Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Gao Ming reveals that he had deliberately erased his memories of Gao Yun before returning to Hanhai, so Fate—and Gao Ming himself—would not discover the baby’s identity. This concealment allowed Gao Yun to escape the murderer’s notice.
• A one-second Rewind lets Gao Ming see the murderer in the tunnel: a version of himself. As their identities collide, the murderer begins to disintegrate.
• Before vanishing, the murderer says that everything is spiraling out of control, that Gao Ming may be able to escape Fate, and that their real name is not Gao Ming. The loop that repeatedly brought Gao Ming back to the tunnel breaks.
• Gao Ming suspects the murderer was less Fate’s accomplice than a gatekeeper, killing failed versions of him while concealing a larger truth. He wonders whether the deaths may have helped prepare him, but remains uncertain.
• With no way back, Gao Ming takes the Class Thirteen students and ghosts aboard his school bus and sets out to leave Hanhai.
• The tunnel reveals two routes: an unfinished, ruined branch on the left and a familiar, intact tunnel on the right. The Spirit Medium’s divination suggests the route to the outside world has developed an unexpected breach in Fate’s plans.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming moves from shock and grief over his repeated deaths toward determined action. Despite fearing what lies beyond Hanhai, he chooses to press forward.
• The murderer is revealed as Gao Ming’s double, but his motives remain ambiguous. His final words suggest he may have been protecting a secret—or preparing Gao Ming to escape Fate.
• Gao Yun remains absent, but Gao Ming’s memory-stripping plan is shown to have successfully hidden and protected him.
• Class Thirteen witnesses Gao Ming’s extraordinary history firsthand. The students are too stunned to speak as he drives them through a tunnel filled with his own corpses.

Significant themes

• Fate versus choice: Gao Ming’s escape becomes possible through an anomalous second that falls outside Fate’s script.
• Identity and hidden truth: The murderer’s claim that “our name isn’t actually Gao Ming” casts doubt on the protagonist’s identity and the meaning of his repeated lives.
• Death, preparation, and sacrifice: The murderer’s killings may have been both cruel and instrumental, forcing Gao Ming to grow stronger while guarding a truth.
• Moving forward into uncertainty: With the loop broken, Gao Ming must choose a path without knowing whether freedom lies beyond the tunnel—or whether greater dangers await.

Key plot points and events

• At a fork in the fog-covered tunnel, Gao Ming asks the students which road leads home. Their memories point to the left, and he uses one of the Spirit Medium’s Three Copper Coins to confirm the choice.
• As the bus takes the left road, the fog thins and the students begin to recover from its oppressive effects. Gao Ming recognizes that they are approaching True Reality—but realizes his use of powerful ghost abilities has attracted several unspeakable beings.
• An eye in the fog attacks the passengers’ memories, turning the students against Gao Ming and briefly erasing part of his own past. He resists by retreating into the Execution House, where his accumulated memories of death help protect him.
• A Blood Gate opens in the tunnel, releasing the enormous Spider Boy. Gao Ming summons the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God, which fights the creature long enough for the bus to keep moving. The Blood Gate itself seems strangely unable—or unwilling—to open fully.
• Other unspeakable beings attack the bus and its ghosts. Though the entities appear to hold back because they are wary of one another, Gao Ming’s allies are badly outmatched.
• Near the exit, a gravestone suddenly appears in the road. The bus crashes and overturns, leaving the students injured and the vehicle burning. Gao Ming survives because the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God has repeatedly altered and strengthened his body.

Character developments

• Gao Ming remains focused on getting the students home, but his confidence is tempered by his recognition of how powerless he is against the unspeakable. His memories of death prove to be a defense against the eye’s attack, while his fused body helps him survive the crash.
• The students, especially Wei Jiu and Chen Jing, contribute memories that help identify the correct route. Their initial relief turns to terror when the bus is attacked.
• The Spirit Medium’s gift of the Three Copper Coins continues to guide Gao Ming, even though she is no longer present.

Character interactions

• Gao Ming relies on Teacher Li, Chen Jing, and Wei Jiu to recall the tunnel’s route; their accounts lead him toward the left road.
• The eye manipulates the students into fighting Gao Ming for control of the bus, forcing him to resist both the entity and the passengers he is trying to protect.
• Gao Ming and the Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God act together against Spider Boy, with the Ghost God creating a path forward.
• Gao Ming’s ghosts and the unspeakable beings clash, but the power difference leaves his allies unable to meaningfully defend themselves.

Significant themes

• Survival against overwhelming forces: Gao Ming’s resourcefulness and endurance matter, but even his strongest abilities cannot put him on equal footing with the unspeakable.
• Memory and identity: The eye attacks people by rewriting and removing memories; Gao Ming’s death-scarred past becomes both a vulnerability and a source of resistance.
• The cost of power: Using ghost abilities helps Gao Ming protect the students and move forward, but it also draws dangerous attention.
• Human life in an indifferent world: The unspeakable beings show no concern for the students’ lives, heightening the contrast between Gao Ming’s protective choices and their apparent indifference.

