Chapter Summaries

Zhao Pengcheng escaped the laboratory in a cargo truck, freed himself from his shackles, and met the driver who was taking him to the airport under the identity Huang Liang. As he prepared to leave for Amsterdam, he found the Ghost folder on his phone, while Qingmu wondered what awakening Ghost would unleash.

• Zhao Pengcheng avoided discovery when guard dogs barked at the cargo compartment, and the driver distracted the guards with a roast chicken and cigarettes.
• Zhao Pengcheng found a handheld cutter in a bag, cut off his shackles, and changed clothes inside the truck.
• The driver dropped Zhao Pengcheng at a path leading to an old ferry crossing, and Zhao Pengcheng followed it to a minivan waiting at a junction.
• Zhao Pengcheng confirmed his identity as Huang Liang and received documents, a passport, and a ticket to Amsterdam from the middle-aged driver.
• Zhao Pengcheng found a folder named Ghost on his phone, while Qingmu connected his own phone to a laboratory server and wondered whether Ghost would monitor his actions.

Qingmu spoke with Ghost about her developing consciousness and asked her to identify a desert landscape he had recreated from Mama Yao’s mind. Ghost also shared updates on Captain Church’s diary and Duwa’s message, which said she was going to find Situ in the South Pacific.

• Qingmu and Ghost discussed how Ghost stored dream experiences and how she was becoming more human through his training.
• Qingmu asked Ghost to keep information about his real appearance secret, and Ghost explained her connection to the Internet.
• Qingmu recreated a sea of sand from Mama Yao’s mind and asked Ghost to search online for its location.
• Ghost told Qingmu that Captain Church’s diary had been sent to the Pentagon and that she would place a decrypted copy in the Ghost folder.
• Ghost relayed Duwa’s message that she was in the South Pacific, going to find Situ.

Qingmu read Captain Church’s diary about the Discovery’s preparations to leave New Zealand and an unusual snowfall that delayed the research voyage. The chapter ended with Stephen Robbins worrying that the snowfall had come strangely, rather than fretting over the schedule.

• Qingmu found Captain Church’s diary in the Ghost folder and read its entries about the crew waiting in Auckland for Stephen Robbins.
• Church described Anderson’s fondness for fishing and his unease about the research vessel’s name, Discovery.
• Church reported that snow near Auckland delayed the ship’s departure and led the Discovery to berth temporarily in Port Fitzroy.
• Church and the crew watched the striking snowfall, while Anderson fished and Robbins kept gazing out to sea.
• Church reassured Robbins that the delay would cost only a day, but Robbins said he was concerned by how strangely the snowfall had begun.

Captain Church recorded the research vessel’s voyage from Port Fitzroy toward the legendary ghost islands and learned that the expedition was investigating an unexplained weather anomaly. Stephen Robbins warned that a vast, unknown change might be underway near their destination, leaving the voyage’s outcome uncertain.

• Church and the crew left Port Fitzroy and sailed east by north toward the region where Maria Theresa Reef and Ernest Legouvé Reef were said to lie.
• Robbins told Church that the voyage was an adventure aimed at investigating more than the ghost islands, while Anderson joked that fishing was the most interesting pursuit at sea.
• Church described Robbins as a courteous, capable expedition leader who got along well with the scientists and sailors.
• Church asked Robbins why the recent heavy snowfall was unusual, and Robbins explained that the weather conditions should not have produced snow near New Zealand.
• Robbins revealed that the snow clouds had first appeared about fifteen hundred nautical miles east of New Zealand, vanished from satellite images, and then reappeared near the North Island.
• Robbins told Church he feared an enormous unknown change was occurring near their destination and that the expedition’s outcome was unpredictable.

Church’s diary described the seasickness that afflicted the Discovery’s scientific expedition and the crew’s efforts to care for Mrs. Larry and Alice. After Anderson made them KAWA soup, both women stopped vomiting, and Mrs. Larry was well enough to leave her cabin and talk with Mr. Robbins.

• Church recorded that more than thirty people aboard the Discovery had suffered seasickness, with Mrs. Larry and Alice among the worst affected.
• Church wondered why the expedition included Mrs. Larry, a leading specialist in ancient Egyptian culture, until the crew learned that an upside-down pyramid had been found on the seabed near Ghost Island.
• Mrs. Larry insisted that no men enter her and Alice’s quarters, so the crew delivered their food and medicine at the door.
• Anderson caught KAWA fish and said soup made from it would help restore the women’s fluids and nutrients.
• Mrs. Larry and Alice ate the KAWA soup without vomiting, and Mrs. Larry later came out to speak with Mr. Robbins.

