Chapter Summaries

Hesta met Xiang Hanshan while watching her tent, then hurried to class and arranged to visit Silei at the hospital. Meanwhile, Ding Jiali told Xu Ruyi that Hesta had received unusually favorable treatment with her household and suspected she was secretly wealthy or influential.

• Xiang Hanshan asked Hesta to watch her belongings, left to wash up, and returned to give Hesta her name.
• Hesta rushed into class just before the bell, messaged Silei about visiting her at Songxueyuan Blood Disease Hospital, and planned to write to Ligo and Tulan.
• Ding Jiali told Xu Ruyi that Hesta’s school paperwork had been attached to their household so she could obtain insurance as an Orange Town resident.
• Ding Jiali said Hesta’s file called for expedited handling and maximum reimbursement, and he urged Xu Ruyi to watch for signs that Hesta had a powerful background.

Hesta searched for the girl she had met that morning, then learned from Lin Jiao that the tent-dwelling student was Xiang Hanshan, a wealthy young woman performing an act at school. Lin Jiao invited Hesta to share her wilderness survival experience with the club.

• Ding Yuqing bit Ding Jiali after he scolded her, then ran to find Xu Ruyi in the kitchen.
• Hesta returned to the sports field at lunch but found the tent and its occupant gone, and regretted not asking the girl for her contact information.
• Hesta printed a photograph of a child she had promised to mail and asked Lin Jiao about a girl wearing clothes like hers.
• Lin Jiao identified the tent-dwelling girl as Hanshan and described her actions as performance art by a wealthy young woman.
• Lin Jiao learned Hesta had served as a medic in District 3 and invited her to share wilderness survival experience with the club.

Hesta agreed to prepare a presentation for Lin Jiao’s club and recognized Lin Jiao as a model for Yu Xuekun’s exercise. At home, Hesta played chess with Ding Guisheng and learned that her insurance had been registered under his household with a note about full reimbursement.

• Hesta accepted Lin Jiao’s invitation to submit a presentation outline for the club to review.
• On her way home, Hesta decided Lin Jiao was a suitable example of a typical person from District 14 for Yu Xuekun’s exercise.
• Ding Guisheng invited Hesta to learn chess, and they played while he tried to ask about her family.
• Xu Ruyi asked Hesta about her insurance and warned her that the full-reimbursement note could attract trouble.

Hesta noticed the growing tension in the family and worried over Ding Yuqing’s hint that she wanted to escape from them. The next morning, Ding Jiali invited Hesta to visit his club’s booth during recruitment week.

• Xu Ruyi and Ding Guisheng argued over what she had asked Hesta, then Ding Guisheng followed Xu Ruyi into the kitchen.
• Hesta found Miaomiao watching her, but Miaomiao ran away when Hesta offered to play chess.
• Ding Yuqing visited Hesta in her room and asked whether she had been avoiding the family, then said she wished she could hide far away from them.
• Hesta resisted chasing after Ding Yuqing and instead wrote letters to Ligo and the others asking for help.
• At breakfast, Ding Jiali told Hesta that his club would recruit members next week and invited her to visit its booth.

Hesta learned more about Ding Yuqing’s past and the Astronomy Club while navigating her host family’s expectations and her school evaluation. She found Xiang Hanshan on campus and revealed that she was the new advisor Farn had recommended.

• Ding Jiali invited Hesta to join the Astronomy Club and described its stargazing trips and hiking events.
• Ding Jiali told Hesta that Ding Yuqing often skipped class and had once taken half a year off from school.
• Hesta left early, and Yu Xuekun explained that Chiba had signed Hesta’s insurance paperwork; he postponed discussing Hesta’s other concerns until Wednesday.
• Hesta found more tent stake holes where Xiang Hanshan had camped and spotted her sunbathing on a lawn.
• Hesta gave Xiang Hanshan a folded paper to pass to Lin Jiao, and Xiang Hanshan recognized her as the new advisor Farn had recommended.

Hesta learned that Farn had recommended her as a consultant for Lin Jiao and Xiang Hanshan’s club, though she declined the position because of her identity as one of the Quicksilver Needles. Xiang Hanshan explained her belief that protagonists are controlled by fate and creators, leaving Hesta to consider whether such people exist around her.

