Chapter Summaries

Lin Qi investigated his childhood memories and learned from his parents that he had once had a beloved dog named Little White, which disappeared when he was young. The photos stirred his sadness and possible memories, and he went to bed hoping to dream of the dog after faintly hearing a bark.

• Lin Qi wondered whether his parents were hiding something and told his friends in the group chat about his suspicions.
• Lin Qi's parents asked whether he remembered the family's old dog and showed him a photo album filled with pictures of him and Little White.
• Lin Qi's mother explained that Little White ran off after his sister threw a ball, and Lin Qi later disappeared and was found feverish and asleep in a library.
• Lin Qi looked through the album again, sent photos to his friends, and heard them recall pets they had lost or forgotten.
• Lin Qi lay awake hoping to dream about Little White and faintly heard a dog barking.

In a dreamlike memory, the narrator relived the day Little Bai disappeared and followed what seemed to be the dog’s corpse through the neighborhood. After Little Bai was struck by a car, two strangers took the narrator and the dog away, leaving the narrator suspicious as they announced they had arrived.

• The narrator remembered returning home to find Little Bai missing, then searched the residential complex with their parents and found no trace of him.
• The narrator saw a white paw and part of a dog's head at the bedroom window, then chased Little Bai through the bushes and into deserted streets.
• The narrator realized Little Bai was dead and that his corpse was being controlled as the dog led them farther from home.
• A car struck Little Bai, and the narrator held his bloodied body while a young woman and her mother offered to take him to a hospital.
• The two women drove for half an hour without appearing to reach a hospital, while the narrator noticed Little Bai's unnaturally steady breathing and questioned where they were going.
• The young woman said they had arrived.

The narrator relived the childhood memory of a pet hospital where a ghost tried to drug them, while Little White protected them and guided them through a nightmarish world. They woke beside the old photo album and realized the ghost had killed Little White and orchestrated the trap.

• At the pet hospital, a suspicious masked doctor tried to make the narrator and Little White take pills as the corridor filled with yin energy.
• A second Little White attacked the doctor and the surrounding people, then shoved the narrator toward the exit.
• The narrator fled through a grotesque nightmare city, following Little White's ghost to a dark building and library.
• Inside the library, Little White comforted the narrator before fading away as the narrator lost awareness.
• The narrator woke beside the old photo album and concluded that the ghost had killed Little White and set the trap.

The narrator used old redevelopment records to reconstruct an incomplete talisman and went to the office at Workers and Peasants Sixth Village to ask Ye Qing about Little White. Ye Qing explained that Little White had wandered through the complex, unable to find the office, and the chapter left the narrator confronting the dog’s final efforts to reach him.

• The narrator matched a storeroom from his dream to the Hontai District Reading Room and used old road-renovation documents to trace an incomplete talisman.
• The narrator called Skinny to report sick and took a taxi to Workers and Peasants Sixth Village, remembering Little White and believing its last attachment had been protecting him.
• The narrator entered the damaged office on the sixth floor and asked Ye Qing whether Little White had come to ask her to save him.
• Ye Qing said Gu Mo had heard a dog barking, and A-Miao and Ling had searched for its owner without success.
• Ye Qing explained that she saw Little White wandering around the complex the next morning, apparently unable to find the office.

Ye Qing explained how he had helped the narrator before and urged them to use their dream ability to find the unknown ghost. The narrator entered a dream through Yu Chuanfeng’s memories, where they saw him leave home for a summer visit and then become uneasy when a strange taste appeared at dinner.

• Ye Qing told the narrator that the ghost had escaped and that he did not know what kind of entity it was.
• The narrator tried to dream about the ghost and instead found themself inside the memories of a teenage Yu Chuanfeng.
• Yu Chuanfeng left his apartment complex for the summer, after speaking with an elderly woman whom the narrator recognized as a ghost.
• Yu Chuanfeng arrived at Zheng Wei’s house, and the dream rushed forward to dinner, where a strange taste in his mouth made him pause.

Yu Chuanfeng endured meals that looked normal to Zheng Wei’s family but appeared rotten and monstrous to him, while the narrator tried to understand the supernatural cause. The dream ended with Yu Chuanfeng discovering an eyeball inside an apple and screaming as the Zheng family stared at him.

