Chapter Summaries

AI engineer Ji Tan died after A Qiang generated a terrible novel, then woke up in that story as the doomed spouse of Huo Zhaixing, who planned to remove his heart for Qiao Qiao. Ji Tan escaped the operating room but was caught, and his boss Xie Zhi appeared without offering the help he needed.

• Ji Tan tested A Qiang's latest proposal, became enraged by its melodramatic novel, and collapsed at his desk.
• Ji Tan woke on a hospital bed being taken to heart-removal surgery and recognized Huo Zhaixing as the man who intended to give his heart to Qiao Qiao.
• Ji Tan pulled out his IV needles, slapped Huo Zhaixing, and used his stapled proposal to create a distraction before fleeing.
• Ji Tan ran through the hospital and spotted Xie Zhi, his former boss, then called for help.
• A pursuer tackled Ji Tan, and Xie Zhi picked up the proposal and handed it back instead of helping him escape.

Ji Tan was rescued from Huo Zhaixing by Xie Zhi, who revealed himself as City A’s new Archon and used his powers to slow their pursuers. They became trapped on the rooftop of Huo’s private hospital, where Ji Tan questioned why Huo’s powers lasted longer than Xie Zhi’s.

• Ji Tan accused Xie Zhi of abandoning him, and Huo Zhaixing seized Ji Tan by the collar and demanded to know their relationship.
• Xie Zhi freed Ji Tan, revealed himself as an Order User, and slowed everyone in the corridor to one mile per hour while helping Ji Tan escape.
• Huo Zhaixing ordered the hospital sealed, and Xie Zhi carried Ji Tan to the rooftop after the exits were blocked.
• Ji Tan found the nurse’s warning that the hospital was Huo’s private property, while Xie Zhi explained that Huo’s lockdown would last at most ten minutes.
• Ji Tan asked why Huo Zhaixing’s abilities lasted longer than Xie Zhi’s, and Xie Zhi reacted sharply.

Ji Tan and Xie Zhi waited out Huo Zhaixing’s hospital lockdown while Xie tended to Ji Tan and returned his proposal, which briefly transformed into a golden book. After the Order Administration Bureau lifted the lockdown, Xie grabbed Ji Tan and leaped from the rooftop, slowing their fall with his ability as they floated toward the police below.

• Xie Zhi explained that his ability’s thirty-second limit was meant to avoid interfering with emergency treatment, while Huo Zhaixing pounded on the rooftop door and threatened to break in.
• Xie gave Ji Tan his jacket, cleaned Ji Tan’s injured foot, and learned that Ji Tan blamed him for withholding two years of performance bonuses.
• Police and the Order Administration Bureau arrived, and the silver-uniformed TS Action Team ordered all Orderlies to lift their lockdowns.
• Xie borrowed Ji Tan’s proposal and used it to open the rooftop door, then returned the papers after they transformed into a glowing golden book.
• As Huo Zhaixing rushed toward Ji Tan, Xie jumped from the building with him and slowed their fall by prohibiting speed, leaving them floating above the police and ambulance crews.

Ji Tan was rescued from Huo Zhaixing by Xie Zhi, who revealed he was both the Administrator and the Dictator of North District. At the Public Security Bureau, Ji Tan learned Huo had arranged to donate his heart and discovered a detail that made him doubt Huo’s motives.

• Xie Zhi caught Ji Tan after their descent, while Huo Zhaixing and his bodyguards were held back by the silver-clad T cops.
• Huo Zhaixing and Qiao Qiao accused Ji Tan of misconduct, but the T cops saluted Xie Zhi as their superior.
• Xie Zhi took Ji Tan to a police car, revealed that he was the Administrator without his mask and the Dictator of North District with it, then left him at the Public Security Bureau.
• A young officer showed Ji Tan the marriage agreement and Huo Zhaixing’s consent to donate Ji Tan’s heart, explaining that Huo had bought a mechanical replacement worth at least thirty million.
• Ji Tan reviewed the documents and questioned why Huo, who was paying him eight hundred thousand in installments, would spend thirty million on a mechanical heart.

