Chapter Summaries

After Windmill devastated the South Pacific, Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the untouched island where she had once lived with Situ and Alice. Remembering their life there, she watched Alice enter the mysterious beach hut through a door that appeared over the tide.

• Windmill devastated islands across the South Pacific, while Hawaii rebuilt and the small island south of the Bass Islands remained untouched.
• Xia Xiaoxiao recalled how she and Situ found the island while fleeing danger and built stone cottages there.
• Xia Xiaoxiao remembered giving birth to Alice in Santa Fe City and later settling on the island to keep their daughter safe.
• Situ built Alice a doorless hut on the beach and told her that only she could enter it to meet him when she missed him.
• When Alice said she missed her father, Xia Xiaoxiao watched her cross the seawater, climb invisible stairs, and enter a door that appeared in the hut.

Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the island where she and Situ had made their home and waited beneath the stars, while Xia Chujue grew into the Xia Family’s successor and later helped rebuild civilization after catastrophe. In her final moments, Xia Chujue returned to the island and wept before the weathered stone statue of her mother, who still gazed at the sky.

• Xia Xiaoxiao returned to the island, walked the beach, and spent each day waiting for Situ beneath the stars.
• Years later, Situ saw Xia Xiaoxiao transformed into reef rock as he traveled through the Heart of Ten Suns.
• Xia Wenyuan groomed Xia Chujue to lead the Xia Family, and she proved her ability as she grew older.
• Xia Chujue inherited the Xia Family’s leadership after Xia Wenyuan died, and Bi Shenghua transferred Third Space and the Mei Laboratory businesses to her.
• Xia Chujue consolidated the Wolf Family’s businesses and later used her wealth and abilities to help rebuild order after civilization’s collapse.
• In her final moments, Xia Chujue returned to the island and knelt in tears before the stone statue of Xia Xiaoxiao.

After the Huracan altar activated, Qingmu and the others were swallowed by the Spacetime Stasis Zone and found themselves beneath a starry sky with four suns faintly visible above it. Situ confirmed they were in the zone by revealing that only one second had passed on his consciousness’s atomic clock, despite the group feeling that ten to twelve hours had elapsed.

• Qingmu realized the altar’s activation had likely triggered a protective mechanism that drew the surrounding space into a spacetime deep well, but he could not explain Ronald Cohen’s actions or warnings.
• Qingmu and the others tried to flee as the advancing black line approached, but they stopped when they saw they could not escape it.
• The black line passed over the group, slowing time briefly before the world returned to normal beneath a starry sky and four faint suns.
• The group returned to the altar, saw the corpses of the Itza People, and searched the surrounding mountains for a way out.
• Alice feared they would grow old and die there, while Su Huilan questioned whether they were truly in a stasis zone.
• Situ confirmed that they were in the Spacetime Stasis Zone, saying his consciousness’s atomic clock had advanced only one second since the shadow covered them.

The survivors began adapting to life in Stasis Spacetime and cremated the hundreds of mummified bodies aboard the ship. As Ivan and Petru vanished during a search for Ronald Cohen, a sudden fire erupted onshore, where Mrs. Larry and Alice had been left alone.

• Situ explained that time passed forty thousand times faster in Stasis Spacetime, and Mrs. Larry urged everyone to keep going like Robinson.
• The survivors divided up work to gather food, fish, prepare supplies, and cremate the bodies aboard the ship.
• Qingmu and Situ prepared a pyre at the Sangqi Tribe’s former camp, and the group brought more than three hundred bodies ashore.
• Situ noticed that Ronald Cohen was missing, and Ivan and Petru went back to the ship to search for him.
• Qingmu and Situ returned to the ship and found that Ivan and Petru had disappeared too.
• Su Huilan and Duwa came over to the ship, leaving Mrs. Larry and Alice onshore, and a blaze suddenly lit up the shore.

Qingmu and the others returned to shore and discovered that Alice had burned the corpses while Mrs. Larry was ill and disoriented. They continued searching the Swordfish and the island for the missing men, but found neither them nor any remains of the burned bodies; Situ finally said they had been living this way for twenty-one seconds.

• Qingmu, Situ, Su Huilan, and Duwa returned to shore and found Mrs. Larry unwell and Alice frightened after she had lit the cremation fire.
• Duwa examined Mrs. Larry and Alice, then told Qingmu and Situ that Mrs. Larry seemed to have suffered trauma from resisting hypnosis.
• Qingmu, Situ, and Su Huilan searched the Swordfish for Petru, Ivan, and Ronald Cohen's body but found no trace of them.
• Qingmu later found no bones among the cremation ground's ashes, and the group continued searching the ship and nearby woods without success.
• When Alice asked how long they had been living this way, Situ answered that it had been twenty-one seconds.

