Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• As the countdown ends, the Past bus stops inside a pitch-black tunnel. With only Ordinary Gao Ming and Corpse Gao Ming left aboard, he takes the corpse and ventures out alone.
• Gao Ming finds a Posthumous Photograph on the corpse showing him as a grim, dismembered senior security officer. Its ominous appearance raises the possibility that this frightening figure is also part of his future.
• Pressing forward despite fear, exhaustion, and loneliness, Gao Ming discovers that the tunnel walls are lined with corpses—and recognizes the faces as versions of himself.
• His phone suddenly receives a flood of messages from his classmates, all urging him to return to the bus. Suspicious that the messages may be deceptive, Gao Ming notices that Gao Yun is the only classmate not trying to turn him back. He chooses to trust his instincts and continues.
• Gao Ming finds an empty space in the wall and places Corpse Gao Ming inside it. The corpse’s Posthumous Photograph sprouts blood vessels, connecting to the other bodies and unleashing countless memories of Gao Ming’s tragic deaths.
• The tunnel begins to collapse. Fueled by the surging memories and synchronized heartbeats, Gao Ming runs through the darkness and escapes just before it caves in. He emerges to see glowing platforms stretching behind him—the road of his life.
• The chapter ends with brief images of the other Gao Mings: Delinquent Gao Ming badly wounded, Kind Gao Ming smiling in hospital, and Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming changing as he grabs Lu Zang by the throat. Ordinary Gao Ming wonders if the destination is also the beginning.

Character developments and interactions

• Ordinary Gao Ming moves forward despite fear and self-doubt, recognizing that others have sacrificed themselves to get him this far. He refuses the apparent pleas of his classmates and chooses to trust his own judgment.
• Corpse Gao Ming becomes both a companion and a catalyst: Gao Ming carries him for reassurance, then places him in the vacant space in the wall. This triggers the tunnel’s collapse and the revelation of Gao Ming’s many death-filled pasts.
• The classmates’ messages create a conflict between apparent friendship and possible manipulation. Gao Yun’s silence makes Gao Ming question the warnings.
• The glimpses of the other Gao Mings underline their connection and show that events are still unfolding in their separate memories.

Significant themes

• Selfhood across many lives: The corpses, photographs, and memories suggest Gao Ming has multiple pasts or versions of himself.
• Sacrifice and responsibility: He continues because others have endured suffering and placed their faith in him.
• Trust and deception: Gao Ming must decide whether to believe messages that sound caring but may be meant to stop him.
• Death, memory, and renewal: Memories of repeated deaths empower him to escape, while the final question links his destination to the beginning.

Key events

• Ordinary Gao Ming absorbs the memories and wills of his dead selves. Though he has no special talent or support, their accumulated resolve gives him extraordinary faith in his ability to change his fate.
• Reconciled with his memories of dying, he decides to bring his past selves with him rather than continue treating them as sources of pain.
• At the end of the memory tunnel, he finds a cheap gift box containing a mummified infant and a familiar-looking heart. When he grabs it, the infant attacks him through his memories, but Gao Ming’s newly strengthened will lets him tear the heart away.
• The infant—apparently the Past God—crumbles to ash, leaving clay fragments and an old birthday card that seems to bear Gao Ming’s mother’s handwriting. The memory world collapses, and Gao Ming gains a portion of the Past God’s power: his left eye can perceive, and perhaps slightly alter, other people’s memories of the past.
• Gao Ming emerges from the shattered “Past” door. The different Gao Mings can now sense one another’s heartbeats, united by the heart he recovered.

Character developments and interactions

• Ordinary Gao Ming changes from an apparently unremarkable, isolated person into someone sustained by the faith and resolve of his deceased selves. He recognizes them as his believers and allies.
• Kind Gao Ming and Ordinary Gao Ming share a look and a gesture, confirming they both remember the events behind the door and understand that Ordinary Gao Ming did not succeed alone.
• The First Team’s leader is astonished by Gao Ming’s success and immediately asks what lies at the end of the past.
• A young man who lent Gao Ming the gift box rushes to ask whether he saw the young man’s uncle.

Significant themes

• Faith and self-belief: Gao Ming’s conviction persists even when no one else—including Fate—expects him to succeed.
• Reconciliation with the past: Painful memories become a source of strength once Gao Ming accepts the selves shaped by them.
• Identity and solidarity: The many Gao Mings are distinct lives, yet their shared will and heartbeat make them one.
• Uncertain gifts and inheritance: The birthday card, stolen heart, and inherited power suggest that Gao Ming’s past contains a gift or history whose meaning remains unresolved.

Key plot points and events

• Ordinary Gao Ming explains that the Past God may have devoured the young man’s uncle. The Past God’s dried corpse was destroyed, seriously weakening it.
• Ghost-marking abilities begin to return as the apartment building’s supernatural suppression loosens. At the same time, screams from upstairs suggest residents are attacking one another.
• Liu Yi says the Past and Future are connected: what was hated in the past can return in the future, trapping people in familiar misery. She warns that the group has little time.
• The group turns to the remaining Present and Future Doors as possible routes forward. Liu Yi feeds a letter into the Present Door, which forms a likeness of her and opens onto darkness. Pale hands resembling her reach out, but fail to grab her.
• Liu Yi then offers a hair tie to the Future Door. It opens and pulls her inside. The First Team Leader suspects she has been concealing information and follows her through.