Ji Tan learned that having a real heart might be required to become an Orderly, making Huo Zhaixing’s claim to his heart even more dangerous. Xie Zhi helped him leave the Public Security Bureau, but Huo intercepted them and challenged Xie’s ability to protect Ji Tan.

• Ji Tan questioned officers about keeping his heart and learned he needed a top lawyer and should leave Beichen District; he also found out his parents were missing and his older brother was in the Western District, unable to travel because of loan-shark debt.
• Xie Zhi arrived with shoes, clothes, food, identification, a bank card, and a phone for Ji Tan, then accompanied him out of the Public Security Bureau.
• Huo Zhaixing pulled up in a Maybach and ordered Ji Tan into the car, but Ji Tan chose to leave with Xie Zhi.
• Huo Zhaixing challenged Xie Zhi’s strength and threatened to take Ji Tan, but Xie used his authority to prevent Huo from exiting the vehicle and mocked his rank.

Ji Tan and Xie Zhi escaped Huo Zhaixing after Xie Zhi used his abilities to break Huo’s hold and defeat his bodyguards. As Xie drove Ji Tan toward the western district to find Ji Sinan, he showed him a loan contract revealing that Ji Sinan had borrowed one million yuan on punishing terms.

• Huo Zhaixing grabbed Ji Tan and ordered his car to drive, while his bodyguards attacked Xie Zhi.
• Xie Zhi slowed the car and bodyguards with Prohibition, then nullified Huo Zhaixing’s ability, snapped his finger, and punched him.
• Ji Tan woke in Xie Zhi’s car and learned that Huo Zhaixing’s family had taken him away and given Xie the car as compensation.
• Xie Zhi offered to take Ji Tan to his home in Beichen District, but Ji Tan asked to go to Xili District to look for his sickly older brother, Ji Sinan.
• Ji Tan spoke about his late brother, and Xie Zhi explained that Ji Sinan had stayed up writing because he had spent a week playing games with him.
• Xie Zhi agreed to take Ji Tan to the western district and showed him a loan-shark contract listing Ji Sinan as the borrower of one million yuan.

Ji Tan discovered that the contract named his brother Ji Sinan as the person endangered by the loan-shark debt, though Xie Zhi could not confirm whether it was really him. Ji Tan crossed into the Western District to find him, where he was startled to see Xie Zhi waiting as a motorcycle driver.

• Ji Tan recognized Ji Sinan’s name on the contract, but Xie Zhi only shook his head and said he did not know whether it was his brother.
• Ji Tan realized Huo Zhaixing had used the monthly debt payments to control him and worried that the missed payment would put Ji Sinan at risk.
• Xie Zhi offered Ji Tan a black card, then gave him a gold card after Ji Tan demanded the performance bonuses he was owed.
• Xie Zhi drove Ji Tan to the Western District checkpoint and warned that he could not protect him there; Ji Tan thanked him as A Zhi-ge before crossing.
• Ji Tan passed through the residents’ express lane and entered the neon-lit Western District, where he felt frightened by the towering buildings.
• A motorcycle driver called out to Ji Tan, and he looked up to see Xie Zhi on a colorful scooter.

Ji Tan and Xie Zhi traveled through the dangerous western district to Ji Tan’s home, where they found his older brother Ji Sinan alive and being beaten by debt collectors. Ji Tan was reunited with his brother, but Ji Sinan mistook Xie Zhi for a threat and confronted him.

• Xie Zhi picked Ji Tan up on his motorcycle and drove him through the western district toward his home.
• Xie Zhi warned Ji Tan about the dangers in the slums, and they entered Broken Line Street’s Alley 36 on foot.
• Ji Tan heard Ji Sinan’s voice coming from a house and rushed toward it as debt collectors attacked him.
• Xie Zhi kicked open the door and used his red hammer Grace to knock down the debt collectors while Ji Tan tried to intervene.
• Ji Tan recognized the battered young man as his older brother Ji Sinan and was overjoyed to find him alive.
• Ji Sinan pulled Ji Tan behind him and threatened Xie Zhi with a broom, believing him to be a dangerous stranger.

