Chapter Summaries

The case files showed that Greenleaf had lost track of Ding Hua and could not find his soul, leaving the investigation unresolved. In a dream, the narrator possessed Ding Hua in a taxi and heard the frightened driver beg him to leave the driver's wife alone.

• Hu Shan and Shen Xi could not explain why Ke Xiongwen had returned to work, and Shen Xi accused Greenleaf of failing to protect him.
• Greenleaf failed to summon Ding Hua, confirmed Zhuang Ling's death and that Ding Hua was missing, then suspended the investigation as unresolved.
• The narrator fell asleep and dreamed he was in Liu Xiaonian's taxi with a teenage passenger.
• The dream shifted forward, and the narrator realized he was possessing Ding Hua as he rode in another taxi toward Huicheng Garden.
• The trembling driver asked Ding Hua to leave his wife alone, and Ding Hua gave a muddled reply.

The narrator remained trapped in the ghostly taxi with Ding Hua, unable to use any power as the terrified driver took a series of wrong turns. The taxi crashed into a truck, and the scene vanished, leaving the narrator facing a crowded sidewalk in bright sunlight.

• The narrator tried to use their power but found they could not sense or use it.
• The driver took the ramp onto the Minqing Expressway, and Ding Hua told him he had taken a wrong turn.
• The driver turned onto Yuhong Road, where Ding Hua again said he had taken a wrong turn and scraped his nails against the armrest.
• Ding Hua said he was late and would have to take a shortcut, while the driver broke down and fumbled for his phone.
• A truck crashed into the taxi at an intersection, and the violent scene disappeared as the narrator found themself before a crowded sidewalk.

The narrator possessed Ding Hua as he rushed to catch a taxi to his tutoring center and realized the driver was using supernatural power to control him. After learning Ding Hua’s name and home address, the driver chose Huicheng Garden as the place to dump him and drove off in an abnormal taxi.

• Ding Hua left the broken-down bus stop and ran to an empty taxi after spotting its lit “For Hire” sign.
• Ding Hua rode with the uniformed driver to the Caizhi Tutorial Center, while the narrator sensed faint yin energy in the taxi.
• The driver asked Ding Hua’s name, and Ding Hua answered as his consciousness began to blur.
• The driver declared Ding Hua his HR, consulted a strange map, and marked a route from Pengbai Road to Huicheng Garden.
• The driver drove through traffic and pedestrians in a taxi that behaved like an abnormal space, while Ding Hua sat motionless.

Ding Hua fell into the filthy river, and the narrator witnessed Song Zang’s taxi drive through a shifting, uncanny road where it was battered by other vehicles and picked up a strange woman. The taxi briefly became new, revealing the driver’s name and employee number, before Song Zang set off again and the surroundings changed.

• Ding Hua walked to the river, staggered over the bridge railing, and fell into the mud below.
• The narrator saw Song Zang’s taxi travel along a dark road that shifted between ordinary streets and blood-red, eerie scenes as other cars struck it.
• A woman in a floral dress climbed into the damaged taxi, named a destination, and left beating hearts on the passenger seat, which Song Zang ate.
• The narrator’s reaction coincided with the taxi becoming new, revealing a driver’s card identifying Song Zang and employee number 12345.
• Song Zang started the car to check the route, and the farmland surroundings changed as the taxi moved.

The narrator experienced a driver’s memories as a taxi journey shifted into a funeral vehicle carrying a coffin through a dark, empty city. After the vehicle was struck by something unseen, the driver continued onward and noticed the console clock counting backward from 02:99.

• The car passed through a nighttime city and Cultural Road, where a calendar showed the same “tomorrow” the narrator had seen before.
• The driver’s bleeding, coughing vehicle transformed into a funeral vehicle, and the narrator received the driver’s memories directly.
• The driver carried an old woman’s coffin through a silent city at three in the morning while the funeral procession’s wailing faded behind him.
• At the fourth intersection, something struck the vehicle from the right, making it skid and spin before the driver stopped and checked that the coffin was secure.
• The driver drove slowly onward as the console clock displayed 02:99 and began counting down.

The narrator experienced the funeral-car driver’s memory of a terrifying ride that ended with the driver seeing his own face in a coffin and being killed. The narrator woke at 3:19 a.m., recognized the death from the dream, and hurried out of the house with the audio file.

