Chapter Summaries

Ji Yanzhi confronted Ji Shize with Cheng Yingyu's name, then left the bureau with Ji Ting, who asked to borrow money. They traveled to Sunny Village, where Ji Ting reunited with Wu Li, the woman who had saved him.

• Ji Shize denied knowing Cheng, but Ji Yanzhi warned that their grandfather would welcome two more children into the family before leaving.
• Ji Ting explained that he had developed the brain-computer interface and taken responsibility for implanting the chip, while Ji Yanzhi and Team Leader Sun also accepted blame.
• Ji Yanzhi declined to explicitly accept the bureau's open invitation to visit Ji Shize, and Ji Ting asked him to lend him money.
• At Wu Li and Li Donghu's home, Li Fenglong insulted Wu Li and blamed her for the family's troubles as neighbors gathered to gossip.
• Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting arrived in Sunny Village, and Ji Ting introduced himself to Wu Li as the man she had saved.

Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting visited Wu Li and Li Donghu to thank them for saving Ji Ting and offer them a gift agreement, but Li Fenglong brought his parents to the courtyard after learning how valuable Ji Yanzhi’s car was. Li Donghu’s father claimed that Fenglong had saved Ji Ting.

• Ji Yanzhi introduced himself and Ji Ting to Wu Li and Li Donghu, then thanked the couple for rescuing his younger brother.
• Ji Yanzhi offered the couple a lawyer-drafted gift agreement, but Wu Li initially refused because they had not saved Ji Ting for money.
• Li Fenglong pounded on the courtyard gate and called for Li Donghu to let him and their parents inside.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that Li Fenglong had opposed saving him, and Ji Yanzhi asked Li Donghu to admit the family anyway.
• Li Donghu opened the gate, and his father claimed that Li Fenglong had saved Ji Ting.

Ji Ting exposed Li Fenglong’s false claim to have saved him, while Ji Yanzhi used the promised million to give Wu Li a reason to leave Sunny Village. In the car, Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting spoke about their feelings and the possibility of a future together.

• Li Fenglong’s father claimed his son had saved Ji Ting, but Wu Li and Ji Ting challenged the story, and Ji Ting confirmed Li Fenglong had opposed taking him to the hospital.
• Ji Yanzhi offered Wu Li and her husband one million and gave her his business card before leaving with Ji Ting.
• Ji Ting questioned why Ji Yanzhi had announced the gift, and Ji Yanzhi explained he hoped it would help Wu Li leave the village and start a business.
• Ji Ting praised Ji Yanzhi, who told him that having him by his side was one of his strengths.
• Ji Ting said they could have many stages of a future together if Ji Yanzhi meant more to him than the self-worth he wanted to achieve.

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi argued over Ji Ting’s lofty ambitions and Ji Yanzhi’s jealousy of Lu Yanchu before returning to the Old Residence. At bedtime, Ji Ting revealed that he came from another dimension and began explaining the isolated life he had led there.

• Ji Ting said his goal was to strengthen Huaguo through science and education, and Ji Yanzhi argued that their relationship and Ji Ting’s ambitions could coexist.
• Ji Ting reminded Ji Yanzhi that he had repeatedly stopped him from seeing Lu Yanchu, prompting another jealous argument.
• Ji Yanzhi arranged for four new bodyguards, sent by higher-ups to protect Ji Ting, to stay in the Main Building.
• Ji Ting promised to explain why he had refused protection before bed, and Ji Yanzhi later let him share the Game Room.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he was not the Ji Ting from this dimension and had entered this world after dying.
• Ji Ting explained that he had been recruited into the Huake Academy of Sciences at fifteen, died in an experimental explosion at twenty-five, and had spent a decade under strict isolation.

Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi about the sacrifices he had made as a researcher and the painful circumstances of his childhood. He broke down remembering his aunt, while Ji Yanzhi held him as he mourned her.

• Ji Ting explained that he had turned down Director Liao because he wanted to live like an ordinary person for a few months.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that his father had died before he was born and his mother had been hospitalized with schizophrenia.
• Ji Ting said that he had lived with his mother until age eight, then stayed at a Children's Home where his aunt worked as a cook before she adopted him.
• Ji Yanzhi apologized as he imagined being unable to reach Ji Ting as a child, and Ji Ting comforted him.
• Ji Ting recalled his aunt's kindness and began sobbing as he told Ji Yanzhi how much he missed her.

After Ji Ting grieved for Aunt in Ji Yanzhi’s arms, the two argued over whether their bond was familial or romantic. Ji Yanzhi confessed his feelings with a kiss to Ji Ting’s injured nose, leaving Ji Ting to consider the possibility of romance.

