meeting with Novelist, Liu Zheng eats a duplicated Sesame Tofu to calm his nerves and goes to Si Xue’s office.
• Si Xue’s office has transformed from a Lava Sea into a peaceful green prairie beneath a glowing, sunlike sphere. She is reclining against a bleeding, headless deer corpse.
• Si Xue orders Liu Zheng to bring the woman he rescued—currently working for one of his friends—to the Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Liu Zheng protests that the woman is too weak for the Restaurant and already has employment elsewhere. Si Xue refuses to negotiate, making it clear that she is issuing an order.
• Si Xue explains that she wants the woman at the Restaurant because Liu Zheng failed to destroy Peacock’s office building thoroughly enough. Peacock, a powerful figure who owns much of Metropolis’s office space, is blamed for severely injuring Cow-Horse.
• Liu Zheng tries to bargain by offering one of his future rewards in exchange for protecting the woman. He argues that every life has equal value and confidently claims he can earn another reward from Si Xue later.
• Si Xue changes the subject to Sewer’s upcoming hemorrhoid operation. She demands that Liu Zheng obtain a brain from Sewer as payment for giving the headless deer corpse to Sewer.
• Liu Zheng realizes the deer is the body of Bad-Luck Coffee’s deer-head sign, explaining why the coffee shop knows Restaurant delivery workers do not return. He agrees to Si Xue’s demands, prioritizing his own boss’s reward and securing the woman’s safety.
• As Si Xue rises, she uses Liu Zheng’s tentacle for support, then unexpectedly drives one leg into the deer’s bleeding neck. The scene ends with Liu Zheng realizing, with alarm and embarrassment, that Si Xue is once again not wearing clothes.

2. Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains cautious around Si Xue but demonstrates growing confidence, resourcefulness, and willingness to challenge her orders indirectly. He is prepared to sacrifice a valuable reward to protect the rescued woman.
• He also shows loyalty to the Bloodstained Restaurant and a pragmatic understanding of power: Si Xue’s rewards are more valuable than Sewer’s, so he chooses to spend Sewer’s potential reward instead.
• Si Xue is shown as domineering, capricious, and extremely powerful. She treats major political and social consequences—such as turning citizens into higher classes or erasing entire species—as casual abilities.
• Despite her cruelty and mockery, Si Xue appears to be protecting or claiming useful people for the Restaurant, suggesting that her interest in the rescued woman may be strategic rather than purely malicious.
• Sewer is indirectly characterized as powerful enough to possess or provide a brain valuable to Si Xue, while also being involved in the absurdly specific medical issue of hemorrhoids.
• Peacock emerges as a significant hostile figure whose influence spans much of Metropolis and whose conflict with the Restaurant has already led to Cow-Horse’s injuries.

3. Significant Themes

• Power and hierarchy: Si Xue’s casual ability to alter citizenship status or erase species emphasizes the extreme power imbalance between her and ordinary beings.
• Loyalty versus self-preservation: Liu Zheng risks his future rewards—and potentially his life—to protect another person, even while acknowledging the danger of opposing powerful organizations.
• Moral value of life: Liu Zheng explicitly argues that one life is not inherently less valuable than many, rejecting Si Xue’s dismissive attitude toward a “cleaner.”
• Obedience and negotiation: Although Si Xue insists on obedience, Liu Zheng continually tries to negotiate within the limits of his role as an employee.
• Absurdity and grotesque humor: The chapter mixes bureaucratic workplace dynamics with supernatural violence, medical jokes, a bleeding corpse, and Si Xue’s bizarre use of it as payment.
• The Restaurant as a dangerous institution: Its employees and associates are feared, its orders carry immense consequences, and even objects such as Bad-Luck Coffee’s sign may be captured and repurposed.

4. Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Cow-Horse delivers Si Xue’s summons, while Liu Zheng interprets Cow-Horse’s vague reassurance that the boss is “not unhappy” as good news.
• Liu Zheng and Si Xue: Their exchange is a mixture of command, sarcasm, flattery, and bargaining. Liu Zheng tries to soften Si Xue’s orders with humor and praise, while she repeatedly exposes his attempts to avoid responsibility.
• Liu Zheng and the rescued woman: Although she does not appear directly, Liu Zheng’s refusal to force her into the Restaurant reveals his protective attitude and sense of personal responsibility.
• Si Xue and Peacock: Their conflict is discussed rather than shown. Si Xue is angry that Liu Zheng did not strike Peacock’s organization hard enough.
• Liu Zheng and Sewer: Their relationship is currently transactional: Liu Zheng is arranging Sewer’s surgery, while Si Xue expects him to use that medical favor to obtain a brain.
• Liu Zheng and the headless deer: The corpse becomes both a shocking visual object and a bargaining tool. Its identity as Bad-Luck Coffee’s deer-head sign links the Restaurant to the disappearance of the coffee shop’s personnel.

Chapter Summary: “Bosses Are All Black-Hearted, but Very Smooth”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Si Xue completes a terrifying ritual involving a headless deer. Black water-fur burrows into the carcass, transforming it into an oil-like monster covered with countless eyes.
• After ordering Liu Zheng to close his eyes, Si Xue produces a shrunken, pitch-black Deer Head from the creature. Liu Zheng stores it in his delivery box after she tears off part of her skirt to wrap it.
• As Liu Zheng’s reward, Si Xue offers him one wish. He initially considers saving it but ultimately asks for advice about attending a salon dance as someone’s male companion.
• The event is hosted by the Metropolis Writers Association, and Liu Zheng becomes worried that its dangerous president may attend. Si Xue warns that the president might target him, especially because of the Golden Star Medal he wears.
• Liu Zheng contacts the Novelist, who confirms that the president’s attendance is uncertain. Si Xue says she cannot directly protect Liu Zheng outside the Restaurant, but offers a dangerous, low-probability alternative as fulfillment of his reward.
• Si Xue instructs Liu Zheng to pick her up. Once he does, she transforms the grassland into a sea of lava and raises an obsidian pillar containing the Rainbow Phoenix.
• She presents Liu Zheng with a deadly moral test, asking which quality—virtue, propriety, righteousness, trustworthiness, or benevolence—he possesses. Choosing incorrectly will result in his death.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng continues to demonstrate resourcefulness and caution, worrying about transporting the Deer Head and seeking preparation for the salon. He also relies heavily on flattery, using smooth praise to win Si Xue’s approval and cooperation.
• Si Xue remains powerful, ruthless, and unpredictable, but she also shows a degree of care toward Liu Zheng. She helps package the Deer Head, listens to his concerns, and offers a possible means of protection despite claiming she cannot personally intervene.
• Liu Zheng’s growing confidence and unusual abilities are emphasized. Si Xue remarks that his rapid development may eventually make her dependent on him, reversing their usual boss-subordinate dynamic.
• Si Xue’s inability to protect Liu Zheng outside the Restaurant reveals limits to her otherwise overwhelming power.

Significant Themes

• Power and vulnerability: Even Si Xue’s immense abilities have boundaries, particularly away from the Restaurant.
• Moral testing and judgment: The final test forces Liu Zheng to define himself through traditional virtues, with his survival depending on the answer.
• Manipulation and charm: Liu Zheng’s excessive flattery becomes a practical survival tool, while Si Xue uses her authority to control and tease him.
• Danger beneath beauty: The eerie transformation of the deer, Si Xue’s flawless appearance, and the seemingly elegant salon all conceal violence and deadly threats.
• Transactional relationships: Rewards, favors, protection, and labor are constantly negotiated between Liu Zheng and Si Xue.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Si Xue maintain a playful but dangerous boss-subordinate relationship. He flatters her as a noble, benevolent superior, while she mocks his smooth-talking nature and questions why he was invited to the salon.
• Si Xue acknowledges that Liu Zheng is fortunate to have her as a boss, contrasting herself with cruel executives who exploit their subordinates.
• Liu Zheng asks for her protection, but she explains that her abilities are poorly suited to defending him against the Writers Association’s president.
• Their physical interaction becomes part of Si Xue’s plan when she orders Liu Zheng to carry her. This leads directly to the lava transformation, the appearance of the Rainbow Phoenix, and the dangerous virtue test.

