Chapter Summaries

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.

Hu Xing and Qingmu entered Xia Wenyuan’s dream and confronted a shadow trying to take over his body. Qingmu’s raven tore the shadow apart, but a faint shadow began to emerge again beside Xia Wenyuan.

• Hu Xing asked Qingmu why a shadow was attacking her grandfather, and Qingmu explained that it was an intruder seeking to possess Xia Wenyuan.
• Qingmu stepped into Xia Wenyuan’s dream, disturbing the space and drawing the shadow’s attention.
• The shadow claimed it was Xia Wenyuan, while Qingmu questioned its identity and a raven seized it.
• The raven tore the shadow into fragments, but a dim shadow slowly emerged in the water beside Xia Wenyuan.

After Qingmu rescued Xia Wenyuan from the conscious shadow in his dream, he explained that an invading consciousness had entered Xia Wenyuan’s mind and tried to kill him. Xia Wenyuan wondered whether someone had used dark arts against him, and Qingmu’s explanation led him to inspect a Picasso painting.

• Xia Wenyuan woke with Wu Lixia beside him, while Hu Xing also awoke and realized they had escaped the dream.
• Xia Wenyuan thanked Qingmu for saving him and invited him to a family banquet, while Wu Lixia asked Qingmu to explain what had happened.
• Qingmu explained that Xia Wenyuan’s shadow had developed self-awareness, but that the consciousness was an invader rather than a split personality.
• Peter challenged Qingmu’s account and asked whether the invader had caused the fibrosis in Xia Wenyuan’s brain, which Qingmu could not explain.
• Xia Wenyuan asked whether someone had used dark arts to harm him, and Qingmu described how a foreign consciousness could grow inside a person.
• Qingmu stood up and asked whether a Picasso painting had always hung in the room.

Qingmu questioned Xia Wenyuan about the Picasso painting in his study and learned that its history echoed Xia Wenyuan’s family story and reminded him of his daughter, Xiaoxiao. After seeing Xiaoxiao’s photograph, Qingmu recognized her as Meimei’s young mother, and Xia Wenyuan revealed that she had died five years earlier.

• Qingmu examined the painting and asked Xia Wenyuan why he had bought it.
• Xia Wenyuan explained that the painting’s creation and the painter’s relationship mirrored details of his parents’ lives.
• Xia Wenyuan said he bought the painting after seeing that the painted woman resembled his daughter Xiaoxiao.
• Wu Lixia showed Qingmu a photograph of Xiaoxiao posing by a red sofa.
• Qingmu recognized Xiaoxiao as Meimei’s young mother, and Xia Wenyuan said she had died five years earlier.

Qingmu explained that the shadow in Xia Wenyuan’s dreams had been strengthened by the mental residue in the Picasso painting, but said it could only be suppressed by filling Xia’s life with light. Meanwhile, Mei Ziqing arrived in Copenhagen with Professor Mei Yiqiu, where the genetics conference was unexpectedly moved forward and Professor Mei was summoned to a private meeting.

• Qingmu explained that Picasso’s painting could activate a seed of consciousness in Xia Wenyuan, but its mental residue could not become an independent being.
• Qingmu told Xia Wenyuan that the shadow would grow strong again unless he filled his life with light, and said he would consult Professor Mei about another solution.
• Mei Ziqing and Professor Mei Yiqiu arrived in Copenhagen, where Mei Ziqing admired the scenery and planned to explore before the conference began.
• The conference organizers moved the international genetics conference forward, and Professor Frederick denied reporters’ claims of a new discovery involving the pyramids.
• Professor Frederick summoned selected scholars, including Professor Mei Yiqiu, to a private meeting while Mei Ziqing listened.

After receiving three million yuan from Xia Wenyuan, Qingmu rode home with Hu Xing and discussed lucid dreams and the disappearance of her aunt. He found his bar closed and Ruhua unreachable, leaving Hu Xing to offer him a place to stay before his teasing sent her driving off.

• Xia Wenyuan transferred Qingmu three million yuan, and Qingmu counted it out loud while Hu Xing drove him home.
• Qingmu warned Hu Xing that lucid dreams could feel real and become dangerous if she could not control them.
• Hu Xing told Qingmu that her youngest aunt had disappeared five years earlier and was later presumed dead after a suspected kidnapper confessed, then recanted.
• Qingmu suggested Hu Xing's aunt might still be alive in Wuzhong, but Hu Xing dismissed the idea.
• Qingmu found the bar closed and could not reach Ruhua, so Hu Xing offered him a place to stay; Qingmu joked about losing his virtue, and Hu Xing angrily drove away.