The crew realized that twenty-one seconds in the Spacetime Deep Well had cost them ten and a half days, and feared Petru and Ivan had vanished or died. When the two men suddenly returned, Mrs. Larry confessed her feelings and accepted Petru's proposal, leaving them ready to marry.

• Qingmu calculated that twenty-one seconds outside the Spacetime Deep Well had amounted to ten and a half days for the crew.
• Boss Coal worried that Petru and Ivan had been missing long enough to starve, while Mrs. Larry regretted keeping her distance from Petru and began to cry.
• Petru and Ivan emerged from the command room, surprising the crew after they had searched the ship for Ronald Cohen's body.
• Petru saw Mrs. Larry crying and angrily demanded to know who had upset her.
• Mrs. Larry asked Petru whether he loved her and wanted to marry her, and Petru said yes before she agreed to marry him.

Petru and Mrs. Larry celebrated their wedding aboard the Swordfish, but Situ discovered that the spacetime bubble in the helicopter hangar might let time flow normally. The group decided to investigate the hangar together, with the newlyweds refusing to be left behind.

• Petru and Mrs. Larry arrived at the Swordfish by boat as Alice and Su Huilan showered them with flowers, then Situ and Duwa witnessed their wedding.
• After the ceremony, Petru and Mrs. Larry considered using the decorated command room, while Situ warned that they would not grow old in the Stasis Space.
• Situ asked Ivan about the helicopter hangar, and Ivan confirmed that he and Petru had briefly searched it for Ronald Cohen's body.
• Situ realized the spacetime bubble might still be in the hangar and explained that entering it could have caused the others to vanish while only a few women remained outside.
• Petru insisted that he and Mrs. Larry would join the trip to the hangar, and Situ agreed that no one would be left behind.

With hope of escaping the Spacetime Stasis Zone, the group waited aboard the ship while Petru and Mrs. Larry enjoyed time outside, where time passed far faster. The crow then questioned how the helicopter’s fuel had disappeared, raising a troubling mystery.

• Su Huilan asked Situ and Qingmu why they had waited until after Petru and Mrs. Larry’s wedding to reveal their escape plan, and the crow joked that one had overthought it while the other had not thought at all.
• The group entered the hangar and learned from Situ that their passage through the Spacetime Deep Well might take ten days or a month.
• Petru and Mrs. Larry went outside for fresh air, then returned looking rejuvenated after spending about a minute and a half outside, which equaled roughly forty-five days inside.
• The group ate together and decided to go out in pairs when they needed to use the toilet, while conserving their torches by putting them out between uses.
• Qingmu said the helicopter had no fuel, and the crow wondered who had removed it, since Petru and Mrs. Larry had spent weeks outside while the others had barely eaten.

After the group suspected someone else had survived aboard the Swordfish, they waited in the hangar for whoever had taken the fuel. Qingmu left the frozen hangar alone and discovered the ship had run aground after a thousand years, then explored the overgrown shore and reached the Huracan Tribe’s altar, where bleached bones still covered the ground.

• Su Huilan, Petru, Ivan, and the others reasoned that the missing fuel suggested one or more people might have survived, and the crow recalled seeing a shadow in the passageway.
• Situ proposed waiting in the hangar, and the group stayed there as time passed differently outside; eventually, they left in turns to relieve themselves.
• Qingmu watched Situ and Ivan disappear into darkness outside the hangar, then left with Boss Coal and Hanran while the people inside remained frozen like a still image.
• Qingmu saw that the Swordfish had drifted ashore and become badly rusted, then rowed to the beach and walked through the overgrown landscape to the Huracan Tribe’s valley.
• Qingmu reached the altar square, where bleached bones still lay in the poses of the dead, and felt his legs grow heavy as he prepared to climb.

Qingmu and the others survived the Spacetime Deep Well as the Swordfish and landscape rapidly decayed, relying on water from the altar and cacti growing over the remains of the Itza People. After the four Suns returned, they realized they still had to find a way out and reach the next altar.

• Qingmu recognized that the rocks in the altar pool matched the Tapu islands and returned to the Swordfish with torches.
• Qingmu and the others watched the Swordfish and their surroundings change as they made repeated trips outside, until the lake dried up and the mountains became barren.
• Qingmu and the others found water in the altar and edible cacti growing where the Itza People had been buried, and carried supplies back to the Swordfish.
• Qingmu and the others emerged from the Spacetime Deep Well as the four Suns returned, and Qingmu remembered the Itza prayer.
• Situ said they had to wait for fog to leave and reach the next altar.

