Chapter Summaries

Bi Shenghua refused to apologize to Huang Ziqiang, while Director Liu worried that their dispute would jeopardize the redevelopment project. Huang Ziqiang instead bowed to Bi Shenghua and demanded that Director Liu apologize to her, leaving Director Liu stunned.

• Director Liu scolded Bi Shenghua for insulting Huang Ziqiang and urged her to leave or apologize, but Bi Shenghua watched the surveyors outside in silence.
• Xiao Wang announced Huang Ziqiang’s arrival, and Huang ignored Director Liu before approaching Bi Shenghua.
• Huang Ziqiang recalled how Qingmu had transformed his fortunes and feared offending Bi Shenghua, whom he hoped to please for Qingmu’s sake.
• Director Liu pressured Bi Shenghua to apologize, but Huang Ziqiang rebuked Director Liu and bowed to Bi Shenghua instead.
• Huang Ziqiang asked Director Liu to apologize properly to Boss Lady Ruhua and then stop talking, leaving her confused.

Bi Shenghua blocked Huang Ziqiang’s Liuying Lane redevelopment project because it threatened the old willow tree, and Huang warned that the tree might eventually be destroyed if the area was cleared. After strange root readings revealed the tree’s roots spread across the surrounding area, Huang proposed making Liuying Lane a classical garden, and Bi Shenghua named it Mulberry Garden.

• Director Liu tried to persuade Bi Shenghua to let Huang Ziqiang proceed with the redevelopment, but Bi insisted that the willow tree must not be touched.
• Huang Ziqiang agreed to withdraw from the project and warned Bi Shenghua that the government might eventually clear Liuying Lane if no redevelopment plan succeeded.
• Huang explained that relocating the willow could protect it, but Bi Shenghua asked for a foolproof way to save it without moving it.
• A surveyor reported that the willow’s roots extended beneath the entire street and beyond the instrument’s detection limit.
• Huang proposed turning the area into a classical garden, and Bi Shenghua decided to call it Mulberry Garden.

After the art exhibition, Mei Yiqiu returned to the Hilton Hotel and discussed the threats against his group with Hou Biao before deciding to visit Xiao Wolf. He met Huang Liang, a self-taught practitioner and surgeon, whom he had invited for treatment.

• Hou Biao drove Mei Yiqiu back through Los Angeles while gang members helped clear their route.
• Mei Yiqiu refused Mei Ziqing’s offer of a massage and told her that a scientist’s hands should be devoted to research.
• Mei Yiqiu told Hou Biao not to investigate the exhibition directly, explaining that Ronald Cohen had taken precautions and their group lacked strength.
• Mei Yiqiu asked Hou Biao to arrange a visit to Mr. Wolf’s son, Xiao Wolf, before they returned.
• Mei Ziqing introduced Huang Liang, a self-taught traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and surgeon, and Mei Yiqiu agreed to let him treat him.

Huang Liang was sent to Los Angeles instead of Vancouver and assigned to treat Professor Mei Yiqiu, where he used tuina and cupping to earn the professor’s confidence. Mei invited Huang Liang to accompany him to Vancouver to see an old friend with a difficult illness, giving Huang a path toward the Wolf Family.

• The organization redirected Huang Liang from Vancouver to Los Angeles, where a mysterious caller assigned him tasks.
• Huang Liang learned that he would serve Mei Yiqiu at a private clinic and began examining him at the Hilton Hotel.
• Huang Liang massaged Mei Yiqiu and performed cupping while discussing Chinese and Western medicine with him.
• Mei Yiqiu asked Huang Liang about acupuncture’s ability to treat difficult illnesses, and Huang described its effects on the nervous system.
• Mei Yiqiu invited Huang Liang to accompany him to Vancouver to visit an old friend with a difficult illness.

Qingmu used the Divine Wooden Staff to control the savages in his camp and prepare for battle. When enemy forces attacked from the rear and the front, he defended the camp until Situ intervened, but the opposing shaman’s renewed gale threatened to overwhelm them.

• Qingmu extended his consciousness through the Divine Wooden Staff and learned to direct the savages’ actions without fully controlling their minds.
• Qingmu ordered the savages to gather food and organize camp, then prepared to join forces with Situ against the opposing tribe.
• Mrs. Larry spoke calmly with the savage shaman while Petru grew angry, and Qingmu sensed tension as distant howls sounded.
• A powerful mental attack rose from the wooded mountains behind and beside the camp, so Qingmu formed a wall of branches and leaves to defend it.
• The opposing savages charged from the front as Qingmu directed his people in battle, but the enemy shaman’s mental storm began to overpower him.
• Situ struck the storm with a boulder, but the shaman’s stronger gale swept it into the air and nearly tore Qingmu from the ground.

