Recaps

Ma Fuquan emptied Hu Xing’s stolen gun at the secret room, then suffered a terrifying vision and returned with an axe. He killed his mother while trying to break through the iron door, leaving Hu Xing troubled by the old woman’s fate and the apparent retribution.

• Ma Fuquan entered the basement and fired through the barred door until his gun ran out of ammunition.
• Qingmu used an unseen trick that made Ma Fuquan believe he was trapped in a horrifying cave surrounded by danger.
• Ma Fuquan returned with an axe and hacked at the iron door while his mother tried to stop him.
• Ma Fuquan struck his mother in the head with the axe, killing her, then broke the lock and attacked the iron cage.
• Ma Fuqing knelt beside their mother while Qingmu and Hu Xing looked on, and Hu Xing reflected uneasily on the old woman’s death.

Qingmu exposed the hidden evidence behind a murder case while Deputy Captain Gao suffered a bizarre vision after smoking Qingmu’s cigarette. The recovered head and saw forced Gao to reconsider his team’s concluded case.

• Deputy Captain Gao insulted Qingmu and implied Hu Xing was protecting him because of a personal relationship.
• Qingmu gave Gao a Paramount cigarette, and Gao hallucinated a cigarette tree and tobacco-flavored grass after trying to bury the still-burning butt.
• Shi Dazhuang asked Gao to revisit his team’s concluded case, but Gao said it could not be overturned without the victim’s head and the murder weapon.
• Qingmu pointed to the hole Gao had dug, and auxiliary officers unearthed a black plastic bag containing a human head and a rusty saw.
• Gao recognized the rotten head’s location and vomited after realizing he had eaten grass and dirt from above it.

After helping Shi Dazhuang and Hu Xing solve a baffling case, Qingmu discussed the limits of justice and asked them to investigate Mo Yu’s sleepwalking and a man named Situ. The chapter ended with Hu Xing agreeing to help and jokingly arguing with Qingmu about their proposed detective duo.

• Shi Dazhuang reported the situation to the municipal bureau and brought Qingmu back to give a statement.
• Shi Dazhuang, Hu Xing, and Qingmu shared dinner, where Shi Dazhuang praised Hu Xing for solving the case despite her losing her gun.
• Hu Xing worried that the real killer’s capture would allow the vile Yang Baoguo to be released, while Shi Dazhuang insisted they must follow the law.
• Qingmu asked whether Ma Fuqing would be punished, and Shi Dazhuang said his sentence would depend on the court and might not be heavy.
• Qingmu told Shi Dazhuang and Hu Xing about Mo Yu’s sleepwalking and asked them to look into Situ and check on the girls near the conservatory.
• Hu Xing agreed to investigate, then bickered with Qingmu after he suggested they call themselves the Monster Duo.

Qingmu returned to Ruhua Bar, where Mo Yu had recovered enough to work and decided to stay through the summer, though he remained uneasy about her sudden recovery. After Hu Xing found no trace of Situ, Qingmu set the mystery aside and went to visit Professor Mei Yiqiu, who had found leads on the symbol of two connected inverted triangles.

• Qingmu found Mo Yu recovered and working at Ruhua Bar, and learned she planned to stay until school started.
• Qingmu told Xiao Qi that some memories were better forgotten and chose not to help Mo Yu recover hers.
• Qingmu noticed customers lingering in a dark corner, then learned Hu Xing had found no useful information about Situ.
• Qingmu decided to stop probing Mo Yu's memories and visit Professor Mei Yiqiu about the two connected inverted triangles.
• Professor Mei Yiqiu had found leads on the symbol and welcomed Qingmu to his laboratory.

Professor Mei Yiqiu told Qingmu about an underwater pyramid in the South Pacific that matched Egypt’s Great Pyramid and stood nearly opposite it on Earth. He showed Qingmu an ancient hourglass and a stone carving that matched the strange design Qingmu had sent him, leaving Qingmu to recognize it as the symbol drawn by the fragrant woman.

• Mei Yiqiu showed Qingmu photographs of an underwater inverted pyramid discovered near the South Pacific ghost islands.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that the underwater pyramid matched the Great Pyramid in structure and dimensions, and that the two sites may once have stood at opposite ends of an Earth diameter.
• Qingmu suggested aliens had built the pyramids, but Mei Yiqiu said he cared more about their purpose and the mystery of their mirrored placement.
• Mei Yiqiu showed Qingmu a reconstruction of a crystal hourglass found on the seabed and said its design appeared among underwater carvings.
• Mei Yiqiu showed Qingmu a carving of two joined triangles crossed by a line, and Qingmu recognized it as the design drawn by the fragrant woman.

