Chapter Summaries

At eighty-six, Mai Minghe let a burglar enter her room to extract something from her body, and asked him to find a poem about daisies before he did. As the poem played and the machine began taking from her, people burst through her front door.

• Mai Minghe woke as a burglar picked the lock and searched her home before finding her in bed.
• The burglar asked whether she was Mai Minghe, learned she was eighty-six, and called someone to report that she was much older than expected.
• Mai Minghe gripped her pendant as the burglar returned and told her he needed to take something from her body, which might kill her.
• Mai Minghe asked the burglar to find a poem titled “I Will Pick More Daisies,” and he played a video reading it on his phone.
• The burglar pressed a tube to Mai Minghe’s chest and switched on the machine as she listened to the poem.
• Mai Minghe heard her front door being smashed open and people rushing in just before darkness overtook her.

Mai Minghe summoned emergency care workers while a thief tried to kill her, then used a hallucination’s clue to escape him. After recognizing that the television mattered, she deliberately fell against it so the care workers would take her to the hospital, but the chapter ended with her disappearing.

• Mai Minghe remembered choosing a Life Alert pendant years earlier and pressed it while the thief was in her home.
• Two emergency care workers arrived, and the thief claimed he was Mai Minghe’s grandson while hiding the tube he had used to attack her.
• Mai Minghe pleaded to be helped to the television, where a report about Wei Xilai’s death and the Wei Family Manor appeared.
• Mai Minghe realized her hallucination had urged her toward the television and deliberately fell against its screen as the care workers watched.
• After the impact and the care workers’ cries, Mai Minghe heard someone ask, “Where did she go?”

Mai Minghe woke in a dark hospital ward, where pressing a call button summoned a terrifying figure and she appeared to suffer a heart attack. She survived and found herself young again, then encountered a man searching for a Phantasm and the strange patient from the neighboring bed.

• Mai Minghe fell in the ward, found herself unable to stand, and pressed the nurse call button despite the neighboring patient's warning.
• An announcement warned that a figure pretending to be a nurse would arrive, and a tall, black figure with a mirror for a face entered the ward.
• Mai Minghe felt a heart attack coming on as the figure approached, then woke standing with her pain gone and her body restored to youth.
• A man entered Room 3, asked Mai Minghe whose Hunter she was, and said he could not see the Phantasm she had supposedly intercepted.
• The man spotted a resident behind the curtain at bed 03, and the patient asked Mai Minghe to let him inspect what she had just received.

Mai Minghe found herself trapped in a hospital ward inside the Nest, where a strange patient and a group of men fought over the black strap that had reversed her aging. She chose to resist the patient, and the chapter ended with the red-haired man between them as Mai Minghe insisted she was young again.

• Mai Minghe learned that she was in the Nest and discovered a cold, snake-like strap wrapped around her body that had made her young again.
• The patient behind the curtain demanded the strap, while the red-haired man urged Mai Minghe to give it to him instead.
• Mai Minghe tossed a pillow at the red-haired man and tried to escape, but the patient's feet moved toward her and her own feet followed.
• Mai Minghe repeatedly pressed the nurse-call button, prompting the ward loudspeaker to announce that several figures disguised as nurses were on their way.
• The red-haired man was hurled between Mai Minghe and the patient, and Mai Minghe declared that she was no longer an old lady.

Jin Xueli faced escalating harassment from Anthony and went to the bar Between the Backlight to seek work and obtain the bartender’s special drinks. She left the chapter by drinking them and falling backward from her high-rise balcony, apparently using an extraordinary means of travel to reach her destination.

• Jin Xueli found a funeral wreath bearing her portrait and a slur outside her apartment, then angrily confronted the building manager about the security failure.
• Jin Xueli rejected the manager’s claim that the incident was a lovers’ quarrel and learned that Anthony had continued threatening her and had posted her phone number on porn sites.
• Jin Xueli visited Between the Backlight, where the bartender offered a low-paying hunter job, and she declined because she had personal business to handle.
• Jin Xueli learned that Wei Xilai, the founder and CEO of the Many Trees Consortium, had died, then asked the bartender for his special alcohol mixes.
• Jin Xueli packed hunting gear, drank the bartender’s mixes, climbed onto her balcony railing, and fell backward into the night.