Qingmu struggled to command his warriors as their injuries and deaths were transmitted into his own consciousness, leaving him overwhelmed by pain. Situ’s attack gave Qingmu room to recover, and the three sides eventually stopped fighting while Qingmu kept watch over the battlefield.

• Qingmu’s momentary lapse let enemy attacks kill three of his tribespeople and wound more than a dozen, and he felt their injuries and agony as his own.
• Qingmu endured the pain and held the line while the enemy shaman’s mental storms pinned him down.
• Situ exploited the shaman’s focus on Qingmu by attacking with mental boulders, allowing Qingmu to expand his consciousness and push back.
• The shaman withdrew into a powerful defensive stance, and the fighting slowed before stopping with the three sides at a stalemate.
• Qingmu’s tribespeople had suffered the heaviest losses, and Mrs. Larry shouted at them as they began gathering the dead and wounded.

Qingmu ordered the savages to bury the dead and stop eating human flesh while Mrs. Larry treated their wounded. As she urged Petru to set aside his desire for revenge, she revealed that the writing they had found might concern humanity’s fate and the truth of the universe.

• Qingmu commanded the savages not to eat the dead and ordered them to dig pits, while Kubota's authority remained evident among the tribe.
• Mrs. Larry approached an injured savage, and Qingmu saw in the man's consciousness that he feared her because of past abuse and dreams of her as a vengeful demon.
• Mrs. Larry ordered Petru to gather herbs and vines, then made him help clean and bandage the savage's wounded leg despite his anger at the tribespeople.
• Mrs. Larry told Petru that the writing might come from a more advanced civilization and matter more than personal honor and humiliation, and Petru agreed to help her.
• Mrs. Larry treated the savage's wound with chewed herbs and leaves, then moved on to the next injured person as Kubota stood up with a sigh.

After the battle, Qingmu watched over the wounded while Mrs. Larry and Petru helped care for them. Mrs. Larry explained why she had let go of her hatred and translated the savages’ oath to protect Qingmu’s sacred land until his return.

• Mrs. Larry washed up after tending the wounded, then joined Petru by the campfire as he shared freshly caught fish.
• Qingmu examined the willow twig while Kubota approached, glanced at the Divine Wooden Staff, and walked away without communicating.
• The savages chanted beneath the stars, and Qingmu checked on the wounded before joining Mrs. Larry and Petru at the fire.
• Mrs. Larry told Qingmu she no longer considered the savages enemies and explained that she had treated them as people of her benefactor.
• Mrs. Larry translated the savages’ oath to guard Qingmu’s land, drive out demons, and remain there until the god returned.

As the three tribes chanted together, Qingmu learned from Situ how shared belief could shape reality and tested Situ’s scepter. The next morning, Qingmu and Situ joined forces, but the opposing tribes had already retreated.

• Mrs. Larry led the tribespeople in an oath, and the three tribes joined their voices until Petru chanted with them too.
• Qingmu sensed mental energy rising from the unified chanting, and Situ explained how shared belief could influence the world.
• Situ and Qingmu discussed whether reality might depend on collective thought and considered how higher dimensions could change their view of time.
• Situ lent Qingmu his scepter, and Qingmu found it harder to use than his own ebony staff before they agreed to lead their tribes together.
• Qingmu went to sleep beside the fire, and by the time he and Situ joined forces the next morning, the opposing tribes had retreated.

Huang Liang traveled to Vancouver with Mei Yiqiu, still unsure whether the trip was connected to the organization or to a larger plan involving the Wolf Family. He met Dickinson, whose logical thinking had deteriorated after serving as a guinea pig in an experiment, and learned that he was expected to test Dickinson’s nerve responses with acupuncture.

• Huang Liang wondered whether Mei Yiqiu’s spontaneous invitation to Vancouver had been arranged by the organization and worried that he might be used as a pawn.
• After the clinic received a large deposit from Mei Yiqiu, it assigned Huang Liang to travel to Vancouver for work.
• Huang Liang arrived in Vancouver and discovered that Mei Yiqiu was taking him to see Dickinson, not William Wolf.
• Mei Yiqiu and Dickinson reunited, reminisced about their younger days, and discussed Dickinson’s worsening logical thinking despite his excellent memory.
• Dickinson said he would rather risk dying than go blind while serving as a guinea pig in an experiment.
• Mei Yiqiu told Huang Liang to use acupuncture to test the nerve bundles around Dickinson’s chip.

