Chapter Summaries

Qi Xia organized the group behind an iron plate and used Qiao Jiajin as the “mother hen” to keep the black bear at bay. The bear’s charging attack overturned the plate, leaving Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin pinned beneath it.

• Qi Xia threatened the group into following his lead and explained his plan using the roles of eagle, chicks, and mother hen.
• Qiao Jiajin braced the iron plate against the black bear’s attacks while the group stayed in formation behind it.
• Qi Xia guided the group as the bear circled them, and he warned that the bear’s retreat was a setup for a running charge.
• Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin braced for the charge, but the middle-aged man abandoned the group and ran away.
• The bespectacled young man tried to steer the plate, but the black bear’s charge sent the line flying and pinned Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin beneath the overturned plate.

After the black bear knocked Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin down, the group restored their defensive formation while Old Lü was left exposed. Qi Xia drew the bear’s attention and weakened its attacks, saving Old Lü, while the skinny guy with glasses promised that he and Old Lü would give Qi Xia their “Dao” if they survived.

• Qiao Jiajin and Qi Xia recovered enough to brace the iron plate again as the black bear shook off the collision.
• The skinny guy with glasses tried to take Qiao Jiajin’s place but could not hold up the iron plate, so Qiao Jiajin resumed the position.
• The black bear moved between Old Lü and the group, and the skinny guy with glasses decided to risk his life to save him.
• Qi Xia stopped the skinny guy and demanded both men’s “Dao” in exchange for keeping them alive; the skinny guy agreed and handed over his sneakers.
• Qi Xia struck the black bear’s back and nose with the sneakers, drawing its attention and weakening its assault on the iron plate.
• Qiao Jiajin and the others blocked the bear’s weaker attacks, and Old Lü escaped back to the group.

Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin’s iron-plate defense collapsed when the black bear pulled the barrier down, leaving them exposed and injured. With fewer than twenty seconds left, Glasses drew the bear away from Qi Xia, but it chased him as he repeatedly stumbled and fell.

• The black bear stopped attacking the iron plate and ate the dead woman while Qi Xia’s group waited for the game to end.
• With time running short, the black bear charged again, climbed over the plate, and pulled it down despite Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin’s efforts to hold it up.
• The black bear struck at Qi Xia, who could not get up, while Qiao Jiajin attacked it and was thrown aside by a blow to the abdomen.
• Glasses decided to save Qi Xia and provoked the black bear, which turned away from Qi Xia and chased him.
• Glasses ran from the bear, repeatedly falling and struggling back to his feet.

Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin’s group survived the black bear game, then waited anxiously for the other team to return. Zhang Shan, Tiantian, and Lin Qin emerged with all ten teammates alive, and Zhang Shan revealed that he had fought the bear by throwing its severed forelegs onto the floor.

• The timer reached zero, and the black bear was sucked through the doorway, ending the game and saving Little Glasses and the others.
• Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin returned to the chair room with nine survivors and worried about Tiantian and Lin Qin’s team.
• Earth Ox said the other team’s game should have ended, but the group waited several minutes without seeing them return.
• Zhang Shan emerged from the doorway covered in wounds, followed by Tiantian, Lin Qin, and all ten of their teammates.
• Zhang Shan dropped two bloody black bear forelegs onto the floor, revealing that he had fought the bear.

Qi Xia confronted Zhang Shan over the Dao his friends had promised to hand over, then launched a surprise attack while Zhang Shan was still injured. Zhang Shan blocked Qi Xia’s blows and prepared to fight back.

• Lin Qin and Tiantian told Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin how Zhang Shan had killed the black bear with an iron plate, though the bear had badly wounded him.
• Lin Qin explained that Zhang Shan had delayed returning because he made the others smash off the bear’s arms for food.
• Zhang Shan, Little Glasses, and Old Lü approached Qi Xia, and Zhang Shan challenged him over his treatment of his friends.
• Qi Xia demanded that Zhang Shan hand over the Dao, then kicked a chair into his knees and attacked him with it.
• Zhang Shan blocked the chair and a broken chair leg with his arms and forehead, then declared that he would stop holding back.

