Chapter Summaries

Summary

The Night Guards enter a brightly lit village celebrating around a huge bonfire outside the White Building. Villagers invite them to sing and dance, and the Commandant permits everyone to join the festivities until midnight. Most of the guards participate, while Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, and Foodie remain apart with Good Fortune Born’s group.
Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener both sense that something is wrong and realize their thoughts have been unusually unfocused. Book-Listener notices four red lanterns hanging at the White Building’s gate—objects that were not there when they first arrived. Using his spiritual vision, Sunshine Boy discovers that the lanterns resemble human skin, drip blood containing screaming faces, and emit disturbing whispers. The sight clears his mind, allowing him to remember that he had repeatedly forgotten important observations and questions. He and Book-Listener conclude that they have been mentally affected by the Eerie.
Good Fortune Born identifies a jade pendant on one lantern as belonging to Cowherd, suggesting that Cowherd may have been transformed into one of the lanterns. He nearly speaks Cowherd’s true name, then hurriedly stops himself, implying that names may be dangerous within the village’s rules. Sunshine Boy recalls that Eerie-related marks can appear anywhere on the body and searches Book-Listener for one. They discover a red lotus branded below his navel. Every member of their group bears the same mark, confirming that they have all been affected.
Book-Listener urges everyone to follow the village’s rules before attempting to break them. He informs the Commandant, who confirms that he also bears the mark and gathers all nineteen remaining Night Guards. The Commandant reveals that twenty-one people entered the village: Cowherd has likely become a lantern, while Water-Bearer has disappeared. The guards panic, realizing that both may have violated unknown taboos.
Book-Listener advises them not to mention names or say anything inauspicious, warning that other taboos probably exist. He also stresses that Sunshine Boy must be protected because, as a Fate Arts Master, he is their best chance of understanding and breaking the Eerie. The chapter ends with the Commandant asking Sunshine Boy for his plan.

Character Development and Interactions

• Sunshine Boy regains his clarity after examining the lanterns and recognizes how deeply the Eerie has manipulated their minds. He becomes more cautious and assumes responsibility as the group’s main hope.
• Book-Listener demonstrates his experience and leadership by identifying the mental interference, locating the Eerie’s mark, and organizing a response.
• The Commandant shifts from allowing the guards to enjoy the festival to taking firm control after learning they have been marked.
• Good Fortune Born contributes an important clue about Cowherd but nearly exposes dangerous information by naming him.
• The Night Guards move from festive relaxation to fear and confusion after discovering the marks and learning that two companions are missing.
• Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener cooperate closely, while the Commandant relies on Book-Listener’s judgment and then turns to Sunshine Boy for a solution.

Major Themes

• Hidden danger beneath celebration: The cheerful festival masks a supernatural threat.
• Memory and mental manipulation: The Eerie suppresses the characters’ ability to notice clues and remember crucial information.
• Rules and taboos: Survival depends on identifying and obeying unseen restrictions, especially concerning names and ominous speech.
• Transformation and disappearance: Cowherd’s apparent conversion into a lantern shows the horrifying consequences of breaking the rules.
• Leadership and trust: The group must rely on experienced guidance from Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy’s specialized abilities to survive.

Chapter Summary: Fate Arts Master Saves His Life, Good Fortune Born

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy explains the difference between Manifest Eerie and Hidden Eerie. Their current situation is likely a Hidden Eerie, meaning they must discover its taboos and unravel it from within.
• The group identifies Fifth Lady Temple and the Five Birth Mothers Grand Rite as the likely core of the Eerie.
• Good Fortune Born recalls that Fifth Lady refers to five childbirth deities worshipped for fertility and large families. He also remembers that the ritual must be completed without interruption, or the entire village will be cursed.
• Sunshine Boy proposes that unraveling the Eerie requires combining Fate Arts with Good Fortune Born’s unusually powerful Fate Mold.
• He positions himself as the strategist and protector, while assigning Good Fortune Born the dangerous task of confronting the Eerie Demon. The group agrees, placing responsibility for the plan on Sunshine Boy.
• They decide to observe the villagers’ ritual before acting.
• The ritual begins with a procession carrying a gutted white pig, drums, and ceremonial objects. The pig appears disturbingly alive and resembles Water-Bearer, one of the Night Guards’ companions.
• The pig sheds tears and seems to move its mouth as though trying to communicate. Despite the guards’ distress, it is roasted, placed on an altar, and ceremonially beheaded.
• The pig’s head and a sprig of mugwort are carried into the White Building of Fifth Lady Temple, advancing the mysterious ritual.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy is reluctant to accept leadership because he fears being blamed if anything goes wrong, but he cleverly uses the group’s trust in his Fate Arts to establish control.
• Good Fortune Born demonstrates valuable knowledge of ancient rituals and becomes central to the group’s plan because of his extraordinary Fate Mold and fortunate rise in power.
• Book-Listener serves as a cautious source of information, warning others not to speak carelessly about Eerie matters and emphasizing the danger of becoming trapped.
• Commandant rewards Good Fortune Born’s contribution and accepts Sunshine Boy’s proposed strategy.
• Foodie provides a brief moment of comic relief by reacting strongly to the roasted pig’s smell, though the unusual scent unsettles Sunshine Boy.
• The Night Guards reveal their emotional bond with Water-Bearer when the pig’s appearance suggests that their companion may have been transformed into it. Their shock and helplessness deepen the horror.

Significant Themes

• Fate and responsibility: Sunshine Boy’s ability to manipulate perceptions of fate allows him to gain authority, but it also forces him to bear responsibility for the group’s survival.
• Trust and manipulation: The group trusts Sunshine Boy and Good Fortune Born, while Sunshine Boy privately recognizes that Good Fortune Born has strategically placed him in a dangerous position.
• Ritual and taboo: The Five Birth Mothers Grand Rite must be completed correctly, suggesting that understanding and disrupting its rules will be essential to escaping the Eerie.
• Transformation and loss of humanity: The apparently living pig, possibly connected to Water-Bearer, shows how the Eerie turns people into ritual objects and strips them of their identities.
• Birth and death imagery: A ceremony devoted to childbirth and fertility is paired with slaughter, roasting, and sacrifice, creating a disturbing contrast between creation and destruction.

Character Interactions

• Good Fortune Born publicly elevates Sunshine Boy as the group’s indispensable Fate Arts Master, while Sunshine Boy counters by making Good Fortune Born the key figure who must confront the Eerie.
• Book-Listener supports Sunshine Boy’s command and stresses that the group must participate in the ritual rather than remain observers.
• The Night Guards silently react to the pig’s resemblance to Water-Bearer, sharing grief and fear without openly challenging the villagers.
• The group watches helplessly as the villagers roast and sacrifice the pig, marking their first direct exposure to the ritual’s horrifying nature.

Chapter Summary: “Old Witch Offers Crispy Pork Belly”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy recognizes the patchwork-robed witch as the old woman who previously distributed mugwort to the villagers.
• At a bonfire, the villagers perform a terrifying fertility ritual around a headless roasted pig. Led by the witch, they chant to the Goddess of Birth for peace, fertility, and flourishing bloodlines.
• The villagers become increasingly frenzied, moving in circles, shouting, swaying, and appearing almost possessed. The Night Guards watch uneasily.
• Sunshine Boy attempts to use Observing Fate through Qi on the villagers, but all of them are obscured by a gray haze. He refuses to expend his remaining thirteen Fortune Fish without knowing whether the situation is critical.
• Four people emerge from the Fifth Lady Temple and declare that the Goddess of Birth has accepted the rites. The villagers then offer grains at the temple before returning to the roasted pig.
• The drummers become butchers, cutting the pig into pieces. The witch distributes the meat, and the villagers chew it unnaturally slowly, grinning as grease runs down their faces.
• Wang Laoshi presents the Night Guards with nineteen identical pieces of crispy pork belly, claiming it is a reward from the Fifth Lady and insisting that anyone entering the village must eat it.
• Sunshine Boy proposes testing the meat by observing someone’s fate before and after eating it. He suggests that Good Fortune Born, whose Fate Mold and luck are strong, should volunteer.
• Good Fortune Born refuses, arguing that his abilities should be reserved for a more important danger. The group hesitates, unwilling to test the food themselves.
• The witch approaches with a pig-slaughtering knife dripping with dark liquid. Her eyes have become glossy and completely black, and she announces that the Goddess has ordered the guards to pick autumn melons at Melon Lord’s residence.
• She insists they must eat meat to have the strength to pick melons. Under pressure, Good Fortune Born eats a piece. Sunshine Boy hears a mysterious voice from his mouth crying, “It hurts so much.”
• The Commandant and Foodie also eat the pork and apparently hear or experience the same disturbing phenomenon. Foodie retches afterward.
• Sunshine Boy pretends to eat his piece but secretly hides it in his sleeve. The witch notices and warns him that without meat, the melons will not be fragrant—and that he will not live long.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Sunshine Boy remains the most cautious and analytical member of the group. He tries to use his supernatural perception, proposes a controlled test, and ultimately deceives the witch by hiding the pork rather than swallowing it.
• Good Fortune Born shows fear beneath his usual confidence. Though he claims to trust Sunshine Boy’s commands, he refuses to risk his powerful Fate Mold on an uncertain test. The witch’s direct pressure forces him to submit.
• The Commandant acts as the group’s authority but is visibly uncertain. He initially avoids deciding whether the meat is safe, then orders Good Fortune Born to eat and eventually eats some himself.
• Foodie follows the Commandant and reacts badly to the pork, suggesting that the meat is physically or spiritually harmful.
• Book-Listener offers silent support and acknowledgment, but does not take the initiative.
• The witch shifts from appearing like a harmless village elder to an overtly threatening supernatural figure. She uses gentle, maternal language while applying frightening pressure, carrying a bloodstained knife and displaying black, oily eyes.
• The group’s dependence on Sunshine Boy becomes clear: when danger arises, everyone instinctively looks to him for judgment, though some members resist when his advice places them at personal risk.

