Chapter Summaries

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi discussed work and Ji Yanzhi’s insomnia before Huaguo’s breakthrough in yttrium-based materials rocked the U.S. market. Qin Zaiye visited Ji Yanzhi to explain his reduced sentence and ask to see Ji Ting, but Ji Yanzhi responded with a cutting insult.

• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting that Deng Luqing would become Automotive Department President, with Wang Mian handling its technical work.
• Ji Yanzhi admitted that he had truly suffered insomnia after Ji Ting left, and Ji Ting realized he had already liked him in the past.
• Huaguo announced its yttrium-doping lattice reconstruction scheme, prompting U.S. sanctions and a steep sell-off in superconductivity stocks.
• Qin Zaiye told Ji Yanzhi that his sentence had been reduced to six months because of his peacekeeping service in Haiti, and said he wanted to see Ji Ting.
• Ji Yanzhi mocked Qin Zaiye and presented him with a large jeweled golden toad, telling him to melt it down and plate his teeth with the gold.

Ji Yanzhi faced Qin Zaiye’s questions about Ling Xi and Ji Ting, then spent New Year’s Eve apart from Ji Ting, who was preparing Huaguo’s room-temperature superconductivity experiment. After an exhausting night at the Primordial Base, Ji Ting ran into Qin Zaiye.

• Ji Yanzhi taunted Qin Zaiye, who asked whether Ji Ting was behind Shili’s yttrium patents and admitted he had wrongly believed Ling Xi had been mistreated by the Ji Family.
• Qin Zaiye challenged Ji Yanzhi over allowing Ji Ting and Ling Xi to date, then left after Ji Yanzhi warned him not to return to see Ji Ting.
• As the U.S. accused Huaguo of faking its superconductivity results, Ji Yanzhi visited the Jiang family alone for New Year’s Eve and gave them an excuse for Ji Ting’s absence.
• Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting exchanged New Year’s greetings over the Necklace, and Ji Ting said he missed him before returning to the lab.
• After Ji Ting’s team worked through the night entering the final synthesis parameters, he was told to rest and later encountered Qin Zaiye on his way back to the lab.

Ji Ting pushed himself through work despite worsening symptoms, refusing examination or hospitalization as the superconducting project neared a crucial test. He collapsed at the base hospital, where Qin Zaiye caught him and promised to pass on his emergency request.

• Qin Zaiye told Ji Ting that his unit had taken over guard duty for six months and that he had completed his reduced sentence.
• Ji Ting forced himself to eat lunch, vomited before a meeting, and still led the exhausted researchers through corrections to their superconducting project.
• Ji Ting visited the base hospital and refused the doctor's offer of an examination, asking only for energy supplements.
• The doctor found Ji Ting's blood pressure dangerously low and urged him to be hospitalized, but Ji Ting insisted he would return after the 139th Superconducting Crystal Structure Reorganization.
• Ji Ting staggered and collapsed, and Qin Zaiye caught him as he asked for an emergency requisition of the Molecular Deposition Device to be relayed to Academician Wei.

Ji Ting fainted from exhaustion and was ordered to rest while Academician Peng oversaw his work. Qin Zaiye was removed from the base over his past misconduct, but after returning to Jing City, he went to the Ji Family Old Residence.

• Ji Ting collapsed, and doctors diagnosed him with health problems caused by chronic sleep deprivation, poor eating habits, and overwork.
• After waking, Ji Ting asked about the superconducting crystal’s 139th structural reorganization, and Director Chang promised Academician Peng would keep him informed.
• Director Chang recognized Qin Zaiye and confronted him about his past interrogation of Ji Ting and involvement in his kidnapping.
• The senior official ordered Qin Zaiye to leave the base, and the political commissar reminded him to keep the mission and base confidential.
• The day after returning to Jing City, Qin Zaiye stood before the gates of the Ji Family Old Residence.

After Qin Zaiye told Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting had collapsed at a hospital, Ji Yanzhi tried and failed to contact his brother. Qin Zaiye agreed to help him reach Ji Ting, and Ji Yanzhi took responsibility for bringing him to the military commission to request access.

• Qin Zaiye told Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting had looked seriously ill and fainted at the Primordial Base hospital.
• Ji Yanzhi tried calling Ji Ting through his necklace pendant but received no response.
• Qin Zaiye agreed to help Ji Yanzhi find a way to see Ji Ting, saying he was helping himself too.
• Qin Zaiye drove Ji Yanzhi to the military commission, where they met Deputy Commander Dong Chengshan.
• Dong Chengshan berated Qin Zaiye for violating military regulations, and Ji Yanzhi said he had forced Qin Zaiye to bring him and would bear the consequences.

