Chapter Summaries

Ji Ting returned early from an award ceremony after helping expose the United States’ mistakes, then told Ji Yanzhi he had come back because he missed him. After Ji Ting fell asleep, Ji Yanzhi realized his promise to stay for the rest of the year might mean he had finished his three-year project.

• Academician Tang choked on his tea when Ji Ting called his criticism of the United States a little gift, while the other academicians enjoyed the remark.
• Ji Ting left the award ceremony early with Ji Yanzhi and admitted that he had returned a day early because he missed him.
• Ji Ting fell asleep in the car after staying awake for more than thirty hours, and Ji Yanzhi carried him home and cared for him.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he would not leave again that year, prompting Ji Yanzhi to suspect he had completed his three-year project.
• Ji Yanzhi asked Uncle Yang to keep Ji Ting undisturbed, prepare his favorite dishes, and went back to the company.

Ji Yanzhi took annual leave and handed Yu Lin authority over the group’s projects, then returned home hoping to spend time with Ji Ting. Instead, he found a crowd of visitors, but Jiang Mingde’s story about a chessboard made by Ji Ting gave Ji Yanzhi hope that the guests would soon leave them in peace.

• Ji Yanzhi announced that he was taking annual leave and transferred most routine decision-making authority to Yu Lin.
• Ji Yanzhi returned to the Ji Family residence and found relatives, academicians, Shen Mu Lan, his grandfather, and members of the Shili Six waiting to see Ji Ting, who was still asleep.
• Ji Yanzhi invited the academicians to stay for dinner and sent Wang Mian and his colleagues back to headquarters with a warning about their bonuses.
• Jiang Mingde invited Academician Zhao and Academician Zhang to see the chessboard Ji Ting had made, but Jiang Shuoyuan hurriedly pulled him away.
• After Academician Zhang asked Jiang Shuoyuan about the chessboard, Ji Yanzhi left Deng Luqing and hoped the story would draw more visitors away, leaving him and Ji Ting alone.

Ji Yanzhi watched over the sleeping Ji Ting and reflected on how loving him had let him accept his own need for closeness. When Ji Ting woke hungry, they chose food together, but Ji Yanzhi stopped him with a teasing question before he could finish ordering.

• Ji Yanzhi slipped into bed beside Ji Ting, held him close, and realized that loving him had helped him accept his desire to lean on someone and be needed.
• Ji Yanzhi stayed awake counting Ji Ting’s eyelashes and quietly kissing him while Ji Ting slept.
• Ji Ting woke beneath Ji Yanzhi’s embrace when his stomach growled, and Ji Yanzhi asked what he wanted to eat.
• Ji Ting requested cola, a burger, a chicken drumstick, and chicken nuggets while leaning against Ji Yanzhi and touching his abs.
• Ji Yanzhi switched off his phone and asked Ji Ting, “Do you still want to eat?”

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi planned a vacation together, including a visit to Tsinghua University and a lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Ji Yanzhi offered to arrange the lecture in exchange for Ji Ting completing a freshman bucket list with him.

• Ji Ting shared fried food with Ji Yanzhi and said he wanted to experience the life of a normal twenty-two-year-old.
• Ji Ting said he would have chosen Culinary Technology College to study pastry making, but Tsinghua University suited his research ambitions.
• Ji Yanzhi revealed he had taken annual leave and invited Ji Ting to visit Tsinghua University with him the next day.
• Ji Ting said he needed to visit Huazhong University of Science and Technology to fulfill his promise to give a lecture there.
• Ji Yanzhi offered to have Fang Jie coordinate the lecture and asked Ji Ting to complete a freshman bucket list with him in return.

Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting how Shen Mu Lan and Team Leader Sun got together, then realized Ji Ting had interpreted his eagerness to share the story as proof of his love. The two kissed and turned their attention away from the surveillance footage.

• Ji Yanzhi told Ji Ting that Shen Mu Lan and Team Leader Sun were together and asked him to guess where Team Leader Sun had confessed.
• Ji Ting guessed Mount Tai and a geological museum before Ji Yanzhi revealed the confession had happened at the Police Station.
• Ji Yanzhi explained what had happened and showed Ji Ting that he had obtained surveillance footage of the scene.
• Ji Ting said Ji Yanzhi’s urge to share the story and save the footage showed how strongly he liked him, and Ji Yanzhi playfully pretended to be caught in a secret crush.
• Ji Ting kissed Ji Yanzhi and admitted he liked him too, and Ji Yanzhi set aside his phone to kiss him instead of showing the video.