• Hesta remembered Farn from the terrifying night in Mei County and learned Farn had recommended her as a consultant for the club.
• Xiang Hanshan revealed that Lin Jiao had planned to make Hesta a consultant, but Hesta said she would only give the presentation and keep her distance from the position.
• Xiang Hanshan claimed Lin Jiao could accomplish anything because she was always the protagonist, while Hesta wondered whether she might be one too.
• Xiang Hanshan described three signs of a protagonist: their lives are tied to the weather, their experiences have clear cause and effect, and fate compensates them for their losses.
• Hesta asked whether protagonists still lost things, and Xiang Hanshan answered that they lost almost everything because they were puppets, while supporting characters were free.

Xiang Hanshan discussed freedom and the idea that forgotten characters could escape their assigned roles, but left abruptly when Hesta challenged her assumptions. Hesta later told Yu Xuekun she planned to refuse Lin Jiao’s advisor invitation and learned that Eucali was replying to Yu Xuekun but avoiding her, leaving Hesta wondering what she had done wrong.

• Xiang Hanshan told Hesta that a character could gain freedom after the story’s spotlight moved away, and Hesta questioned whether the Creator and assigned duties were anything more than an assumption.
• Xiang Hanshan abruptly left, promising to send Lin Jiao the outline and saying Lin Jiao might invite Hesta to a Thursday gathering.
• Hesta told Yu Xuekun she intended to refuse Lin Jiao’s possible advisor offer, and Yu Xuekun said Hesta could wait until her observation period ended in September before deciding.
• Hesta learned that Eucali had been messaging Yu Xuekun while not replying to her, and she wondered whether she had done something wrong.
• Yu Xuekun told Hesta that Eucali was afraid to see her and suggested that Hesta could understand why if she understood why Eucali had cried at City Hall.

After reflecting on how complicated and painful friendship could be, Hesta encountered Teacher Chen playing chess in a park and watched her match. The game was interrupted by students arriving, and Teacher Chen and her opponent disputed whether the position meant a draw or a loss.

• Hesta told Yu Xuekun that she had never fully shared the five proofs of friendship with her most important friend, but still treasured their bond.
• Hesta left the consultation room feeling exhausted and sat alone near her residential complex, thinking about Ding Yuqing and Eucali.
• Hesta found a chess queen that had blown away and returned it to Teacher Chen in a nearby park.
• Hesta suggested a move during Teacher Chen's chess game, and Teacher Chen and her opponent continued their fierce match.
• When students arrived looking for Teacher Chen, she offered a draw, but her opponent claimed she had won, prompting Teacher Chen to inspect the board again.

Teacher Chen defeated the smoking woman in a chess game by sacrificing her queen and winning with her pawns, then invited Hesta to visit the Universal Chess Club. The next evening, Xiang Hanshan led Hesta to the club’s activity room in the old College of Literature building, where Hesta recognized a statue of Ava.

• Teacher Chen sacrificed her white queen and advanced her pawns to checkmate the smoking woman, who gave her a green-edged white chip.
• Teacher Chen invited Hesta to visit the Universal Chess Club, and a club member told Hesta where its activity room was.
• Hesta received Lin Jiao’s message arranging a meeting for the next evening at Wenhui Building.
• Hesta waited alone that night while Eucali did not reply, then spoke briefly with Ding Yuqing when she returned home late.
• Xiang Hanshan met Hesta at Wenhui Building and led her toward the old College of Literature building.
• Hesta stopped at a bronze bust of Ava, and Xiang Hanshan said Old Molly had arranged the statues because he admired Ava.

Hesta learned why Xiang Hanshan’s club hated Ava, a deceased politician from District 3, as Xiang described accusations of abuse and coercion against her. Hesta concealed her reaction and prepared to join the club’s gathering.

• Xiang Hanshan threw gravel at Ava’s statue and explained that her club had campaigned to have it moved from Wenhui Building.
• Xiang Hanshan told Hesta that Ava had been a political bureaucrat, a retired Mercury Needle, and the founder of the Ava Morgan Prize.
• Xiang Hanshan said Ava’s foundation funded a midwife Needle to reduce mortality among mothers under fifteen, but her club later came to see Ava as a standard-bearer of patriarchy.
• Xiang Hanshan recounted accusations that Ava had coerced a poor couple’s daughter and ran a den of vice, while Hesta questioned the claims and asked what happened afterward.
• Hesta changed the subject, washed her face, and returned with Xiang Hanshan, who said all nine club members had gathered and were eager to meet her.

