Chapter Summaries

The players arrived in Double Happiness Town to investigate Xu Wen’s disappearance and learned that the town was preparing a wedding ceremony for the Joyous God. They found a phone hidden in Liu Bingding’s pocket, and Qi Si began examining its eerie image for clues.

• Sister Xu welcomed Qi Si and the other players, denied knowing Xu Wen, and explained that the town held a grand wedding every forty-nine years to honor the Joyous God.
• Sister Xu showed the players the Temple of the Joyous God and told them the bride, Xi'er, would be married the next day; she then lodged them in Xi'er's house and warned them to avoid the western wing.
• Li Yao warned Sister Xu that holding a wedding after a funeral could invite disaster, but Sister Xu dismissed her concern and left.
• Qi Si reasoned that Xu Wen had likely been the previous guest at Xi'er's house, and the players began searching their room for clues.
• Qi Si discovered a smartphone in Liu Bingding's pocket; its screensaver showed a red bridal procession beneath falling spirit money, and the players reacted with suspicion before Qi Si opened the phone.

Qi Si and the players investigated Xu Wen’s phone, learned that Double Happiness Town was a ghost town, and encountered a bride named Xi’er before Sister Xu served them dinner. The chapter ended with Sister Xu watching Qi Si slowly eat, saying he was the only one left.

• Qi Si unlocked the phone, found Xu Wen’s distress message and a photo of a Soul-Suppressing Coffin, then answered Xu Wen’s call and learned that the town was a ghostly maze where residents could not be trusted.
• Qi Si reasoned that Xu Wen might be hiding information and said he would kill her if necessary to complete the quest, while the other players mistook him for a seasoned veteran.
• Du Xiaoyu searched the phone for “beauty,” causing an image of a bride in red to appear; the bride then manifested outside the window before Sister Xu shooed her away as Xi’er.
• Sister Xu brought dinner and denied changing her habit of wearing black bells, while Qi Si noticed her skin was ice-cold and prolonged the meal by slowly peeling and eating a steamed bun.
• After Sister Xu cleared the other players’ dishes, she watched Qi Si continue eating and told him, “You’re the only one left...”

Qi Si and the players investigated clues in their room at Double Happiness Town, including Sister Xu’s Soul-Summoning Bell and a tale about a man who became lost there. During the night, Shang Qingbei encountered Xi’er and suspected she was a ghost, while Qi Si urged him to come outside and identified the Eerie Game.

• Qi Si avoided eating the suspicious dinner, photographed Sister Xu’s bell, and learned that the Soul-Summoning Bell could make ghosts seem alive.
• Li Yao shared a tale about a man who searched for his sisters in Double Happiness Town, while Qi Si found blood on the windowsill and the players discussed a corpse in a well.
• Liu Bingding found a compact mirror that belonged to Xu Wen, and Qi Si kept it as the players went to sleep.
• Shang Qingbei woke during the night and found Xi’er hiding beside him in her wedding dress.
• Qi Si used the mirror’s LED light to approach Shang Qingbei, who saw a blue-black claw beneath Xi’er’s dress and suspected she was a ghost.
• Shang Qingbei questioned whether Qi Si was human or a ghost, and Qi Si praised his alertness before answering, “The Eerie Game.”

Shang Qingbei and Qi Si encountered a ghostly bride before Qi Si led Shang Qingbei outside to investigate Double Happiness Town at night. They hid as a bloodied Soul-Suppressing Coffin and a funeral procession emerged from the mist, leaving them facing a strange chant.

• Shang Qingbei tested Xi'er with a pen, and the ghost murmured for help before dissolving into red mist after Qi Si questioned her.
• Qi Si teased Shang Qingbei about his exam worries and drew him out of the residence to investigate the courtyard and town.
• A freezing wind carried joss paper through the streets, and Shang Qingbei agreed to explore with Qi Si after they reasoned that the Instance had selected them to act.
• Qi Si and Shang Qingbei hid beneath the eaves when mournful suona music approached through the fog.
• A black Soul-Suppressing Coffin, dripping blood and surrounded by shadowy figures, drew near as a funeral procession chanted about the separate paths of the living and dead.

