Chapter Summaries

Chapter Summary: “Melancholy Blues”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Liu Guangyuan discovers two badly decomposed female corpses hidden in the rooftop vegetable patch. From their clothing and physiques, he identifies them as Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao.
• He realizes that the versions of Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao he previously encountered in the elevator and stairwell were not alive in the present, but repeating “death replays” of their final actions.
• Looking over the rooftop edge, Liu sees two more corpses near the apartment complex’s entrance. They appear to be Tian Wenjing and Zhang Jixian, the rideshare driver. Du Ziteng and his wife, Jiang Huaiyue, then emerge from a building and repeat the act of carrying those bodies inside—an action Liu has already witnessed.
• Liu considers why these events are repeating. He rules out coincidence and suspects that some supernatural mechanism is replaying actions after a specific condition is met.
• The rooftop door opens again, triggering another replay of Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao’s final movements. This time, Wu Ziyi appears with them in the replay.
• Wu Ziyi explains that the trigger is being “recorded.” Cameras are scattered throughout the apartment complex—in elevators, stairwells, streetlights, and even near the rooftop garden. When a camera captures someone’s actions, those actions can later be replayed.
• Liu identifies an old camera above the rooftop door that likely recorded Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao’s final moments. A streetlight camera presumably recorded Jiang Huaiyue and Du Ziteng moving the bodies.
• The chapter ends with Wu Ziyi proposing that the apartment’s supernatural rules—such as Replay, Equivalent Exchange, and the Life-Buying Copper Coin—may work together to achieve something extraordinary: killing people in the past.

Character Developments

• Liu Guangyuan becomes increasingly analytical and suspicious. He moves from simply observing the supernatural phenomena to actively searching for their rules and triggers.
• His discovery of the corpses forces him to confront the reality that the “people” he encountered earlier were recordings or replays of the dead, not living individuals.
• Wu Ziyi demonstrates unexpected insight despite her timid and seemingly slow demeanor. She has correctly identified the connection between cameras and Replay and offers the most disturbing theory about the apartment complex’s purpose.
• Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao are revealed not only as victims but also as subjects trapped in an endlessly repeating record of their final moments.
• Du Ziteng and Jiang Huaiyue are shown participating in a repeated corpse-moving sequence, suggesting that their past actions were also captured and reproduced.
• Ying Shouren, though absent, becomes more ominous. Liu begins questioning whether he placed the players in the apartment complex to observe an experiment rather than merely entertain himself.

Significant Themes

• Reality versus recorded reality: The replays imitate real events but cannot normally be interacted with, creating a distinction between the living world and preserved fragments of the past.
• Surveillance and loss of privacy: Cameras hidden throughout the complex can unknowingly capture people and bind them to supernatural repetitions.
• The manipulation of time: The chapter introduces the possibility that the complex’s rules can affect past events, potentially allowing the living to alter or kill people who have already lived through those moments.
• Rules behind the supernatural: Liu and Wu treat the bizarre phenomena as systems with triggers, costs, and conditions, emphasizing investigation and deduction amid horror.
• Power, control, and experimentation: The combined supernatural mechanisms suggest that the apartment complex may be designed as a controlled experiment, with the players unknowingly serving as test subjects.

Character Interactions

• Liu and Wu discuss the meaning of the replays and work together to identify their trigger.
• Wu explains the camera system to Liu, clarifying that being recorded causes a person’s actions to become eligible for Replay.
• Liu questions Wu about what happens after someone is recorded, while Wu points directly to the replaying figures of Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao as the answer.
• Their conversation shifts from identifying the mechanics of Replay to speculating about Ying Shouren’s motives and the terrifying possibility of using the rules to kill people in the past.