Plot points and events

• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God carries Gao Ming toward the tunnel exit, but an unspeakable being in the fog says “Seal,” weakening the Ghost God and severing his connection to Gao Ming.
• Unable to escape with him, the Ghost God uses his remaining power to wrap Gao Ming in a blood cocoon and hurl him toward the exit. Gao Ming is left badly injured, just short of reaching safety.
• A blood-red chain reaches in from beyond the tunnel, binds Gao Ming, and drags him out. As he crosses the boundary, his eyes reveal that “Hanhai” is actually a vast grave: its residents’ lives and memories are false, and its trapped souls have been dead for ages.
• The sealing word also affects Gao Ming. He hides his remaining memories in the Execution House, but loses much of what he experienced in Hanhai and falls unconscious.
• After an unknown period, Gao Ming wakes in a hospital. A nurse recognizes him and says his prolonged unconsciousness had made his recovery seem unlikely. He realizes he cannot remember important parts of his past.

Character developments

• Gao Ming endures severe physical and spiritual damage but remains determined, memorizing the unspeakable beings and preserving what he can of his memories. He reaches the reality beyond Hanhai, though he is not entirely free of its influence.
• The Flesh-and-Blood Ghost God makes a final sacrifice to give Gao Ming a chance to escape, revealing the depth of their bond.
• The unspeakable beings emerge as powerful, divided forces. The fog-dwelling being’s “Seal” can constrain even godlike entities.
• Gao Ming’s rescuer, represented by the chain, gets him out of the tunnel but is later forced to leave him amid a fierce battle.

Significant themes

• False reality and death: Hanhai’s apparent city life is revealed as a graveyard existence inhabited by souls who have long been dead.
• Sacrifice and loyalty: The Ghost God spends his remaining strength to save Gao Ming.
• Memory and identity: Gao Ming’s memories are sealed, yet he protects fragments of them, making recollection central to his survival.
• Fate and freedom: Escaping Hanhai does not mean escaping the forces that constrain Gao Ming; the chapter leaves his freedom uncertain.

Character interactions

• The Ghost God protects and launches Gao Ming toward the exit, while the unspeakable being’s command weakens the Ghost God and seals Gao Ming.
• A mysterious chain-wielder rescues Gao Ming from the tunnel, then abandons him to deal with the surrounding conflict.
• In the hospital, the nurse treats Gao Ming with concern and respect, while Gao Ming struggles to understand who he is and why he is being addressed as “Mr. Gao.”

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming awakens in the hospital after a severe bus accident, with significant memory loss and lingering injuries.
• Nurse explains that he was a mental-health teacher at Xinhu No. 1 High School and saved students from the wreck before collapsing. Five students and driver Wei Tian died; Gao Ming and two students remain unconscious.
• Gao Ming learns he grew up in an orphanage, but rejects the idea that he has no parents, insisting they must exist.
• He reads a newspaper report about the crash but barely recognizes his own name or the events described.
• Dr. Xuan Wen examines him. Gao Ming tells her that his memories feel unfamiliar and that the frightening “dream” he experienced while unconscious seemed more real than the world around him.
• Xuan promises to help him record and remember things. The nurse later explains that Xuan and other specialists repeatedly saved Gao Ming’s life.

Character developments

• Gao Ming is physically recovering but mentally disoriented. He feels pain keenly, struggles to recognize himself, and conceals his unease while quietly observing his surroundings. Despite his confusion, he remains certain he has parents.
• Dr. Xuan Wen appears confident, gentle, and familiar to Gao Ming. She takes a supportive role, offering to help him preserve his memories.
• The nurse is caring and attentive, though she teases Gao Ming about his apparent connection with Xuan and shows a hint of jealousy.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: Gao Ming’s name, past, and relationships feel distant, raising doubts about what makes a person himself.
• Reality and perception: His memories of a terrifying dream feel more real than waking life.
• Self-sacrifice and heroism: The nurse recounts Gao Ming’s determination to save others despite mortal injuries.
• Longing for family and connection: Gao Ming’s insistence that his parents exist contrasts with the nurse’s account of his orphaned childhood; Xuan’s promise to help him remember offers reassurance.

Character interactions

• The nurse patiently cares for Gao Ming, explains the accident and his past, and gently corrects his assumptions.
• Gao Ming questions the nurse about his parents and the students, revealing how important these matters are to him.
• Gao Ming opens up to Xuan about his memory loss and unsettling dream because she feels familiar to him. Xuan responds with reassurance and practical support.
• The nurse jokes that Xuan has won Gao Ming’s affection, adding a light, personal note to the otherwise uncertain hospital scene.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming wakes in the hospital after a near-fatal incident. A nurse explains that many specialists helped save him and that the public now sees him as a remarkable survivor.
• Gao Ming is grateful but distracted, struggling to reconcile the vivid nightmare world he remembers with the apparently real world around him. Public messages wishing him well seem to echo the prayers and memories from the nightmare, deepening his uncertainty.
• A boy falls in the corridor, scattering his building blocks. His exhausted father scolds him, then apologizes to the nurse and leaves to find money for the family’s hospital bills. The boy’s mother is seriously ill.
• The nurse brings the boy, A Fang, into Gao Ming’s private ward temporarily. Gao Ming agrees, partly because he feels lonely.
• A Fang quietly builds a block house, then dismantles it. When Gao Ming asks whether he likes building haunted houses, the boy reacts as if Gao Ming has guessed something significant.

Character development and interactions

• Gao Ming is physically recovering but mentally unsettled. He remains preoccupied with the connection between his nightmare and reality, and shows compassion by making room for A Fang.
• The nurse is warm and devoted, having cared for Gao Ming for months, though he has only just met her. She also intervenes kindly on A Fang’s behalf.
• A Fang is shy, quiet, and fearful of making mistakes. His careful house-building hints at an unusual interest or experience.
• A Fang’s father appears worn down by poverty and his wife’s illness. His anger at his son gives way to restraint and apology, suggesting stress rather than simple cruelty.
• Gao Ming tries to connect with A Fang, but his unexpected mention of “haunted houses” produces a striking response from the boy.

