Chapter Summaries

The author recounted repeated flight cancellations and delays that left them stranded overnight in a miserable hotel while traveling from Shanghai to Guangdong. They were heading back to the airport, but still had to return to Shanghai on the eighth to finish their errand.

• The author's flight from Shanghai was canceled because of severe weather in Guangdong, so they spent two hours changing it to a late flight from Hongqiao Airport.
• The replacement flight was delayed until five in the morning, and the author changed it again to an eleven o'clock flight.
• The author checked into a cheap hotel near the airport, found the bed painfully lumpy, and slept wrapped in a quilt for padding.
• The author heard loud hallway and furniture noises during the night, then prepared to haul their luggage back to the airport.
• The author expected to land a little after two that afternoon and said they would have to return to Shanghai on the eighth to finish their business.

Jin Xueli survived after the copied version of herself died from a mirrored throat wound, then explored the candle Phantasm and discovered it displayed a person's history but not the future. She lit the candle at its base to test whether she could erase the events that led to her harasser Anthony, leaving the outcome unknown.

• Jin Xueli recalled how Vulture copied her appearance and transferred its throat wound to her, leaving her to die in the exhibition hall.
• Jin Xueli regained consciousness and found Vulture dead after its own injury had been copied onto it.
• Jin Xueli bound her neck, removed the hunting knife, and stitched the wound herself before passing out and waking again.
• Jin Xueli touched the candle and learned that it displayed dates from her birth through the present, with no future shown.
• Jin Xueli located the date she first encountered Anthony, found the candle's ignition switch, and lit the flame beneath it.

Jin Xueli used the phantasm Candle Tears to alter the night she first met Anthony, hoping to prevent their encounter and the events that followed. She remained in the Nest with her memories intact, but discovered that she had still met Anthony, at a different place.

• Jin Xueli read Candle Tears’ instructions and watched the candle reveal the history surrounding her first meeting with Anthony.
• Jin Xueli pressed her finger against the bar’s back door in the past, preventing Anthony from opening it and leaving her with the impression that they had not met.
• Jin Xueli let Candle Tears solidify and waited for the altered present to take effect.
• Jin Xueli found herself still in the Nest, remembering the original timeline, and realized she had met Anthony at the bar’s front entrance instead.

Jin Xueli used Candle Tears to try to stop her past self from meeting Anthony, but her attempts failed and she instead caused a crash involving Wei Xilai’s convoy. As she began investigating Wei Xilai’s history, the candle’s latest version of events solidified and the corpse in the exhibition hall disappeared.

• Jin Xueli struck, shoved, and endangered the miniature Anthony through Candle Tears, but he survived each attempt and still met her past self.
• Jin Xueli shoved a Mercedes SUV from Wei Xilai’s convoy into the bar’s back entrance, where a wounded bodyguard emerged with a pistol.
• Jin Xueli overheard the bodyguard mention Mr. Wei and realized the convoy might be protecting Wei Xilai, who could be in danger.
• Jin Xueli set Anthony aside and began tracing Wei Xilai’s history with Candle Tears.
• Jin Xueli noticed that the crash-related history had solidified and that the corpse in the exhibition hall had disappeared.

Jin Xueli recalled how she first met Anthony and how he borrowed her European hunting knife, which he never returned. She realized that in the altered version of history, losing the knife had kept her from killing the resident in the Nest—and had therefore saved her life.

• Jin Xueli remembered meeting Anthony after Dylan's SUV crashed into the bar, while Amber watched the bodyguards and tried to learn what was happening.
• Evan arrived to help Dylan, who had crashed while the group was preparing to pick up goods for the boss.
• Jin Xueli went inside with Anthony, began dating him, and later lent him her hunting knife to show a collecting friend.
• Jin Xueli woke on the exhibition hall floor and saw her own back reflected in the enormous candle.
• Jin Xueli understood that Anthony had kept her knife in the changed timeline, preventing her from bringing it into the Nest and stabbing the resident in the throat.