Significant Themes

• False ritual and corrupted faith: The fertility ceremony outwardly invokes peace, birth, and family prosperity, but its imagery and behavior suggest something grotesque and predatory.
• Coercion disguised as hospitality: The pork is presented as a blessing and reward, yet the villagers and witch treat refusal as unacceptable, turning a communal offering into a threat.
• Loss of individuality: The villagers chant, move, and eat in unison, appearing consumed by the ritual and stripped of independent thought.
• Knowledge versus superstition: Sunshine Boy relies on observation and testing, while the villagers accept the witch’s claims as divine commands.
• Fear and mistrust within the group: The guards are united by danger but divided by self-preservation. Good Fortune Born’s refusal reveals that loyalty has limits when survival is at stake.
• Hidden contamination and bodily horror: The cries of pain from inside the eaters’ mouths imply that the meat contains or awakens something unnatural, making consumption itself a form of spiritual violation.

Important Character Interactions

• Sunshine Boy challenges Good Fortune Born’s reluctance and exposes the tension between obedience and self-preservation.
• The Commandant mediates the dispute but ultimately pressures Good Fortune Born to eat.
• The witch confronts the Night Guards directly, using the goddess’s supposed decree to control them.
• Good Fortune Born’s consumption becomes the first test of the meat, followed by the Commandant and Foodie.
• Sunshine Boy secretly defies the witch, while her final warning implies that she knows—or suspects—that he has not truly eaten the pork.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the witch gives Sunshine Boy a piece of meat and warns that he will not live long, Book-Listener reassures him that the warning may have a remedy.
• Sunshine Boy attempts to feed the meat to the Yellow Springs Mark on his arm, but nothing happens. He concludes that the meat is a weak strange entity connected to death and tombs.
• Using Fate Arts, he determines that the meat resembles a Void Fate Star of the metal element. Since fire restrains metal, he devises a ritual using special flames rather than ordinary fire.
• With Book-Listener and Foodie, Sunshine Boy gathers waterweed, soil from beside a wall, a torch, his own hair, and a blade that has been used to slaughter pigs. They borrow the Commandant’s blade after realizing they cannot safely enter the butcher’s house.
• At a stone mill, Sunshine Boy performs a ritual that binds the meat with waterweed, hair, soil, and pig blood drawn from the blade. His Thunder Dragon Fire Seal restores his exhausted mana.
• He then brings the prepared meat to the Fifth Lady Temple. In front of the villagers, he disguises his actions as a respectful offering to the temple’s deity.
• Using blue ritual flames and a burst of lightning to distract onlookers, Sunshine Boy secretly burns the meat and sends it into Cowherd’s blood-dripping lantern. He also steals the mugwort hanging from the lantern for later examination.
• When questioned, he falsely claims that he was casting a spell because Good Fortune Born had angered the witch. The Commandant dismisses their argument and focuses on the meat, which Sunshine Boy identifies openly as a strange entity.
• After the Goddess of Birth ritual ends, Wang Laoshi orders the Night Guards to leave the village at midnight and fetch a large watermelon from Melon Lord. He implies that refusal would force the pregnant mistress to go herself.
• The Commandant asks the group to discuss the demand. Book-Listener concludes that, because the mistress is clearly powerful and the request is effectively unavoidable, they must go.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates increasing confidence and ingenuity. Rather than panic over the meat’s curse, he analyzes it through Fate Arts and creates an improvised ritual to neutralize it.
• He also shows strong tactical awareness, carefully hiding his real intentions behind a public religious ceremony and using lightning as a distraction.
• Book-Listener proves observant and practical by remembering the locations of useful supplies and helping Sunshine Boy avoid violating village taboos.
• Foodie remains willing to act directly, offering to climb the butcher’s wall, though the others restrain him.
• The Commandant continues to provide cautious leadership, permitting Sunshine Boy’s investigation and attempting to negotiate the Night Guards’ next dangerous task.
• Wang Laoshi becomes more threatening through polite manipulation. His request to fetch a watermelon is framed as voluntary, but his warning makes clear that the Night Guards have little choice.
• The mistress is revealed to be in a vulnerable yet important state, nurturing a “Gestation,” suggesting that her condition gives the villagers an excuse to compel the Night Guards’ cooperation.

Significant Themes

• Cunning versus brute force: Sunshine Boy survives by interpreting supernatural rules and exploiting loopholes rather than confronting the village’s entities directly.
• Ritual and symbolism: Materials such as pig blood, wall soil, waterweed, fire, and hair combine into a Fate-based method of controlling a strange entity.
• Appearance versus reality: Sunshine Boy’s public “offering” conceals an exorcistic or destructive act, while Wang Laoshi’s polite language disguises a coercive command.
• Taboo and social performance: The Night Guards must constantly avoid violating hidden village rules. Respectful gestures and carefully chosen words become tools of survival.
• Unavoidable danger: Even after dealing with the meat, the Night Guards remain trapped in the village’s ritual structure and are immediately assigned another supernatural task.

Character Interactions

• Book-Listener quietly reassures Sunshine Boy and later helps him gather materials and avoid dangerous actions.
• Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, and Foodie cooperate closely, debating whether to enter the butcher’s home or borrow a weapon from the Night Guards.
• Sunshine Boy manipulates the villagers’ perception by addressing the temple deity without explicitly naming her, allowing him to perform the ritual without provoking suspicion.
• Good Fortune Born disputes Sunshine Boy’s accusation, but the Commandant stops their quarrel.
• Wang Laoshi pressures the Commandant and the Night Guards into accepting the watermelon mission. Book-Listener’s response confirms that the group understands the order as compulsory rather than optional.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy explains that the group has already been affected by strange incidents twice: once around their entry into the village and again after eating the roasted pork. He warns that visiting Melon Lord may trigger another incident.
• To protect the group, Sunshine Boy offers to perform Fate Observation, Qi Gazing, and Fate-Urging Art on everyone, strengthening their Fate Molds against supernatural dangers.
• Good Fortune Born refuses to cooperate because he distrusts Sunshine Boy. The others pressure him, citing Sunshine Boy’s past success in dispelling strange incidents at the Imperial Prison.
• Sunshine Boy deliberately presents himself as too weak and fearful to harm Good Fortune Born, whose Fate Mold is exceptionally powerful. This reassures Good Fortune Born and boosts his confidence, though he only agrees to consider helping.
• Wang Laoshi arrives and leads the nineteen remaining Night Guards out of the village to Melon Lord’s melon field. Their task is to obtain a large watermelon and deliver it to the mysterious mistress before dawn.
• The field contains only tiny, unripe watermelons. The group realizes that failing to return with one may leave them trapped in the village forever.
• Sunshine Boy uses Dragon Appears to inspect the field’s qi. He detects nothing unusual in the vines but senses that the melon shed is strangely blank, suggesting it is connected to the supernatural phenomenon.
• With no alternative, Commandant leads the group into the field toward the shed, ordering everyone to avoid stepping on the melons.
• Good Fortune Born accidentally crushes a small watermelon underfoot. His mistake immediately recalls earlier incidents involving Cowherd’s lantern and Water-Bearer’s roasted pig, causing the others to react with alarm and suspicion.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates both genuine concern for the group and considerable social manipulation. He offers assistance but strategically exaggerates his weakness and fear of Good Fortune Born to lower the latter’s defenses.
• Good Fortune Born remains suspicious and traumatized by past harm, but Sunshine Boy’s performance gradually restores his confidence and makes him less defensive.
• Commandant acts as the group’s practical leader, taking responsibility for the mission and leading the expedition into the melon field.
• Book-Listener shows perceptiveness, recognizing Sunshine Boy’s strategy and quietly supporting his attempt to influence Good Fortune Born.
• Blacksmith provides testimony confirming Sunshine Boy’s reputation, strengthening the group’s trust in him.
• The Night Guards become increasingly anxious as the mission resembles earlier supernatural situations involving seemingly ordinary objects.

Significant Themes

• Trust and manipulation: Sunshine Boy gains cooperation not through force, but by carefully managing how others perceive his abilities and motives.
• Fear of the unknown: The group must act despite having little understanding of Melon Lord, the mistress, or the rules governing the village’s strange phenomena.
• Fate and power: The strength of one’s Fate Mold determines vulnerability, social status, and the risks of opposing someone. Good Fortune Born’s powerful Fate Mold makes even Sunshine Boy wary of him.
• Survival through caution: Small mistakes—such as touching or damaging an apparently harmless object—may have supernatural consequences.
• Group tension and scapegoating: The Night Guards are increasingly ready to blame individuals for dangerous incidents, especially after earlier disappearances and calamities.

Character Interactions

• The Night Guards challenge Good Fortune Born over his refusal to help, while Sunshine Boy defends him outwardly and subtly manipulates him into reconsidering.
• Blacksmith and Commandant confirm Sunshine Boy’s abilities, helping persuade the group that he is trustworthy.
• Wang Laoshi gives the group their dangerous assignment but provides no useful explanation about the promised reward.
• Commandant takes charge of the expedition, while Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy analyze the field and the shed.
• Good Fortune Born watches both Climber and Sunshine Boy suspiciously before accidentally crushing a watermelon, immediately intensifying the group’s fear that another strange incident has begun.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Good Fortune Born’s misfortune worsens after he accidentally says the wrong name and steps on a melon. The Night Guards become visibly wary of him, fearing his bad luck may endanger the group.
• Commandant orders Good Fortune Born to knock on the melon shack’s door and ask for melons. Good Fortune Born protests, but Climber—calling him “Uncle” and trying to protect him—volunteers instead.
• Climber repeatedly announces that he has come “by the Mistress’s order” to collect melons. A terrifying voice from inside the shack finally tells him that the melons are in the field.
• A strange mist suddenly covers the melon field. Commandant organizes the guards into a line, but the field appears to expand and the melon vines grow sparse, indicating demonic magic.
• The group becomes separated in the fog. Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, Foodie, and Blacksmith remain together and bind themselves with strips of clothing so they cannot lose one another.
• They search the field but find only flowers and tiny, immature melons. When the fog abruptly clears, all eighteen guards are reunited but have found nothing.
• A huge silhouette appears inside the shack, repeatedly smashing something while singing a distorted folk song about round moons, melons, pots, bowls, and flatbreads.
• The shadow eventually carries a large watermelon to the doorway. Its elongated, silver-white, clawlike hands and the complete darkness inside the shack reveal that the occupant is a powerful and unnatural monster.
• The monster sings about “every household reunited” before withdrawing into the darkness and extinguishing the light, leaving the guards frozen and uncertain.

