Why doesn't Qing Wanglai publish his findings?

He fears the "observer effect" from billions of people becoming conscious of the projection theory, which he believes could cause a catastrophic collapse of their shared reality.

Is the truck ambush a betrayal by Qing Wanglai?

The chapter leaves it deliberately ambiguous. It could be a leak from his group, or the enemy tracking Li Huowang's phone even when it was off, but the perfect timing heavily implies an inside mole.

Who are the "others" Qing Wanglai gathered?

He identified 13 people who can sense the "projections." 5 refused or were incoherent, leaving 8 including Li Huowang, Qian Fu, Chen Hongyu, and 4 new unknowns who never get introduced due to the ambush.

The Car

1,100 words

Chapter 724: The Car

“This car must have been expensive.” Li Huowang ran his fingers over the red leather trim and glanced at Qing Wanglai in the driver’s seat.

The car sped along. The engine hummed, sometimes low, sometimes rising in pitch. He didn’t know much about cars, but just the sound of it, just the shape of the hood, told him this wasn’t something his family could afford.

Beside him, Yang Na stared at her phone, stunned by the price she had just searched. She leaned in and pressed her lips close to his ear, whispering the number.

Hearing what his girlfriend had found, Li Huowang slowly pulled his hand back from the leather.

From the way this guy had scrounged leftovers in the school cafeteria, he never would have guessed he was this loaded.

“What does expensive or cheap matter? They’re all projections anyway. I’m more interested in what exactly this car is a projection of.”

Seeing that Qing Wanglai was launching into his worldview spiel again, Li Huowang changed the subject. “Where are we going? The exact location?”

“Orange Island.” Qing Wanglai tapped his screen a few times, and a gentle piano track began to fill the cabin.

“Orange Island? Why there?” Yang Na, who had been hospitalized far less than Li Huowang, clearly knew more. “I heard all those riverside apartments were abandoned halfway because of unpaid debts. At night, there won’t be a single person there.”

“Exactly. No people means no noise and fewer eyes. By the way, turn off your phones. I don’t want you tracked. I’m still not sure what our electronics are projections of.”

Li Huowang pulled out his phone, sent a quick message to Sun Xiaoqin to let her know he was safe, and held down the power button.

As the shutdown melody played, Li Huowang watched Qing Wanglai’s profile flicker in and out of the neon light. “Can you tell me now? Who are these people we’re meeting?”

“Since they’re on our side, do they believe the same thing? The whole ‘the world is a projection’ hypothesis?”

“No. It’s not the same.” Qing Wanglai shook his head. “Let me start from the beginning. The fact that our world is a reflection of something else—I’m not the only one who knows. There are others, including you.”

Li Huowang grew serious. This was good for him. The more allies like this, the better his chances against those people.

“I’ve deliberately searched for them, but they’re rare. Most of them aren’t in great mental shape, and because of superstition or a lack of education, they don’t know the real truth about this world. They’re stubborn. When faced with inexplicable phenomena, they just fabricate their own worldviews.”

“I found them, categorized them, and ran tests and experiments on them.”

“Experiments?”

“Mm. Once I’ve gathered enough solid evidence, I’ll decide whether or not to publish it and prove the projection hypothesis of the universe.”

“You’ve found solid evidence? Of course you should publish it! That would be an incredible discovery. You’d be remembered in history! Can I see it?” Yang Na was visibly shocked.

Qing Wanglai glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “It’s not that simple. Have you heard of the observer effect? I observed a particular phenomenon in my thirty-first and fifty-second control experiments.”

“Until I fully understand it, this is like Pandora’s Box. If this information were to get out, what would happen when seven billion people on this planet all act as observers? Nobody knows.”

“If something goes wrong, we might not even have a projection left to be.”

“Cough.” Li Huowang cleared his throat, cutting them off. “Qing Wanglai, you’re off-topic. I asked who these people we’re meeting tonight are.”