Ji Yanzhi pressed Dong Chengshan for news about Ji Ting, while Ji Ting searched the hospital for his missing necklace. The chapter ended with Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi finally speaking over an encrypted video call, where Ji Ting explained his illness and wondered why his brother had not scolded him.

• Ji Yanzhi asked Dong Chengshan to let him see Ji Ting, but Dong refused and ordered him and Qin Zaiye to stay.
• Director Chang found Ji Ting searching the hospital for the missing necklace and joined him in looking.
• A senior official took Ji Ting from the hospital and told him that Ji Yanzhi had secured approval for a ten-minute encrypted video call.
• Ji Ting prepared carefully before entering the communications room and seeing Ji Yanzhi on the screen.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi about his sleep deprivation, immune dysfunction, and hypothyroidism, then asked why he had not scolded him.

Ji Ting promised to recover after Ji Yanzhi worried over his health during their last video call, while the call ended before they could make plans to speak again. Ji Yanzhi later confronted Qin Zaiye about whether his actions were a way of atoning, but Qin insisted he had acted only for himself.

• Ji Yanzhi urged Ji Ting to stop overworking and report his treatment, and Ji Ting apologized for losing their necklace.
• Ji Yanzhi promised to wait for Ji Ting and marry him when he returned, and the video call cut off.
• The senior leader arranged better working hours for Ji Ting, while Academician Wang visited the hospital with herbal powder.
• Dong Chengshan refused to seek leniency for Qin Zaiye, who accepted that his superiors would decide his punishment.
• Qin Zaiye told Ji Yanzhi he had acted for himself, and Ji Yanzhi asked whether he was trying to atone.

Ji Ting led a team of academicians to successfully create a room-temperature superconductor, then set his sights on controlled nuclear fusion. At M4, Ji Yanzhi refused Wang Mian’s requests to show Ji Ting his data, leaving Wang Mian and Deng Luqing to wonder if the two men had fallen out.

• Ji Yanzhi recalled his bitter parting with Qin Zaiye and resolved to stop him from approaching Ji Ting about a favor.
• Ji Ting directed a dangerous experiment that produced a room-temperature superconductor, prompting the academicians to celebrate.
• Ji Yanzhi visited the Automotive Department while Wang Mian waited for him and demanded to see Ji Ting about his data.
• Ji Yanzhi called an executives’ meeting and ignored Wang Mian’s repeated pleas to arrange a meeting with Ji Ting.
• After Ji Yanzhi left without giving an answer, Wang Mian and Deng Luqing speculated that he and Ji Ting had fought.

Ji Yanzhi missed Ji Ting and checked the new bowling alley he had built for him, then learned that Ji Ting had called Ji Yanzhi’s business his own. After watching Xinwen Lianbo with Fu Cheng, Ji Yanzhi returned to find Fu Cheng shaken by something he had seen on the broadcast.

• Wang Mian and Deng Luqing planned to visit Director Ji’s home that weekend in hopes of seeing Wang Bin.
• Ji Yanzhi inspected the newly completed bowling alley but left it untouched because he wanted Ji Ting to inaugurate it.
• Fu Cheng visited Ji Yanzhi to celebrate taking charge of his family’s e-commerce division and thanked him for offering unusually low discounts during a promotion.
• Fu Cheng recalled that Ji Ting had angrily said Ji Yanzhi’s business was his business, and Ji Yanzhi reacted with visible emotion.
• Ji Yanzhi watched Xinwen Lianbo during Fu Cheng’s visit, then returned to find Fu Cheng saying he had seen “that cloud in your sky” on the broadcast.

Ji Yanzhi watched a news report revealing that Ji Ting was an acclaimed scientist who had led the development of the first room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconducting materials. He confirmed Ji Ting was his lover and learned that the state planned to award him a National Honorary Title Medal, which a family member would accept on his behalf.

• Fu Cheng showed Ji Yanzhi the news report featuring Ji Ting, and Ji Yanzhi replayed the footage to watch him.
• The report identified Ji Ting as an academician who had led a team to develop the world's first room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconducting materials.
• Ji Yanzhi watched Ji Ting explain the discovery and smiled, thinking of him as both Ji Ear and Academician Ji.
• Ji Yanzhi told Jiang Mingde that Ji Ting had appeared on the news and promised to bring him home for dinner when he returned.
• Ji Yanzhi told Fu Cheng that the scientist was their Ji Ting, then answered Minister Jiang's call and learned that Ji Ting had applied for a family member to accept his National Honorary Title Medal.

Ji Yanzhi learned that Ji Ting could not return for the award ceremony, then let Ji Zhenting believe he might accompany him. On the morning of the ceremony, Ji Yanzhi arrived with Jiang Mingde instead, and Ji Zhenting confronted him over attending.