Character Developments

• Good Fortune Born becomes humiliated and isolated as everyone reacts to his apparent bad luck. His normally confident or favored position weakens when Commandant treats him as expendable.
• Climber initially tries to defend Good Fortune Born, emphasizing that he is young and possesses the strongest Fate Mold. However, when Commandant challenges him to take the task himself, Climber reluctantly does so, then becomes more frightened and distant from Good Fortune Born.
• Commandant remains calm, practical, and emotionally detached. He distributes danger rather than allowing the group to avoid it, and he quickly organizes everyone once the fog appears.
• Sunshine Boy demonstrates leadership and resourcefulness. He recognizes the danger of separation, creates a spiritual cord linking the surviving members, and uses his sharp vision and talismans to protect the group.
• Book-Listener provides careful observations about the changing field and encourages the group to keep searching rather than remain helpless.
• Foodie and Blacksmith reveal understandable fear but follow the group’s safety measures. The separation exposes how vulnerable the guards are when ordinary methods of coordination fail.

Significant Themes

• Fear of misfortune and scapegoating: Good Fortune Born’s mistake and the crushed melon cause the others to treat him as a source of danger, showing how quickly fear overrides loyalty.
• Leadership under supernatural pressure: Commandant’s orders and Sunshine Boy’s practical preparations contrast with the group’s panic and hesitation.
• The unknown and distorted reality: The expanding field, separating mist, and disappearing visibility suggest that the guards are trapped in a magical space where ordinary rules no longer apply.
• Isolation versus unity: The monster’s repeated phrase about “every household reunited” contrasts with the guards’ separation in the fog. The group must physically bind themselves together to preserve their unity.
• The uncanny corruption of the familiar: Watermelons, folk songs, and household imagery are normally comforting, but here they become grotesque and threatening through the monster’s warped singing and violent pounding.
• Powerlessness before the supernatural: The guards possess weapons and spiritual abilities, yet they can only watch as the monster performs its inexplicable ritual.

Character Interactions

• Commandant coldly pressures Good Fortune Born to approach the shack, while Good Fortune Born appeals to Climber for help.
• Climber tries to shield Good Fortune Born but ultimately takes the risk himself, revealing both his concern and the limits of his courage.
• The guards’ silence and avoidance show their growing distrust of Good Fortune Born.
• Commandant directs the group during the fog, while Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, Foodie, and Blacksmith cooperate more closely after becoming separated from everyone else.
• Sunshine Boy’s practical decision to bind the four together strengthens their mutual dependence.
• All eighteen guards collectively experience the same terror when confronted with the monster’s shadow, song, and clawlike hands, ending the chapter united only by fear.

Chapter Summary: “Eighteen People Forced to Choose a Little Master”

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the watermelon is recovered, the Night Guards return to the village. Good Fortune Born carries the melon, while Sunshine Boy secretly picks up a watermelon flower with mugwort and a dark-red drop of blood on it.
• Sunshine Boy continues hearing ominous pounding from inside the watermelon, suggesting that Climber may still be trapped within it.
• At the village entrance, Wang Laoshi praises the Night Guards and takes the watermelon, promising to report Good Fortune Born’s contribution to the mistress. The third-floor lanterns in the White Building now number only twenty, implying that three people have already been lost.
• Book-Listener concludes that Good Fortune Born killed or otherwise disposed of Climber. The blood on Good Fortune Born’s clothes and the dirt on his boots suggest he used force and True Essence underground.
• The group discusses Good Fortune Born’s suspicious survival. Although he initially called the wrong name and should have suffered an eerie backlash, he escaped by eliminating Climber, suggesting either extraordinary luck or prior knowledge of the supernatural event.
• Sunshine Boy shares the mugwort he collected. He and Book-Listener give one piece to Book-Listener, while another is reserved for Foodie, showing the group’s effort to protect its most vulnerable members.
• The eighteen remaining Night Guards return to the public quarters, where exactly eighteen prepared beds await them, confirming that the village expected their number and reinforcing the sense that their deaths are being arranged.
• Elsewhere, in the Divine Capital, Zhou Chunfeng learns that Ye Han has met the Heir of Prince Yuan. Fearing that they may target Qixian, he orders Zhou Hen to bring Qixian back immediately. When Zhou Hen does not respond, Zhou Chunfeng becomes alarmed and goes to the Black Lantern Bureau.
• Before dawn, the villagers gather before the Fifth Lady Temple. Wang Laoshi and the shaman appear transformed: their skin is bronze and metallic, their eyes are entirely black, and the shaman carries a bloodied butcher knife.
• The shaman claims that the Night Guards offended the Goddess of Birth and caused the mistress to miscarry. Wang Laoshi then announces the mistress’s demand: the Night Guards must choose one person to be offered as the “little master,” or all eighteen will be sacrificed.
• The commandant ends the argument by insisting that the immediate priority is selecting someone, since refusing will mean certain death for everyone.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Good Fortune Born becomes increasingly suspicious. His successful return from the melon patch appears to have come at Climber’s expense, and his bloodstained clothing exposes him to the team’s scrutiny. He reacts defensively and angrily when accused.
• Book-Listener demonstrates sharp investigative ability and openly challenges Good Fortune Born. He suspects that Good Fortune Born may have become an eerie slave whose goal is to sow distrust and sacrifice the others.
• Sunshine Boy remains observant and cautious. He notices the disturbing signs surrounding the watermelon, gathers mugwort for protection, and tries to de-escalate the confrontation between Book-Listener and Good Fortune Born.
• Foodie displays selflessness by giving the mugwort to Book-Listener, reasoning that the strategist and fate arts master face greater danger than he does.
• The commandant maintains authority over the increasingly divided Night Guards, stopping their quarrel and redirecting them toward the survival crisis.
• The conflict between Good Fortune Born and Book-Listener intensifies. Book-Listener accuses him of harming Climber and manipulating the team, while Good Fortune Born responds with rage and murderous hostility.
• Zhou Chunfeng is shown as a concerned and decisive superior. His anxiety over Qixian’s silence suggests that the danger extends beyond the village investigation.

Significant Themes

• Erosion of trust: The team can no longer distinguish between victims, collaborators, and possible eerie slaves. Suspicion centers on Good Fortune Born, threatening to destroy group unity.
• Sacrifice and forced choice: The village demands that the Night Guards sacrifice one of their own, turning survival into a moral and strategic dilemma.
• Progressive contamination by eeriness: Book-Listener argues that every action within the Eerie Ground draws the Night Guards deeper into its rules. The supposed miscarriage may be a fabricated excuse to entrap them further.
• Hidden knowledge and manipulation: Good Fortune Born’s apparent foreknowledge and the village’s precise preparation of eighteen beds imply that the Night Guards are being guided through a predetermined supernatural ritual.
• Appearance versus reality: The watermelon, the alleged miscarriage, and the villagers’ claims all conceal deeper truths. Blood, missing people, and unnatural transformations reveal that the official explanations cannot be trusted.
• Collective survival versus individual loyalty: The Night Guards must decide whether preserving the group justifies sacrificing one member, while personal grudges and suspicion make cooperation increasingly difficult.

Chapter Summary: Eighteen People Forced to Choose a Young Master

Key Plot Points and Events

• After the incident in the watermelon field, Good Fortune Born retrieves the watermelon and leads the group back toward Fangyuan Village under the Commandant’s orders.
• Sunshine Boy discovers a harmless stalk of mugwort near the spot where Good Fortune Born had stood, along with a dark-red drop of blood on a watermelon blossom. He also continues hearing muffled pounding from inside the watermelon, suggesting an unseen presence or supernatural danger.
• At the village entrance, Wang Laoshi praises the Night Guards and accepts the watermelon, promising that the mistress will reward Good Fortune Born.
• The group realizes that another person has disappeared: Climber. Book-Listener deduces that Good Fortune Born likely killed or dealt with him, based on bloodstains and dirt on Good Fortune Born’s clothing and boots.
• The Night Guards return to the public house and find exactly eighteen beds waiting for them. Since they had begun with twenty-one members and three lanterns in the White Building have gone out, the group recognizes that the Eerie Ground is tracking and eliminating them.
• Meanwhile, in the Divine Capital, Zhou Chunfeng learns that Ye Han met with the Heir of Prince Yuan. Fearing that Qingxian is in danger, he orders Zhou Hen to bring him back immediately. When the communication talisman fails to respond, Zhou Chunfeng becomes alarmed and rushes to the Black Lantern Bureau.
• Before dawn, a scream wakes the Night Guards. Outside, the villagers kneel before the Fifth Lady Temple, chanting. The shaman woman and Wang Laoshi appear physically transformed, with bronze, metallic skin and completely black eyes.
• They accuse the outsiders of angering the Goddess of Birth and causing the mistress to miscarry. They demand that the Night Guards choose one of their members as a “young master” to be sacrificed by dusk. If they refuse, the entire group will be offered to the Five Ladies.
• Good Fortune Born claims that Sunshine Boy’s actions at the temple caused the miscarriage. Book-Listener rejects this explanation, arguing that the alleged miscarriage is merely another trap designed to draw the group deeper into the Eerie.
• Book-Listener openly accuses Good Fortune Born of being an Eerie slave or deliberate instigator. The chapter ends with the Commandant ordering everyone to stop arguing and focus on choosing a sacrifice, since failure means that none of them will survive.

Character Developments

• Good Fortune Born: Demonstrates suspicious knowledge and unusual effectiveness in the watermelon incident, apparently dealing with Climber despite having earlier triggered danger by calling the wrong name and crushing the watermelon. His defensiveness and hostility intensify when Book-Listener accuses him of killing Climber or serving the Eerie.
• Sunshine Boy: Remains observant and cautious. He notices the blood on the watermelon blossom, salvages mugwort as a possible protective item, and continues to hear the disturbing sounds from inside the watermelon. He is also increasingly positioned as a scapegoat by Good Fortune Born.
• Book-Listener: Becomes the group’s main investigator and skeptic. He analyzes the evidence against Good Fortune Born, accepts the mugwort, and warns the others not to trust the Eerie’s apparent explanations.
• Foodie: Shows selflessness and sound judgment by giving the mugwort to Book-Listener, recognizing that Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener face greater danger.
• The Commandant: Maintains authority and pragmatism, suppressing internal conflict and emphasizing the immediate survival problem.
• Zhou Chunfeng: Grows increasingly anxious over Qingxian’s silence and the political threat involving Ye Han and the Heir of Prince Yuan.