Jin Xueli used her hidden foothold in the Nest to recover from a dangerous jump and listen to the Nest 173 Radio for news and route information. A special bulletin revealed a powerful new simulacrum at the Museum of Modern Art, and she decided to investigate it before continuing to Ninety-Ninth Street to retrieve something she needed against Anthony.

• Jin Xueli landed safely in her hidden foothold, drank water, ate food, and retrieved her radio from a locked cabinet.
• The host announced that the date was November 16, 2026, and reported that streets from Fifth through One Hundred Ninetieth remained unchanged and safe to navigate using prior knowledge.
• Jin Xueli marked the route on her map and noted that Ninety-Ninth Street lay within the unchanged area, though the journey could take two days.
• The host issued a special bulletin instructing listeners to enter Door D of the Museum of Modern Art, take the first elevator on the left to the basement, and avoid the other elevators.
• The host identified Candle Tears as a newly emerged, exceptionally powerful simulacrum in the basement exhibition hall.
• Jin Xueli left her foothold to investigate Candle Tears before heading to Ninety-Ninth Street to retrieve what she needed to deal with Anthony.

Jin Xueli navigated a dangerous stretch of the Nest while a face-stealing resident followed her and tried to lure her into a chalk hopscotch trap. She escaped the first trap but became stuck on a grid that threatened to copy her, with the purple traffic light still blocking her route to the Museum of Modern Art.

• Jin Xueli noticed that a resident wearing her distorted likeness was following her through the deserted streets.
• Jin Xueli avoided stepping onto a chalk hopscotch grid after realizing the resident had distracted her to lure her into it.
• Jin Xueli recorded the resident’s new trap-luring behavior to trade the information at the Between the Backlight bar.
• Jin Xueli hopped across the chalk grid, using a utility pole and trading food for a place to stand.
• Jin Xueli found the remaining squares marked “be copied” and saw the resident following her again while the purple traffic light continued to block her way.

Jin Xueli escaped the chalk house’s hopscotch trap by calling Blackmoor City’s taxi hotline and paying the fare with a recent memory. The taxi carried her through the purple traffic light toward the Museum of Modern Art, leaving the furious copy of her behind.

• Jin Xueli remained trapped in the chalk house as the purple traffic light and the resident resembling her prevented her from escaping.
• Jin Xueli studied her annotated map, spotted Blackmoor City’s taxi hotline, and called it despite having no phone signal.
• The dispatcher explained that Jin Xueli had to give the driver an address and pay with the first qualifying recent memory that came to mind.
• Jin Xueli requested a taxi to the Museum of Modern Art, and the driver accepted the memory of her getting into the car as payment.
• Jin Xueli found herself in the taxi, which passed through the purple light while the copy of her flailed angrily behind it.

Jin Xueli entered the Museum of Modern Art and followed the broadcast’s instructions to reach the first basement, where she discovered Candle Tears, an imitation that could alter history. As she considered how to investigate it, someone suddenly stabbed her in the throat.

• Jin Xueli arrived at the Museum of Modern Art by taxi, aware that she had forgotten something but unable to recall what.
• Jin Xueli entered the museum and ignored a crawling woman who warned her not to take the elevator and mentioned the host.
• Jin Xueli rode the first elevator on the left to the first basement level and found the Candle Tears exhibit.
• Jin Xueli read that heating and reshaping Candle Tears could change history and considered testing it before hiding the imitation.
• Someone plunged a hunting knife into Jin Xueli’s throat.

Mai Minghe and the red-haired man tried to escape the ward while its residents attacked them, and the round-headed figures offered Mai Minghe a way out. Mai Minghe realized the red-haired man was about to make a fatal mistake and shouted for him to stop.

• Mai Minghe rang the call bell repeatedly, drawing a crowd of residents into the ward as the red-haired man kicked bed 2 aside.
• A nurse and a slender patient attacked Mai Minghe, but the slender patient blocked the nurse with a hospital privacy curtain, giving Mai Minghe a chance to move.
• Round-headed figures warned Mai Minghe to duck, and she avoided a long arm striking the ward doorway.
• Mai Minghe and the red-haired man moved through the round-headed figures while the slender patient pursued her and ignored him.
• The round-headed figures told Mai Minghe they could surround her and walk toward the door together, but Mai Minghe shouted for the red-haired man not to leave.