Chapter Summary: “The Moon That Shone on the Ancients Shines Tonight”

Key Plot Points and Events

• A replay on the rooftop shows Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao chatting about a tomato that had grown from an old neglected plant. Without warning, a gust of wind passes, and both women collapse dead.
• Wu Ziyi identifies their deaths as matching the effects of [Equivalent Exchange], a supernatural rule that allows someone to trade a life for another.
• Liu Guangyuan reasons that the women probably did not sacrifice themselves willingly. Instead, a third person must have remotely targeted them using Life-Buying Money, allowing one person to kill two victims.
• Wu Ziyi accuses Liu Guangyuan of being responsible. She claims she saw him in the stairwell taking Copper Coins from his chest and declaring his intention to “Spend Money to Buy Life for them.”
• Liu Guangyuan realizes that Wu Ziyi has reconstructed the truth by observing the apartment’s supernatural replays. He had used the rule to kill Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao in the past, causing their corpses to appear in the present.
• Wu Ziyi leaves to try to buy her sister’s life. She intends to use the same power on the recorded deaths of Tian Wenjing, whose body had already been moved elsewhere, potentially testing whether changing the past can revive her or alter what had happened.
• Before Liu Guangyuan can follow, the supposedly locked rooftop door opens. Zhou Changwan appears, but as he climbs the stairs, he physically ages and transforms from a schoolboy into the elegant adult Ning Zhe.
• Ning Zhe greets Liu Guangyuan and ominously remarks that the “delivery” Liu brought him is late, revealing that Liu’s earlier actions may have been connected to Ning Zhe’s plans.

Character Developments

• Liu Guangyuan: His role shifts from investigator and survivor to suspected killer. He is exposed as the person who used [Equivalent Exchange] to kill Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao, and he becomes increasingly frightened as Wu Ziyi understands the rules better than he does.
• Wu Ziyi: Demonstrates sharp observation, confidence, and a growing command of the apartment’s supernatural mechanics. Her goal remains saving her sister, and she is willing to manipulate the rules and risk unpredictable consequences to do so.
• Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao: Their affectionate, ordinary conversation in the replay contrasts with their abrupt deaths. Their relationship makes it unlikely that either willingly sacrificed herself, supporting the theory that they were remotely killed.
• Ning Zhe: Makes a dramatic entrance by transforming from the youthful Zhou Changwan into an older, refined figure. His calm demeanor and reference to a delayed “delivery” establish him as a powerful and threatening figure connected to Liu Guangyuan’s actions.

Significant Themes

• Manipulation of life and death: The chapter explores whether death can be bought, exchanged, or reversed through supernatural rules and money.
• The past affecting the present: The apartment’s replays are not merely recordings; actions performed within them can alter real deaths and present circumstances.
• Observation and deduction: Wu Ziyi pieces together hidden events from fragments of evidence, showing that knowledge of the rules is as powerful as supernatural ability.
• Moral ambiguity and desperation: Liu Guangyuan’s decision to kill others and Wu Ziyi’s determination to save her sister both raise questions about what people will sacrifice for survival or love.
• Identity and transformation: Zhou Changwan’s sudden aging into Ning Zhe suggests that appearances and chronological identity cannot be trusted within the apartment.

Character Interactions

• Chen Yu and Ding Shaoyao share a relaxed, intimate conversation before dying, establishing their closeness and innocence.
• Wu Ziyi confronts Liu Guangyuan directly, calmly presenting her reconstruction of his crime while he struggles to deny it.
• Liu Guangyuan realizes Wu Ziyi intends to interfere with another past death, creating suspense over whether Tian Wenjing can truly be revived.
• Ning Zhe’s arrival interrupts Liu Guangyuan’s thoughts and establishes a new confrontation, ending the chapter on a threatening cliffhanger.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ying Shouren, the laid-back but sadistic game master of Fallen Leaf Apartment, monitors the resurrected players through an ancient mirror.
• He becomes suspicious of Wu Ziyi, who appears to react unnaturally to her cousin Tian Wenjing’s death. After briefly leaving the camera’s range, she reappears in the haunted stairwell without being captured on any surveillance footage.
• Ying recalls Lan Shiwen’s warning about Taiyi, an eerie entity capable of impersonating others, including copying their appearance, voice, and memories.
• Ying realizes Taiyi may already have infiltrated the group. He checks on Liu Guangyuan, whom he believes is psychologically weak and unlikely to survive.
• On the rooftop, Liu Guangyuan encounters a figure resembling Ning Zhe. After initially appearing terrified, Liu suddenly recovers and transforms into Ning Zhe, claiming, “So I’m Ning Zhe.”
• Ying switches back to Wu Ziyi’s location and sees her body and clothing gradually change until she too becomes Ning Zhe.
• In another room, Jiang Huaiyue and Du Ziteng sit beside the corpses of Zhang Jixian and Tian Wenjing. All four individuals now possess Ning Zhe’s face, revealing that Taiyi has spread through or replaced multiple people.
• Horrified, Ying concludes that “They’re all Ning Zhe.”