Character developments

• Ordinary Gao Ming is exhausted by the memories he has absorbed and wants to withdraw from further exploration.
• Liu Yi appears colder and more emotionally guarded than before, and her sudden eagerness to enter the doors raises suspicions that she has a personal goal or knows more than she admits.
• The First Team Leader grows wary of Liu Yi, noting that she has been collecting others’ gifts and seems to have changed her behavior after the Past Door was destroyed.
• Kind Gao Ming and the others remain cautious but continue trying to understand the doors and the danger.

Character interactions

• Ordinary Gao Ming gives the young man painful news about his uncle, provoking an angry demand for answers.
• Liu Yi reassures the First Team Leader that the apartment building’s entities have been weakened, while warning the group that the danger is far from over.
• The First Team Leader protects the two Gao Mings from Liu Yi, explaining that she has been taking gifts from the dead.
• The group debates whether the Present Door leads to reality, but the hand reaching from its darkness makes clear that entering either remaining door may be dangerous.

Significant themes

• The past repeating in the future: Old suffering can return in new forms, trapping people in cycles they cannot escape.
• Trust and hidden motives: Liu Yi’s unexplained urgency and collection of gifts make cooperation increasingly uncertain.
• Power and danger returning together: The return of the group’s abilities offers hope, but also coincides with renewed violence and greater peril.

Chapter summary

The narrator explains that a painful tooth was pulled that morning, leaving them numb and tingly. Because they were unhappy with the chapter they wrote that afternoon, they deleted it and decided to take the day off to rest.

• Key events: The narrator has a tooth extracted, writes and deletes a chapter, and pauses work for the day.
• Character development: No broader character arc; the narrator prioritizes rest after an uncomfortable procedure.
• Themes: Rest, health, and the difficulty of creating while unwell.
• Character interactions: None.

Key events

• Ordinary Gao Ming returns from the door in a severely weakened state, but Kind Gao Ming notices that he now radiates surging blood qi and has a frightening new quality in his left eye.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming reveals that Lu Zang tampered with their fate. Hanhai’s citizens are supposedly bound to predetermined lives, and Lu Zang is using the Gao Mings—especially Ordinary Gao Ming, whom Fate would overlook—to challenge Fate.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming explains that he is the part of Ordinary Gao Ming’s will fused with the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal. To escape their danger, the Gao Mings must reunite the divided Divine Heart, leave Xiangshengyong Apartments, and find the flesh-and-blood heart at Changcheng Residential Complex. First, they must gather the other Gao Mings and seize a corpse.
• The group sets out with Fan Li, meeting Delinquent Gao Ming and moving between floors. Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming warns that the first floor is unsafe and that the monster called “Future” may arrive.
• On the Thirteenth Floor, Bai Xiao, Zhuo Jun, and Yuan Hui prepare to attack Wan Jie. Wan Jie holds the patterned Divine Statue while Grandmother, bloodied and furious, confronts him. Meanwhile, the First Team leader and Liu Yi remain missing inside the blood-red future door, as the building’s cracks widen and its clocks behave erratically.

Character developments and interactions

• Ordinary Gao Ming learns that his apparent insignificance may be precisely why he could escape Fate’s expectations; he also appears to have gained power, though he does not yet understand it.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming takes charge, shares what he learned from Lu Zang, and begins assembling the Gao Mings. He is gentle toward Ordinary Gao Ming but speaks with resignation about their suffering.
• Kind Gao Ming questions the plan and raises concerns about Painter Gao Ming, whose memories and unsettling personality set him apart from the others.
• Fan Li is trusted by Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming and leads the group through the building.
• Bai Xiao is increasingly distressed and angry at the sight of Gao Ming’s abused corpse, while Wan Jie is cornered and Grandmother appears ready to attack him.

Significant themes

• Fate versus free will: The chapter frames the struggle against a life-script imposed on Hanhai’s citizens, with Ordinary Gao Ming’s unexpected role offering evidence that Fate can be defied.
• Identity and division: Gao Ming’s selves, will, and power have been separated and transformed, making reunion both a practical goal and a question of what constitutes the “whole” person.
• Power and trust: The group must cooperate while surrounded by self-interested people and increasingly dangerous forces.

Key plot points and events

• With his ghost markings beginning to recover, Wan Jie threatens to destroy the clay Divine Statue to hold off his attackers.
• Zhuo Jun and the Jingtuo God’s forces demand the statue and move to kill Wan Jie. Zhuo Jun orders Bai Xiao and He Jing to attack, but neither immediately obeys.
• Bai Xiao’s grief over Gao Ming’s death fuels a surge of malice. Though he advances with his blade, Wan Jie senses that Bai Xiao’s hostility is not aimed at him.
• Using his ability to perceive people’s intentions and the threads of fate, Wan Jie throws the Divine Statue to He Jing. He Jing grabs it and flees, drawing Grandmother’s attention away from the others.
• Wan Jie then attacks Zhuo Jun, avoiding his blade and stabbing him with a Black Nail Cursed Item. Yuan Hui calls for the others to help.
• Bai Xiao does not intervene. Instead, he carries Gao Ming’s corpse and watches Yuan Hui, leaving open the possibility that the group’s infighting will turn deadly.