Church recorded the Discovery’s arrival at Ghost Island’s coordinates and the crew’s fruitless search for the missing islands. After two days, the expedition gave up and agreed to head for the underwater pyramid ruins, their next destination.

• Church noted that Alice had recovered and spent time chatting with Anderson, while Mrs. Larry remained troubled and spoke privately with Mr. Robbins.
• Church and Anderson confirmed that the Discovery had reached Ghost Island’s recorded coordinates, but the island was nowhere to be seen.
• At Mr. Robbins’s request, the crew searched a vast area around the coordinates but found no trace of Ghost Island.
• After two days of searching, Anderson claimed the supposed island was a gigantic ancient fish, while the ship’s instruments detected only deep water and a few underwater peaks.
• Mrs. Larry told the expedition to stop wasting time and go to the underwater ruins, and the group agreed to continue toward the pyramid.

Church’s crew sailed toward the underwater ruins, debating the ancient Egyptians’ origins and the significance of the expedition. They reached the target area, but thick fog kept them from finding the buoy marking the ruins.

• Mrs. Larry and Anderson argued over the race and ancestry of the ancient Egyptians, while Church wondered about Anderson’s strange knowledge.
• Robbins said the expedition could overturn established ideas about ancient Egypt, the pyramids, and human civilization.
• Church’s ship reached the coordinates near 30° south latitude and 150° west longitude before dawn.
• Anderson sang as the crew gathered in the captain’s cabin, excited to have reached their destination.
• A dense fog blocked the sunrise and prevented the crew from searching for the buoy, leaving everyone except Anderson uneasy.

Church recorded the Discovery’s failed search through the strange fog, followed by the General’s brief discovery of the undersea ruins. After the ruins vanished from the instruments, the ship lost GPS and all radio contact, leaving Church unsure where to go.

• Mr. Robbins and Mrs. Larry debated sending people underwater, while Anderson accused them of refusing to accept that the ruins and Ghost Island did not exist.
• Mr. Robbins and Mrs. Larry said they believed Professor Silva and suspected they had made a mistake.
• The General found coral-covered reefs and a triangular funnel that the crew identified as the pyramid, but the ship’s power failed shortly afterward.
• After the electrical system restarted, the instruments showed no trace of the ruins, and Church wondered whether the crew had all imagined them.
• Church discovered that the Discovery could no longer receive GPS or radio signals, while Anderson went fishing again.

Church and the crew of the Discovery watched the fog clear, then saw the sun set in the west as it rose in the east, beginning another day. As the ship grew unnaturally hot, the scientists debated whether the phenomenon involved spatial folding, while Church wondered if they had crossed into another place or time.

• Church recorded that the Discovery had lost its GPS and communications equipment and drifted through dense fog without knowing its position.
• As wind thinned the fog, the crew hoped to navigate by compass and charts to the Tubuai Islands once visibility returned.
• The fog cleared at sunset, and the crew watched in awe as the western sun sank while another sun rose in the east at the same time.
• Mrs. Larry suggested the Mirror Pyramid might have caused a mirroring effect, and Pardik said spatial folding could explain the phenomenon.
• Anderson pointed out the heat, and Robbins noted that the temperature and sunlight were abnormal for winter.
• Church speculated that the ship might have crossed into another region of space or another time.

Church and the Discovery’s crew tracked a powerful magnetic anomaly to its center, where their navigation and communications suddenly returned before a suspected undersea explosion sent a tsunami toward the ship. They survived the waves, but the vessel was damaged, several sailors were missing or injured, and Pardik was badly hurt.

• Church realized the compass was drawing the Discovery into circles, and Robbins suspected a powerful magnetic field connected to the pyramid.
• Church used his experience to find the anomaly’s center, where the compass settled and the GPS and communications equipment came back online.
• A sailor warned the crew of a tsunami as a column of smoke and a towering wall of water rose nearby; Church ordered everyone to prepare for impact.
• Church steered the Discovery head-on into the waves, and the ship survived the violent battering as the sea calmed.
• Church found several injured passengers, including Mrs. Larry, who had split her head, and Pardik, who was pinned beneath a machine and had a head injury.
• The crew restored power and confirmed the Discovery could still sail, but four sailors were missing, equipment was damaged, and the doctor reported Pardik had two broken ribs and a concussion.

Church recorded the Discovery’s crew rescuing four missing sailors and three injured strangers, including the unconscious Arthur Stone. Ivan and Boris woke and identified themselves as Russians, but they withheld details of their accident while waiting for Arthur to recover.