• At dinner, Yu Chuanfeng found Grandma Five’s seafood revolting, though Zheng Wei’s family ate it normally.
• Yu Chuanfeng saw green fuzz on the meat and potatoes, then discovered a bluish-purple mass inside a pork chop that seemed to corrode his rice.
• The narrator found that their ability could briefly remove the potato’s green fuzz, but it returned when Grandma Five handled the potato.
• The narrator considered whether Greenleaf, Master Xuanqing, or the talisman array could stop the supernatural influence affecting Zheng Wei’s mother.
• After the stormy night, Yu Chuanfeng became overjoyed when Grandma Five was hospitalized and later heard the narrator’s phone call with Wu Ling, believing he would be saved.
• At Zheng Wei’s home, Yu Chuanfeng bit into an apple and found an eyeball inside it, then screamed as the Zheng family stared at him.

After seeing the food horrors that haunted him, Yu Chuanfeng secretly fled Zheng Wei’s home and set out to walk back to his parents. The narrator followed him, uneasy about what might happen, until Yu Chuanfeng spotted a barbecue stall where the skewers revealed another grotesque sight.

• Yu Chuanfeng avoided Zheng Wei’s family, then spent the night tense and nauseated while sharing a room with Zheng Wei’s son.
• Yu Chuanfeng packed his phone and belongings, slipped out of the apartment, and escaped the residential complex beneath the vehicle barrier.
• Yu Chuanfeng checked an offline map and began walking home after discovering his phone service had been suspended.
• Yu Chuanfeng passed through quiet streets and reached a shopping area as it was closing.
• Yu Chuanfeng saw a barbecue stall where skewered hands, rats, cockroaches, and chicken hearts moved grotesquely on the grill.

Yu Chuanfeng fled a strange shop, lost and terrified, then was caught up in a group of drunken men who dragged him to a food stall. The narrator watched the shopkeeper and his wife load Yu Chuanfeng and the men into a minivan, but still did not know how Yu Chuanfeng had died.

• Yu Chuanfeng ran from the shop, discovered that his pockets were empty, and broke down crying on the curb.
• Five drunken men frightened Yu Chuanfeng, chased him, and grabbed him after he crashed into a tree.
• The men dragged Yu Chuanfeng to a roadside stall, where the shopkeeper served them beer and snacks.
• Yu Chuanfeng was forced to drink beer with the men, while the narrator sensed no yin energy or ghostly influence nearby.
• The shopkeeper and his wife waited for a woman to arrive, then helped her shove the five drunks and Yu Chuanfeng into her minivan.
• The narrator felt relieved that Yu Chuanfeng had not died drunk by the roadside, but wondered how he had died.

Yu Chuanfeng woke up among the rowdy men who had taken him drinking, and a stern woman fed him and decided to take him home. As the buzz-cut man drove him there, Yu Chuanfeng hesitantly called his parents.

• Yu Chuanfeng woke in the rented apartment, where the woman returned and scolded the men for bringing him home drunk.
• The woman made the men clean up, retrieved Yu Chuanfeng’s bag, and decided to take him home after a meal.
• Yu Chuanfeng asked the group to take him home and claimed he had been staying with a relative while his parents were away.
• The woman cooked for Yu Chuanfeng, who trembled as he ate while the men joked around him.
• The woman ordered the men to clean up, then sent the buzz-cut man to drive Yu Chuanfeng home.
• The buzz-cut man handed Yu Chuanfeng his phone, and Yu Chuanfeng hesitantly called his parents.

Yu Chuanfeng returned home after being rescued, but his family’s questioning about the people who brought him back made him panic. The narrator found no obvious danger in the apartment, though Yu Chuanfeng’s mother’s suspicion and his frantic reaction left the situation unresolved.

• Yu Chuanfeng reunited with his father, who recorded the van’s license plate before scolding him for running away.
• The narrator followed Yu Chuanfeng and his father home, noticed faint yin energy in the stairwell, and found no suspicious behavior from Zheng Wei or his wife.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s father left to handle the missing-person report while Yu Chuanfeng stayed home with his mother.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s mother questioned him about the alcohol smell on his clothes and threatened to call his father about the people who had brought him home.
• Yu Chuanfeng admitted he had drunk alone at a roadside food stall, argued that his rescuers were not to blame, and shut himself in his room.