Significant themes

• Reality and memory: Gao Ming cannot determine whether the nightmare world or the waking world is more real.
• Being remembered: The chapter links survival and identity to the people who continue to remember or pray for someone.
• Care amid hardship: The nurse’s and Gao Ming’s kindness contrasts with the family’s medical and financial crisis.
• Foreboding and the uncanny: Gao Ming’s unintentional reference to haunted houses hints that the nightmare may be connected to A Fang.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming, still recovering in bed, speaks to a little boy, A Fang, about the colorful block houses he is building. Gao Ming calls them haunted houses, which surprises the child.
• A Fang explains that his parents gave him a character meaning “house” in his name because they wanted him to have a warm home. He also reveals that he and his mother were at the hospital on the night Gao Ming was brought in; he later watched Gao Ming while he was unconscious.
• A middle-aged man from the neighboring ward visits Gao Ming. He and Gao Ming were admitted on the same night, after a suicide attempt left the man with many knife wounds. He says the emergency staff saved everyone brought in that night, and that Gao Ming is now the last patient from the incident still hospitalized.
• The man gives Gao Ming an abstract painting meant to depict Gao’s birthday. Its “monsters,” he explains, represent Gao Ming’s family—though Gao finds the image disturbing and nonsensical.
• The man admits that while Gao was unconscious, he sometimes told him about his own painful experiences and read him ghost stories and strange tales, believing this would help him recover.

Character developments

• Gao Ming shows curiosity and skepticism. His conversation with A Fang gives him a rare point of connection with someone else, while the visitor’s bizarre explanations leave him unsettled and suspicious.
• A Fang is revealed to be polite and fairness-minded, but lonely and cautious. He has spent time watching Gao and seems uneasy around the visitor.
• The visitor appears gentle and cheerful, but his history of self-harm and his unconventional “therapy” suggest a troubling, unpredictable side.

Significant themes

• Loneliness and connection: Gao and A Fang bond through the idea of haunted houses; both have spent time isolated in the hospital.
• The meaning of home: A Fang’s name reflects his parents’ wish to give him security, while Gao’s painted “family” complicates the idea of family as comfort.
• Recovery and its unsettling methods: The chapter questions what helps someone heal, as the visitor’s attempts to stimulate Gao’s mind involve disturbing stories and imagery.
• Memory and perception: Gao’s hazy recollections and the painting’s strange symbolism leave uncertainty about what he knows and what others have told him.

Character interactions

• Gao and A Fang exchange personal details, building trust through careful questions and answers.
• The visitor approaches Gao warmly and offers a gift, but his explanations clash with Gao’s expectations and make both Gao and A Fang wary.
• A Fang keeps his distance from the visitor, revealing his discomfort even as Gao tries to make sense of the man’s behavior.

Chapter Summary: “Girlfriend”

• Plot: Recovering from a coma, Gao Ming learns that his fellow patient Xia Yang had told him ghost stories throughout his unconscious months. Xia Yang claims they are friends and leaves behind an unsettling drawing. Gao Ming recognizes Xia Yang’s name from his vivid nightmare and suspects the dream may be tied to people in his real life. However, the nightmare included loving parents, while a nurse says he grew up in an orphanage—a contradiction that deepens the mystery. When nurse Lingling warns that Xia Yang has a history of frightening and dangerous behavior, Gao Ming recalls a shadowy figure with a knife standing beside his bed.
• Investigation: Determined to recover his memories, Gao Ming asks Lingling about people who visited him. She mentions a woman named Liu Yi, who claimed to be his girlfriend and repeatedly came to the hospital, though staff did not allow her to see him. Liu Yi was also present in Gao Ming’s nightmare. Lingling promises to bring him the belongings from his car accident, including his phone.
• Character developments and interactions: Gao Ming is weak and confused but increasingly active in pursuing his past. Xia Yang appears friendly and upbeat, yet his self-harm and disturbing conduct make him threatening and unpredictable. Lingling is protective of Gao Ming and wary of Xia Yang, while A Fang helps Gao Ming and shares others’ concerns about the patient. The chapter ends with an unidentified figure secretly watching Gao Ming from outside his room.
• Themes: The chapter explores the unstable boundary between dreams and reality, fractured identity and memory, and the difficulty of judging people by their outward behavior. The contrast between Gao Ming’s remembered family and his reported orphaned upbringing suggests that his past—and perhaps his sense of self—may be unreliable.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming reviews a returned laptop and phone to recover his identity. His files portray him as a respected teacher, while his messages and photos reveal a loving girlfriend, Liu Yi. He cannot remember either part of his past and wonders why the hospital has kept her away.
• Left alone at night, he becomes frightened by the darkness and hears fingernails scraping at the window. A strange patient enters and says Gao Ming escaped, refers to “7003,” a map, and a “question mark,” and warns him not to trust his phone or laptop.
• The patient claims Gao Ming was one of thirteen people who underwent a recent treatment procedure. He names two others—a painter discharged that day and a child waiting for his mother—and urges Gao Ming to leave before hospital staff notice anything. He gives Gao Ming a map with a stretch of sea near Xinhu and Hanjiang circled, then rushes away in apparent panic.
• Uneasy and suspicious, Gao Ming keeps quiet and leaves the hospital without notifying his school or friends. He travels to Xinhu’s impoverished North Shanghai Old Town and arrives at the address listed on his ID: apartment 401, Building 3, Lijing Apartments.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming tries to piece together who he was from digital records, but those familiar-looking materials feel like someone else’s life. His nightmare experiences seem more real to him than his documented past.
• His trust in the hospital erodes after the patient’s warning. He becomes guarded, avoids drawing attention, and chooses to leave on his own.
• Nurse Lingling treats Gao Ming sympathetically and helps return his belongings, but her earlier explanation about his lack of family conflicts with the evidence of Liu Yi.
• The unidentified patient behaves erratically yet offers a specific warning and clues, leaving Gao Ming with more questions than answers.

