Chapter Summaries

Zhuang Huai, Lü Qiaolan, and the narrator went to Huixiang’s archives to find records about the family buried on Crying-Over-Graves Ridge. As the old gatekeeper handed over the basement keys, a furry creature leapt up and bit his face.

• Zhuang Huai drove the narrator and Lü Qiaolan to the Huixiang archives to search for records about Crying-Over-Graves Ridge.
• The gatekeeper refused to help, claiming no staff were available and the phone lines were down.
• Zhuang Huai pressured the gatekeeper into producing the keys to the basement archives.
• The narrator stopped Zhuang Huai from taking the keys and asked the gatekeeper to guide them.
• A scraping sound startled the gatekeeper, who dropped the keys as a furry creature sprang up and clamped its jaws onto his face.

The narrator, Zhuang Huai, and Lü Qiaolan were trapped in a ghostly illusion where a teddy bear devoured a ghost, and the narrator destroyed a mirror with Ye Qing’s amulet. They escaped the illusion and continued toward the Archives Bureau to investigate the Guide, while Lü Qiaolan offered the narrator her amulet.

• The narrator saw a mirror in the bathroom and pressed Ye Qing’s amulet against it while the teddy bear attacked the ghost.
• The teddy bear devoured the ghost, and the narrator realized she was in a restaurant bathroom with her hands against a broken mirror.
• The narrator chased a man in a suit and bowler hat through the kitchen, but he escaped through the back door.
• Zhuang Huai bandaged the narrator’s hands, and the narrator told him that a ghost was probably responsible for what had happened to his brother.
• The narrator, Zhuang Huai, and Lü Qiaolan decided to continue to the Archives Bureau to investigate the Guide.
• Lü Qiaolan offered her amulet to the narrator, who refused and urged her to keep wearing it.

The narrator, Zhuang Huai, and Lü Qiaolan went to the flooded archives to investigate Huixiang’s history. After meeting the archives’ old caretaker and his son, they went into the flooded basement to search through historical records.

• The narrator refused Lü Qiaolan’s offer, and she put her talisman back around her neck.
• The narrator and Zhuang Huai reached the archives and learned from a nearby shopkeeper that an elderly staff member might be inside.
• An old man arrived with his son, opened the archives, and went inside to check on Erzi.
• The narrator and Zhuang Huai met Erzi, who explained that the basement records had flooded and most staff were absent.
• The old man led them into the calf-deep basement and showed them which cabinets held Huixiang’s historical records.

While searching water-damaged records in the Huixiang archives, the narrator, Lv Qiaolan, and Zhuang Huai learned about Mr. Zhou, a former archivist who returned to Huixiang to trace his roots and died before finishing his work. They suspected his lost fountain pen might help them find the ghost connected to the Zhou tombstones, and Zhuang Huai planned to search Mr. Zhou’s room.

• The narrator, Lv Qiaolan, and Zhuang Huai helped sort damaged records in the Huixiang archives basement.
• Lv Qiaolan found fragments of an old Huixiang gazetteer describing disaster relief, deaths, a wealthy merchant’s donation, and the story of Caotou Road.
• The old men explained that Mr. Zhou had once organized the records before dying, and that he had returned to Huixiang to search for his family roots.
• Zhuang Huai mentioned seeing Zhou tombstones at Crying Grave Ridge, prompting the old men to wonder whether the ghost crying there was Mr. Zhou’s ancestor.
• The narrator asked about Mr. Zhou’s belongings, and the old men recalled a fountain pen but said they did not know where it was.
• After the old men left, Zhuang Huai said he would find a chance to search Mr. Zhou’s room.

The narrator discovered that a mirror in the archive showed the past, including Mr. Zhou’s collapse and Erzi’s arrival, and realized the bloodied ghost was connected to a hidden murder. Erzi appeared as a ghost, and the Guide emerged from the bloodstained mirror.

• The narrator went upstairs alone and found a room hidden behind the archive’s other rooms, where a muddy, bloodied ghost appeared and vanished.
• The narrator peeled newspapers from the wall and uncovered a mirror showing Mr. Zhou’s private office in the past.
• In the mirror, young Erzi confronted Mr. Zhou, who collapsed after clutching his chest; the narrator’s touch then caused blood to spread across the mirror.
• A scream sounded downstairs as blood dripped from the mirror, and Erzi entered the room as a ghost holding a bloodied fountain pen.
• The Guide emerged from the bloodstained mirror.