Hesta gave a talk on medical precautions to Lin Jiao’s club, then learned that the group was preparing for doomsday by stockpiling emergency supplies, guns, and ammunition. The chapter ended with Hesta shocked by the scale of their weapons preparations.

• Hesta followed Xiang Hanshan to the club’s meeting room and met its members.
• Hesta presented medical precautions for fighting in temperate continental monsoon regions and answered the members’ questions.
• Hesta asked Lin Jiao what the club did, then agreed to visit its activity room.
• Lin Jiao showed Hesta the basement, where the club stored emergency supplies and packages bound for its warehouse.
• Lin Jiao told Hesta that the club stockpiled weapons, with ammunition and guns making up most of its weapons supply.

Lin Jiao and her companions explained to Hesta why they feared the Great Blackout Era might return, pointing to Robogriye’s plans for a second Eden and the mysteries surrounding the Mother Cities. Hesta declined their offer to join them, but went home unsettled by their warnings and their preparations for surviving the first five years of another disaster.

• Lin Jiao told Hesta that she and her companions were preparing for the possibility of another Great Blackout Era, and Hesta asked whether they expected it to happen again.
• Lin Jiao suggested that Robogriye’s decision to build a second Eden in the remote northern snowfields might be evidence of a coming catastrophe.
• Xiang Hanshan explained that the group’s preparations began when they learned where the Mother Cities came from, and he questioned whether they might one day disappear.
• The oldest member of the group predicted that a new disaster would happen within their lifetimes.
• Hesta refused the consultant position and any invitation to join the group’s activities, then asked how they would survive after their supplies ran out.
• Lin Jiao said they had no answer for long-term survival and were focused on getting through the first five years after a disaster.

Hesta learned that Lin Jiao and her companions trusted her because Farn had recommended her, and she arranged to meet Farn in person. After changing her travel plans and inviting Ding Yuqing to visit Hope Center, Hesta realized her menstruation was returning and bought sanitary pads before class.

• Hesta asked Yu Xuekun about Farn and learned that Farn would come to Orange Town for three weeks of training next month.
• Hesta moved her trip to Songxueyuan to Friday evening because Madam Kaja would be away, and invited Ding Yuqing to visit Hope Center with her.
• Hesta received no reply from Ding Yuqing and rested in the lecture hall until she recognized that her exhaustion was linked to her returning menstrual cycle.
• Hesta went to a convenience store, bought sanitary pads in several sizes, and returned to class with them in a transparent bag.
• Hesta's classmate offered to make room for the bag as the instructor began the lecture.

During a Common Tongue lecture, Jane Hesta became the target of her classmates’ laughter over her pack of sanitary pads, then challenged the teacher’s demand that she put away her belongings. The teacher expelled her from class, and an unfamiliar girl stood up to question why Hesta had to leave while the disruptive boys stayed.

• An old teacher repeatedly told several boys to quiet down as they laughed during his lecture.
• The boys revealed they had been laughing at Jane Hesta’s large pack of sanitary pads hanging from a storage hook.
• The teacher ordered Jane Hesta to put away her belongings, but she asked why she could not hang them there.
• Jane Hesta pointed out that a boy’s backpack and basketball also occupied a storage hook and blocked the aisle.
• The teacher wrote down Jane Hesta’s name and ordered her out of the classroom.
• An unfamiliar girl stood up and asked why Jane Hesta had to leave when the students disrupting the class did not.

After Hesta and several students walked out of a class where the old teacher had expelled her, they gathered on the lawn and discussed dropping the course. Hesta learned that they had chosen it to study with Teacher Chen Beiyi and decided to go with them to find her.

• The old teacher expelled Hesta and Cheng Xiaoshu, prompting more than a dozen students to leave the classroom in protest.
• Hesta told the teacher she would file a complaint with the Principal's mailbox and the school's oversight committee.
• Cheng Xiaoshu and the other students checked on Hesta, then invited her to sit with them on a nearby lawn.
• The students discussed dropping the course and said they had enrolled to learn from Teacher Chen Beiyi.
• After learning that the group planned to visit Teacher Chen Beiyi, Hesta said she would go with them.