Significant themes

• Uncertain identity and memory: Gao Ming cannot reconcile his records, relationships, and inner sense of reality.
• Trust and manipulation: The hospital’s account of his life may be incomplete or deceptive, and even his phone and laptop are called into question.
• Fear and hidden truths: The nighttime encounter and references to thirteen patients suggest a larger mystery behind Gao Ming’s treatment.
• Isolation and social decay: Gao Ming’s move from the hospital to the bleak, crowded old town reinforces his vulnerability and the oppressive atmosphere.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming, newly returned from the hospital, hesitates before entering the apartment he shares with Liu Yi. He learns from her phone conversation that their unfinished new home remains stalled, though construction may be restarting; they still owe the mortgage.
• Liu Yi is overwhelmed to see him. She explains that hospital staff repeatedly barred her from visiting and that she feared he would never wake. She and Gao Ming had planned to marry and move into the new home.
• They settle into their familiar domestic routine: Liu Yi cooks, Gao Ming tidies and washes dishes. Their cramped old apartment offers comfort despite their financial strain.
• Liu Yi notices Gao Ming’s unusually good physical condition and asks about his treatment. He says his injuries have nearly healed, but his memory is hazy and he spent the past months in a terrifying, vivid nightmare.
• Gao Ming asks whether ghosts exist. Liu Yi says she does not believe in them, but believes him, and reassures him that happiness lies ahead. She tries to cheer him by showing him her plans for their future home, including a large balcony and a cat.
• Gao Ming cannot share her excitement, sensing that something in him has changed. A call from the bank demanding their mortgage payment brings the practical pressures of their life back into focus.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming is physically recovering but emotionally and mentally unsettled. Though he knows Liu Yi is his girlfriend, he cannot remember their relationship or return her embrace with confidence. He begins to confide in her about the nightmare.
• Liu Yi appears capable and resilient, yet Gao Ming’s return exposes how frightened and exhausted she has been. She responds with tenderness, trust, and efforts to restore his hope, while quietly noticing his emotional distance.
• Their reunion contrasts Liu Yi’s strong affection and shared memories with Gao Ming’s amnesia and detachment. Despite this imbalance, they care for one another through everyday acts of support.

Significant themes

• Love and memory: Liu Yi’s feelings endure even when Gao Ming cannot remember their life together.
• Home and security: Their old apartment is a refuge, while the unfinished home represents their shared plans and uncertain future.
• Ordinary hardship beside the uncanny: Gao Ming’s nightmare and possible brush with death coexist with familiar concerns such as cooking, bills, and mortgage payments.
• Hope under strain: Liu Yi insists that better days are possible, even as Gao Ming struggles to believe it.

Plot points

• Gao Ming doubts he can return to teaching because his memories are still missing and he feels unfit for the job. He hopes to find work resembling the one he had in his nightmare, both to recover his memories and to help support Liu Yi.
• He easily improves a small family-themed game, unlike the lesson plans he cannot make sense of. Its sole positive review comes from Liu Yi, who had secretly used her account to encourage him.
• While Liu Yi showers, Gao Ming unlocks her phone and discovers the financial, work, and debt pressures she has been managing while he was unconscious.
• Searching for suitable work, Gao Ming finds increasingly bizarre listings, including haunted-house staff and testers for Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ Brain-Domain Game. Reports say the game has left some testers trapped in nightmares or mentally broken, but the reports disappear when he tries to read them.
• The listing interests him because the work seems suited to his experiences and offers a large potential reward. He vaguely recalls Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals and Deep Space Technology from his nightmare, where they were linked to a mysterious Forbidden Game, but cannot remember its name.
• Liu Yi’s playful slap as Gao Ming heads to the shower reveals the easy intimacy the two shared before his illness.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains torn between the nightmare he fears forgetting and the real relationships he wants to protect. He shows unexpected skill and enthusiasm for game design, and decides to look for work that can both earn money and possibly jog his memory.
• Liu Yi is warm and teasing, gently indulging Gao Ming while quietly carrying substantial burdens. Her secret review shows how she tries to support his confidence; her familiar playfulness hints at their former closeness.
• Their caring, affectionate exchanges contrast with Gao Ming’s guilt and uncertainty about his feelings and responsibilities.