Ji Tan realized Ji Sinan had lost memories and was displaying severe compulsive cleaning, while Xie Zhi warned that their neighborhood was dangerous. Ji Tan ended the night moved by his brother’s familiar care when Ji Sinan cooked him the noodles he used to make after work.

• Ji Sinan mistook Xie Zhi for a dangerous stranger and obsessively scrubbed the pot and floor after driving him out.
• Ji Tan told Xie Zhi that he planned to take Ji Sinan to a doctor, and Xie Zhi left with the three unconscious men while giving Ji Tan his West District number.
• Ji Tan searched his phone for information about the world but found only gossip-heavy news and social media apps.
• Ji Tan called Xie Zhi, who warned him to leave Broken Line Street and said the men would not return before finding clothes.
• Ji Sinan served Ji Tan a bowl of noodles and explained that he had cooked at that hour because Ji Tan used to come home from work then.
• Ji Tan tasted the noodles and cried, recognizing the familiar flavor of his brother’s cooking.

Ji Tan reunited with Ji Sinan, learned that his own diploma qualified him only for kitchen work, and tried to make breakfast. His cooking failed so badly that even a stray dog refused to eat it.

• Ji Sinan told Ji Tan to stop working in Beichen District, explained that he had become a doctor, and asked him to cry into the bowl so he could wash it.
• Ji Tan searched their home for documents and discovered Ji Sinan had earned a medical doctorate while his own qualification was from a culinary vocational school.
• Ji Tan decided to seek kitchen work and used his practiced knife skills to shred a potato.
• Ji Tan failed to cook the shredded potato, and Ji Sinan mistook the charred result for stir-fried wood ear mushrooms.
• Ji Tan fed the inedible potatoes to a stray dog, which refused to eat them while a neighbor joked that it might think they were chocolate.

Ji Tan sought a hospital for Ji Sinan and learned about a secretive group connected to a strange eye symbol, then took his brother to Xili District’s best psychiatric center. The brothers reached Fist Plaza and boarded the subway, where Ji Sinan’s compulsions and embarrassing memories drew attention.

• Ji Tan asked Sister Xu about hospitals and received a card inviting him to meet the followers of Argus and possibly become an Orderly.
• Ji Tan recognized the eye on the card from Ji Sinan’s drawer, then found online recommendations for Eternal Day Medical and the Chengming Life Center.
• Ji Tan packed their belongings and took Ji Sinan to Quickblade Clinic, where Ji Sinan repeatedly asked his boss for a day off.
• Ji Tan guided Ji Sinan onto a bus and through his repeated boarding routine, then brought him to Fist Plaza.
• Ji Tan and Ji Sinan boarded the subway, and Ji Sinan embarrassed Ji Tan by repeatedly recalling that Ji Tan had wet his bed as a child.

Ji Tan accompanied Ji Sinan to Chengming Life Center, where he learned his brother had worked before becoming mentally ill. Ji Sinan confronted former colleagues Dr. Zheng and Xia Wanqing, then left with Ji Tan after embarrassing them by revealing he had fed Xia Wanqing his younger brother’s extra breakfasts.

• Ji Tan learned that his family had fallen apart after their father’s gambling, and that Ji Sinan had fled with him before later developing a mental illness.
• Ji Tan searched Ji Sinan’s phone and found an academic exchange with Xia Wanqing, whom he suspected was close to his brother.
• Ji Tan realized Chengming Life Center was Ji Sinan’s former workplace and urged him to go elsewhere, but Ji Sinan entered the building.
• Dr. Zheng and Xia Wanqing confronted Ji Sinan, and Ji Sinan repeatedly rammed Dr. Zheng after Ji Tan claimed he had to repeat every action seven times.
• Dr. Zheng revealed that he had eaten the lunches Ji Sinan brought for Xia Wanqing, and Ji Sinan explained that the food had been his younger brother’s extra breakfasts as they walked away.