Mei Yiqiu explained his theory that Egypt’s pyramids and an inverted pyramid near the Tubuai Islands formed a mirror-image hourglass intended to reverse time and restore the pharaohs. Qingmu left skeptical, while Mei Yiqiu suggested the paired structures might connect real space to a dreamlike one.

• Mei Yiqiu showed Qingmu that scans had revealed matching vertical shafts and former openings in the Egyptian and underwater pyramids.
• Qingmu guessed that the pharaohs hoped to travel from one side of the earth to the other, and Mei Yiqiu encouraged him to think further.
• Mei Yiqiu used an hourglass and the two pyramid drawings to propose that the pyramids represented time and space, and that their reversal could bring the pharaohs back to life.
• Mei Yiqiu described speculative theories about the pyramids, the Sahara’s formation, and the submerged continent, while Mei Ziqing reacted with alarm.
• Qingmu dismissed the idea as a dream, but Mei Yiqiu argued that dreams might connect to real space and imagined the two spaces turning over.

Professor Mei Yiqiu explained that the symbol represented two spaces joined through a dimensionless point, with consciousness linking reality and dreams while time and matter cycled between spaces. He connected the theory to an ancient group called The Awake People, who taught others to distinguish dreams from reality, leaving Qingmu imagining the world beyond the symbol.

• Professor Mei Yiqiu drew two spaces joined at a point and explained that matter could not pass between them, but the spaces could still affect each other.
• Mei Yiqiu proposed that consciousness could cross the point, making dreams another space that people partly inhabited while asleep.
• Professor Mei Yiqiu compared the symbol to an hourglass and said that time, matter, and space could cycle between connected worlds, while death marked the collapse of a person's space.
• Mei Ziqing suggested that the Mirror Pyramid reflected this cycle, and Professor Mei Yiqiu said the idea remained a hypothesis pending more evidence from Copenhagen.
• Qingmu asked about a dream-related alliance and dream mentors, and Professor Mei Yiqiu instead recalled The Awake People, who met in dreams to teach others to distinguish dreams from reality.
• Qingmu glimpsed a new world through the haze and imagined his consciousness passing through the symbol's point of connection.

Qingmu accepted a job referral from Mei Yiqiu while the professor prepared to leave for Copenhagen, then wandered through the streets thinking about a strange woman and a symbol of two triangles. He left a convenience store after mocking a boastful customer who claimed to be 36D.

• Mei Yiqiu sent Qingmu to look into a job for a wealthy client while he attended an academic conference in Copenhagen.
• Mei Ziqing asked Qingmu to consider moving his studio into Mei Yiqiu's laboratory, but Qingmu preferred the livelier old streets of Liuying Lane.
• Qingmu walked through town while recalling the two-triangle symbol and the indistinct woman who had said he appeared in her dreams.
• A convenience-store proprietress recognized Qingmu from an earlier incident, while a customer mocked him for haggling over the price of cigarettes.
• Qingmu lit a cigarette with his S.T. Dupont lighter, asked the customer her size, and quipped that her age meant it was her zodiac year before leaving.

Qingmu took Boss Coal to Riverside Park, where he unexpectedly met Meimei and her mother. After Meimei asked him to help find her father, her mother hurried away, and Qingmu later found Boss Coal reciting poetry beside the macaw at the car wash.

• Qingmu walked through Liuying Lane with Boss Coal, who rejected the caged birds and tried to talk to a macaw at a car wash.
• At Riverside Park, Qingmu let Boss Coal fly while he relaxed and put the matter of the two triangles aside.
• Meimei and her mother met Qingmu, and Meimei asked him to help her find her father.
• Meimei's mother scolded her and hurried away with her, leaving Qingmu unsure what had happened.
• When Boss Coal failed to return, Qingmu went looking and found him reciting Shu Ting's poetry beside the macaw.

Qingmu returned to Ruhua Bar and found Bi Shenghua defending Mo Yu from Jiang Deqian, who claimed he had paid to keep her and demanded she leave with him. Bi Shenghua challenged him to a beer-drinking contest, and the contest began with both sides surrounded by supporters.