Chapter Summary

• Liu Zheng chooses to undergo the trial of moral “characters.” Although he believes he possesses little virtue, propriety, trustworthiness, or benevolence, he decides to begin with loyalty because it is the quality he feels applies to him most.
• Si Xue tears the character for “loyalty” from the Rainbow Phoenix. The removal strips away flesh and feathers, causing Phoenix great pain, but Liu Zheng cannot intervene because he needs its power for protection. The character descends onto Liu Zheng’s soul like a mountain.
• Liu Zheng’s memories support his loyalty. Scenes from his childhood and past emerge, including defending a child who gave him bubble gum, protecting a girl who confessed to him, and sacrificing his broken heart to shield her from a Stink Fart Bomb. These memories become unstable stones that nevertheless hold up the enormous character, proving that Liu Zheng possesses genuine loyalty despite his flaws.
• Liu Zheng and Si Xue debate morality and political order. Liu suggests that City Hall could establish a moral standard through representatives of every race. Si Xue challenges who would define the “greatest common denominator” and who would benefit from it. Liu realizes that in Metropolis, order is maintained not by shared morality but by City Hall’s overwhelming violence. Si Xue hints that the world beyond the Borderlands is even more significant, though Liu insists he only wants to work at the Restaurant.
• Liu Zheng accepts the character for “trustworthiness.” This character acts like a guillotine against his neck and soul. Memories of keeping promises form chains around him, symbolizing how trustworthiness can both restrain and protect a person. The chains repeatedly break and regenerate until the character’s blade is dulled, allowing Liu Zheng to survive the trial.
• Liu Zheng deliberately chooses further trials. Fearing that the president of the Writers Association may judge him according to these moral qualities, he asks for both “virtue” and “benevolence” rather than leaving his survival to chance. Si Xue agrees and begins tearing the two characters from the Rainbow Phoenix.

Character Development and Interactions

• Liu Zheng confronts his own morally complicated past and discovers that, despite his violence and dishonesty, he has real loyalty and reliability. His willingness to endure further suffering shows determination, pragmatism, and growing acceptance of responsibility.
• Si Xue remains detached, sarcastic, and authoritative. She tests Liu Zheng without comforting him, but her willingness to guide him suggests she is helping him prepare for a dangerous future encounter.
• The Rainbow Phoenix is treated as a source of power rather than an individual, and its suffering highlights the brutal sacrifices required in this world.

Major Themes

• Morality is subjective and political. With thousands of races in Metropolis, no universal moral standard is easily possible.
• Power, not ethics, maintains social order. City Hall’s ability to suppress all races matters more than moral consensus.
• Loyalty and trustworthiness are burdens as well as strengths. They can protect a person, but they also impose painful obligations.
• Identity is revealed through action. Liu Zheng’s past deeds prove qualities he himself refuses to claim.
• Survival requires sacrifice. Both Phoenix and Liu Zheng endure suffering because power and protection come at a cost.

Chapter Summary: “The Seat of Cow-Horse Is Yours”

Key Plot Points and Events

• In the Lava Sea, Liu Zheng faces Si Xue’s test involving the Five Virtues. The characters “Virtue” and “Benevolence” attack him spiritually and physically.
• Liu Zheng survives the “Virtue” attack by allowing countless mental scenes to burn in his place. He then barely withstands “Benevolence,” using those scenes as ropes to form a net that catches the sword.
• Si Xue reveals that enduring all Five Virtues would grant Liu Zheng the Phoenix Force and allow him to claim Cow-Horse’s department-head position. She encourages him to attempt the final character, “Ritual,” but Liu Zheng refuses, knowing it would likely kill him.
• Si Xue mocks his cowardice and dismisses him. Liu Zheng returns to the lounge in terrible condition, describing the ordeal as both a reward and a punishment—ultimately, mere torture.
• Cow-Horse offers him vodka as a “powerful painkiller,” but Liu Zheng refuses because he must soon attend a salon ball.
• Liu Zheng summons Big White Goose to prepare his appearance for the Writers Association’s event. He initially asks for a plain disguise, but ultimately leaves the style to Big White Goose.
• Big White Goose creates a dramatic “steampunk literary giant” appearance, reshaping Liu Zheng’s face with supernatural makeup techniques involving bone ash, tools, glue, and sculpting.
• Liu Zheng is impressed by the mature, aristocratic, melancholy figure in the mirror. However, Big White Goose reveals the transformation is not finished and prepares to reshape Liu Zheng’s body as well.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng demonstrates resilience by surviving two terrifying Virtue attacks, but also recognizes his limits and refuses to risk his life for greater power. His cautious, practical nature remains central to his character.
• He shows social awareness by considering whether his appearance will satisfy his female companion, the Novelist, rather than focusing only on his own preference.
• Si Xue appears both sadistic and intrigued by Liu Zheng’s endurance. She tempts him with power and status while ridiculing his refusal, reinforcing her intimidating authority.
• Cow-Horse remains casually irreverent, offering alcohol as medicine while observing Liu Zheng’s condition. His position as department head is indirectly threatened by the possibility that Liu Zheng could inherit the role.
• Big White Goose displays extraordinary artistic and cosmetic skill, combining professionalism, teasing humor, and unsettling supernatural methods. Its willingness to alter Liu Zheng’s bones and body emphasizes its unusual abilities.

