Chapter Summaries

At the fried chicken shop, Lin Qi and Guo Yujie realized the two employees who fled might be ghosts unaware of what they were, while a corpse hidden in the freezer brought the Health Bureau and police into the case. Lin Qi warned the Fatty to stay alert and sent his younger sister home with the others as the investigation began.

• Lin Qi waited outside the kitchen as customers fled, then called the Fatty and asked him to watch his younger sister.
• Guo Yujie told Lin Qi and the skinny man that the two employees had seemed terrified and had vanished shortly after escaping.
• Lin Qi suspected the employees were ghosts like the workers in Greenleaf's case and warned the Fatty that they might be hiding nearby.
• Health Bureau officials arrived, and Lin Qi told their leader to check the freezer and contact the police.
• A staff member found a corpse in the freezer, so the official ordered Lin Qi and the others to remain at the shop until police arrived.
• Lin Qi called the Fatty again, spoke to his younger sister, and told her to go home with the others.

After investigating a fried chicken shop with a body in its freezer, Lin noticed unexplained missed calls appearing on his and Guo Yujie's phones. Captain Li revealed that everyone who ate the shop's fried chicken had received a strange call, and Lin offered to share the number shown in his call log.

• Lin cooperated with the police and went to the hospital for an examination after the shop was treated as a crime scene.
• Lin found an unexplained missed call and called Gu Mo, who said neither he nor Nangong Yao knew about the assignment or wanted to investigate it.
• Guo Yujie showed Lin that her phone also had a missed call, and another entry appeared in her call log without the phone ringing.
• The skinny guy answered a call from Captain Li, who said everyone who ate the fried chicken had received a strange call from a hungry man asking for fried chicken.
• Lin told Captain Li that he and Guo Yujie could see the number behind their missed calls, and Captain Li asked him to provide it.

After the fried chicken shop incident, Lin and his friends received eerie missed calls from several unknown numbers, while officials investigated the case. Li Xingfang hinted that Lin’s connection to the incident was no coincidence, leading Lin to suspect Greenleaf’s commissions were behind a series of paranormal cases.

• Lin, Guo Yujie, and the Thin Man felt uneasy after another missed call appeared, but Gu Mo and Nangong Yao chose to avoid investigating the ghost for now.
• Lin went home, reassured his family, and saw news reports about the government’s response to the food safety incident.
• Lin discovered five missed calls on his phone, and Guo Yujie found that she had received calls from the same unknown numbers.
• Lin contacted Li Xingfang, who said Lin had been the first to discover the case and that he had expected it to be complicated.
• Lin realized that he, or more precisely Greenleaf, might be connected to the fried chicken shop, Huixiang, and the bride’s accident at Minqing University.

The narrator learned that Kang Dalong owned the fried chicken shop where his body parts were found, and that calls from Kang Dalong’s number might be coming from his ghost. After Li Xingfang asked him to help investigate, the narrator agreed and headed to the police station.

• Li Xingfang told the narrator that the frozen body parts belonged to Kang Dalong, the fried chicken shop owner, and that police had found only Kang Dalong’s fingerprints and the narrator’s traces in the kitchen.
• Li Xingfang explained that calls from unknown numbers featured women saying they were hungry and crying, and that the number the narrator had provided belonged to Kang Dalong.
• Li Xingfang asked the narrator to help investigate Kang Dalong’s location and warned that Kang Dalong’s ghost might be making the calls.
• The narrator called Gu Mo for help, but Gu Mo declined and advised him to recognize his limits.
• The narrator hinted to Li Xingfang about his abilities, agreed to meet him at the police station, and left home after telling his parents he was going out for a drink.

Li Xingfang drove the narrator to join a police operation and told him how his supernatural ability had led him to leave criminal investigation work. They arrived at Minqing University, where the narrator wondered if their target was at a fried chicken shop.

• Li Xingfang explained that veteran officers suspected his supernatural ability after noticing things he had let slip, though his wife and children did not know about it.
• Li Xingfang recounted how he had grown weary of finding killers through his dreams when the police could not gather enough evidence, and how he had left the criminal investigation unit to avoid the cases.
• Li Xingfang said Director Chen had recently brought him back to the work and reminded him of Ye Qing because he kept pursuing his goals despite setbacks.
• Li Xingfang told the narrator that officers were gossiping he was pursuing Director Chen's niece, and the narrator said he had only used that story as a cover.
• Li Xingfang asked whether the narrator had a girlfriend or someone he liked, and the narrator said his family mattered to him.
• Li Xingfang brought the narrator to Minqing University, where the narrator wondered whether their target was at a fried chicken shop.