Mai Minghe and the red-haired man figured out how the Nest’s residents countered one another, but the long, thin patient struck a deal with the roundheads to take her phantasm. As Mai Minghe weakened and tried to follow the retreating roundheads, the patient grabbed her calf.

• Mai Minghe warned the red-haired man not to leave, and he revealed that an invisible resident was waiting in the doorway.
• Mai Minghe reasoned that the doorway resident must be dangerous because the other residents were urging her to escape, and she inferred that the roundheads had once been living people.
• The long, thin patient’s voice made Mai Minghe dizzy and sick, while the red-haired man explained that the residents countered one another in a rock-paper-scissors-like cycle.
• The long, thin patient proposed that the roundheads let it take Mai Minghe’s phantasm in exchange for throwing her into the doorway resident, and the roundheads agreed.
• Mai Minghe followed the retreating roundheads as she grew weaker, but the long, thin patient grabbed her calf.

Mai Minghe discovered that the roundhead’s blood hurt the slender patient, letting her escape the ward with the red-haired man by riding a hospital bed. As they fled down the corridor, she saw her reflection looking young and smiling.

• Mai Minghe grabbed a roundhead’s ankle to stop the slender patient from peeling off her Snake Belt, but she passed out and lost her hold.
• Mai Minghe noticed blood beneath her fingernails and scratched the slender patient, causing it to convulse and throw away the simulacrum.
• Mai Minghe shook the roundhead’s blood from her fingers at the slender patient, then ran to the red-haired man and climbed onto the hospital bed he was pushing.
• The red-haired man and Mai Minghe rode the bed into the corridor without touching the floor, avoiding the resident hidden beneath the tiles.
• Mai Minghe explained that the roundhead’s blood was the slender patient’s weakness, and the pair prepared to jump off the bed and keep running.

Mai Minghe learned from the red-haired Hunter that the morgue in St. Louis Hospital was a reset point in the Nest and that Hunters entered the Nest to obtain Phantasms. After the reset, he offered to guide her to an exit, warning that his fellow Hunters might still try to take her Phantasm.

• Mai Minghe and the red-haired man hid beneath sheets in the morgue to escape the pursuing hospital resident.
• The red-haired man explained that the morgue served as a reset point, making the hospital believe those who lay there were dead.
• He told Mai Minghe that the Nest was a dangerous shadow world connected to Blackmoor City, where False Image Hunters sought Phantasms.
• Mai Minghe learned that people entered the Nest through individual passages, which could only open in major cities with populations over ten million.
• The red-haired man said Wei Xilai had hired his group to obtain Mai Minghe’s Phantasm, but he would not try to take it himself.
• After the reset, the red-haired man agreed to guide Mai Minghe to the exit, while warning that he might join his fellow Hunters if they attacked her.

A suited man tortured Evan on a boat and questioned him about Wei Xilai’s death and a missing object from his study. Evan admitted he had entered the study, and the suited man demanded to know where he had hidden the Phantasm.

• The suited man introduced Dr. Nate and the medical supplies and tools he planned to use on Evan, then asked Evan to explain himself.
• Evan said he had dreamed of becoming like Wei Xilai and had copied Wei’s dress and manner, which led Wei to fire him after catching him wearing his trousers.
• Evan revealed that he had entered Wei Xilai’s study after Wei’s death, hoping to find something valuable.
• The suited man pressed Evan about what he had taken and warned that the missing object could bring a deadly fate to those who touched it.
• The suited man asked Evan where he had hidden the Phantasm from the study.

Chai Si reported that he had found no trace of the stolen Phantasms, though he believed Evan had taken at least one before escaping into the sea. Caironan criticized Chai Si’s reliance on violence and reminded him that he had promised to secure power in the human world for the Kai Family.

• Chai Si told Caironan that he had thoroughly searched Evan’s home, car, and belongings but found no Phantasms, and he suspected Evan had still acquired one.
• Chai Si recounted how Evan escaped from the boat by tearing his injured arm free and diving into the sea as a patrol boat passed.
• Chai Si said he planned to investigate Evan’s sister and the pizza delivery man, but Caironan questioned his assumptions about where the Phantasm could be hidden.
• Caironan warned Chai Si that violence alone could not build a powerful Hunter Faction or give it control over human reality.
• Chai Si remembered his failed attempts to discover a Pathway and promised Caironan he would deliver the human world to the Kai Family.