• Qingmu reluctantly left the car wash with Boss Coal, who chose braised pork knuckle over staying with the macaw.
• Xiao Qi told Qingmu that Jiang Deqian had arrived with thugs, claimed Mo Yu owed him for money he had paid, and agreed to settle the dispute with Bi Shenghua through a drinking contest.
• Qingmu questioned the contest’s unfair stakes, while Jiang Deqian claimed he had paid to keep Mo Yu and boasted that he had burned her with cigarette butts.
• Xiao Qi brought neighborhood supporters to the bar and comforted Mo Yu as Bi Shenghua confronted Jiang Deqian.
• Bi Shenghua set rules requiring them to drink a full case of beer without spilling, using the bathroom, vomiting, or passing out, and demanded Jiang Deqian leave Liuying Lane if he lost.
• Bi Shenghua chugged the first bottle, then Jiang Deqian began drinking after his tattooed companion removed the cap for him.

Bi Shenghua overwhelmed Jiang Deqian in a beer-drinking contest while he tried to force her to surrender. As Jiang Deqian’s bodyguard Hou Biao secretly prepared to make her vomit, a strange man seized his wrist and asked for his amber beads.

• Bi Shenghua drank faster than Jiang Deqian and mocked him for falling behind, while Qingmu watched and realized she could hold far more liquor than he expected.
• After eight bottles, Jiang Deqian became painfully bloated and regretted challenging Bi Shenghua, though he still refused to back down.
• Jiang Deqian recalled how his powerful older brother Jiang Deguan had assigned Hou Biao to watch him after his past scandals and recent trouble over a runaway singer.
• As Bi Shenghua started her ninth bottle, Hou Biao prepared to flick an amber bead at her stomach to make her vomit.
• A bird’s-nest-haired man grabbed Hou Biao’s wrist before he could act and asked him to hand over the amber beads.

Bi Shenghua won the drinking contest against Jiang Deqian, but he refused to accept defeat and ordered his men to wreck the bar. As the fight erupted, Bi Shenghua took Jiang Deqian hostage with a broken bottle while Qingmu remained locked in a struggle with Hou Biao.

• Jiang Deqian vomited after drinking two more bottles, and Bi Shenghua declared that he had lost.
• Jiang Deqian accused Bi Shenghua of cheating, then ordered his men to smash the bar and attack anyone who resisted.
• Xiao Qi and his neighborhood companions fought back against Jiang Deqian's men, and the bar descended into chaos.
• Bi Shenghua noticed Hou Biao holding Qingmu's wrist and warned Qingmu to run, but he stayed put.
• Bi Shenghua smashed a bottle over Jiang Deqian's head, pinned him against a table, and threatened to stab him if anyone moved.

Bi Shenghua and Qingmu's side stopped Jiang Deqian's gang, and the police mediated compensation for the bar's damage. After the fight, Bi Shenghua became ill from drinking and had Qingmu help her to the restroom, where she angrily ordered him out.

• Bi Shenghua held Jiang Deqian at knifepoint until the police arrived and the fighters stopped.
• The police questioned both groups and asked whether Bi Shenghua wanted compensation for the bar's destruction.
• Hou Biao agreed to pay Bi Shenghua 100,000 yuan the next day, with Qingmu accepting responsibility if he failed to pay.
• Bi Shenghua thanked the neighborhood men, while Xiao Qi tended to the injured and Mo Yu remained dazed and silent.
• Bi Shenghua retched and struggled to reach the restroom, so Qingmu supported her and then tried to carry her inside.
• Bi Shenghua cursed at Qingmu and ordered him to get away from her.

Bi Shenghua used the compensation money to reward the helpers and plan renovations while Mo Yu remained withdrawn and Xiao Qi went to comfort her. Qingmu was collected by Li Wei for a wealthy client, while Jiang Deguan ordered an investigation into Qingmu and the Ruhua Bar and told Hou Biao to watch his brother.

• A suited man delivered a hundred thousand in cash to Bi Shenghua, who paid the helpers and Xiao Qi and announced that the Ruhua Bar would close for renovations.
• Bi Shenghua defended Mo Yu against Xiao Qi's judgment, and Xiao Qi went to check on her.
• Li Wei arrived in a Bentley on Professor Mei Yiqiu's behalf and took Qingmu to meet a client.
• Jiang Deguan discussed his financial troubles and Hou Biao's account of the previous night's fight, then ordered Hou Biao to investigate Qingmu and the Ruhua Bar and keep an eye on his brother.

Qingmu arrived at Hu Xing’s family estate and met her wealthy Aunt Xia, who asked him to examine a grandnephew whose behavior had become abnormal. Qingmu suspected the request was only a test of his abilities, and the chapter ended before he saw the boy.