Yu Chuanfeng’s parents learned that the old woman he had spoken to was already dead, and they mistakenly concluded that he was haunted. They prepared offerings to visit her, while Yu Chuanfeng was left stunned by the news.

• Yu Chuanfeng’s father told his wife that the old woman had died before Yu Chuanfeng spoke with her, and that Yu Chuanfeng had seen her at Zheng Wei’s place.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s parents worried that their son was haunted and decided to bring offerings to pay their respects to the old woman.
• Yu Chuanfeng came out of his bedroom and insisted that the people his father had gone to find had done nothing.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s mother told him the old woman was dead, leaving him shocked and wondering who he had seen.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s father returned with local specialties, incense, and joss paper, and the family prepared to go downstairs.

Yu Chuanfeng and his family visited his dead grandmother’s home, where she appeared to him and reassured him before vanishing. After the family returned home and relaxed over dinner and television, Yu Chuanfeng noticed something moving in the trash bag, and his parents served him and themselves grotesque drinks containing tiny eyeballs and teeth.

• Yu Chuanfeng and his parents visited his grandmother’s family and burned offerings to apologize for what he had brought her.
• Yu Chuanfeng saw his grandmother appear, accept the offerings, and drift away through the window.
• Yu Chuanfeng told his family that Granny was gone and that she had forgiven him, then they returned home and ordered pizza.
• After dinner, Yu Chuanfeng noticed a foul smell and rustling from the trash bag by the entryway.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s parents returned with murky drinks containing tiny eyeballs and teeth, and his father swallowed one of the eyeballs with a gulp.

Yu Chuanfeng saw a monstrous creature emerge from the glasses and tried to reach his uncle’s coworker for help, while his parents acted increasingly afraid of him. After they locked him inside and fled, his father revealed that the police had called to say their son had been found.

• Yu Chuanfeng panicked and begged his parents to call one of his uncle’s coworkers, while the liquid in the three glasses began to churn.
• A tentacled creature with a deformed infant’s head crawled out of a glass, and Yu Chuanfeng poured out the other glasses before fleeing from it.
• The creature melted into a puddle, and Yu Chuanfeng’s father led his wife out with a twitching plastic bag while telling Yu Chuanfeng to sleep.
• Yu Chuanfeng rushed after his parents, but found the door locked from the outside.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s father told his wife that Zheng Wei had received a call from the police saying they had found their son.

Lin Qi tried to keep Yu Chuanfeng from breaking down after his parents mistook him for a ghost and fled the apartment. Yu Chuanfeng left his room, but he stopped in the hallway when he saw the moving hand in the discarded trash bag.

• Yu Chuanfeng’s parents heard that the police had found their son and fled down the stairs, convinced he was a ghost.
• Lin Qi called out to Yu Chuanfeng and tried to reassure him as he walked to the balcony and watched his parents argue below.
• Yu Chuanfeng’s parents shouted that he was a ghost, and Yu Chuanfeng began to sob and doubt himself.
• Lin Qi opened the apartment door with his ability, and Yu Chuanfeng mistook him for his grandmother before leaving the room.
• Yu Chuanfeng froze in the hallway when he saw the chicken-claw-like hand moving in the abandoned trash bag.

The narrator followed Yu Chuanfeng as he escaped his apartment building, then saw the creature behind his parents reveal itself through Yu Chuanfeng’s perception. Yu Chuanfeng fled in terror and was struck by a vehicle, leaving the narrator trying to save him.

• The narrator destroyed the plastic bag Yu Chuanfeng carried before Yu Chuanfeng left the building in the elevator.
• At the first floor, a security guard and residents tried to help Yu Chuanfeng while his parents were brought outside by a crowd.
• Yu Chuanfeng saw his parents as rotting monsters, and a creature emerging from them spoke in the same voice as the veterinary-clinic doctor.
• The creature admitted it was controlling Yu Chuanfeng’s parents, who pleaded for forgiveness as they crawled toward him.
• Yu Chuanfeng screamed, shoved the security guard, and ran from the complex before a vehicle struck him.
• The narrator reached Yu Chuanfeng and tried to turn back time and bring him back to life.

Lin tried to revive Yu Chuanfeng while fighting the ghost’s illusions, but the ghost escaped and Yu Chuanfeng appeared possessed. Lin’s power spread through countless people and began reversing time before he collapsed and woke on the sofa at the Greenleaf Paranormal Agency.

