Chapter Summaries

Key plot points and events

• Xia Yang overwhelms the art teacher’s Grudge House, while Gao Ming’s death-filled past makes him impossible for her to paint. The art teacher realizes the two men are not straightforward allies and fears that killing Gao Ming could unleash something worse.
• Hoping the school rules will restrain Xia Yang, the art teacher opens her Grudge House to the school. Class Thirteen escapes and blames the violence on her, unaware of Xia Yang’s role.
• Student Council members decide to seal Art Room 2104, prioritizing containment over the students still inside. Liu Yi, Zhou Sisi, and Wang Jie object, but Qian Junran urges them to accept the Council’s decision.
• Trapped between the two Grudge Houses, Gao Ming escapes through a window with the art teacher’s backpack and lesson plans. The art teacher’s enraged attacks are held back by the Council, which continues trying to board up the room.
• Gao Ming examines the backpack and finds self-portraits of the art teacher. Each includes the same unsettling man in the background, suggesting he is connected to her obsession.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming acts independently and resourcefully, escaping rather than choosing either supernatural threat. He also refuses to hand the backpack to Zhuo Jun, rebuking him for failing to help.
• The art teacher shifts from resisting school rules to relying on them, but her loss of control leaves her frightened and desperate.
• Xia Yang remains inside the forbidden zone, continuing to paint and showing disturbing indifference to Gao Ming’s survival.
• Liu Yi, Zhou Sisi, and Wang Jie show growing courage and loyalty by challenging the Council’s decision to abandon Gao Ming. Xishan rushes to greet Gao Ming with conspicuous concern.
• Zhuo Jun reveals self-interest in seeking the bag, while the Student Council’s rigid rule-following contrasts with the students’ concern for one another.

Significant themes

• Rules versus moral responsibility: The Council treats containment as the only priority, even when a student may be trapped.
• Distrust and uneasy alliances: Gao Ming and Xia Yang cooperate only uneasily, with hints that they may also be in conflict.
• Obsession and the past: The paintings suggest that understanding a Greater Ghost’s history may reveal the source of its fixation—and perhaps how it can be controlled.

Key plot points and events

• After the danger in Art Room 2104, the Student Council confiscates the students’ belongings and orders everyone back to class. Gao Ming secretly keeps the art teacher Qiao Jiaojiao’s wallet and a drawing.
• The wallet contains a volunteer certificate and a torn disability certificate. The certificate shows Qiao Jiaojiao taught painting to children with hearing impairments; the disability certificate belongs to a man who appears repeatedly in her self-portraits.
• Liu Yi recognizes him as the deaf perpetrator in the notorious Silent Butcher case. He was convicted of three murders but remains alive in a vegetative state in prison. Gao Ming suspects he killed Qiao Jiaojiao and considers bringing the art teacher out of the school so she can confront him.
• Liu Yi reveals that the PE teacher who rescued Zhou Sisi was Zhong Long, a teacher who died by suicide after being falsely accused of harassment by a school administrator. He had tried to prove his innocence, yet still risked his life to save a student.
• Liu Yi concludes that the school draws in particular “Greater Ghosts” and that its rules, though brutal, may also protect people. She decides to join the Student Council to investigate how the rules work, planning to find its hidden records room and place her file in a red cabinet before lights-out.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains suspicious of the Student Council and the school’s rules, but investigates Qiao Jiaojiao’s past and considers helping her resolve her lingering grievance.
• Liu Yi shows her legal expertise and compassion for people harmed by injustice. She shifts from observing the school’s system to deliberately seeking a place inside it.
• Qian Junran argues that students should stop exploring and obey the rules, then tries to draw Zhuo Jun into agreement. Zhuo Jun gives him no response.
• Zhong Long’s past complicates his role as a ghost: despite being destroyed by false accusations, he still chose to save Zhou Sisi.
• Qiao Jiaojiao is revealed as a once-kind volunteer, while her self-portraits suggest she was stalked by the man suspected of killing her.

Significant themes

• Rules as both threat and protection: The school’s rules are violent, yet may be what keeps most students alive.
• Injustice and unresolved harm: Both Qiao Jiaojiao and Zhong Long appear to have been victims of cruelty and institutional failure.
• The complexity of good and evil: The Greater Ghosts may not have been monsters in life; their present forms conceal histories of kindness, suffering, or betrayal.
• Agency under oppression: Gao Ming and Liu Yi respond differently to danger—he resists and investigates, while she plans to understand the system from within.

Key plot points and events

• Class Thirteen’s blackboard now lists 33 living students and 10 ghosts. The three students killed by the art teacher were ghosts, but the class still has only 43 members and must gather all 51 classmates by the next day to keep its bus eligibility.
• The class debates whether to seek missing living classmates or recruit ghosts as a backup. Wang Jie favors confronting the Ghost Students; Zhuo Jun argues for securing ghosts first; Liu Yi warns that a ghost majority would put humans at their mercy.
• Saeki claims class monitor Yuan Hui is imprisoned in the Office Building, which he describes as a place where the Investigation Bureau conducts cruel experiments. Zhuo Jun defends the Bureau, saying its lessons teach students how to survive.
• Saeki also reveals that Song Xue is inside his phone, having become a particularly dangerous ghost who wants to trap the class at school. Her revelation shocks the students, especially Liu Yi, who was close to her.
• Zhuo Jun suspects Gao Ming and Saeki are working together and considers killing Saeki. Gao Ming rejects the accusation and points out that Zhuo Jun invited him to the reunion, then made him a scapegoat. Wang Jie backs Gao Ming, while Qian Junran urges the class to stop infighting.
• After class, Liu Yi heads into the girls’ restroom to investigate information about joining the Student Council. Gao Ming follows to help but finds that she enters and does not come back out.

Character developments and interactions

• Liu Yi remains wary of the Student Council and of recruiting ghosts. Her plan to investigate the council shows her growing initiative; Gao Ming advises her to hide her suspicions by changing her mindset.
• Gao Ming is targeted by Zhuo Jun’s suspicions but defends himself by exposing Zhuo Jun’s role in steering the class discussion. He later tries to support Liu Yi.
• Zhuo Jun emerges as an increasingly threatening and politically calculating figure, defending the Investigation Bureau and turning suspicion toward Saeki and Gao Ming.
• Saeki breaks his silence with startling claims about Yuan Hui, the Bureau, and Song Xue. He appears unstable, yet his knowledge may be important.
• Wang Jie openly challenges Zhuo Jun and sides with Gao Ming. Qian Junran recognizes that the class’s internal conflict is becoming dangerous.