• The driver’s countdown reached zero, after which a smiling old woman appeared in the car and asked to be taken to the crematorium.
• The driver dropped the old woman off, then saw his own face inside the coffin carried away by silent workers.
• The driver fled into the darkness, but his despair and memories returned as the battered funeral car continued through a tunnel.
• The driver’s abdomen burst with blood, and he was dragged into the rear compartment, where a figure blocked the window.
• The narrator woke from the painful vision, checked the time, and hurriedly put away the audio file before tiptoeing out of the house.

The narrator returned to Greenleaf Paranormal Agency in the middle of the night to find Ye Qing missing, then was grabbed by an unseen presence and heard the agency bell ring. He suspected Ye Qing had recovered but worried that he might have lost control, and the next morning he found no clear report of anyone being killed.

• The narrator rode a shared bike to Workers and Peasants Sixth Village and searched the agency, but Ye Qing was nowhere to be found.
• The narrator feared that something other than Ye Qing had killed the driver and called Wu Ling for help.
• An unseen person or ghost climbed the stairs, pulled the narrator out of the agency, and slammed the door as the bell rang inside.
• The narrator fled downstairs and wondered whether the ghost was Ye Qing, whether Ye Qing had recovered, and whether he had lost control again.
• The next morning, the narrator saw no news of a body and exchanged a good-morning message with his younger sister while they traveled to work and sightseeing.

Lin Qi and his companions learned that the Empty Buddha had disappeared after entering People's Celebration City, and Wu Ling connected his disappearance to Ye Qing. Lin Qi concluded that Ye Qing had used his dreams to kill the Empty Buddha and was now dangerously weakened, leaving the story with Ye Qing at risk of losing himself.

• Lin Qi told Skinny and the others about Ye Qing's ability to travel through time and space through his dreams, and they discussed the danger if Ye Qing lost control.
• Wu Ling told the group that the Empty Buddha had died but left a successor who absorbed the power and will of his flesh-body Buddha.
• Wu Ling said people had noticed Lin Qi's dreams affecting reality and that the Empty Buddha had vanished after visiting Green Tea Manor in the newer version of events.
• Wu Ling explained that the Empty Buddha had likely entered People's Celebration City to target Ye Qing, and Lin Qi revealed that Ye Qing had seemed very weak the previous night.
• Lin Qi concluded that Ye Qing had killed the Empty Buddha through his dreams at great cost, then likely devoured ghosts to recover, putting Ye Qing in danger of losing himself.

The narrator worried that Ye Qing was carrying too much of the burden and hoped to strengthen their own abilities before he lost control. They opened a new case file about Lin Hui, a programmer whose vision blacked out and who felt a ghost press cold hands over her eyes.

• The narrator's companions could not help share Ye Qing's burden, and Wu Ling, Gu Mo, and Nangong Yao watched him with concern.
• Wu Ling comforted the narrator, who kept silent about having dreamed of what would happen to Ye Qing.
• The narrator returned home, spoke with their parents, and took out a new case file.
• Lin Hui told the agency that her vision had grown hazy and periodically gone black over the past six months, despite doctors finding no eye disease.
• Lin Hui described feeling cold, disembodied hands cover her eyes at work, and the agency confirmed traces of yin energy on her.
• The agency asked Lin Hui to recall places she had visited while job hunting and gave her a protective charm as they began investigating.

A case file documented the investigation into Lin Hui’s ghostly encounters, which ended without identifying the ghost or resolving the threat. Months later, Ning Qian reported seeing a woman appear behind Lin Hui during a video call, leaving Lin Hui motionless and shaking.

• The investigators checked Lin Hui’s school, prospective workplaces, family, and social connections but found no likely source of the haunting.
• Lin Hui reported that her amulet heated up while she was at a restaurant, then cooled as the ghost apparently moved away.
• Lin Hui could not remember anyone who had played the blindfolding game with her, so the investigators monitored her home for three days before suspending the investigation.
• On August 7, 2010, Ning Qian told the investigators that she had seen a woman appear behind Lin Hui on a video call and cover her eyes.
• Ning Qian said Lin Hui remained still and seemed to shake as the ghost moved.

Ning recounted Lin Hui’s apparent murder by a ghost, and Greenleaf investigated Lin Hui’s residence after learning she had not moved out. The landlord opened the apartment door and screamed at what he found inside.