• Lin tried to reverse Yu Chuanfeng’s fatal injuries, but Yu Chuanfeng’s parents approached as grotesque monsters and the road filled with horrifying illusions.
• Lin realized the ghost was rapidly losing power, grabbed its deflated head, and watched it burst into fragments before escaping.
• Lin found Yu Chuanfeng’s ghost beside his corpse, but Yu Chuanfeng claimed everyone had eaten the strange things and urged Lin to live happily without knowing the truth.
• Lin touched Yu Chuanfeng and connected with countless people, sending his power through their consciousnesses to reverse time.
• Lin lost consciousness during the reversal and woke as he slid off a sofa at the Greenleaf Paranormal Agency.

Lin Qi learned that Yu Chuanfeng had survived after Lin Qi intervened in the dream, but Yu Chuanfeng dismissed the supernatural events as a nightmare and could no longer see them. A photo Yu Chuanfeng posted left Lin Qi fearing that the horror was not over.

• Lin Qi called Wu Ling, who reported that Yu Chuanfeng had survived a car accident and that no abnormalities had been found among the people on the road.
• Lin Qi described the parasitic ghost and the people it had apparently controlled, and Wu Ling promised that her group would be careful.
• After waking, Lin Qi read Wu Ling’s messages confirming that Yu Chuanfeng and his family were safe and that Yu Chuanfeng denied the supernatural events were real.
• Wu Ling explained that Yu Chuanfeng remembered both possible fates but thought they were nightmares, and that he could no longer see supernatural phenomena.
• Lin Qi viewed a group photo Yu Chuanfeng posted, which showed him smiling with black cake smeared at his mouth as black and green bugs crawled inside the cake.

After learning that Yu Chuanfeng had lost his sight and seemed happy with his family, the narrator confided in Ye Qing about his doubts and fears. A message revealed that Yu Chuanfeng and his family had died in a hospital accident, and Ye Qing identified the ghost as “something new.”

• The narrator stared at Yu Chuanfeng’s photo and wondered whether losing his ability had made him happier, while fearing the same fate for himself.
• Ye Qing appeared, and the narrator recounted the dream and admitted his worries about his family learning of his paranormal experiences.
• The narrator’s phone unlocked and displayed a message warning that a hospital accident might have killed Yu Chuanfeng and his family.
• Ye Qing told the narrator that the ghost had appeared inevitably, said the narrator could do nothing in his condition, and called it “something new.”
• The narrator left Ye Qing’s office and called Wu Ling, who confirmed that Yu Chuanfeng and his entire family had died in the hospital accident.

Lin Qi told Wu Ling and the others about the new entity, which had tried to kidnap him as a child, and agreed to enter the dream again to destroy it. After resting, he returned to work and heard that Zheng Wei and his family had died in a hospital fire and explosion.

• Nangong Yao and Wu Ling drove Lin Qi to the hotel, where he recounted what Ye Qing had told him and revealed that the entity had targeted him when he was a child.
• Wu Ling explained that an earlier operation in Xiantai District had failed and that the entity controlled its parasitized hosts while eliminating potential threats.
• Wu Ling concluded that Lin Qi should avoid other ghosts and enter the dream again to destroy the entity, and Lin Qi agreed.
• Lin Qi went home, rested overnight, and returned to work without yet deciding to enter the dream again.
• Lin Qi heard that Zheng Wei and his family had died in a hospital fire and small explosion, which police attributed to faulty equipment while investigating the cause.

Lin Qi went to the agency intending to enter the dream, but a warning bell revealed that something dangerous was stirring in a sealed room, so Wu Ling told her to leave. On the way out, Lin Qi and the others took an injured Director Mao to the hospital, where Director Mao recognized Wu Ling.

• Lin Qi asked Wu Ling whether she should enter the dream, and Wu Ling arranged for the group to wait outside the agency.
• Lin Qi heard a suppression bell ringing near a sealed room, and Wu Ling warned her that something dangerous was stirring inside.
• Wu Ling told Lin Qi that the sealed presence was dangerous to them and must not be disturbed or provoked.
• Lin Qi met Director Mao outside the building after she badly cut her wrist, and Wu Ling offered to drive her to the hospital.
• Director Mao recognized Wu Ling as someone who used to live on the sixth floor of Building Six and became uneasy.