Character developments and interactions

• Wan Jie stays composed under pressure and uses strategy rather than simply fighting his way out. He targets Zhuo Jun, apparently recognizing that the attackers’ priorities and loyalties are divided.
• Zhuo Jun is shown to be calculating and ruthless, viewing the security personnel as tools. His confidence in his control falters when He Jing defects and Wan Jie wounds him.
• He Jing reveals that self-interest outweighs loyalty to the Jingtuo God: he takes the statue and escapes rather than help kill Wan Jie.
• Bai Xiao is deeply affected by Gao Ming’s death. His grief awakens formidable malice, while his uncertain, shifting gaze suggests a struggle between clear judgment and murderous rage.
• Yuan Hui backs Zhuo Jun when Wan Jie attacks, though he has little affection for him. Bai Xiao’s attention turns toward Yuan Hui, intensifying the threat of conflict among the attackers.
• Grandmother remains fixated on the Divine Statue; He Jing’s theft redirects her fury.

Significant themes

• Betrayal and self-interest: The supposed alliance against Wan Jie fractures as He Jing chooses the statue over the mission.
• Power and control: Zhuo Jun’s belief that people are merely tools is challenged by their independent motives and loyalties.
• Grief and vengeance: Gao Ming’s death drives Bai Xiao’s transformation and may redirect violence toward the other security officers.
• Fate and choice: Wan Jie perceives threads of fate, but his survival depends on decisive choices amid unpredictable betrayals.

Plot points and events

• While carrying Gao Ming’s corpse, Bai Xiao succumbs to the malice within him and approaches Yuan Hui, taunting him about how he killed Gao Ming. Yuan Hui recognizes the danger and backs away rather than joining the fight.
• Ordinary Gao Ming returns to the hidden floor of Room 0715s and persuades the many versions of himself to leave their rooms. He tells them they must escape and asks them to trust him.
• The assembled Gao Mings learn what Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming discovered: the “Past God” has been using their homes and the Prayer Text as seals to control their minds and wills. They agree to resist.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming dismantles the feng shui arrangement in his apartment—breaking the fish tank, cutting red cords, and destroying talismans. As the seals weaken, the Prayer Text on his body fades. A fire breaks out, and the group flees.
• Ordinary Gao Ming leads the crowd to the thirteenth floor, where Security personnel are fighting. The Gao Mings arrive just as Bai Xiao is holding Gao Ming’s corpse.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming charges in, takes the corpse, and punches Bai Xiao. Bai Xiao falls and pretends to be unconscious, quietly protecting his weapon from being stepped on.

Character developments and interactions

• Bai Xiao shifts from grief over Gao Ming’s death toward releasing his malice and confronting Yuan Hui. Seeing the crowd of Gao Mings appears to unsettle both him and the Malice Ghost God.
• Yuan Hui demonstrates caution: he spots that Bai Xiao’s behavior is wrong and withdraws instead of acting rashly.
• Ordinary Gao Ming becomes a convincing organizer, bringing the different versions together and guiding them to rescue the corpse.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming acts decisively against the forces controlling him, while the other Gao Mings respond with a shared determination to resist.
• The alternate Gao Mings reveal distinct personalities and possible life paths, but cooperate as parts of one person. Fan Li, overwhelmed by their number, follows along.

Significant themes

• Unity and identity: The many Gao Mings are different versions of one person, united by shared will and purpose.
• Freedom from control: Destroying the apartment’s objects and talismans symbolizes breaking the Past God’s hold over their minds.
• Malice, grief, and restraint: Bai Xiao’s grief fuels dangerous malice, while his final act of pretending to be unconscious suggests he still retains some restraint.
• Resistance and self-determination: The Gao Mings choose to confront their imposed “past” rather than remain imprisoned by it.

• Bai Xiao is rescued as the fight turns: After pretending to be unconscious, Bai Xiao realizes he is safe when a crowd of Gao Ming lookalikes rushes in. The Gao Mings target Yuan Hui for claiming he had tortured Gao Ming’s corpse. Their sudden, coordinated assault terrifies Yuan Hui, who flees instead of helping Zhuo Jun. Kind Gao Ming eventually gets the others to regroup and rush toward the first floor to find Painter Gao Ming.
• Bai Xiao and Zhuo Jun fight Wan Jie: With the Gao Mings gone, Bai Xiao joins Zhuo Jun against Wan Jie, easing the pressure on Zhuo Jun and returning the favor after Zhuo Jun had once helped him. Wan Jie reveals he had invited Bai Xiao into the security team partly because he knew about the danger hidden in Bai Xiao’s knife. He scatters pieces of a bloodied, hair-bound doll that burrow into nearby people, then retreats, warning that the balance between hunters and hunted will soon change.
• He Jing escapes with the Clay Divine Statue: Wan Jie’s retreat leaves He Jing holding the statue. As a subordinate of the Jingtuo God, He Jing knows it contains divine power and hopes to exploit it—either to gain its abilities, steal its accumulated faith, or bargain with a Ghost God. He also worries that killing Wan Jie would make him an enemy of the East District Security Department.
• Grandmother pursues He Jing: He Jing is chased through a smoky, fire-lit corridor by the enraged Grandmother, who wants the statue back. The Past God’s plan had been to weaken everyone, then let the Past Ghost, Future Ghost, and Grandmother prey on them. But Grandmother’s pursuit of the statue has disrupted that scheme.
• Painter Gao Ming offers a deal: He Jing encounters Painter Gao Ming, who offers to trap Grandmother in an elevator until she dies. He Jing is wary and tries to push past him, but Painter Gao Ming invites him to follow.
  Character developments and interactions: Bai Xiao shifts from feigned helplessness to active combat, while Yuan Hui’s self-preservation costs him his chance to aid Zhuo Jun. Kind Gao Ming tries to manage the impulsive versions of himself, underscoring their shared identity despite their distinct personalities. Wan Jie remains calculating under pressure, and He Jing proves equally opportunistic, treating the statue as a path to power.
  Themes: The chapter emphasizes shifting alliances, survival-driven betrayal, and the unstable balance of power. The swarm of Gao Mings brings darkly comic chaos, while the statue’s competing value—as a source of divine power, leverage, and danger—drives the escalating conflict.

