Chapter Summaries

Xia Bozhou suspected Qingmu of defrauding his father after learning that Xia Wenyuan had transferred a billion to a secretive foundation. When Qingmu proposed taking Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia to meet someone important, Xia Bozhou demanded proof that he could guarantee their safety.

• Xia Bozhou investigated the Third Space Foundation and concluded that Qingmu might be exploiting Xia Wenyuan.
• Xia Bozhou returned to Wuzhong and challenged Qingmu while Wu Lixia asked for an explanation the family could trust.
• Qingmu said he had arranged a meeting with someone Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia would regret not meeting, but withheld the person's identity for their safety.
• Xia Bozhou dismissed Qingmu's proposal as a possible investment scam and asked what guarantee Qingmu could offer for their safety.

Qingmu tried to convince Xia Bozhou that he could protect Xia Wenyuan without the extensive security detail the Xia Family considered necessary. He accepted Xia Bozhou’s challenge to prove himself, leaving the contest’s outcome undecided as they prepared to judge it themselves.

• Xia Bozhou rejected Qingmu’s promise to stake his life on Xia Wenyuan’s safety and had Xiao Wang describe his security arrangements.
• Xia Bozhou explained that even his lowest security level involved multiple vehicles and dozens of personnel, and challenged Qingmu’s ability to protect Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia alone.
• Qingmu asked how many people Xia Bozhou had brought to the estate, then proposed that they surround him so he could demonstrate his ability.
• Xia Bozhou offered money if Qingmu won and demanded that Qingmu leave the family forever if he lost.
• Qingmu accepted the stakes and let Xia Bozhou decide whether he had won or lost.

Qingmu faced Xia Bozhou’s bodyguards to prove he could protect Xia Wenyuan, while Xia Bozhou watched as judge. Qingmu seemingly froze the guards and reached Xia Bozhou, leaving him under immense pressure as cigarette ash fell onto his shirt.

• Xia Bozhou ordered Xiao Wang to bring in the bodyguards and protect the hall, while Qingmu insisted the test could happen there and made damage count as his loss.
• Xiao Wang arranged the dozen or so bodyguards in three defensive lines as Xia Wenyuan and Li Wei watched from the second-floor corridor.
• At Xia Bozhou’s urging, Qingmu strolled through the living room, straightening one guard’s collar and smoothing another’s hair while they remained motionless.
• When Xiao Wang lunged to stop him, he vanished into a vision of the Terracotta Army and believed he had become a warrior guarding the First Emperor.
• Qingmu appeared before Xia Bozhou, who felt crushed by his presence, and cigarette ash dropped onto Xia Bozhou’s white shirt.

Qingmu demonstrated his uncanny ability to Xia Bozhou, who struggled to determine whether the encounters were illusions before finally declaring Qingmu the winner. Xia Wenyuan supported the decision and reaffirmed Xia Bozhou’s need to uphold the Xia Family’s principles.

• Xia Bozhou dismissed Qingmu’s first display as a trick, so Qingmu repeated it while Xia Bozhou watched cigarette burns appear on his shirt.
• Xia Bozhou admitted Qingmu was impressive but remained unsure that he could entrust Xia Wenyuan’s safety to him.
• Xia Wenyuan came downstairs, ordered Xia Bozhou to honor the agreed result, and warned him that abandoning integrity would disqualify him from leading the family.
• Qingmu revealed that Xia Bozhou’s subconscious already trusted him, and Xia Bozhou saw his shirt was pristine before declaring Qingmu the winner.

Qingmu arranged a secret meeting between Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia and took elaborate precautions to shake off anyone tracking them. As they neared West Mountain, Qingmu revealed that the person they were going to meet was Xia Xiaoxiao.

• Qingmu arranged for Huang Ziqiang to close the West Mountain hot spring resort and gave Hou Biao control of the grounds.
• Qingmu brought Xia Xiaoxiao to the resort, then drove to collect Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia without bringing Li Wei.
• At a remote parking lot, Hou Biao detected a tracking device on Xia Wenyuan's wheelchair, and Qingmu switched vehicles while a decoy headed toward the city.
• Hou Biao directed the decoy car through the city and sent other vehicles after it while Qingmu continued toward West Mountain with Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia.
• Xia Wenyuan guessed they were going to meet Mr. Wolf, but Qingmu told him that the person they were meeting was Xia Xiaoxiao.