Jin Xueli woke after a second strand of memories replaced the timeline in which she died, leaving her unsure whether she or the copied Jin Xueli was the resident. She read the exhibit description and learned the candle could reverse history but could not attack, then prepared to act against the resident.

• Jin Xueli recalled two conflicting timelines: in one she stabbed the copied resident and died when her own neck split open, while in the other a black SUV crashed and she woke on the gallery floor.
• Jin Xueli hid behind a pillar and reasoned that the other Jin Xueli was likely the resident because it lacked her belongings and had survived the taxi without following its rules.
• Jin Xueli watched the resident adjust the candle, then quietly retrieved a towel from her backpack and hid behind a wooden exhibit.
• Jin Xueli photographed the exhibit description and read that the candle had reversed history by changing the previous timeline, but could not be used to attack.
• Jin Xueli locked her phone and decided to follow her original plan against the resident.

The author apologized for neglecting reader thank-yous since April 23 and listed the readers who had supported the novel with gifts, food, and votes. The author counted twelve children owed and said the final stretch of travel was nearing its end before returning home to write.

• The author noticed the last thank-you had been on April 23 and apologized to readers for being ungrateful.
• The author described traveling to Shanghai as the last stop and said they wanted to stay home and write afterward.
• The author thanked Bohemia's Xiang, Gunsmith Rousseau, and b111111111 for their support, counting children owed.
• The author thanked readers who provided food, drinks, desserts, dinner, and an opening-day flower basket.
• The author thanked more readers by name and expressed gratitude to everyone who cast monthly votes.
• The author counted twelve children owed and joked about lining them up as the twelve zodiac animals.

Jin Xueli fought the resident that had copied her appearance, using its mismatched clothing and her own memories to unsettle it before she realized its speech revealed its attack pattern. She pinned the resident and forced a towel into its mouth, leaving it unable to speak clearly.

• The resident attacked Jin Xueli with a fire axe, and she dodged its blows while kicking its ankle and using a sock to distract it.
• Jin Xueli challenged the resident to compare its clothes and shoes with her memories, but it insisted that its black outfit matched what she wore in the Nest.
• Jin Xueli noticed that she could not remember where her khaki sweatpants came from and suspected that residents smoothed over gaps in their copied memories.
• The resident approached and spoke about residents being impossible to kill and about Jin Xueli's copied form having a time limit.
• Jin Xueli ducked the axe, tackled the resident, and stuffed a towel into its mouth to stop it speaking.
• Jin Xueli told the muffled resident that she understood its attack pattern and knew it was a resident.

Jin Xueli realized the other Jin Xueli attacked through words that exploited her self-doubt, then argued that her opponent was the resident because it knew a rumor she did not. The resident still attacked her with a Fire Axe, and the chapter ended as it struck her shoulder while she fled toward the giant candle.

• Jin Xueli concluded that the resident used verbal attacks to turn her self-doubt into reality and gradually push her out of the identity of Jin Xueli.
• Jin Xueli questioned the resident’s claim that residents had a time limit, saying the real Jin Xueli would not know that rumor.
• The resident claimed it had heard the rumor on the radio, and Jin Xueli reasoned that she lacked the information because the other Jin Xueli was the copy.
• Jin Xueli reminded the resident that she had died once, but the resident doubted that residents were truly impossible to kill and insisted it would become the real Jin Xueli by killing her.
• The resident grabbed the Fire Axe and chased Jin Xueli, who ran barefoot toward the giant candle.
• Jin Xueli slowed as she realized the candle’s melted section might connect to a moment six months earlier, and the resident’s axe struck her shoulder.

Jin Xueli lay dying after the resident struck her with a Fire Axe, but she changed the Candle Tears’ timeline to prevent the resident from copying her. The chapter ended with one Jin Xueli due to wake in the Museum of Modern Art, without knowing whether she was herself or the resident.

