Arc 17Chapters 401–425
No recap yet.
No recap yet.
Gu Zheng’s team followed Song Ning’s trail through a hidden passage and discovered that Yi Gang had escaped through an abandoned utility shaft with several veteran comrades. Finding Song Ning’s discarded bag, Gu Zheng realized she had infiltrated the escape group and returned to the shaft to search for one last clue she might have left.
Gu Zheng searched the abandoned well for a message from Song Ning, then discovered an empty vitamin C ampoule in her bag and learned how it could reveal hidden writing. As two white characters appeared on the bag’s flap, he and the others saw that Song Ning had left a clue.
Gu Zheng pursued the meaning of the digits Song Ning left behind and hurried back toward Capital City with Han Xiao to investigate their connection to 64 Wenhua Road. Meanwhile, Kong Jianming tried to win over Wu Tao Ying, but their encounter ended with her knocking down a heavily pregnant woman and both of them being held responsible.
Song Ning followed the black-clad men to a new hideout, leaving a clue at the manhole cover she linked to the Third Normal College printing factory. After helping deliver an elderly prisoner, she slipped away into a passage and found staircases leading both up and down, unsure what kind of place she had entered.
Song Ning discovered that she was trapped in Ghost’s heavily guarded hostage facility and searched for a way out, while Kong Jianming’s attempt to settle a hospital dispute was wrecked by Wu Tao Ying’s outburst. Song Ning remained locked inside as Kong Jianming fled from the pregnant woman’s family.
Gu Zheng and Han Xiao searched the printing plant for the meaning of Xu Changyi’s six digits and found a buried civil defense manhole matching the location. The shaft was packed with soil, so Gu Zheng ordered backup and a full cordon around the campus.
Gu Zheng and Tang Wei organized a covert investigation of the underground complex beneath the Third Normal College, its Printing Factory, and Fuwai Hospital. While searching the lower level of her prison, Song Ning discovered a plaque identifying the facility as a level-five civil defense shelter beneath Fuwai Hospital.
Song Ning realized she was being held in the underground levels of the hospital she would own in the future and used her knowledge of its layout to search for a way out. She opened a hidden door and reached a towering iron door, which slid open after she triggered a concealed switch, as someone called for her to come in.
Song Ning disguised herself as a lab worker and tried to escape the underground laboratory after discovering it was researching the same material as her grandfather. Tang Wei’s inspection team entered the hospital shelter and heard Song Ning calling for help from below.
Tang Wei and the hospital staff found Wang San and Kong Jianming in the basement, where Wang San claimed a woman had vanished after screaming. Tang Wei used the incident to demand a thorough search of the hospital’s underground rooms, leaving the search about to begin.
Song Ning infiltrated the hospital’s lower floors and delivered a folder to Dr. Smith, where she recognized the imposing man from Harbor City and realized Yi Gang was only a hired thug. She reached Basement Level One, but an alarm sounded and people filled the corridor, leaving her at risk of exposure.
Song Ning escaped notice during an evacuation and was ordered to help move the “goods,” which turned out to be a corpse. She followed the workers through a concealed elevator to a room full of stretchers, where she began to understand the corpse-handling process.
Song Ning escaped the underground base beneath the hospital and discovered that Wu Tao Ying had been drugged and marked for cremation. As she pursued a chance to alert others, Tang Wei spotted her in the hospital lobby.
Song Ning reunited with Gu Zheng and gave him the information needed to launch an assault on the hidden base beneath the hospital. As the operation began, she realized Wu Tao Ying had been taken from the Morgue to the Crematorium despite still being alive, and Han Xiao understood that the hospital’s General Affairs staff needed investigating.
After the underground operation ended, Song Ning learned that the hostages had been rescued and that Lu Changqing was in critical condition. At the hospital, she encountered Lin Xiaoming keeping watch outside Lu Changqing’s resuscitation room with Chen Yuting inside.
Song Ning examined Lu Changqing and discovered that poisoning, not organ failure, was causing his critical condition, so he was transferred to the military district general hospital. After Song Ning returned home hoping to sleep, someone urgently called for her again.
Song Ning was summoned to treat Tang Wei, who had been shot in the chest and was near death. After identifying cardiac tamponade and proposing an urgent operation, she was given less than half an hour to save him as someone rushed in to approve her plan.
Song Ning secured approval to operate on Tang Wei and began emergency heart surgery. Meanwhile, Song Wang visited Wu Tao Ying and mistook Kong Jianming for her cousin, leaving him unaware that she was playing both men.
Song Ning successfully removed the bullet from Tang Wei, then rested while Han Xiao and Jiang Chengshi discussed Lu Changqing’s poisoning. After learning Tan Min was the sister of a fallen comrade, Song Ning heard that her brother Song Wang had run into trouble.
Song Ning learned that her brother Song Wang had been detained after knocking Chen Yuting down during a hospital-room fight, and she went to the Military District Hospital to address the accusation. She challenged Chen Yuting to pursue the case while hinting at her connection to Yu Zhengyang, leaving Chen Yuting stunned.
Song Ning dealt with the hospital incident involving Song Wang and questioned Wu Tao Ying about Lin Xiaoming. She began connecting Lin Xiaoming to several past incidents, leaving her to wonder whether his repeated appearances were more than coincidence.
Song Ning urged Chen Yuting to decide whether she truly wanted to pursue Yu Zhengyang and warned Song Wang to learn from his mistakes. She then returned to Tang Wei’s bedside and investigated why Lin Xiaoming had delivered Chen Yuting’s internship report, asking Tan Min whether he had volunteered.
Song Ning considered her suspicions about Lin Xiaoming while learning that Zhou Yunzhi and Lu Changqing remained unconscious. At the hospital, Kong Jianming revealed his supposed relationship with Wu Tao Ying to Song Wang, and Song Ning was urgently summoned when someone was near death.
Song Ning visited a dying researcher rescued from the Jin City Base, who thanked her and urged her to “keep going” before passing away, leaving his identity and message unexplained. After Lei Ming updated her on the Jin City cleanup and told her to rest, Kong Jianming asked Tao Ying to step outside for an important conversation.
Kong Jianming staged a confession to expose Wu Tao Ying’s feelings to Song Wang, but their confrontation ended in a fight. Song Ning then discovered that the masked doctor involved in the scuffle had been carrying poisoned medicine, and Lei Ming detained them as they investigated the upper floors.