Significant themes

• Memory and identity: Gao Ming fears losing the nightmare’s memories even as he tries to reconnect with ordinary life.
• Reality versus the supernatural: Strange job listings and vanishing reports blur the boundary between mundane employment and the nightmare world.
• Care and obligation: Gao Ming’s discovery of Liu Yi’s hardships motivates him to seek work and repay her support.
• Intimacy after illness: Their shared domestic routine suggests affection persists, even as Gao Ming feels emotionally disoriented.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming showers and experiences a frightening, fragmented memory: a voice recalls his parents’ early deaths and urges him to be all right. In the mist, his reflection appears thin and covered in writing, while he feels overwhelmed by a terror of fog.
• Liu Yi breaks into the bathroom after hearing him fall. She comforts him, helps him get dressed, and cleans up the broken mirror. Gao Ming cannot explain his reaction or fully recall what he saw.
• The couple share a quiet, affectionate evening. Liu Yi is content simply to have him home; Gao Ming dries her hair. They sleep in the same bed with a quilt between them, though Gao Ming stays awake watching her.
• The next morning, Liu Yi leaves breakfast and goes to work, asking Gao Ming to rest. Once she is gone, he gets up to prepare for online job interviews.
• At Motu Technology, Gao Ming presents his ideas for psychological horror games, including a game built around supernatural rules and a “Ghost Mom” who makes someone close behave strangely. The interviewers focus instead on monetization, advertising, and paid progression. Gao Ming is frustrated by the mismatch between his creative goals and their commercial priorities.

Character developments

• Gao Ming is recovering physically but remains troubled by unexplained fears and memory fragments. Despite Liu Yi’s request that he rest, he is determined to resume ordinary life and find work. His passion for horror design is clear, though he is unprepared for how bluntly companies prioritize profit.
• Liu Yi shows deep devotion through practical care and tenderness. She longs for the ordinary life they once imagined together, while Gao Ming’s changed behavior leaves her concerned.
• The interviewers represent a business-first outlook, judging Gao Ming’s concept by its revenue potential rather than its artistic or emotional impact.

Significant themes

• Memory and fate: Gao Ming’s bodily reaction and cryptic recollections suggest a past he cannot consciously access.
• Care and ordinary intimacy: Small domestic gestures offer comfort amid uncertainty.
• Creative vision versus commercialization: Gao Ming seeks to evoke fear through atmosphere and psychology, while the company treats the game primarily as a vehicle for monetization.
• Fear of the unknown: The mist and the proposed horror game both center on anxiety, vulnerability, and the imagination filling gaps in knowledge.

Character interactions

• Liu Yi rescues and tends to Gao Ming, while he later returns her care by drying her hair.
• Their gentle domestic exchange contrasts with their different states: Liu Yi finds peace in being together, whereas Gao Ming remains alert and unsettled.
• In the interview, Gao Ming explains his creative approach, but the interviewers redirect the conversation toward profits, leaving his artistic priorities largely unheard.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming’s harsh first interview at Motu Technology ends in rejection. He spends the morning applying to several companies, but none offer him a job.
• He applies for a night-shift position at Hanjiang’s New Century Amusement Park haunted house. Supervisor Old Zhou likes his apparent toughness and background, but hesitates because Gao Ming believes in ghosts and might become dangerously absorbed in the attraction. Old Zhou says the boss will decide later.
• Other interviews prove strange and discouraging, leaving Gao Ming with one remaining option: applying online to be a closed-beta tester for Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ brain-domain game.
• That evening, Gao Ming mistakes a knock at his door for a possible threat and arms himself with a fruit knife. The visitor turns out to be Liu Yi, who has brought him a kitten to keep him company.
• When asked to name it, Gao Ming calls it “Fortune”—a name that unexpectedly recalls two powerful fighters from his nightmares, though he cannot remember the second one.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains calm about repeated rejections, but his lack of social experience and his intense, nightmare-shaped instincts show through. His belief in ghosts and his confidence that he can withstand any level of fear make him both a promising horror attraction employee and a potential liability.
• Old Zhou is warm and informal, unlike the earlier interviewers. He sees Gao Ming as an unusually suitable candidate but worries about the risks of hiring someone who believes in the supernatural.
• Liu Yi shows practical concern for Gao Ming by coming home early and bringing him a kitten. Their easy exchange hints at their shared history and her wish to make his time alone less difficult.
• The kitten briefly triggers Gao Ming’s suspicion, then provides a gentle, domestic contrast to his tense reaction.

Significant themes

• The boundary between nightmare and reality: Gao Ming’s past experiences shape how he responds to ordinary events, and the name “Fortune” hints that his nightmares may contain memories he cannot fully access.
• Fear as both talent and danger: Gao Ming’s resilience suits him for horror work, while his belief in ghosts and tendency to become deeply immersed could put him at risk.
• Isolation and care: His frustrating job search underscores his vulnerability, while Liu Yi’s thoughtful gesture offers companionship and stability.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Liu Yi gives Gao Ming a kitten, named Fortune, hoping it will help drive away his nightmares. Her care and stories about their shared past lift Gao Ming’s spirits and help him feel more grounded in ordinary life.
• After a warm dinner and an evening walk, Gao Ming receives good news: he has passed the initial screening to become a closed-beta tester for Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ brain-domain game. He is told to report to the company’s Third Experimental Development Department the following afternoon.
• Liu Yi playfully teases Gao Ming while asking him to bring her pajamas. Their intimacy embarrasses him, but it also highlights how strongly her presence affects him. Still, he does not want his nightmare-related scars to disappear before he discovers who caused them.
• The next day, Gao Ming follows the company’s directions to an unmarked warehouse on the outskirts of Xinhu. Inside, its shabby exterior gives way to a high-tech laboratory. He puts on a strange, familiar-feeling black communicator and testing equipment.
• Twelve other selected testers arrive, making thirteen in total. A mysterious voice gives them twenty minutes to read the rules and meet one another before they are taken to a testing site. It promises greater rewards to those who last longer.