Li Xingfang and the narrator joined a police operation after a phone signal led them to People's Celebration University's cafeteria. The narrator sensed something upstairs, recognized a strange smell, and froze when he saw what was behind the serving windows.

• Li Xingfang told the narrator that police had traced a suspect's phone signal to the university cafeteria and asked for his help finding someone ordinary people could not see.
• The narrator asked how Li Xingfang had met Ye Qing, and Li Xingfang recalled that his youthful attempt to pursue justice had led to a victim's family being targeted in retaliation.
• Li Xingfang and the narrator joined the officers as they entered the cafeteria and searched upstairs.
• The narrator heard a familiar, strange sound and then recognized an unusual smell on the second floor.
• The narrator rushed past the officers toward the serving windows and was chilled by what he saw.

The narrator witnessed Kang Dalong, Zhang Xiao, and Xu Jiali die while eating in the school kitchen, ending the investigation without revealing what caused the case. On the drive home, Li Xingfang explained how Ye Qing once saved him from a ghost, while the narrator remained frustrated by his inability to help.

• The narrator rushed into the kitchen, but Kang Dalong, Zhang Xiao, and Xu Jiali choked and died before anyone could question them.
• Police and Health Bureau staff investigated the kitchen and found suspicious ingredients, including greasy residue that might have come from Kang Dalong's flesh.
• The narrator left the scene disappointed, and Li Xingfang drove him home while acknowledging his frustration at being unable to intervene.
• Li Xingfang recalled a past case in which he accidentally drew danger toward a victim's family member and later encountered the victim's ghost.
• After the ghost attacked Li Xingfang in an alley, Ye Qing saw his plea for help and punched the ghost to death.

Li Xingfang told the narrator how his supernatural ability drove him away from Ye Qing and brought misfortune to his family. After losing his wife and child, he returned to the criminal investigation team to pursue leads and ensure his family could rest in peace.

• Li Xingfang recalled how Ye Qing saved him and killed ghosts without judging their past, which eventually made Li Xingfang fear him.
• Li Xingfang declined Ye Qing’s offer to join his firm, left supernatural cases behind, and started a family.
• Li Xingfang said his parents and in-laws died under strange circumstances, and Ye Qing attributed their deaths to the heavy yin energy around him.
• Li Xingfang revealed that his wife and child had also died a couple of years earlier, leaving him with nothing to lose.
• Li Xingfang said he had leads on his family’s case and would make sure they could rest in peace.

Lin Qi worried that the fried chicken shop might endanger her family, but the health inspections and physical exams brought no immediate danger to light. Li Xingfang then told her about a bride who had violently attacked people on the Minqing University campus, raising the possibility that Kang Dalong and the others were involved.

• Lin Qi reassured her mother that Kang Dalong was fine, though she feared her ability could not uncover what had happened at the restaurant because their souls had been erased.
• Lin Qi watched news of expanded food safety inspections near Minqing University and worried about her younger sister eating at unsafe shops.
• Lin Qi and Guo Yujie collected their physical exam reports, and Guo Yujie knocked down two men who approached her.
• Li Xingfang told Lin Qi that a bride had attacked her groom and others during a wedding photo shoot at Minqing University.
• Li Xingfang asked Lin Qi whether Kang Dalong and the others could have caused the bride's violent condition.

The narrator, Guo Yujie, Li Xingfang, and officer Xiao Chen investigated Wu Mingle, a violent patient in Minqing Hospital’s psychiatric ward, after sensing that something malevolent might be connected to her condition. The narrator could not find the presence through the door or surveillance footage and decided to enter the room to investigate.

• The narrator agreed to help Li Xingfang investigate Wu Mingle and brought Guo Yujie along, though she told her to stay outside the ward at first.
• Li Xingfang arrived at Minqing Hospital with officer Xiao Chen, and they went to the psychiatric ward with the attending physician.
• The narrator sensed a malevolent presence near Wu Mingle’s room, while Wu Mingle sat curled up on her bed and the doctor explained her violent behavior and condition.
• The narrator looked through the door window but saw nothing, and Guo Yujie also showed no sign of sensing the malice.
• The narrator and Li Xingfang reviewed the surveillance footage, which showed nothing unusual, so the narrator decided to enter Wu Mingle’s room.

