Chapter Summaries

Lu Lin and Yan Heqing traveled by RV to a remote lake surrounded by extinct volcanoes, where they prepared food and drinks after arriving. Yan Heqing got drunk and went to bed, then climbed back up to look for his phone.

• Lu Lin showed Yan Heqing an eleven-year-old photograph of the lake and volcanoes they were traveling to see.
• After landing on March 3, Lu Lin and Yan Heqing bought food and supplies before driving six hours toward their destination.
• Yan Heqing asked why Lu Lin could remember the route but not Lin Fengzhi, and Lu Lin said there was no need to remember him before admitting he had remembered Yan Heqing from their first meeting.
• Yan Heqing drove for nearly four hours before Lu Lin took over and drove them to the unfinished road near the lake.
• Lu Lin and Yan Heqing grilled food and cooked instant noodles beside the RV, then ate and drank local liquor until Yan Heqing got drunk.

After Yan Heqing drunkenly told Lu Lin that he was glad Lu Lin had been with him, Lu Lin dreamed of Yan Heqing’s childhood on the anniversary of his death. The dream left Lu Lin witnessing the abuse Yan Heqing endured as a child.

• Yan Heqing set an alarm for sunrise, fell asleep in Lu Lin’s arms, and murmured that the day had once been the anniversary of his death.
• Lu Lin dreamed he was at Rainbow Bridge Welfare Home on New Year’s Day and watched young Yan Heqing cry alone in a storage room during a storm.
• A woman came to retrieve Yan Heqing, and he tearfully asked whether his little brother would come back; she reassured him that he would.
• Lu Lin followed Yan Heqing to a balcony and saw him sleeping with blood on the bandage covering his injured left ear.
• Yan Shengbing arrived drunk, kicked eleven-year-old Yan Heqing in the stomach, and cursed him before returning to his bedroom.

Yan Heqing signed a contract with Lu Muchi after Zhao Huilin and Yan Shengbing threatened him with the loss of his chance to find his younger brother. Later, Lu Muchi found Yan Heqing bleeding in a locked room and used the promise of showing him his brother to make him respond.

• Zhao Huilin threatened to harm herself and warned Yan Heqing that Lu Muchi could make his younger brother disappear unless Yan Heqing complied.
• Yan Heqing agreed to sign a contract with Lu Muchi, while Lu Lin watched helplessly.
• On November 8, Yan Heqing's eighteenth birthday, he sat alone with a gladiolus and quietly wished himself a happy adulthood.
• Yan Heqing signed Lu Muchi's contract at a café, choosing to stay alive despite his despair.
• Lu Muchi entered the locked room, grabbed Yan Heqing, and taunted him as Yan Heqing continued bleeding.
• Lu Muchi offered to let Yan Heqing see his younger brother, prompting Yan Heqing to ask what he planned to do.

Lu Muchi revealed that he had chosen Yan Heqing because his eyes resembled his younger brother’s, Lin Fengzhi, and used the chance to see Lin Fengzhi to keep Yan Heqing compliant. As Lu Lin witnessed Yan Heqing’s next ordeal and learned that Lu Muchi planned to take his corneas for Lin Fengzhi, he passed into another space.

• Lu Muchi told Yan Heqing that he had chosen him for his resemblance to Lin Fengzhi, the person he loved most, and Yan Heqing begged to see his younger brother.
• Lu Muchi let Yan Heqing watch Lin Fengzhi from afar, and those glimpses became the only thing keeping Yan Heqing going.
• Lu Lin noticed Yan Heqing’s feelings toward Lu Muchi changing, then saw Cheng Jian enter and leave before Lu Muchi arrived an hour later.
• Yan Heqing stabbed Cheng Jian, escaped, and ran toward Lu Muchi’s villa while Lu Lin watched helplessly.
• Lu Lin heard Lu Muchi arrange a corneal transplant for Lin Fengzhi and realized the corneas would come from Yan Heqing; after trying to strike Lu Muchi, he passed into another space.

Yan Heqing returned to a modest life of tending plants and making dumplings, and Lu Lin realized he had survived and chosen to keep living. When Zhao Huilin called to report that Yan Heqing’s father was threatening trouble unless Lu Muchi paid him, Yan Heqing tried to reach Lu Muchi and learned he had gone to meet Young Master Xiao Lin.

• At Yan Heqing’s parents’ graves, Lu Lin watched him count the steps to their headstones and ask his mother whether he could give up on living just once.
• Lu Lin draped his coat over Yan Heqing, then witnessed a memory of Yan Heqing tending gladioli and succulents in his apartment.
• Yan Heqing made himself dumplings and was about to eat when Zhao Huilin called to say his father was drunk and threatening trouble unless Lu Muchi gave him money.
• Yan Heqing called Lu Muchi, but found himself still blacklisted, so he contacted Lu Muchi’s butler instead.
• The butler told Yan Heqing that Lu Muchi had gone to meet Young Master Xiao Lin and had forbidden anyone from mentioning Yan Heqing.