Significant Themes

• Paranoia and mistrust: The group cannot determine whether Good Fortune Born is an ally, murderer, or Eerie-controlled agent.
• Manipulation by supernatural forces: The Eerie appears to create false explanations—such as the mistress’s miscarriage—to force the Night Guards into increasingly dangerous choices.
• Sacrifice and survival: The demand to choose a “young master” creates a direct moral conflict between preserving the group and condemning one member.
• Evidence versus uncertainty: Physical clues such as bloodstains, missing members, extinguished lanterns, and transformed villagers offer partial truths but do not reveal the full nature of the Eerie.
• Isolation and helplessness: Even trained Night Guards are trapped in a hostile environment where ordinary logic and communication fail.
• Political danger beyond the village: Zhou Chunfeng’s concerns show that threats to the characters extend beyond the supernatural mission and into wider struggles involving powerful political figures.

Important Character Interactions

• Good Fortune Born and Wang Laoshi: Wang Laoshi publicly praises Good Fortune Born and accepts the watermelon, reinforcing the impression that Good Fortune Born has fulfilled a hidden requirement.
• Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, and Foodie: The three discuss the mugwort and divide it according to perceived risk, showing cooperation despite the larger group’s distrust.
• Book-Listener and Good Fortune Born: Their confrontation becomes the chapter’s central interpersonal conflict. Book-Listener directly links Good Fortune Born to Climber’s disappearance and accuses him of serving the Eerie; Good Fortune Born responds with anger and threats.
• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy: Good Fortune Born blames Sunshine Boy for worsening the situation, while Sunshine Boy responds with resigned acceptance of the blame.
• The Commandant and the Night Guards: The Commandant ends the dispute and forces the group to confront the sacrifice demanded by the village.
• Zhou Chunfeng and his subordinate: Their conversation reveals the delayed intelligence about Ye Han and launches Zhou Chunfeng’s attempt to protect Qingxian.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The group debates who should become the Little Master, the role that may offer the best chance of surviving the grand rite.
• The Blacksmith and others initially suggest Good Fortune Born, whose powerful Fate Mold has repeatedly protected him from fatal misfortune.
• Sunshine Boy argues that he is the better candidate because he is the youngest, attracts Eerie phenomena, and is uniquely capable of resolving them through Fate Arts. However, he refuses to separate from the group because his disappearance would leave them without a Fate Arts Master.
• Good Fortune Born proposes that the key to resolving the Eerie is discovering the identities of the Mistress and the Fifth Lady, specifically suggesting that the Mistress may be an Eerie Demon.
• Sunshine Boy openly questions Good Fortune Born’s suspicious knowledge and miraculous survival, pointing out that Good Fortune Born should have vanished after mispronouncing a name and stepping on a watermelon, but instead caused the Climber to disappear in his place.
• The Night Guards turn against Good Fortune Born and demand that he swear he is hiding nothing. He refuses, claiming that swearing to the Eerie would be too dangerous.
• The Commandant stops the argument and takes Good Fortune Born aside for private questioning.
• Meanwhile, Sunshine Boy and the Book-Listener analyze Good Fortune Born’s behavior. They conclude that he may possess notes or secrets from a Fate Arts Master and may know a method for resolving the Eerie.
• They further suspect that Good Fortune Born may have intended to use the watermelon patch to kill Sunshine Boy, with the Climber disappearing only because the white mist separated the group.
• The Book-Listener notices that Good Fortune Born briefly regretted mentioning the Mistress, suggesting that his statement was significant and likely correct.
• Sunshine Boy and the Book-Listener realize that becoming the Little Master may not be entirely undesirable. Although it is dangerous, the Little Master is protected by the Eerie during the early stages of the rite and should survive until at least the Longevity Mother Grand Rite.
• Foodie volunteers to become the Little Master, reasoning that he is unlikely to survive otherwise and might as well enjoy food and comfort before facing his likely death.
• The chapter ends with Sunshine Boy deciding that, since he cannot resolve the Eerie alone, the group must force Good Fortune Born to reveal what he knows—“make Good Fortune Born bleed.”

Character Developments

• Good Fortune Born becomes increasingly suspicious. His extraordinary luck, hidden knowledge, and refusal to swear innocence make the others believe he may possess a secret solution to the Eerie or be plotting against Sunshine Boy.
• Sunshine Boy demonstrates sharper deduction and strategic thinking. He recognizes both the dangers and potential advantages of becoming the Little Master, while also becoming wary of Good Fortune Born’s intentions.
• The Book-Listener acts as Sunshine Boy’s analytical partner, identifying Good Fortune Born’s involuntary reaction and helping uncover the significance of his words.
• Foodie reveals his extreme pragmatism and cowardice. Rather than face constant fear, he is willing to become the Little Master and enjoy himself temporarily, accepting eventual danger.
• The Commandant maintains authority over the group, suppressing their infighting and taking responsibility for interrogating Good Fortune Born.
• The Night Guards grow distrustful and hostile toward Good Fortune Born, largely siding with Sunshine Boy.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus safety: Becoming the Little Master may be dangerous, but it could guarantee survival longer than remaining outside the ritual.
• The value of hidden knowledge: In the Eerie realm, information may be more important than strength, making Good Fortune Born’s secrets extremely valuable.
• Trust and suspicion: The group’s cooperation is weakened by accusations, concealed motives, and the possibility that one member is manipulating fate.
• Fate and consequence: Good Fortune Born’s powerful Fate Mold repeatedly alters who suffers the consequences of danger, raising questions about whether his luck is natural or intentional.
• Pragmatism in the face of death: Sunshine Boy and Foodie both consider morally and strategically unconventional ways to survive, even if those methods involve accepting future danger.

Character Interactions

• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy clash over who should become the Little Master and whether Good Fortune Born is concealing information.
• The Night Guards collectively pressure Good Fortune Born, while the Commandant intervenes to prevent violence and conduct a formal inquiry.
• Sunshine Boy and the Book-Listener privately exchange deductions, strengthening their alliance and developing the theory that the Mistress is central to the Eerie.
• Foodie’s unexpected proposal lightens the tension and gives Sunshine Boy and the Book-Listener a moment of laughter.
• The chapter closes with Sunshine Boy, the Book-Listener, and Foodie effectively aligning around the need to pressure Good Fortune Born into revealing his secrets.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The group debates who should become the “little master” in the Five Birth Mothers Grand Rite. The Blacksmith and several Night Guards favor Good Fortune Born because of his unusually powerful Fate Mold and his ability to survive deadly misfortune.
• Good Fortune Born instead nominates Sunshine Boy, arguing that Sunshine Boy’s Fate Arts make him both more likely to attract Eerie phenomena and more capable of avoiding or resolving them.
• Sunshine Boy refuses to separate from the group, pointing out that once he becomes the little master and is confined, no one else will be able to resolve the Eerie. Good Fortune Born argues that the key lies in investigating the mistress, whom he suspects may be the true core of the Eerie Demon, while the Fifth Lady may only be a deity unrelated to the danger.
• Sunshine Boy openly questions Good Fortune Born’s hidden knowledge. He notes Good Fortune Born’s improbable survival, his ability to make Climber vanish in his place, and his apparent knowledge of the Fifth Lady and mistress. The Night Guards become suspicious and demand that Good Fortune Born swear to the Eerie that he is hiding nothing.
• Good Fortune Born refuses, claiming that swearing would risk inviting the Eerie upon himself. The Commandant intervenes and takes him aside for private questioning.
• Meanwhile, Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy analyze Good Fortune Born’s behavior. They suspect he may possess notes or secrets left by a Fate Arts Master and may even know a method for resolving the Eerie.
• Book-Listener observes that Good Fortune Born briefly regretted mentioning the mistress, suggesting that approaching her truly is important—but also extremely dangerous. Sunshine Boy realizes Good Fortune Born may have intended to use the watermelon field to harm him, with Climber vanishing only because the white fog separated them.
• Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener reconsider the purpose of becoming the little master. If the goal is survival rather than escaping unharmed, the role may be advantageous because the Eerie must preserve the little master through most of the grand rite.
• Foodie volunteers to become the little master, reasoning that he is unlikely to survive otherwise and might as well enjoy food and comfort while guaranteed temporary protection.
• Sunshine Boy concludes that they cannot resolve the Eerie without Good Fortune Born’s knowledge and decides they must force him to reveal his secrets—“make Good Fortune Born bleed.”

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy becomes more suspicious and perceptive. He moves from defending group unity to recognizing that Good Fortune Born may be plotting against him and may possess the key to escaping the Eerie.
• Good Fortune Born is portrayed as evasive, knowledgeable, and possibly manipulative. His strong Fate Mold protects him from misfortune, but his refusal to swear and his slip regarding the mistress make the others suspect he has a hidden agenda.
• Book-Listener acts as Sunshine Boy’s analytical partner, carefully observing Good Fortune Born and drawing conclusions from subtle changes in his expression and behavior.
• Foodie reveals his extreme cowardice but also practical self-preservation. His willingness to become the little master adds comic relief while exposing a potentially sound survival strategy.
• The Commandant attempts to maintain order and prevent the group from turning on one another, using force when necessary and taking responsibility for interrogating Good Fortune Born.

Significant Themes

• Survival versus freedom: Becoming the little master may be dangerous, but it could guarantee survival longer than remaining outside the ritual.
• Hidden knowledge and mistrust: Good Fortune Born’s unexplained abilities and secrets threaten the group’s unity, making suspicion as dangerous as the Eerie itself.
• Fate and irony: Good Fortune Born repeatedly survives disasters through strange substitutions and luck, while unintended victims such as Climber suffer in his place.
• Self-preservation and sacrifice: The characters debate whether one person should bear the danger for the sake of the group.
• Reason versus fear: The group’s panic is tempered by Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy’s deduction, while Foodie’s cowardice unexpectedly leads him to a rational conclusion.

Character Interactions

• The Commandant suppresses the Night Guards’ argument and later privately questions Good Fortune Born.
• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy clash over who should become the little master, with Sunshine Boy directly challenging Good Fortune Born’s credibility.
• The Night Guards rally behind Sunshine Boy and demand proof of Good Fortune Born’s innocence.
• Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy privately investigate Good Fortune Born’s motives, building mutual trust and cooperation.
• Foodie joins their discussion and volunteers for the dangerous role, prompting amusement from both men.
• The chapter ends with Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, and Foodie aligned around the need to expose or pressure Good Fortune Born before confronting the Eerie.

