Chapter Summaries

The narrator witnessed Wu Mingle sign Xu Feng’s contract, then saw her die as a blue-faced ghost transferred a smaller ghost into her body. The narrator destroyed both ghosts and glimpsed a memory mentioning Greenleaf and a hundred generations before waking, leaving the old man’s identity unresolved.

• Xu Feng told Wu Mingle that her new ability was natural and urged her to keep it secret, and Wu Mingle signed the contract.
• Wu Mingle suffered in a hospital corridor as the blue-faced ghost forced a smaller ghost into her body, killing her.
• The narrator grabbed the smaller blue-faced ghost and used an ability on it and the larger ghost.
• The narrator saw a memory of an old man discussing Greenleaf before both ghosts vanished into dark gas.
• The narrator woke early and called Li Xingfang, who confirmed Wu Mingle had died of cardiac arrest and agreed to investigate Xu Feng.

Li Xingfang told the narrator that Xu Feng's ability to make wishes come true came with a terrible side effect: his ominous remarks also brought disaster. The narrator tried to learn who had raised the green-faced ghost, but work kept him from asking Ye Qing, and the chapter ended with his family anxiously awaiting his younger sister's exam results.

• Li Xingfang told the narrator how Xu Feng's remarks preceded a securities firm's data crisis, his wife's death, and his own bankruptcy, leading the narrator to suspect that Xu Feng's wish-granting ability made him a jinx.
• The narrator shared Xu Feng's situation with the group, and Chen Xiaoqiu suggested asking Greenleaf about the old man who had raised the green-faced ghost.
• Gu Mo said he did not know the old man and had never seen Ye Qing associate with Ling's circle, so the narrator decided he might have to ask Ye Qing directly.
• The narrator and his coworkers spent several exhausting days organizing a vote on the relocation office's proposal in Workers and Peasants Sixth Village.
• The narrator's family waited anxiously for his younger sister's admissions and college entrance exam results, and she tried to reassure him that she would score well enough to attend college.

Lin Qi’s family celebrated his sister’s exam results, but memories of recent tragedies kept him awake. The chapter ended when Chen Xiaoqiu told him that Li Xingfang had left the police station with his service pistol and could not be found.

• Chen Xiaoqiu announced that her uncle had returned from Huixiang and that the evening news would cover the case.
• Lin Qi’s family watched the news and waited until midnight to check his sister’s exam results.
• Lin Qi confirmed that his sister’s score was well above the previous year’s top-tier university cutoff, and the family celebrated.
• Unable to sleep, Lin Qi thought about Li Xingfang, Jin Haifeng, Xu Feng, Gu Mo, Nangong Yao, and Ye Qing, then tried to reassure himself that he had changed their fates.
• Chen Xiaoqiu called Lin Qi and told him that Li Xingfang had left the police station with his service pistol and was now missing.

After Li Xingfang disappeared with his service pistol, the narrator and his coworkers wondered whether he planned to take justice into his own hands while continuing demolition voting. The narrator eventually felt a sinister gaze and woke somewhere other than his bedroom.

• Chen Yihan learned that Li Xingfang was missing and his service pistol had vanished, so Chen Xiaoqiu called the narrator for help.
• The narrator and his coworkers suspected Li Xingfang intended to act as a dark hero, but they could not understand what had pushed him to do so.
• The narrator and his coworkers continued collecting demolition votes in Workers and Peasants Sixth Village as families argued over the plans.
• Li Xingfang remained missing, while the narrator's sister awaited her college admissions results and the family postponed its trip.
• As the narrator drifted off during a quiet weekend, he felt a sinister gaze, jolted awake, and found himself somewhere other than his bedroom.

Li Xingfang witnessed a dream in which a young policeman confronted the ghosts of people who had suffered, including a murdered boy whose father had failed to avenge him. The dream showed the policeman investigating the boy’s death, and ended with the boy glaring at him after learning who had killed him.

• A circle of ghosts surrounded the person Li Xingfang possessed, and a mother and daughter accused the kneeling man of failing to save them or avenge them.
• The dream shifted to a wounded boy asking a young man for help after a book-rental shop owner beat him and stole his money.
• The young man promised to find evidence, but police later told him the shop owner had not caused the boy’s fatal spleen injury.
• The boy protested that the shop owner had killed him, while the young man explained that the investigation had not established that as the cause of death.
• A policeman later told the young man that the boy’s father had beaten him after losing his temper, and the boy ended the dream glaring at the young man with hatred.