• Minister Jiang told Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting would not return and that Ji Yanzhi would accept Ji Ting’s national honor at the May 2 ceremony.
• Ji Zhenting visited Ji Yanzhi and asked to attend the ceremony as his family member; Ji Yanzhi told him to come on the morning of the second without confirming.
• Ji Zhenting arrived at the Old Residence dressed for the ceremony and saw Jiang Mingde arrive in a black Maybach.
• Ji Yanzhi praised Jiang Mingde’s outfit and prepared to take him inside, prompting Ji Zhenting to demand that Jiang Mingde stop because Ji Ting belonged to the Ji family.

Ji Yanzhi took Jiang Mingde to the award ceremony and state banquet after humiliating Ji Zhenting at the Old Residence. At the banquet, Ji Ting said he missed Ji Yanzhi, declined an offer to supervise a student, and was asked whether he wanted to find a partner.

• Jiang Mingde taunted Ji Zhenting about Little Ji acknowledging him as Grandpa, while Ji Yanzhi left with Jiang Mingde for the Great Hall.
• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Zhenting he had never promised him anything, and Liao Kai ordered Ji Zhenting to leave the Old Residence.
• Jiang Mingde learned they would attend a state banquet and asked when Little Ji would return; Ji Yanzhi said he did not know and could not keep in touch with him.
• Ji Ting told Director Chang that Ji Yanzhi accepting his medal meant more to him, and said he wanted the world to know their relationship.
• Academician Wang asked Ji Ting to supervise his granddaughter, but Ji Ting declined as Director Chang and Academician Wang argued over recruiting him.
• Academician Cao asked Ji Ting whether he planned to find a partner and offered to introduce someone.

Ji Ting learned that others thought he lacked romance and resolved to make it up to Ji Yanzhi, then watched footage of Ji Yanzhi accepting his medal on his behalf. The brothers’ identities and connection drew worldwide attention, and Ji Yanzhi saw foreign companies rush to resume cooperation with Shili.

• Ji Ting told Academician Cao and the other scholars that he had proposed to his partner, Ji Yanzhi, and planned to marry him.
• After hearing that Ji Ting seemed to lack fun and romance, Ji Ting resolved to study those subjects and treat Ji Yanzhi better.
• The senior official gave Ji Ting a video of the award ceremony, where Ji Yanzhi accepted Ji Ting’s medal and tenderly touched his engraved name.
• Ji Ting extracted an image of Ji Yanzhi from the video and set it as the wallpaper on his base communicator before returning to the laboratory.
• Jiang Mingde excitedly paused the television broadcast on the back of his head while Jiang Shuoyuan complained that they had not seen Ji Yanzhi’s face.
• International coverage linked the brothers, foreign companies sought to resume cooperation with Shili, and Ji Yanzhi affectionately credited Ji Ting with sparing him hardship.

At Primordial Base, Ji Ting rejected a risky fusion experiment proposed by Academician Wang Tianyi and Academician Cao Hengzhi, but agreed to authorize it after 67 academicians signed a petition, on the condition that he operate it himself. Meanwhile, Ji Yanzhi prepared Shili’s autonomous-driving launch before falling asleep and waking in a dilapidated stairwell.

• Ji Ting refused Wang Tianyi and Cao Hengzhi’s phased fusion experiment, warning that its superconducting ring risked a fatal overload.
• Wang Tianyi left after arguing with Ji Ting, and Cao Hengzhi urged Ji Ting to reconsider his refusal.
• Director Chang tried to reassure Ji Ting, but a senior leader arrived with a petition bearing 67 signatures that demanded authorization for the plan.
• Ji Ting agreed to activate the experiment on the condition that he personally operate it from start to finish.
• Ji Yanzhi reviewed Shili’s road-test footage, confirmed the team’s confidence, and called a meeting to finalize the launch event.
• After taking medicine for a cold and falling asleep, Ji Yanzhi woke in a dim, dilapidated stairwell.

Ji Yanzhi dreamed of a woman preparing a home for a child she planned to adopt and learned why the child had once listened to his jokes. The woman revealed that the boy had nearly killed her abusive ex-husband, leaving Ji Yanzhi to face the boy’s dangerous devotion.

• Ji Yanzhi explored the woman’s apartment and helped her plan furnishings for the bedroom she had prepared for a child.
• The woman told Ji Yanzhi she liked him because he listened to the boy’s jokes and helped preserve the boy’s sincere hope of friendship.
• The woman said she had completed the adoption paperwork but feared the boy might not want to live with her.
• Ji Yanzhi learned that the woman’s ex-husband, Chen Mingwei, had beaten her and caused her miscarriage, and that she had later encountered him again.
• The woman recalled asking the boy whether he had done something to Chen Mingwei after Chen nearly died in his car.
• The boy explained how carbon monoxide could kill someone in a closed, idling car and said Chen’s death would end the woman’s fear.