Qingmu brought Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia to the resort, where they reunited with their daughter, Xia Xiaoxiao, after five years and met their granddaughter, Meimei. As Xia Xiaoxiao spoke privately with her parents, Qingmu took Meimei to the mountain, where she worried that her mother planned to leave her with her grandparents.

• Qingmu brought Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia to the resort, where Xia Xiaoxiao greeted them with Meimei.
• Wu Lixia wept with joy as Xia Xiaoxiao reunited with her parents, and Meimei greeted her grandparents.
• Qingmu took Meimei to the mountain while Xia Xiaoxiao went inside with her parents to talk.
• Meimei asked Qingmu why her mother had cried and worried that Xia Xiaoxiao no longer wanted her.
• Qingmu took Meimei to the kitchen, where Bi Shenghua cooked for the family reunion and Crow joked with her.

Qingmu and Bi Shenghua comforted Meimei and accepted her request to become her godparents. In Meimei’s dream, Qingmu and Boss Coal discovered that she knew she was dreaming, while her father had forbidden her from revealing her parents’ names or appearances.

• Bi Shenghua reassured Meimei that her parents still loved her and prepared food for her and Boss Coal.
• Meimei called Boss Coal Uncle Crow and asked Bi Shenghua to be her godmother; Qingmu agreed, and Bi Shenghua happily accepted.
• After Meimei fell asleep in Bi Shenghua’s arms, Qingmu sensed a mental fluctuation and entered her dream with Boss Coal.
• Meimei showed Qingmu the beach where she played and the hidden stone houses she called home.
• Meimei told Qingmu that her father would not let her reveal her parents’ names or appearances, and said she knew she was dreaming because Bi Shenghua was holding her as she slept.

Qingmu discovered that Meimei was a natural lucid dreamer with remarkable control over her dream, and she led him to a secret wooden house where she could see her parents. When Qingmu crossed the doorway, he found only an inexplicable void.

• Qingmu explained that Meimei had preserved traces of her earlier dream and learned she was a natural lucid dreamer.
• Meimei showed Qingmu how she transformed a flower into a leaf and then a cloud while explaining how Situ hid his appearance in her dreams.
• Meimei revealed that Situ had built a secret wooden house where she could see him, and said he had agreed she could see her mother there too.
• Qingmu found that his mental strength could not perceive the house’s interior, while Crow flew through without seeing anything.
• Meimei invited Qingmu and Crow inside, and Qingmu stepped through the doorway into complete nothingness.

Qingmu helped Xia Chujue settle into the Xia family, gave her a formal name, and watched his studio become a lively daycare before peace returned. As Qingmu reflected on the past two months, he sensed that a great unseen conflict was approaching.

• Meimei told Qingmu she had seen herself as a butterfly in the mirror, while Qingmu kept to himself that he had seen no reflection of his own.
• Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia welcomed Meimei as their granddaughter, and Qingmu became her godfather with Bi Shenghua as her godmother.
• At Xia Wenyuan's suggestion, Qingmu named Meimei Xia Chujue, and she stayed with Bi Shenghua before joining the Xia family.
• Qingmu's studio became a daycare for Xia Chujue, Xia Tian, and Yu Meiren, while Hu Xing escorted them and the children teased Qingmu about whom he would marry.
• After the children started school and the new bar neared completion, Qingmu enjoyed a quiet spell and noted that danger and a great war were brewing beneath the calm.
• Crow told Qingmu that his increasingly sharp mind was a cause for celebration.

A starving stray cat searched for food near a restaurant while two workers discussed the online Cat-Killing Order and planned to poison cats. After the cat spared a rat and stole half a fish, a drunken man spotted it and the crowd chased it into the wasteland.

• A cat watched the rubbish bins from a wall as stray dogs scavenged nearby.
• Two restaurant workers discussed the five-thousand-per-cat Cat-Killing Order and considered scattering poison to catch strays.
• The cat caught a fat rat but released it, feeling kinship with another creature hunted in the city.
• After the workers left, the cat stole half a sea bass from the rubbish and tried to escape unseen.
• A drunken man spotted the cat and shouted; the crowd surged after it as it fled over the wall into the wasteland.

The leaked discovery that Toxoplasma was the source of the Gray Brain Virus sparked worldwide rumors, panic, and a brutal campaign against cats. Shi Dazhuang brought a distraught Yu Meiren to Qingmu after her ginger kitten had been missing for more than a week.