• The resident accused Jin Xueli of being the copy and prepared to kill her with the Fire Axe.
• Jin Xueli argued that the memory taken in the taxi had been about buying her pants, making the resident pause to consider her claim.
• Jin Xueli secretly adjusted the Candle Tears’ timeline while the resident distracted her by explaining why it could kill her.
• Jin Xueli used the Candle Tears to replay her earlier command, “Get lost!”, and prevent the resident from copying her at the hopscotch.
• Jin Xueli pushed her tiny past self into the car, erasing the history of the copy and leaving only one Jin Xueli to awaken in the museum.

Chai Si raced to Brublan Community College Station with Huang Li, who detected the approaching Phantasm as he escaped the police and prepared to cross the tracks. The chapter ended as the train carrying the Phantasm bore down on him.

• Chai Si had Huang Li bind her wrists and warned her to watch for the Phantasm as he drove toward the subway station.
• Chai Si leaped from the moving car near Brublan Community College Station, and Huang Li shouted that the Phantasm was approaching on the next train.
• Chai Si activated a Phantasm that made surveillance footage show him as a goat-headed figure, then waited on the platform while police entered the station.
• Chai Si jumped onto the tracks as the police ordered passengers to stay put and ran toward the opposite platform.
• The train carrying the Phantasm burst from the tunnel and hurtled toward Chai Si as he lunged for the platform.

Chai Si searched an empty subway train for the fourth Phantasm from Wei Xilai’s collection, rumored to create rumors. When a driver mistook him for the Subway Serial Killer from local rumors, Chai Si realized he had found the Phantasm.

• Chai Si escaped the police by boarding an empty train and began searching its carriages for Wei Xilai’s Phantasms.
• Chai Si recalled Caironan’s descriptions of the four Phantasms, including one rumored to create rumors.
• Chai Si searched beneath the seats and through the train, but the train stopped in a subterranean track area instead of returning to the platform.
• A subway driver approached Chai Si and begged him to spare his family, believing Chai Si was the Subway Serial Killer.
• Chai Si recognized that the driver’s belief had revealed the rumor-creating Phantasm.

Chai Si captured the subway driver who carried Evan’s Phantasm and tried to learn how it had been attached to him. The driver’s account of a subway serial killer turned out to come from a Netflix crime drama, leaving Chai Si with more questions about the Phantasm.

• Chai Si realized Evan had entrusted the Phantasm to an unrelated subway driver because the man would be easier to find than a particular train.
• Chai Si caught the fleeing driver and questioned him, but the driver knew nothing about the Nest or the Phantasm.
• Chai Si asked the driver about the subway serial killer rumor, and the driver described a woman found dead and a later assault.
• The driver added details about a female detective and a male criminology consultant investigating the crimes.
• Chai Si logged into the driver’s Netflix account and recognized the supposed investigation as the plot of a crime drama the driver had watched.

The author returned home exhausted from a long trip and found the apartment covered in cat litter dust, with forgotten laundry stinking up the place. After cleaning, the author discovered the laptop display was failing and could only type using a blurry external monitor, leaving the chapter’s completion uncertain.

• The author returned home after a tiring journey involving flights, trains, subways, luggage, and stairs.
• The author found cat litter dust throughout the apartment after using ordinary litter while away.
• The author cleaned the apartment and discovered foul-smelling clothes left in the washing machine before the trip.
• The author found that the laptop screen repeatedly went black and relied on a blurry external e-ink monitor to type.
• The author reported writing only 1,020 characters after several hours and said the chapter would be posted once finished.

Chai Si realized the subway driver had spread a rumor by combining fragments of information and tried to seize the rumor Phantasm from him. As the Phantasm spoke of a Pathway to the human world, a live wire attacked Chai Si and something enormous began pressing through the subway window.

• Chai Si deduced that the driver had turned scattered information into a rumor about a Subway Serial Killer.
• Chai Si searched the driver's mouth for the Phantasm, found nothing, and dragged him through the subway car to question him.
• The driver struggled, and Chai Si struck his ankle and belly with his baton before carrying him onward.
• Chai Si noticed the driver could not speak normally and realized a voice was coming from beneath his cheek.
• A loose live wire attacked Chai Si as the voice spoke of a Pathway to the Nest and then to the human world.
• Chai Si ordered the voice to quiet down and saw a pitch-black subway window bow inward under pressure from something huge.