Character Developments

• Ying Shouren: His normally carefree and detached attitude collapses as he recognizes the scale of Taiyi’s infiltration. His role as game master becomes more serious and frightening as he realizes the players may no longer be who they appear to be.
• Wu Ziyi: Her suspicious behavior is confirmed. Her ability to avoid cameras and transform into Ning Zhe indicates that she is likely connected to or controlled by Taiyi.
• Liu Guangyuan: Initially portrayed as frightened and mentally fragile, he suddenly becomes calm and transforms into Ning Zhe, suggesting either possession, replacement, or the awakening of a hidden identity.
• Taiyi/Ning Zhe: Taiyi’s powers are shown to be even more dangerous than expected. Rather than merely infiltrating one player, it appears capable of converting multiple individuals into identical versions of Ning Zhe.
• Lan Shiwen: Though absent from the main action, his earlier warnings and recruitment of Ying Shouren become important. Ying begins questioning whether Lan anticipated this crisis.

Significant Themes

• Identity and imitation: The chapter blurs the distinction between people and their appearances, raising the question of whether memory, personality, or physical form defines identity.
• Paranoia and mistrust: Because anyone may secretly be Taiyi—or may have already been replaced—ordinary interactions become impossible to trust.
• Loss of control: Ying Shouren believes he controls the game, but Taiyi’s infiltration undermines his surveillance and authority.
• The limits of prediction and knowledge: Ying wonders whether Lan Shiwen predicted the crisis, emphasizing uncertainty about fate, foresight, and hidden plans.
• Transformation and contagion: The repeated appearance of Ning Zhe’s face suggests that Taiyi’s influence spreads rapidly, turning individual identities into a single, shared identity.

Character Interactions

• Ying reflects on his recruitment by Lan Shiwen and questions whether Lan deliberately allowed Taiyi to infiltrate the game.
• Wu Ziyi’s apparent grief over Tian Wenjing’s death contrasts with her calculated movements and later transformation.
• Liu Guangyuan interacts with the Ning Zhe figure on the rooftop, then becomes another version of Ning Zhe himself.
• Jiang Huaiyue and Du Ziteng remain beside the bodies of Zhang Jixian and Tian Wenjing, but the scene implies that all four are now connected through Taiyi’s identity.
• Ying’s relationship with the players shifts from detached observation to alarm as he realizes he may be watching the same entity through several different bodies.

Chapter Summary: “Odin”

Key Plot Points and Events

• On September 23, 2018, Feng Yushu waits outside two mountain apartment buildings near Yanghuan City for Ning Zhe.
• Ning Zhe arrives in transformed form, first appearing as an owl and then shrinking into a finch before returning to human form.
• Feng reports that Te Rang has located a suspicious man in a storage room beside the electrical room of one apartment building. The man is likely a tall, thin adult holding a Bestowal Artifact.
• Ning identifies the man as Ying Shouren, a security guard at Qiujia Dam Central Primary School. Ying appears ordinary—he works regular hours and spends his free time playing PUBG—but Ning believes him to be dangerous because Lan Shiwen selected him.
• Feng suggests killing Ying remotely through a photograph, using Te Rang’s ability to attack people through physical images.
• Ning refuses to act impulsively, warning that Ying’s abilities and rules are unknown.
• Ning explains Ying’s history: after Ying beat a stray dog that had bitten a student, a female teacher filmed and publicized the incident, leading to widespread online harassment against him.
• Ying retaliated, but instead of killing or physically harming the teacher, he caused her to vanish completely. Her possessions, records, digital history, relationships, and even other people’s memories of her were erased.
• The chapter ends with the disturbing revelation that Lan Shiwen still remembers the erased woman, raising questions about his powers and his connection to Ying’s ability.