Significant themes

• The chapter highlights survival under rigid rules: the class must meet its quota even while lacking reliable information and facing dangerous choices.
• Humanity versus ghosts is complicated by fear, power, and self-interest; the students disagree over whether ghosts are enemies, potential allies, or simply another risk.
• Distrust and scapegoating threaten the group almost as much as supernatural dangers do.
• Saeki’s allegations raise questions about authority, institutional cruelty, and who can be trusted, while the phone containing Song Xue suggests that the boundary between people, ghosts, and technology is becoming increasingly uncertain.

Plot points and events

• After school, Gao Ming waits for Liu Yi, who has disappeared inside the girls’ restroom. He asks Zhou Sisi to check the stalls.
• Zhou Sisi finds the restroom empty, the stall graffiti scraped away, and a handmade blood-red Student Council armband. It bears the name of the former Hande Academy of Letters and a threat against the Council.
• Two current Student Council members arrive and enter the restroom. The fourth stall attacks and devours them, while the armband latches onto Zhou Sisi and begins to sink into her flesh, apparently feeding on the blood.
• Gao Ming wraps Zhou Sisi’s arm, carries her out, and escapes before the Council can surround them. The incident further destabilizes the conflict between the school rules, Situ An’s rules, and the Greater Ghosts.
• They reach Principal Yan Xizhi’s Grudge House, where Ringgate Investigation Office members are sheltering. Yan recognizes the armband as one she personally made for exemplary students, but initially refuses to believe that the old Council members could have become violent.
• Gao Ming blames Situ An for replacing the original Council and asks Yan how to contact the armband’s owner. She writes letters for him to deliver to the children, urging him to bring them back safely.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming shows his practical, protective side: he helps Zhou Sisi, acts quickly under attack, and stays focused on discovering where the school’s authority comes from. He also strategically directs Yan’s anger toward Situ An to keep her from confronting him herself.
• Zhou Sisi is anxious and conflicted, suspecting Gao Ming may be the Music Box Killer while still trusting and caring about him. The armband’s influence frightens her, and she worries she may be turning monstrous; Gao reassures her and protects her.
• Liu Yi remains missing. Her earlier efforts to earn a restroom ghost’s trust and offer it legal help show her strong commitment to defending the powerless.
• Yan Xizhi is forced to confront the possibility that the Student Council she once chose has been corrupted or replaced. Her loyalty to her former students gives way to anger when Gao suggests Situ An is responsible.
• Gao and Zhou’s long-standing friendship is underscored by their familiar teasing and his instinctive care for her. Zhou’s feelings and suspicion remain unresolved.

Significant themes

• Authority and collapse: The school’s rules are losing control, while Situ An’s agenda and the Greater Ghosts’ power create competing systems of order.
• Trust and loyalty: Characters must decide whom to believe amid deception, transformation, and uncertainty.
• Protection of the vulnerable: Liu Yi’s advocacy for a ghost, Yan’s care for her students, and Gao’s protection of Zhou all reflect the chapter’s concern with defending those who cannot protect themselves.
• Corrupted ideals: The red armband once symbolized selfless service, but now carries a murderous threat and appears to infect its wearer.

Key plot points and events

• Principal Yan confirms that Zhou Sisi’s Red Armband has chosen her. Though Sisi is frightened and struggles to wipe away the blood on it, Yan’s blessing calms and strengthens her. Yan says the armband will guide her as she delivers letters.
• Ding Yuan explains that Hande Academy once cultivated unusually kind, imaginative students—many of them orphans or children with disabilities. Their innocence made them valuable prey to Shadow World ghosts. Situ An targeted the school and corrupted many students, while some graduates’ kindness was later exploited.
• Ding reveals that the school’s most dangerous Greater Ghost, You Liang, is beneath the Laboratory Building. He was once a Hande student, notoriously bad at making the right choices, and has killed everyone who has entered his domain. Ding hopes Gao Ming can enlist You Liang’s help against Situ An and the school’s rules.
• After nightfall, Gao Ming brings out the giant dog and persuades it to protect Sisi. They head toward the Laboratory Building, where the art-classroom danger is spreading and Xia Yang appears to be creating bloody works in a frenzy.
• Gao Ming finds a concealed entrance to underground rooms used for “social simulation” experiments. The staged scenarios teach students to survive exploitation and betrayal in adult life. A posted list shows that nearly every participant died within a day; You Liang is the sole recorded survivor.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Sisi gains confidence and a sense of safety through Yan’s blessing, though she remains wary of the giant dog. Its teasing and her curiosity provide a brief contrast to the surrounding danger.
• Principal Yan treats Sisi with maternal warmth, while explaining that the Red Armband selects children whose kindness and innocence endure.
• Gao Ming commits to rescuing the children and grows determined to investigate the school’s underground secrets, despite the risks.
• Ding Yuan shares crucial information with Gao Ming and frames him as the best hope of preventing investigators from becoming casualties.
• The giant dog agrees to protect Sisi, though its intimidating appearance and playful threats unsettle her.

Significant themes

• Innocence as both virtue and vulnerability: The students’ compassion and imagination made them exceptional, but also drew the attention of predatory forces.
• Kindness under exploitation: Good intentions can be twisted or used against those who offer them.
• Education beyond academics: The underground experiments teach survival skills neglected by conventional schooling.
• Corruption and control: Situ An’s attempt to take over the school has damaged its students and intensified the conflict between his rules and the school’s.
• Hope amid danger: Yan’s blessing, Sisi’s resilience, and Gao Ming’s determination offer fragile counterweights to the school’s violence.

Key plot points and events

• You Liang grows up cheerful and unconventional. Principal Yan Xizhi recognizes that he deliberately earns low marks so his classmates with intellectual disabilities will not always be last. She encourages his kindness and independent way of finding happiness.
• As an adult, You Liang rejects conventional work and wealth, instead volunteering and helping people. He falls in love with a fellow volunteer.
• His estranged brother, You De, finds him and asks for family support. You Liang helps their ill parents but refuses You De’s demands for more. You De exploits the dispute online, earning money and attention by publicly shaming him.
• After their parents die, You De’s resentment intensifies. He spreads lies to break up You Liang’s relationship, but You Liang accepts the breakup peacefully and continues living simply and happily.
• You De and his followers escalate their harassment, including killing a stray cat dear to You Liang. When this fails to make him despair, they arrange a vehicle “accident” that leaves him needing prosthetic limbs. You Liang adapts, dances in the sunlight, and thanks his supporters with handmade gifts.
• You Liang later becomes a father to a girl believed to be his daughter. He raises her with the caring principles he learned from Yan Xizhi.
• The account then jumps to a grim reported future: when the girl is in second grade, she disappears; You Liang kills You De and then dies by suicide. His story is used to discredit Yan Xizhi’s educational approach and force her resignation.
• In the present, Gao Ming and Zhou Sisi read You Liang’s behavioral reports in the Social Simulation Laboratory. Gao suspects they may have to undergo an experiment that recreates the despair he faced.