• Li Wei drove Qingmu through a heavily guarded estate and left him waiting in its luxurious hall.
• Hu Xing appeared in a white dress with Aunt Xia, and Qingmu recognized her as Officer Hu.
• Aunt Xia questioned Qingmu about his work, while Hu Xing defended his abilities and recalled his help solving major cases.
• Aunt Xia asked Qingmu to examine her grandnephew, whose behavior had recently become abnormal.
• Qingmu noticed Hu Xing’s gestures and suspected the grandnephew’s case was a test of his abilities.

Qingmu tried to find out why Xia Tian feared his brother Haohao, but the boy was drawn into a horrifying elevator encounter with a ghostly face. The elevator opened on the impossible thirty-third floor, where Xia Tian emerged transformed, with bleeding eyes and fangs.

• Aunt Xia introduced Zhang Juan and Xia Tian to Qingmu, who questioned the silent boy about Haohao.
• When Qingmu mentioned Haohao, Xia Tian panicked and backed into the elevator, and Qingmu followed him inside.
• As the elevator rose beyond the manor’s three floors, its lights went out and Qingmu saw a pale face appear on the ceiling.
• The face called Xia Tian “Big Brother,” accused him of hitting it, then lunged into him as the elevator climbed to the twenty-fifth floor.
• The elevator opened on the thirty-third floor, and Qingmu saw Xia Tian standing with blood streaming from his eyes and fangs protruding from his lips.

Xia Tian fell from a rooftop, believing he had to die to atone for killing his unborn little brother, while Bird's Nest tried to persuade him to get on his crow. Xia Tian agreed to ride and say goodbye to his family, then woke at the manor with Bird's Nest beside him and three women watching.

• Xia Tian stepped off the rooftop and fell past scenes of the building's residents, calling for his mother and encountering the face of the little brother he believed he had killed.
• Bird's Nest offered Xia Tian a ride on his crow and learned that Xia Tian feared his nightly ghostly brother and endured abuse from his second mom.
• Bird's Nest told Xia Tian he needed to grow up to find his mother, and urged him to get on the crow and say goodbye to people who loved him.
• Xia Tian agreed to ride the crow, and Bird's Nest pulled him onto its back as it swept away from the ground into the clouds.
• Xia Tian woke at the manor with Bird's Nest crouched beside him, while Grandma Xia, Sister Xing, and his second mom sat nearby.

Qingmu exposed Zhang Juan’s abuse of Xia Tian and helped Wu Lixia uncover a frightening doll hidden in Zhang Juan’s room. Xia Tian recognized the doll as his dead little brother, leaving Xia Changzheng and the others to confront the disturbing discovery.

• Hu Xing checked Xia Tian’s injured bottom, and Qingmu reassured the frightened boy by telling him about his talking crow.
• Wu Lixia introduced herself as Mrs. Xia, and Qingmu realized she belonged to the powerful Xia Family of the Three Wu.
• Li Wei brought Xia Changzheng to the hall and played a recording of Qingmu questioning Xia Tian; Hu Xing showed Xia Changzheng the boy’s injuries.
• Li Wei revealed that he had found a horrifying doll hidden in Zhang Juan’s cabinet, following Qingmu’s instructions.
• Xia Tian pointed at the doll and called it his little brother, saying that he had killed him and that the doll wanted him to play with it.

Hu Xing exposed Zhang Juan for tormenting Xia Tian, while Qingmu revealed that she had also deceived Xia Changzheng about her pregnancy and helped drain his company. Xia Wenyuan took control of Greenview Real Estate and ordered Xia Changzheng to remain married to Zhang Juan to protect the family’s reputation.

• Hu Xing accused Zhang Juan of frightening Xia Tian with a doll and blaming him for her miscarriage, and Xia Changzheng slapped Zhang Juan when she insulted Wu Lixia.
• Wu Lixia rejected Xia Changzheng’s claim that the abuse might have been a misunderstanding and refused to let him take Xia Tian home.
• Qingmu told Xia Changzheng that Zhang Juan had lost her baby through her own actions and hinted that her affair with the company’s chief accountant had cost him control of his assets.
• Xia Wenyuan arrived in a wheelchair and announced that Xia Changzheng’s older cousin would take over Greenview Real Estate while Xia Changzheng managed the property company.
• Xia Wenyuan ordered Xia Changzheng to stay married to Zhang Juan to avoid public scandal, leaving her to face his anger.

Qingmu helped Xia Tian confront the fear and betrayal that had wounded him, while the Xia Family agreed to support the boy. The chapter ended with Xia Tian burning the doll and showing the first signs of recovery.

