Chapter Summaries

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.

• Reinforcements secured Areas A and C as Gu Zheng and the others rushed into Area B after an explosion, but Yi Gang escaped through a secret passage.
• Gu Zheng found Song Ning’s marks, a broken vial, and Chen Liang’s dagger wedged in a heavy door, then called for combat engineers to uncover a concealed passage.
• Han Xiao reported that Li Yongzhi had been found tortured, and Gu Zheng sent Han Xiao and Xiong Gang to sweep Area B while his team continued after Song Ning.
• Gu Zheng’s squad followed the narrow passage to an abandoned shaft and discovered that Yi Gang and several veteran comrades had escaped beyond the perimeter.
• Chen Liang identified a discarded bag as Song Ning’s, and Gu Zheng concluded that she had joined the fugitives in disguise before returning to the shaft to look for another clue.

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 found a shattered ampoule beside the sewage-well cover and memorized its location number before returning to the command post.
• The operation recovered stolen research documents, arrested K members, and uncovered the organization’s nationwide bases and contacts, but Gu Zheng remained worried about Song Ning.
• Gu Zheng found an empty vitamin C ampoule in Song Ning’s bag and noticed that the bag’s flap was damp.
• A doctor explained that iodophor could reveal writing made with vitamin C, and Captain Chen brought some from an ambulance.
• The doctor spread iodophor over the bag’s flap, and two large white characters appeared.

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.

• Gu Zheng learned that Song Ning had left the digits 6 and 4, then questioned Han Xiao about their recent movements and the connection to 64 Wenhua Road.
• Gu Zheng told Yang Qi to get Zheng Zhenguo's statement while he drove back toward Capital City with Han Xiao to investigate the address again.
• Kong Jianming, desperate to secure Wu Tao Ying's help with his debts, met her near the Courtyard Compound and charmed her onto a bus.
• Kong Jianming and Wu Tao Ying got off at Military Medical University Fuwai Hospital, where Wu Tao Ying accidentally knocked a heavily pregnant woman to the ground.
• The pregnant woman's husband grabbed Wu Tao Ying, and her younger brother caught Kong Jianming, demanding that they take his sister to the hospital for an examination.

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 hid among Master Gang's men as they left through a well and boarded three vehicles, all while wearing black cloth bags over their heads.
• Song Ning spotted the manhole cover's number, recalled the printing factory at the Third Normal College, marked her bag with the clue "64," and left the bag behind as the truck departed.
• After hours on the road, the truck reached a dark building where the men split into groups and took the hostages through separate doors.
• Song Ning helped carry an elderly comrade toward the left-hand door, then slipped into a passage when the group was distracted.
• Song Ning found staircases leading both upward and downward and wondered what the underground hideout was.

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.

• Song Ning saw camouflage-clad guards with submachine guns and concluded that the facility belonged to Ghost and held important prisoners.
• Song Ning searched the floors and checked the entrance, finding locked doors, darkness, and an iron gate secured with a heavy chain and padlock.
• Kong Jianming questioned the doctor and learned that the pregnant woman and her baby were not harmed by the fall.
• Kong Jianming tried to calm the pregnant woman’s husband by offering to buy nourishing food, but Wu Tao Ying insulted the family and refused.
• The pregnant woman’s husband chased Kong Jianming and Wu Tao Ying, and Kong Jianming ran through the hospital to escape.

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 Han Xiao returned to the printing plant and checked the two manhole covers along the route to the college gate, finding nothing unusual.
• Gu Zheng revisited Building No. 8 and searched the landscaped strip beside it, where he uncovered a buried manhole marked “Civil Defense” and “320.”
• Gu Zheng recognized that the location matched Xu Changyi’s “64-8-320,” but found the shaft packed with soil when Han Xiao opened it.
• Gu Zheng told Han Xiao to replace the cover and ordered him to request backup and surround the entire 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.