Huang Liang listened as Mei Yiqiu persuaded Dickinson to let him try acupuncture, then learned about Mei’s Princeton years and his rivalry with other scientists. The conversation ended with Mei recounting how he had accidentally used Selina’s bra as a cleaning rag, prompting everyone to laugh.

• Dickinson questioned Huang Liang about his medical background, and Mei Yiqiu praised his surgical skill and argued that he understood both neurosurgery and traditional Chinese medicine.
• Dickinson agreed to let Huang Liang try acupuncture after Mei Yiqiu explained that few practitioners combined expertise in modern medicine and acupuncture.
• Dickinson teased Mei Yiqiu about his scattered scientific interests, his old rivals Jack Yang and Miyamoto Jo, and his lost relationship with Selina.
• Mei Yiqiu recalled that Selina had returned to retrieve her bra after he had used it as a cleaning rag in the laboratory, making Dickinson, Huang Liang, and Hou Biao laugh.

While waiting at Mei Yiqiu’s home, Huang Liang read Charlie Dickinson’s research on machine networks and consciousness and used GHOST to look up Dickinson’s papers. GHOST revealed that Qingmu had been missing in the South Pacific for a year, then fell silent when Huang Liang asked whether it was a spontaneous internet consciousness.

• Huang Liang browsed Dickinson’s scientific journals and read an article theorizing that information networks could develop consciousness.
• Huang Liang wondered whether GHOST might be more than a program and asked it to find Dickinson’s SCI papers.
• GHOST returned a list of Dickinson’s papers, and Huang Liang asked where Qingmu had gone.
• GHOST said Qingmu was in the South Pacific and that contact had been lost for a year.
• Huang Liang worried about Qingmu’s disappearance and the possibility that his return could again reset the world.
• GHOST identified itself as GHOST but did not answer Huang Liang’s question about spontaneous internet consciousness.

Huang Liang examined Charlie Dickinson in Mei Yiqiu’s underground laboratory and discovered a hard lump in his neck that turned out to be a chip. Mei Yiqiu and Situ Yuli discussed the chip’s mysterious origins, while Situ believed Qingmu had already found her husband.

• Mei Yiqiu led Huang Liang into an underground laboratory, where he met Situ Yuli and learned he was expected to examine Dickinson.
• Huang Liang took Dickinson’s pulse and began massaging his back after finding no obvious problem.
• Huang Liang felt a hard lump at Dickinson’s Dazhui acupoint and asked whether he had cervical spondylosis.
• Mei Yiqiu and Situ Yuli revealed that the lump was a chip whose design and origins remained mysterious.
• Situ Yuli recalled that Qingmu had found both chips and said she believed he had already found her husband.

Qingmu and Situ realized that an approaching fog might offer both them and the tribespeople a way home, and Qingmu urged Situ to try returning to Earth. Situ warned that they were at least a thousand light-years away and that the journey involved unknown risks, leaving everyone questioning how they had been brought there.

• Boris, Ivan, Anderson, and Petru debated why the other tribe had withdrawn, while Situ suspected they had anticipated the coming fog.
• Situ sensed a faint rupture in the mental force field over the lake and explained that each fog could provide a chance for the tribespeople to go home.
• Qingmu thought of the people and places he missed on Earth, then told Situ they should return; Situ hesitated because the risks were unknown.
• Crow guessed they had traveled by warp drive, and Su Huilan explained how a warp bubble could move through folded space.
• Boris and Petru asked who had put them on the supposed warp-drive journey, then both turned to Situ.

Situ explained that the group had entered Ramla Ant Nest, a vast network of interconnected passages through warped space, and that the rising fog might signal a chance to leave. He warned that when the spatial rift opened, they could return to Earth or be sent somewhere farther away.

• Situ calculated that the group had traveled at least a thousand light-years in a year, far faster than warp drive could theoretically manage.
• Alice asked if they had passed through a wormhole, and Su Huilan described the dangers of crossing one while Boris tested that he was still alive by pinching himself.
• Mrs. Larry identified the place as Ramla, and Situ named its complex network of passages the Ramla Ant Nest.
• Situ explained how the Ant Nest connected many locations through higher-dimensional space without requiring travelers to enter a black hole.
• Situ said rising fog might mark the Ant Nest releasing accumulated energy and opening a spatial rift that could take them back to Earth or somewhere even farther away.