Qi Xia’s attack on Zhang Shan failed, and Qiao Jiajin stepped in to fight him instead. After a prolonged grappling match, Qiao Jiajin trapped Zhang Shan in a choke, but neither man could break free or force the other to yield.

• Qi Xia charged Zhang Shan and attacked him from atop a chair, but Zhang Shan blocked his punches and twisted him off.
• Zhang Shan tried to attack Qi Xia again, but Qiao Jiajin stopped him and called Qi Xia his brain and himself his fist.
• Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan traded blows before Qiao Jiajin took him down and nearly secured an armbar.
• Zhang Shan broke free of the armbar and fought back, but Qiao Jiajin swept him and locked him in a rear naked choke.
• Zhang Shan protected his neck with one hand, leaving both men trapped in a stalemate as Qiao Jiajin urged him to give up.

After Earth Ox broke up Zhang Shan and Qiao Jiajin’s fight, Zhang Shan gave Qi Xia the promised Dao and invited him and Qiao Jiajin to join a group seeking escape. Qi Xia refused, but Zhang Shan’s claim that people had escaped made him question whether escape was possible after all.

• Earth Ox pulled Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan apart and threw them to opposite sides of the room.
• Zhang Shan approached Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin again, gave Qi Xia thirty-eight Dao, and explained that he was honoring the bet.
• Zhang Shan and Little Glasses invited Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin to join their group and try to escape, but Qi Xia refused.
• Qi Xia challenged the idea that a group could escape because he believed only one person could get out, then realized no one had actually told him that.
• Zhang Shan said he believed they could escape because they had seen people who escaped.

Qi Xia accepted part of Zhang Shan’s haul and received food and Dao before leaving with his group. He refused to let a surviving young woman join them, suspecting she wanted their Dao, and asked his companions to lend him theirs.

• Zhang Shan offered to share information about someone who may have escaped if Qi Xia joined his group, then gave him a map to their base.
• Qi Xia returned half the Dao he had taken, sparing Little Glasses, and Zhang Shan gave the group a bear arm to discard.
• Earth Ox handed Qi Xia and his companions their rewards, while the young woman asked to join them after claiming her teammates had died in the Interview.
• Qi Xia refused the young woman, and Qiao Jiajin followed him after noticing his warning; the woman stayed behind with Earth Ox and said Zhang Shan could not be allowed to stay.
• Qi Xia explained that the woman might be targeting their Dao, then asked his companions to let him use theirs.

Qi Xia divided the group’s Dao evenly, and the four survivors searched an abandoned city for a way to cook the bear’s arm. At a restaurant, they unexpectedly met Xiaoxiao, who supplied water and a lighter, and the group began making bear meat soup.

• Qi Xia divided ninety-six Dao among himself, Qiao Jiajin, Lin Qin, and Tiantian, giving each of them twenty-four.
• The group searched for cooking supplies until they found an abandoned restaurant with a pot.
• Tiantian encountered Xiaoxiao in the kitchen, where Xiaoxiao showed them clean water and lent them a lighter.
• Qiao Jiajin built a makeshift stove while Tiantian and Xiaoxiao prepared water and Qi Xia cleaned the bear’s arm; Qiao Jiajin chopped the meat into the pot.
• As the bear meat soup boiled, Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian argued about whether eating bear paw was illegal, and Qiao Jiajin revealed he barely knew what the Internet was.

Lin Qin, Tiantian, Qiao Jiajin, and Qi Xia discovered they came from different years, but agreed to focus on escaping rather than investigating why. They ate the bear meat to keep up their strength, though Qi Xia found the bear paw especially disgusting.

• Tiantian questioned Qiao Jiajin about his birth year, and he said he was born in 1979 and that it was 2006.
• Lin Qin revealed she came from 2068, Tiantian said she came from 2019, and Qi Xia said he came from 2022.
• Qi Xia urged the group to prioritize escaping and searching for Dao instead of trying to uncover the cause of their different timelines.
• Tiantian served everyone bear meat, and Qi Xia waited until Xiaoxiao ate before tasting his portion.
• Qi Xia and Lin Qin disliked the greasy, gamey meat, while Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian ate heartily.
• Qi Xia tried the bear paw and found it even fattier and more foul-tasting than the other meat.