Key plot points and events

• He Jing reluctantly teams up with Painter Gao Ming, despite having been ordered by the Jingtuo God to kill Gao Ming and Wan Jie. Painter Gao Ming proposes using a clay statue to lure Grandmother in Red into a trapped elevator, then exploiting the statue’s power to escape the building.
• At the fourth-floor elevator, He Jing discovers that Painter Gao Ming has filled the car with corpses and painted ghosts in blood. Gao Ming casually admits to killing people to create his trap.
• When Grandmother attacks, the painted ghosts and corpses form a cage that restrains her. He Jing and Gao Ming force her into the elevator, but He Jing suspects Gao Ming may betray him. He hands Gao Ming the statue and tries to follow him rather than risk being trapped.
• On the first floor, the statue weakens the darkness beyond the Present Door, revealing that it may offer a way out. Before He Jing can escape, Ordinary Gao Ming and a crowd of other Gao Ming versions arrive, impressed that Painter Gao Ming brought the statue there.

Character developments

• He Jing remains pragmatic and distrustful. He cooperates because he has no better option, keeps his ghost-marking power ready, and ultimately prioritizes survival by giving Gao Ming the statue.
• Painter Gao Ming appears gentle and sincere, but is revealed as a cheerful, ruthless killer. He controls He Jing by literally painting his legs onto his palm, ensuring He Jing cannot abandon him.
• The Gao Ming group, led by Ordinary Gao Ming, recognizes the statue’s importance and praises Painter Gao Ming’s achievement.

Significant themes

• Trust and survival: He Jing must work with someone he fears, while remaining alert to betrayal.
• Moral contrast and unsettling innocence: Painter Gao Ming’s warm manner sharply contrasts with his casual violence.
• The power of belief and art: The Past God Statue and Gao Ming’s ghost paintings can disrupt the building’s supernatural rules.
• Uncertainty and escape: The Present Door offers a glimpse of the outside, but the crowd’s arrival leaves the group’s fate unresolved.

Character interactions

• He Jing and Painter Gao Ming negotiate a tense alliance, each watching for an opportunity to protect himself.
• Gao Ming uses both persuasion and supernatural force to keep He Jing involved.
• He Jing and Gao Ming work together to trap Grandmother, then compete over control of the statue.
• The arriving Gao Mings greet Painter Gao Ming as a hero, shifting the scene from immediate escape to a chaotic reunion.

Plot points and events

• Painter Gao Ming agrees to lead the other versions of himself through the Present Door, but only if they let him keep control of the Divine Statue and help defend it.
• When he takes the clay statue outside, the apartment’s clocks go haywire. Its reaction also seems to summon Grandmother, whose prison is already failing.
• Crossing the threshold breaks the apartment’s supernatural rules and reveals the world beyond: a black-fog-shrouded residential complex filled with monstrous former residents.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming realizes the Present Door is the exit, but reaching it is not enough. The statue protects its bearer from the monsters while draining their body and memories.
• Painter Gao Ming passes the statue to He Jing, hoping to free himself. Both are quickly incapacitated by its power. The others see that escape may require people to sacrifice themselves to get one person to the gate, but no one volunteers.
• At the apparent dead end, all the Gao Mings look toward a bus stop they recognize from their diaries as the intersection of their fates. They must reach it before dawn to catch the bus for Class Thirteen’s field trip.

Character developments and interactions

• Painter Gao Ming shifts from wanting to abandon the others and claim a unique identity to cooperating with them, though he still tries to secure the statue for himself. He honors his promise to He Jing, but the statue’s cost traps them both.
• Kind Gao Ming reassures Painter Gao Ming and frames their relationship as a shared bond. Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming takes the lead in interpreting the exit’s significance.
• He Jing, terrified by the crowd of Gao Mings, nevertheless rushes to Painter Gao Ming when called. His attempt to escape danger instead makes him a bearer of the statue’s burden.
• Fan Li and the others recognize that their group’s temporary alliances may not survive a genuine demand for self-sacrifice.

Significant themes

• Hope versus the cost of escape: The exit is visible, but reaching it may require a life.
• Self-interest and solidarity: The Gao Mings cooperate, while the wider group hesitates to risk itself for others.
• Past, present, and fate: The Past God’s statue, the Present Door, and the looming Future ghost connect time to the building’s rules; the bus stop hints that the characters’ paths converge there.