The narrator witnessed Li Xingfang relive the disappearance and murder of his wife and daughter, then realized his ability slowly intensified the ghosts’ pain and his own despair. As Li Xingfang set out to seek revenge, the narrator decided to try entering his wife or daughter’s dream and return to the day of their trip.

• Li Xingfang followed visions of his wife and daughter to a hotel room where men had been carousing, then woke and learned they were missing overseas.
• Li Xingfang investigated the men, but the local police found no leads and he could not reach the suspects through their bodyguards.
• The ghosts’ words and growing resentment made the narrator suspect that Li Xingfang’s ability slowly poisoned him when he failed to bring spirits justice.
• After Chen Yihan approached him, Li Xingfang agreed to her request while privately preparing to seek revenge on the men.
• As Li Xingfang rode a long-distance bus, the narrator resolved to possess his wife or daughter and try to return to the day their trip began.

An invisible narrator intervened when men attacked a mother and her daughter on a speedboat, saving them but killing one man with an unknown power. Stranded at sea after the engine died, the narrator was left unsure how to get the pair back to shore as the girl thanked them.

• The narrator awoke aboard a speedboat and saw men separating a frightened girl from her mother.
• The narrator struck and kicked the attackers, causing the foreign driver and tour guide to flee into the sea in terror.
• The narrator started the engine remotely and knocked another attacker overboard while urging the mother and daughter to escape.
• When one attacker grabbed the girl and choked her mother, the narrator seized his wrist and made him vanish.
• The remaining men jumped into the sea, leaving the mother and daughter on the boat with the narrator.
• The engine sputtered out, and the girl thanked the narrator as they remained stranded at sea.

After waking from a dream in which Li Xingfang's wife and daughter survived, Lin Qi learned that they had gone missing at sea near Krusano. Chen Xiao Qiu revealed that they had been taken by the local deity Kru, leaving Lin Qi fearing that changing the past had caused their deaths.

• Lin Qi woke from his dream and called Chen Xiao Qiu to ask what had changed.
• Chen Xiao Qiu said Li Xingfang had gone missing and traveled to Krusano after his family disappeared.
• Chen Xiao Qiu called back and told Lin Qi that Li Xingfang's family had fallen into the sea and were missing.
• Chen Xiao Qiu explained that a local captain claimed Kru had taken them, while rescued tourists said they had received no help from the rescue team.
• Chen Xiao Qiu discovered that Li Xingfang's family had survived a similar incident six years earlier and returned to Krusano each year to give thanks and make offerings.
• Lin Qi remembered the girl's words of thanks and feared that saving Li Xingfang's family had caused them to die.

After hearing that Li Xingfang’s wife and daughter had died, Ye Qing questioned why people like them suffered while the greedy Xu Tie remained well. He went to the Greenleaf Paranormal Agency and wondered whether their fate could ever be changed.

• Ye Qing left home despite his family’s concern and went to Workers and Peasants Sixth Village.
• Xu Tie complained to Ye Qing about the relocation plans and demanded a greater share of the compensation.
• As Xu Tie argued, Ye Qing recalled the Xu family’s property dispute and grew resentful over the contrast between Xu Tie’s greed and Li Xingfang’s suffering.
• Ye Qing ignored Xu Tie and entered the Greenleaf Paranormal Agency, where his anger gave way to despair.
• Ye Qing asked whether it was impossible to change their fate, no matter what they did.

Lin Qi feared that changing the past had only delayed Li Xingfang’s family’s deaths, but learned Li Xingfang was alive and remembered a different version of events. Li Xingfang resolved to search the sea for his wife and daughter, while Lin Qi was left facing the possibility that they had died after all.

• Lin Qi told Ye Qing about Li Xingfang’s family tragedy and worried that his efforts to save people had only postponed their deaths.
• Lin Qi called Chen Xiaoqiu and learned that Li Xingfang was still alive on the island, then waited for him to make contact.
• Li Xingfang told Lin Qi that his memories included both his family’s disappearance and a version in which mysterious ghosts saved them from their attackers.
• Li Xingfang realized Cru was not a protective sea god and regretted being too afraid to visit Cruzano with his family.
• Li Xingfang told Lin Qi he had arranged to stay on the island, begun diving lessons and language study, and would search for his family.