The Guide appeared bloodied and forced Erzi to relive killing Mr. Zhou, then trapped the narrator in a vision of Zhou Yusheng’s memories. The narrator remembered Zhou’s past and the wish that bound him before jolting awake and realizing he was not Zhou Yusheng.

• The Guide emerged from the mirror, and Erzi attacked him with a fountain pen.
• The Guide made Erzi see himself stab his father, Mr. Zhou, and Erzi collapsed in grief.
• The Guide fixed his gaze on the narrator, who began to see himself as the old man Zhou Yusheng.
• The narrator recalled Zhou Yusheng’s family history, his work in Huixiang, and his relationship with Wang Qian, known as Erzi.
• Zhou Yusheng remembered Wang Qian killing him and fleeing, then heard a demon-like voice ask what he wished for.
• Zhou Yusheng wished to atone and protect Wang Qian’s wife, but a bell shattered in his mind and the narrator woke, realizing he was not Zhou Yusheng.

The narrator followed the Guide through mirrors and witnessed Wang Qian’s past, from his failed suicide attempt and Zhou Yusheng’s death to his years working in the archive. The dream then showed the Guide luring outsiders before a disturbance in the real world drew him to Crooked-Neck Village, where Lü Qiaolan waited anxiously at a cave entrance.

• The narrator watched the Guide visit mirrors that revealed Wang Qian panicking and attempting to kill himself.
• The Guide mocked Wang Qian as Zhou Yusheng’s descendant, and Wang Qian later learned that Zhou Yusheng had died.
• Wang Qian stayed at the archive, moved into Zhou Yusheng’s office, and covered the wall mirror with newspaper.
• The Guide watched the horrors at Crying Grave Ridge and Crooked-Neck Village, then began using ghosts and his own powers to lure outsiders.
• As the dream trembled, the Guide rushed through a mirror into Crooked-Neck Village, where the narrator saw Lü Qiaolan waiting anxiously by a cave.

The narrator possessed the Guide in a dream and witnessed him lure Wang Qian through a mirror using Zhou Yusheng’s ghost. The narrator realized the mirror could have taken Chen Xiaoqiu and the others, possibly into the otherworldly space they had destroyed, and followed the Guide into a rainy suburb.

• The Guide entered the cave, laughed wildly among the bones, and left when police officers arrived.
• The Guide emerged from a bathroom mirror during a storm as Wang Qian woke and saw Zhou Yusheng’s ghost enter his room.
• The Guide controlled Zhou Yusheng’s ghost, who called Wang Qian to join his dead family.
• Wang Qian touched the newspaper-covered mirror and disappeared, confirming to the narrator that the mirror could take living people.
• The narrator feared Chen Xiaoqiu and the others had been trapped in the destroyed otherworldly space, then followed the Guide and Wang Qian through the mirror to a rainy suburb.

The narrator followed Zhou Yusheng, Wang Qian, and the guide toward Crying Grave Ridge, where the land’s righteous power began to overwhelm them. After Zhou Yusheng vanished and the guide attacked Wang Qian, the narrator acted on an instinctive sense of the land’s will and pressed both hands over the guide’s mirror-like eyes.

• The narrator suspected the guide planned to claim Crying Grave Ridge and destroy the Zhou family, but chose to wait and see while following the group.
• Wang Qian struggled up the mountain as the rain injured him and seemed to drain his senses, while Zhou Yusheng and the guide also began acting strangely.
• The narrator felt an awe-inspiring, angry force rising from the land beneath Crying Grave Ridge.
• Zhou Yusheng disappeared, and Wang Qian collapsed and crawled through the weeds as the guide taunted him about the blood of a patricide.
• The narrator sensed the land’s will, covered the guide’s mirror-like eyes with both hands, and used their ability.

The narrator’s uncontrolled power pulled them through scenes from the Guide’s past, revealing his influence over Huixiang and then showing a ghostly road and an abandoned city. The chapter left the Guide facing a wolf-like creature that emerged from a girl hiding at a construction site.

• The narrator’s power activated when they touched the Guide’s eyes, showing how the Guide had spread rumors through ghosts to strengthen his hold over Huixiang.
• The narrator saw a procession of ghostly figures traveling along a road through a wilderness of dead trees and wondered whether the Guide had escaped the Road to the Underworld.
• The vision shifted to the Guide running through a deserted, unfinished city while pursued by an unseen danger.
• A girl hiding in a construction site called the Guide inside, but he backed away from her.
• The girl’s face split apart as a huge, wolf-like creature burst out and lunged at the Guide.