Key plot points and events

• As Grandmother closes in and Past God’s Divine Statue rapidly drains Painter Gao Ming and He Jing, Gao Ming decides someone must carry the statue to the bus stop outside Xiangshengyong Apartments.
• Fan Li warns that leaving the building means almost certain death. The Gao Mings nevertheless commit to a handoff strategy: each will carry the statue as far as possible, then pass it to the next.
• One by one, the Gao Mings charge into the darkness. Ghost creatures attack them, while the statue’s divine power crushes their bodies, memories, and souls. Still, each manages to move it a little farther.
• Mad Gao Ming tries to bite and destroy the statue, but it keeps repairing itself inside the apartment complex. The group realizes they must get it beyond the complex’s reach.
• As the Gao Mings fall, their path reaches the gate. Kind Gao Ming takes the statue from Devoted Gao Ming and carries it several steps before handing it to Ordinary Gao Ming—the last one remaining.

Character developments and interactions

• The Gao Mings act in concert despite representing different sides and possible lives. Each accepts the likelihood of death to give the next one a chance.
• Flesh-and-Blood Gao Ming initiates the attempt; Doctor and Delinquent Gao Ming continue it after he collapses. Mad Gao Ming makes a desperate effort to destroy the statue.
• Kind Gao Ming, who has stayed beside Ordinary Gao Ming, carries the statue to the point where his strength and will fail. He urges Ordinary Gao Ming onward, reminding him that he once reached the bus stop before.
• Ordinary Gao Ming doubts himself, calling himself weak and worthless. Seeing the others die, however, he recognizes that their choices have become part of him and gathers the resolve to continue.
• Fan Li and the onlookers shift from trying to stop the Gao Mings to witnessing their extraordinary determination.

Significant themes

• Self-sacrifice and solidarity: Each version of Gao Ming spends his life to advance the next.
• Ordinary will against divine power: Though individually powerless, the Gao Mings challenge Past God through persistence and collective effort.
• Identity and choice: The different Gao Mings embody different paths; their choices combine to shape Ordinary Gao Ming’s final resolve.
• Hope forged through loss: The approaching bus stop represents a chance to escape, bought through the deaths of Gao Ming’s other selves.

Key plot points and events

• Gravely wounded, the ordinary Gao Ming struggles through the Xiangshengyong Apartments death zone while gripping the Past God Statue. The dead versions of himself burn their souls to stop the statue from taking his memories, illuminating his path.
• Reaching Fate’s Bus lets Gao Ming break free of the complex’s control. The many versions of himself who died along the way merge into his heart and soul, awakening his memories and giving him power over the rules of the past and death, alongside flesh and blood.
• Gao Ming smashes the statue. Its destruction shakes the death zone and frees him from the Past God’s hold, though the other versions of himself disappear into the darkness.
• Rather than leave the anomaly, Gao Ming returns to the complex. He declares that he must kill the Past God and then the Future God to take control of the present and reclaim his flesh-and-blood heart.

Character developments

• Gao Ming’s survival comes not from exceptional strength or virtue, but from his stubborn persistence and the accumulated sacrifices of his past selves. He recognizes that his extraordinary present was built by the most ordinary version of himself.
• With his memories restored, he becomes markedly more dangerous and ambitious. He is neither simply good nor evil, and begins pursuing dominion over the forces that shaped him.

Significant themes

• Persistence and self-belief: Gao Ming’s ability to continue, rather than any special talent, carries him through.
• Identity and sacrifice: His past selves become the foundation of his present; he is both the one who believes and the one believed in.
• Memory and fate: Reclaiming the memories of past deaths lets Gao Ming challenge the gods’ control and pursue a different future.
• The cost of transformation: His awakening is bought through pain, death, and the loss of the selves who made it possible.

Character interactions

• The past versions of Gao Ming cooperate through their sacrifice, helping him resist the Past God and reach the bus. Their bond is an internal alliance rather than one formed with other people.
• Gao Ming directly confronts the Past God through the statue, breaks its hold, and destroys its physical vessel. The apartment complex’s ghosts and monsters recoil from his newly awakened power, but he cannot yet command them.

Key plot points

• Gao Ming returns to Xiangshengyong Apartments after destroying the Past God Statue. He has recovered his true self and taken the Past God’s divine essence and some of his faith.
• The many versions of Gao Ming that the Past God created to break his will ultimately sacrificed themselves to help him reach victory. Gao Ming recognizes them as parts of himself.
• He finds Painter Gao Ming still struggling, while He Jing is alive but terrified of him. Gao Ming reveals that he gave Teacher Xia one last chance to take his place; Xia refused, and Gao Ming carries him away.
• With the Past God’s influence weakened, supernatural abilities are less suppressed, but Xiangshengyong Apartments descends into chaos: outsiders, Ghost Story Players, Investigators, and security forces fight as a fire spreads through the building.
• Gao Ming collects the Posthumous Photograph from his corpse and carries the corpse on his back. He wonders why it remains after he has recovered his Divine Heart, and whether the photograph shows a future version of himself.
• He considers entering the remaining Future Door, but Grandmother appears, transformed into a murderous monster after losing her faith. The creature called Future also arrives.
• Gao Ming leads Fan Li, Doctor Li, and others out of the apartments and over the wall into the comparatively quiet Changcheng Residential Complex.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming emerges with greater power and a stronger sense of identity, but remains focused on the dangers still ahead. His willingness to trust the injured Painter Gao Ming contrasts with his decisive caution around Grandmother.
• The alternate Gao Mings are revealed as sacrifices whose repeated deaths and renewed attempts ultimately strengthen the original Gao Ming.
• Teacher Xia is defeated and left badly injured after rejecting the opportunity to replace Gao Ming. Gao Ming entrusts him to Fan Li and Doctor Li.
• He Jing shows extreme fear and submission toward Gao Ming, kneeling and bowing after being rescued.
• Fan Li receives Gao Ming’s praise for his actions, though he modestly downplays his role. He urges Gao Ming to leave so Painter Gao Ming can receive treatment.
• Grandmother loses the purpose and faith that sustained her and becomes a mindless threat. Gao Ming avoids confronting her and withdraws with his companions.