Chapter Summary

Plot and Key Events

• Book-Listener, Sunshine Boy, and Foodie decide that Good Fortune Born must either cooperate or be eliminated, since his hidden knowledge may allow him to undermine the group and escape the Eerie.
• At dawn, the four lanterns at the temple gate transform into four terrifying Lantern Soldiers. One appears to bear the Cowherd’s features, horrifying the Night Guards and reminding Book-Listener of the soldiers’ deadly reputation.
• The Commandant returns after questioning Good Fortune Born and publicly admits that Good Fortune Born concealed important information. The master of the Eerie Ground is the Weird Mother, who lures outsiders into completing the Five Birth Mothers Grand Rite and selects one person during each rite to become an Eerie Infant.
• The ancient book offered no definite method for breaking the Eerie, but suggested that becoming the Eerie Infant might increase the chance of survival or escape because the Weird Mother would protect that person.
• The Commandant asks the group to stop blaming Good Fortune Born, claiming that the young man hid the truth out of fear. However, the others demand proof of his honesty and begin pressuring him to either become the Eerie Infant or allow Sunshine Boy to use his abilities.
• Sunshine Boy proposes using Fate Observation, Qi Gazing, and Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mold to investigate and fight the Eerie Demons. He threatens to sabotage everyone’s survival if they try to sacrifice him while contributing nothing themselves.
• The group largely turns against the Commandant and Good Fortune Born. Good Fortune Born finally agrees to let Sunshine Boy use his abilities, but only if Sunshine Boy swears never to harm him.
• Sunshine Boy modifies the oath, agreeing only not to harm Good Fortune Born first. Good Fortune Born rejects this condition, and Sunshine Boy prepares to leave. Book-Listener urgently urges the Commandant to settle the matter before Sunshine Boy’s defiance endangers everyone.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy becomes openly confrontational and demonstrates that he is willing to threaten the entire group rather than be exploited. He also reveals considerable strategic awareness despite his youth.
• Good Fortune Born is exposed as having withheld crucial information. Though he appears frightened and submissive, his refusal to accept a balanced oath suggests that he may still be protecting dangerous secrets or planning against the others.
• The Commandant admits his earlier mistake and tries to shield Good Fortune Born, portraying himself as a responsible leader. However, his defense damages his authority because the group suspects he is biased or complicit.
• Book-Listener acts as a calm mediator, but his repeated attempts to manipulate the discussion suggest that he is strategically directing events while appearing conciliatory.
• Blacksmith openly challenges the Commandant’s authority by declaring that he will recognize only the Fate Arts Master if Good Fortune Born refuses to cooperate.
• The Night Guards become divided, with most drifting toward Sunshine Boy while only a small faction remains loyal to Good Fortune Born and the Commandant.

Significant Themes

• Trust and concealed motives: The group cannot determine whether Good Fortune Born’s confession is complete or whether the Commandant’s defense of him is sincere.
• Leadership and legitimacy: The Commandant’s authority weakens as his decisions are questioned and his followers begin choosing sides.
• Sacrifice and coercion: The potential selection of an Eerie Infant turns survival into a political struggle over who must bear the greatest risk.
• Collective survival versus self-preservation: Every character claims to seek the group’s survival, but each is also trying to avoid becoming the one sacrificed.
• Power through threats and oaths: Oaths, Fate Molds, and the threat of mutual destruction become tools for forcing cooperation, yet none of them guarantees genuine loyalty.

Character Interactions

• The Commandant publicly protects Good Fortune Born, while Sunshine Boy directly challenges both of them.
• Book-Listener repeatedly mediates disputes, but also steers the group into pressuring Good Fortune Born.
• Blacksmith, Foodie, and several Night Guards side with Sunshine Boy, isolating the Commandant’s faction.
• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy reach a conditional agreement, but their conflicting oath requirements leave the dispute unresolved.
• The chapter ends with the group fractured and the sincerity of both the Commandant’s confession and Good Fortune Born’s cooperation still in doubt.

Chapter Summary

1. Key Plot Points and Events

• The Commandant forces a compromise between Sunshine Boy and Good Fortune Born. Sunshine Boy swears not to actively harm Good Fortune Born, while Good Fortune Born agrees to let Sunshine Boy perform Fate Observation and Qi Gazing, deduce his Fate Mold, and accelerate his fate so he can fight the Weird Mother.
• Before taking the oath, Sunshine Boy secretly replaces the four Fate Stars on his Fate Pillar with Bait Fate Stars, then restores them afterward, exploiting a technical loophole in the oath.
• Good Fortune Born provides his birth date and eight characters. With the others protecting them and the Night Guard securing the room, Sunshine Boy begins his observation.
• Sunshine Boy enters Good Fortune Born’s Fate Projection and discovers an extraordinarily magnificent Fate Mansion:
  • A huge blue-brick plaza and imperial palace-like hall.
  • Dozens of brilliant golden Fate Stars.
  • Nine sections of golden Fate Ground.
  • Four Fate Pillars wrapped by golden dragons.
• He considers whether the golden Fate Ground could be removed and placed beneath his own Fate Pillars to strengthen his Fate Mold, revealing his opportunistic and shamelessly practical nature.
• Sunshine Boy examines Good Fortune Born’s four principal Fate Stars and recognizes them as exceptionally rare, powerful, and historically significant.

2. Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates both cunning and confidence. His manipulation of the Fate Stars before the oath shows that he is willing to exploit wording and technicalities, even while technically honoring his promise.
• His reaction to Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mansion reveals envy and ambition: he immediately thinks about stealing or repurposing the golden Fate Ground.
• Sunshine Boy also gains a deeper understanding of Good Fortune Born’s danger. He becomes wary after encountering the ominous Hidden Dragon in the Poison Pool, recognizing that Good Fortune Born may eventually become a tyrannical, uncontrollable figure.
• Good Fortune Born is visibly resentful and distrustful, glaring at Sunshine Boy and reluctantly accepting the arrangement. However, he honors the oath and cooperates by giving Sunshine Boy the information needed for the divination.
• The Commandant acts as a mediator, imposing mutual restrictions to prevent either side from directly betraying the other.
• The Night Guard and the surrounding observers provide security while Sunshine Boy performs the dangerous Fate Observation.

3. Significant Themes

• Trust constrained by vows: Neither side genuinely trusts the other, so their cooperation depends on carefully worded oaths. The chapter explores how even sacred promises can be manipulated through loopholes.
• Fate as visible structure: Fate is represented through mansions, grounds, pillars, seals, stars, and symbolic creatures. A person’s destiny is treated as something that can be inspected, strengthened, altered, or potentially exploited.
• Power and legitimacy: Good Fortune Born’s golden palace, imperial seal, dragons, and noble Fate Stars suggest extraordinary authority and a destiny connected to rulership and historical greatness.
• Ambition versus danger: Sunshine Boy admires Good Fortune Born’s immense potential but also fears it. Great fate can bring power, yet the baleful Hidden Dragon suggests that such power may produce destruction and tyranny.
• The contrast between appearance and reality: Good Fortune Born appears associated with auspicious golden imagery, but beneath it lies a poisonous dragon and immense killing intent. His glorious destiny contains a deeply threatening side.

4. Character Interactions

• The Commandant confronts both men and forces them into reciprocal conditions.
• Sunshine Boy and Good Fortune Born exchange oaths designed to prevent direct harm while allowing Sunshine Boy to manipulate and hasten Good Fortune Born’s destiny.
• Good Fortune Born’s hostile attitude contrasts with Sunshine Boy’s outwardly cooperative but internally calculating behavior.
• During the Fate Observation, Sunshine Boy’s perspective shifts from amused greed and admiration to caution and fear, especially when the Hidden Dragon notices him.
• The chapter ends with Sunshine Boy examining the final Fate Star, Tempered Through Ten Thousand Trials, symbolizing powerful resilience and suggesting that Good Fortune Born’s fate combines imperial nobility, calamity, and relentless refinement.

Chapter Summary: Fate Observation and Qi Gazing Encounters Heavenly Calamity

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy examines Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mansion using Fate Observation and Qi Gazing.
• He discovers that Good Fortune Born possesses four extraordinary Fate Stars:

Sun and Moon Ascendant

Sunlit Golden Mountain

Hidden Dragon in the Poison Pool

Tempered Through Ten Thousand Trials

• Although these Fate Stars are overwhelmingly powerful, Sunshine Boy finds that Tempered Through Ten Thousand Trials is comparatively underdeveloped. He concludes that Good Fortune Born may either have taken the wrong path or require even greater hardship before advancing.
• Above the Fate Stars, Sunshine Boy sees Good Fortune Born’s terrifying Fate Spirit: Heavenly Calamity. It appears as a massive, monstrous being combining a hundred beasts, a mountain, a lake, and waterfalls.
• The Fate Spirit’s ominous presence frightens Sunshine Boy. He realizes that Good Fortune Born’s fate is so powerful and dangerous that it may naturally resist or destroy threats directed at him.
• Sunshine Boy is unable to inspect Good Fortune Born’s future Fate Ground because it is obscured by a golden barrier. He concludes that Good Fortune Born’s Fate is far beyond ordinary understanding and possibly beyond what the Heaven’s Mandate Instrument expected him to encounter.
• After ending the observation, Sunshine Boy tells the Commandant and the Night Guards that Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mold is strong enough to resist the Eerie, though he will still suffer some harm.
• Sunshine Boy proposes using the Fate-Urging Art to strengthen Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mold before he enters the White Building and becomes an Eerie Infant.
• Good Fortune Born reluctantly agrees.
• Sunshine Boy deduces the materials needed for the ritual, including Good Fortune Born’s personal belongings, blood, hair, fingernails, and various ritual objects. Everyone present must contribute hair so they can receive protection from Good Fortune Born’s Fate Mold.
• Sunshine Boy also requires metal armor plates because Good Fortune Born’s powerful fate may cause Fate Cushioning, accidentally placing nearby allies in danger.
• The group searches the village and gathers the materials. Good Fortune Born initially hesitates to provide his personal items and blood, provoking criticism from the others.
• He finally gives Sunshine Boy his clothing, hairpin, shoes, fingernails, hair, and ten drops of blood.
• Sunshine Boy prepares to begin the ritual, swearing that he will not deliberately harm Good Fortune Born.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates the limits of his knowledge. Despite his skill in deduction and fate arts, Good Fortune Born’s Fate Spirit is so extraordinary that he cannot fully interpret it.
• Sunshine Boy becomes more cautious and respectful toward Good Fortune Born, recognizing that his fate may be comparable to an imperial or world-shaking force.
• Good Fortune Born is revealed to possess astonishing latent power, but he is also defensive, suspicious, and reluctant to expose himself or surrender personal materials.
• His reaction to the mention of his mother suggests deep emotional trauma and unresolved grief. He becomes furious when Book-Listener refers to the deaths of his family members.
• The Night Guards become increasingly skeptical of Good Fortune Born’s character, mocking his reluctance and challenging his courage, though they ultimately cooperate with the ritual.
• Book-Listener openly confronts Good Fortune Born, implying that his fate may have caused tragedy for those who protected him.