Character developments and interactions

• You Liang remains kind, free-spirited, and inwardly content through poverty, public condemnation, heartbreak, injury, and disability. His happiness comes from within rather than status or possessions.
• You De changes from a brother seeking help into a resentful tormentor. Unable to understand or tolerate You Liang’s independence, he tries to force him into society’s definition of success and happiness.
• Yan Xizhi shapes You Liang’s confidence and values, teaching him that people need not accept anyone else’s definition of happiness. Her approach later becomes a target of public blame.
• You Liang and others: He helps strangers and receives community support after his accident. His relationship with his girlfriend ends under pressure from her family, but he parts from her without bitterness. He later raises his daughter with the same compassion he was taught.
• Gao Ming and Zhou Sisi respond with sorrow and anger to You Liang’s fate, while Gao recognizes that his story may foreshadow their own trial.

Significant themes

• Happiness and autonomy: You Liang’s life challenges the idea that happiness depends on money, status, possessions, or conventional success.
• Kindness versus cruelty: His generosity contrasts with the deliberate malice of You De and his followers.
• Envy and social control: You De’s inability to comprehend You Liang’s contentment turns into a need to punish him for not living by society’s rules.
• Resilience and meaning: Even after losing love and physical ability, You Liang finds purpose in caring for others and adapting to change.
• Manipulation and scapegoating: Public opinion and institutional politics turn You Liang’s tragedy into a weapon against Yan Xizhi’s educational philosophy.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming enters the Social Simulation Laboratory’s school room to experience You Liang’s memories. As the clock advances, the warm room darkens and dissolves, symbolizing the end of You Liang’s childhood. Gao Ming reads that caring adults once comforted and guided You Liang through his doubts.
• The simulation shifts into a city where You Liang’s estranged brother, You De, tries to take him to their biological parents. Gao Ming questions why they abandoned him, then slaps You De—an impulse he senses may come from Xia Yang, whose voice begins speaking inside his mind.
• Online, You Liang is condemned for supposedly neglecting his parents, despite their having abandoned him. Gao Ming responds by living cheerfully, helping people, and livestreaming his ordinary happiness. His apparent lack of shame or attachment frustrates You De and the hostile creatures influencing him.
• The conflict turns physical after Gao Ming switches a drink You De prepared, leaving You De unable to speak. You De and the monsters escalate their revenge; Gao Ming retaliates in turn, and You De eventually becomes vegetative. Gao Ming cares for him publicly, but his actions are now driven by defiance and counter-malice rather than uncomplicated happiness.
• The social experiment becomes a violent pursuit. Gao Ming and Xia Yang survive until the nightmare ends, when a young man—apparently You Liang—pulls Gao Ming out.
• Zhou Sisi and Big Dog were also drawn into the nightmare. Zhou suffers intensely, while the young man notes that all three bear Principal Yan’s blessing and asks why Gao Ming seems unmoved.

Character development

• Gao Ming begins determined to act according to his own judgment, but Xia Yang’s influence and the simulation’s hostility draw him into increasingly ruthless retaliation. He mistakes doing whatever he wants for happiness, even as he becomes part of the cycle of violence.
• You Liang is revealed as someone who once received genuine care and guidance, yet whose ultimate fate arose from desperate circumstances. His appearance at the end suggests he has agency and compassion, as he rescues Zhou Sisi.
• Xia Yang becomes an active presence in Gao Ming’s mind, urging lethal retaliation and pushing the nightmare away from its original purpose.
• Zhou Sisi most closely mirrors You Liang’s temperament and suffers a similar emotional collapse in the simulation.
• Big Dog / the Blind Man responds to abuse with silence and withdrawal, choosing to live quietly rather than retaliate.
• You De shifts from a manipulative, self-pitying brother to an instigator of real revenge, ultimately left in a vegetative state.

Significant themes

• Happiness versus avoidance: Gao Ming’s carefree attitude initially looks like resilience, but it gradually becomes a way to ignore the harm around him.
• The cycle of malice: Retaliating against cruelty with cruelty may feel justified, but it helps destroy the social order and makes recovery impossible.
• Public judgment and hypocrisy: Online condemnation contradicts people’s behavior in person, revealing how easily crowds punish someone without understanding their history.
• Different responses to suffering: Gao Ming fights back, Big Dog withdraws, and Zhou Sisi empathizes—three contrasting ways of confronting abuse.
• Childhood, protection, and choice: The school room’s fading warmth marks You Liang’s loss of childhood; the chapter also contrasts the constrained choices behind You Liang’s actions with Xia Yang’s readiness to choose violence.

Character interactions

• Big Dog warns Zhou Sisi away from Gao Ming’s dangerous approach, though he still supports the group from the entrance.
• Gao Ming confronts You De over their parents’ abandonment, then becomes embroiled in a conflict shaped by both public hostility and Xia Yang’s influence.
• You De and the hostile creatures target Gao Ming because his apparent happiness and independence frustrate them; Gao Ming answers their attacks with escalating retaliation.
• In the nightmare’s aftermath, You Liang rescues Gao Ming and Zhou Sisi, while Big Dog’s and Zhou’s contrasting experiences underline how differently each person responded to the same ordeal.

