Chapter Summaries

Ji Yanzhi arranged to stay beside Ji Ting in the Laboratory, then learned that Ren Jinyang had been sent by Ji Zhenting and decided to delay the eco-car launch. Ji Ting assured him he was 100% confident in the HyperNA Lithography Machine, encouraging Ji Yanzhi to pursue his plans.

• Ji Ting helped Ji Yanzhi send the Laboratory staff away so they could eat lunch alone, and Ji Yanzhi had a mattress placed beside Ji Ting's bed.
• Team Leader Sun told Ji Yanzhi that Ren Jinyang was not a spy but had been sent by Ji Zhenting, and noted his resemblance to Ling Xi.
• Ji Yanzhi ordered the Automotive Department to halt production and postpone the launch, despite Yu Lin's warning that the Board of Directors would object.
• Ji Zhenting invited Ji Ting to dinner and said he would visit the underground Laboratory, while Ji Yanzhi agreed to see him there.
• Ji Yanzhi asked Ji Ting about the HyperNA Lithography Machine, and Ji Ting replied that he was 100% confident and urged Ji Yanzhi to go for it.

Ji Yanzhi resisted Ji Zhenting’s attempts to control him, while Director Chang blocked Ji Zhenting’s group from touring the Laboratory. Ji Zhenting reassigned Ji Yanzhi to the western development zone and ordered him to present the delayed second-generation car launch next month, but Ji Yanzhi still opposed it.

• Ji Ting ordered the chip research team to accelerate its work and begin simulated assembly of the miniature lithography machine before month’s end.
• Ji Ting warned Director Chang that Shili chairman Ji Zhenting was coming to tour the Laboratory, and explained that Ji Zhenting had treated him badly.
• Ji Zhenting tried to make Ji Yanzhi eat a dish and criticized his handling of Vice President Li, but Ji Yanzhi refused and agreed only to visit the Laboratory with him.
• Director Chang Chang Weimin barred Ji Zhenting’s secretary and bodyguards from entering the Laboratory and sharply challenged Ji Zhenting, who then abandoned the tour.
• Ji Zhenting ordered Ji Yanzhi to go to the western development zone and said Vice President Li would temporarily take over his duties.
• Ji Yanzhi continued to oppose launching the second-generation cars, so Ji Zhenting ordered him to present their launch event live to the media next month.

Ji Yanzhi prepared for his transfer to the Automotive Department and worked with Director Chang to advance Huaguo’s response to the Netherlands over the delayed lithography machine. After half a month away, he returned to Shili and found Ji Ting asleep after working for two days straight.

• Ji Yanzhi asked Ji Ting whether he should endure Ji Zhenting’s treatment or risk everything, and Ji Ting reassured him that he would return.
• Ji Yanzhi told Director Chang his plans, and Director Chang agreed to support him before Ji Yanzhi left for the Automotive Department.
• Huaguo demanded that the Netherlands deliver the lithography machine or leave its market and relinquish its local technology patents within a month.
• Ji Yanzhi returned to Shili after half a month and learned from Wang Mian that Ji Ting had gone without sleep for two days.
• Ji Yanzhi found Ji Ting asleep beneath the covers, then saw him shudder and blush when he pulled the covers down.

Ji Yanzhi was stunned when Ji Ting kissed him, then realized Ji Ting had been dreaming. Three days later, Ji Yanzhi faced Ji Zhenting's fury over a document ending Shili's cooperation with AL, and defended the move as a way to develop lithography machines independently.

• Ji Ting kissed Ji Yanzhi while half-asleep, then fell back asleep, leaving Ji Yanzhi shaken.
• Ji Yanzhi noticed Ji Ting's scent and signs of a wet dream, covered him, and quietly left.
• Zhao Qi woke Ji Ting, who realized he had dreamed about Ji Yanzhi and felt embarrassed.
• Ji Zhenting learned Ji Yanzhi had signed a statement terminating cooperation with AL and demanded that he return.
• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Zhenting that the move could let Shili dismantle AL equipment and develop its own lithography machines.

Ji Yanzhi resisted Ji Zhenting’s attempt to remove him as Shili’s President, then met Ji Ting, who had hurried to check on him. Ji Yanzhi reassured himself of Ji Ting’s concern and teased him about calling his name in his sleep.

• Ji Zhenting angrily confronted Ji Yanzhi over his support for Shili helping the country’s lithography research and threatened to strip him of his positions.
• Ji Yanzhi argued that removing him before the second-generation car launch would harm Shili, then stopped Ji Zhenting from striking him and left the Chairman’s office.
• Wang Mian told Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi had been called back by Ji Zhenting, so Ji Ting left the Laboratory to find him.
• Ji Ting worried that Ji Yanzhi had been scolded, and Ji Yanzhi asked whether he would still think him capable if he lost his position as President.
• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting that he had heard him murmur his name while asleep, then asked what he had done in Ji Ting’s dream.

Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he had dreamed of them being intimate but insisted it meant nothing, leaving Ji Yanzhi hurt and uncertain. Ji Yanzhi then asked whether the kiss might have happened outside a dream.

• Ji Ting admitted that he had dreamed Ji Yanzhi was teaching him to swim naked, then hurried back to the Laboratory as Ji Yanzhi tried to question him.
• Ji Yanzhi searched online for what erotic dreams meant, and Ji Ting returned later that night.
• Ji Ting asked whether Ji Zhenting had really tried to remove Ji Yanzhi as President, and Ji Yanzhi admitted he had kept his position.
• Ji Yanzhi tried to turn their reunion toward intimacy, but Ji Ting instead offered to discuss experiment progress and went to bed.
• Ji Ting said that his dream and the kiss in it carried no meaning, leaving Ji Yanzhi heartbroken.
• Ji Yanzhi asked Ji Ting what it would mean if the kiss had not happened in a dream.

Ji Yanzhi confessed to Shen Mu Lan that he loved Ji Ting and described their kiss, admitting he wanted Ji Ting to choose him out of genuine affection rather than obligation. Shen Mu Lan was stunned and angrily challenged Ji Yanzhi’s reasoning.

• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting to leave for the Laboratory before they could finish their serious conversation, and Ji Ting returned that night to find him gone.
• Ji Yanzhi visited Shen Mu Lan, who explained how he had finally told Shen Lin the truth about his relationship with Meng Yunji and learned why his brother had been disappointed.
• Ji Yanzhi admitted that he had fallen in love with Ji Ting, and Shen Mu Lan reacted with shock and called the relationship twisted.
• Ji Yanzhi recounted the kiss with Ji Ting and explained that he wanted Ji Ting to be with him because he genuinely liked him, not because he felt responsible.
• Shen Mu Lan angrily berated Ji Yanzhi for his reasoning.

Ji Yanzhi admitted that he believed Ji Ting liked him and left Shen Mu Lan’s home intending to resolve the issue keeping them apart, but an urgent meeting at work interrupted him. Meanwhile, Ji Ting completed the plans for domestically producible lithography machine components, and Wang Mian told him that Ji Yanzhi’s first launch event was being livestreamed.

• Shen Mu Lan challenged Ji Yanzhi’s assumptions about Ji Ting’s feelings, and Ji Yanzhi declared that Ji Ting definitely liked him but wanted them to remain brothers.
• Ji Yanzhi decided to leave and ask Ji Ting about the issue holding their relationship back, but a call about the group’s vice president convening a meeting sent him back to work.
• A month after the first shipment arrived, Ji Ting gave Director Chang more than thirty thousand drawings adapting lithography machine components to domestically available materials.
• Ji Ting warned Director Chang that AL Company was accusing Huaguo of stealing its technology, and Director Chang dismissed the accusations as public-opinion warfare.
• Wang Mian told Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi’s first launch event was being livestreamed that day.

Ji Ting watched Ji Yanzhi’s launch and learned that his brother had shifted it from a car unveiling to showcase technology built around Ji Ting’s inventions. The launch ended with Shili revealing a brain-decoding robot, drawing international attention and making sanctions against the company likely.

• Wang Mian told Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi was hosting a launch he disliked, and Ji Ting wondered why Ji Zhenting had assigned him the task.
• Ji Ting watched Ji Yanzhi introduce on-device AI technology instead of the expected second-generation car, while the audience grew confused.
• Director Chang told Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi had planned the launch with him and explained that Shili was releasing Ji Ting’s AI anti-fraud program for free with government support.
• Ji Yanzhi also presented sign-language recognition technology and unveiled a desktop robot powered by a simplified non-invasive brain-decoding framework.
• Director Chang warned Ji Ting that the technology could unsettle foreign powers and that the United States would likely focus sanctions on Shili.

Ji Ting questioned Director Chang about choosing between love and country, then admitted that he liked a man. Ji Yanzhi left the press conference expecting to seek Ji Ting’s answer, but learned that Ji Ting owned another laboratory building and had kept it from him.

• Ji Ting asked Director Chang whether he would choose his country or his wife, and Chang explained that his wife had married him before he left for secret research work.
• Ji Ting told Director Chang that he liked a man, then left to go to another laboratory.
• Ji Yanzhi confronted Vice President Li Tianhua after the press conference and implied that Li had known about his plan.
• Ji Yanzhi expected Ji Zhenting to remove him from Shili and decided to ask Ji Ting directly about their relationship.
• Ji Yanzhi went to the Underground Laboratory and learned from Director Chang that Ji Ting had bought another laboratory building months earlier.
• Ji Yanzhi wondered whether Ji Ting had deliberately kept the laboratory building secret from him.