Qingmu invited Hu Xing upstairs for a drink, where Boss Coal teased them before they discussed Yang Baoguo’s death and unresolved questions in the Ma Fuqing case. Hu Xing left after realizing she had drunk beer and could no longer drive home.

• Qingmu used Boss Coal’s key to enter the bar and invited Hu Xing upstairs for a drink.
• Boss Coal made lewd jokes about Qingmu and Hu Xing, prompting Qingmu to threaten to withhold his food.
• Hu Xing told Qingmu that Yang Baoguo had suffocated himself in detention the night before his expected release.
• Hu Xing explained that Ma Fuquan’s psychiatric assessment was complete and the case would soon go to the procuratorate.
• Qingmu questioned why Ma Fuqing had disposed of his wife’s body in ways that seemed to ensure it would be found, but Hu Xing said the case would proceed to court.
• Hu Xing decided to leave, then realized she had drunk beer and could not drive home.

Hu Xing stayed at Qingmu’s studio after she could not find a ride home, and she chose his immaculate inner room over the cluttered office. Restless and remembering her college days, she went downstairs to find the toilet and called for Qingmu, but he did not answer.

• Qingmu offered Hu Xing a place to sleep after she said she could not drive, and Boss Coal’s drunken teasing made her laugh.
• Boss Coal passed out on the couch, and Qingmu went downstairs while Hu Xing entered the inner room.
• Hu Xing compared the spotless room with Qingmu’s messy studio and decided to sleep in the inner room.
• Hu Xing lay awake, recalled her police academy days and her family’s influence, and hoped to have another lucid dream.
• Needing the toilet, Hu Xing went downstairs and called for Qingmu in the dark bar, but received no response.

Hu Xing wandered through a darkening corridor in her lucid dream and fell into an abyss before her father pulled her to safety. She realized Qingmu was an intruder in the dream, and then woke to find him beside her in a bright, clean room.

• Hu Xing returned to the dorm room, struggled to sleep through the noise, and went back into the corridor to escape it.
• Hu Xing heard running water and found the corridor filling with a thick, insect-crawling liquid, then entered a room where the floor had vanished.
• Hu Xing fell into the abyss, and her father caught her wrist and urged her to care for herself and never give up.
• Hu Xing told her father she had become a qualified police officer, then saw a pale, hostile face at the window.
• Hu Xing realized she was dreaming and recognized Qingmu as an intruder before Qingmu told her she was finally awake.

Hu Xing successfully entered a lucid dream and learned from Qingmu that her dream version of him was created by her subconscious. After Qingmu left to search for the missing proprietress and singing girl, he warned Hu Xing that she must find a way out of her dream, leaving her frightened and trapped in the dorm room.

• Hu Xing held on through the distortions of her dream and met Qingmu in her college dorm room.
• Qingmu congratulated Hu Xing for passing the first lesson but said her mental power was too weak to continue training.
• Qingmu explained that her subconscious had given his bodiless consciousness a familiar appearance.
• Qingmu said the proprietress, the singing girl, and Xiao Qi could not be reached, and he left to search for them.
• Qingmu warned Hu Xing that she had to find a way out of the dream, then faded away before explaining how.
• Hu Xing panicked as her roommate sat up and spoke to her inside the dream.

After Mo Yu disappeared, Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua searched for her at the townhouse she rented in Spring Moon Garden. They learned she was inside, but a man’s threatening phone call suggested she was in danger, leaving them outside her door as he arrived.

• Xiao Qi received Mo Yu’s text saying she was unworthy of his care, then learned from Bi Shenghua that Mo Yu had left the bar.
• Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua went to Spring Moon Garden after recalling that Mo Yu lived in Building 11.
• A woman inside the townhouse said Mo Yu was asleep and refused to let Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua see her.
• Xiao Qi and Bi Shenghua overheard a man complain that Jiang had nearly killed him and say they had finally gotten Mo Yu back.
• The man reached the townhouse and said he would teach Mo Yu a lesson for refusing him.