• Ji Ting cried while Ji Yanzhi comforted him, and Ji Ting said he saw Ji Yanzhi as family.
• Ji Ting admitted he had been jealous of Shen Mu Lan but explained he felt possessive of family too, frustrating Ji Yanzhi.
• Ji Yanzhi pushed Ji Ting away, but when Ji Ting leaned over to check on him, they accidentally bumped foreheads and Ji Yanzhi checked his nose.
• Ji Ting asked Ji Yanzhi to reconsider letting him be family, and Ji Yanzhi asked whether Ji Ting had considered romantic love.
• Ji Yanzhi kissed Ji Ting’s reddened nose and told him that he felt those romantic sensations.

Ji Yanzhi confessed his romantic feelings to Ji Ting, who questioned whether they could be genuine and proposed an experiment to distinguish himself from the original Ji Ting. After medical records showed Ji Ting had his own body, Ji Yanzhi tried to return to their kiss and confession, but Ji Ting had already forgotten them.

• Ji Ting said he could not remember how he had reacted to Ji Yanzhi’s kiss, then questioned whether Ji Yanzhi’s feelings could have changed so quickly and cited the Westermarck effect.
• Ji Ting proposed a photo-identification experiment, and Ji Yanzhi correctly distinguished him from the original Ji Ting with one hundred percent accuracy.
• Ji Ting theorized that he and the original Ji Ting shared a body and explained that only one could exist in the same dimension at a time.
• Ji Yanzhi found Ji Ting’s medical reports, which showed matching blood type and a suspected chromosome 22q12 abnormality, and concluded Ji Ting had his own unchanged body.
• Ji Yanzhi took Ji Ting’s hand and asked to discuss the real issue, but Ji Ting had forgotten their kiss and confession.

Ji Ting rejected Ji Yanzhi’s romantic confession because he feared an unbalanced relationship, but Ji Yanzhi refused to give up and promised to try again. A week later, Ji Ting arranged to meet Lu Yan Chu and wondered whether Ji Yanzhi would leave everything behind to return with him.

• Ji Ting explained that he wanted a stable relationship and rejected Ji Yanzhi’s confession, offering to remain family instead.
• Ji Yanzhi accepted the rejection only as a setback, vowed to convince Ji Ting, and continued sharing a bed with him.
• A week later, Ji Ting received his drawing tablet and called Lu Yan Chu’s manager, Kong Yu, to arrange a meeting.
• Ji Ting thought about the money needed for his laboratory and wondered whether Ji Yanzhi would give everything up to go back with him.

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi argued over Ji Ting’s plans to meet Lu Yanchu and sell him technology, then walked hand in hand while discussing the Ji family and Ji Ting’s career. After learning Ji Ting had become an academician at twenty-three, Ji Yanzhi wondered whether Ji Ting had fallen for him at first sight.

• Ji Yanzhi arrived while Ji Ting was arranging a meeting with Lu Yanchu, and grew jealous when he learned Ji Ting planned to sell him film and animation technologies.
• Ji Ting asked whether Ji Yanzhi was jealous, and Ji Yanzhi admitted he was upset that Ji Ting had developed nothing specifically for him.
• Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting ate dinner, then walked in the garden holding hands, with Ji Yanzhi intertwining their fingers.
• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting that Ji Zhenting had recalled the eldest son of the third branch from abroad while Ji Shize’s case remained unresolved.
• Ji Ting said he specialized in military technology and physics and revealed he had become an academician at twenty-three.
• Ji Yanzhi asked whether Ji Ting had fallen for him at first sight and why Ji Ting had tolerated his bad temper.

Ji Yanzhi asked Ji Ting to reconsider their relationship, and Ji Ting agreed to let him pursue him. The next day, they visited Lu Yanchu, who learned that Ling Xi had broken Ji Ting’s finger, while Ji Ting wondered whether Lu Yanchu truly loved Ling Xi or felt indebted to him.

• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he had stayed with the Ji Family because he could sense and understand Ji Yanzhi’s emotions.
• Ji Yanzhi praised Ji Ting’s discoveries and explained that he wanted to be seen as someone pursuing him rather than as an older brother.
• Ji Ting accepted Ji Yanzhi’s request, then avoided his embrace and returned inside with him holding his hand.
• The following afternoon, Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting arrived at Lu Yanchu’s villa to speak with him.
• Lu Yanchu noticed Ji Ting’s broken little finger, and Ji Yanzhi told him that Ling Xi had caused the injury.
• As Lu Yanchu worried about Ling Xi, Ji Ting wondered whether Lu Yanchu loved him or was repaying him for supposedly saving his life.