Character Developments

• Feng Yushu has become more emotionally open and direct with Ning Zhe. She freely tells him that she loves him, unlike her formerly restrained and inward personality.
• Despite her gentle nature, Feng demonstrates fierce protectiveness toward Ning. She immediately proposes killing Ying because he poses a threat.
• Ning Zhe remains cautious and analytical. Rather than relying on appearances or Ying’s seemingly righteous motives, he focuses on the unknown rules governing Ying’s power.
• Ning also shows affection and reassurance toward Feng, embracing her while explaining the danger.
• Ying Shouren is presented as morally ambiguous: he appears to possess a sense of justice, but his retaliation against the teacher is terrifyingly disproportionate and supernatural.
• Lan Shiwen becomes more mysterious and threatening, since he apparently remembers someone whose entire existence was erased.

Significant Themes

• Love and emotional openness: Feng’s direct confession reflects her personal growth and deepening relationship with Ning.
• The danger of unknown supernatural rules: Ning emphasizes that Ascendants cannot be judged solely by their appearance or reputation; their abilities may operate according to hidden and devastating conditions.
• Justice versus cruelty: Ying’s punishment of the teacher may have begun as retaliation against harassment, but the total erasure of her existence blurs the line between justice and monstrous vengeance.
• Identity and existence: The erased teacher’s disappearance is more than death. Her history, relationships, records, and memory are removed, raising questions about what it means to exist.
• Knowledge and immunity: Lan Shiwen’s ability to remember the erased woman suggests that he may possess a special resistance to Ying’s power—or may understand or control it.

Character Interactions

• Feng and Ning share a warm, intimate exchange when she affectionately welcomes his transformed form and declares that she loves him regardless of his appearance.
• Their relationship combines tenderness with professional cooperation: Feng gathers intelligence and offers to kill Ying, while Ning restrains her and insists on caution.
• Ning uses the story of the erased teacher to convince Feng that Ying is far more dangerous than he appears.
• Feng initially assumes Ying must have killed the teacher, but Ning reveals that Ying’s power erased her from reality itself.
• The final exchange shifts the focus from Ying to Lan Shiwen, as Feng realizes that Lan’s ability to remember the erased woman may be the most significant mystery of all.

Chapter Summary: “Standing Alone, Apart from the World”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ning Zhe explains that Ying Shouren’s Ghost, [Duo A], appears to possess a rule related to Existence Erasure. Its known effect was the complete removal of a female teacher from reality after Ying Shouren killed her.
• The teacher’s records disappeared, people who had known her lost all memories of her, and even minor traces—such as driving-test records—were erased or altered.
• Ning Zhe realizes that the deletion of related memories is likely a side effect of Duo A’s core rule, much as Taiyi’s appearance changes, memory reading, and Substitute Death are side effects of its core rule, Stealing Identity.
• Lan Shiwen is a notable exception: although An Xiaoyu and others forgot the erased teacher, Lan Shiwen retained memories connected to her. Ning Zhe investigates whether this immunity is linked to Lan Shiwen’s Death Regression ability.
• He considers whether Death Regression passively protects Lan Shiwen’s memories, but rejects the idea after recalling that Great Haunt was able to alter some of Lan Shiwen’s memories. Ning Zhe concludes that Death Regression must produce memory protection indirectly through an unknown mechanism.
• Unable to deduce the answer without more information, Ning Zhe turns his attention back to Ying Shouren.
• Feng Yushu identifies Ying Shouren’s hiding place in Fallen Leaf Apartment. Rather than sending her shadow to attack him, Ning Zhe chooses a safer approach.
• Using his phantom Third Hand, Ning Zhe reaches into the apartment from a distance and retrieves an ancient brass mirror, apparently one of Ying Shouren’s important objects or tools. He then leaves with Feng Yushu.