Significant Themes

• Power versus survival: Liu Zheng is offered immense power through the Five Virtues, but the price may be death. The chapter emphasizes that refusing power can be an act of wisdom rather than cowardice.
• Endurance and limitation: Liu Zheng’s survival proves his strength, but his decision to stop shows self-awareness and the importance of recognizing one’s boundaries.
• Appearance and identity: Big White Goose’s transformation changes Liu Zheng’s temperament and social presence without erasing his underlying identity, suggesting that appearance can reveal or construct a new version of the self.
• Humor amid horror: Spiritual torture, bone manipulation, and lethal trials are presented alongside dry jokes and casual conversation, creating the story’s characteristic blend of grotesque horror and comedy.
• Status and social performance: Liu Zheng’s makeup is intended to prepare him for an elite literary gathering, highlighting the importance of presentation, reputation, and fitting into supernatural society.

Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Si Xue: Their exchange combines authority, temptation, mockery, and reluctant respect. Si Xue recognizes Liu Zheng’s potential, while Liu Zheng remains wary of her tests.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their interaction is familiar and comedic. Cow-Horse treats Liu Zheng’s suffering casually, while Liu Zheng rejects his absurd remedy.
• Liu Zheng and Big White Goose: Liu Zheng trusts Big White Goose’s expertise and flatters it to secure help. Big White Goose teases him but takes the preparation seriously, ultimately giving him a striking new appearance before beginning an even more invasive physical transformation.

Chapter Summary: “Liu Zheng Was High Society, and High Society Was Liu Zheng”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Big White Goose finishes transforming Liu Zheng’s body, removing his grotesque excess growths and correcting his warped bones and muscles. Liu Zheng remains visibly inhuman but now has a striking, statue-like beauty rather than a disturbing appearance.
• Big White Goose offers Liu Zheng a magical toad whose pus induces uncontrollable attraction, but Liu Zheng refuses because he wants to remain unnoticed at the upcoming ball.
• Liu Zheng massages Big White Goose and Cow-Horse using his “Four-Tentacle Grand Massage Technique.” Both enjoy the treatment, though Liu Zheng’s tentacles become painfully strained.
• Liu Zheng gives glowing thread to Weaver Lady so she can produce a disguise or related item for his mission. She says it will take about three days and will be delivered to the driver.
• Liu Zheng pressures Weaver Lady into informing the driver about the arrangement, threatening to expose how useless her molted shell disguise was during his previous encounter with her uncle.
• Novelist calls to confirm that Liu Zheng is ready and places a delivery order: one serving of “Fish-Man Grilled Gun Eggs,” to be delivered to the Quill Club within three hours.
• Liu Zheng returns Cow-Horse’s sexy lingerie and Memorial Medal. Their conversation turns to whether either of them can leave Bloodstained Restaurant.
• Cow-Horse explains that Liu Zheng’s reward differs from his three Outstanding Employee awards, hinting that Liu Zheng may have a special connection or future status within the Restaurant.
• Cow-Horse also warns Liu Zheng that the apparently normal version of Metropolis is still the real city, and that the Restaurant merely exposes him to its more extreme aspects. Liu Zheng remains unconcerned, valuing survival over an ordinary human life.
• Liu Zheng contacts the driver and requests an elegant vehicle suitable for attending a salon ball. The driver provides a luxurious Platinum Phantom for five thousand, including the driving fee.
• Liu Zheng leaves in the extravagant car, fully embracing the image of a wealthy, sophisticated guest heading to the Quill Club.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng: Gains a refined and attractive appearance, allowing him to blend more easily into high society. He becomes increasingly confident, calculating, and authoritative, using threats and negotiation when necessary. Despite his growing sophistication, he remains pragmatic and focused on survival rather than beauty, romance, or social ideals.
• Big White Goose: Demonstrates impressive surgical and bodily-repair skills, reinforcing his background and competence. He also reveals a commercial, opportunistic side by trying to sell Cow-Horse an expensive attraction-enhancing substance.
• Cow-Horse: Continues acting as Liu Zheng’s cynical mentor and supervisor. He warns Liu Zheng against becoming overconfident or abandoning the Restaurant, while also revealing anxiety about the possibility of escape and the Restaurant’s deeper significance.
• Weaver Lady: Remains nervous and submissive around Liu Zheng, especially after his manipulation and threats. Her cooperation suggests that Liu Zheng’s influence over others is growing.
• Novelist: Functions as Liu Zheng’s sponsor or social connection, arranging the delivery and enabling his entrance into the Quill Club’s elite environment.
• The driver: Treats Liu Zheng as a valuable customer and provides an extravagant vehicle, helping construct Liu Zheng’s new high-society persona.