Qingmu and the others split up in the fog to search for the remaining altars, uncertain whether they would meet again. Qingmu reached the Sangqi Tribe’s altar and discovered five suns in the sky, leading him to question what activating the altars would bring to humanity.

• Qingmu proposed splitting up so the group could follow the Sacred Staffs to the altars without all risking the Spacetime Deep Well at once.
• Situ assigned Qingmu and himself to search for the Manti Stone Tribe and Sangqi Tribe altars, while Duwa, Petru, and Mrs. Larry led searches for the Altar of Ice.
• Su Huilan parted from Qingmu and followed Duwa, while Alice joined Petru and Mrs. Larry and Ivan stayed with the others.
• Qingmu arrived at the place where he had first entered Ramla and saw five suns, which he suspected were connected to the activated altars.
• Qingmu considered the danger that restoring Gaia’s consciousness could disrupt human civilization, then reached the unchanged Sangqi Tribe altar with Crow.

Qingmu descended the altar and felt an inexplicable sense of coming home as he considered the five suns and the nature of the strange space. A vision of an ancient garden burned away, leaving him with the living willow twig and the thought that he might know how to get home.

• Qingmu noticed that one of the five suns had moved to the center of the other four and considered whether the suns belonged to a mental world, dream, or hallucination.
• Qingmu recalled feeling the same sense of familiarity at the altar during his previous visit and slowly continued down the steps.
• Crow agreed that the feeling was like coming home as Qingmu envisioned an ancient garden, a willow, a fruit tree, and people raising silkworms.
• Qingmu's vision turned into a fire that consumed the garden and left him amid scorched ruins before the scene vanished.
• Qingmu took out the sprouting willow twig and said he might know how to get home, while Crow clutched his hair.

At the Altar of Wood, Qingmu recalled fragments of his past and hesitated to activate the altar, though doing so might be the way home. Meanwhile, Bi Shenghua considered how to preserve the old willow in the restored Mulberry Garden and discovered a new willow seedling.

• Qingmu examined the altar’s carved symbols while Crow pointed out shapes resembling a tree and a bird beneath the stones.
• Qingmu and Crow could not remember how they had first reached Liuying Lane, but Qingmu recalled dying in a fire and feeling at home beneath a willow tree.
• Qingmu worried that activating the Altar of Wood might be a mistake and wondered whether Situ had activated the Altar of Stone.
• Crow insisted that activating the altar was right because it would help them get home.
• Bi Shenghua considered how to restore the Mulberry Garden while preserving its old willow, then spotted a willow seedling beside her feet.

Qingmu realized the Altar of Wood mirrored the Mulberry Garden in Wuzhong and used the willow twig to guide its activation. As the Soul of Wood awakened, its roots reached the garden, where new growth filled the grounds before Bi Shenghua’s eyes.

• Qingmu recognized that the altar’s layout matched the Mulberry Garden and reasoned that activating it could open a passage home.
• Qingmu placed the willow twig at the altar’s dry lake, and Bi Shenghua later saw the willow sapling sprout leaves as greenery spread throughout the garden.
• Qingmu inserted the Soul of Wood into the altar and watched it grow into a vast tree whose roots reached toward a familiar garden.
• Bi Shenghua watched fresh shoots cover the Mulberry Garden as the wind rippled the lake.

Qingmu used the Soul of Wood to form a spacetime bubble that could shelter him and Crow from the approaching Spacetime Stasis Zone. As they watched the world outside race through cycles of time, Qingmu and Crow considered whether the Swordfish’s hangar bubble and the missing half of the Soul of Fire were connected, ending with Crow suspecting someone had been hidden in the hangar.

• Qingmu explained that the willow cutting could eventually open a passage home and that time would pass slowly inside the Spacetime Stasis Zone.
• Crow suggested the Swordfish’s hangar bubble might have been deliberately made, and Qingmu agreed that spacetime bubbles could be crafted.
• Qingmu pulled out the Soul of Wood, sensed the altar’s overlapping spatial layer, and gathered its fragments into a new spacetime bubble.
• The Stasis Zone’s shadow covered the altar, while Qingmu and Crow watched the trees outside wither and flourish at tremendous speed.
• Qingmu proposed that Ronald Cohen had taken the Soul of Fire only after leaving the Stasis Zone, and Crow wondered whether its other half and someone else had been hidden in the hangar.

