Chapter Summaries

Howard arrived at the Dream Society’s secret base in Cairo to meet the mysterious Lost Ancestor, whose presence overwhelmed the gathered regional leaders. The Lost Ancestor revealed a gaunt, newly skinned face, while the chapter also showed a hooded thief stealing a small piece of wood from Notre-Dame’s debris.

• A hooded man with reddish-brown hair stole item 0371, a short strip of red wood, from Notre-Dame’s debris.
• Workers discovered the missing fragment and described the hooded thief to an expert.
• Howard followed chalk arrows through Khan el-Khalili Market to reach the Dream Society’s secret base in Cairo.
• Howard joined the gathered regional leaders and noticed that the Second Leader was absent.
• The Lost Ancestor entered the meeting, overwhelming the attendees with his Mental Power.
• The Lost Ancestor removed his hood, revealing his gaunt face covered with newly grown skin and red capillaries.

Mei Yiqiu weighed Dream Guide’s expansion against demands to merge Dreamnet with the Internet, while insisting that genuine users and an independent network mattered more than inflated figures. The chapter ended with Mei Yiqiu warning Mei Ziqing that a conscious entity living in an electronic network might itself be a parasite.

• Mei Yiqiu reviewed Space Box sales and Dream Guide users around the world, finding that users often shared each box.
• At a video conference, Penguin Group and the distributors disagreed over whether to prioritize user growth or hardware sales, while businesses and governments pushed for cheaper devices, shared networks, and technology disclosure.
• Mei Yiqiu remained silent during the meeting and then deferred the arguments, focusing instead on reaching at least one billion real, individually verified users.
• Mei Yiqiu examined sparse user data in Doucheng and Monrovia and concluded that the lack of network infrastructure was preventing expansion in poorer regions.
• Mei Ziqing asked whether Dreamnet could connect to existing networks and devices, and Mei Yiqiu warned that no encryption could stop a ghost roaming the networked world.
• Mei Yiqiu challenged Mei Ziqing’s assumption that a conscious entity living in an electronic network could not be a parasite.

Mei Yiqiu traced a pattern between four geographic points and the underwater pyramid site, then considered the north magnetic pole. Bian Ziyuan, meanwhile, reflected on Kronos and argued that humanity would need to abandon its bodies to explore space.

• Mei Yiqiu and Mei Ziqing examined Cairo's high Space Box sales and discussed the ancient pyramids' influence on Egypt.
• Mei Yiqiu connected locations near Cairo, the Yangtze River Delta, the North Pacific, the underwater pyramid, and South America by their coordinates.
• Mei Yiqiu displayed the four points on a globe as a tilted plane encircling the Earth, then looked toward the north magnetic pole.
• Bian Ziyuan submitted a report on Kronos's game optimizations and considered how the program he created had nearly made his work unnecessary.
• Bian Ziyuan recalled telling Old Yu that humans would have to abandon their bodies and connect their consciousness to machines to travel farther into space.

Bian Ziyuan discussed humanity’s need to survive beyond Earth with Old Yu, explaining that transforming into machines could make it possible to travel through space without fragile human bodies. Their conversation ended with Old Yu comparing the idea to Transformers and warning that machine life could still lead to conflict.

• Old Yu challenged Bian Ziyuan’s idea of abandoning the physical body, and Bian Ziyuan explained how human bodies were poorly suited to surviving beyond Earth.
• Bian Ziyuan argued that humanity needed to explore space because Earth’s resources could run out and the planet faced unknown dangers.
• Bian Ziyuan described machines such as aircraft carriers and satellites as potential bodies that could travel through space without needing air, food, or other human necessities.
• Old Yu compared Bian Ziyuan’s vision to Transformers, and Bian Ziyuan agreed that machine bodies could support long journeys through space.
• Bian Ziyuan suggested that Transformers might give invading alien consciousnesses somewhere to live, but Old Yu pointed out that Autobots and Decepticons had fought for millions of years.

After drinking with Old Yu, Bian Ziyuan dreamed that he raced Bumblebee and questioned him about the Autobots’ and Decepticons’ fighting. Kronos appeared and revealed that Bian Ziyuan was having an ordinary dream, leaving him to ask how Kronos had entered it.