Character Developments

• Ning Zhe demonstrates increasingly sophisticated reasoning about Ascendant rules, distinguishing between core abilities and their side effects. He is cautious and strategic, recognizing the danger posed by Duo A and choosing to steal the mirror rather than launch a direct attack.
• His investigation into Lan Shiwen shows his determination to uncover the true nature of Death Regression, though he admits that the available clues are insufficient.
• Feng Yushu remains obedient and supportive of Ning Zhe. Although initially prepared to risk herself by sending her shadow into the apartment, she follows his more cautious plan and is visibly delighted when he succeeds.
• Ying Shouren remains largely offscreen, but his power and the threat he poses become clearer through the description of Duo A’s reality-altering effects.

Significant Themes

• Existence and erasure: The chapter explores how a person can be removed not only physically but also from records, memories, relationships, and history itself.
• Identity and memory: Memory serves as a foundation of personal identity and reality. The contrast between Taiyi’s identity theft, Duo A’s existence erasure, and Lan Shiwen’s mysterious resistance highlights the importance of cognition in the world’s supernatural rules.
• Indirect power and deduction: Several abilities achieve effects indirectly—Lan Shiwen appears to predict the future through regression, Lu Zhaoyi through borrowing from the future, and possibly Lan Shiwen protects memories through an unknown secondary mechanism.
• Caution versus confrontation: Ning Zhe avoids a potentially dangerous battle and instead uses precision and intelligence to obtain the mirror, emphasizing strategy over brute force.
• Isolation from the world: The title reflects the terrifying possibility of being removed from reality so completely that no one remembers one ever existed.

Character Interactions

• Ning Zhe comforts and holds Feng Yushu while explaining his theories, creating a moment of intimacy and trust between them.
• Feng Yushu listens closely and asks whether she should use her shadow to assassinate Ying Shouren. Ning Zhe rejects the reckless option and asks her to locate Ying Shouren instead.
• He instructs her to close her eyes while he uses the Third Hand, then reveals the retrieved brass mirror once the operation is complete.
• Feng Yushu responds with relief and happiness, eagerly following Ning Zhe home after their successful mission.

Chapter Summary: “Parting Is Hard When We Meet”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Ying Shouren discovers that the Bronze Mirror he left on a table has vanished while he briefly looked away.
• He identifies the theft as likely being caused by the supernatural anomaly Rong Kong, whose ability allows its user to steal an object without crossing physical barriers.
• Ying recalls his past encounter with Rong Kong, including refusing an official government position, stealing cigarettes from him, and later forcing the authorities to reveal Rong Kong’s rules.
• Rong Kong’s theft ability requires:
  1. The thief must know the object’s appearance and location.
  2. Both the thief and the object must be unobserved simultaneously.
• Since the original Rong Kong died while guarding a dangerous location, Ying suspects that someone else—possibly the mysterious Taiyi or another government-backed Ascendant—has inherited or replicated Rong Kong’s powers.
• Rather than investigate immediately, Ying decides to leave work and enjoy his free time.
• The scene shifts to an Ascendant Train, where Lan Shiwen and Miao Miaomiao prepare to review camera footage.
• Miao Miaomiao activates the camera, revealing Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu seated together. Ning is examining an ornate silver pocket watch while Feng quietly leans against him.
• The footage then shows Lu Zhaoyi suddenly appearing before them.
• Lan orders Miao to pause the recording, takes Ning’s pocket watch, and then steps on the shadow beneath Feng Yushu, implying that he is testing, restraining, or interfering with something supernatural connected to her.

Character Developments

• Ying Shouren is shown as irreverent, independent, and openly hostile toward the authorities. He rejects the idea of surrendering one’s weaknesses to gain official protection and prefers living according to his own rules.
• His history demonstrates both his dangerous power and his audacious personality: he once threatened a governor, stole cigarettes, and killed him after obtaining information.
• Lan Shiwen appears calculating and authoritative. He investigates the mysterious footage methodically but also acts decisively and physically, taking the pocket watch and attacking Feng Yushu’s shadow without explanation.
• Miao Miaomiao functions as the camera operator and follows Lan’s instructions, though she questions his intentions.
• Ning Zhe is curious and absorbed by the elegant pocket watch, suggesting it may have personal or supernatural significance.
• Feng Yushu remains silent and passive, staying close to Ning. Her shadow is singled out by Lan, hinting that she may be concealing a dangerous power or entity.
• Lu Zhaoyi is presented as mysterious and seemingly capable of appearing out of nowhere.