Character developments

• Gao Ming begins recovering emotionally through Liu Yi’s companionship and Fortune’s presence, but remains determined to investigate the source of his suffering. His unease about being deceived persists, so he carries a knife for reassurance.
• Liu Yi acts as Gao Ming’s compassionate support, helping him reconnect with their shared past and encouraging him to care for himself. Her teasing also reveals a playful, familiar side to their relationship.
• Xu Yajing, a horror-game streamer, presents herself as sociable and experienced. Having applied several times, she warns that the test will involve trials of human nature and encourages cooperation.
• Tang Qing, a prison guard, explains that he joined to protect his child, who was not selected. He appears reserved and distracted by his wedding ring.

Character interactions

• Liu Yi comforts and cares for Gao Ming, while Gao Ming gradually accepts her support but keeps his deeper trauma and investigative purpose in mind.
• Xu Yajing takes the initiative in introducing herself and inviting the other testers to cooperate. Tang Qing responds by explaining his reason for joining.
• Gao Ming enters the testing group as an outsider, wary of the unfamiliar facility and the mysterious equipment.

Significant themes

• Healing versus remembering: Liu Yi’s affection offers Gao Ming relief, but he fears that healing might obscure the truth about his past.
• Isolation and connection: Gao Ming’s inner loneliness is eased by his bond with Liu Yi and Fortune, while the testers face an uncertain challenge together.
• Trust and vulnerability: Gao Ming remains suspicious after past deception, and the group is warned that the upcoming trials may test their humanity and willingness to cooperate.

Key plot points and events

• Thirteen applicants, including Gao Ming, board a driverless coach to take a test for access to a brain-domain game. During the journey, Gao Ming feels a sharp pain in his neck and briefly loses consciousness, though nobody else seems to notice.
• The coach carries them to a remote, fire-damaged building after sunset and leaves immediately. The applicants are told to meet a contact person and complete the requirements.
• Tang Qing detects a scorched smell and recognizes a discarded Hanjiang Meat Noodles sign. He recalls a quiet death-row inmate from Hanjiang who once ran a noodle business nearby, then killed a neighboring family.
• The group follows a light upstairs to room four. When Auntie Wang knocks, someone inside excitedly calls out, “My little sister’s back!”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming reacts strongly to the mention of Hate Mountain Prison, and his unease around the coach deepens after his unexplained blackout. He insists he is simply a teacher, though others remain wary of him.
• Tang Qing, who knows prison staff and prison cases, acts as the group’s cautious investigator and warns them about the building’s history and Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals.
• Xu Yajing tries to keep spirits up and spots the significance of the restaurant sign.
• Xu Deyi carries a wooden stick for reassurance and voices the fear that the noodle seller may have had an accomplice.
• Wang Shimei complains about the test and worries about her granddaughter, but her confidence fades as the group enters the building.
• The applicants’ nervousness grows as they uncover connections between the fire-damaged building and a notorious murder case.

Significant themes

• Uncertainty and hidden danger: The strange test, Gao Ming’s blackout, the abandoned building, and the unknown contact all suggest that the applicants are being drawn into something more sinister than a routine recruitment process.
• The past resurfacing: Tang Qing’s prison memories connect the group’s destination to a violent crime, hinting that unresolved histories may shape the test.
• Corporate secrecy and human experimentation: Tang Qing’s remarks about Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals raise doubts about the company’s stated purpose and methods.

Plot and events

• Thirteen testers arrive at a derelict building and meet a badly burned, disabled young man who believes they are his little sister. He asks them to play Statues.
• Gao Ming calms the distressed man and notices clues in his room: a carefully preserved group photo, letters, and signs of a past fire. He suspects the game may be dangerous but suggests playing along to investigate.
• The young man retrieves a flashlight from a blood-scented chest and explains that if they play well, “they won’t bully us anymore.” The group is divided over whether to participate.
• During the first round, the lights fail and an unexplained figure appears among the testers. When the flashlight comes back on, a tester finds five fingers on his shoulder, and another sees—or believes she sees—a ghost behind him.
• Panic scatters the group. At the next call of “Statues,” nine people are in the guest room; four have fled elsewhere.

Character development and interactions

• Gao Ming shows empathy toward the young man, recognizing something of himself in him, while also remaining observant and strategic.
• Xu Yajing suspects the test has begun and initially feels sympathy for the young man, though his burned appearance unsettles her.
• Xu Deyi stays wary and prepares for possible violence, but turns to Gao Ming for guidance.
• Auntie Wang and the other testers react with fear and suspicion. Their disagreement over the game exposes how quickly the group loses cohesion.
• The young man shifts between childlike excitement and distress, treating the testers as participants in a reunion with his missing sister.

Themes

• Fear and uncertainty: Darkness, shifting figures, and unreliable perceptions leave the group unsure what is real.
• Trauma and loss: The young man’s injuries, fixation on his sister, and the fire-scarred setting suggest a painful history.
• Empathy amid danger: Gao Ming’s compassion contrasts with the others’ instinct to retreat.
• Trust and group survival: The testers’ division and panic may be as dangerous as the supernatural threat.