• Gu Zheng and Tang Wei connected the college, Printing Factory, and Fuwai Hospital as one complex and planned to investigate it before troops surrounded the area that night.
• Tang Wei warned Gu Zheng that Fuwai Hospital had at least three underground levels of level-five defensive fortifications.
• Song Ning searched the hostage area, found a flashlight and military-style supplies, and explored the abandoned lower passage.
• Song Ning spotted a plaque identifying the shelter as No. 08 in the West City District, Capital City, and realized she was 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 recognized the hospital as the former Defense Fortification No. 8 and hoped Gu Zheng would follow the clues she had left.
• Song Ning mapped the underground levels and discovered that an iron cabinet concealed a doorway out of the hostage holding area.
• Song Ning slipped through a second cabinet-hidden doorway and entered the third underground level, where she found a towering iron door.
• Song Ning spotted an unusual iron bar in a wall vent and slid it, opening the iron door as a voice called, "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.

• Song Ning crossed the iron doorway, put on a lab coat and cap, and entered the Central Research Laboratory when someone summoned her over the speakers.
• An older researcher gave Song Ning documents to deliver to Room Three, and she recognized the research topic as her grandfather Old Man Song’s work on the Dawn Project.
• Song Ning left the laboratory carrying the documents and passed two men in black by showing them the green badge on her coat.
• Tang Wei inspected the hospital’s underground air-raid shelter with staff and the deputy director.
• Tang Wei and the others heard Song Ning shouting for help from deep 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.

• The deputy director and Tang Wei’s group found Wang San clutching Kong Jianming’s legs in a basement corridor.
• Wang San claimed Kong Jianming had knocked into his pregnant sister and demanded compensation for his broken leg, while Kong Jianming explained that Wang San had fallen during a chase.
• Wang San said Wu Tao Ying had screamed and disappeared, but Tang Wei’s colleagues found no woman in the basement.
• Tang Wei declared the hospital responsible for the unsafe basement and asked for backup to help search for the missing woman.
• The deputy director denied that a second basement level existed, and Tang Wei ordered the staff to turn on the lights in every room.

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 passed the guards on Basement Level Two and entered the conference room with Professor Li to deliver a folder to Dr. Smith.
• Song Ning recognized the large man at the conference table as the big shot she had encountered at a Harbor City nightclub and concluded that Yi Gang was only a hired thug.
• Song Ning spotted the Central Research Laboratory marked Room Three and inferred that Room Two was likely on Basement Level One.
• Song Ning told the guards she was going to Professor Li and climbed to Basement Level One.
• An alarm began sounding as Song Ning reached the corridor, and people in white coats, black clothing, and camouflage appeared around her.

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 avoided suspicion when Professor Li ordered her to help move goods during the evacuation.
• Song Ning found that the stairs to the half level had been replaced by a wall and helped push a corpse on a stretcher.
• Song Ning followed her companion and the corpse to a concealed elevator, where a masked man in a white coat let them inside.
• The elevator carried them near ground level, and the masked man left looking like a doctor.
• Song Ning watched her companion record information on a clipboard and prepare to return with an empty stretcher.

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 knocked out her companion, tied him up in the morgue, and learned the elevator code for returning underground.
• Song Ning found Wu Tao Ying alive but unconscious, tore up the false death record, and removed the sheet covering her.
• Tang Wei searched the hospital for Song Ning and an entrance to the underground base, then sealed off the basement and called for backup.
• Song Ning left the morgue, disguised herself by removing her coat and cap, and followed the tall man toward the hospital entrance.
• Tang Wei saw Song Ning in the lobby and called out to her.

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.

• Song Ning slapped Tang Wei and pulled him into an empty Operating Room, where she briefed him about the hidden base and its disguised leader.
• Tang Wei took Song Ning to Gu Zheng, who embraced her and revised the assault plan after studying her map and intelligence.
• At six o’clock, Gu Zheng and Tang Wei led their teams into the hospital while Han Xiao stayed with Song Ning outside.
• Song Ning remembered Wu Tao Ying was still in the Morgue, so she and Han Xiao went to find her and learned hospital staff had sent her to the Crematorium.
• Song Ning told the hospital doctor Wu Tao Ying was alive and challenged the claim that the General Affairs department had completed the necessary paperwork.

