Chapter Summaries

A suspended investigation into a spirit associated with shared bikes resumed in the files when surveillance footage showed Zhang Qing being pursued by an unseen figure before he died of cardiac arrest. The narrator asked Wu Ling to have Greenleaf investigate the spirit, and wondered whether Zhang Qing would haunt his dreams.

• On October 23, 2014, Zhang Qing told the investigators that his strange sensations had stopped and said he wanted to end the investigation, partly because of the cost and his father's concern.
• On October 24, 2014, the investigation was suspended with the suspected shared-bike spirit's patterns and appearance still unknown.
• Surveillance footage from January 8, 2016, showed Zhang Qing riding a shared bike with a shadowy figure following on the back seat until he collapsed and the figure disappeared.
• On January 11, 2016, Zhang Qing's death was confirmed as sudden cardiac arrest.
• The narrator considered the spirit's baffling behavior and messaged Wu Ling to ask Greenleaf to investigate it.

The narrator possessed a shared bicycle and witnessed the spirit within it turn from confused to gleefully murderous. The spirit continued hunting people in Minqing, where it frightened a cyclist to death.

• The narrator realized they were inside a shared bicycle as the spirit awakened amid the anger and complaints directed at shared bikes.
• The spirit unlocked a girl's chained bicycle, then killed a man who was cutting a bike lock by driving the bicycle into him and tearing off his fingers.
• The spirit opened shared bikes for a group of children, whose bicycles swerved into traffic and were run over by a truck.
• The spirit's desire to kill grew into a desire to toy with its victims.
• In Minqing, the spirit chased a man on a bicycle until he collapsed clutching his chest, then smiled down at him.

The narrator encountered the spirit that controlled shared bikes and realized it had targeted him, then discussed ways to trap it with Wu Ling. Wu Ling proposed using another spirit against it and named the returning entity “Endless Roads.”

• The narrator woke from a dream about the dangerous spirit and messaged his younger sister, Wu Ling, and the others to warn them.
• While riding a bus, the narrator repeatedly spotted the spirit on shared bikes and saw it cause a fatal traffic accident to taunt him.
• The narrator told Wu Ling that the spirit was targeting him, and she explained how its access to shared bikes made it difficult to trap.
• Wu Ling suggested using another spirit to confront the bike-controlling spirit and said Nangong Yao had found one active again.
• Wu Ling asked whether the narrator had read the file called “Endless Roads.”

The narrator learned that Ren Pi’s elementary school classmates were dying in car accidents, and Wu Ling suspected a spirit was responsible. After receiving a list of the classmates, the narrator connected with Zhu Yun and witnessed a spirit warn her that she had three days left.

• Wu Ling told the narrator that seventeen of Ren Pi’s thirty classmates had died in car accidents since the start of the year, and she suspected a spirit was killing them.
• Wu Ling urged the narrator to set aside the shared-bike spirit investigation and stay cautious while she investigated Ren Pi’s past.
• The narrator told Fatty and Skinny about the danger and arranged to travel separately from them.
• Wu Ling sent the narrator a list of Ren Pi’s classmates, and the narrator blacked out after seeing Zhu Yun’s name.
• The narrator experienced Zhu Yun’s nighttime encounter with a whispering presence that told her, “Three days left.”

Trapped inside Zhu Yun, the narrator watched her encounter a horned, tailed figure that warned her she had only days left. After it appeared again in her bedroom and said “Two more days,” Zhu Yun convinced her husband to help search for an old contact who might explain what was happening.

• Zhu Yun spent the night frightened by an unseen voice, then went through her morning routine with her husband and daughter while wondering whether she needed a doctor or a temple.
• At work, Zhu Yun saw a tall figure with horns and a barbed tail outside the office door, but it vanished when a coworker looked over.
• Zhu Yun checked the date and asked her family about it, but found no reason to explain the figure’s warning of three days.
• That night, the figure’s shadow appeared in Zhu Yun’s bedroom and told her, “Two more days,” leaving her crying and certain she had seen a ghost.
• Zhu Yun told her husband she feared the warning meant she would die, and they searched their belongings until they found an old address book.