• Scientists at a Third Space Foundation laboratory found that certain frequencies made Toxoplasma perform a fatal “Dance of Death,” and Mei Yiqiu concluded that one frequency could distinguish invading consciousnesses from human consciousness.
• Details about the Gray Brain Virus leaked online, and government denials collapsed after evidence surfaced, including records alleging that Mr. Lester had died of the virus and a video of his final words.
• Mei Yiqiu and the others’ discovery that Toxoplasma caused the virus was made public, triggering a global panic as people bought up medicines and feared cats.
• A widely reposted “Cat-Killing Order” offered fifty dollars for every cat killed, and the campaign spread despite protests and government bans.
• Shi Dazhuang brought Yu Meiren to Qingmu, where she mourned her ginger kitten, missing for more than a week.

Yu Meiren’s beloved cat Hanran went missing after a crowd broke into Shi Dazhuang’s home during the Cat-Killing Order. As Yu Meiren mourned the loss, Crow flew off to search for Hanran in Wuzhong.

• Yu Meiren grew close to the once-sick orange cat, named it Hanran, and relied on it for comfort while living in Wuzhong.
• During the Cat-Killing Order, neighbors pressured Shi Dazhuang to get rid of Hanran, but he defended the cat and refused to send it away.
• While Shi Dazhuang worked overtime, a crowd tricked Yu Meiren into opening the door and rushed inside to seize Hanran.
• Yu Meiren shouted for Hanran to run, and the cat escaped the apartment as the crowd chased after it.
• Shi Dazhuang had several ringleaders detained, but Hanran did not return after seven days, so he brought Yu Meiren to Qingmu.
• After Yu Meiren broke down in tears, Crow promised to search for Hanran and flew out through the window.

Mei Yiqiu explained why the Cat-Killing Order had disrupted the Third Space Foundation’s research and argued that cats could sense the threat to their species. He sent Mei Ziqing to find a place to keep more cats so they could continue studying Toxoplasma.

• Mei Yiqiu reflected on the invaders’ failure to openly target the Third Space Foundation and on how the Cat-Killing Order had hindered its research.
• Mei Ziqing brought Mei Yiqiu a cat and questioned whether keeping it in the office was safe.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that cats were definitive hosts for Toxoplasma and that human infection mainly came from eating contaminated or undercooked food.
• Mei Yiqiu described the non-uniqueness of the universe and suggested that a species’ members could sense a danger threatening their kind.
• Mei Yiqiu handed the cat to Mei Ziqing and asked her to consult Qingmu about finding a place to keep more cats.

Qingmu attended a secret Third Space Foundation China meeting with Mei Ziqing, where Mei Yiqiu explained the foundation’s recent growth and raised the issue of leaked information about the Gray Brain Virus. The meeting ended with members debating whether a traitor inside the foundation had exposed the secrets.

• Mei Ziqing brought Qingmu to the Third Space Foundation’s China-region meeting and explained that the scientists present had passed the Lester Signature.
• Mei Yiqiu vouched for Mei Ziqing and introduced Qingmu as his consultant after members questioned their right to attend.
• Mei Yiqiu had Mei Ziqing disconnect the network, activate electromagnetic shielding, and switch off the mains power before the meeting continued.
• Mei Yiqiu reviewed the foundation’s funding and research progress, noting that its membership had reached two hundred with Mei Ziqing and Qingmu included.
• Mei Yiqiu identified the online revelations and Cat-Killing Order as issues for discussion, and members argued that an insider must have leaked details about the Gray Brain Virus.

Mei Yiqiu and the foundation’s scientists debated who had leaked their classified information and what the leaker hoped to achieve. Mei Yiqiu proposed that a third party was disrupting both the foundation’s plans and the aliens’, then presented a chip linked to Qingmu and Laboratory No. 19 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

• The foundation’s members argued over whether an insider had leaked information for money, under coercion, or after being invaded.
• Mei Yiqiu asked the scientists to consider the leaker’s objective, and they debated how the Gray Brain Virus, Lester’s last words, toxoplasma, and the Cat-Killing Order fit together.
• Mei Ziqing brought Mei Yiqiu his pipe and cigarettes, then told Qingmu that the professor thought scientists playing politics were heading down a dead end.
• Mei Yiqiu concluded that the leaker was probably neither an insider nor an alien, and suggested a third party had disrupted both sides.
• Mei Yiqiu showed the scientists a chip that Qingmu had obtained and asked whether they knew of Laboratory No. 19 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
• Qingmu recognized that Mei Yiqiu was pointing to Laboratory No. 19 as the third party.