The narrator and Guo Yujie entered Wu Mingyue’s hospital room, where the narrator saw a green-faced demon clinging to the wall. Wu Mingyue attacked Guo Yujie in terror and had to be restrained, while Gu Mo warned that the demon was an ancient ghost being kept by an expert.

• The narrator chose to enter Wu Mingyue’s room with Guo Yujie while Li Xingfang and the others waited outside.
• The narrator and Guo Yujie heard the door’s bolt and creak, though the others could not hear them.
• The narrator spotted a green-faced, red-eyed demon clinging to the wall as Wu Mingyue leapt from bed and attacked Guo Yujie.
• Guo Yujie pinned Wu Mingyue until the doctor and orderlies restrained her, but Wu Mingyue thrashed and screamed in terror.
• The narrator called Gu Mo, who said the demon was an ancient ghost and that its presence meant an expert was keeping it.

After Wu Mingle was driven mad by the Green-Faced Ghost, the narrator recognized her name from Greenleaf’s file on the Minqing Foreign Languages University girls’ dorm case. Li Xingfang contacted the surviving case commissioner, Chai Ying, who had moved overseas, and reached her by phone.

• Gu Mo said the group could not confront the Green-Faced Ghost directly, and Nangong Yao recognized Wu Mingle’s name from the Chai Ying case.
• The narrator retrieved Greenleaf’s “Girls’ Dorm” file and found Wu Mingle’s interview transcript, confirming she had survived the earlier incident.
• Li Xingfang learned that Chai Ying had gone abroad with her parents and had not returned for two years.
• Li Xingfang called Chai Ying and introduced himself as a police officer from Minqing.

The narrator and Li Xingfang questioned Chai Ying about Wu Mingle’s possession and the supernatural events surrounding their college class. Chai Ying described deaths, classmates’ suspicious successes, and inhuman footsteps, then revealed that three more former classmates had died in recent years.

• Li Xingfang called Chai Ying and asked about her college classmate Wu Mingle, who had attacked her groom and appeared to be possessed by a Green-faced Ghost.
• The narrator told Chai Ying about Wu Mingle’s condition, and Chai Ying demanded to know who had disclosed what happened to her years earlier.
• Chai Ying recalled that Shen Qing, Zhao Yishui, Xu An'an, Wang Jiayin, and Yu Fang had died after a past incident that drove her and other students to leave their dorms or change majors.
• Chai Ying said several classmates later gained remarkable academic success and good fortune, and she heard inhuman footsteps among the graduates at a ceremony.
• Chai Ying recounted overhearing two girls discuss seeking supernatural help, including one who bought a wish talisman abroad, and said she had contacted Greenleaf Paranormal Agency for confirmation.
• Chai Ying told the narrator and Li Xingfang that a former classmate had informed her three years earlier that three more members of their class had died.

After Chai Ying described the clawed footsteps, the narrator suspected her dead classmates had all encountered the same expert. Li Xingfang later shared police findings showing that many graduates had died in accidents or suicides, leaving Wu Mingle as the next person likely to die.

• Chai Ying told the narrator that the footsteps sounded like bare feet and loud claws on a hard floor.
• Li Xingfang took Guo Yujie home and said he would contact the narrator after investigating further.
• At work, Fatty said he had seen the fried chicken shop chef in the news footage, while Jiang You discussed his food poisoning.
• Li Xingfang sent the narrator a table of Chai Ying's classmates, showing numerous deaths and psychiatric visits among the graduates.
• The narrator concluded that Wu Mingle was the next classmate in danger of dying.

After receiving Li Xingfang’s list of people connected to Greenleaf, the narrator went to bed and entered Wu Mingle’s horrifying dream. Realizing the fear and pain belonged to Wu Mingle, the narrator kept calm and began searching for the real Green-Faced Ghost.