• Ning told Wu Ling that she had seen a pale ghost kill Lin Hui and recalled the ghost’s appearance and Lin Hui’s final words.
• Wu Ling and the Greenleaf team went to Lin Hui’s residence, where a neighbor said two young women had moved out.
• Wu Ling contacted the landlord and learned that Lin Hui had not moved out.
• Wu Ling, Ye Qing, and Liu Miao arranged for the landlord to open Lin Hui’s apartment.
• The landlord entered the apartment, called for Lin Hui, and suddenly screamed.

Ye Qing reviewed footage of a woman’s death and concluded that the ghost had left only faint traces of yin energy. An interview with Zhuang Weiwei’s father connected her unexplained vision problems to a classmate with similar symptoms and confirmed that they had attended Peony Road Elementary School together.

• The camera footage showed Zhuang Weiwei’s corpse, faint marks around her eyes and neck, and a pulled-out chair beside a talisman hanging from a desk lamp.
• Ye Qing said the ghost had not stayed in the room for long.
• An investigation record listed Shi Fei, Yuan Ling, and Zhuang Weiwei as Lin Hui’s elementary school classmates who had died within six months.
• Zhuang Hao told the interviewer that Zhuang Weiwei had suffered unexplained episodes of gray or blacked-out vision before her death in a car accident.
• The interviewer told Zhuang Hao that another former classmate had developed similar eye symptoms and asked about Zhuang Weiwei’s elementary school years.
• Zhuang Hao recalled that Zhuang Weiwei had attended Peony Road Elementary School and asked to speak with the other young woman.

Investigators questioned Ren Hua about her son Shi Fei’s death and took his laptop for examination. A video on the laptop showed Shi Fei recording his account of Yuan Ling seeing a hazy gray apparition after their visit to the Imperial Palace.

• Ren Hua told investigators that Shi Fei had traveled with his childhood friend Yuan Ling and that both men died after reaching Minqing.
• Ren Hua said Shi Fei had sent one message from Minqing before police informed her that he had jumped from a building and Yuan Ling had broken his neck in a fall.
• Ren Hua let investigators examine and take Shi Fei’s laptop for inspection.
• In a video recorded on the laptop, Shi Fei said Yuan Ling had experienced strange vision symptoms twice and insisted they meant he had seen a ghost.
• Yuan Ling denied seeing a ghost, blamed eye strain, and complained that Shi Fei had woken him to record the video.

Shi Fei filmed Yuan Ling in Minqing after Yuan Ling continued seeing hazy shapes despite normal hospital tests. When Yuan Ling suddenly went blind, a shadow appeared behind him, and he sensed something above his eyes before it vanished.

• Shi Fei filmed himself and Yuan Ling at a budget hotel in Minqing, where Yuan Ling said he still saw gray, hazy things.
• Shi Fei and Yuan Ling visited a large hospital, but the tests found nothing wrong with Yuan Ling's eyes.
• Shi Fei planned to take Yuan Ling to a temple, but Yuan Ling suddenly said he could see only black.
• Shi Fei helped the terrified Yuan Ling out of the bathroom, and a faint shadow appeared behind him.
• Yuan Ling said there was something above his eyes, then covered them as the shadow disappeared.

Shi Fei and Yuan Ling were attacked by a ghost in their hotel room, and Yuan Ling appeared to die after she twisted his head backward. While analyzing the recording, Gu Mo identified the ghost’s name as Shen Jiayan from the letters on her bracelet.

• Yuan Ling told Shi Fei that something cold had covered his eyes, and Shi Fei took him to temples and bought a protective plaque.
• The ghost appeared on camera, restrained Yuan Ling, and repeatedly asked him to guess who she was.
• The ghost twisted Yuan Ling’s head backward, leaving Shi Fei sobbing beside his body.
• The ghost covered Shi Fei’s eyes before disappearing, and Shi Fei lowered the camera until the screen went dark.
• Gu Mo and Liu Miao examined the footage, read the bracelet letters as Shen Jiayan, and Gu Mo confirmed that the name matched his own.

Nangong Yao and the others traced the name Shen Jiayan through Shi Fei’s mother and Yuan Ling’s mother, learning that the girl’s parents had posed as project managers and defrauded local residents. They found Shen Hao and Zhang Juan’s criminal records, then contacted Shen Hao, who confirmed Shen Jiayan was his daughter but said she had been registered under a relative’s name; the searchers told him she might be dead.