Plot points and events

• The participants are forced into the One-Eyed Young Man’s room during a game of “Wooden Man.” He warns them not to move when he turns on his flashlight.
• Auntie Wang is pushed forward. When the young man sees her raise a hand to shield her eyes, he declares that she moved. She spots bloodied tools and human remains in his wooden box, panics, and stumbles.
• The One-Eyed Fool attacks and kills her with a hammer, then pursues the others with a hammer and axe. The terrified participants flee; Xu Deyi’s attempt to fight back fails.
• Gao Ming alone remains still, obeying the rules and avoiding the attack. He gives the dying Auntie Wang a basic bandage, then searches the room.
• He finds a photograph of the one-eyed boy, a scarred girl, and a middle-aged man, along with annotated books and letters addressed to Jiang Miaomiao from the Hanjiang Welfare Institute.
• Gao Ming notices the bus that brought them has disappeared, cutting off their apparent escape route.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming stays composed amid extreme violence and seems unnervingly accustomed to blood and injury. His practiced first aid surprises him, as does his strong instinct to obey the game’s rules. The place feels strangely freeing and familiar, like his nightmare.
• Auntie Wang shifts from frightened participant to the unintended trigger for the attack; after Gao Ming treats her, she sees his unsettling fascination and loses hope.
• Xu Deyi tries to resist the attacker but quickly flees when his weapon breaks.
• The One-Eyed Fool treats the game’s rules as justification for violence and appears to be waiting for someone—possibly his sister, Jiang Miaomiao.

Significant themes

• Rules and survival: Following the game’s arbitrary rules keeps Gao Ming alive, while panic and movement prove fatal.
• Fear and dehumanization: The crowd’s panic turns participants against one another, and Auntie Wang is abandoned as they escape.
• Trauma and familiarity with horror: Gao Ming’s muted response to violence suggests a troubling connection between this place and his nightmare.
• Unanswered mysteries: The photograph, letters, the Fool’s possible family history, and the vanished bus deepen the uncertainty about the test and its purpose.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming remains haunted by his nightmare and suspects that the place Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals sent them resembles it. He questions whether One-Eyed Fool is actually connected to the company, since the severed fingers he finds belonged to people of different ages.
• He takes the fingers as evidence and assembles a chainsaw from the tools in One-Eyed Fool’s box, then explores the dark house alone. He notices that his vision adapts unusually well to the darkness.
• Gao Ming discovers two more victims upstairs. One-Eyed Fool has locked the doors and windows, trapping everyone inside. After the Fool rushes upstairs in a rage, Gao Ming finds Xu Deyi, Xu Yajing, and another young woman hiding in a wardrobe.
• The young woman describes a terrifying, deformed old man. Xu Yajing shows a video revealing portraits of a heavyset older man throughout the house; he appears to have been its owner. The group also sees a wooden plaque displayed among the man’s trophies and certificates.
• Gao Ming and the others find Tang Qing investigating the plaque. He has uncovered a stuffed rabbit hidden beneath the floor, with a bloodstained letter of repentance inside.
• The letter reveals that the homeowner was once a celebrated judo coach. He and his wife longed for a daughter, so they adopted a girl, Jiang Miaomiao, from an orphanage. The chapter ends before explaining what happened next.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming acts with growing confidence and ruthlessness, treating the darkness as familiar and preparing to confront threats rather than simply flee. He remains curious and analytical, questioning the group’s assumptions about One-Eyed Fool.
• Xu Yajing is frightened despite her familiarity with horror games, but contributes useful evidence by showing her recorded video.
• Tang Qing takes the initiative to investigate the plaque and openly shares the hidden letter and doll with the group.
• The three survivors hiding in the wardrobe initially fear Gao Ming because of his chainsaw and bag of fingers. He reassures them, then works with them to investigate the house.

Significant themes

• The boundary between nightmare and reality: Gao Ming sees echoes of his nightmare in the present and seems increasingly at home in darkness.
• Violence and survival: Gao Ming’s readiness to arm himself reflects the group’s desperate situation and the collapse of ordinary moral expectations.
• Hidden histories and false appearances: The trophies suggest public success, while the buried doll and repentance letter hint at a shameful secret beneath the homeowner’s respectable image.
• Fear and hope: The sealed exits intensify the group’s sense of entrapment, making discovery their only path forward.

Key plot points and events

• A judo coach’s wife discovers that her sons are tormenting the timid Miaomiao, but her husband’s violent punishment only makes the abuse worse. She later finds her son’s diary and learns that the coach himself has been abusing Miaomiao, too.
• Though she recognizes that Miaomiao needs protection, the wife stays silent, afraid of violence and of destroying her family. The coach plans to adopt Miaomiao’s intellectually disabled older brother to keep her company—and, more importantly, keep her compliant and confined. The siblings are forced into cruel “freeze” games in which disobedience brings punishment.
• Gao Ming connects the family’s story to the case of a nearby noodle-shop cook who confessed to killing the coach’s family. The group debates whether the cook acted alone or whether Miaomiao and her brother were involved. The victims died in different ways: the coach was beaten, while the others suffocated in a fire.
• Gao Ming finds severed fingers in the brother’s chest and notices that Tang Qing may be steering the discussion to blame the cook. He suspects Tang Qing is not like the other participants but keeps his suspicion to himself.
• The group considers whether Miaomiao may be on the third floor. As they head upstairs, they find two companions dead, their bodies horribly twisted. Gao Ming concludes that a ghost must be real—and wonders whether his own nightmare was more than a dream.