Zhu Yun’s memories revealed how her parents sought help from Master Chao, worshipped a strange bodhisattva statue, and died amid increasingly disturbing events. After Zhu Yun insisted she had truly seen a supernatural figure, the narrator concluded it looked like a Western demon and wondered why a spirit would take that form.

• Zhu Yun’s husband doubted her account of seeing a ghost and warned her against spending money on Master Chao, offering instead to take her to a hospital and temple.
• The narrator saw Zhu Yun’s childhood memory of her parents meeting a strange, goateed man who sent her to wait outside.
• Zhu Yun remembered her parents worshipping a split-faced bodhisattva statue, whose face changed after her father died by suicide and her mother was driven mad.
• After Zhu Yun’s mother was murdered, the statue shattered and bled, and its face showed grief and terror.
• The narrator reviewed Zhu Yun’s memories, decided Wu Ling’s deduction about her parents was wrong, and recognized the figure Zhu Yun saw as resembling a Western demon.

The narrator considered using the demon spirit as a weapon against the shared-bike spirit while Zhu Yun sought help at a City God Temple. After drawing the worst fortune, Zhu Yun saw a red figure descend from the Bodhisattva statue and collapsed when her fortune slip changed to read “Death.”

• The narrator reasoned that the demon might be summoned or bargained with, though they suspected someone else had originally connected Zhu Yun's parents to it.
• Zhu Yun visited a doctor with her husband and then prayed at the City God Temple for protection from the ghost.
• Zhu Yun saw the Bodhisattva's face appear to smile and weep, then drew a fortune that Master Wang warned could mean she was in danger of losing her life.
• Zhu Yun told Master Wang she had seen a ghost, but he dismissed ghosts as imaginary and advised her to stay safe.
• As Zhu Yun left with her husband, she sensed a presence and saw a red figure climb down from the Bodhisattva statue.
• Zhu Yun dropped her fortune slip when it changed into a scarlet paper marked “Death,” and she fainted.

After Zhu Yun fainted, the narrator witnessed a red shadow threaten her in the hospital before she was sedated and plunged into a vivid memory of a childhood crash. The chapter ended with Zhu Yun regaining consciousness in a taxi.

• Zhu Yun woke in a hospital ward, where a note said her husband had brought her in after she fainted from lack of sleep.
• Zhu Yun panicked about dying and called for help, and a red streak appeared above her as she was wheeled toward the elevator.
• The red shadow whispered, “One day left,” and Zhu Yun saw the doctor’s face twist into a malicious grin.
• Zhu Yun was transferred to the psychiatric ward and begged her husband to call Master Chao, but he refused.
• After Zhu Yun was medicated, she experienced a memory of children on a vehicle that crashed, then woke up in a taxi.

Zhu Yun relived the events surrounding her death, from leaving the hospital with her family to a construction accident that killed her daughter. After seeing a demon in a childhood memory and feeling it seize her soul, the narrator used their ability to break free and returned to their body.

• Zhu Yun woke in a taxi with her husband and daughter the day after her hospitalization, confused because her memories did not match what had happened.
• The narrator suspected Ren Pi's death was connected to the demon and grew wary when Zhu Yun's alarm rang at 10:27 a.m.
• A construction sign and falling debris crushed the taxi, killing Zhu Yun's daughter and fatally injuring Zhu Yun as a red-and-black figure appeared.
• Zhu Yun remembered her parents promising she would grow up safely after her mother agreed to the demon's demand, then saw a horned figure before sinking into darkness.
• The demon grabbed the narrator's soul, but the narrator used their ability to force it to let go and rose back into their body.

Qi told Wu Ling about his dream of Zhu Yun and concluded that a demon had intervened in the students’ lives. He feared the demon might target his family, then reconsidered after recalling that Ye Qing had saved him as a child.

• Qi explained that Zhu Yun and her daughter had died in the car accident, while Zhu Yun’s husband had survived.
• Qi and Wu Ling discussed how a demon may have warned the students’ parents and changed their fates in exchange for a price.
• Wu Ling said the demon seemed cautious and may have survived the exorcists’ purge; Qi revealed that it had grabbed him in the dream before retreating when he used his ability.
• Qi worried that the demon might have approached his parents, whose unusual lack of concern about him suddenly seemed suspicious.
• The thin man, the fat man, and Chen Xiao Qiu questioned whether their families had been tempted by the demon, and Qi recalled that Ye Qing had saved him as a child.