Key plot points and events

• Gao Ming gives You Liang a concerned letter from Yan Xizhi. You Liang’s presence seems to reveal or draw out people’s true nature, though Gao Ming still does not know exactly how his ability works.
• You Liang warns Gao Ming that the social simulation experiment is not truly over until they leave. He frames the way forward as a choice between living in pain or dying in happiness, but allows Gao Ming and his companions to return and reconsider. Gao Ming instead imagines using the experiment to trap enemies in nightmares.
• Gao Ming leads Zhou Sisi and Big Dog back to Principal Yan’s room. He notices Big Dog’s distress and tries to comfort him, while leaving him and Zhou Sisi in Ding Yuan’s care.
• Gao Ming decides he must recruit another reliable student, since You Liang cannot be persuaded and the school needs enough students for the next day’s classes.
• In the art corridor, Xia Yang appears through grisly paintings and challenges Gao Ming about his violent impulses and the possibility of blaming his sins on Xia Yang. The Art Teacher appears to be trapped in her own grudge house, which Xia Yang has seemingly taken over. Xia Yang offers her as a possible replacement student.
• As Gao Ming leaves the Experiment Building, he senses blood in the air. Three buses arrive at the academy: one battered and empty, one filled with indistinct flesh and blood, and one carrying investigators. The General Investigation Bureau appears to have begun a rescue operation, though two investigators with red communication devices stand out from the others.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains outwardly flippant and cheerful, but his actions show how closely he watches over his companions. He recognizes Big Dog’s pain, comforts him, and plans strategically to use the nightmare experiment against their enemies.
• You Liang shows compassion toward Zhou Sisi and is softened by Yan Xizhi’s letter, yet remains firm and enigmatic. He gives Gao Ming a warning and a chance to reconsider rather than forcing him onward.
• Zhou Sisi is shaken by the experiment and clings to Gao Ming. You Liang helps her adjust her Student Council armband; after his touch, it no longer hurts and seems to merge with her.
• Big Dog is struggling with old despair. Gao Ming’s concern for him helps prompt the group’s return to safety.
• Xia Yang acts as a disturbing mirror to Gao Ming, voicing what he claims are Gao Ming’s own violent wishes and accusing him of wanting to offload his guilt.
• Ding Yuan welcomes Gao Ming back with concern and is left responsible for Zhou Sisi and Big Dog.
• The Art Teacher appears to be losing control of her own supernatural space to Xia Yang.

Significant themes

• Pain, happiness, and choice: You Liang’s stark dilemma contrasts with Gao Ming’s insistence on wanting a happy life with the people around him.
• Compassion amid horror: Gao Ming’s care for Zhou Sisi and Big Dog shows that emotional attention and loyalty persist even in a nightmare-filled setting.
• Identity and responsibility: Xia Yang’s accusation raises the question of whether Gao Ming can separate himself from his darker impulses—or blame them on another self.
• Power and strategy: Gao Ming sees the experiment not only as a threat but as a potential weapon, while the arriving buses suggest a larger conflict and possible rescue operation are underway.

Plot points and events

• The General Investigation Bureau sends three unsettling buses of reinforcements to Hande Private Academy. Gao Ming suspects they are the first wave and worries that Acting Bureau Chief Situ An may exploit the investigators as part of his power.
• Gao Ming decides to act before Situ An can strengthen his position. He avoids the Office Building and heads to the Teaching Building, where students gather after dark.
• Near the girls’ restroom, Gao Ming meets night guard Hu Biao. He gives Hu Biao a letter from Principal Yan Xizhi and asks about the girl who had been hiding there.
• Hu Biao identifies her as Yan Shaoyu, Yan Xizhi’s adopted goddaughter. Once a student-council member, she survived the Council’s takeover by the school rules and now leaves clues in the restroom as she works against it.
• Hu Biao offers to lead Gao Ming to Yan Shaoyu in exchange for the big dog. Gao Ming refuses to give the dog away but promises it may choose to stay with Hu later. Hu Biao then reveals his theory: the Student Council is hiding in Dormitory Building Six, which appears able to accommodate an unlimited number of students.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains cautious and strategic, but uses Yan Xizhi’s name and letter to build trust. He shows his attachment to the big dog while negotiating with Hu Biao.
• Hu Biao initially boasts about his authority, yet proves approachable and knowledgeable. Though a powerful ghost, he is lazy and generally avoids harming people; his loyalty appears divided between Yan Xizhi and Situ An’s rules.
• Yan Shaoyu is revealed as a survivor resisting the Student Council’s control. Her connection to Yan Xizhi and her hidden messages make her a potential ally.
• Situ An remains an offstage threat, having deceived the Investigation Bureau and potentially turning its investigators to his advantage.

Significant themes

• Deception and divided loyalty: The Investigation Bureau’s reinforcements may be vulnerable to Situ An’s hidden agenda, while Hu Biao serves competing authorities.
• Resistance and survival: Yan Shaoyu’s escape from brainwashing and covert efforts to undermine the Council show that opposition persists within the school.
• Power and social order: Hu Biao describes the sealed school as a miniature society, where people form hierarchies and rules govern daily life.
• Trust and negotiation: Gao Ming and Hu Biao cautiously cooperate, each relying on promises and shared interests.

Key plot points and events

• Hu Biao leads Gao Ming into Dormitory Building Six, where many students appear to be adults in uniform. He says the first students replaced by the school’s strange rules may have come from this building—and that Yan Xizhi was cornered by someone other than the school rules.
• Hu Biao uses his familiarity with the building and his authority under several competing rule systems to get them past the students.
• On the fourth floor, they witness students sleepwalking into a room and emerging altered, with unnaturally wide eyes and Student Council armbands. Hu Biao warns that anyone who joins the line will lose themselves and become a Council member.
• As they search for Yan Shaoyu and the Student Council’s secrets, Gao Ming considers using Phobia’s supernatural power to disrupt the school rules’ stronghold. When he takes out a terrifying cloth doll, the students react at once, turning together and pursuing them.
• Hu Biao pretends to help catch Gao Ming, but secretly gives him a way to escape. Gao Ming throws the doll into a corner to slow the pursuers and runs for the exit route.

Character developments

• Gao Ming remains bold and curious, willing to risk himself to uncover the school’s secrets. He increasingly sees Phobia as a weapon, despite the danger of making the school even more hostile.
• Hu Biao proves skilled at navigating the school’s overlapping authorities and protecting his own interests. Though he claims he will betray Gao Ming if discovered, he quietly helps him escape.

Significant themes

• Competing systems of control: The school is governed by multiple sets of rules, and characters survive by learning how to move between them.
• Fear as a spreading force: Phobia grows stronger as fear spreads, making it both a potential weapon and a threat that could spiral beyond control.
• Loss of identity and coercion: The sleepwalking students’ transformation into Student Council members suggests that the school’s power operates by absorbing and reshaping people.

Character interactions

• Hu Biao alternates between warning, scolding, and assisting Gao Ming, while insisting he will deny their connection if caught.
• Gao Ming pushes to investigate the fourth-floor room; Hu Biao restrains him, emphasizing how easily curiosity could lead to assimilation.
• When the students pursue them, Hu Biao performs loyalty to the Council while covertly creating an escape opportunity for Gao Ming.