Mei Sinan watched Silei study medical results while telling his ill friend about his repeated attempts to play a new piano piece for a blue-eyed woman. The young man reflected on his strained, unfamiliar relationship with Silei and worried that he might not have much time left.

• Mei Sinan told the hospitalized young man that Silei was downstairs examining his test results.
• Mei Sinan described composing “The Hesta Girl... Gazing at the Sunset” and explained how he had twice missed opportunities to play it for the blue-eyed woman.
• Mei Sinan said he now carried a speaker so he could play the piece when he next saw her.
• The young man admitted that he still felt uncomfortable with Silei despite knowing she was his mother.
• The young man said he did not know how much time he had left.

Hesta traveled to Songxueyuan and reunited with Silei, who seemed drained and had recently started smoking. They went to a night market for dinner, where they began to talk about how much they had both changed.

• Hesta moved her train trip up and helped several retired women with their suitcases, receiving a box of dried persimmons from them.
• After arriving in Songxueyuan, Hesta tasted the persimmons while waiting for Silei at the agreed landmark.
• Silei arrived looking exhausted, and Hesta noticed the change in her appearance and the smell of tobacco.
• Silei took Hesta to a night market near Blood Hospital, where they ordered food and Silei admitted she had started smoking in the past two months.
• Hesta and Silei began discussing their struggles, and Silei asked why Hesta looked so haggard.

Hesta told Silei about her classmate’s superstitious beliefs and her conflicts with her roommates, then accompanied her to the blood hospital to review an analysis report. There, Hesta learned that Silei’s child was named Si Yu and encountered Mei Sinan in the corridor.

• Silei gave Hesta soy milk and listened as Hesta explained why her classmates had expelled her from class and recounted her troubles with her roommates.
• Silei received a call about an analysis report at the hospital, and Hesta went with her.
• On the way to the hospital, Silei discussed the danger of leaving a pregnant woman alone and said that sometimes survival depended on luck.
• Hesta learned that Silei’s child was named Si Yu and that he had been doing better while a longtime pen pal visited him weekly.
• Hesta and Silei reached the intensive care ward, where they found Mei Sinan waiting and learned that Doctor Zhang was on the sixteenth floor.

Hesta and Silei discussed the Ascending Bright investigation and their time in District 14 over dinner. Silei revealed that before finding a woman’s bag and boarding the ship, she had planned to jump into the sea.

• Mei Sinan gave Hesta a singing rabbit pen to sign the hospital visitor register, then left after telling Silei he would return the next day.
• Hesta and Silei reheated and ate dinner outside the hospital while discussing Hesta’s recovery and Silei’s work on the Ascending Bright case.
• Silei told Hesta that she had gone to District 3 after finding a woman’s bag with identification and a ship ticket inside.
• Silei explained that if she had not found the bag, she would have gone to another bay to jump into the sea because she had lost the strength to keep struggling.

Silei told Hesta about her despair during her pregnancy with Yuqing and how hearing the baby’s heartbeat led her to continue, while Hesta hoped Si Yu would also survive his crisis. Before parting, Hesta described Orange Town as a larger passenger ship governed by hidden rules, and Silei urged her to use what she had learned aboard the Ascending Bright.

• Silei recalled reaching a breaking point while pregnant in 2013, then choosing not to end the pregnancy after hearing the baby’s heartbeat at the hospital.
• Silei said she later found a ticket that felt like a message telling her it was not yet time, and wondered if someone could survive a miracle twice.
• Hesta told Silei that Si Yu could come back from the dead as they looked toward his darkened hospital room.
• Silei walked Hesta to her hotel and listened as Hesta shared stories about Ding Yuqing and Xu Ruyi.
• Hesta compared Orange Town to a bigger passenger ship like the Ascending Bright, with rules and consequences, and said she felt especially entangled in District 14.
• Silei encouraged Hesta to navigate Orange Town’s hidden rules using her experience aboard the Ascending Bright, and Hesta embraced her before they parted.