Ji Yanzhi spoke with a woman about the boy they both cared for, then followed her to the Children's Home to bring him home. Watching the boy accept her offer, Ji Yanzhi felt a tug at his clothes and answered that he was willing.

• Ji Yanzhi reassured the woman that the boy's protectiveness showed how much he cared, and they shared stories about his habits and flaws.
• Ji Yanzhi told the woman he had once disliked everything, including himself, but no longer needed to hide his real needs.
• The woman asked Ji Yanzhi to come with her to bring the boy home, and he agreed.
• The woman told Ji Yanzhi about the boy's favorite foods, animals, and clothes as they walked to the Children's Home.
• The woman pointed out the boy in a burgundy down jacket and said she would name him Ji Ting.
• Ji Yanzhi watched the woman offer to take the boy home, and the boy caught her clothes and agreed; Ji Yanzhi then answered that he was willing.

Ji Yanzhi relived Ji Ting’s death in a dream and woke to find that Ji Ting’s phone was switched off. Five days after the experiment was approved, Ji Ting entered the laboratory alone, where the test began successfully before a dangerous purple light appeared in the magnetic confinement field.

• Ji Yanzhi witnessed Ji Ting grieve at Ji Minghua’s grave and later die in a laboratory explosion while adjusting the particle instrument.
• Ji Yanzhi woke from the dream, called Ji Ting, and learned that his number was switched off.
• Ji Ting secured the senior leader’s approval for the experiment and agreed to conduct it alone in the laboratory.
• Ji Ting began the test while Academician Cao and Academician Wang guided him from the monitoring room.
• The experiment’s readings initially matched the theoretical model, but the blue curve turned crimson and a purple spot expanded inside the apparatus.

A catastrophic explosion destroyed the Pseudopotential Quantum Laboratory, and officials declared Ji Ting dead while sealing the site. Zhou Zhenguo followed a backup signal to Valley 7 in search of Ji Ting, leaving his fate unresolved.

• The magnetic confinement system failed, and explosions and a particle leak engulfed Ji Ting and the laboratory.
• Academician Wu told Director Chang that the laboratory had exploded and Ji Ting had not escaped.
• Vice Minister Li ordered the laboratory sealed despite Academician Wang and Academician Cao insisting Ji Ting might still be alive.
• Vice Minister Li reported Ji Ting confirmed dead and requested central authorities take over the aftermath.
• Zhou Zhenguo searched for Ji Ting's escape pod, then followed its backup radio signal toward Valley 7.

Ji Ting survived a dangerous crash in Valley 7 and was rescued just before the ice field collapsed. Back at the Primordial Base, Qiao Hansong reprimanded Zhou Zhenguo and arranged for Ji Ting to meet his eldest brother, Ji Yanzhi, the next morning.

• After the escape pod crash dislocated his arm, Ji Ting used its battery to send a location signal and trigger a rescue alert.
• Zhou Zhenguo dispatched a helicopter, and rescuers pulled Ji Ting from the collapsing ice field moments before it fell into an abyss.
• Zhou Zhenguo angrily reprimanded Ji Ting for risking his life, and Ji Ting admitted his preparations had been inadequate.
• Five hours after the explosion, Ji Ting returned to the Primordial Base as Qiao Hansong's office was preparing to approve his posthumous merit.
• Qiao Hansong ordered Zhou Zhenguo to write an accident report and self-criticism totaling eighty thousand characters, then told Ji Ting he would meet Ji Yanzhi the next morning.

After Ji Ting survived the crisis on Mountain No. 7, Qiao Hansong reprimanded him and confronted the academicians who had pressured him to activate the contingency plan. Ji Yanzhi received approval to travel to Ji Ting the next morning and began preparing clothes and food to bring.

• Ji Ting offered to help Zhou Zhenguo write an eighty-thousand-word report in exchange for keeping the incident from Ji Yanzhi, and Zhou agreed after Ji Ting promised never to handle anything so dangerous again.
• Qiao Hansong summoned the academicians and announced they were choosing a site for Ji Ting's cenotaph, prompting the absent academicians to hurry to the meeting.
• Qiao Hansong questioned Wang Tianyi and Cao about the petition that had pressured Ji Ting, and all sixty-seven signatories stood to accept responsibility.
• Qiao Hansong warned the academicians that their actions had nearly cost Huaguo another generation of nuclear physicists, while Lin wondered whether he had said Ji Ting was only nearly lost.
• Ji Yanzhi learned his application had been approved and that he would leave for West Suburban Airport at seven the next morning.
• Ji Yanzhi packed new clothes for Ji Ting and arranged for the butler to collect nutrient solution and Chef Liu to prepare food before dawn.