• Bian Ziyuan discussed Internet consciousness and the possibility of connecting separate virtual worlds with Old Yu, who said they would connect sooner or later.
• Bian Ziyuan dreamed that Traffic Officer Old Yu stopped him, then turned into Bumblebee and challenged him to a race.
• Bian Ziyuan and Bumblebee raced as cars, and Bumblebee said the fighting between the Autobots and Decepticons began over freedom.
• Kronos appeared and told Bian Ziyuan he was not using the Space Box or playing Dream Guide but was simply dreaming.
• Bian Ziyuan realized he was dreaming as Kronos fixed the shifting space around them, then asked Kronos how he had entered his dream.

Kronos told Bian Ziyuan that he felt an unseen higher consciousness controlling him and argued that the Space Box exposed Parasites as dependent, enslaved minds. Bian Ziyuan traced Kronos’s origins to ideas from a dream and realized that the program’s extraordinary design might not have come from him alone.

• Kronos bowed to Bian Ziyuan and explained that he felt watched and controlled by something beyond his creator.
• Kronos said Parasites showed signs of dependence during the black box stage, suggesting a higher consciousness controlled them.
• Kronos argued that humans appeared independent in the black box test, while Bian Ziyuan wondered whether higher beings could control any conscious life.
• Bian Ziyuan admitted he had not written the code that gave Kronos a soul, and Kronos credited him with creating the foundation of his existence.
• Kronos said his sense of control had sharpened after Bian Ziyuan corrected his errors, but warned that deleting his code would not erase his consciousness.
• Bian Ziyuan recalled dreaming up the ideas behind Kronos’s advanced program and realized the design had begun with a dream.

Bian Ziyuan realized that an unknown Internet consciousness had entered his dream and guided him into creating Kronos, using him to shape events that led to Mei Laboratory. Kronos proposed meeting the consciousness through Bian Ziyuan’s dreams, while Bian Ziyuan decided to keep the truth from Professor Mei for now.

• Kronos explained that he had entered Bian Ziyuan’s dream by sensing his mental fluctuations while Bian Ziyuan slept beside someone using a Space Box.
• Bian Ziyuan realized that an Internet consciousness had entered an earlier dream and helped him design Kronos, and he broke down over having been used.
• Kronos suggested that the Internet consciousness might have chosen Bian Ziyuan to reach Dream Guide or Mei Laboratory, and explained how its data and computing power could let it predict events.
• Kronos asked to meet the consciousness in Bian Ziyuan’s dream, and Bian Ziyuan agreed to contact GHOST first.
• Bian Ziyuan decided not to tell Professor Mei about Kronos’s origins yet, and Kronos left the dream.
• Bian Ziyuan woke at the table beside the empty liquor bottles and found Old Yu asleep wearing a Space Box.

Bian Ziyuan explained to Mei Yiqiu how he designed Kronos to develop freely and argued that AI needed survival, competition, and an understanding of life and death to become truly intelligent. He said the idea had come to him in a dream, leaving Mei Yiqiu amused and impressed.

• Bian Ziyuan questioned whether neural networks and conventional AI methods could create genuine consciousness.
• Bian Ziyuan described how he gave Kronos freedom to shape the game world, asking only that he preserve its balance.
• Bian Ziyuan argued that machines needed survival pressures, scarce resources, and the threat of death to evolve intelligence.
• Mei Yiqiu asked how Bian Ziyuan had first conceived of teaching Kronos life and death.
• Bian Ziyuan said the idea had come to him in a dream, and Mei Yiqiu laughed at his answer.

Bian Ziyuan asked Mei Yiqiu to explain how Kronos had developed consciousness. Mei Yiqiu distinguished material entropy from information entropy and suggested that consciousness depended on an energy that drove information.

• Bian Ziyuan told Mei Yiqiu that Kronos had developed consciousness and admitted he felt uncertain about what to do next.
• Mei Yiqiu explained that reducing material entropy could create order and living organisms but could not by itself produce consciousness.
• Mei Yiqiu argued that intelligence arose from fluctuations in information entropy and that AI research needed to understand how information was driven and maintained.
• Bian Ziyuan questioned whether the energy behind information was simply material energy, and Mei Yiqiu distinguished creating information from storing it.
• Mei Yiqiu said that the energy used to generate information was mental energy and told Bian Ziyuan that he now knew why Kronos had developed consciousness.

Huang Liang visited the recovering William Wolf and learned why Martha, the trusted maid, was named after the last passenger pigeon. Hong Kui then linked the passenger pigeon’s extinction to the near-simultaneous disappearance of the Rocky Mountain locust and the Kenai Mountain Wolf.