After learning that karmic retribution lay behind the tragedies, Lin Qi agreed with Ye Qing that the unjust system had to change. Lin Qi left the agency determined to survive, protect loved ones, and help Ye Qing.

• Lin Qi asked Ye Qing what he would do after being saved, and Ye Qing said he would keep going if disaster struck again.
• Ye Qing told Lin Qi that Master Xuanqing had asked the ghost bailiff and confirmed the disasters were retribution for past-life sins.
• Ye Qing rejected punishment for a life he could not remember and said he wanted to change the system through a public trial and fair punishment.
• Ye Qing disappeared after a bell rang, then opened the agency door and told Lin Qi he would keep going even if Lin Qi gave up or failed.
• Lin Qi left Workers and Peasants Sixth Village, reflected on how ordinary people also suffered, and resolved to survive, protect family and friends, and help Ye Qing.

Liang Qiyi recounted seeing a human figure with a chicken’s head watching her from an empty apartment, an office building, a bus, and eventually her own door. The chapter ended with her coworkers finding the wooden door riddled with small holes after the creature had pecked at it.

• Liang Qiyi told the investigator that she repeatedly saw someone watching her through the window of an apartment across from her dorm.
• Liang Qiyi and her coworkers called the police, who broke into the supposedly empty apartment and found claw marks on its windowsill.
• Liang Qiyi spotted a figure watching her from a neighboring office building and later saw a chicken-headed person on a bus.
• Liang Qiyi looked across the way again and saw the chicken-headed figure strike the window with its beak until the glass shattered.
• Liang Qiyi woke from a nap and saw the creature pecking at her front door through the peephole.
• Liang Qiyi’s coworkers returned and found the wooden door covered in small holes.

Ms. Liang described repeated sightings of a chicken-headed figure with claws, and the investigators began examining the empty house she suspected was connected to the encounters. A neighbor said the house’s furniture had disappeared after the owners moved abroad, apparently in a burglary that the police never resolved.

• Ms. Liang told the investigators that she had seen the figure at work, on the road, and at her rented studio, where it smashed her balcony window.
• The investigators questioned Ms. Liang about unusual contacts and offered her a homemade talisman while warning that they could not guarantee it would help.
• The investigators checked the vacant house and Ms. Liang’s former dormitory, finding no recorded cases involving either property.
• A neighbor told the investigators that Qian Yongqiang and his family had left the country, and that the house’s furniture later vanished after someone entered through its open door.

Investigators questioned the Qian family’s former neighbors about their sudden departure, an old break-in, and anything involving chickens. A neighborhood dispute revealed that Qian Tianyun had owned a toy chicken with unusual functions, though the neighbors did not know what happened to it afterward.

• A neighbor told the investigators that the Qian family had left their house empty and that people suspected Qian Yongqiang had fled his debts.
• The investigators learned from Auntie Zhang that Qian Yongqiang had been a successful truck driver who moved overseas with his family.
• Auntie Zhang recalled that Qian Tianyun had a toy tiger and a toy chicken after a fight with Lin Fang’s son, Haohao.
• Auntie Zhang said the toy chicken could lay eggs, walk, and cluck, but she did not remember what became of it.

Miss Liang reported a strange voice and noises coming from inside her room, so Liu Miao and Ye Qing investigated the cowboy figure outside her door. The figure proved to be a toy, but it vanished after imitating a child and an angry parent, leaving a damaged doll behind.

• Miss Liang called the team after hearing a strange voice repeat phrases in her room and noises gather outside her door.
• Liu Miao and Ye Qing arrived and found a stiff cowboy figure in the hallway repeating its introduction.
• Liu Miao discovered the cowboy had a lion's head and a round object in its chest, then pulled off its arm and punched off its head.
• Ye Qing suggested burning the figure, but it began speaking in a child's voice and imitating an angry parent scolding a child.
• The cowboy and lion's head disappeared amid chaotic sounds, leaving a smiling doll with a hole in its clothes and exposed wires.

Liu Miao and Wu Ling investigated the grotesque horse apparition in Miss Liang’s apartment and learned that her coworker’s habit of keeping the curtains closed had hidden the view across the street. The investigation continued through interviews and audio analysis, but the other toys and the source of the phenomena remained unexplained.