Significant Themes

• Power and autonomy: Ying rejects dependence on government officials, contrasting self-determined power with the submission required to become an official Ascendant.
• Trust and vulnerability: The authorities demand knowledge of an Ascendant’s fatal weakness before offering protection, suggesting that institutional support is built on control and exploitation.
• Observation and concealment: Rong Kong’s ability depends on objects being unwatched, while the camera footage reveals hidden actions and supernatural appearances. The chapter repeatedly emphasizes the danger of being seen—or not being seen.
• Inheritance of supernatural power: Even after an Ascendant dies, their anomaly and rules can be learned and reused by others, making death insufficient to end their influence.
• Time and separation: The pocket watch, the train, and Ying’s insistence on “clocking out” reinforce the chapter’s focus on time, transitions, and characters moving between encounters.
• Unresolved supernatural danger: Lan’s sudden interference with Feng’s shadow establishes a tense cliffhanger and suggests that appearances may conceal far more than the characters realize.

Important Character Interactions

• Ying’s past conflict with Rong Kong establishes the rules behind the stolen Bronze Mirror and connects the present mystery to the authorities’ handling of supernatural anomalies.
• Lan and Miao collaborate while reviewing footage, with Lan directing the investigation.
• Ning and Feng’s quiet closeness contrasts with Lan’s intrusive actions.
• Lan removes Ning’s pocket watch without permission, then steps on Feng’s shadow, creating immediate tension and suggesting he distrusts or recognizes something about both the watch and Feng.
• The chapter ends before Lan explains his motives, leaving the significance of the pocket watch, Feng’s shadow, Lu Zhaoyi’s arrival, and the stolen Bronze Mirror unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Xia Yubing wakes on September 23, two days before Gengshen Day, and checks her calendar.
• As a Bestowed One of Taiyi, she remains unchanged in Taiyi’s perception unless it observes her directly. But on each Gengshen Day, her Three Corpse spirits leave to report her true condition. Since Xia believes she died in Zanju Town, that revelation could cause her actual death.
• To prevent this, she must bribe the Three Corpses with treasure, fine food, and sex. She has prepared the first two offerings and expects Ning Zhe to provide the third.
• Ning has not contacted her recently, so Xia worries he may have forgotten. As she gets dressed to visit him, she realizes she cannot remember who she bought her revealing dress for—or why she wears a wedding ring.
• She finds their mirror-rule notebook completely blank. The loss of its contents leaves her with intense grief and a sense that someone important has been erased from her memory.
• Xia writes two absolute commands in the notebook: never reveal Ning Zhe’s identity, and trust and obey him completely. She still cannot remember who Ning Zhe is. The chapter ends the volume.

Character developments

• Xia’s playful anxiety about Ning’s silence gives way to alarm when she discovers the gaps in her memory.
• Despite forgetting Ning, she retains powerful written instructions binding her to him, suggesting their connection has been deliberately protected or altered.

Significant themes

• Perception versus reality: Xia’s survival depends on Taiyi’s limited perception, while Gengshen Day threatens to expose the truth.
• Memory and identity: The blank notebook and Xia’s missing memories raise questions about how much of a person’s identity can be erased.
• Protection and control: Her unbreakable commands preserve a bond with Ning, but also compel her to obey him.

Character interactions

• Xia recalls Ning’s explanation of Taiyi’s gift, the Three Corpses, and the danger of Gengshen Day.
• Though Ning is absent from the present action, Xia’s worry, trust, wedding ring, and written commands show how central he is to her—despite her inability to remember him.