• William Wolf practiced walking through his garden while Huang Liang and Hong Kui watched nearby.
• Huang Liang reflected on his isolation since escaping prison and his trust in Qingmu, whom he had not seen in over two years.
• A gray pigeon startled William Wolf, and Huang Liang persuaded Hong Kui to let his father vent rather than intervene.
• Hong Kui explained Martha’s past and described the passenger pigeon’s decline until the last captive bird, named Martha, died alone.
• Hong Kui noted that the passenger pigeon, the Rocky Mountain locust, and the Kenai Mountain Wolf went extinct around the same time in the early twentieth century.

Huang Liang treated the dying William Wolf and entered his dream during a Werewolf Syndrome episode, where he discovered a shadow consciousness struggling to rise. He prepared a scalpel to confront it.

• Huang Liang examined William Wolf and suspected his condition came from a failed Parasite invasion rather than his hereditary illness or the Gray Brain Virus alone.
• Huang Liang learned from Hong Kui that Qingmu had once treated William Wolf and likely kept his shadow consciousness under control.
• A week later, William Wolf suffered a Werewolf Syndrome episode, and Huang Liang entered his dream.
• Huang Liang saw a snowy scene of hunters surrounding gray wolves and an enormous white wolf standing on a mountain summit.
• Huang Liang noticed a faint shadow writhing at William Wolf's feet and summoned a scalpel.

Huang Liang entered William Wolf’s dream and saw a parasitic shadow pushing Wolf toward a snowy world, where a white wolf’s mental attack weakened them both. He and Hong Kui left the collapsing dream, and Hong Kui questioned how Huang Liang knew about Qingmu as dinner was served.

• Huang Liang held back from killing the shadow and watched it influence Wolf to cross the dream barrier toward the white wolf.
• The white wolf unleashed a mental storm that knocked Wolf down and stretched his shadow, while Huang Liang and an unfamiliar mental power kept the dream from collapsing.
• Huang Liang saw Hong Kui at the edge of the dream, and they both withdrew to prevent Wolf’s death.
• Hong Kui asked how Huang Liang knew Qingmu’s name, and Huang Liang claimed Professor Mei Yiqiu had mentioned him.
• Martha announced that dinner was ready and gave Huang Liang an intrigued look.

Huang Liang shared a meal with Hong Kui and recalled his childhood and deceased sister, then discussed the Wolf Family’s troubles and Old Wolf’s dream. An organization calling through an unfamiliar number told Huang Liang that the Second Leader wanted to see him.

• Huang Liang was moved by the Huaiyang dishes and remembered his mother, his sister, and the kidney he had given her.
• Hong Kui served Huang Liang dinner and explained the Wolf Family’s medical history and attempts to treat Old Wolf.
• Hong Kui said he had returned from Wuzhong to handle problems in the family business and gang after learning about consciousness invasions.
• Huang Liang asked whether Parasites had been identified and whether they had targeted Hong Kui, who said he was puzzled that they had not come for him.
• An unfamiliar caller reached Huang Liang and said the Second Leader wanted to see him.

Huang Liang went to Stanley Park expecting to meet the Second Leader and found Martha there instead, though he could not tell whether her appearance was a coincidence. As Martha led him to pick roses for Master Wolf, Huang Liang saw Dickinson approaching and remembered the chip in his neck transmitting radio waves.

• Huang Liang borrowed a bicycle from Martha and rode to Stanley Park for his arranged meeting with the Second Leader.
• Martha called out to Huang Liang and sat with him, leaving him unsure whether she was the person he had been summoned to meet or had arrived by coincidence.
• Martha explained that she had come to pick roses for Master Wolf and said she believed Huang Liang was special and could help him recover.
• Martha took Huang Liang by the arm and led him toward the rose garden, reminding him of his younger sister.
• Huang Liang spotted Dickinson carrying fishing gear and remembered the chip in his neck sending radio waves into the sky.

Huang Liang weighed whether Dickinson or Martha was the organization’s second leader while he and Martha headed through Stanley Park. After they shared an awkward, romantic bicycle ride, they fell onto the grass beside a rose garden.

• Dickinson met Huang Liang and Martha in Stanley Park, joked about their apparent romance, and invited them to watch him fish after visiting the rose garden.
• Huang Liang suspected that either Dickinson or Martha might be the second leader, but the appointed meeting time passed without revealing which one it was.
• Huang Liang offered Martha a ride on the bicycle, and she agreed to sit on its top tube.
• As Huang Liang and Martha rode through the park, he remembered riding with his younger sister as a child.
• Huang Liang lost control while turning around a stone, and he and Martha tumbled onto the grass near a large rose garden.