Significant themes

• Identity and sacrifice: Gao Ming’s victory depends on accepting the alternate selves as genuinely part of him.
• Will versus fate: The Past God’s attempt to control Gao Ming fails because his resolve cannot be broken.
• Faith and its consequences: When Grandmother’s faith collapses, she becomes a monster, suggesting belief can sustain—and distort—its object.
• Survival amid social collapse: The apartment’s factional violence and spreading fire show disaster overwhelming every group, regardless of status or allegiance.
• The uncertain future: The surviving Future Door, the Future creature, and the mysterious photograph leave Gao Ming’s next steps—and possible destiny—unresolved.

Plot points and events

• Jingtuo God obsessively watches a cut on his hand that will not stop bleeding. As shadows spread and an anomaly event threatens to spiral out of control, he decides he needs a backup plan.
• Gao Ming leads his group to Changcheng Residential Complex, hoping to find the Student Council members and contact Gao Yun. Unlike the residents of Xiangshengyong Apartments, the people here have sealed themselves inside their buildings.
• At Building Five, a resident explains that the complex is organized around a Mutual Aid Society, which shares supplies and protects vulnerable residents. The group is told to seek approval from its leaders, who are meeting in the Underground Garage.
• On the way there, three people vanish without anyone noticing. In the dark garage, Gao Ming spots a Student Council figure whose feet barely touch the ground. His past-god patterns reveal that corpses were recently dumped there and that something has begun mutating inside the garage.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains focused on finding the Student Council and Gao Yun, but recognizes the danger and does not force his companions to enter the complex. He takes charge at the garage and warns the others to keep their distance from the apparition.
• Fan Li voices the group’s fear and questions whether the garage is a trap.
• Doctor Li offers an explanation for how residents from separate buildings might gather underground, though he is interrupted by the apparition.
• Ouyang Susu reacts to the keypad door by striking it, drawing attention; she and Doctor Li exchange nervous, teasing remarks.
• Jingtuo God appears increasingly alarmed by his wound and the growing instability of the anomaly.

Significant themes

• Collective survival versus isolation: The Mutual Aid Society presents cooperation as a way to endure the crisis, while the sealed buildings also keep outsiders out.
• Unseen danger and uncertainty: People disappear without warning, and the group cannot tell whether they were taken or left voluntarily.
• Corruption beneath order: The society’s orderly rules and shared resources contrast with the hidden, corpse-filled garage and its emerging mutation.
• Ominous foreshadowing: Jingtuo God’s worsening wound and the garage apparition suggest the anomaly is escalating.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming uses his left eye for the first time. The ability is powerful and nearly cost-free, but prolonged use may blur the boundary between past and present and drive him insane.
• Gao Ming and his companions investigate the underground garage at Changcheng Residential Complex, where residents store corpses, but find nothing they need. The building’s survivors remain behind locked doors, increasingly distrustful after their missing companions and the group’s unsettling arrival.
• In Building Five’s Security Section, three factions share a tense standoff: Shen Tian and his gang, Situ Cheng and his followers, and Wang Chenyi with Investigation Bureau personnel.
• They recognize Gao Ming on the surveillance footage and debate whether to let him in. Though they fear the danger he brings, Shen Tian argues that provoking him would be unwise.
• Situ Cheng reveals that Gao Ming has already been lured toward the underground garage and warns that the residents have little food and water. Meanwhile, footage shows Gao Ming heading instead for Building Three.
• The group warns that Building Three has been overtaken by the “worst future.” When they access its surveillance feed, the images threaten to spread pollution, prompting Wang Chenyi to shut the monitors down. A nearby technician develops black veins around his eyes without noticing.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains pragmatic and dangerous, avoiding an unnecessary fight at the garage and changing course toward Building Three.
• He Jing is frightened of Gao Ming and carefully avoids angering him.
• Shen Tian presents himself as a cautious negotiator, prioritizing survival and avoiding a confrontation with Gao Ming.
• Situ Cheng challenges Shen Tian and warns that Gao Ming’s group could strain the complex’s dwindling supplies.
• Wang Chenyi asserts authority over the room and acts decisively to contain the threat from Building Three’s footage. His mission is also tied to proving himself as his family’s chosen successor.
• The factions remain wary of one another, but their shared fear of Gao Ming and the anomaly temporarily restrains their hostility.

Significant themes

• Civilization under pressure: Changcheng’s residents retain rules and appearances, but fear and scarcity undermine their fragile order.
• Power and its cost: Gao Ming’s eye ability is effective but carries a serious risk to his sanity.
• Distrust and self-preservation: The survivors’ suspicion, factional rivalry, and concern over dwindling supplies shape their choices.
• Contagion through observation: The Building Three footage itself acts as a danger, suggesting that some anomalies can spread through perception or surveillance.