The Guide escaped a gigantic wolf-like monster, only to be attacked by another ghost as dawn approached. Back in the silent forest, he found a ghost hanging from a dead tree and began searching it, but it suddenly reached for him.

• The Guide used a bright flash to escape the monster and hid in an unfinished building.
• The monster searched the building, then left, allowing the Guide to rest briefly.
• A gaunt ghost grabbed the Guide, bit his neck, and chased him through the unfinished buildings until dawn drove it away.
• The Guide's pain from the sunlight overwhelmed the narrator, who later awoke in the silent forest inside the Guide's body.
• The Guide found a ghost hanging from a dead tree, searched it, and watched it suddenly reach for him.

Lin Qi experienced the Guide’s escape from a mirror-wielding old ghost, then woke in the archives room to find the old man and his son gone. The cracked mirror left Lin Qi fearing that the Guide had died and wondering what had happened to Chen Xiao Qiu and the others.

• The Guide devoured a hanged ghost, then reached into a dead tree’s hollow and was attacked by a deformed old ghost wielding mirror shards.
• The old ghost drove mirror shards into both of the Guide’s eyes, but the Guide knocked him away and fled as shouts and gunshots rang out behind him.
• The Guide reached the road to the underworld, where reflected light from the mirror shards shifted Lin Qi’s dream back to Crying Tomb Ridge.
• Lin Qi woke facedown in the archives room, where Lv Qiaolan and Zhuang Huai told him that teddy bears had rushed in, Erzi had disappeared, and blood had covered the floor.
• Lin Qi saw the cracked, bloodless mirror and feared that the Guide had died and that Chen Xiao Qiu and the others were in danger.

Lin Qi questioned whether the Guide had survived after a dream revealed the Guide’s past and a possible time-related ability. Zhuang Huai then reported that Chen Xiaoqiu, Chen Yihan, and the others had been found after Crying Grave Ridge collapsed.

• Lin Qi recalled a dream in which his ability activated on its own and showed the Guide’s past, including his death on the Road to the Underworld.
• Lin Qi called Gu Mo, who suggested the Guide might have had a similar ability, a hereditary ability, or one gained through a shared experience.
• Lin Qi concluded that the Guide was truly dead and that destroying the mirror shards had ended his illusions, but he still did not know how to find his missing friends.
• Lin Qi told Gu Mo that Chen Xiaoqiu, Chen Yihan, and the others were still missing, and Gu Mo said their recovery depended on luck.
• Zhuang Huai told Lin Qi that Crying Grave Ridge had collapsed and bodies, including Lin Qi’s friends, had been found there.

After the Guide's death changed the events at Kufen Ridge, Chen Xiaoqiu, Chen Yihan, and other survivors were rescued and taken to the hospital, though they remained critically weak. As the narrator compared his memories with Zhuang Huai's, Gu Mo suggested that the narrator's unstable soul might explain why he could not control his dreams or use his ability properly.

• The narrator learned from Zhuang Huai that Chen Xiaoqiu, Director Chen, and several others had survived and were receiving emergency treatment at the hospital.
• Zhuang Huai explained that Kufen Ridge collapsed that morning, releasing missing people from different time periods, including Zhuang Tao and Minister Xu.
• The narrator heard that his memories of the archives differed from Zhuang Huai's, who had not seen the Guide or encountered Wang Qian there.
• The narrator called Gu Mo and described the changed events and his unusual memories.
• Gu Mo explained that the narrator's three souls and six spirits might be incomplete and unstable, and the narrator asked whether that caused his difficulty controlling his ability.

After the survivors woke and recovered, the narrator returned with Chen Xiaoqiu to People's Celebration City. At Workers and Peasants Sixth Village, the narrator confronted Chen Xiaoqiu about what she had privately told Ye Qing over New Year.

• Zhuang Huai told the narrator that two bodies had been identified as Chen Li and Zhang Qiong, whose deaths had also revealed clues about the criminal gang.
• Zhuang Huai encountered Xiangzi and changed his plans to visit Xiangzi's uncle, who might know about the underground casino.
• Lu Qiaolan said the teddy bears had all returned, but they remained ordinary and motionless when the narrator asked about their memories.
• Chen Xiaoqiu and the other survivors woke up, and Chen Yihan and Chen Xiaoqiu later recovered and left the hospital.
• The narrator drove Chen Xiaoqiu past the collapsed, cordoned-off Crying Grave Ridge and back to Workers and Peasants Sixth Village.
• The narrator asked Chen Xiaoqiu what she had privately said to Ye Qing over New Year.