Shang Qingbei was lured toward a sinister residence by a ghost disguised as Qi Wen, while Li Yao awoke in a bridal room and was asked by a ghost to save her. Qi Si investigated the strange night, discovered that he and Li Yao carried paper money, and learned that sleeping Players could not be killed.

• Shang Qingbei saw funeral ghosts gather around a coffin, then realized the youth posing as Qi Wen was dragging him toward a blood-stained residence while casting a woman's shadow.
• Qi Si and Li Yao watched a funeral procession leave a coffin outside the residence, and a ghost in Li Yao's form asked Qi Si whether she was dead or alive.
• Li Yao woke in a bridal gown, found a long-haired ghost beside an Ancient Well, and heard it plead for help.
• Qi Si returned to the east wing, found Xu Wen's phone inside the coffin by calling its sole contact, and discovered that only he and Li Yao had paper money in their pockets.
• Qi Si tried to slash his sleeping teammates, but his blade passed through them, and the system announced that Players could not kill Players who were asleep.

Shang Qingbei encountered a Guiding Paper Effigy in a dream, while Qi Si investigated Double Happiness Town’s legend and suspected that its wedding ritual involved sacrificing people to a resentful ghost in a well. The chapter ended with Li Yao waking in the side room, shivering and speaking of the well’s cold bottom.

• Shang Qingbei struck at a ghostly young man, then used his Reading Pen on the Guiding Paper Effigy and learned it guided the dead before waking from the dream.
• Shang Qingbei saw the bride in red muttering that Xi'er was scared and would hide for a while.
• Qi Si searched his phone for information about Double Happiness Town and Xu Wen, then tried searching for a contract and triggered a warning that drained half his battery.
• Qi Si studied a photograph and account of the Man in the Well, connecting Lady Joyous God’s death, the town’s forty-nine-year wedding, and the possible sacrifice of people into the well.
• Qi Si selected the Sea God Scepter and wondered how it absorbed sin as Li Yao woke trembling and said it was cold at the bottom of the well.

Shang Qingbei escaped a looping nightmare after a mysterious voice offered to help him ruin Xi'er's wedding, then woke and compared dream clues with the others. As the group discussed the Instance's rules and found no new photos on the phone, Qi Si concealed that he had deleted one Xu Wen sent.

• Shang Qingbei endured repeated nightmare cycles until a voice used his real name and offered to help him awaken in exchange for ruining Xi'er's wedding.
• The voice revealed that Xi'er would be pushed into a well after her wedding to nourish the Joy God, and Shang Qingbei accepted the optional side quest before being struck unconscious.
• Shang Qingbei woke in the eastern side room and heard Li Yao and Qi Si explain their dreams and discuss the rule that humans and ghosts followed separate paths.
• Shang Qingbei told Qi Wen about his nightmare and challenged him over the ghost that had known about the Eerie Game, but Qi Si deflected suspicion by explaining how dreams reflected their dreamers' thoughts.
• The group connected their dreams and discussed a possible ghost marriage, while Shang Qingbei withheld what he had learned about Xi'er's sacrifice.
• Shang Qingbei discovered that the phone had lost half its battery and contained no new photos, unaware that Qi Si had deleted a photo Xu Wen sent.

Qi Si investigated Xi'er and the clues surrounding the town’s ritual, while Li Yao revealed that her prophetic dream showed the Players dead in a well. The discovery of the bridal sedan chair and Li Yao’s suspicious reference to a defunct magazine left Qi Si questioning which clues—and which people—could be trusted.

• Qi Si told the Players that Xi'er had appeared in his and Shang Qingbei's dreams, then went alone to speak with her.
• Qi Si gave Xi'er a blade and suggested that she should have the right to decide when she died; he noticed that her hand felt alive and bore a writer's callus.
• Qi Si told Shang Qingbei that Xi'er had provided no clues, interrupting him when he tried to share his theory about the Instance.
• Qi Si opened the courtyard gate and found an old red bridal sedan chair with dirty paper offerings beneath it, in the spot where he had dreamed of a coffin.
• Li Yao told Qi Si that her prophetic dream showed her dead in a well alongside other corpses, possibly including him; Qi Si dismissed prophecy and asked where she published her novels.
• Qi Si recognized that Paranormal World had ceased publication years earlier, making Li Yao's recommendation suspicious.