Plot points

• Gao Ming leads the group into Building Three, a place the other screening participants avoided. Though the building looks completely ordinary, he senses something watching them—and that the presence is not human.
• The elevator opens to reveal Luo Dong’s severed head, still holding a family photo in his teeth. Gao Ming recognizes him as a promising Ghost Story Player and wraps the head with Luo Dong’s corpse.
• Gao Ming enters the elevator, apparently accepting the danger. From the surveillance room in Building Five, Situ Cheng, Wang Chenyi, and Xiao Lian watch him.
• On the third floor, a towering, blood-soaked female ghost called “Girlfriend” appears. Those trapped in Building Three see such ghosts as members of their own families, while the cameras reveal their real forms.
• Instead of fleeing, Gao Ming approaches Girlfriend, embraces her, and takes her hand, apparently trying to lead her somewhere beyond the cameras’ view.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains unnervingly composed amid the horror. His care in wrapping Luo Dong’s remains suggests respect or grief, while his intimate approach to Girlfriend hints at a personal connection, longing, or unresolved regret.
• Situ Cheng dismisses Wang Chenyi’s suspicions and orders Xiao Lian to monitor Gao Ming, wanting to see how he handles the building’s “worst possible future.”
• Wang Chenyi distrusts Situ Cheng’s motives and later doubts that Gao Ming can survive Girlfriend.
• Ouyang Susu resents the unseen survivors who appear to have sent the group into danger.
• Luo Dong, though dead, is introduced through his remains and family photograph, emphasizing the personal tragedy behind the building’s horrors.

Significant themes

• Watching and exploitation: The survivors in Building Five observe Gao Ming’s danger from safety, treating it as entertainment.
• The distortion of familiar bonds: The ghosts take on the forms of loved ones, turning intimacy and family into sources of terror.
• Despair and emotional resilience: Gao Ming’s calm, almost satisfied demeanor contrasts sharply with the horror around him, suggesting that his relationship with suffering differs from everyone else’s.
• Uncertainty about fate: The “worst possible future” has arrived, but what it means—and whether Gao Ming can change or endure it—remains unclear.

Key plot points and events

• Fan Li’s group enters Building Three of Changcheng Residential Complex to warn Gao Ming, but the stairwell is sealed and a strange force suppresses He Jing’s ghost-marking abilities.
• Xia Yang explains that the complex belongs to the Future God, whose domain is more unpredictable and frightening than the Past God’s territory.
• Ouyang Susu sees what appears to be her dead, unborn daughter calling to her from a dark passage. Doctor Li and Fan Li try to stop her, but she is unnaturally strong. Xia Yang warns that each person must face a future shaped by their deepest pain.
• Meanwhile, Gao Ming rides an elevator with a corpse on his back. It stops on the third floor, where he meets Xuan Wen carrying a red gift box.
• Xuan Wen suspects Gao Ming is a fabrication created by the Future God, but she knows their secret agreement. Gao Ming cannot tell whether she is genuine or an imitation built from their memories.
• To test and get close to her, Gao Ming acts boldly, corners her, and takes her out of the elevator, insisting they need to speak somewhere without surveillance.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming stays composed amid uncertainty and uses provocative closeness to test Xuan Wen’s identity and gather information.
• Xuan Wen is wary and defiant, claiming she has endured repeated cycles of past and future. Her knowledge of Gao Ming’s agreement makes her identity ambiguous.
• Doctor Li and Ouyang Susu face the grief of their lost child together. Doctor Li ultimately chooses to stay by her side rather than keep resisting the inevitable.
• Fan Li tries to protect Ouyang Susu and remains concerned about Gao Ming.
• Xia Yang, despite being badly injured and affected by the building, offers a bleak but perceptive view of the ordeal: survival depends less on strength than on enduring one’s personal trauma.
• The group recognizes that Gao Ming faces a uniquely dangerous trial because he must confront the future alone.

Significant themes

• The future as uncertainty and psychological torment: Unlike the past, which leaves traces, the future is unknowable and can exploit personal fears.
• Grief and confronting painful memories: Ouyang Susu’s encounter with her unborn daughter brings buried loss into the present.
• Identity and deception: Xuan Wen may be real or a construction using shared memories, leaving Gao Ming to test what can be trusted.
• Connection amid danger: Doctor Li’s loyalty to Ouyang Susu and Gao Ming’s attempt to reach Xuan Wen suggest that human bonds may offer a way through the horror.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming walks through the dark Changcheng Residential Complex with Xuan Wen, trusting her and recounting how the Past God ambushed him.
• They find Saeki grotesquely tortured in a room. Before Saeki can explain what happened, Gao Ming kills him to end his suffering. Saeki’s final warning is that Wang Jie is looking for Gao Ming; bloody footprints suggest the Investigation Bureau’s involvement.
• Gao Ming notices that every room has a clock and learns from Xuan Wen that time passes quickly inside the complex, draining people and eventually making them ravenous.
• As they explore, they discover signs that Zhang Ding and the others came to rescue Gao Ming but are now trapped, with their souls in danger.
• In a dark-red kitchen, Gao Ming finds dishes made from—or associated with—his ghost companions. He suspects Situ An has been released and wonders whether the Execution House has been opened.
• In Room 0909, they find a memorial room that appears carefully maintained and recently occupied. Gao Ming lights incense, notices the deceased couple were relatively young, and discovers a photo album that its occupant seems to need in order to sleep. Xuan Wen grows visibly emotional at the couple’s portrait.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains strikingly open about his suffering and emotionally controlled amid horror. He treats Xuan Wen as a trusted companion, reflecting the shared lifetimes and repeated ordeals he remembers.
• His compassion has a ruthless edge: he decides Saeki has suffered enough and kills him without letting him finish speaking.
• Xuan Wen tries to guide and restrain Gao Ming, but he increasingly takes the lead, holding her hand and choosing which rooms to investigate. Her hesitation at Room 0909 and reaction to the memorial portrait suggest a personal connection to it.
• Saeki’s warning points toward Wang Jie’s betrayal and the danger facing Gao Ming.