Character developments and interactions

• The coach’s wife moves from suspicion to discovery, but ultimately fails to protect Miaomiao, becoming part of the tragedy through her silence.
• Gao Ming pieces together the abuse and murder case, becomes increasingly alert to Tang Qing’s behavior, and reacts to the supernatural danger with unsettling excitement.
• Tang Qing offers details about the deaths, but Gao Ming detects that his explanation may be deliberately directing blame toward the cook.
• Xu Deyi condemns the coach and urges the group onward; Xu Yajing raises doubts about who really killed the family and worries about going upstairs.

Significant themes

• Abuse and the failure of bystanders: Miaomiao’s last potential protector chooses self-preservation over intervention.
• The gap between confession and truth: the cook’s apparent responsibility may conceal a more complicated account of the killings.
• The horror of reality: the chapter presents human cruelty as more disturbing than Gao Ming’s nightmares, then blurs the boundary between nightmare and the supernatural.

Plot points and events

• Gao Ming’s transformation from a hesitant schoolteacher into an eager, fearless chainsaw wielder unsettles the other participants. Tang Qing and Xu Deyi explain that Hate Mountain Prison is essentially inescapable.
• On the fire-scarred third floor, Gao Ming sees a grotesque, spike-covered old man speaking in a woman’s voice. When the apparition retreats into a burned-out room, Gao Ming pursues it.
• The One-Eyed Fool ambushes Gao Ming with a hammer and axe. Gao fights back so fiercely that his chainsaw blade breaks, then grapples with the attacker until Tang Qing and Xu Deyi help restrain him.
• Gao enters the burned bedroom and finds a little girl who resembles the child in an old group photo. As he approaches, dark, snake-like shadows pour from her heart, spreading darkness through the room.
• The haunting escalates: a withered arm emerges from the girl’s hair, the spike-covered old man appears, and two human-headed dogs crawl from beneath the bed. These apparitions are connected to the Judo Coach’s family.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming appears increasingly exhilarated by danger and determined to confront ghosts. His aggression alarms the group, though he also relies on them when he calls for help restraining the One-Eyed Fool.
• Tang Qing tries to protect both the Fool and Gao Ming, stopping Gao from beating the Fool to death. Their exchange highlights Tang’s sense of responsibility and Gao’s disregard for restraint.
• Xu Deyi, previously a thug, suggests escaping and contacting the police, showing how the crisis has changed his priorities.
• The One-Eyed Fool fights violently but cries out for his little sister, suggesting a traumatic history and a deep attachment to her.
• Xu Yajing remains frightened by Gao Ming’s unsettling change and questions what kind of people come from Hate Mountain Prison.

Significant themes

• Fear versus exhilaration: Gao Ming’s excitement at confronting horror contrasts with the other participants’ terror.
• Trauma resurfacing: The burned room and the Fool’s desperate pleas suggest that past violence is being replayed or exposed.
• The persistence of the past: The child’s unchanged appearance and the returning figures imply that the building’s old memories remain trapped and active.
• Violence and protection: Tang’s attempts to restrain Gao and protect the Fool contrast with Gao’s willingness to meet violence head-on.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming discovers that the judo instructor’s monstrous family is linked to the unconscious girl: their forms emerge from her shadows, and some of their features echo objects she holds. He realizes her unconscious mind is driving the nightmare’s mutations.
• The shadows begin pulling the group into a deeper layer of the dream. Tang Qing warns the testers that they are still inside a brain-domain experiment and that dying in a deeper dream could prevent them from waking.
• Tang Qing reveals that the bus journey and horror scenario were simulated through helmets connected to their brains. He kills the other testers to force them to disconnect, then kills himself as the shadows overtake the building.
• Tang Qing wakes in the laboratory, where the testers’ bodies remain unconscious and connected to a preserved criminal brain. He learns that the bus has been lowered to Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals’ underground testing facility.
• Tang reports that Criminal No. 0371’s brain-domain has unexpectedly opened a second layer and that Gao Ming and Xu Deyi may be trapped in a middle nightmare. Director Li refuses to disconnect them immediately, citing the risk of severe memory damage or failure to regain consciousness.
• Tang suspects Gao Ming’s unusual reactions may have exposed his identity and wonders whether Gao Ming is a “cheater.”

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains composed amid escalating danger and recognizes the connection between the girl and the nightmare creatures, suggesting he can perceive details others miss.
• Tang Qing shifts from covert test liaison to desperate rescuer. He explains the simulation to the others, kills testers to force their disconnection, and ultimately takes his own life in the dream to escape.
• Xu Deyi avoids Tang’s attack and survives the first-layer dream by hiding; he is one of the two testers Tang believes remain trapped.
• Director Li treats the crisis as a research problem, weighing the danger of leaving the testers inside against the risks of forcibly disconnecting them.
• Tang’s claims alarm the other testers, while his confrontation with Director Li exposes the company’s experiments and the uncertainty surrounding Gao Ming.

Significant themes

• Reality and deception: The apparent bus journey and nightmare are manufactured experiences, making perception and escape uncertain.
• Humanity turned into horror: The nightmares are generated from criminals’ memories and the processes that twisted them, transforming psychological trauma into monstrous imagery.
• The cost of experimentation: Testers are treated as data, and even a basic trial can leave them at risk of lasting mental harm.
• Control versus the unknown: Researchers seek a “door” in deep nightmares, but the unexpected dream layer reveals how little control they truly have.