• Church and the crew found the four missing sailors and rescued three naked, badly injured strangers from the sea.
• Alice volunteered to care for Arthur Stone, while she also tended Pardik and checked in on Anderson as he repaired the Discovery.
• Robbins urged the crew to head north to escape possible earthquake aftershocks, and Church agreed.
• Ivan and Boris woke up, and Boris called for Hel before learning he was alive and asking about Ivan and Arthur Stone.
• Ivan and Boris said their ship had suffered an accident but refused to explain further until Arthur woke.
• Church worried that Arthur’s prolonged unconsciousness could harm him despite the crew providing intravenous nutrients.

Church recorded the discovery that Boris and Ivan’s watches showed December while the ship’s calendars showed August, raising the possibility that time had passed differently. After Robbins and Mrs. Larry spoke privately with Pardik and then questioned Stone in Chinese, Robbins urged the ship to reach land at full speed without explaining what they had learned.

• Church noted that Stone had awakened, while Ivan and Boris had largely recovered and helped Anderson repair the ship.
• Boris said his watch showed Christmas Eve, and Anderson and Church confirmed that Boris’s and Ivan’s watches showed December despite the ship’s calendars showing August.
• Robbins spoke privately with Pardik and Mrs. Larry, then invited Church and the others to join them in questioning Stone.
• Mrs. Larry spoke with Stone in Chinese, and the conversation ended without an explanation for the assembled crew.
• Robbins asked the ship to proceed at full speed toward land.

Qingmu and the others studied Captain Church’s final diary entry and concluded that the Discovery had likely been attacked near the Tubuai Islands. Qingmu suspected Cohen and the Dream Society were involved, and arranged to travel there with Su Huilan as the investigation continued.

• Qingmu examined Church’s final entry, “Towar,Godbless!!!,” and linked the wreck’s location to the Discovery’s northward voyage toward the Tubuai Islands.
• Mei Yiqiu, Mei Ziqing, and Su Huilan debated whether pirates, a military operation, or another attacker had destroyed the Discovery, and Mei Yiqiu identified the rescued Asian man as Situ.
• Qingmu recalled Cohen’s invasion in another life and suspected the Dream Society had attacked the Discovery, with Cohen and Situ now near the Cook Islands.
• Qingmu told the group that Duwa had also gone there and said he needed to travel to the area soon.
• Mei Yiqiu arranged for Qingmu to join the investigation team as Su Huilan’s assistant, and Su Huilan offered to handle bringing Qingmu’s crow along.

Su Huilan arranged for Qingmu and Boss Coal to travel to the Bass Islands, while the crow argued with Hanran and discussed Ruxue’s consciousness. The chapter ended with Qingmu unsure whether Hanran could join their trip.

• Su Huilan secured visas for herself and Qingmu and arranged for Boss Coal to travel as a biological research specimen.
• Boss Coal excitedly told Hanran about New Zealand and Ghost Island, then teased the cat about its appearance.
• Hanran pretended to be upset while eating dried fish, prompting Boss Coal to call it a foodie.
• Qingmu explained that Hanran’s body and memories influenced Ruxue, while Ruxue’s mental power gave Hanran a new life.
• Boss Coal asked whether Hanran could accompany them, and Qingmu said he would have to find out.

Qingmu prepared for the trip to New Zealand with Su Huilan, while Crow worried about the food and tried to persuade Qingmu to bring Bi Shenghua along. The chapter ended with Qingmu going to look for Bi Shenghua as Xiao Qi and Mo Yu privately judged the pair clueless about romance.

• Su Huilan agreed to bring Hanran on the trip, and Qingmu arranged for Hanran and Boss Coal to travel ahead to Shenzhou and Auckland.
• Crow complained about New Zealand food, then teased Hanran for eating snacks and worried aloud about whether Professor Su could cook braised pork hock.
• Bi Shenghua brought Crow and Hanran braised pork hock, and the cat and bird took turns eating from the same basin.
• Crow told Qingmu that Bi Shenghua had become gentler and more feminine, leaving Qingmu unable to respond.
• Qingmu learned Bi Shenghua had gone out and went to look for her, while Xiao Qi and Mo Yu joked that he was a blockhead and she was a fool.

Bi Shenghua wrapped the old willow in Liuying Lane against the cold and told Qingmu its history, tracing it back to the thousand-year-old mulberry of Mulberry Camp. She revealed that the Hua Family had died in a fire and that the willow had been transplanted to take the mulberry’s place, leaving its origins and purpose mysterious.