Lu Lin realized Yan Heqing was heading toward the place and date of his death and followed him to the exhibition center. Yan Heqing was struck by a car during the confrontation with Yan Shengbing, and Lu Lin held him as the world around them dissolved.

• Yan Heqing learned that his adoptive father had gone to find Lu Muchi, then left home after guessing where he needed to go.
• Yan Heqing took a bus to Hechong Station and reached the National Geographic photography exhibition, where he waited for Lin Fengzhi to appear.
• Lu Lin recognized Lu Muchi and Lin Fengzhi outside the exhibition center and remembered a message inviting him to the event three years earlier.
• Yan Heqing identified Lu Muchi with help from a woman at a coffee shop and left to meet him.
• Lu Lin foresaw a car crash, but Yan Shengbing struck Yan Heqing while the police restrained him.
• Lu Lin held and kissed Yan Heqing as the rain and surrounding world faded away.

Lu Lin dreamed of a world without Yan Heqing, then woke and found him by the lake, realizing why Yan Heqing had tried to save him. They watched the sunrise together before Lu Lin went to school, still affected by the night.

• In Lu Lin’s dream, Lin Fengzhi accepted Lu Muchi’s proposal, and Lu Lin saw them marry in a world without Yan Heqing.
• Lu Lin woke in the RV, found Yan Heqing’s lantern by the lakeside, and ran through the weeds to reach him.
• Lu Lin embraced Yan Heqing and understood that his actions had been meant to save Lu Lin from dying on March 3.
• Yan Heqing and Lu Lin watched the sunrise over the volcanic wasteland, and Lu Lin told him he had been looking at the most beautiful sunrise in the world.
• At school, Lu Lin told Chu Ziyu he had insomnia, then raised his hand during class to go to the infirmary.

Lu Lin’s memories of his life with Yan Heqing returned when he saw Beijing University through the rain, and he rushed to find him. Yan Heqing, frightened and alone in the orphanage storage room, heard Lu Lin playing a melody his mother used to sing.

• Lu Lin skipped class to fish and bought cream cake squares, while memories of a man who loved those things filled his dreams.
• Lu Lin failed to fall asleep that night and went to school frustrated that he could not dream again.
• On the way home in heavy rain, Lu Lin saw Beijing University and remembered Yan Heqing and their life together.
• Yan Heqing hid in the orphanage storage room, afraid of the dark and grieving that he might never see his little brother again.
• Lu Lin reached the storage-room door and played a harmonica; Yan Heqing recognized his mother’s pingtan song and looked toward the door.

Lu Lin brought five-year-old Yan Heqing out of the orphanage and began building a new life with him after adopting him. They went shopping together, and Lu Lin took Yan Heqing home to meet Grandma.

• Lu Lin played a harmonica outside Yan Heqing's door, offered him fried cakes, and asked him to come home; Yan Heqing agreed.
• The Lu Family's elderly butler completed Yan Heqing's adoption paperwork, and Lu Lin took him to the mall on Grandma's bicycle.
• Lu Lin bought Yan Heqing popular toys and Superhero comics, which Yan Heqing carried proudly.
• Lu Lin told Yan Heqing they were going home, where Grandma had dressed in a qipao in honor of Yan Heqing's mother.

Yan Heqing avoided signing a contract with his adoptive parents and sought shelter in a cheap inn near Beijing University on his eighteenth birthday. Lu Lin learned where he was staying and headed to the airport with a birthday cake decorated with eighteen pale-purple gladioli.

• Yan Heqing waited out the rain at a café, then left after the lawyer failed to arrive and accepted a large umbrella from an employee.
• Yan Heqing took a half-price taxi toward Beijing University, where a birthday song reminded him that he had turned eighteen.
• Lu Lin chose a vintage cake for Yan Heqing and ordered its decorations changed to eighteen pale-purple gladioli.
• Assistant Meng told Lu Lin that Yan Heqing had checked into the Human World Cottage Inn for five hundred yuan a month, and Lu Lin ordered someone to go there before heading to the airport.
• Yan Heqing received a key card for room 306 at the inn.

Yan Heqing was offered a chance to transfer to the biology department, but he hesitated because he wanted to earn money to search for Yan Mingsong. On his eighteenth birthday, he learned that his younger brother was happy with his adoptive family and agreed to stop looking for him.