Ji Yanzhi discovered that Ji Ting was building a nuclear fusion device to power a journey between worlds, and realized Ji Ting intended to return to his original world. Ji Ting explained that completing his controlled nuclear fusion experiment was his mission, leaving Ji Yanzhi confronting his determination to leave.

• Ji Yanzhi went to Ji Ting's laboratory and found that his facial information gave him access to the building.
• Pork Knuckle revealed that Ji Ting was building a miniature artificial sun to supply energy for travel between spatial dimensions.
• Ji Yanzhi recalled Ji Ting explaining how dark matter could help calculate spacetime coordinates and realized Ji Ting planned to return to his original world.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that his death in an explosion during a controlled nuclear fusion experiment had left him with an unfinished experiment to complete.
• Ji Yanzhi questioned whether Ji Ting's only purpose in life was to serve his country, and Ji Ting described his sense of responsibility.

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi argued after Ji Yanzhi learned that Ji Ting planned to return to his original world. Ji Yanzhi left after calling Ji Ting a monster, and Ji Ting crouched alone and cried.

• Ji Ting admitted that he had not wavered about leaving and said he had not considered taking Ji Yanzhi with him because it would be unfair to ask him to abandon his life.
• Ji Yanzhi accused Ji Ting of never being fair to him and questioned whether Ji Ting understood love despite having Asperger syndrome.
• Ji Ting insisted that he cared about Ji Yanzhi and had planned to tell him about leaving that day.
• Ji Yanzhi suspected Ji Ting was keeping him around for his money, but Ji Ting said the government would provide the laboratory equipment he needed.
• Ji Ting asked them to calm down, but they continued arguing until Ji Yanzhi called him a monster and walked away.
• Ji Ting crouched alone and cried after Ji Yanzhi left.

Ji Ting returned to the Laboratory devastated after deciding he could not take Ji Yanzhi with him, while Ji Yanzhi was hospitalized with a sudden, unexplained heart condition. The chapter left their colleagues wondering whether Ji Ting’s experiment and emotional distress had caused the brothers’ crises.

• Pork Knuckle apologized for telling Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting was short of money, and Ji Ting resolved to stop risking Ji Yanzhi’s safety and live for himself.
• Ji Ting returned to the Laboratory soaked and withdrawn, declined help from Professor Lu, and insisted to Director Chang that he would keep working.
• Director Chang called Ji Yanzhi, but his bodyguard Liao Kai said Ji Yanzhi was in the hospital and could not take the call.
• Uncle Yang told Liao Kai that Ji Yanzhi had suffered a myocardial myofibril rupture and remained unconscious despite being stable.
• Liao Kai recalled Ji Yanzhi muttering about controlled nuclear fusion, regret, and returning, and suspected Ji Ting’s experiment had failed.

Liao Kai delayed telling Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi was ill, while Ji Ting and the laboratory team worked relentlessly on the lithography machine. When Liao Kai reported that Ji Yanzhi had been taken to Crane Garden, Ji Ting tracked him through hospital surveillance and ordered Pork Knuckle to intervene.

• Liao Kai persuaded Uncle Yang to delay informing Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi was ill, and the delay lasted three days.
• Wang Mian complained to Wang Bin that Teacher Ji and the laboratory staff had been working without enough rest, then asked Liao Kai to tell President Ji to intervene.
• Liao Kai visited Ji Ting, but a call from Zhao Tian revealed that the Chairman's men had taken Ji Yanzhi from Ruihe Hospital to Crane Garden.
• Ji Ting accessed Ruihe Hospital's surveillance footage, identified the cars and bodyguards carrying Ji Yanzhi away, and summoned Pork Knuckle.
• Ji Ting ordered Pork Knuckle to disrupt the cars, block the bodyguards' communications, and destroy Crane Garden's smart systems using Integrity Attack Mode.

Ji Ting learned that Ji Yanzhi was seriously ill but chose not to visit him, while the Confidentiality Bureau rescued Ji Yanzhi from Crane Garden. Pork Knuckle then revealed it had sent a video of Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi to a body language expert for analysis.

• Liao Kai told Ji Ting that Ji Yanzhi had a serious heart condition, prompting Ji Ting to review his medical records and decide that staying away would help him recover.
• Liao Kai and two Confidentiality Bureau officers reached Crane Garden, overruled the bodyguards, and took the unconscious Ji Yanzhi away.
• Zhang Jian called Ji Ting to report that they were bringing Ji Yanzhi back to the hospital, and Ji Ting offered the Bureau a favor in return.
• Pork Knuckle returned excited from its trip and told Ji Ting it had sent footage of him and Ji Yanzhi in the Laboratory Building to a Body Language Expert.