Significant Themes

• Fate versus personal effort: Good Fortune Born claims that everything he has achieved came through his own ability, but Sunshine Boy realizes that his innate Fate Stars are so powerful that ordinary people cannot compare with him.
• The burden of extraordinary power: Good Fortune Born’s fate protects him, yet it can also harm or endanger those around him through Fate Cushioning.
• Limits of knowledge: Even an expert like Sunshine Boy cannot fully understand or predict a Fate Spirit as powerful as Heavenly Calamity.
• Sacrifice and trust: The Fate-Urging ritual requires Good Fortune Born to surrender personal possessions and blood, symbolizing his need to trust the group despite his suspicion.
• Trauma and resentment: Good Fortune Born’s anger over his family’s deaths hints at painful consequences connected to his fate and reveals the emotional cost behind his apparent confidence.
• Calamity and destiny: The image of Heavenly Calamity presents Good Fortune Born as both a potential survivor of disaster and a source of disaster for others.

Character Interactions

• Sunshine Boy carefully explains Good Fortune Born’s fate to the Commandant and the Night Guards, gaining their cooperation for the ritual.
• Foodie supports the ritual but also joins the others in teasing Good Fortune Born for his hesitation.
• Book-Listener provokes Good Fortune Born by bringing up his mother, uncle, and aunt, causing Good Fortune Born to react with anger.
• The Night Guards pressure Good Fortune Born into giving his blood and belongings, questioning his courage and commitment.
• Good Fortune Born distrusts Sunshine Boy but ultimately agrees to the ritual after Sunshine Boy assures him through a sworn oath that he will not intentionally cause harm.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Good Fortune Born treats his wounds while Sunshine Boy prepares the Three-Candle Nine-Incense Death-Urging Method, a dangerous Fate Arts technique intended to protect the group from the Weird Mother.
• Sunshine Boy purifies the ritual materials and creates two yellow talisman figures. Using sheep’s blood, gold, Good Fortune Born’s clothing, blood, hair, and fingernail, he establishes a magical connection between one talisman figure and Good Fortune Born.
• He combines hair from Good Fortune Born and the other seventeen people, then surrounds the talisman figure with ten vine rings. Three red candles and nine incense sticks are lit, forming the central ritual formation.
• Sunshine Boy creates an armored paper person and transforms Good Fortune Born’s boots into magical bird wings. Through another spell, these materials become a small yellow bird.
• The final incantation links the fates of the group and sends the yellow bird to search for the enemy. The talisman person burns away, and its power enters Good Fortune Born’s glabella. The ritual creates a shared resistance among the group’s Fate Molds.
• Sunshine Boy warns that the technique can weaken the Weird Mother but may not be enough if she is stronger than Good Fortune Born believes. He then proposes making a Life-Replacement Wooden Child for himself, since he is being targeted by the Eerie Infant.
• Good Fortune Born requests one as well, but Sunshine Boy demands a Fate Star and a processing fee. The others are unable or unwilling to pay such a high price, while Good Fortune Born remains suspicious and conflicted.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates considerable skill, concentration, and stamina as a Fate Arts Master. He repeatedly restores his magic power with the Thunder Dragon Fire Seal and successfully completes the complex ritual.
• He is also revealed to be calculating and opportunistic. Even in a crisis, he tries to obtain the Fate Arts Master’s notes from Good Fortune Born and charges a costly price for protection.
• Good Fortune Born remains wary and confrontational toward Sunshine Boy, accusing him of making false claims and resisting his demands. However, his request for a Life-Replacement Wooden Child shows that he recognizes the danger and may be willing to negotiate.
• The Commandant acts as a mediator, preventing arguments and keeping the group focused on survival.
• Foodie, Book-Listener, and the other Night Guards serve as guards and witnesses, displaying concern and unease as the ritual produces supernatural effects.

Significant Themes

• Fate and collective survival: The ritual binds the group’s Fate Molds together, suggesting that shared destiny can provide protection against supernatural threats.
• The limits of power: Although Sunshine Boy succeeds, he admits that his technique cannot guarantee survival, emphasizing the overwhelming strength and uncertainty of the Weird Mother.
• Knowledge and power as commodities: Sunshine Boy’s demand for Fate Arts notes and Fate Stars shows how specialized knowledge and magical resources are treated as valuable currency.
• Trust and suspicion: The group depends on Sunshine Boy’s abilities but does not fully trust his motives, especially Good Fortune Born, who questions his intentions.
• Preparation against death: The ritual and the proposed Life-Replacement Wooden Child both reflect attempts to resist death through magic, while acknowledging that such protection is incomplete.

Character Interactions

• The Commandant reassures Good Fortune Born that interrupting Sunshine Boy’s spell would be dangerous and urges him to leave the room.
• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy openly clash over the Fate Arts Master’s notes, with Good Fortune Born denying that he possesses or is withholding them.
• After the ritual, Foodie asks whether it is complete, prompting Sunshine Boy to explain both its success and its limitations.
• The Commandant interrupts the argument and asks about the next step, leading Sunshine Boy to reveal his plan to make a Life-Replacement Wooden Child.
• Good Fortune Born asks for one, but Sunshine Boy demands payment in the form of a Fate Star. Their tense exchange ends with Good Fortune Born silently considering the offer.

Chapter Summary: “Everyone Snips Red Paper”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy creates three Life-Replacement Wooden Children for Good Fortune Born’s group. Using Old Scholar Tree branches, locust leaves, Good Fortune Born’s fingernails, and three Bait Fate Molds, he makes substitutes capable of absorbing injuries, though probably not death itself.
• He gives one wooden child to himself, one to Book-Listener, and one to Foodie. He also gives Foodie a sealed, talisman-covered box after discussing its use with the others.
• Back at the public office, Sunshine Boy offers to make Wooden Talisman Figures for the Night Guards. However, the figures only work for people who swear an oath not to harm one another and to cooperate.
• Thirteen of the eighteen people accept the oath and receive talisman figures. Commandant, Good Fortune Born, and Good Fortune Born’s three subordinates refuse, deepening the division within the group.
• Wang Laoshi arrives and asks the Night Guards to help prepare the Hundred Blessings Storehouse by cutting Fortune Characters from red paper. The task may be connected to the Eerie, so Commandant warns everyone to remain cautious.
• Book-Listener realizes that “snipping Blessing” sounds ominous and instead teaches everyone how to clip Fortune Characters, a more auspicious variation. He carefully supervises each folding and cutting step.
• The group successfully completes several Fortune Characters without apparent incident. Good Fortune Born refuses to let Book-Listener inspect his work, but still watches the instructions closely and learns carefully.
• After four characters, Book-Listener calls for a break and warns everyone to remain alert. He privately advises Sunshine Boy and Foodie to speak as little as possible because unknown taboos may be involved. The atmosphere gradually relaxes, and the group begins chatting.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy demonstrates resourcefulness and self-sacrifice by exhausting his magical power to create protective substitutes for the others. He also takes precautions by making talismans and observing the group’s behavior.
• Book-Listener becomes the practical leader during the paper-cutting ritual. His careful, methodical instructions help prevent mistakes and establish a controlled procedure.
• Foodie continues to cooperate with Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener, accepting both a Life-Replacement Wooden Child and the mysterious talisman-covered box.
• Good Fortune Born remains suspicious and resentful of Book-Listener. He refuses to swear the oath, rejects the protective talisman, and ignores Book-Listener’s inspections, yet secretly studies the process with great attention.
• Commandant maintains authority and caution. Although he does not accept a talisman, he supports Book-Listener’s instructions and urges the others to comply.
• Wang Laoshi appears cheerful and helpful, but his request draws the Night Guards into a potentially dangerous Eerie-related ritual.

Significant Themes

• Trust and division: The oath and talisman distribution divide the group into those willing to cooperate and those who remain distrustful.
• Protection and sacrifice: The Life-Replacement Wooden Children embody the willingness to bear another person’s suffering, while also emphasizing the limits of protection.
• Ritual precision and taboo: Small differences in wording, folding, cutting, and speech may determine whether an action is auspicious or dangerous.
• Control versus resentment: Book-Listener’s careful leadership contrasts with Good Fortune Born’s refusal to submit, creating tension within the group.
• Luck and fate: The wooden children require the willing contribution of someone with powerful luck, reinforcing the story’s focus on fortune, destiny, and supernatural exchange.

Character Interactions

• Sunshine Boy works closely with Book-Listener and Foodie, relying on them to guard him while he crafts the wooden children.
• His distribution of talismans forces the Night Guards to publicly choose between cooperation and distrust.
• Book-Listener attempts to impose order and caution, especially when teaching the group the paper-cutting ritual.
• Good Fortune Born challenges Book-Listener’s authority by taking supplies first and refusing to show his work, though he remains attentive to Book-Listener’s expertise.
• Commandant supports Book-Listener and helps maintain discipline.
• The shared ritual temporarily eases hostility, but the unresolved divide between the oath-takers and Good Fortune Born’s faction remains.

Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• The group completes the final batch of Fortune Characters, aiming to produce one hundred blessings for the Hundred Blessings Storehouse.
• During the cutting, an eerie cold wind sweeps through the room. Most people stop in time because their Wooden Talisman Figures glow and protect them, but two of Good Fortune Born’s subordinates accidentally cut their Fortune Characters incorrectly.
• After the counting, the group has 104 Fortune Characters. Wang Laoshi stores one hundred and leaves four extras.
• Good Fortune Born asks for the extras, but Sunshine Boy instead proposes rewarding them to Book-Listener and himself. Book-Listener receives one; Sunshine Boy takes the remaining three. Good Fortune Born is denied a reward because his final Fortune Character was cut crookedly.
• Wang Laoshi instructs everyone to worship the Hundred Blessings Storehouse and touch the Fucang after lunch.
• The group realizes that three people have vanished, including Good Fortune Born’s three subordinates. Their disappearance appears connected to the strange wind and the failed cuts.
• The Wooden Talisman Figures of the survivors are found cracked or shattered, revealing that they absorbed the danger and saved their owners. The three missing people lacked such protection.
• The survivors thank Sunshine Boy, who creates fourteen replacement Wooden Talisman Figures from locust branches and distributes them.
• The Commandant privately confronts Sunshine Boy behind a stone mill and demands both a Wooden Talisman Figure and a Fortune Character. Sunshine Boy requires him to swear not to harm him before receiving them.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy proves resourceful, cautious, and generous. He helps organize the reward distribution, provides protective talismans, and earns the group’s gratitude. However, he also deliberately provokes Good Fortune Born by taking the remaining Fortune Characters.
• Good Fortune Born becomes increasingly suspicious and hostile. He is frustrated at being denied a Fortune Character, enraged by the disappearance of his subordinates, and distrustful of Sunshine Boy. His reaction suggests growing tension and possible hidden motives.
• Book-Listener is validated in his caution. His warnings about the cutting process and careless speech prove justified after the eerie wind causes deaths or disappearances.
• The Commandant remains intimidating and pragmatic. Though stronger than Sunshine Boy, he recognizes Sunshine Boy’s value and negotiates for protection, revealing that he is willing to restrain himself if necessary.
• The surviving group becomes more united around Sunshine Boy after realizing the talismans saved their lives. Their fear of the Eerie deepens.
• Wang Laoshi maintains authority and composure, controlling the Fortune Characters and treating Good Fortune Born’s complaint with indifference.

Significant Themes

• Caution versus complacency: The chapter confirms that Book-Listener’s warnings were justified; even a seemingly simple activity can become deadly in the presence of the Eerie.
• Protection and sacrifice: The Wooden Talisman Figures absorb the supernatural danger, emphasizing the value of preparation and the possibility that protective objects may bear the cost on behalf of their users.
• Power, suspicion, and manipulation: Sunshine Boy’s distribution of the extra Fortune Characters creates resentment, while Good Fortune Born’s suspicion and the Commandant’s demand expose the unstable power relationships within the group.
• The unknowable nature of the Eerie: The disappearance of three people occurs with little explanation, reinforcing the supernatural force’s unpredictability and threat.
• Trust and coercion: The Commandant’s request for protection is conditional on an oath, showing that alliances are fragile and must be secured through guarantees.

Character Interactions

• Book-Listener and Sunshine Boy coordinate to ensure the Fortune Characters are distributed according to their perceived contributions, excluding Good Fortune Born.
• Good Fortune Born openly challenges Wang Laoshi over the unfair distribution, but Wang Laoshi dismisses him.
• Good Fortune Born suspects Sunshine Boy of causing his subordinates’ disappearance; Sunshine Boy sarcastically denies responsibility and redirects suspicion back toward him.
• The survivors bow to and thank Sunshine Boy after recognizing that his talismans saved them.
• The Commandant privately pressures Sunshine Boy for a talisman and Fortune Character. Sunshine Boy refuses to comply without a sworn promise that the Commandant will not harm him, leaving their negotiation unresolved.

Summary

• Sunshine Boy confronts Commandant about his prior alliance with Good Fortune Born and his doubts about Good Fortune Born’s loyalty. Commandant admits that Good Fortune Born appears capable of resolving the Eerie but is mainly focused on saving himself. He also reveals that the Eerie has no safe solution at its beginning and that its key lies at the end, though Good Fortune Born knows more and possesses treasures that may help him escape.
• In exchange for this information, Sunshine Boy gives Commandant a Wooden Talisman Figure and demands that he remain neutral rather than blindly cooperate with Good Fortune Born. Commandant refuses to attack Good Fortune Born directly but agrees to perform his duty bravely when the critical moment comes. He swears by the names of the five Mothers not to give Good Fortune Born the Fortune Character.
• Sunshine Boy also asks Commandant to protect Book-Listener and Foodie. He gives Commandant one Fortune Character, then secretly gives another to Foodie. As a result, Sunshine Boy, Book-Listener, Foodie, and Commandant each possess a Fortune Character, while Good Fortune Born is left isolated and resentful.
• The Night Guards attend a ritual at Fifth Lady Temple involving the Hundred Blessings Storehouse. Villagers place colored grain into baskets, pour it into the storehouse, and touch its Fortune Character. The Guards realize they have neither baskets nor grain and risk danger by approaching the storehouse empty-handed.
• After learning that the villagers will not provide or sell baskets, the Guards are at a loss. Sunshine Boy cleverly forces Good Fortune Born to accompany him to Wang Laoshi and request supplies for all fifteen Guards. Wang Laoshi frames the baskets and grain as a reward for Good Fortune Born and sends them to a suspicious house marked with upside-down Fortune Characters.
• Good Fortune Born realizes Sunshine Boy has manipulated him into taking responsibility for the reward, but he has no choice because of their agreement. The other Guards praise Sunshine Boy, further aggravating Good Fortune Born.
• Book-Listener senses that the house is dangerous. Sunshine Boy explains that he used Good Fortune Born’s “banner” or fortune to divert the danger from the group. He identifies the house as a “Half-Extinction” path: not an unavoidable death route, but a dangerous option that can eliminate some unlucky outcomes. In contrast, activities such as paper-cutting may represent certain-death paths.
• The chapter ends with the Guards collecting the baskets and grain and lining up to approach the Hundred Blessings Storehouse, while Sunshine Boy concentrates on his Fate Mansion and remains mindful of the possible consequences of his oath.

Character Developments and Interactions

• Sunshine Boy becomes increasingly strategic and manipulative, using negotiation, oaths, and Good Fortune Born’s reputation to protect the group.
• Commandant shifts from secret cooperation with Good Fortune Born toward guarded neutrality and renewed commitment to his official duty. He also accepts responsibility for protecting Book-Listener and Foodie.
• Good Fortune Born becomes isolated, frustrated, and suspicious as Sunshine Boy repeatedly turns his own schemes and fortune against him.
• Book-Listener acts as the group’s observer and warning voice, noticing the danger in the suspicious house and helping interpret the Eerie’s structure.
• Foodie demonstrates loyalty by choosing Good Fortune Born to accompany Sunshine Boy, while Commandant regards him as harmless and worth protecting.

Significant Themes

• Trust and betrayal: Alliances are unstable, and characters must judge whether others will sacrifice them to survive.
• Manipulation and redirected fortune: Sunshine Boy survives by transferring danger onto Good Fortune Born and exploiting the Eerie’s rules.
• Duty versus self-preservation: Commandant must choose between his superior’s orders, cooperation with Good Fortune Born, and his responsibility to fight for the group.
• The logic of supernatural danger: The Eerie contains different levels of risk—certain-death, possible-death, Half-Extinction, and Survival Paths—and understanding these categories is essential to survival.
• The limits of conventional strength: The Night Guards are capable fighters but are largely helpless against an Eerie, forcing them to rely on observation, strategy, and ritual knowledge.

Chapter Summary

Key Plot Points and Events

• Sunshine Boy realizes that one of the thirteen Bait Fate Stars on Fate Star Mountain has been destroyed. The missing star was one he placed on the Fate Pillar when swearing his oath.
• He deduces that Good Fortune Born’s unusual Fate Mold is responsible. Good Fortune Born’s destiny combines severe calamity with powerful protective and growth-oriented Fate Patterns, meaning hardship strengthens rather than destroys him.
• Sunshine Boy concludes that Good Fortune Born may possess a hidden or submerged Fate Star that automatically clashes with his own Fate Mold. This explains why Good Fortune Born destroyed the Fate Star despite not technically breaking their oath.
• Sunshine Boy recognizes that his actions have significantly altered Good Fortune Born’s destined development. By taking Uncle Zhou, acquiring the Divine Firmament Thunder Seed, and becoming commander of the Eerie Ground, he has deprived Good Fortune Born of allies and support.
• Instead of gaining maturity through the expected deaths of the Night Guards, Good Fortune Born is now being driven toward resentment and extremity. Sunshine Boy fears this could escalate their conflict into “Calamity Desolation,” an absolute fate clash in which neither side can survive.
• Determined to protect himself, Sunshine Boy begins planning ways to disrupt Good Fortune Born’s Fate Pattern and delay its full development.
• At the Hundred Blessings Storehouse, Sunshine Boy notices that the supposedly wooden barrel feels warm, soft, and strangely flesh-like when touched. Book-Listener, however, reports that it felt like ordinary hard wood, suggesting the Eerie affects people differently.
• He also witnesses women sprinkling water along the temple wall, only for the ground to turn blood-red while the droplets whisper “Bask, bask, bask.” The discovery deepens the mystery surrounding Fifth Lady Temple.
• That night, Wang Laoshi arrives to summon the group to the temple for a ceremony. The fifteen Night Guards reluctantly follow him.
• The villagers perform the same grotesque nighttime dance around the bonfire as before, but the Night Guards now view them with fear and suspicion rather than admiration.
• Sunshine Boy notices mugwort hidden behind the Hundred Blessings Storehouse and secretly distributes it among himself and Foodie, presumably as protection against the Eerie.
• The group enters a dark wooden ceremonial house filled with white candles burning red flames, red pomegranate-patterned carpets, and unnerving chairs carved with images resembling crawling children.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy becomes increasingly perceptive about Fate Arts and the consequences of manipulating another person’s destiny. He shifts from confidence to alarm as he realizes he may have transformed a rivalry into a life-or-death fate conflict.
• He also grows more cautious and resourceful, secretly collecting mugwort and examining supernatural objects rather than blindly trusting appearances.
• Good Fortune Born, though mostly absent from the scene, is revealed to be undergoing a dangerous developmental change. His repeated hardships are strengthening him, but Sunshine Boy’s interference is turning those hardships into bitterness and extremism.
• Book-Listener provides an important comparison by perceiving the Hundred Blessings Storehouse as an ordinary wooden barrel, unlike Sunshine Boy, whose supernatural sensitivity reveals its living, bodily nature.
• The Night Guards have lost their earlier trust in the villagers. Their fear and emotional withdrawal show how profoundly the Eerie has changed their understanding of the village.
• Foodie remains close to Sunshine Boy and accepts the protective mugwort without drawing attention to it.