Qi Si and the other Players followed Sister Xu to Xi'er's wedding feast while probing Double Happiness Town's customs and the Temple of the Joyous God. Shang Qingbei's side quest to ruin Xi'er's joyous occasion was marked complete before he acted, and its performance points went to the Player with the highest participation.

• Qi Si questioned Sister Xu about her missing Soul-Summoning Bell and tried to stay with Xi'er, but Sister Xu insisted on taking the Players to the feast and keeping them away from the bride.
• Qi Si and Li Yao suspected the townspeople planned to torment Xi'er and discussed sneaking back after they reached the feast.
• Sister Xu led the Players past the Temple of the Joyous God, where Qi Si noticed signs of change, and she explained that the town's hauntings had been sealed in a well.
• Sister Xu brought the Players to a crowded, festive feast, where Qi Si noticed a black dog despite the town's reputation for being full of ghosts.
• Shang Qingbei asked the townsmen where the groom was, and the system announced that his side quest was complete despite his having done nothing.
• The system said Shang Qingbei's performance points had been transferred to the Player with the highest participation, leaving him shocked.

At Xi'er's wedding banquet, Qi Si and Liu Bingding investigated the townspeople and discovered that the groom was alive, casting doubt on the belief that Double Happiness Town was a ghost town. The banquet was thrown into an uproar when news spread that Xi'er had killed herself.

• Qi Si inspected the wedding banquet, ate freshly cooked food, and suspected Double Happiness Town had fewer ghosts than the Players believed.
• Liu Bingding questioned Dog about Sister Xu's matchmaking work, then learned from an old man where the groom was sitting.
• Qi Si apologized to Liu Bingding and suggested they investigate the groom, leading them into the crowd together.
• Qi Si saw the groom holding a fragment of a modern vanity mirror and confirmed that the man was alive by feeling his warm, damp hand.
• The townspeople watched Qi Si closely as he congratulated the groom, and the Players realized their assumptions about the town might be wrong.
• The banquet guests spread the news that Xi'er had killed herself.

After Xi'er died by suicide, Qi Si admitted that he had given her the razor blade and explained that he wanted to disrupt the Instance’s scripted events. The players split up to investigate, and Qi Si, Du Xiaoyu, and Shang Qingbei encountered a funeral procession whose coffin called out for help.

• Qi Si recalled how his words had influenced his cousin Qi Xinyue before she killed herself and caused a disaster.
• At the wedding banquet, Shang Qingbei learned Xi'er had died, while Sister Xu faced complaints from the groom's relatives and quietly gave instructions.
• Qi Si told the players that he had given Xi'er a razor blade, then argued that disrupting the Instance's arrangements could help them escape a predictable ending.
• The players split up, with Li Yao and Liu Bingding assigned to investigate Xi'er's house while Qi Si, Du Xiaoyu, and Shang Qingbei headed toward the Temple of the Joyous God.
• Qi Si defended his self-interested outlook to Du Xiaoyu and Shang Qingbei as they walked through the fog toward the temple.
• Qi Si recorded a mournful funeral song and followed a coffin after hearing cries for help from inside; when a voice urged him to climb in with Shang Qingbei, he turned around and found no one behind him.

Li Yao and Liu Bingding investigated Xi’er's sealed room and discovered evidence that Sister Xu had lied about Xi’er. Meanwhile, Qi Si encountered a coffin apparition, reunited with Shang Qingbei and Du Xiaoyu, and entered the Temple of the Joyous God, where he recognized the Idol before approaching a mysterious figure burning offerings.

• Li Yao and Liu Bingding followed Sister Xu to Xi’er's home but found the courtyard empty and suspected they had encountered a ghost wall.
• Li Yao searched the sealed west wing, identified blood spatter from a fight, and found a newspaper showing that Xi’er had been a missing college student.
• The scene collapsed after Li Yao concluded that Sister Xu had lied to them, and their side quest refreshed.
• Qi Si ignored the coffin’s plea for help and hammered its loosened nails back in, causing the coffin and much of the fog to disappear.
• Qi Si reunited with Shang Qingbei and Du Xiaoyu, and Shang Qingbei proposed that the well’s orderly rows of corpses were a clue to the Instance’s mystery.
• The three entered the Temple of the Joyous God, where Qi Si recognized the Idol as a familiar Evil God and then approached a hunched figure burning paper offerings.