Ji Tan learned that Ji Sinan’s sanity had recovered only to 53.23% after a costly injection that erased a random stretch of memory, and he worried that his brother might decline again. While seeking advice from Xie Zhi, Ji Tan overheard Wanwan and Young Dr. Zheng discussing Ji Sinan’s lost memories, but Xie Zhi misinterpreted the call.

• Ji Tan brought Ji Sinan to Director Yuan for a sanity test, where Ji Sinan punched at Yuan before the examination began.
• Director Yuan explained that sanity could fall irreversibly and that anyone who became a ghoul could be killed without legal consequences.
• Ji Tan learned that Ji Sinan had arrived with 39% sanity and received a costly injection that raised it to 53.23% while erasing a random stretch of memory.
• Ji Tan hesitated over buying another one-million-per-dose injection and went to call Xie Zhi for advice.
• Ji Tan overheard Wanwan and Young Dr. Zheng discussing whether Ji Sinan had truly forgotten part of his memory, while Xie Zhi mistook the background conversation for porn.

Ji Tan investigated the suspicious figures connected to Ji Sinan’s illness, bought a sanity monitor, and learned that Ji Sinan inexplicably recognized the eye of Argus. That night, Ji Tan and Xie Zhi were caught spying on a cult gathering, where Ji Sinan unexpectedly joined them.

• Ji Tan overheard two people discuss Ji Sinan’s sanity and the memory-loss effects of the Blank Prescription, then kicked open the stairwell door to escape them.
• Ji Tan asked Xie Zhi whether Ji Sinan could safely receive another injection, and Xie Zhi told him to wait and buy a portable sanity monitor.
• Ji Tan bought monitors for himself and Ji Sinan, then watched Ji Sinan identify the correct design of Argus’s eye despite claiming not to know how he recognized it.
• Ji Tan decided to investigate the old warehouse and found a cult chanting around a rotten human leg bone.
• Xie Zhi caught Ji Tan spying, and they pretended to join the cult when the gathered people turned toward them.
• Ji Sinan appeared at the warehouse in an apron, and when the cult leader challenged him, he answered with his own chant.

Ji Tan and Xie Zhi joined a strange ritual in an old warehouse, where the corpse offered as sacred food awakened when it touched the golden light from Ji Tan's proposal. The neighbors attacked them, and Xie Zhi revealed he could not use prohibition in the west district.

• Ji Sinan criticized the cult's Eye of Argus drawing and was thrown out of the warehouse.
• Ji Tan and Xie Zhi joined the ritual while Ji Sinan's banging and chanting turned the ceremony into a dance.
• The black-robed leader revealed a Ghoul corpse and urged Ji Tan and Xie Zhi to eat its flesh, but Xie Zhi warned that it would turn them into Ghouls.
• Ji Tan's proposal glowed when the corpse's flesh touched it, causing the corpse to awaken and lunge at him.
• Xie Zhi smashed the corpse with a red hammer, and the neighbors rushed toward Ji Tan's golden light.
• Ji Tan climbed onto Xie Zhi's back and demanded he stop the neighbors, but Xie Zhi said he could not use prohibition in the west district.

Xie Zhi and Ji Tan survived the warehouse Ghoul attack after Xie Zhi used the proposal’s power to kill the Ghouls, but overusing his Grace left him weakened. Xie Zhi stayed at Ji Tan’s home, where he tried to persuade Ji Tan to give him the proposal and ended up comparing him to a mangy dog.

• Xie Zhi fought through the warehouse with Ji Tan on his back, then used the proposal’s power to declare that death was permitted and make the Ghouls collapse.
• The TS Special Operations Unit arrived, treated the surviving civilians, and sealed the rotten bone; Xie Zhi said he had overused his Grace and asked Ji Tan to take him home.
• Ji Tan brought Xie Zhi to his home, where Ji Sinan doubted that Xie Zhi was his friend and later went out to discard their contaminated belongings.
• Xie Zhi explained that the proposal was a high-Authority supernatural item from his Sequence and asked Ji Tan to hand it over, but Ji Tan refused.
• A gray dog came begging for food, and Xie Zhi compared Ji Tan keeping the proposal to a mangy dog finding a hundred yuan; Ji Tan punched him.