Qing Wanglai thought for a moment, then replied, “They’re friends. They’re on our side. Since you can sense them, you’re on our side too. Since they posed a threat to you and Qian Fu, I asked them to help. We’re going to figure this out together.”

“How many of these ‘friends’ are there?”

“I found thirteen for now. Five refused or I couldn’t communicate with them. So there are eight in total, including you.”

“What do you know about the people who kidnapped me?”

“Not much more than you. I went back and asked around. Some of them also felt something was off, but for now, it doesn’t affect them much. Is there anything else you want to ask?”

“No.” Li Huowang fell silent, calculating in his head. Himself, Qian Fu, Chen Hongyu, and Qing Wanglai—that was four. That meant there were four more people coming tonight.

He had no idea how useful those four strangers would be. Without knowing who had tried to kidnap him, it was hard to say how this would go. For now, he could only take it one step at a time.

The car fell silent. None of them spoke, each lost in their own thoughts.

Gradually, the lights around them dimmed. Qing Wanglai drove into Orange Island. It looked desolate. All the basic infrastructure was only half-finished.

Even the traffic lights at the intersection weren’t powered. Their car was the only one on the road.

In the distance, rows of unfinished villas looked like rows of graves.

Compared to the bustling landscape they had just left, this place felt like an abandoned cemetery overrun with weeds.

A worried expression on her face, Yang Na wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her goosebumped skin.

Li Huowang pulled her into his arms and said to Qing Wanglai, “Turn the heat up. It’s getting cold.”

“Okay.” Just as Qing Wanglai agreed, Li Huowang felt a sudden, primal jolt. He whipped his head toward the dark intersection on the left. “Ambush!!”

The words had barely left his mouth when a truck, its lights off and license plate covered, slammed out from that intersection.

As Li Huowang instinctively pinned Yang Na beneath him, a screech of brakes cut through the air, and the car began to roll violently.

Under the brutal impact, every part of Li Huowang’s body screamed in pain, but he didn’t dare let his guard down. The intense danger had sharpened his focus to a razor’s edge.

When he felt the world around him stabilize slightly, he yanked at the door. It wouldn’t budge. Trapped by the seat, he gritted his teeth and slammed his head against the window. Crunch!

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! He hit it again and again. Blood trickled down the cracked glass.

Through the crimson-stained pane, Li Huowang saw two men get out of the stopped truck. They were carrying long objects.

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Reading Guide Decoding

Projection Club Meets Graveyard Island

Cultural / Xianxia Notes

The Observer Effect in the “Projection Hypothesis”: Qing Wanglai is a walking homage to amateur quantum mysticism. The “observer effect” he cites (from the double-slit experiment) is a real scientific concept where the act of observing a quantum system changes its behavior. But in the novel’s twisted logic, he elevates it to a metaphysical law: if everyone on Earth “observes” the truth, their collective awareness might collapse the sham-reality we’re living in. It’s a chilling hybrid of scientific terminology used to explain supernatural terror.

Orange Island (橘子洲) as a Symbol: This is a real place in Changsha, often associated with Mao Zedong’s famous poem. But here, the author brilliantly subverts it. Instead of a bustling tourist spot, he paints it as a bankrupt, unfinished, abandoned “graveyard.” The contrast between the famous landmark’s cultural weight and its desolate, crime-film portrayal acts as a powerful backdrop for the novel’s central theme: the corruption and decay of what should be a foundation of reality.

The Reality of “Projection” (投影) in the Novel: This is not just a conversation; it’s the core philosophical premise of the modern-world line. Qing Wanglai’s “projection hypothesis” isn’t random fantasy. In the context of the book, it’s a rational (if terrifying) explanation for the “Dao-Twisted World”: that world and ours are echoes of each other (or of a higher “White Jade Capital”), and that tampering with one can literally edit the other. Li Huowang’s ability to feel these “projections” is what makes him a valuable ally and a target.