Significant Themes

• Fate versus free will: Sunshine Boy’s actions alter a supposedly destined chain of events, raising questions about whether fate can be redirected or only transformed.
• Calamity as cultivation: Good Fortune Born’s suffering is not merely destructive; it tempers him, accelerates his growth, and may eventually turn him into a powerful leader.
• The danger of interference: Sunshine Boy recognizes that changing another person’s path can create consequences far more severe than ordinary rivalry.
• Perception and hidden reality: Objects and events appear differently to different people, suggesting that personal Fate Molds shape what individuals can perceive.
• Transformation through suffering: Both characters are being shaped by hardship—Good Fortune Born through resentment and endurance, and Sunshine Boy through fear, calculation, and growing awareness of Fate Arts.
• Ritual and concealed violence: The village’s celebrations, blood-red ground, candles, and childlike imagery disguise or ritualize something deeply sinister.

Character Interactions

• Sunshine Boy and Book-Listener compare their experiences touching the Hundred Blessings Storehouse, revealing their differing perceptions of the Eerie.
• Sunshine Boy secretly gives mugwort to Foodie, creating a quiet moment of cooperation and mutual protection.
• Wang Laoshi maintains authority by summoning the Night Guards and leading them into the temple ceremony.
• The villagers’ relationship with the Night Guards has shifted from apparent hospitality and attraction to mutual unease and distrust.
• Sunshine Boy’s indirect conflict with Good Fortune Born dominates the chapter, even though Good Fortune Born never appears: their Fate Molds are increasingly positioned as opposing forces destined for catastrophic confrontation.

Chapter Summary: First Encounter with Weird Mother in the Black House

Key Plot Points and Events

• Wang Laoshi leads Sunshine Boy into Weird Mother’s hall, while the Night Guards and Commandant must remain outside.
• Weird Mother’s presence is concealed behind a black grape-patterned curtain. Her enormous, boneless white arms emerge and place the watermelon previously taken from the melon patch on the floor.
• Sunshine Boy hears pounding from inside the watermelon and realizes that Weird Mother intends to “give birth” to him again by placing him inside it.
• After Sunshine Boy greets her as “Mother,” an unseen force weakens him. Weird Mother’s hands shrink him into the form of a baby, transforming him into a “Sunshine Baby.”
• She pats him into the watermelon, treating the melon as a womb. When she realizes he is too large to fit, Good Fortune Born suggests cutting off his limbs and removing the child.
• Weird Mother accepts the suggestion, revealing Good Fortune Born’s intention to cripple Sunshine Boy. However, Xiang Nanny’s knife cuts through a locust-wood substitute rather than Sunshine Boy’s actual limbs.
• Sunshine Boy pretends to be injured and accuses Good Fortune Born of trying to harm him, provoking Weird Mother’s protective anger. Good Fortune Born realizes that Sunshine Boy used the powerful Life-Replacement Wooden Child to escape the attack.
• Xiang Nanny splits the watermelon. The blow cleaves the wooden substitute beneath Sunshine Boy and releases blood-like energy that enters his body.
• The ritual causes supernatural effects: Good Fortune Born’s hair rapidly turns partly white, the Night Guards lose hair, and Sunshine Boy becomes dizzy before being struck on the back and beginning to cry like a newborn.
• The surrounding village erupts into a bizarre birth celebration, with music, frenzied dancing, and villagers behaving as though possessed.
• Weird Mother orders that the infant Sunshine Boy be taken to wash in the “Hundred Blessings,” but her voice has become older, hoarser, and deeply exhausted.

Character Developments

• Sunshine Boy: Demonstrates caution, self-control, and quick thinking. Although temporarily transformed into an infant and placed in extreme danger, he uses the Life-Replacement Wooden Child to avoid mutilation. He also manipulates Weird Mother’s maternal instincts by pretending to accuse Good Fortune Born.
• Good Fortune Born: Reveals his hostility and opportunism by proposing that Sunshine Boy’s limbs be removed. His plan fails, and the ritual backlash visibly ages him, turning part of his hair white.
• Weird Mother: Appears affectionate and protective toward Sunshine Boy, but her love is grotesque and dangerous. She views him as a child to be reborn, restrained, and physically altered. Her final exhaustion suggests the ritual has seriously drained her.
• Xiang Nanny/Witch: Carries out Weird Mother’s commands with horrifying efficiency, wielding the black-blooded butcher’s knife. She serves as the agent of the ritual’s violence.
• The Night Guards and Commandant: Remain powerless observers outside the threshold. Their horror and anger intensify as they watch Good Fortune Born attempt to harm Sunshine Boy.

Significant Themes

• Corrupted motherhood: Weird Mother’s tenderness is inseparable from violence. Her desire to “give birth” to Sunshine Boy becomes an act of confinement, mutilation, and supernatural transformation.
• Deception and survival: Sunshine Boy survives through concealment and performance, using the wooden substitute and pretending to be helpless in order to turn Weird Mother against Good Fortune Born.
• Betrayal and factional conflict: Good Fortune Born’s suggestion exposes his willingness to sacrifice an ally for personal advantage, creating distrust among the Night Guards.
• Ritualized violence and rebirth: The watermelon functions as a womb, while the splitting of the melon becomes a grotesque birth ceremony involving blood, music, and communal frenzy.
• The cost of supernatural power: The ritual affects everyone involved, draining Weird Mother and visibly aging Good Fortune Born while causing other physical consequences among the Night Guards.

Character Interactions

• Wang Laoshi and Sunshine Boy: Wang Laoshi admits only Sunshine Boy may enter Weird Mother’s hall, separating him from the others.
• Sunshine Boy and Weird Mother: Their exchange presents a twisted mother-child relationship. Sunshine Boy plays the obedient child while quietly resisting her attempt to remake him.
• Good Fortune Born and Sunshine Boy: Good Fortune Born openly—or at least deceptively—tries to arrange Sunshine Boy’s mutilation. Sunshine Boy counters by exposing him as an enemy.
• Weird Mother and Good Fortune Born: Weird Mother immediately sides with the apparently injured Sunshine Boy and threatens anyone who harms him, making Good Fortune Born’s betrayal dangerous.
• Xiang Nanny and Sunshine Boy: Xiang Nanny performs the cutting and birth ritual, though the Life-Replacement Wooden Child prevents her blade from injuring Sunshine Boy directly.
• The villagers and the ritual: The villagers’ ecstatic, possessed behavior mirrors and amplifies the unnatural “birth,” turning the entire village into part of Weird Mother’s ceremony.

Chapter Summary: “An Eerie Infant in Swaddling Delivers a Melon”

Key Plot Points and Events

• Xiang Nanny presents the Sunshine Boy to the Birth-Protection Mother and announces that he has been successfully born. The villagers are forced to greet the Mother; when Good Fortune Born hesitates, the infant accuses him of trying to cause harm.
• Xiang Nanny prepares to kill Good Fortune Born, but he submits and greets the Mother. His protective jade pendant shatters, revealing that it had shielded him from the Eerie’s power.
• The Sunshine Boy is taken to the Hundred Blessings Storehouse for a ritual cleansing. He is buried in grain, which transforms into blood, nearly drowning him. Xiang Nanny eventually pulls him out.
• The villagers regard the blood-covered infant as clean and purified. He is then wrapped in a disturbing swaddling cloth that feels like frozen skin and seems to contain breathing, living presences.
• The witch carries the Sunshine Boy to the Black House, where the Weird Mother receives him as her “eldest son.” The Mother shows genuine affection and agrees to let the others bury the watermelon and fulfill the vow.
• Xiang Nanny asks someone to carry the split watermelon to the western melon field. The Sunshine Boy deliberately nominates Good Fortune Born, exploiting their hostility and forcing him to accept the task.
• The Commandant and the Night Guards accompany Good Fortune Born. Wang Laoshi adds another dangerous demand: they must hunt a tiger to make a tiger-head hat and shoes for the infant.
• As the group leaves, the Sunshine Boy reflects on Good Fortune Born’s earlier manipulation of the Weird Mother. He realizes that the Eeries are bound by rules and can accept reasonable suggestions, rather than acting as completely unpredictable killers.
• The Sunshine Boy begins analyzing remembered Fate Arts and past Eerie incidents, eventually focusing his will on his Fate Mansion, implying that he has discovered a possible method for resolving the Eerie.

Character Developments

• The Sunshine Boy becomes more assertive and strategic. Though physically vulnerable during the ritual, he uses his authority as the Weird Mother’s favored infant to retaliate against Good Fortune Born and control events.
• Good Fortune Born is shown to be highly knowledgeable about Eerie rules and willing to manipulate them. However, the Sunshine Boy recognizes his methods and turns the same rule-based logic against him.
• The Weird Mother displays unexpected maternal affection toward the Sunshine Boy, treating him as a beloved son rather than merely an object of ritual.
• Xiang Nanny remains a powerful ritual enforcer, carrying out the Mother’s commands and threatening violence against anyone who disobeys.
• The Night Guards grow increasingly fearful and passive as the bizarre demands escalate, especially when ordered to hunt a tiger.
• Wang Laoshi continues to support the ritual process, adding tasks that deepen the danger surrounding the group.

Significant Themes

• Rules within horror: The chapter reveals that even terrifying Eeries operate according to hidden rules and constraints. Understanding those rules offers a way to survive or manipulate them.
• Power through language and suggestion: Words, greetings, and seemingly reasonable requests have supernatural force. The Sunshine Boy’s suggestion that Good Fortune Born carry the melon becomes an effective act of revenge.
• Reversal of vulnerability and authority: Although the Sunshine Boy appears helpless as an infant, his status grants him considerable influence over the Eeries and villagers.
• Corrupted motherhood and birth rituals: The chapter twists familiar maternal images—birth, swaddling, cleansing, and affection—into grotesque supernatural ceremonies.
• Strategic rivalry: The conflict between the Sunshine Boy and Good Fortune Born shifts from simple hostility to a battle of knowledge, manipulation, and control over the Eerie’s rules.

Important Character Interactions

• The Sunshine Boy intimidates Good Fortune Born through Xiang Nanny, forcing him to greet the Birth-Protection Mother.
• The Weird Mother accepts and comforts the Sunshine Boy, calling him her eldest son and approving the continuation of the ritual.
• The Sunshine Boy publicly pressures Good Fortune Born into carrying the watermelon, while the Night Guards ensure he cannot avoid the task.
• Wang Laoshi increases the burden on the departing group by ordering them to obtain a tiger.
• Through observing Good Fortune Born’s actions, the Sunshine Boy realizes that both men have been trying to manipulate the same supernatural rules—though Good Fortune Born appears to possess deeper prior knowledge.