Significant Themes

• Appearance and identity: Liu Zheng’s physical transformation reflects his attempt to move between grotesque supernatural society and elite social circles. His body remains monstrous, but presentation allows him to appear beautiful and respectable.
• Power and social status: The chapter repeatedly contrasts physical power, workplace rank, wealth, and influence. Liu Zheng begins acting like someone with authority, while Cow-Horse reminds him that true status within the Restaurant is difficult to obtain.
• Survival versus normalcy: Cow-Horse suggests that a stable life outside the Restaurant may be possible, but Liu Zheng rejects the idea that a truly normal human existence exists in Metropolis. His priority is simply staying alive.
• Exploitation and negotiation: Liu Zheng uses favors, threats, money, and social connections to secure what he needs. Relationships are often transactional, though humor and familiarity soften these exchanges.
• Performance and social disguise: The luxury car, refined appearance, and salon-ball setting emphasize how identity can be constructed through clothing, transportation, manners, and status symbols.
• Dark comedy amid horror: Grotesque surgery, magical pheromone substances, painful massage, and disturbing food are presented through casual banter, creating a comic contrast with the chapter’s underlying danger.

Important Character Interactions

• Liu Zheng and Big White Goose: Their interaction combines professional admiration, commercial bargaining, and mutual amusement. Liu Zheng praises Goose’s transformation work, then provides a massage in return.
• Liu Zheng and Cow-Horse: Their relationship is marked by teasing, insults, mentorship, and mutual dependence. Cow-Horse criticizes Liu Zheng’s growing arrogance but also provides important warnings about the Restaurant and Metropolis.
• Liu Zheng and Weaver Lady: Liu Zheng dominates the exchange, coercing her into cooperating with the driver. Her fear highlights his increasing ability to control weaker figures.
• Liu Zheng and Novelist: Novelist coordinates the next delivery and serves as Liu Zheng’s connection to the Quill Club and high society.
• Liu Zheng and the driver: Liu Zheng deliberately requests a luxurious car, and the driver helps him perform the role of a refined, wealthy guest. The chapter ends with Liu Zheng confidently entering this new social world.