The narrator investigated the deaths linked to the demon and realized the victims’ families had tried to flee it, but none had escaped. After hoping to dream of someone who had encountered the demon, he awoke in an unfamiliar, old-fashioned life and followed a woman to visit his newborn niece, where he stopped to look down the hospital corridor.

• The narrator read Wu Ling’s reports and wondered whether the students’ families had moved away to escape the demon.
• Wu Ling sent the narrator Nan Gong Yao’s findings, showing that relatives of every student had died in suspicious accidents while trying to flee.
• The narrator went to bed hoping to dream about someone who had directly encountered the demon.
• The narrator woke to an alarm in an unfamiliar room and found himself living as a healthy young man in an old-fashioned home.
• The narrator ate breakfast with an older woman, then went with her to the hospital to visit his sister-in-law and newborn niece.
• The narrator stopped in the hospital corridor and looked toward its far end.

Zhao saw a strange foreigner who claimed his nephew Xiaobao would die before ten and offered to save him by taking Zhao’s soul in exchange for his remaining years. After Zhao refused to agree, an accident killed the head chef instead, leaving Zhao shaken by the man’s prediction.

• Zhao dreamed repeatedly of a red-eyed foreigner predicting that Xiaobao would die before ten, and he grew protective of the baby.
• The foreigner approached Zhao outside his building, revealed that Zhao had been adopted, and offered to transfer Zhao’s remaining years to Xiaobao in exchange for Zhao’s soul after death.
• The foreigner predicted that an accident would happen at noon the next day and said someone else would die because they had refused his deal.
• At work the next day, a falling chandelier startled the head chef, who cut his wrist while chopping bones and later died.

Zhao followed a foreigner to a strange courtyard and agreed to share his lifespan with his newborn nephew. As the gate closed behind him, the courtyard’s spring vanished, revealing a charred landscape filled with bones and corpses.

• Zhao waited beneath the streetlamp, then followed the foreigner to an empty courtyard concealed behind a gate.
• Inside, Zhao saw the courtyard shift from ginkgo leaves to falling snow, while the foreigner showed him a book of past clients’ signatures.
• The foreigner offered Zhao a deal to let his nephew share his lifespan, and Zhao agreed after remembering how his adoptive father had taken him in.
• The foreigner recorded the date and the baby’s name, and Zhao felt a sharp pain as the deal took effect.
• Zhao left the courtyard and watched spring bloom inside it before the gate closed and revealed charred earth, red light, and hanging bones and corpses.

A-Jie experienced a vision of a happy family life with Miss He and his nephew, Tu Ziyang, but a nightmare revealed that Tu Ziyang would die in a car accident on the day of his field trip. After waking, A-Jie and his mother realized they had both seen the warning and rushed to respond.

• A-Jie left the wooden door behind and found himself living through a warm family visit with Miss He and Tu Ziyang.
• Tu Ziyang asked A-Jie to take him shopping for snacks for his field trip, and the three of them went to the supermarket.
• That night, A-Jie heard a voice predict that Tu Ziyang would die in a car accident at 5:30 a.m. on April 19, 1992, and promise Mr. Zhao it would fulfill their deal.
• A-Jie woke in a panic and found his mother distraught; they realized they had both seen the foreigner and the signature connected to the warning.
• A-Jie’s mother urged him to get dressed and check the place Tu Ziyang had gone, and A-Jie rushed out.

The narrator tried to enter a locked courtyard, where the weather shifted violently and a lightning storm destroyed a huge tree, before an old man drove him away. At home, he learned that Yangyang’s bus had overturned, but all thirty-two passengers escaped with little or no injury, leaving the parents unnaturally silent.

• The narrator climbed the courtyard wall and saw a summer landscape abruptly turn into a storm that split a huge tree with lightning.
• The narrator hurt his hand and ankle while trying to climb into the courtyard, then an old man caught him and accused him of being a thief.
• The old man said the family had returned to take care of something, but the narrator left without entering the courtyard.
• The narrator’s mother told him that Yangyang’s bus had overturned, and they hurried to the hospital.
• The narrator saw that Yangyang, the other students, their teacher, and the driver had escaped with only minor injuries, while the parents exchanged strange, silent glances.