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 learned that Kong Jianming had caused Wu Tao Ying’s injury and decided to leave Wu Tao Ying’s care to him while the operation continued.
• After resting in the car, Song Ning heard from Chen Liang that the fighting was over, most enemies had been eliminated, and the rescued hostages included possible Blue Shield comrades 027 and 055.
• Chen Liang told Song Ning that Lu Changqing had been found and taken to the Resuscitation Room, so she went there with him and Han Xiao.
• Song Ning found Lin Xiaoming waiting outside Lu Changqing’s room, and Chen Yuting came out to request a signature for treatment.
• Han Xiao asked Lin Xiaoming why he no longer avoided Chen Yuting.

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.

• Lin Xiaoming explained that he had come to deliver Chen Yuting's internship report, which would help restore her medical license.
• A doctor reported that Lu Changqing's vital signs were dangerously faint, and Song Ning entered the resuscitation room to examine him.
• Song Ning concluded that Lu Changqing had been poisoned and agreed with the doctor to transfer him to the military district general hospital.
• Han Xiao drove Song Ning home, where she told Song Wang that Wu Tao Ying was hospitalized and could be visited at Fuwai Hospital.
• Someone knocked at the courtyard gate shortly after seven and urgently called Song Ning, saying something had happened.

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.

• Han Xiao woke Song Ning and told her Tang Wei had been shot while pursuing Yi Gang, who Tang Wei killed before collapsing.
• Song Ning examined Tang Wei at the Military District Hospital and warned Jiang Chengshi that blood accumulating around his heart could kill him at any moment.
• Jiang Chengshi brought Song Ning before the specialists and asked them to let her operate.
• Song Ning explained that Tang Wei needed immediate pericardial decompression and proposed a median sternotomy with cardiopulmonary bypass support.
• Song Ning said Tang Wei had no more than half an hour left, and someone rushed in shouting that they agreed to let her operate.

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.

• Tang Wu appealed to President Peng to let Song Ning treat Tang Wei, and President Peng authorized her plan and assigned Jiang Chengshi to assist.
• Song Ning ordered blood, IV access, medication, and a roller pump prepared, then made an incision toward Tang Wei's heart.
• Song Wang brought gifts to the hospital and found Wu Tao Ying being fed porridge by Kong Jianming.
• Wu Tao Ying introduced Kong Jianming as her cousin, and Kong Jianming stayed because Public Security had ordered him to care for her.
• Song Wang and Kong Jianming sat awkwardly on either side of Wu Tao Ying, while Song Ning's attempt to make her brother witness Wu Tao Ying's flirtation failed.

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.

• Director Liu announced that Song Ning’s surgery on Tang Wei had succeeded, though Tang Wei still needed thirty-six hours without complications to be out of danger.
• Jiang Chengshi warned Song Ning to protect her health, and he suggested that Lu Changqing’s captors had poisoned him because he knew important information.
• Han Xiao decided to urge investigators to focus on identifying Lu Changqing’s poison during interrogations.
• Tan Min brought food to Song Ning, and Han Xiao later explained that Tan Min was the sister of Tan Jin, a comrade who had died on a mission.
• Han Xiao told Song Ning that her brother Song Wang may have 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.

• Han Xiao told Song Ning that Song Wang was at the Military District Hospital after a dispute with Chen Yuting, and Song Ning asked to hear what had happened.
• Wu Tao Ying argued with Chen Yuting over sharing a room with male patients, and their confrontation turned into a fight that left Chen Yuting scratched.
• Kong Jianming shoved the hesitant Song Wang forward, causing him to knock Chen Yuting down; Chen Yuting accused him of molesting her, and the hospital detained him under guard.
• Song Ning arrived with Han Xiao and told Chen Yuting that Song Wang was her brother; Chen Yuting demanded that he be imprisoned.
• Song Ning said she could identify the person who pushed Song Wang, then questioned why Yu Zhengyang had devoted himself to someone like Chen Yuting.