Chapter Summary

• Plot and events: Novelist waits outside the Quill Club for Liu Zheng, dressed in an elaborate black furisode that emphasizes her imposing, mysterious presence. A female short-story writer approaches her and waits alongside her, partly out of admiration and partly because she is attracted to Novelist. Novelist’s overwhelming aura makes the woman feel both intimidated and excited. When Liu Zheng finally arrives in the luxurious Platinum Phantom, his driver and powerful presence impress the woman even before she can see the passengers clearly. Novelist immediately brightens, greets him warmly, and reveals a much softer side toward him.
• Character developments: Novelist demonstrates her authority, emotional control, and intimidating reputation as a former leading short-story author. She insists on being called “Novelist,” suggesting a deliberate separation from her former identity as Lady Izanami. Despite her frightening demeanor toward others, she becomes affectionate and openly happy around Liu Zheng. Liu Zheng, meanwhile, has made extensive preparations for the ball and appears burdened by the moral and emotional weight of his circumstances, though he still shows tenderness by patting Novelist’s head.
• Character interactions: The female writer tries to ingratiate herself with Novelist and becomes captivated by her intimidating beauty. Novelist permits her company but clearly evaluates and dismisses her as harmless. When Liu Zheng arrives, Novelist eagerly welcomes him, and their familiarity contrasts sharply with her coldness toward everyone else. Liu Zheng notices the woman staring at him, and his powerful gaze overwhelms her. Her attraction shifts from Novelist to Liu Zheng, leading to an embarrassing physical reaction that Novelist immediately notices with suspicion.
• Significant themes: The chapter explores power, status, beauty, and the contrast between public reputation and private affection. Novelist’s terrifying presence reflects her extraordinary standing, while her warmth toward Liu Zheng reveals that even a seemingly cold and dangerous person can possess deep attachment. The woman’s reaction also introduces humor through mistaken attraction and embarrassment, ending the chapter on Novelist’s jealous or suspicious response.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Zheng and Novelist arrive at the Writers Association’s salon ball. At the entrance, guests must choose which literary identity they will use. Novelist reluctantly abandons her former pen name, Izanami, and attends as Novelist.
• They receive gray quill tokens, indicating their low-ranking status within the Association, and are led into a colossal arena modeled after the Ancient Roman Colosseum.
• Their assigned positions are on the highest level, traditionally reserved for society’s lowest-status spectators. Novelist recognizes this placement as deliberate humiliation arranged by someone with hostile intentions.
• Liu Zheng gives Novelist two gifts: the rare Editor’s Insights Book and a high-quality keyboard mat made by the Weaver-Spider Clan. She is deeply surprised and touched by his casual generosity.
• When the bell rings, authors of various species and forms materialize throughout the arena. Their quill colors indicate their rank, with platinum being the highest and gray the lowest.
• The host, Fool, a powerful and famous long-form novelist in the form of a formally dressed black cat, announces that the evening will include a competition. The prize will be a reward from City Hall.
• Before the competition, Fool gives the authors fifteen minutes to socialize. Novelist declines to seek anyone out, explaining that she has no allies in the long-form field.
• A hostile woman known as Twelve-Layered Woman approaches and mocks Novelist for having fallen from her former status as Izanami to standing on the lowest level after only a few days.
• Twelve-Layered Woman then attacks Liu Zheng psychologically or spiritually, causing terrifying blue- and red-horned demons to emerge from her eyes and charge at him with weapons.

Character Developments

• Liu Zheng remains calm, generous, and unconcerned with social status. He notices Novelist’s humiliation but dismisses it, trying to reassure her that standing in the upper section is insignificant to him.
• His gifts reveal that he values Novelist personally rather than judging her by her reputation or rank.
• Novelist shows vulnerability beneath her composed exterior. She is ashamed of her fall from prominence, feels guilty for involving Liu Zheng, and is visibly affected by the hostility around her.
• Her decision to attend as Novelist rather than Izanami suggests both resentment toward her past identity and determination to face her current position.
• She also displays a possessive or romantic interest in Liu Zheng, privately thinking that his kindness makes him too good to simply consume.
• Fool is established as a highly influential author whose presence commands respect throughout the Association.
• Twelve-Layered Woman is introduced as a cruel rival who takes pleasure in Novelist’s downfall and possesses formidable supernatural abilities.

Significant Themes

• Status and reputation: The colored quills and seating arrangement formalize the hierarchy among authors, while Novelist’s fall demonstrates how quickly prestige can disappear.
• Public humiliation and social exclusion: Novelist is deliberately placed among the lowest-ranked attendees and becomes a target of ridicule.
• Kindness versus elitism: Liu Zheng’s indifference to rank contrasts sharply with the Association’s rigid hierarchy and the cruelty of its members.
• Identity and reinvention: Novelist’s choice between Izanami and Novelist reflects her struggle with her former success and present failure.
• Power hidden beneath appearances: The elegant salon conceals a dangerous environment where writers possess supernatural abilities and social interactions can become literal attacks.