Key plot points and events

• Ji Zhe arrives early at Hande Private Academy for a class reunion, hoping to show off a rented luxury car and expensive clothes. Because he and his brother, Ji Fu, reach the wrong place before staff are ready, Student Council members lock them in Dormitory Building Six.
• Ji Zhe and Ji Fu eventually escape their room, only to encounter a terrifying crowd of students pursuing Gao Ming. The brothers retrieve an ugly, crayon-covered rag doll Gao Ming has discarded, then flee back to their room.
• When Ji Fu and the other students see Ji Zhe, they react as if he looks horrifyingly different. Fearing they may attack him, Ji Zhe runs out and is swept along by the students.
• As the group takes him upstairs, several students abruptly regain their senses and flee in terror. Others become convinced Ji Zhe resembles the Rainy Night Killer, and panic spreads through the building.
• Student Council members finally seize Ji Zhe and the doll, concluding that he may be responsible for the students’ fear. They take him toward the building’s center so the student council president can decide what to do.

Character developments

• Ji Zhe starts out vainly confident in his plan and good luck, but becomes increasingly frightened as others perceive him as a monster. He remains largely confused about what they see and tries to explain himself as a harmless, broke ghost.
• Ji Fu shifts from scolding and protecting his younger brother to panicking when Ji Zhe appears terrifying to him.
• Gao Ming appears only briefly, racing through the corridor while being chased; his actions leave the strange doll behind and momentarily divert the crowd.
• The Student Council members stand apart from the building’s apparently “sleepwalking” students: they retain their reason and act to contain the situation.

Significant themes

• Fear as contagion: One person’s terror rapidly spreads through the dormitory, intensifying collective panic.
• Distorted perception and identity: Ji Zhe sees himself as ordinary, while others perceive different frightening figures.
• Rules and control: The students’ altered states appear tied to the school’s rules, while moments of fear can briefly break their hold.
• Comic vanity amid horror: Ji Zhe’s elaborate attempt to impress his classmates contrasts sharply with his desperate predicament.

Character interactions

• Ji Fu repeatedly berates and protects Ji Zhe, then recoils from him when he appears monstrous.
• Ji Zhe and Ji Fu flee the pursuing students and later seek safety in their room.
• The students crowd around and escort Ji Zhe upstairs, but their fear turns the group against him.
• Student Council members restrain Ji Zhe and take him, along with the doll, toward the president for investigation.

Key plot points and events

• Ji Zhe is taken to a vast, blood-red dorm room where the Student Council keeps students aged nearly to death. Shadow-like threads connect them to another room; the elders transfer those threads into newcomers’ eyes, apparently moving their consciousness into fresh bodies and creating new Council members.
• Ji Zhe recognizes Liu Yi among the Council members. The leaders are studying a map and have marked the Activity Building and Experiment Building as major trouble spots. He is confined behind a mosquito net beside a freezing old man, who later begins crawling toward the other beds in terror.
• Fear spreads through Dormitory Building Six overnight. At breakfast, Gao Ming rejoins Wang Jie and Du Bai, explaining that he spent the night searching for Liu Yi after she disappeared in the girls’ restroom. He suspects the school’s worsening conditions are affecting both people and ghosts, and wonders whether Phobia’s effects have suddenly surged.
• Class Thirteen faces another vote and must gather fifty-one students to avoid being trapped. The classroom fills with returning students and supernatural replacements. Office Director Ding Yuan enters with Zhou Sisi, while Zhuo Jun arrives with Bai Xiao, an Investigation Bureau investigator.
• Liu Yi appears wearing a Student Council armband, placing her in direct opposition to Zhuo Jun. Yuan Hui is brought back by Qian Junran, then accuses Zhuo Jun of murder and warns that he will get everyone killed.
• Ji Zhe arrives in the classroom carrying the ugly rag doll. Gao Ming recognizes it and reacts with alarm.

Character developments and interactions

• Ji Zhe discovers how the Student Council may perpetuate itself, but remains outwardly comic and composed even while captive. His arrival with the doll becomes a source of concern for Gao Ming.
• Liu Yi has apparently joined the Student Council, though she looks subdued. Her presence opposite Zhuo Jun underscores the class’s growing division.
• Gao Ming continues assessing the school’s supernatural crisis and protects his group’s morale. He also hides his connection to Bai Xiao, who studies the class without approaching him.
• Wang Jie, Du Bai, and Xishan remain together and worry about Gao Ming’s absence, the shrinking class, and the danger around them.
• Ding Yuan stops hiding after learning investigators are inside the school, apparently preparing to confront Situ An. Yuan Hui openly challenges Zhuo Jun, who dismisses him coldly.
• Qian Junran tries to boast about surviving the Office Building’s trials, but Yuan Hui’s sudden attack interrupts him.

Significant themes

• Identity and bodily possession: The Student Council’s apparent transfer of consciousness raises questions about whether its members are individuals or a continuing institution inhabiting new bodies.
• Fear as an escalating force: Phobia spreads through the dormitory, and the chapter hints that fear may trigger a sudden, school-wide collapse.
• Competing systems of authority: The Council, the Investigation Bureau, and the class’s own rules converge, with Liu Yi and Zhuo Jun positioned on opposing sides.
• Survival amid uncertainty: Characters rely on alliances, vigilance, and even humor while the school’s rules and population keep changing.

Key plot points and events

• Ji Zhe returns to Class Thirteen, carrying the Fear Puppet Gao Ming had previously thrown into Dormitory Building Six. Its return suggests either the school’s rules are pushing back or Ji Zhe has somehow survived the puppet’s influence.
• The puppet exposes Ji Zhe’s fear: he is terrified of whatever he believes is clinging to his back, and dares not turn around. Despite his fear, he acts as if he has been empowered by a superior ghost and boasts that he can protect the class.
• Ji Zhe tells the class that the school is full of ghosts, dismisses the teachers as powerless, and claims the Student Council rules the school. His speech quickly turns into accusations and arguments among the students.
• Gao Ming suspects Ji Zhe is not possessed, but cannot explain his strange confidence. He also realizes he cannot reclaim the puppet because he only has permission to use its Posthumous Photograph.
• Bai Xiao watches the class closely, aware that the situation is dangerous. Meanwhile, Ma Tao explains to a fellow ghost that the replaced students must remain in the class under the school rules—and that several ghosts have already been destroyed there.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming is unsettled by the puppet’s return and baffled by Ji Zhe’s behavior. He observes Ji Zhe’s fear beneath his boastful performance but cannot intervene.
• Ji Zhe appears frightened yet self-important, presenting himself as chosen by a powerful ghost and provoking his old classmates, especially Qian Junran and Zhuo Jun.
• Zhuo Jun rejects Ji Zhe’s claims and fears he will lure the class into danger. Ji Zhe counters by accusing Zhuo Jun of getting classmates killed.
• Bai Xiao takes in every detail, treating the chaotic classroom as a potentially lethal anomaly rather than ordinary student drama.
• Ma Tao is practical and unsentimental: he tells the fat ghost that leaving is impossible and reminds him that survival in this class is uncertain. The fat ghost, already traumatized by his own destruction and return, feels trapped.
• The rest of the class—including Zhou Sisi, Yuan Hui, Saeki, and Liu Yi—adds to the disorder through warnings, accusations, and alarming behavior.