Volume Four: Wind-Filled Tower — Summary

Key events and setup

• The volume ends as a storm gathers, serving as the calm before the final volume’s “downpour.”
• The author describes the book’s ending as having been planned from the start, with the middle developed through improvisation.
• No specific story scenes or plot events are recapped here; the text mainly previews the supernatural entities featured in the volume.

Character developments and interactions

• The summary provides no character arcs or relationships. Instead, it catalogs the Ghosts and the rules governing their powers.
• Several abilities depend on interaction or perception: the Cowardly Ghost is defeated by a lack of fear; Rong Kong must surrender if caught stealing; Murphy’s Law makes shared fears come true; and Primordium’s mind-reading changes according to who observes whom.
• The Night-Wandering God controls a sleeping person’s body, while the Musician and Sleep Paralysis affect people who sleep in their presence.

Significant themes

• Fear and perception: Fear can cause death or make an event inevitable, while observation determines who can access another’s thoughts.
• Rules and costs: Supernatural powers often have specific conditions or prices, most notably Tingwo’s time interest and Rong Kong’s obligation to surrender when caught.
• Memory, identity, and reality: The Book of Life and Death can alter a person’s condition in reality; the Sea of Bitterness erases memories; and Duo A erases a person and all information about them.
• Time, space, and consciousness: Ghosts can cross spacetime, connect enclosed spaces, divide or borrow time, and trap or control consciousness.

Ghosts listed

The volume’s roster includes the Cowardly Ghost, Rong Kong, the Time Worm, Ghost Pen, Xu Beicheng, Murphy’s Law, the Book of Life and Death, the Revolving Lantern, Tingwo, the Vast Deep’s Sea of Bitterness, the Musician, Sleep Paralysis, the Night-Wandering God, Melancholy Blues, Primordium, and Duo A. Most are given a power and some a weakness; several weaknesses remain unknown.
The volume closes by positioning the next one as the series’ final installment.

Key plot points and events

• Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu vanish after [Duo A]’s power takes effect. Ning Zhe’s pocket watch, which contained the sword of [Tingxiao], disappears too. Miao Miaomiao’s camera retains old images, but she can no longer remember what she was doing.
• Miao asks Lan Shiwen to bring back her boyfriend, Ding Wei, who became a ghost officer. Lan tells her it is impossible, then leaves her in the carriage with a recording that puts her to sleep.
• Lan orders authorities to take Miao to the Musician and identifies her as a newly created Disqualified One: a human subject to a ghost’s rule, rather than an Ascendant who controls one.
• Lan explains that Murphy’s Law at the Xiangzilan Hotel was thought to have been shut down when Ning Zhe and Xu Beicheng manipulated Miao and Feng Yushu into fearing that it would fail. But because [Duo A] has erased Feng Yushu, the conditions that supposedly disabled Murphy’s Law no longer hold. Lan orders Miao confined in the Eternal Sleep Prison.

Character developments

• Lan Shiwen remains controlled despite Ning Zhe’s disappearance. He quickly shifts from trying to understand what happened to containing its consequences, though the loss clearly unsettles him.
• Miao Miaomiao is devastated by the news that Ding Wei cannot return. Her greatest fear becomes central to Murphy’s Law’s operation, and she is revealed to be dangerously bound to the ghost.
• Ning Zhe remains mysterious: Lan considers whether he was helped by Ying Shouren, caused [Duo A] to lose control, or took over its rule.

Character interactions

• Miao confronts Lan about his promise to restore Ding Wei; Lan bluntly tells her it cannot be done.
• Lan puts Miao to sleep and delegates her transfer to the authorities, who ask him to explain and record his actions.
• Lan’s briefing to the officials links the earlier Murphy’s Law incident to Ning Zhe, Xu Beicheng, Miao, and Feng Yushu.

Significant themes

• Identity and erasure: [Duo A]’s power removes people so completely that records and memory may no longer reflect what happened.
• Fear as a supernatural force: Murphy’s Law turns shared anxieties into inevitable events.
• Power and vulnerability: An Ascendant commands a ghost’s rule, while a Disqualified One is trapped under it.
• Containment over comfort: Lan prioritizes preventing further danger, even when that means deceiving and imprisoning Miao.