• Li Xingfang sent the narrator a list of people connected to Greenleaf, many of whom were marked as dead.
• The narrator questioned Li Xingfang’s motives but set the matter aside and went home after work.
• After falling asleep, the narrator entered a strange cave filled with faces trapped in purple crystals and swarming flies.
• The narrator recognized that the possessed person was Wu Mingle as Green-Faced Ghosts surrounded and restrained her.
• The narrator separated Wu Mingle’s terror from their own and began looking for the real Green-Faced Ghost.

The narrator followed Wu Mingle through her terrifying visions and memories while searching for the blue-faced demon. After Wu Mingle's wedding-day breakdown, the narrator was pulled into a memory of her shopping with the groom and sensed the demon inside a shopping-center restroom.

• The narrator separated from Wu Mingle in the hospital and watched her soul flee while doctors and nurses restrained her body.
• The narrator followed Wu Mingle to her wedding, where the groom's monstrous appearance made her scream and attack him.
• The blue-faced demon watched Wu Mingle from a tree, then ran after the ambulance as the narrator was carried away with her.
• The narrator followed Wu Mingle and the groom as they chose wedding rings, bought a necklace, entered a raffle, and went to eat and see a movie.
• When Wu Mingle went to the restroom, the narrator sensed a presence inside and floated into the women's restroom.

The narrator watched Wu Mingle summon a Green-Faced Ghost in a restroom, then followed her to a mall prize drawing. Wu Mingle won, while the ghost’s belly swelled and something began moving beneath its skin.

• The narrator found Wu Mingle praying in a restroom stall as a Green-Faced Ghost crawled from the floor and bit her neck before escaping.
• Wu Mingle left the restroom and joined the groom, and the narrator followed them to the mall lobby.
• The Green-Faced Ghost circled the prize-draw staff and computers, brushed its nails across Wu Mingle’s eyes, then watched her from beneath an escalator.
• Wu Mingle won the mall’s prize draw, and the narrator saw the ghost’s belly bulge as something wriggled beneath its skin.

The narrator followed Wu Mingle into a memory and saw her wish misfortune upon another woman, so the narrator tried to stop the Green-Faced Ghost from carrying out the curse. After the ghost vanished and Wu Mingle collapsed in pain, the narrator saw a memory revealing that a mysterious man had granted her the power to make wishes come true.

• Wu Mingle celebrated winning the drawing and left with the groom while the Green-Faced Ghost followed her.
• The narrator entered a woman's bedroom and overheard Wu Mingle insulting a former colleague who was getting married.
• Wu Mingle wished for the woman to embarrass herself at her wedding banquet, and the Green-Faced Ghost climbed onto her as if preparing to attack.
• The narrator pinned the Green-Faced Ghost down and silently wished to turn back time, but the ghost vanished and Wu Mingle fell to the floor screaming in pain.
• The narrator saw Wu Mingle's memory of a man granting her the power to fulfill wishes, while warning her not to target other people directly.

After witnessing Wu Mingle’s memories, the narrator traced her wishes and the harm they caused back to her first meeting with Xu Feng. The chapter left the narrator watching Xu Feng offer Wu Mingle the power to fulfill a wish in exchange for a condition.

• Wu Mingle’s memories showed that the narrator’s intervention had disrupted the Blue-Faced Ghost and that the rule Xu Feng gave her was a lie.
• The narrator watched Wu Mingle’s past wishes bring her success while harming job applicants, a groom’s girlfriend, and others.
• The dream returned to Wu Mingle’s first meeting with Xu Feng at a café, where the narrator could not tell whether he was human or supernatural.
• Xu Feng offered Wu Mingle power to fulfill a wish and said it would come true once she committed to it.
• Xu Feng told Wu Mingle that the power was not free and that he had to make a living.

Wu Mingle tested Xu Feng’s wish-granting ability and agreed to begin a hundred-thousand-yuan transaction with him. She then warned him that the Greenleaf Office could interfere because it exorcised ghosts.

• Xu Feng took Wu Mingle’s hand and invited her to make a small wish to test his power.
• Wu Mingle silently made a wish, and a Green-Faced Ghost crawled onto her, bit her throat, and vanished after a coffee cup cracked.
• Xu Feng offered Wu Mingle a hundred-thousand-yuan deal and presented her with securities account and trading documents.
• Wu Mingle asked whether someone could interfere, then told Xu Feng that the Greenleaf Office could exorcise ghosts.