Significant themes

• Fear and its hidden forms: The puppet reveals personal fears, including Ji Zhe’s unseen terror of what is behind him.
• Uncertain identity and survival: Humans and ghosts coexist in the classroom, but the distinction offers little security; even ghosts can be destroyed or forced to keep playing a student’s role.
• Power and deception: Ji Zhe’s claims of being “chosen” may be bravado, delusion, or something more, while the Student Council and school rules remain sources of real control.
• Dark absurdity: The class’s bizarre arguments and the ghosts’ bleak predicament make the horror both chaotic and grimly comic.

Key plot points and events

• Class Thirteen remains dangerously divided: Zhuo Jun tries to impose cooperation on behalf of the Investigation Bureau, but several classmates have aligned themselves with the Student Council or resist his authority.
• Ji Fu arrives to warn the class that his younger brother, Ji Zhe, is dead and that the person before them is a murderous ghost. Ji Zhe insists he is alive and has been “chosen.”
• Gao Ming recognizes that both brothers’ fears have been shaped by Phobia. Ji Zhe picked up the Fear Puppet, which makes others see him as their greatest fear; his belief that a ghost is behind him could eventually make that fear real.
• The Female Teacher traps Ji Fu in the classroom and begins class. She discovers there are 54 people despite only 51 seats, and orders a second vote to select three “extras” to die.
• Ma Tao and his roommates are immediately targeted. Ma Tao argues that the vote should eliminate dangerous people instead, but his classmates regard him and his group as likely victims.
• Ji Zhe rejects the vote, declaring that people should not abandon their humanity by deciding who deserves to live. He crumples his ballot and openly defies the teacher.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhuo Jun is increasingly frustrated and hesitant as resistance spreads through the class.
• Ji Fu and Ji Zhe have a tense, fearful reunion: Ji Fu believes his brother is dead, while Ji Zhe cannot understand why he is seen as a ghost. Their misunderstanding reflects Phobia’s influence.
• Ma Tao tries to save himself and his roommates by appealing to fairness and exploiting others’ grudges, but receives little support.
• Ji Zhe emerges as a charismatic moral challenger. His polished confidence persuades some classmates, even as his actions provoke a potentially violent confrontation.
• Wang Jie, Liu Yi, Saeki, and Gao Ming react to Ji Zhe’s defiance by preparing for conflict or watching with interest. Zhuo Jun, meanwhile, is furious.

Significant themes

• Fear can distort reality: Phobia changes how people perceive one another and may cause imagined horrors to become real.
• Humanity under coercion: The vote forces students to choose who will die, testing whether survival excuses cruelty.
• Authority and resistance: The class’s fractured loyalties culminate in Ji Zhe’s open challenge to the teacher.
• Class Thirteen’s instability: Unlike other classes driven mainly by self-preservation, its members are unpredictable and theatrical, making the group both resistant and volatile.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• With the Student Council absent, Class Thirteen’s gloomy female teacher begins a vote to decide who will be sent to the Tunnel. She warns that refusing to vote may leave the class trapped at school.
• Yuan Hui and Ji Zhe urge their classmates not to repeat the previous vote, but the teacher allows students to send their choices by text. Once voting becomes secret, the class quickly joins in—including the ghosts, who vote to protect themselves.
• The teacher announces the results: three ghosts from Ma Tao’s dorm receive the most votes. Zhuo Jun also draws many votes, while Wang Jie receives six. Gao Ming receives none.
• After the teacher leaves with the blood-red ballot box, Zhuo Jun exposes Yuan Hui as having voted for the fifty-first student to be sent to the Tunnel. He argues that following the Investigation Bureau’s lessons is the best way to survive.
• Gao Ming challenges that view, suggesting the Bureau may be responsible for the repeated dangers during the school’s activity classes. His argument turns the class’s suspicion toward the Bureau and its teachers.
• Investigators arrive to take away the three selected ghosts. Most students remain silent, but Ji Zhe blocks the classroom exit and objects to voting people to death. Gao Ming reinforces the rebellion, asking why they should trust an organization that brought them to the school and keeps putting them in danger.
• As the investigators approach Gao Ming, Ji Zhe warns him to move aside, suggesting he is ready to confront them.

Character developments

• Gao Ming shifts from observing to actively shaping the class’s thinking. His calm, strategic persuasion makes him a focal point of resistance, and he appears to have avoided votes because others consider him useful.
• Ji Zhe embraces his newfound sense of purpose. Having once felt ordinary, he now believes his unusual circumstances give him a responsibility to protect others; he acts on that belief by challenging the vote and blocking the exit.
• Yuan Hui is revealed to have participated in the vote despite urging others not to. His regret does not stop Zhuo Jun from using the revelation to discredit him.
• Zhuo Jun tries to defend the Investigation Bureau’s authority and control the class, but his aggression and Gao Ming’s accusations make him increasingly unpopular.
• The female teacher appears energized by the students’ willingness to vote and seems intent on deepening divisions within the class.

Significant themes

• Fear and self-preservation: Students and ghosts vote to protect themselves, even when they know the system may condemn others.
• Manipulation and complicity: Secret voting turns reluctant classmates into participants in a deadly process.
• Authority and mistrust: The chapter questions whether the Investigation Bureau is protecting the students or steering them toward its own agenda.
• Ordinary people taking responsibility: Ji Zhe’s growing conviction that he should protect others contrasts with the class’s tendency to stay silent.
• Escalating conflict: Gao Ming deliberately redirects suspicion toward the Bureau, making resistance more likely even as it raises the danger.