Ji Yanzhi arranged a small, low-pressure lecture for Ji Ting, then learned from Shen Lin that Ji Ting had solved the technical obstacles to a nuclear-powered engine for the Seventh-Generation Fighter. Ji Yanzhi worried that Ji Ting intended to develop it, while Shen Lin recognized the scale of Ji Ting’s achievement.

• Ji Yanzhi called Fang Jie and gave detailed instructions for arranging a discreet, relaxed lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology.
• Ji Yanzhi admired the wintersweet Ji Ting had picked for him and called him, then drove to the Shen Family’s courtyard to meet him.
• While Ji Ting walked with Shen Mu Lan, Shen Lin told Ji Yanzhi that Ji Ting had once proposed nuclear power for the Seventh-Generation Fighter.
• Shen Lin revealed that Ji Ting had returned to say he had found solutions to every technical obstacle they had raised years earlier.
• Ji Yanzhi suspected Ji Ting might be planning to develop the nuclear-powered engine, and Shen Lin called him a great man.

Ji Yanzhi confronted Ji Ting about considering work on the Seventh-Generation Fighter, fearing another long separation. Ji Ting promised he would be away for no more than two months at a time, and their argument ended in a teasing reconciliation.

• Ji Yanzhi hurried Ji Ting away from the Shen Family home after learning about his plans for the nuclear-powered plane research.
• Ji Yanzhi angrily asked whether Ji Ting intended to join the Seventh-Generation Fighter project and said he feared being left waiting for him again.
• Ji Ting explained that he would not abandon the project but promised he would not leave for years and would return home within two months.
• Ji Yanzhi accepted Ji Ting's promise after insisting he not string together multiple two-month absences in one year.
• Ji Ting kissed Ji Yanzhi to make up, and Ji Yanzhi pulled him into his arms and teased him as a greedy little kitten.

Ji Yanzhi took Ji Ting to visit Shen Mu Lan, where they encountered Sun Ye and joined a game of Truth or Dare. The chapter ended when Ji Ting drew a question about whom he would kill if his partner cheated and he had only one bullet.

• Ji Yanzhi abandoned his attempt to kiss Ji Ting when the steering wheel made Ji Ting uncomfortable, then drove him to Shen Mu Lan's courtyard.
• Shen Mu Lan hugged Ji Ting and offered him and Ji Yanzhi osmanthus Fox Nut Cake, while Ji Yanzhi teased him about Sun Ye.
• Sun Ye arrived, and Shen Mu Lan shyly invited him to stay for lunch as he prepared Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.
• Shen Mu Lan proposed a fighting game and brought out a couples edition of Truth or Dare, explaining that the losing team would draw punishment cards.
• Ji Ting drew a Truth card asking whom he would kill if his partner cheated and he had only one bullet, leaving Ji Yanzhi and Sun Ye stunned.

Ji Ting, Ji Yanzhi, Shen Mu Lan, and Sun Ye played a question-and-dare game before competing in a video game, with Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting winning the first round. Sun Ye and Shen Mu Lan then drew a dare that left Shen Mu Lan marking Sun Ye as his exclusive property.

• Ji Ting described how mirrors could redirect a handgun bullet to kill two people, and Ji Yanzhi said he would shoot the other person before locking Ji Ting up.
• Sun Ye drew a question about whether he would break up with Shen Mu Lan over erectile dysfunction, and both men said they would stay together.
• Shen Mu Lan started a four-player video game, and Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi won the first match.
• Sun Ye drew a dare requiring his partner to mark a suggestive spot on his body with a declaration of ownership.
• Shen Mu Lan drew a crooked heart and wrote “Mu Lan's exclusive property” on Sun Ye's lower back, making Ji Yanzhi laugh and Ji Ting smile.

A disastrous card-game penalty left Shen Mu Lan and Sun Ye facing a week of uncomfortable choices, while Ji Ting arranged a university lecture on room-temperature superconductivity. Sun Ye turned Shen Mu Lan’s teasing into a promise to wear a sexy outfit, ending by asking if dressing like a university student counted as a uniform.

• Shen Mu Lan drew a special card requiring him to answer a question about his partner’s habits and spend the week doing the opposite, while Ji Yanzhi read the penalty aloud.
• Shen Mu Lan and Sun Ye discovered their Buddha Jumps Over the Wall had burned, then planned to eat the frozen king crab instead.
• Ji Yanzhi’s assistant Fang Jie confirmed Ji Ting’s lecture for ten the next morning, titled “How room-temperature superconductivity will reshape our world.”
• Ji Yanzhi teased Shen Mu Lan about the penalty, and Shen Mu Lan tried to shield Ji Ting from the conversation.
• Sun Ye pretended Shen Mu Lan had already chosen sexy outfits as his penalty, then said he would choose them too and asked whether a university-student outfit counted as a uniform.

Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi prepared for Ji Ting’s lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, where the campus staff were astonished by the young academician’s appearance. As Ji Ting nervously set up the lecture hall, a student named Xu Ren recognized him.

• Shen Mu Lan agreed to report to the Shili Group’s Marketing Department after the New Year, and Ji Yanzhi revealed that he had a finance master’s degree from Imperial College London.
• Ji Yanzhi chose a coordinated outfit for Ji Ting and accompanied him to Huazhong University of Science and Technology for his lecture.
• Professor Li and the university staff were surprised by Ji Ting’s youthful appearance when he arrived.
• Ji Ting prepared the lecture equipment while Ji Yanzhi tried to reassure him about speaking to the students.
• Xu Ren entered the lecture hall, recognized Ji Ting, and exclaimed in disbelief.

Ji Ting gave a packed lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology on the revolutionary effects of room-temperature superconductivity. The Q&A ended with him earnestly describing how his rigorous evidence had made other academicians avoid him.

• Xu Ren reunited with Ji Ting before the lecture and told him that his former plagiarizing advisor and Director Wu had been fired, while Wang Jianming had served six months in prison.
• Students recognized Ji Ting and Ji Yanzhi, then spread the news until hundreds packed the classroom and corridor to attend the lecture.
• Ji Ting delivered a detailed lecture on room-temperature superconductivity and its potential uses in energy, transportation, medicine, computing, and nuclear fusion.
• After the lecture, Ji Ting described months of unsuccessful experiments and said the research team had struggled with pressure and hair loss.
• Ji Ting explained that he had persuaded Academician Chen with experiments and seventy-two pages of analysis, after which Chen and other academicians avoided sitting or eating near him.

Ji Ting finished his lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, publicly praised his former student Xu Ren, and agreed to take a group photo with the students. As Ji Ting, Ji Yanzhi, and Xu Ren left together, Ji Yanzhi saw that Lu Yanchu had reposted the photo with an admiring caption, and his expression darkened.

• Ji Ting told the students he had no plans to supervise graduate students, then revealed that his former student Xu Ren was in the classroom and praised Xu Ren’s talent and persistence.
• Ji Ting answered a question about talent and hard work, then ended the lecture and question session.
• At the students’ request, Ji Ting agreed to a group photo and posed with them in front of the podium.
• Ji Ting invited Xu Ren to have lunch with him and Ji Yanzhi, and Xu Ren joined them under State Security protection.
• Fang Jie sent Ji Yanzhi a link showing that Lu Yanchu had reposted the group photo with an admiring caption, making Ji Yanzhi’s expression darken.

Ji Ting reunited with Xu Ren and learned why his former student had stopped contacting him, while Ji Yanzhi grew increasingly jealous after Lu Yanchu’s name surfaced. Ji Ting refused to turn Lu Yanchu’s feelings into a bet and told Ji Yanzhi that he needed to protect him from losing control of his jealousy.

• Xu Ren told Ji Ting he had stopped contacting him because he felt unqualified to work beside him until he had improved.
• Ji Yanzhi teased Xu Ren about helping Ji Ting hide things from him, and Ji Ting stopped their sparring by squeezing his hand.
• Wang Mian called to tell Ji Ting that Lu Yanchu had reposted a group photo with him, and Ji Yanzhi ended the call when Wang Mian began speculating about Lu Yanchu’s feelings.
• Ji Ting offered to help Xu Ren with future research difficulties, and Xu Ren happily accepted.
• Ji Yanzhi proposed betting on whether Lu Yanchu liked Ji Ting, but Ji Ting refused to treat someone’s sincere feelings as a game.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi he could see that jealousy was making him lose control and said he needed to protect him.

Ji Yanzhi reassured Ji Ting about his jealousy, then secretly worked on a project while preparing to marry him. When Ji Ting told him their planned visit to Tsinghua University had been canceled for security reasons, Ji Yanzhi accepted the news calmly, leaving Ji Ting baffled by his sudden change in behavior.

• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that loving him meant accepting his emotional volatility, but warned that falling for Lu Yanchu would count as cheating rather than provoke jealousy.
• Ji Yanzhi apologized for testing Ji Ting and resolved to marry him as soon as possible, while secretly calling a man about a project still under development.
• Ji Yanzhi hid his phone when Ji Ting came out of the bathroom, and Ji Ting suspected he was concealing something.
• Zhang Jian told Ji Ting that security concerns had led officials to cancel their planned visit to Tsinghua University.
• Ji Ting broke the news to Ji Yanzhi, who calmly accepted the cancellation and prioritized Ji Ting's safety, confusing him.

Ji Yanzhi left Ji Ting at their new bowling alley, claiming an urgent business problem required him to go to Shili Group. Ji Ting arranged for Zhang Jian’s colleagues to check on him and learned that Ji Yanzhi had gone to the Cloud Summit Club with a young man instead.

• Ji Yanzhi and Ji Ting opened the bowling alley in the East Building and began playing together.
• Ji Yanzhi became distracted by Wang Mian’s messages about a final scene simulation and angrily annotated its unwanted details, including an orange cat.
• Ji Ting noticed Ji Yanzhi’s distraction and offered to help with the supposed technical issue, but Ji Yanzhi claimed it concerned business negotiations and left alone.
• Ji Ting asked Zhang Jian to check whether Ji Yanzhi needed support.
• Zhang Jian sent Ji Ting a video showing Ji Yanzhi entering the Cloud Summit Club with a young man following close behind.

Ji Ting saw a photo of Ji Yanzhi smiling with a young engineer and, after identifying the man, went to confront him. The chapter ended with Fang Shiyuan opening his apartment door and freezing when Ji Ting introduced himself.

• Ji Yanzhi reviewed Fang Shiyuan’s recreated scene, demanded seventy-six revisions, and set a three-day deadline for the work.
• Xiao Chen photographed Ji Yanzhi and Fang Shiyuan smiling outside the Cloud Summit Club and sent the picture to Zhang Jian.
• After Zhang Jian showed him the photo, Ji Ting asked for Fang Shiyuan’s identity, address, and current location.
• Ji Ting went to Fang Shiyuan’s apartment and introduced himself when Fang opened the door.

Ji Ting visited Fang Shiyuan to ask about his meeting with Ji Yanzhi and whether Fang liked him, then realized he was feeling intensely unhappy. He told Ji Yanzhi directly about his distress over the phone, leaving their relationship at a tense turning point.

• Fang Shiyuan let Ji Ting and two State Security Bureau officers into his apartment and nervously offered them bottled water.
• Ji Ting asked Fang why he had seen Ji Yanzhi, but Fang stopped himself from revealing confidential project information.
• Ji Ting admitted he had come on impulse and asked whether Fang liked Ji Yanzhi; Fang enthusiastically said he did, and guessed Ji Yanzhi was satisfied with him.
• Ji Yanzhi called Ji Ting and asked where he had gone, noticing that Ji Ting sounded unhappy.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi that he was experiencing strong negative emotions, describing his physical distress and saying he was very unhappy.

Ji Ting confronted Ji Yanzhi after discovering he had secretly met Fang Shiyuan, and demanded to know whether Ji Yanzhi liked him. Ji Yanzhi learned Ji Ting was jealous, then teased him about it.

• Ji Ting left Fang Shiyuan after confirming he remembered his name, and Ji Yanzhi met him at the Old Residence.
• Ji Ting refused to hold Ji Yanzhi's hand because he was angry, then revealed that he knew Ji Yanzhi had visited Fang Shiyuan.
• Ji Ting asked whether Ji Yanzhi liked Fang Shiyuan, and Ji Yanzhi realized Ji Ting might be jealous.
• Ji Yanzhi called Wang Mian, who explained that he had sent Fang Shiyuan to report technical progress in his place.
• Ji Ting blushed and tried to retreat, while Ji Yanzhi teased him by asking whether he had been jealous.

Ji Ting recognized that his anger over Ji Yanzhi visiting Fang Shiyuan was jealousy, then asked Ji Yanzhi to soothe him. Ji Yanzhi agreed to sing before bed, while Ji Ting began an experiment by covering their ears and kissing him to hear the sounds through bone conduction.

• Ji Yanzhi helped Ji Ting determine that his anger about Fang Shiyuan had been jealousy.
• Ji Ting told Ji Yanzhi he had gone to Fang Shiyuan's home and concluded that he was jealous.
• Ji Ting said it was Ji Yanzhi's turn to soothe him, and Ji Yanzhi agreed to sing him a song before bed.
• Ji Ting asked Ji Yanzhi to cover his ears, covered Ji Yanzhi's ears himself, and kissed him.
• Ji Ting explained that covering their ears let them hear the kiss through bone conduction.