Qi Si and the others were trapped inside the Temple of the Joyous God after the temple caretaker transformed into insects and ghostly statues surrounded them. Elsewhere, Li Yao found herself in the past at Xu Residence, where paper effigies discovered her hiding place.

• Qi Si questioned the caretaker while burning paper, and the caretaker revealed that people who lay in the temple for seven days belonged to the town before transforming into insects.
• Ghostly statues approached the temple, so Shang Qingbei and Qi Si shut and bolted the doors, trapping the group inside with two animated statues.
• Qi Si noticed a Soul-Suppressing Nail on a coffin and suspected the Instance was pushing players along a deadly, predetermined path.
• Li Yao became separated from Liu Bingding and realized she had returned to Double Happiness Town centuries earlier as the missing young lady of Xu Residence.
• Li Yao overheard servants discussing a forced marriage and trafficking women, then saw that the servants were human-sized paper effigies.
• A grotesque smiling face appeared behind Li Yao and told her it had found her.

Qi Si and Shang Qingbei survived the temple’s death zone with Soul-Suppressing Nails and uncovered signs that the Players’ shared dreams concealed a deeper truth. The bride and groom returned to their places beneath the shrine when bells rang outside, while Qi Si’s suspicion of Shang Qingbei remained unresolved.

• Qi Si pulled a Soul-Suppressing Nail from a coffin, releasing cries and pounding from the corpse inside, and used the nail to repel the bride.
• Shang Qingbei took a nail from another coffin and discovered that the two ghosts would not approach either of them while they held the nails.
• Qi Si questioned Shang Qingbei about the joss paper and argued that the dream chain had separated Players to conceal what the Instance was really doing.
• Shang Qingbei challenged Qi Si’s suspicion that he had a connection to an NPC, but Qi Si asked what truth the shared dream illusion was hiding.
• Bells rang outside, and the bride and groom returned beneath the shrine without stopping beside Du Xiaoyu’s unconscious body.

Qi Si realized the phone’s clues were fabricated to mislead the Players and began questioning Li Yao’s identity. Sister Xu claimed that only four young men had arrived in town, leaving Li Yao’s disappearance and the true number of Players unresolved.

• Sister Xu opened the Temple of the Joyous God and led Qi Si, Shang Qingbei, and Du Xiaoyu back through town.
• Qi Si and Shang Qingbei suspected the phone could be used to track the Players, and Qi Si examined its entries about the coffin, bell, and person in the well.
• Qi Si recognized that the phone’s information had constructed a false explanation of the town’s rituals and that an entity had used the device to manipulate the Players.
• Qi Si concluded that the phone was a fake item, questioned his assumptions, and reasoned that Li Yao’s identity might be connected to the real clues.
• Qi Si asked Sister Xu whether she had seen Li Yao, and Sister Xu said only four young men had come to town.

Liu Bingding woke in Xu Residence as Zhang Sheng, while Li Yao was sealed in a coffin and carried away in a ghostly wedding procession. As Qi Si investigated Li Yao’s disappearance and Sister Xu’s motives, he suspected that Xi’er’s residence had once housed guests from outside Double Happiness Town.

• Liu Bingding found a mandatory quest to escape Xu Residence with Miss Xu and legal petitions signed by Zhang Sheng, then faced two hostile paper effigies and threw an item that burst with blinding light.
• Li Yao woke trapped in a coffin being carried through a wedding procession and begged for help; an unseen voice asked what benefit she could offer.
• Sister Xu insisted there were only four guests and no woman, while Qi Si agreed with her to keep Li Yao’s absence from being noticed.
• Qi Si considered whether Li Yao had been excluded into another space and wondered if the Players had entered bodies belonging to people who were already dead.
• Qi Si questioned Sister Xu about the Soul-Summoning Bell and argued that she wore it when ghosts might cause trouble, then suggested Xi’er might once have been a guest from outside town.
• Xu Wen called Qi Si just as he speculated that Xi’er’s residence had been intended for outside guests, and Qi Si answered on speakerphone.