Character interactions

• Yuan Hui and Ji Zhe try to stop the vote, but the teacher’s texting option undermines their efforts.
• Zhuo Jun confronts Yuan Hui, exposes his vote, and uses force to silence him.
• Gao Ming counters Zhuo Jun’s defense of the Bureau by pointing to the pattern of dangerous activity classes; Xishan and other students begin adopting his suspicion.
• Ji Zhe and Gao Ming work together—Ji Zhe through direct action, Gao Ming through persuasion—to oppose the investigators’ attempt to take the chosen ghosts.

Plot points and events

• The Investigators use Teaching Certificates—bearing their own photos on one side and Situ An’s on the other—to enforce his rules and seize a ghost student. Gao Ming suspects Situ An’s will is embedded in the certificates and decides to steal them.
• When the Investigators move to push Ji Zhe aside, Gao Ming secretly uses his blood to summon a ghost from Sishui Apartments. Gossip appears and swiftly makes two certificate-wearing Investigators vanish.
• The class is stunned. Ji Zhe claims his terrifying unseen presence drove the Investigators away, and his classmates begin to believe—and rally behind—him.
• Zhuo Jun warns that the school’s rules will kill the three selected students regardless of the Investigation Bureau’s actions. Ji Zhe refuses to give them up.
• The bell ends class. Zhuo Jun withdraws the remaining Investigators rather than risk more of his forces. The class prepares for Health Class near the Infirmary.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming stays composed, uses Ji Zhe’s reputation as cover, and obtains two Teaching Certificates while everyone watches the apparent “power” behind Ji Zhe. He recognizes that Sishui Apartments’ ghosts are not bound by either the school’s or Situ An’s rules.
• Ji Zhe, whose phobia is genuine and extreme, unintentionally becomes a protector and figurehead. His earnest warnings convince others that something is behind him; his classmates’ descriptions of Gossip intensify his fear.
• Gossip answers Gao Ming’s call and attacks the Investigators, though she is offended when someone calls her ugly.
• Zhuo Jun shifts from confidence in Situ An’s advantage to caution, attempting to negotiate with Ji Zhe before ordering a retreat.
• The classmates move from dismissing Ji Zhe to trusting him, reasoning that someone who protects ghost classmates may protect them too.

Significant themes

• Fear as influence: Ji Zhe’s phobia spreads through the class and changes how people behave, even though he does not intend to inspire them.
• Competing systems of power: Situ An’s rules control the Investigators, while the Sishui Apartments ghosts operate beyond those rules.
• Appearance versus reality: Ji Zhe seems to be bluffing but is sincerely terrified; Gao Ming’s apparent fear is strategic; and the “ghost behind Ji Zhe” is real, though not under his control.
• Protection and solidarity: Ji Zhe’s refusal to abandon the three targeted students earns him the class’s support.

Key plot points and events

• Ji Zhe’s terror intensifies after he believes a ghost has replaced him. His classmates crowd around him, while his brother Ji Fu warns Gao Ming that the “Ji Zhe” in the room is an evil ghost. Wang Jie questions Ji Fu’s story and suspects Ji Zhe may have known about the reunion in advance.
• Gao Ming and Wang Jie notice that the school’s balance of power has shifted: Student Council members have retreated to a few buildings, while Investigation Bureau teachers openly urge students to break the old rules. Wang Jie fears the Bureau is preparing to take control and sees the earlier vote to kill someone as a test of the students’ obedience.
• Gao Ming, Wang Jie, and Xishan prepare for the next class, suspecting the Infirmary and Health Room may be dangerous. Zhou Sisi privately warns Gao Ming that the afternoon social-practice class could be deadly for many students. Gao Ming says it may be the moment to change the school’s rules.
• Class Thirteen enters the Office Building, which Gao Ming recognizes as Situ An’s territory. In the Health Room, a friendly teacher asks students to complete physical and psychological assessments. The suspicious class refuses to volunteer—until everyone turns toward Gao Ming, the psychologist, as their presumed example of mental health.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming remains wary and reluctant to get involved, but the spreading phobia and the school’s changing power structure push him toward taking action. He is uneasy about Ji Zhe and the danger the Investigation Bureau may pose to him.
• Wang Jie increasingly relies on Gao Ming for judgment, while also showing himself to be a sharp strategist who recognizes the Bureau’s political maneuvering.
• Ji Zhe becomes the focus of his classmates’ attention, balancing a sense of vanity at being singled out against overwhelming fear.
• Ji Fu tries to protect his brother by warning Gao Ming, but Wang Jie dismisses his account and challenges his explanation for being at the reunion.
• Zhou Sisi seeks a private conversation with Gao Ming about the coming class and its likely casualties. Xishan, jealous and overprotective, repeatedly interrupts them and insists Gao Ming stay loyal to their dorm group.
• The Health Room teacher’s gentle manner contrasts with the students’ suspicion, setting up Gao Ming to be tested.

Significant themes

• Fear makes the imagined tangible: As phobia spreads, students’ fears may manifest as real entities, potentially creating threats far beyond Ji Zhe’s case.
• Control and rebellion: The Student Council’s retreat leaves the Investigation Bureau poised to dominate the school, forcing students to consider resisting its authority.
• Appearance versus reality: Ji Zhe may or may not be what he appears to be, and the seemingly kind Health Room teacher is immediately viewed with suspicion.
• Psychological expertise is not immunity: The chapter ends by challenging the assumption that being a psychologist means Gao Ming is mentally healthy.

Plot points and events

• Fearing the health class may expose their secrets, the students let Gao Ming go first. Zhou Sisi volunteers instead, hoping to protect him.
• Zhou Sisi passes the physical tests, but the teacher’s “mental-health screening” guides her through an imagined window, mirror, and door.
• At the door, Zhou Sisi senses the 51st Student, the bloodied figure who once appeared beside her bed. Her resistance makes the painted door seem to open, and the class hears knocking from outside.
• The teacher reveals an eye hidden in her palm. Zhou Sisi collapses, but the teacher declares her fit to pass and insists everyone be examined. The classroom door is locked, trapping the students.
• Gao Ming suspects the screening may be designed to target Class Thirteen. Wang Jie proposes testing someone from another class, but Ji Zhe reveals that his brother Ji Fu was imprisoned for beating a boss while helping workers recover unpaid wages.
• Ji Fu and Ji Zhe both hurry to be tested, each trying to protect the other. Gao Ming slips Ji Zhe Teacher Xia’s Posthumous Photograph and warns him about the teacher’s palm before his psychological screening.