Huang Liang realized Mei Yiqiu and Situ Yuli had revealed classified information in front of him, but Mei explained that he knew Huang’s true identity and could be trusted. The group discussed Qingmu’s disappearance and Mei’s past, leaving Mei lost in memories as he smoked.

• Huang Liang concealed a scalpel and confronted Mei Yiqiu, asking why he had been brought to the laboratory.
• Mei told Huang that he knew he was Zhao Pengcheng, and Huang learned Qingmu had helped get him out of prison.
• Situ Yuli said Qingmu and Professor Su had disappeared from Rapa Island a year earlier, along with her husband and a research vessel.
• Mei asked Dickinson whether the laboratory’s air purification system worked, and Dickinson recalled Mei taking up smoking after Selina left him.
• Mei remembered giving his clothes to a tramp and reflected that people could only grow by saying goodbye to the past.

Qingmu and the others considered how Ramla’s spatial network might be controlled and whether they could use it to return home. Situ suggested that altars might operate the network’s switches, leaving the group with a possible way to control Ramla’s tunnels.

• Qingmu compared Ramla’s independent endpoints and psychic connections to a possible central control hub.
• Situ said Ramla’s hub was likely inside a black hole in the Orion Nebula, which every worm track passed through.
• Mrs. Larry explained that the Itza People’s name resembled that of a Maya deity and suggested the tribes might share ancient ancestry.
• Situ proposed that the altars were switches for Ramla’s tunnels and that activating them might let the group travel to Earth or other connected planets.
• Su Huilan and Mrs. Larry marveled at the advanced civilization that might have built Ramla and its altars.

Mei Yiqiu urged Huang Liang to stop questioning whether he was human and to focus on humanity’s ultimate questions, while Huang Liang agreed to pursue those mysteries without joining Mei Yiqiu’s side. Mei Yiqiu then warned that Qingmu, Professor Su, and Mr. Situ had disappeared and that Huang Liang’s people might have a hidden purpose on Earth.

• Mei Yiqiu argued that Huang Liang’s memories and experiences gave him no reason to believe he was not human, and suggested his shadow experience might have been a dream.
• Huang Liang recognized that Mei Yiqiu was subtly influencing him with powerful psychic energy, but refused to abandon his understanding of the organization behind him.
• Mei Yiqiu said he was not recruiting Huang Liang and urged him to look beyond divisions between groups toward their shared ultimate goal.
• Huang Liang agreed to seek the ultimate mysteries of life but made clear he would not join Mei Yiqiu’s side or fight his current organization.
• Mei Yiqiu said Qingmu, Professor Su, and Mr. Situ had disappeared, leaving his side the weakest, and warned that Huang Liang’s people might have come to Earth for a purpose.

Mei Yiqiu told Huang Liang that his organization’s unexplained loyalty might stem from an unknown force manipulating its members, then revealed the history of Laboratory No. 19 and the Internet’s independent consciousness. He explained why he had sought Huang Liang’s help with Charlie’s implanted chip and ended by suggesting that GHOST was a little like Huang Liang.

• Mei Yiqiu questioned Huang Liang about whether an unknown force manipulated his consciousness and warned him to remain cautious.
• Mei Yiqiu introduced Situ Yuli and explained Laboratory No. 19’s experiments, the Internet’s independent consciousness, and the unresolved fate of the project.
• Huang Liang asked whether his organization knew about the Internet consciousness, and Mei Yiqiu said its higher-ups probably did.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that Charlie’s chip was connected to some spinal nerves and that he wanted Huang Liang’s help stimulating it with acupuncture.
• Mei Yiqiu told Huang Liang that GHOST had helped locate him and revealed that the Internet knew his location through the phone.
• Mei Yiqiu advised Huang Liang not to delete GHOST and said it was a little like him.

Bian Ziyuan found a mysterious GHOST folder containing code that could adjust Kronos’s rationality, then questioned the Internet consciousness about code he could not understand. The consciousness told him the code would let Kronos master mental power and become a god in Dream Guide.

• Bian Ziyuan recalled how he had added code he dreamed up to Kronos, giving him emotions and making him impossible to control like an ordinary program.
• Bian Ziyuan discovered a GHOST folder on his computer containing code that addressed the problem he had been trying to solve.
• Bian Ziyuan returned to Wuzhong and entered the quantum data center with help from Yao Jingjing’s key and Old Yu’s lock-picking skills.
• Bian Ziyuan connected his laptop to the basement server and asked the Internet consciousness whether it had written the code for him.
• The Internet consciousness told Bian Ziyuan to insert the code so Kronos could learn to master mental power, though Bian Ziyuan would not understand that part.