• Liu Miao pressed the damaged doll’s hand, and a scream and frantic footsteps sounded inside the apartment.
• Liu Miao entered and found a bleeding horse with a human face and tiger tail, which vanished into a cut-open plastic toy horse when she approached.
• Miss Liang told Wu Ling that she had never owned the strange toys and agreed that Wu Ling could speak with her coworkers.
• Miss Liang realized her roommate, Sister Qing, kept their curtains closed and probably had never seen what was happening in the building across the street.
• On June 4, the investigators analyzed audio files containing a report that the figure across the street disappeared and recordings of toy sounds.
• On June 6, the investigators contacted Gu Qingqing, one of Miss Liang’s coworkers.

The reporters questioned Gu about the empty house and spoke with Qian Yongqiang’s neighbor and cousin as they investigated the repeated break-ins and the family’s sudden departure abroad. Qian Jiaqin denied knowing much, then hinted that valuables may have been moved to Qian Yongqiang’s in-laws’ home before the reporters pressed him for more about Qian Yongqiang’s current situation.

• Gu told the reporters she and a colleague had found Qian Yongqiang’s house empty, and that a former coworker had first seen someone watching their apartment from across the street.
• Li Ailing recalled that thieves had taken everything from the Qian home and said Qian Tianyun had many toys, including some his father claimed were imported.
• The reporters contacted Qian Jiaqin and pointed out that the Qian family had obtained and renewed visas years before they suddenly moved abroad together.
• Qian Jiaqin denied knowing why his cousin left and suggested the valuables might have been taken to his wife’s family home.
• After the reporters challenged Qian Jiaqin’s account, he began to speak, and they asked him to explain Qian Yongqiang’s current situation.

Reporters questioned Mr. Qian about his cousin Qian Yongqiang, who had fled abroad after running a smuggling business, and later learned that Liang Qiyi had encountered another unseen presence in her room. The investigators suspected the toy-related haunting was connected to Qian Yongqiang’s smuggling and planned to question him when he returned.

• Mr. Qian told the reporters that Qian Yongqiang had fled abroad after offending someone and had used his transport company to smuggle goods, possibly including cigarettes and liquor hidden inside toys.
• The reporters called Qian Yongqiang, told him that his house had been broken into by someone wearing a chicken mask, and asked why he had left the country, but he angrily hung up.
• On June 11, 2001, the investigators concluded that Qian Yongqiang’s smuggling was likely connected to the haunting and planned to ask where he had dumped the toys when he returned.
• On June 13, 2001, Liang Qiyi called the investigators after hearing something circling around her room, but she said it would not hurt her and refused to let them come over because they might scare her cat, Xiaoguai.

The investigators analyzed Liang Qiyi’s recording and found her convinced the toys meant her no harm, so they kept her under surveillance while considering whether the toys had influenced or persuaded her. They later questioned her neighbors, who mentioned loud noises and strange sounds from her apartment, but Liang’s situation remained unresolved.

• Mushroom identified the clicking in Liang Qiyi’s recording as the sound of a wind-up mechanism, and the investigators went to visit her.
• Liang Qiyi insisted she was fine and ended the investigation, warning the investigators not to come closer; the boss ordered her watched.
• Yezi and the others discussed whether the toys had changed Liang Qiyi’s mind through influence or communication, then decided to keep monitoring her and investigate Qian Yongqiang.
• The investigators monitored Liang Qiyi and observed no unusual activity at her home.
• On June 16, the investigators questioned Liang Qiyi’s neighbors, who reported hearing a loud impact and later sounds like footsteps or scraping from upstairs.

The investigators met Qian Yongqiang after he returned to China, but he denied knowing what happened to a missing shipment and feared they had come to harm his family. They found Liang Qiyi at his home with two dolls that spoke as his wife and son, and Qian agreed to talk with the investigators.

• Qian Jiaqin called the investigators and asked them to change their report, then revealed that Qian Yongqiang was returning to China.
• Qian Yongqiang met the investigators in Minqing, denied taking or knowing about the shipment, and mistook them for people connected to a smuggling case.
• The investigators questioned Qian Yongqiang about toys and learned that his wife had left home with a bag while Dopey followed her.
• Dopey reported that Liang Qiyi had entered Qian Yongqiang's house, and the investigators went there to investigate.
• Qian Yongqiang found Liang Qiyi with two dolls speaking as his wife and son, then agreed to go inside and talk with the investigators.