Character developments and interactions

• Zhou Sisi risks exposure to protect Gao Ming. Her cheerful demeanor does not shield her from a terrifying vision, and her red Student Council Armband appears to hurt her as she resists the teacher.
• Gao Ming remains cautious and observant. He worries that the class is being singled out and quietly helps Ji Zhe prepare for the test.
• Ji Zhe and Ji Fu show strong loyalty, though Ji Fu’s embellished account of his work history is exposed. Their competitive rush to take the test comes from wanting to spare each other.
• Wang Jie tries to use Ji Fu as a test case, revealing the class’s survival-driven suspicion and pragmatism.
• Zhou Sisi’s sacrifice prompts teasing from classmates, while Gao Ming and Ji Zhe form a bond through their shared sense of decency.

Significant themes

• Trust and self-preservation: Students must decide whether to protect one another or use others to assess danger.
• Hidden trauma and the self: The screening turns inward feelings into frightening, possibly supernatural experiences.
• Appearance versus reality: The teacher’s gentle manner conceals danger; Ji Fu’s respectable-sounding story hides his past; and the class’s “health” test may be a trap.
• Loyalty and sacrifice: Zhou Sisi and the Ji brothers put others’ safety ahead of their own.

Plot and events

• Gao Ming submits to the assessment to stay close to Ji Zhe, and the rest of Dormitory 1314 join the line. In the mental-health test, students look at a window, mirror, and door; each sees private visions, but all see someone waiting outside the door. The ordeal leaves them exhausted.
• Saeki refuses the Health Teacher’s help and sees a bloody scene through the window: the school doctor is harvesting a living victim’s body parts for a cabinet that seems to consume them. The class can see traces of his vision, suggesting the test’s supernatural influence is spreading.
• Gao Ming suspects the drawings are part of a Greater Ghost’s ability, used by the Investigation Bureau to uncover memories of the forgotten 51st Student. The person outside each student’s door may be that student, whom the class has somehow erased from memory.
• In the mirror, Saeki sees a polished, successful version of himself, which tears itself apart while searching for a heart. At the door, the Health Teacher urges him to let the visitor in. Saeki instead opens the drawn door and enters it himself; it shuts behind him, leaving blood on the teacher’s hands.
• Zhuo Jun’s frustration reveals the Bureau wanted memory fragments about the 51st Student. Gao Ming realizes he already possesses a potentially relevant fragment from the Dormitory Building.
• Yuan Hui’s test reveals a bus speeding through darkness, the class dead in the mirror, and a crash. He recognizes the person outside the door but refuses to let him enter a bus full of dead people. He smashes his head against the door, apologizes, and warns the others to run.

Character developments and interactions

• Gao Ming stays observant and strategic, piecing together the test’s purpose and the Bureau’s hidden agenda. He watches both his classmates and the teacher for clues.
• Saeki is openly distrustful and traumatized. His visions suggest deep self-alienation, and his choice to enter the door rather than welcome the visitor derails the Bureau’s plan.
• Yuan Hui shifts from combative resistance to grief and guilt as his vision unfolds. His warning suggests he believes the class has already suffered—or will suffer—a fatal bus disaster.
• The Health Teacher remains outwardly kind at first, but becomes forceful and finally hostile as the students’ visions turn violent and unpredictable.
• Zhuo Jun and the Investigation Bureau appear to be manipulating the assessment to recover memories of the 51st Student. Zhuo Jun resents the class’s refusal to follow the expected course.
• Qian Junran tries to calm Saeki and later comforts Zhuo Jun, while classmates must physically restrain Yuan Hui.

Significant themes

• Memory and repression: The 51st Student seems to exist in the class’s buried memories despite being forgotten.
• Trauma and fractured identity: The window and mirror expose visions of horror, guilt, and selves that characters cannot accept.
• Control versus choice: The Bureau and teacher try to steer the students toward a desired outcome, but the students’ own fears and decisions disrupt the plan.
• Unreliable reality: Drawings become portals or shared visions, blurring the boundary between memory, supernatural events, and the physical world.

Chapter summary

Key events

• Ma Tao receives a “completely healthy” assessment despite being a ghost. Exhausted by years of striving to escape his condition, he has largely given up. The Health Teacher barely acknowledges him, and Wang Jie pushes him aside.
• The Health Teacher examines Liu Yi using illusions involving a painted window, a mirror, and a door. Liu Yi sees through the illusions and calmly describes the teacher’s true, grotesque nature. The teacher loses her composure and ends Liu Yi’s test.
• Ji Zhe warns the teacher not to stand behind him, claiming a terrifying ghost has chosen him. During the examination, he falls into the teacher’s illusion and sees the painted window transform into a posthumous photograph. A corpse inside paints scenes of the Health Classroom, the Infirmary, and the students’ horrific deaths. The rooms begin to show signs of supernatural disturbance.
• In the mirror, Ji Zhe’s reflected self reveals overwhelming malice and tries to smash its way out. Gao Ming suspects Xia Yang has grown stronger, perhaps by absorbing the Art Teacher’s Grudge House.

Character developments and interactions

• Ma Tao is revealed as deeply weary and disillusioned. His normal test results underscore how meaningless ordinary assessments are in this world of ghosts.
• Liu Yi demonstrates unusual mental resilience: the Health Teacher’s powers cannot make her accept the illusions. She sees through the teacher’s appearance and unsettles her by describing what she sees.
• The Health Teacher shifts from gentle professional composure to anger and fear. Liu Yi’s resistance and Ji Zhe’s alarming visions challenge her control of the examination.
• Ji Zhe appears playful and cryptic at first, but his test exposes a dangerous inner darkness. His supernatural connection seems tied to a terrifying ghost, though its nature remains unclear.
• Gao Ming watches closely and links Ji Zhe’s transformation to Xia Yang’s growing power.

Significant themes

• Exhaustion and hopelessness: Ma Tao’s struggle suggests that relentless effort may offer no escape in a world governed by cruel rules.
• Reality versus illusion: Liu Yi resists the Health Teacher’s constructed visions, while Ji Zhe’s perceptions bring hidden horrors into the physical setting.
• Hidden selves and inner darkness: The mirror exposes a side of Ji Zhe that contradicts his outward behavior.
• Supernatural influence and escalating danger: The posthumous photograph appears to affect the surrounding Grudge Houses, hinting that the boundaries between vision and reality are weakening.