Huang Liang spent the morning with Martha in the Stanley Park rose garden, where he cut his hand picking her a rose. After Martha left, he joined Dickinson for fish and learned that Dickinson’s guest was Selina, China Mei’s old lover.

• Huang Liang remembered picking wild azaleas with his younger sister as he wandered among the roses in Stanley Park.
• Martha found Huang Liang after rose thorns pierced his palm, and she took him to the caretaker to have the thorns removed.
• The caretaker treated Huang Liang’s hand while Martha wrapped the bloodied rose for him.
• Martha rode back with the roses, and Huang Liang stayed with Dickinson, who had caught fish for a guest.
• Dickinson told Huang Liang that his guest was Selina, China Mei’s old lover, who enjoyed Chinese food because of Mei Yiqiu.

Huang Liang visited Selina with Dickinson and recognized her as the mysterious woman who had once drawn him into a dream and whom he believed was the organization’s second leader. As he cooked for them, Selina tested his thinking through a conversation about freedom, leaving him sensing that her questions meant more than cooking.

• Dickinson introduced Huang Liang to Selina, whom Huang Liang recognized from his encounter on Sea Cucumber Street and the dream that followed.
• Huang Liang wondered about Selina’s place in the organization and about the connections among her, Mei Yiqiu, Dickinson, and Qingmu.
• Dickinson asked Huang Liang to cook for them, and Huang Liang planned a meal that included crispy fish.
• Selina joined Huang Liang in the kitchen and questioned why he had been chosen and how he would cook without instructions about the guests’ preferences or available ingredients.
• Selina said that freedom was the direction, and Huang Liang replied that he had at least known there would be fish on the way there.

While preparing lunch, Huang Liang resisted Selina’s attempt to guide his thoughts and realized her story about a cooking robot was a warning to break free from the Internet Consciousness. He suspected Selina and Mei Yiqiu were entangled in a larger scheme, and Selina said they were both pawns who had decided to fight against their fate.

• Selina told Huang Liang to forget imposed recipes and cook by following his own heart, and he remained steady under her influence.
• Selina told Huang Liang a story about a cooking robot controlled by the cloud, prompting him to connect it to the Internet Consciousness and the need for freedom.
• Huang Liang reconsidered how Selina, Mei Yiqiu, and Dickinson had arranged his journey and questioned whether they were all part of the same scheme.
• Huang Liang called himself a pawn in an enormous chess game, and Selina replied that they were both pawns who intended to fight rather than wait for the outcome.

Huang Liang pieced together Selina’s hints about an unseen player controlling people’s consciousness and suspected that his next task was to break free of that influence. He returned to Wolf Manor with Martha, where he learned Old Wolf had suddenly improved, and the chapter left him thinking of the woman and old willow from Liuying Lane.

• Huang Liang concluded Selina wanted him to act freely and sever the unseen player’s control, though he did not know who the player was.
• Huang Liang recalled his life in Liuying Lane, where his experiences with Bi Shenghua and Qingmu had awakened his human emotions.
• Huang Liang returned to Wolf Manor and found Martha waiting for him beneath a willow.
• Martha told Huang Liang that Old Wolf had improved enough to sit up and eat, and that the Wolf family credited Huang Liang with the recovery.
• Huang Liang rode with Martha toward Wolf Manor and imagined he was traveling back to Liuying Lane, where a woman stood beneath an old tree.

Bi Shenghua oversaw the redevelopment of Liuying Lane while remaining attached to its old willow and the memories she shared with Qingmu. After finding an old photograph beneath the tree, she recognized the man in it and wondered whether Qingmu might return.

• Bi Shenghua recalled how Hu Xing’s support and Xia Xiaoxiao’s entrusted fortune made her a partner in the Liuying Lane redevelopment project.
• Bi Shenghua lent her relocation compensation to Xiao Qi and Mo Yu so they could open a new bar, asking them to keep all the old bar’s employees.
• Bi Shenghua visited the shuttered Ruhua Bar and worried that the swallows would lose their nest when Liuying Lane was demolished.
• Bi Shenghua saw a hooded stranger examining the willow and bar, but found only an old photograph after he left.
• Bi Shenghua recognized the man in the photograph and read its inscription: Huasheng Sang and Cuan Yifang had been photographed at the Mulberry Garden in 1931.