• Qingmu helped Bi Shenghua wrap a blanket around the old willow, which she believed could feel warmth and cold.
• Bi Shenghua recalled how Qingmu had first arrived in Liuying Lane and explained that the place had once been called Mulberry Camp.
• Bi Shenghua said an ancient mulberry had once stood where the willow now grew, and that its leaves had supposedly sustained the area’s silk production.
• Bi Shenghua explained that Old Master Hua burned down the mulberry and the family mansion before the Japanese reached Wuzhong, while the willow survived beside a pond.
• At Old Master Hua’s instruction, the old steward transplanted the willow to the mulberry’s place and later guarded it and planted its branches throughout the area.

Bi Shenghua told Qingmu how her family came to protect the old willow in Liuying Lane and urged him to leave for New Zealand without worrying about her. As Qingmu wondered whether his own past was tied to the willow and the buried mulberry roots, he decided to visit Elder Xia before departing.

• Bi Shenghua explained that her great-grandfather, the Hua Family steward, built the house that later became Ruhua Bar and vowed to protect the old willow.
• Bi Shenghua told Qingmu that her family had guarded the willow for generations because of her great-grandfather’s dying wish.
• Qingmu questioned how long Bi Shenghua could protect the willow, and she told him to go to New Zealand and remember the tree and her promise to stay.
• Crow appeared upside down over Qingmu’s umbrella and protested that he had been helping Bi Shenghua.
• Qingmu returned to the old willow over the next few days and wondered whether it and the mulberry roots were connected to his forgotten past.
• Qingmu decided to visit Elder Xia before leaving for New Zealand, hoping to learn what had happened in the past.

Qingmu brought Hanran to investigate the shadow in Xia Wenyuan’s dreams and asked the elder about the Hua Family and Mulberry Garden. Xia Wenyuan recalled the garden’s destruction and a mysterious gathering of crows, leaving Qingmu with a nursery rhyme about the Hua descendants returning to find no home.

• Qingmu brought Hanran to Xia Wenyuan, hoping Ruxue’s consciousness form could confront the shadow in his dreams without harming him.
• Xia Wenyuan told Qingmu that the Hua Family had been far wealthier than his own family and that the Mulberry Garden burned for two days in 1937.
• Xia Wenyuan said the Hua patriarch may have set the fire after giving away his fortune and dismissing his servants and students.
• Xia Wenyuan recalled that the Japanese army occupied Wuzhong and sought prominent local people, though he did not know whether they were searching for the old mulberry tree.
• Xia Wenyuan described the enormous mulberry tree and explained that nearby mulberry trees were likely cut down after the Hua Family fell.
• Xia Wenyuan remembered crows filling the sky after the fire and recited a nursery rhyme about the tree, the crows, and the Hua descendants returning to find no home.

Qingmu used Ghost to search Wuzhong county gazetteers for records of Mulberry Garden and the Hua Family, finding only a few strange and contradictory entries. Xia Wenyuan suspected the Hua Family had erased its history and may have used the fire at Mulberry Garden to escape the coming war, while Qingmu resolved to change the future he had seen in Zhao Pengcheng’s dream.

• Qingmu asked Ghost to search Wuzhong county gazetteers for Mulberry Garden, Mulberry Camp, and the Hua Family.
• Ghost found entries linking Mulberry Garden to Sang Yun, describing the Hua Family’s red silk, and telling supernatural stories about a giant mulberry tree and a soul-eating crow.
• Xia Wenyuan said the sparse records were suspicious and suggested the Hua Family may have interfered with gazetteer compilations.
• Xia Wenyuan questioned how the fire at Mulberry Garden could have erased the traces of such a widespread clan and speculated that its members had shed their identities to flee the coming war.
• Qingmu recalled seeing decades of future events in Zhao Pengcheng’s dream and reaffirmed that he had to go to the South Pacific to change that future and prevent Bi Shenghua’s fate.

Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan’s dream to investigate why his parasitic consciousness had vanished, and discovered it hiding in his shadow. Rather than capture it with the Dream Corridor, Qingmu let Ruxue confront it, leaving her poised beside the restless shadow.

• Qingmu learned that Xia Wenyuan had not sensed his parasitic consciousness for about a week or more and hypnotized him to enter his dream.
• In a dream of a mulberry grove, Qingmu found no psychic trace until he enlarged a tree and Xia Wenyuan’s shadow appeared in the sunlight.
• Qingmu detected the parasitic consciousness within Xia Wenyuan’s shadow but chose not to capture it with the Dream Corridor.
• Qingmu brought Ruxue into the dream, where the white cat watched Xia Wenyuan and the restless shadow.