While Li Yao lay trapped in a coffin in the funeral town beneath the well, Qi Si and the others uncovered clues linking Double Happiness Town to human trafficking and a parallel town devoted to funerals. Xu Wen’s call and a map she sent led Qi Si to conclude that the group had to descend into the well to find the missing clues and their companions.

• Li Yao lay in a coffin as the funeral procession carried her through the mist, while Liu Bingding followed the procession after escaping two paper figures.
• Xu Wen told Qi Si that she was at the bottom of a well among ghosts, recalled being thrown into it after an argument, and mentioned the Temple of the Mourning God and a town beneath the well.
• Qi Si explained that the well connected the wedding town to a funeral town, then followed Li Yao’s paper offerings to Xi'er’s room and found a newspaper report about her disappearance.
• Qi Si told Shang Qingbei and Du Xiaoyu that human trafficking was the Instance’s core, theorizing that the townspeople drugged and trapped female travelers and that Xi'er’s death had disrupted a ritual.
• Qi Si showed Shang Qingbei a map of Double Happiness Town that Xu Wen had sent, and decided they had to go down the well.

Qi Si investigated the well while Liu Bingding and Li Yao uncovered the history behind Double Happiness Town and Xu Yao’s resistance to Granny Xu. Qi Si descended into the well, found his own corpse, and awakened it before preparing to send it back up with his items.

• Qi Si, Du Xiaoyu, and Shang Qingbei witnessed Lady Joyous God’s suicide and the townsfolk’s plan to suppress her spirit, then concluded that a clue lay at the bottom of the well.
• Liu Bingding helped Li Yao escape her coffin, and they received a local gazetteer describing Granny Xu’s trafficking operation and its generations of female inheritors.
• Xu Yao began explaining how her attempt to expose Granny Xu had failed, but seven paper figures approached, forcing her and Liu Bingding to hide in the coffin.
• Shang Qingbei refused to enter the well and urged Qi Si to go down, while Qi Si agreed and told Du Xiaoyu to pull him up after five minutes.
• Qi Si reached the well’s bottom, found a corpse with his own face, and awakened it after recalling that Zhang Sheng’s soul had entered a paper effigy.
• Qi Si found yellow scripture paper, placed it and several of his items on his awakened corpse, and suggested that they sign a contract.

Li Yao recovered memories of her first death in Double Happiness Town and learned that The God had made her an NPC who repeatedly relived the Instance. Meanwhile, Qi Si entered a fog-shrouded town beneath the well, where an old man asked him to find Xu Yao.

• Li Yao realized Xu Yao was a ghost who had impersonated her and remembered her first run through the Instance with Zhang, A Shu, and Xiao Xi.
• Li Yao recalled that Zhang cut her rope after she descended into the well, while A Shu killed Zhang with [White Blade].
• The God told Li Yao that her soul would become an NPC, with her memories sealed and the power to determine others' life and death.
• Li Yao remembered that she and the other players had died and become ghosts, then repeatedly appeared in the Instance after each reset.
• Qi Si emerged from the well into a misty underground town filled with wandering ghosts and funeral rites.
• An elderly man asked Qi Si to help find Xu Yao, but Qi Si hurried away.

Qi Si returned from the well with the town’s rules, and Shang Qingbei concluded that the group should investigate the roads at night. Meanwhile, Qi Si reached the town beneath the well, where Xu Wen rescued him from paper figures and revealed their grim secret.

• Qi Si emerged from the well with a scripture paper listing seven rules for Double Happiness Town, and Shang Qingbei argued that the rules were credible.
• Shang Qingbei reasoned that the group needed to investigate the three roads at night, and Qi Si agreed to go out with him and Du Xiaoyu.
• Du Xiaoyu tried to lend Qi Si his coat, but Qi Si recoiled from his touch and later hid a burn mark caused by Du Xiaoyu’s Yang fire.
• In the town beneath the well, Qi Si called Xu Wen, who warned him about paper figures and said she had found a possible escape route.
• Xu Wen appeared and pulled Qi Si into a house before the paper figures could see him, then explained that they abducted girls and guarded the town’s secrets.