Ji Yanzhi struck a deal with Lu Yanchu: he would reveal who had saved Lu Yanchu if Lu Yanchu obtained Cheng Yingyu’s toothbrush or nail clippings for a parentage test. After Ji Yanzhi told him Ling Xi had helped kidnap Ji Ting, Ji Ting reassured Ji Yanzhi that his feelings meant he would take Ji Yanzhi’s side.

• Ji Yanzhi sent Ji Ting back to the car and told Lu Yanchu he would reveal who had really saved him in exchange for a sample from Cheng Yingyu for a parentage test.
• Ji Yanzhi said Cheng Yingyu had two children who might belong to the Ji Family, and Lu Yanchu agreed to find her toothbrush or nail clippings.
• Ji Yanzhi told Lu Yanchu that Ling Xi was being held for helping kidnap Ji Ting on Qin Zaiye’s behalf.
• Lu Yanchu accused Ji Yanzhi of arranging a visit to Ling Xi out of jealousy, then reminded him that he was only Ji Ting’s older brother.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi he would take his side because his feelings made him unable to remain impartial.

Ji Yanzhi learned from Ji Ting that Lu Yanchu had saved himself and later formed a false memory of Ling Xi rescuing him. Ji Ting’s thoughts hinted that, in the original story, Ji Yanzhi exposed the truth to separate Lu Yanchu and Ling Xi, leaving Ji Yanzhi wondering what was affecting Ji Ting’s mood.

• Ji Yanzhi admitted he had not really argued with Lu Yanchu and explained that Lu Yanchu suspected Ling Xi had not saved him.
• Ji Ting revealed that Lu Yanchu himself had walked out of the alley and called for help, and explained that his brain had fabricated the memory of a rescuer.
• Ji Yanzhi asked why Lu Yanchu believed Ling Xi had saved him, and Ji Ting described how near-death brain activity could create a false memory.
• Ji Yanzhi noticed Ji Ting’s mood had turned cold, and Ji Ting said the subject reminded him of other things.
• Ji Ting recalled that the original story had Ji Yanzhi expose the truth to Lu Yanchu, after which Ling Xi was overcome with humiliation and grief.

Ji Yanzhi investigated Ji Ting’s strange comments about Ling Xi and searched the Game Room database for records of himself and Ling Xi. He began reading an unknown novel that recounted real events and left off wondering who had written it and why Ji Ting had saved it.

• Ji Yanzhi recalled Ji Ting’s cryptic remarks about Ling Xi and suspected he was hiding something.
• Ji Yanzhi kissed the sleeping Ji Ting’s forehead, then went alone to the Game Room and asked Pork Knuckle to search for information about himself and Ling Xi.
• Ji Yanzhi opened the only matching document, a novel whose first chapter described Ling Xi’s arrival at the Ji Family manor just as it had happened.
• Ji Yanzhi speed-read to Chapter 43 and criticized its implausible account of Lu Yanchu being stabbed and escaping his attackers.
• Pork Knuckle said the novel’s author was unknown, and Ji Yanzhi learned that Ji Ting had saved it without ever reading it.

Ji Yanzhi read the rest of the novel and discovered that its story diverged from the reality he had experienced, leaving him shaken by the idea that his life had been scripted. He thanked Ji Ting for waking him from that nightmare and helping him feel like his own person.

• Ji Yanzhi read how Ling Xi and Lu Yanchu grew close, how Ling Xi left Ji Ting for Qin Zaiye, and how Ji Ting later found Ling Xi in Sea City.
• Ji Yanzhi reached the hotel scene and saw that the novel's version of events differed from what he had actually experienced.
• Ji Yanzhi finished the novel, whose ending left him feeling that he and the others were merely characters serving Ling Xi's romance.
• Ji Ting found Ji Yanzhi sitting awake in the living room and asked what was wrong.
• Ji Yanzhi called Ji Ting by his nickname and thanked him for waking him from the nightmare.

Ji Ting comforted Ji Yanzhi after a nightmare, and the two shared a disastrous breakfast that Ji Ting valued more than a planned date. At work, Ji Yanzhi kept Liao Kai on the job and pursued evidence about Lu Yanchu’s past, ending by giving Lu Yanchu a video that held the truth.

• Ji Ting teased Ji Yanzhi with stories about superstitions and helped lift his spirits after the nightmare.
• Ji Yanzhi insisted on making breakfast with Ji Ting, but burned most of the pancakes; Ji Ting said he appreciated the effort more than a date.
• Ji Yanzhi told Liao Kai to find an eyewitness within three days and explained that Ji Ting had argued against firing him.
• Ji Yanzhi arranged for Lu Yanchu to visit Cheng Yingyu with President Wei, then asked Liao Kai about evidence related to Lu Yanchu’s past.
• After the eyewitness refused to meet and offered only a video, Ji Yanzhi paid for it and told Lu Yanchu to watch it for the truth.