Character Interactions

• Novelist and Liu Zheng grow closer as he supports her without judgment and gives her valuable gifts.
• The driver recognizes Novelist as a dangerous and formidable woman after a brief unseen confrontation, hinting at her strength despite her low current status.
• Novelist explains the Association’s ranking system and the reasons for their humiliating placement, while Liu Zheng responds with reassurance.
• Fool addresses the entire gathering with authority, establishing the competitive and hierarchical atmosphere.
• Twelve-Layered Woman directly confronts Novelist, mocking her decline and provoking Liu Zheng before launching an attack through the demonic manifestations from her eyes.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Liu Zheng is suddenly attacked by Twelve-Layered Woman/Hishikibe, who believes he insulted her with his gaze.
• He summons two powerful manifestations from the characters “benevolence” and “righteousness.” The figures resemble formidable ancient sages and embody centuries of moral philosophy.
• The manifestations easily destroy Hishikibe’s Green-and-Red Ghosts, forcing them back into her eyes and injuring her.
• They continue advancing on Hishikibe until the black cat, acting as host, and Novelist intervene to prevent her death.
• Liu Zheng manages to recall the manifestations but suffers severe backlash: he vomits blood, and the spiritual burdens associated with benevolence and righteousness become heavier within his soul and body.
• The black cat mediates the dispute. It rules that Hishikibe was initially insulted but became clearly at fault when she launched a direct attack and lost.
• Frightened by the black cat’s authority, Hishikibe accepts the judgment. As punishment and apology, she is ordered to work as a waitress.
• Liu Zheng chooses this punishment, while the black cat also asks Hishikibe to serve him a glass of Joy Turns to Sorrow as an additional apology.
• After Hishikibe leaves, the black cat recognizes that Liu Zheng possesses Four Virtues Power stripped from Phoenix and hints that it wants to buy or acquire it.

Character developments

• Liu Zheng: Reveals a powerful new ability connected to the Four Virtues. Though physically and spiritually strained by using it, he demonstrates restraint by stopping the attack when asked. His choice of a humiliating but nonviolent punishment shows practicality and moderation.
• Hishikibe/Twelve-Layered Woman: Her arrogance and aggression lead to defeat and public humiliation. Despite her resentment, she is forced to submit to the black cat’s authority.
• The black cat: Acts as an impartial but intimidating mediator. It balances fairness with political practicality, punishing Hishikibe without escalating the conflict or creating a larger problem for the Writers Association.
• Novelist: Notices Liu Zheng’s unusual condition, helps restrain the confrontation, and supports him after the backlash.
• The manifestations of “benevolence” and “righteousness”: They function as embodiments of ancient moral principles, overwhelming supernatural evil through ideological and physical force.

Significant themes

• Moral philosophy as power: Abstract virtues such as benevolence and righteousness become literal combat forces capable of destroying ghosts.
• Justice and authority: The black cat distinguishes between being insulted and initiating violence, emphasizing that Hishikibe’s attack makes her responsible despite the original provocation.
• Restraint versus vengeance: Liu Zheng could have allowed Hishikibe to be killed, but he recalls his manifestations and accepts mediation.
• Political pragmatism: The black cat enforces justice while avoiding the greater complications that would come from permanently expelling or destroying a prominent writer.
• Power and humiliation: Hishikibe’s forced role as a waitress demonstrates that social authority can be as humiliating and effective as physical punishment.

Character interactions

• Liu Zheng and Hishikibe clash directly, with his summoned virtues defeating her Green-and-Red Ghosts.
• Novelist protects Liu Zheng and urges him to stop once the danger has passed.
• The black cat confronts Hishikibe, establishes the judgment, and compels her obedience through intimidation.
• Liu Zheng consults Novelist before deciding Hishikibe’s punishment, while the black cat approves and formalizes the decision.
• After resolving the dispute, the black cat shifts from mediator to interested negotiator, probing Liu Zheng about the valuable power taken from Phoenix.