Chai Si survived the loose wire when the driver took the shock, then deduced how the Phantasm called Rumor and the resident behind the bus window operated. As the resident began forcing its way through, Chai Si warned Rumor to send it back, revealing that he had no Pathway but had encountered residents before.

• Chai Si avoided the electric shock when the driver stepped onto the wire and was electrocuted instead.
• Chai Si struck the bulging black window with a T-bar, but it bent inward without breaking.
• Chai Si explained that Rumor relied on real-world details to create threats and had summoned the resident to hide in the Nest.
• The resident began tearing open the window while Rumor weakly called for help.
• Chai Si warned Rumor to send the resident back, then revealed that he had no Pathway and hated residents capable of entering the human world.

Chai Si remembered dying in a car accident at age five, then woke in the subway car as the resident spoke of memories in which he could die. The resident pulled him into his second dangerous memory: the day his mother returned from the Nest.

• Chai Si recalled waiting in the car while his mother worked, then the truck crash that killed him at age five.
• Chai Si woke on the subway floor beside the shattered window and realized the resident had entered the car.
• The resident told the driver that memories in which he could die had three instances, and Chai Si urged the driver to wake up and not believe it.
• The resident turned toward Chai Si, sending him into darkness and then into his second memory, six days after the accident, when his mother returned from the Nest.

After Chai Si’s mother vanished in a car accident, she returned home injured and terrified, with a rope tied around her waist. Chai Si saw the resident holding the other end, and years later the resident’s words resurfaced as Chai Si beat a traitor, leaving the threat of his mother’s return unresolved.

• After Chai Si’s mother disappeared in the crash, he was discharged with a broken arm and stayed with his great-aunt.
• On the sixth night, Chai Si saw his bloodied mother walking home and ran outside to meet her.
• His mother collapsed and told Chai Si to call an ambulance, but he felt a thin rope wrapped around her waist.
• Chai Si followed the rope and saw a huge black figure holding its other end before his mother shouted for him to run.
• Years later, the resident’s words came back to Chai Si during an interrogation, and he beat the traitor into a bloody mass.
• The resident said it entered the human world by finding a dog to leash and claimed Chai Si had never escaped it.

Chai Si relived the night a resident attacked him and his mother, learning that the creature had used his Pathway to reach the human world and offered his mother a cruel choice. Back in the subway car, Chai Si resolved to drive the resident back into the Nest by cutting off its route.

• The resident explained that Chai Si’s car accident and his mother’s decision to go home had created an ironic route into the human world.
• The resident told Chai Si’s mother that cutting the rope at her waist would sever its Pathway, but said it would kill Chai Si either way.
• Chai Si remembered that he survived the attack, while Caironan covered his eyes and his mother told him to go with him.
• Chai Si returned to awareness in the subway car, sharpened his senses, and located the resident and the driver.
• Chai Si realized that sending the resident back into the Nest required cutting off the route by which it had arrived.

Chai Si defeated the resident by exploiting its weaknesses and forced the subway driver to reveal how Evan had passed the Rumor Phantasm to him. After completing the spoken exchange that transferred the Rumor to Chai Si, he escaped the subway station without being recognized by police.

• Chai Si avoided looking at the resident, grabbed it, and hurled it through the carriage window.
• Chai Si threatened to injure the subway driver, making the resident revoke its invitation to “Memory Kill” and disappear.
• The driver told Chai Si that a masked man had asked him to read a message, and Chai Si realized the man had been Evan.
• Chai Si made the driver say, “I have a rumor to tell you,” then replied, “I heard a rumor,” completing the exchange and taking the Rumor Phantasm.
• Chai Si gave the driver money, changed his appearance, and left the station after misleading the police officer who stopped him.