Chapter Overview

This chapter yanks the reality-bending horror of Dao Gui Yi Xian back into the modern world for a very different kind of showdown. After weeks of forced isolation in the psychiatric ward, Li Huowang finally gets an exit pass—not for fresh air, but for a tense, clandestine meeting with Qing Wanglai and a handful of other “awakened” individuals. But before the first handshake can happen, the conspiracy strikes first, turning a car ride into a brutal ambush. It’s a masterclass in shifting tonal gears: the mundane anxiety of a teenage relationship talk slowly curdles into a paranoid negotiation about the nature of reality, before exploding into bone-jarring, visceral violence. The chapter masterfully uses the car as a stage—first as a confined space for philosophical sparring, then as a rolling tomb.

Key Plot Points

The price of reality (and a car): Li Huowang and Yang Na awkwardly discover that the school-lunch scrounger, Qing Wanglai, is secretly loaded. This mundane detail becomes a doorway into his obsessive worldview: everything is a “projection.”
The hypothesis club: Qing Wanglai reveals he has been actively searching for others who “know” the world is a projection. He has already organized them, run experiments on them, and now hesitates to publish the results, fearing the “observer effect” from 7 billion people could have catastrophic consequences.
The summons for help: Li Huowang wants firepower and answers. Qing Wanglai has a list: out of 13 potential allies, 8 agreed to come, including Qian Fu, Chen Hongyu, and the three new unknowns. They’re meeting on the abandoned, half-built Orange Island.
Ambush on the Graveyard Island: The “safe meeting zone” turns out to be a trap. As soon as Qing Wanglai turns up the heat, a covered, headlight-less truck rams their car, sending it rolling. Li Huowang shatters the window with his own skull, only to see two figures with long weapons approaching.
Trust betrayed? The ambush is perfectly timed. The reader is left to wonder if the hit team is from the enemy, or if their “new friend” Qing Wanglai is just a more sophisticated bait.

Reading Guide

First off, take a moment to appreciate the tonal whiplash. You go from a teenager noting how soft the leather seats are to a shattering car roll-over in the span of a few paragraphs. This is a hallmark of the “modern world” chapters: they can ground you in cozy high school drama before revealing that a monster is lurking in the parking lot. Also, keep a sharp eye on Qing Wanglai’s dialogue. Is he a savior, or is he a different breed of fox from the ones trying to kidnap Li Huowang? His pseudo-scientific rambling is fascinating, but the chapter intentionally leaves the table tilted—he says he knows “others,” but they arrive at a ghost town, not a safe house. And that ambush? Was it a leak, or a setup? The knife’s edge Li Huowang walks between sanity and paranoia is perfectly embodied here: he has just enough reason to trust, and just enough evidence to be terrified.

Deeper Dive: The “Observer” Terror

The most haunting moment in this chapter isn’t the crash. It’s Qing Wanglai’s quiet, earnest explanation for why he won’t share the truth. “If something goes wrong, we might not even have a projection left to be.” He isn’t holding back for fame or power; he’s hesitating because he’s genuinely afraid that human consciousness itself is a dangerous weapon. The book plays with the idea that the universe might be unstable and that our perception is the only glue holding it together. This is a thematic cousin to the Lovecraftian horror where knowing the truth is a death sentence, but here, the threat is not a tentacled monster—it’s the simple, terrifying power of a hundred million people all seeing the same cracks at once.

Quick Q&A

Lore recap (TL;DR) drawn from this chapter's Cultural / Xianxia Notes — same text as the FAQ structured data on this page.

Why doesn't Qing Wanglai publish his findings?: He fears the "observer effect" from billions of people becoming conscious of the projection theory, which he believes could cause a catastrophic collapse of their shared reality.
Is the truck ambush a betrayal by Qing Wanglai?: The chapter leaves it deliberately ambiguous. It could be a leak from his group, or the enemy tracking Li Huowang's phone even when it was off, but the perfect timing heavily implies an inside mole.
Who are the "others" Qing Wanglai gathered?: He identified 13 people who can sense the "projections." 5 refused or were incoherent, leaving 8 including Li Huowang, Qian Fu, Chen Hongyu, and 4 new unknowns who never get introduced due to the ambush.