Key plot points

• Lin Xi reports that Miao Miaomiao has been placed in the Eternal Sleep Prison, a space governed by two ghosts: Musician’s Requiem gradually lulls people into fatal, dreamless sleep, while Sleep Paralysis traps sleepers in nightmares they cannot wake from. Since both rules apply at once, Lin Xi cannot tell what Miao is experiencing.
• Lan Shiwen leaves the prison wishing Miao a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
• Later, Lan visits Underground Prison No. 04, a former missile silo converted to contain exceptionally dangerous prisoners. There he confronts Tuyu, publicly known as traitor and business magnate Bai Fugui, who is chained to a massive iron cross.
• Lan argues that a person is the sum of their social identities—parent, spouse, businessman, and Ascendant—and says this is a rule of Taiyi, not merely philosophy.
• Bai denies knowing what Lan means. Lan reveals that prison instruments recorded Bai’s heart rate spiking when Taiyi was mentioned, suggesting he still remembers “him.”

Character developments and interactions

• Lan Shiwen appears controlled and analytical, but his farewell to Miao shows concern beneath his composure. With Bai, he uses a philosophical argument and a physiological tell to probe his prisoner’s hidden connection to Taiyi.
• Lin Xi, the Night-Wandering God, is candid about the limits of his knowledge. Though he cannot determine whether Miao is dreaming, he concludes that any dream would be a nightmare.
• Bai Fugui/Tuyu presents himself as indifferent to names and denies recognizing Lan’s subject, but his involuntary reaction suggests otherwise.
• The chapter’s main interactions are Lan and Lin’s discussion of the prison’s rules, followed by Lan’s tense interrogation of Bai.

Significant themes

• The body betrays the mind: Bai’s carefully controlled expression conceals nothing from his heart rate.
• Identity and relationships: Lan frames personal identity as the sum of one’s roles and connections, rather than a name alone.
• Sleep, dreams, and helplessness: Miao’s fate is uncertain, but both possible forms of sleep are dangerous.
• Control and confinement: The supernatural sleep prison and the hardened underground cell both strip people of agency, in different ways.

Lan Shiwen questioned Bai Fugui about Ye Xiuyuan, Ning Zhe, and the memories that shaped his life. Bai Fugui realized how thoroughly Ye Xiuyuan had used him, but took comfort in still knowing who he was.

• Lan Shiwen threatened to sell Bai Fugui to the Gullveig family, then said his hatred for Ning Zhe surpassed his hatred for old families and foreigners.
• Bai Fugui said his memories of Ning Zhe were incomplete and wondered whether Ye Xiuyuan had altered them.
• Lan Shiwen recounted how Ye Xiuyuan fabricated Bai Fugui and Feng Yushu’s memories, arranged their marriage, and gave Bai Fugui [Tuyu] to protect the unborn [Tai Su].
• Bai Fugui learned that his supposed achievements as [Tuyu], his guilt over the party, and much of his family history had been manufactured by Ye Xiuyuan.
• Bai Fugui accepted that he had been a tool, but said he was fortunate to still know who he was.

Bai Fugui explained that Ye Xiuyuan had made him and other people into vessels for collecting anomalies, while Lan Shiwen revealed that he was willing to do anything to find someone. At Europa’s consulate, Prumelia wept over something she could not find, and Baizhi discovered that her mother’s contact had vanished from her phone.

• Bai Fugui told Lan Shiwen that Ye Xiuyuan collected anomalies out of greed and used people as vessels to contain them.
• Bai Fugui said Ye Xiuyuan killed any vessel that completed its Closed Loop, and Lan Shiwen suggested this explained why Bai Fugui had left Xu Beicheng alone.
• Bai Fugui guessed that Lan Shiwen planned to abandon the world to find someone, and Lan Shiwen laughed with him in the missile silo.
• At Europa’s consulate, Prumelia knelt by a window and repeatedly said she could not find something while crying.
• Baizhi left Prumelia and checked her phone, only to find that her mother’s contact was gone.