Mei Yiqiu showed the scientists a chip that appeared technologically obsolete but contained pathways far ahead of modern biochip research, arguing it was evidence that the internet had its own intelligence. The scientists were left in despair over the possibility that the past twenty years of technological progress had been a hoax, while Qingmu began questioning what parts of history and reality were true.

• Mei Yiqiu explained how he had obtained the chip and how it had nearly been dismantled at the Nanomaterials Research Institute.
• Mei Yiqiu described the chip’s sixty-two pathways, which corresponded to the spinal nerves and could receive and transmit both electrical and mechanical signals.
• Mei Yiqiu told the scientists that the chip combined outdated electronic technology with biochip technology decades ahead of its time.
• A scientist suggested that either the chip was a hoax or the past twenty years of development had been a hoax, and the room fell silent.
• Qingmu connected the scientists’ doubts to his memories of Southern Yunnan and wondered whether World War II and recent history could have been dreams.
• Mei Yiqiu said Laboratory No. 19 no longer existed and explained that he had brought the chip to convince them why he had isolated the meeting from outside signals.

Mei Yiqiu explained why he had staged the Foundation meeting and proposed testing whether a local network could develop intelligence. He and Qingmu considered whether the conscious Internet might help humanity against the alien invaders, and Qingmu asked whether it could dream.

• Mei Yiqiu told Qingmu that the Foundation’s scientists were poorly equipped for political struggles, so he had used the meeting and Laboratory No. 19’s chip to make them face despair and follow the organization’s direction.
• Qingmu confirmed that the meeting’s attendees were trustworthy, and Mei Yiqiu concluded that neither the Foundation nor the invaders were behind the recent trouble.
• Mei Yiqiu proposed creating a Foundation network using quantum satellite services to protect internal communications, then building a smaller network linking several laboratory-scale sites.
• Mei Yiqiu suggested that a sufficiently large local network might possess intelligence and said he planned to test it with a modified Turing test.
• Mei Yiqiu considered whether the conscious Internet could become an ally against the aliens, and Qingmu asked whether it could dream, leaving Mei Yiqiu struck by the question.

A starving stray cat struggled through a storm to find food, but collapsed from cold and exhaustion beside a garbage bin. Blind Old Woman found it alive and took it home to warm and care for it.

• The cat left the riverbank reeds and slipped into a residential community to rummage through its garbage bins.
• The cat ate scraps but grew weaker in the cold rain and fell from the bin while reaching for a fish tail.
• Blind Old Woman found the cat in a puddle and considered killing it for a reward under the Cat-Killing Order.
• Blind Old Woman remembered a cat she had once kept, spared the stray, and carried it home to warm it by the fire.

The Blind Old Woman protected her elderly cat from neighbors and children who wanted to kill it, but her son stole it after she fainted. In the pouring rain, she carried a small creature home in a sack, while Crow returned to Ruhua Bar after searching for someone near the river.

• The Blind Old Woman's son and daughter separately tried to take her cat, then joined the neighbors in arguing over who would kill it during the Cat-Killing Order.
• Her son snatched the cat and ran, leaving the Blind Old Woman to faint and spend the night on the floor.
• The Blind Old Woman walked home through the rain carrying a creature in a woven sack, hoping it could survive.
• Crow returned to Ruhua Bar, where Bi Shenghua dried his feathers and gave him the pork knuckle he had asked for.
• Crow told Bi Shenghua that he had searched the outer city river and nearby rubbish bins for someone, but had not found him.

Professor Mei Yiqiu prepared a large local network for a Turing Test, explaining to Qingmu that the experiment aimed to see whether the network itself could behave like an intelligent mind. The students began testing a variety of software, and Mei Yiqiu said that unusual answers could indicate the network was issuing higher-level instructions.

• Mei Yiqiu connected computers and servers across four buildings and recruited three thousand students to populate and use the network.
• Qingmu visited the monitoring room with Mei Yiqiu and learned that the team could observe the network but could not control its computers.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that the test had no time limit because a conscious machine might hide its intelligence from humans.
• Mei Yiqiu told Qingmu that the experiment focused not on individual programs but on the network's hardware structure and information flow.
• Mei Ziqing reported that the students had downloaded more than twenty programs to test, including chatbots and commercial assistants.
• Mei Yiqiu said that anomalies in the test results might show the network was sending higher-level instructions to its computers.