Chen Xiaoqiu revealed that Ye Qing had given her a soul-summoning wind chime, and the narrator rushed to ask him about it. At Ye Qing’s office, the narrator found Daoist Falian’s repaired bell suppressing something evil behind a door, while Chen Xiaoqiu decided to ask her family about her past.

• Chen Xiaoqiu told the narrator that the wind chime had disappeared from her home and rung during the incident in Huixiang.
• The narrator learned that Ye Qing had placed the wind chime directly in Chen Xiaoqiu’s hand and hurried with her to the office.
• The narrator heard a bell ringing in the dark corridor and found Daoist Falian’s repaired bell hanging above a closed wooden door.
• Ye Qing said the bell suppressed evil, told the narrator to leave, and directed him to ask Chen Xiaoqiu about what he wanted to know.
• Chen Xiaoqiu considered whether something supernatural had happened in her childhood and said she would ask her father or uncle.

The narrator returned to work after his exhausting stay in Huixiang, then joined friends in taking his younger sister to Minqing University for her finance interview. While she took the exam, they explored the open campus and waited for her to finish.

• The narrator reunited with his sister and agreed to take her to the second round of her independent admissions exam.
• At the Demolition Office, the narrator learned that Jiang You had been hospitalized with food poisoning after eating Zheng Wei’s zongzi, but was due to be discharged.
• Skinny told the narrator that the Chen and Zhang families’ inheritance would need to be handled after the police notified them, while property owners in Workers and Peasants Sixth Village tried various schemes to influence compensation.
• The narrator, Skinny, Fatty, Guo Yujie, and Chen Xiaoqiu accompanied Xiaoyun to her finance interview at Minqing University.
• After Xiaoyun entered the academic building, the group wandered around Minqing University’s open campus while waiting for her.

The narrator and his friends toured Minqing University's old campus while his sister took her second-round admissions interview. After she finished, they heard that a police car and ambulance had entered the campus, but they left the matter unexplained and went to lunch.

• The narrator, the Fatty, the Thin Guy, Guo Yujie, and Xue Jingyue toured Minqing University's historic campus and its University History Exhibition Hall.
• The Fatty blushed when the Thin Guy teased him about marrying Yueyue, and he said he was considering meeting her parents.
• The group returned to the main gate, where Xue Jingyue joined them as they waited for the narrator's sister to finish her interview.
• A police car and an ambulance entered the campus, prompting speculation among parents and students, but the narrator's sister arrived before they learned what had happened.
• The narrator's sister described her interview, and the group went to a nearby barbecue shop for lunch.

After hearing that a newlywed teacher had attacked someone during a mental-health episode, the narrator and his friends wondered whether Chen Xiaoqiu was connected to the recent run of misfortunes. When Guo Yujie and the narrator found their fried chicken tasted sour, they confronted the shop, whose cashier denied it was spoiled.

• The narrator and his friends learned from local students that a teacher had attacked someone during wedding photos and had been taken away by police and ambulance.
• The Skinny Guy speculated that the strange incident was connected to the group's recent bad luck, and the narrator and the Fatty considered how several troubles had involved Chen Xiaoqiu.
• Chen Xiaoqiu and the others returned with food, but the narrator bit into fried chicken and spat it out because it tasted sour.
• Guo Yujie tasted the chicken, found it sour too, and went with the narrator and the Skinny Guy to confront the fried chicken shop.
• The cashier denied that the chicken was spoiled and asked whether Guo Yujie had ordered a sweet-and-sour or spicy-and-sour flavor.

Qi-ge discovered that a fried chicken shop hid a horrifying paranormal scene, with rotten meat frying in black oil, a revolting freezer, and a smiling eye trapped inside. He recognized it as Greenleaf's unfinished investigation into the food delivery incident.

• Guo Yujie and a skinny man argued with the shop staff over allegedly spoiled food as Qi-ge noticed the kitchen's hypnotic frying sounds.
• Qi-ge opened the kitchen door and found it dark, empty, and foul-smelling despite the continuing sound of frying.
• Qi-ge lifted the fryer basket and saw twitching chunks of rotten meat in black, viscous oil, while the customers erupted into chaos.
• Qi-ge opened the freezer and found cockroaches and bubbling green slime, then spotted a smiling half-eye behind the frost.
• Qi-ge sensed that a paranormal incident was still underway and identified it as Greenleaf's unresolved food delivery investigation.