Zhao left the capital after the courtyard turned uncanny and reunited with the blue-eyed foreigner years later in another city. After the foreigner reminded him that he owed him, Zhao dreamed of being trapped and horribly killed in the courtyard.

• Zhao found the courtyard's ground and house transformed, avoided entering it, and never saw the foreigner again.
• Zhao's family moved away from the capital, and his relationship with Miss He ended without beginning.
• Years later, Zhao encountered the foreigner at a fruit stand, and they arranged to meet for a meal.
• The foreigner reminded Zhao that he would collect what Zhao owed, then left after paying the restaurant bill.
• Zhao dreamed that he sank into the courtyard's swamp and was hung from a tree, where his body rotted until only a skeleton remained.

Mr. Zhao saw the foreigner in the footage at his mother’s civil compensation hearing, then experienced unsettling visions of the figure following him. After a bakery explosion at a bus stop, the foreigner revealed himself as a demon and said Mr. Zhao’s time had come.

• Mr. Zhao watched courtroom footage of his mother’s fatal accident and spotted the foreigner in the crowd.
• A strange figure sat beside Mr. Zhao in court, then vanished before he noticed red eyes beneath his seat.
• Mr. Zhao waited for a bus and spotted the foreigner near a bakery as it exploded.
• The blast knocked Mr. Zhao down, and a demon seized him, explaining that ninety-one had been a number it made up.
• Mr. Zhao saw his lifeless body on the road as the demon dragged him away.

The narrator endured repeated torture and death at the demon’s hands, then became aware of the souls trapped within the tree. As the demon tried to reclaim him, he recovered his ability and seized it, demanding a deal.

• The demon dragged the narrator to the courtyard, hung him from the withered tree, and tortured him with a whip and rat-sized creatures.
• The demon threw the narrator into lava, restored his body, and later left him hanging as branches pierced him and flames burned him and the tree to ash.
• The narrator’s consciousness persisted as he sensed the trapped souls and struggled to remember his identity and ability.
• The foreigner returned with several people, and the narrator heard them discuss Mr. Wang’s father as the tree’s leaves rustled.
• The narrator’s ability surged forth, and he grabbed the charging demon despite his hand burning, then demanded to make a deal.

The narrator confronted a demon that harvested souls and considered a deal to make it kill the spirit of the shared bikes. Distrusting the demon, the narrator decided to kill it and seek it again in an earlier dream, but the chapter ended as the demon began to panic and struggle.

• The narrator revealed a sliver of power, transforming the surroundings into a hellscape and learning that the demon's small monsters were harvested souls.
• The narrator warned the demon that killing it could bring another demon, but not the same one, and the demon offered a deal in exchange for a signature.
• The demon proposed taking three souls or claiming the narrator's soul after death, but the narrator refused to trust it.
• The narrator reasoned that the demon's physical body could be erased in the present while versions from earlier years remained, and decided to kill it and negotiate again later.
• The demon panicked as the narrator held its arm, and the arm began to struggle.

Lin Qi’s possessed hand made a deal with a demon in a dream, signing his name to terms that bound it to kill spirits connected to shared bicycles without compensation. After waking, Lin Qi learned from Wu Ling that the notebook resembled a legendary wizard’s tool for controlling demons, but recreating such power was no longer possible.

• Ye Qing took control of Lin Qi’s hand and wrote a deal requiring the demon to kill all spirits connected to shared bicycles indefinitely, then signed Lin Qi’s name.
• The demon accepted the deal, and Lin Qi released it before waking from the dream in his bedroom.
• Lin Qi called Wu Ling and described the demon’s notebook and the contract.
• Wu Ling explained that the notebook matched a legend about a Western wizard who used demon blood and angel feathers to control demons.
• Wu Ling said people today lacked the shared convictions needed to create such a powerful supernatural tool, leaving Lin Qi to wonder if Ye Qing had placed all his hopes in him.