• Xia Wenyuan banished Xia Changzheng and Zhang Juan from the Xia Family estate, then welcomed Qingmu and thanked him for helping Xia Tian.
• Qingmu explained that Xia Tian needed care and a chance to face his fears, and he took the boy outside to clear his mind.
• Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia teased Hu Xing about Qingmu as a possible match for her.
• Xia Tian retrieved the doll and went to the backyard, where he burned it beneath a tree while the others watched.
• Xia Tian returned Qingmu's mud-covered lighter and smiled innocently.

Qingmu met Xia Wenyuan in his study and learned that Xia suffered from a rare brain disease and relentless nightmares. Xia described his dream attacker as a shadow that grew stronger and knew everything about him.

• Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan's study, where he saw Picasso's The Dream, and met Peter Stoll, Xia's personal physician.
• Peter explained that Xia had brain gray matter weathering disease, a rare condition that caused progressive fibrosis but had been brought under control in Xia's case.
• Qingmu learned that Xia's nightmares had continued despite consultations with psychologists, and that Xia feared dying if the attacker killed him in a dream.
• Xia told Qingmu that the attacker grew stronger and knew his weaknesses, past, and forgotten memories.
• Xia said the attacker was not a person but a shadow.

Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan’s dream to investigate the nightmare while Hu Xing observed from the study. When Qingmu explained that they were only observers in Xia Wenyuan’s mental world, Hu Xing realized where they were, and the dream collapsed around them.

• Qingmu persuaded Xia Wenyuan to sleep while Peter, Wu Lixia, and Li Wei watched.
• Wu Lixia lit agarwood incense, and Xia Wenyuan soon fell asleep in his wheelchair.
• Hu Xing saw the air distort as Xia Wenyuan’s eyes moved, then found him awake and apparently healthy on the balcony.
• Xia Wenyuan climbed onto the balcony railing, but Qingmu stopped Hu Xing from interfering and explained the rules of another person’s dream.
• Hu Xing realized they were inside Xia Wenyuan’s dream, and the garden and surrounding world collapsed into a black vortex.

Hu Xing struggled through severe sleep paralysis and realized she was inside her grandfather’s dream, where Qingmu helped her wake within it. After Xia Wenyuan jumped from the balcony, Hu Xing began falling into a black hole, and Qingmu told her she would not get out.

• Hu Xing experienced an unusually severe bout of sleep paralysis and forced herself upright, only to find herself in a distorted space.
• A voice told Hu Xing to relax, freeing her from the pressure on her chest and leaving her in a blank, featureless space.
• The voice told Hu Xing to wake up in her dream, and Qingmu appeared and led her to wake within her grandfather’s dream.
• Hu Xing found herself on a balcony beside Qingmu while Xia Wenyuan climbed onto the railing.
• Xia Wenyuan jumped from the balcony, and Hu Xing began falling as Qingmu caught her and told her she would not get out.
• Hu Xing fell toward the ground, which rippled open into an enormous, bottomless black hole.

Hu Xing entered a lucid dream on a beach, where Qingmu explained how mental power shaped dream spaces and warned her against changing them carelessly. He then guided her toward her grandfather’s dream, where she saw her grandfather being dragged into an abyss.

• Hu Xing regained awareness on a beach and met Qingmu, who confirmed she was dreaming.
• Qingmu explained that mental power determined the size of a dream and that Hu Xing’s conscious and subconscious minds were both awake.
• Qingmu demonstrated how memories formed a dream’s structure by building a tower of blocks and pulling one out, causing it to collapse.
• Hu Xing noticed a disturbance at her dream’s boundary and learned that she and her grandfather were dreaming at the same time.
• Qingmu took Hu Xing through the darkness toward her grandfather’s dream, where she saw him being pulled down by a dark shadow.

Hu Xing and Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan’s dream and watched him struggle against a shadow that attacked him across changing scenes. The chapter ended with Xia Wenyuan trapped in a sewer as the shadow crawled toward him and taunted him about his dwindling strength.

• Hu Xing and Qingmu arrived in Xia Wenyuan’s dream, where he labored in the Longji terraces and was denied a meal until he finished his quota.
• As Xia Wenyuan worked alone, his shadow rose up and attacked him, and the terraced mountain collapsed around them.
• Xia Wenyuan and the shadow fought on a city street, where a construction searchlight made the shadow reappear and stomped him into the ground.
• Hu Xing watched the scene shift to a sewer, where Xia Wenyuan fled from the shadow whenever he reached darkness.
• The shadow pursued Xia Wenyuan to a barred sewer exit and warned that he would grow weaker each time he moved.