Significant themes

• Shared trauma and trust: Repeated encounters with death have made Gao Ming and Xuan Wen feel like longtime partners, even without a conventional romance.
• Truth and despair: Saeki may have been branded mad because he perceived the truth others could not bear.
• Compassion versus control: Gao Ming’s attempt to end Saeki’s pain is merciful in intent but denies Saeki the chance to finish his account.
• Time, hunger, and bodily degradation: The complex’s accelerated time steadily wears people down, turning survival into a physical and moral threat.
• The past intruding on the present: The rooms expose betrayals and dangers connected to Gao Ming’s companions, while the maintained memorial room hints at a more intimate, unresolved story.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming opens a family photo album in the apartment bedroom, but Xuan Wen stops him, warning that objects steeped in the dead family’s memories are cursed.
• An alarm draws Xuan Wen away. In a blood-red room, she is confronted by ghosts impersonating Gao Ming’s loved ones. A voice identified with the Future God threatens to destroy her soul and abandon her parents’ souls to a hopeless future if Gao Ming does not break down within an hour.
• Xuan Wen returns to find Gao Ming reading the album despite her warning. Furious and frightened, she tells him the curse could kill him.
• Gao Ming explains that he only wanted to know what had made her cry. Seeing her distress, he gently embraces her. Xuan Wen, shaken but comforted, does not pull away and eventually nods when he asks if she feels better.
• In the surveillance room, observers watch the embrace between Gao Ming and the three-meter-tall blood-drenched ghost. They are astonished that she seems to respond to him rather than merely act out her role.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains composed and compassionate amid threats and danger. His instinctive concern for Xuan Wen unsettles her more than a grand declaration would.
• Xuan Wen struggles to hide her fear and resentment after the Future God threatens her and her parents. Though she initially keeps Gao Ming at a distance, his concern and warmth soften her defenses.
• The observers, including Wang Chenyi and Situ Cheng, recognize that something unusual is happening: the ghost assigned to lead Gao Ming toward despair may be emotionally attached to him.

Significant themes

• Compassion amid horror: Gao Ming responds to fear with care, even when the person he comforts is a dangerous ghost.
• Memory and grief: The family album preserves ordinary moments that become painful reminders of lives lost.
• Manipulation and agency: The Future God tries to control Xuan Wen through threats, while her unexpected response to Gao Ming suggests she may be slipping free of her assigned role.
• Hope against despair: Despite the “Worst Future” and the threat of corruption, Gao Ming’s resilience and connection with Xuan Wen challenge the system’s attempt to break him.

Key plot points and events

• Shen Tian suspects Gao Ming may be resisting the Future God because he experiences the same visions without being controlled by them. His men worry that the corpse on Gao Ming’s back may be spreading a curse through the surveillance system.
• Gao Ming and “Xuan Wen” explore a building where the future grows increasingly grim. Before moving on, Gao Ming leaves personal objects as offerings for a couple mourning their daughter.
• As they climb the floors, Gao Ming comforts Xuan Wen and holds her hand. He tells her that fear of the future should not keep people from pursuing the future they want.
• The false Xuan Wen grows increasingly attached to Gao Ming, while fearing that the Future God will target her to make him despair. When her pain overwhelms her, Gao Ming distracts her with a terrible joke, easing it briefly.
• A louder alarm leads them to a room where a mutilated student, reassembled from different corpses, hangs as a Corpse Puppet. The puppet speaks in the voice of Gao Ming’s enemy, Situ An, and challenges him to a fair fight.

Character developments

• Gao Ming remains determined and composed amid worsening visions. His care for the grieving couple and his instinctive tenderness toward Xuan Wen reveal his loyalty and emotional depth.
• “Xuan Wen” shifts from suspicion and emotional confusion toward trust and affection. She feels that Gao Ming understands her deeply, but also fears that her attachment makes her a vulnerability—and recognizes she is not the real Xuan Wen.
• Shen Tian continues studying Gao Ming’s unusual resistance, but remains cautious about testing his theory.

Significant themes

• Facing the future: Fear may be unavoidable, but living entirely in anticipation of disaster can prevent people from reaching a better future.
• Memory and identity: The false Xuan Wen’s borrowed memories do not erase the distinction between her and the real person; her growing feelings make that divide more painful.
• Connection as strength and vulnerability: Gao Ming’s bond with Xuan Wen helps them endure suffering, yet she fears the Future God will exploit that bond.
• Grief and remembrance: Gao Ming’s offerings honor the parents’ love for their lost daughter and their need to hold on to her memory.

Character interactions

• Shen Tian and his cleaver-wielding subordinate discuss Gao Ming’s strange behavior and possible immunity.
• Gao Ming and “Xuan Wen” grow closer as he offers comfort and she increasingly chooses to hold his hand.
• Their fragile moment is interrupted by the alarm and the Corpse Puppet’s challenge, bringing Gao Ming face-to-face with Situ An’s apparent return.