• Yan Heqing's adviser summoned him to campus, where Professor Yang Rucheng invited him to join the biology department and gave him time to consider.
• Yan Heqing heard that Zhao Weifang had been arrested for secretly photographing girls.
• Yan Heqing met his aunt Qin Shuqi, who returned a tin of keepsakes left by Yan Qiushuang and told him Yan Mingsong's adoptive family wanted relatives to stop searching for him.
• Yan Heqing accepted that Yan Mingsong was happy and promised not to disturb the family, and Qin Shuqi began celebrating his eighteenth birthday with a cake.

Yan Heqing celebrated his eighteenth birthday, received photographs of his mother, and transferred to the biology department with Professor Yang Rucheng’s support. After a happier first year at university, he encountered Lu Lin at a lecture.

• Qin Shuqi celebrated Yan Heqing’s birthday with a cake decorated with his mother’s favorite purple gladioli, and Yan Heqing wished to be happy.
• Yan Heqing returned to the Human World Cottage, discovered its renovated room and white plum blossoms, and found photographs of Yan Qiushuang in the tin.
• Yan Heqing contacted Professor Yang Rucheng and decided to transfer to the biology department, where Yang promised to support his studies and expenses.
• Zhao Huilin demanded that Yan Heqing sever ties with the family and transfer his household registration, and the Yan-Zhao family soon moved away.
• Yan Heqing studied and worked on projects with Professor Yang Rucheng, enjoying a much happier first year and unusually good luck.
• After his final exams, Yan Heqing attended a lecture and turned to meet Lu Lin, who introduced himself by extending a hand.

In this what-if, Yan Heqing grew up as an only child with Qin Li and Yan Qiushuang and eagerly started school at five. He became lifelong deskmates with Shen Huaiyu, then reunited with him for an arcade trip before high school, where Chu Ziyu noticed him.

• Yan Heqing woke from a nap, ran to greet Qin Li, and shared dinner with his parents as they discussed his early enrollment in primary school.
• The night before school began, Yan Heqing checked his new Ultraman schoolbag and looked forward to meeting other children.
• Qin Li took Yan Heqing to No. 1 Primary School, where his teacher seated him beside Shen Huaiyu, his deskmate through junior high.
• When Yan Heqing entered No. 1 Middle School and Shen Huaiyu went to No. 2 Middle School, Yan Heqing took him to an arcade before school started.
• Chu Ziyu spotted Yan Heqing at the arcade and remarked to Lu Lin that he looked like a good student straight out of a comic.

Yan Heqing began senior high school, where Lu Lin took an unusual interest in him despite barely speaking. After school, Yan Heqing met his mother, Yan Qiushuang, and rode home with her as she asked how he was settling in.

• Chu Ziyu recognized Yan Heqing in his new class and introduced himself with Ge Tongyuan, while Lu Lin listened to Yan Heqing's voice and watched him.
• The homeroom teacher arranged seats by height, and Yan Heqing chose the seat in front of Chu Ziyu, placing Lu Lin behind him.
• At home, Qin Li made duck soup to celebrate Yan Heqing's first day of senior high, and Yan Heqing tasted it before going to meet Yan Qiushuang.
• Yan Heqing rode his bicycle to meet Yan Qiushuang, loaded her watermelon into the basket, and gave her a ride home.
• Yan Qiushuang asked Yan Heqing whether he had settled in and gotten along with his classmates.

Yan Heqing worked late on New Year’s Eve, missing Lu Lin’s invitation to go out to sea, then headed home after eating the blueberries Lu Lin had packed for him. The stairwell lights had been replaced with step lights, making his descent safer.

• Lu Lin asked Yan Heqing to finish early and join Chu Ziyu’s New Year’s Eve outing, but Yan Heqing declined because of his experiment.
• Yan Heqing worked in the lab until 2:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day and ate the blueberries Lu Lin had left for him.
• Yan Heqing packed his schoolbag, checked and locked the lab, then used his phone’s light to descend the dark stairwell.
• Yan Heqing saw that the stairwell’s old motion-activated lights had been replaced with step lights that clearly illuminated the stairs.

Lu Lin took Yan Heqing to a hotel for a week so he could rest after working long hours in the laboratory. He told Yan Heqing he would pick him up that weekend and take him home.

• Lu Lin accepted a cake from the new upstairs neighbors, who apologized for the noise their child might make.
• Lu Lin waited by the laboratory building late at night and drove Yan Heqing to a hotel near the university.
• Yan Heqing learned Lu Lin had moved his luggage and booked a week-long stay at the hotel.
• Lu Lin kissed Yan Heqing near the eye, gave him the room key, and told him to rest before he came to collect him that weekend.