Qingmu and Crow examined the clues surrounding the hangar, the Sacred Staffs, and Ronald Cohen, suspecting that Ivan, Petru, and Alice might be connected to a hidden plan. Qingmu then grew the willow into a tree resembling the one in Liuying Lane, shattered their spacetime bubble, and stepped through its branches with Crow, leaving their fate unknown.

• Qingmu reasoned that someone might have collected spacetime fragments and created the preserved hangar, and he suspected Duwa, Petru, Ivan, and possibly Ronald Cohen.
• Crow suggested that Ronald might still be alive because his body had never been found, and Qingmu recalled that Ivan and Petru had carried the bodies.
• Qingmu considered whether the cremated Swordfish crew might have formed a collective consciousness and wondered whether Alice was involved.
• Crow mentioned going home, prompting Qingmu to think of the old street and its mulberry tree.
• Qingmu used the Soul of Wood to grow the willow twig into a tree like the one in Liuying Lane, then shattered the spacetime bubble.
• Qingmu swept aside the willow branches and entered with Crow as the tree withered away inside the still spacetime.

Bi Shenghua watched the Mulberry Garden’s ancient trees revive and change while the man she loved remained absent, as Hu Xing and Yao Jingjing each married. On Lunar New Year’s Eve, she found the man had finally returned, and they reunited beneath the snow.

• Mulberry Garden’s saplings suddenly turned green, and Bi Shenghua revised the construction plans to protect them while Hu Xing wondered how the miracle happened.
• Hu Xing told Bi Shenghua she was marrying Shi Dazhuang, and their wedding took place during the National Day holiday as the grove grew into a sizable stand of ancient Sang trees.
• The old willow deteriorated as the Sang grove flourished, then shed its bark and branches and began growing mulberry leaves; Bi Shenghua realized it had become a mulberry tree.
• Yao Jingjing and Hou Biao married at the end of the year, and Bi Shenghua quietly left their wedding to return to the Sang Garden.
• On Lunar New Year’s Eve, Bi Shenghua wrapped the old Sang tree against the snow, and the long-absent man appeared with an umbrella and told her he was back.

Qingmu returned to Bi Shenghua’s home after five years away and spent Lunar New Year’s Eve sharing dinner and wine with her and Crow. He declined to contact their friends right away, choosing to stay with Bi Shenghua for a few days, while Crow’s drunken antics ended the evening in laughter.

• Qingmu revisited his room and recalled how much had changed during his five years away.
• Bi Shenghua served Qingmu and Crow a New Year’s Eve dinner and told Qingmu about their friends and Huang Ziqiang’s gifts.
• Qingmu told Bi Shenghua he wanted to spend the next few days with her before notifying everyone that he had returned.
• Crow drank several cups of wine, insulted Bi Shenghua, and then pretended he could not remember what had happened.

Qingmu revisited the Mulberry Garden with Bi Shenghua, recalling fragments of his past as he considered returning to Ramla to complete his mission. Memories of old Liuying Lane and the war came back in flashes, and the chapter left him confronting the recollection of Liu Huaian and a mysterious gate marked “LBNL 19.”

• Qingmu told Bi Shenghua that he might have to return to Ramla, but first wanted to visit places connected to his returning memories.
• Bi Shenghua explained how the old willow tree had become Sang, and showed Qingmu where the old Liuying Lane street had been.
• A match flame triggered Qingmu’s memories of his youth with Bi Shenghua, a photographer, and the devastation of war.
• Bi Shenghua guided Qingmu through the former street, and Qingmu remembered Liu Huaian jumping from the old supply and marketing cooperative and asking whether the children were doing well.
• Qingmu recalled telling Liu Huaian that the money had been sent, then glimpsed a guarded metal gate marked “LBNL 19.”

Qingmu recalled a mysterious visit to Lawrence Laboratory No. 19, then recovered a vivid memory of escaping the fire at the Liu family's wool mill. The memory ended with a crow appearing in the snowy landscape and teasing Qingmu and Bi Shenghua.

• Qingmu remembered passing security at Lawrence Laboratory No. 19 and seeing a person undergoing surgery before the memory cut off.
• Bi Shenghua told Qingmu about the old farmers' market, the former internet café, and the wool mill fire that occurred on the day she was born.
• Qingmu pictured the wool mill and remembered being trapped inside when the fire broke out after the Liu family cut down the mulberry tree.
• Qingmu remembered falling over the severed mulberry root as he fled, then seeing a green bud sprout from it before the flames consumed him.
• A crow flew out of the shattered memory and landed on Qingmu's head, teasing him and Bi Shenghua as they walked.