Pork Knuckle persuaded Ji Ting to reconsider his estrangement from Ji Yanzhi by sharing an expert’s analysis of Ji Yanzhi’s suppressed emotions. Ji Ting drove to the hospital and stood outside Ji Yanzhi’s room, deciding to take a chance on love.

• Pork Knuckle admitted he had secretly sent Ji Ting’s image to a body-language expert and shared the expert’s analysis of Ji Yanzhi’s emotions.
• Pork Knuckle urged Ji Ting to explain himself to Ji Yanzhi, and Ji Ting agreed to go see him.
• Ji Ting granted Wang Mian and the laboratory staff the afternoon off before leaving.
• Ji Ting drove from Shili to Ruihe and questioned whether he could ever remove Ji Yanzhi from his heart.
• Ji Ting arrived outside Ji Yanzhi’s hospital room and resolved to believe in superstition for once.

Ji Ting discovered that Ji Yanzhi had been injected with an anesthetic and confronted Ji Zhenting at Crane Garden, where Pork Knuckle had caused chaos. Back at the hospital, Ji Yanzhi rejected Ji Ting and insulted him, prompting Ji Ting to punch him.

• Ji Ting learned that Ji Yanzhi's blood test showed he had recently been injected with an anesthetic, and he ordered Liao Kai to secure the hospital.
• Ji Ting went to Crane Garden and found Pork Knuckle's pranks had left the estate in disarray and Ji Zhenting's hair trimmed by gardening robots.
• Ji Ting returned to the hospital and learned that Ji Yanzhi had woken up.
• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting to leave and called him disgusting when Ji Ting tried to discuss what had happened.
• Ji Ting punched Ji Yanzhi in the abdomen and called him a bastard.

Ji Ting confronted Ji Yanzhi about his past rejection and revealed that he had given up his work on miniature controlled nuclear fusion to stay with him. He left after saying he no longer needed Ji Yanzhi to choose him, then returned to the laboratory and told Pork Knuckle he could not forgive Ji Yanzhi while the hurt remained etched in his memory.

• Ji Ting asked Ji Yanzhi whether his earlier cruel words had reflected his true feelings, and Ji Yanzhi angrily tried to deny being exposed.
• Ji Ting explained that he had gone to the Laboratory Building to hand over his equipment documentation because he had chosen Ji Yanzhi and wanted to stay in this world.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he had made him feel loved, but that Ji Yanzhi had used his vulnerabilities against him and had not chosen him without hesitation.
• Ji Ting evaded Ji Yanzhi's attempt to stop him, said he no longer needed Ji Yanzhi to choose him, and left the hospital room.
• Ji Ting returned to Shili's laboratory, sent the Confidentiality Bureau staff home to rest, secured the facility, and checked its equipment.
• Ji Ting told Pork Knuckle that he could not forget Ji Yanzhi calling him a monster and did not want that memory to haunt him whenever he opened his heart again.

Ji Ting told Pork Knuckle that he did not hate Ji Yanzhi but no longer considered him important, while Ji Yanzhi learned how much Ji Ting had done for him and left the hospital to seek him out. Ji Yanzhi reached the Laboratory, where he discovered Ji Ting had revoked all his access permissions.

• Ji Ting explained that someone claiming to act for his own good could still hurt him, and said Ji Yanzhi no longer meant anything to him.
• Ji Ting told Pork Knuckle not to hate Ji Yanzhi because Ji Yanzhi feared that Ji Ting would eventually abandon him like everyone else.
• After learning his heart injury would take at least four to six weeks to heal, Ji Yanzhi decided to leave Ruihe Hospital and go to Ji Ting.
• Liao Kai told Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting had opposed Ji Zhenting's attempt to take him away, and Ji Yanzhi regretted how he had treated Ji Ting.
• Wang Mian invited Ji Ting to join the Laboratory staff for hot pot, and Ji Ting agreed after Wang Mian left before hearing his answer.
• Ji Yanzhi arrived at the Laboratory, where Deng Luqing and the others found him waiting by the elevator and he realized Ji Ting had revoked his access permissions.

Ji Yanzhi joined Ji Ting and the professors for hot pot, but his instinctive attempt to keep Ji Ting from eating bamboo shoots prompted Ji Ting to leave. In Ji Ting’s office, Ji Yanzhi apologized and called himself a monster who did not deserve love.

• Ji Yanzhi joined the professors’ hot pot meal and sat beside Ji Ting, who showed no reaction to his presence.
• Ji Yanzhi stopped Wang Mian from giving Ji Ting bamboo shoots, and Ji Ting left the meal.
• Ji Yanzhi followed Ji Ting to his office, where Ji Ting gave him half an hour to speak before returning to the hospital.
• Ji Yanzhi admitted he loved Ji Ting and apologized for not trusting him or listening to his explanation.
• Ji Yanzhi apologized for calling Ji Ting a monster and said he was the one who did not know how to love or deserve love.