Chai Si investigated Evan’s route after the bodyguard stole a phantasm from Wei Family Manor, then searched Blackmoor City with Huang Li. When Huang Li briefly sensed a phantasm near a round sign marked “D,” Chai Si realized where it was and drove toward it.

• Chai Si used GPS data, security footage, and Evan’s call records to conclude that Evan had driven directly to Blackmoor City without stopping to hand off the phantasm.
• Huang Li confirmed that no phantasms remained at Wei Family Manor or along the route, and questioned why Evan had stayed inside his apartment after stealing one.
• Chai Si explained that Evan had tried to avoid attention by leaving the manor under the pretext that Wei Xilai had fired him.
• Huang Li briefly sensed a phantasm while they searched Blackmoor City, but the sensation vanished before she could pinpoint it.
• Chai Si spotted a round sign marked “D,” abruptly drove onto the sidewalk, and told Huang Li he knew where the phantasm was.

Chai Si and Huang Li raced through Blackmoor City to reach Brublan Community College Station, reasoning that Evan had hidden the Phantasm on a subway train. They survived a collision and contacted the police as Chai Si tried to intercept the train before it reached its last stop.

• Chai Si explained that Huang Li's sensing of the Phantasm suggested it was moving quickly, leading him to suspect Evan had hidden it on a subway train.
• Chai Si and Huang Li calculated that the train carrying the Phantasm would reach Brublan Community College Station at 10:36.
• Chai Si told Huang Li to call the police and ask them to seal off roads near the station within ten minutes.
• Chai Si drove through a red light and a truck clipped their car, causing a traffic pileup that trapped the pursuing police cars.
• Huang Li told 911 that she had been kidnapped and that Chai Si threatened to throw bombs into traffic unless the roads were closed.

Mai Minghe and Jonah made their way through the hospital toward the exit, but Mai Minghe realized that Jonah was the fourth figure disguised as a nurse to enter the room and refused to leave with him. The chapter ended with Jonah asking her what she had noticed.

• Mai Minghe learned that Jonah was named Jonah and that he warned her to hide their acquaintance from his faction once they returned.
• Mai Minghe reasoned that Jonah seemed to have forgotten the figure in the morgue, but blood from the round-headed resident caused no reaction when she smeared it on him.
• Jonah led Mai Minghe through the hospital and warned her to stay silent near the emergency room.
• Mai Minghe searched the nurses' information station for a weapon, while Jonah warned her not to touch communication devices.
• Mai Minghe stopped Jonah from leaving and told him that, after the long, thin patient, a nurse, a pair of hands, and the underground resident controlling the round-headed one, Jonah was the fourth figure to enter the room.

Mai Minghe fought Jonah and his parasitic child after learning he had lured her into the Nest. She crushed the creature in a sliding door, but Jonah exploited her memories about having children to force the door open.

• Mai Minghe kicked a chair at Jonah and ran when he admitted he was not merely a captured Hunter.
• Jonah crawled along the ceiling, trapped Mai Minghe in the corridor, and sent his pink, many-legged child toward her.
• Mai Minghe struck Jonah in the eyes with her pajama top, freed herself, and pulled the creature from her mouth.
• Mai Minghe crushed the creature beneath the heavy door of an X-ray room, provoking Jonah to attack her.
• Jonah said he could rebuild the child from the part of Mai Minghe marked by having considered having children, and her hesitation let him shove his head through the door.

Mai Minghe struggled to keep Jonah’s possessed body from forcing its way through a sliding door, then learned the passage back to the Nest might be a screen. She released the door and ran toward the medical imaging room’s screen as the resident regained control.

• Jonah warned Mai Minghe that people who died in the Nest became part of it, while she refused to let his threats frighten her.
• Mai Minghe called on Jonah to fight the resident inside him, and Jonah briefly regained control to beg her to seek help from the Morgan family.
• Jonah told Mai Minghe that the passage she had entered through was the way back and that she would recognize it when she saw it again.
• Mai Minghe spotted a large medical imaging screen in the small room and suspected it might be her passage out of the Nest.
• With Jonah unable to answer further and the stalemate becoming dangerous, Mai Minghe let go of the door and ran toward the screen.