Lu Yanchu watched footage showing how badly he had been injured, then learned that Ling Xi had only been in his hospital room because his uncle was being treated there. He visited Ling Xi in custody and pretended he would help him, while quietly confronting him about the harm done to Ji Ting.

• Ji Yanzhi showed Lu Yanchu a video of him wounded and struggling to reach an alley before calling for help.
• Lu Yanchu learned that Ling Xi had been in his hospital room because his uncle was hospitalized there, and he laughed at his past assumptions.
• Ji Yanzhi told Lu Yanchu he could visit Ling Xi at the State Security Bureau, and Lu Yanchu asked whether Ji Ting would be glad to see him.
• Lu Yanchu passed security and entered the holding cell, where Ling Xi was cuffed to an interrogation chair.
• Ling Xi insisted he had not meant to hurt Ji Ting, and Lu Yanchu asked whether harm stopped being harm when it was done unknowingly.
• Lu Yanchu offered to report any mistreatment and told Ling Xi he would do everything he could to get him out.

Lu Yanchu manipulated Ling Xi into revealing that Qin Zaiye's mother had stopped them from calling the police after Ji Ting's kidnapping. Ling Xi remained in custody while Lu Yanchu left, having repaid Ling Xi for saving his life by exposing the truth.

• Lu Yanchu offered to help Ling Xi only if he had no part in Ji Ting's kidnapping, then questioned him about the surveillance footage showing him with Feng Lei.
• Lu Yanchu pressed Ling Xi about why he had not called the police and suggested Qin Zaiye's parents had been involved.
• Xiao Wu ended Lu Yanchu's fifteen-minute visit, and Ling Xi blurted out that Qin Zaiye's mother had stopped them from calling the police.
• Team Leader Sun said Ling Xi's confession had been recorded and that the police would investigate his accusation before considering his release.
• Lu Yanchu left the cell as Ling Xi begged him for help, then told Team Leader Sun that he had come to repay Ling Xi for saving his life.

Lu Yanchu thanked Ji Ting for helping uncover the truth about Ling Xi and discussed a possible collaboration on a science fiction film. Ji Ting decided to provide technology to Shili, and Ji Yanzhi learned that most of Ji Ting’s reason for joining was personal, leaving him struggling to restrain his feelings.

• After leaving the State Security Bureau, Lu Yanchu called Ji Ting to thank him for helping expose the truth about his rescue.
• Lu Yanchu told Ji Ting he planned to star in and produce a trilogy based on And Then There Were None, and Ji Ting promised to send him a document about further collaboration.
• Ji Ting asked Pork Knuckle what technology Shili needed most and considered how to work with the company.
• When Ji Yanzhi returned home, Ji Ting asked to provide technology at Shili without taking part in management.
• Ji Ting said personal reasons related to Ji Yanzhi accounted for about 65 to 70 percent of his decision, and Ji Yanzhi pulled him into an embrace, saying he feared he might kiss him.

Ji Ting asked Ji Yanzhi for billions of yuan in laboratory equipment and personnel so he could build the world’s most advanced lithography machine in four months. Ji Yanzhi agreed to support him and began summoning colleagues to the Manor as Ji Ting prepared to contact Director Chang.

• Ji Ting gave Ji Yanzhi a list of costly equipment and instruments, and Ji Yanzhi agreed to arrange them and recruit personnel.
• Ji Ting revealed that he planned to build the world’s most advanced lithography machine in four months to counter technological sanctions against Huaguo.
• Ji Ting insisted that he and the state each own half of the machine, while Ji Yanzhi said he would be willing to hand it all over as long as Shili could use it.
• Ji Ting said he would contact Director Chang and ask the state to provide top talent for the project.
• Unable to settle down after hearing Ji Ting’s plans, Ji Yanzhi called Wang Bin and then offered Wang Mian a chance to become Ji Ting’s assistant.

Ji Yanzhi gathered Shili’s scientists and revealed Ji Ting’s advanced inventions, telling them Ji Ting would provide research programs to accelerate their work. The scientists learned Ji Ting planned to establish a laboratory to build the world’s most precise lithography machine.

• Wang Mian arrived at Ji Yanzhi’s living room and realized Deng Luqing was among Ji Yanzhi’s trusted people.
• Ji Yanzhi told the six scientists to organize their experimental projects and prepare for classes.
• Ji Yanzhi showed them Ji Ting’s miniature supercomputer, Pork Knuckle, and the Real-Time Transmission Storage Devices.
• Ji Yanzhi explained that Ji Ting would send each scientist programs containing six months of research and development results.
• Ji Yanzhi revealed that Ji Ting wanted to establish a laboratory to build the world’s most precise lithography machine.