• Nangong Yao and the others asked Miss Ning whether Lin Hui had ever mentioned Shen Jiayan, but she could not identify the name.
• Ren Hua remembered a transfer student surnamed Shen who had briefly attended Shi Fei’s elementary school and suggested contacting Yuan Ling’s mother.
• Shi Huihui said Shen Jiayan’s parents, Shen Hao and Zhang Juan, had defrauded residents with a fake investment project, and she supplied their names.
• The investigators found that Shen Hao and Zhang Juan had been arrested and imprisoned for fraud, while records gave conflicting details about their daughter.
• Shen Hao confirmed that Shen Jiayan was his daughter and said she had been registered under his great-uncle’s name to hide her from their crimes.
• The investigators told Shen Hao that Shen Jiayan might already be dead.

The investigation uncovered how Shen Jiayan died and confirmed that she had become a ghost who killed people while struggling with her identity. After her father helped summon her, she vanished, but the narrator later heard her voice and witnessed a memory of her parents teaching her to use false names.

• Investigators learned that Shen Jiayan had died from hypothermia in 2008 and that her great-uncle had scattered her ashes after her urn broke.
• Shen Hao agreed to provide blood so the investigators could summon his daughter’s spirit, and Shen Jiayan appeared before him.
• Shen Jiayan attacked Shen Hao, but the chief intervened; Shen Hao then explained that his daughter had played a name-guessing game because her parents taught her to use different identities.
• The narrator concluded that Ye Qing had likely finished Shen Jiayan off, then went to bed believing the case was over.
• A child covered the narrator’s eyes and called herself Li Xiaomei before the scene shifted to Shen Jiayan’s parents telling her to attend school under the name Zhao Yinan.

The narrator dreamed through Shen Hao’s memories, learning how his family’s scams shaped Shen Jiayan and how she killed him after he mistook her for his daughter. After waking to an unfamiliar woman asking him to guess who she was, the narrator checked the caller ID.

• The narrator watched Shen Hao and his wife con families using Shen Jiayan as their cover, while Shen Jiayan grew withdrawn and wore a bracelet.
• Police arrested Shen Hao and his wife, who insisted Shen Jiayan had not been involved in their crimes.
• Wu Ling used Shen Hao’s blood in a ritual, and Shen Jiayan appeared and asked him to guess who she was.
• The narrator saw Shen Jiayan’s memories and watched her fragmented identities overwhelm her sense of self.
• Shen Hao recognized Shen Jiayan, then died as his body gave out; the narrator realized he had slowly killed himself.
• The narrator woke to a call from an unfamiliar young woman who asked him to guess who she was, and he checked the caller ID.

Lin Qi dismissed a suspicious phone call as an old scam and continued the demolition work at Workers and Peasants Sixth Village. After another unfamiliar call flagged as a scam, he checked that his sister was safe in J Country and remembered the worldwide disasters that had accompanied the spirit’s appearance.

• Lin Qi received a teasing call from an unfamiliar woman, recognized it as a likely scam, and hung up after she called him by name.
• Lin Qi told his coworkers about the call and the Ghosts Obscuring the Eyes case, and they discussed how the scammers might be caught up in a paranormal incident.
• Lin Qi and his coworkers announced the previous demolition vote’s results at Workers and Peasants Sixth Village and listened to residents discuss resettlement.
• Lin Qi visited the Greenleaf Paranormal Agency but could not find Ye Qing and assumed Ye Qing had recovered and left Building Six.
• Lin Qi received a suspicious overseas call, hung up after a security app flagged it, and messaged his younger sister, who confirmed she was safe in J Country.
• Lin Qi saw his sister’s photo of an election campaign and recalled that strange disasters worldwide had caused many deaths on the night the spirit appeared.

Sun Yi sought help after waking up physically aged overnight, which he blamed on a small-loan app and its debt collector. Greenleaf began investigating the app and asked him to recall what he had done before the change, but the cause remained unconfirmed.

• The narrator checked that his sister was safe after she encountered unrest in a neighboring country, then warned his parents about possible leaked personal information.
• Sun Yi told Greenleaf that he had borrowed money through a loan app, fallen behind on payments, and received repeated debt-collection calls.
• Sun Yi said he woke up one morning with white hair, age spots, and wrinkles, and that his appearance had continued to worsen despite selling possessions to repay the debt.
• Greenleaf asked Sun Yi about the app, the collector's threat, and anything unusual he had done before going to bed the night before he aged.
• Sun Yi listed the game, websites, and video he had viewed, while Greenleaf began checking the loan app and company.