Chapter Summaries

Key plot points

• Chen Miao returns to his office at Tianmen Funeral Home, where business has declined since a newer competitor opened. Experienced staff have left or are considering offers from the rival funeral center.
• He unwraps a book that appears to have been misdelivered: Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World, despite having ordered a different title. Its first-person story features an attendant named Old Wang asking the narrator to cover a night shift at a funeral home; the narrator enters the cold-storage room and dies. The rest of the book is blank.
• Soon after, Chen receives a work call about Qian Xiaomei, a 28-year-old beauty blogger who died suddenly. He begins preparing the opening remarks for her memorial service.
• As Chen edits the remarks, his phone rings again. The caller is Wang, the cold-storage attendant—the same name and job as the figure in the book’s opening.

Character developments

• Chen is conscientious and careful in his work, shaped by seeing his uncle endure angry families’ reactions to mistakes.
• His choice of funeral services was influenced by both his uncle’s business and the reverence and curiosity about death he developed after his grandfather’s burial.
• The mysterious book unsettles Chen mainly because its details resemble his workplace and colleagues, though he initially dismisses it as an unfinished draft.

Character interactions

• Chen briefly sees Old Wang hurrying toward the service building, then later speaks with him by phone.
• Chen’s uncle has been an important mentor and family influence, supporting Chen through his early career.
• Chen is tasked with preparing memorial materials for Qian Xiaomei’s family, whose expectations he treats with care.

Significant themes

• Death and curiosity: Chen’s childhood loss and professional life have made death both solemn and compelling to him.
• Work, loyalty, and change: The funeral home’s decline and staff departures contrast with Chen’s continued connection to his uncle’s business.
• Fiction and reality: The book’s eerie overlap with Chen’s workplace and Old Wang introduces a possible supernatural threat.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao’s coworker, Brother Wang, asks him to watch the funeral home’s aging cold-storage equipment overnight. The request closely matches events described in a mysterious book Chen Miao has been reading.
• The book’s first chapter already records the phone call and other details accurately. Its final lines suggest that someone who goes to check the cold storage will die.
• Chen Miao asks his eldest uncle to cover the shift instead. The book changes to describe the uncle taking his place—and dying—so Chen Miao realizes the danger may affect anyone who goes, not just him.
• Chen Miao tells his uncle he will cover the shift after all, and the book changes back to the version in which Chen Miao dies. He suspects that his choices, and the people involved, determine what the book records.
• To test this, he invites a childhood friend to keep him company. The book predicts that they will both go to the cold storage and die. Chen Miao cancels the invitation, but the text does not change until he convinces his friend that the invitation was a joke. Then it returns to the version in which Chen Miao alone is in danger.

Character developments

• Chen Miao moves from cautious disbelief to certainty that supernatural forces exist, linking the book to an unexplained fever he experienced when his grandfather died.
• He responds by testing the book’s rules rather than accepting its predictions outright. His concern for his uncle is genuine, but he is also trying to understand how to avoid the apparent death scenario.
• Brother Wang, Chen Miao’s uncle, and his childhood friend remain unaware of the book’s warnings.

Significant themes

• Fate and choice: The book seems to predict events, yet Chen Miao’s actions can alter its contents.
• The limits of prediction: Changes appear tied not only to what Chen Miao decides, but also to whether other people are truly involved.
• The supernatural intruding on ordinary life: A routine work request becomes a possible life-or-death threat.
• Responsibility and self-preservation: Chen Miao must weigh his own safety against the danger posed to his uncle and friend.

Character interactions

• Brother Wang’s ordinary request sets the story’s danger in motion.
• Chen Miao turns to his uncle for help, then reverses course after the book suggests his uncle would die instead.
• He invites his childhood friend as a test, then abruptly cancels and endures the friend’s angry reaction. The book’s response to their conversation helps him refine his theory: its “I” may refer specifically to Chen Miao, rather than to anyone who enters the cold storage.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao continues testing the mysterious book. It updates only after concrete events, can reveal facts he does not know, and seems to fill in details using its own assumptions rather than reading his thoughts.
• He stays away from the funeral home’s cold storage room overnight. The next morning, his uncle, Chen Weiyi, tells him that Old Wang has died there after returning drunk. Old Wang had been distraught over his wife’s demand for a divorce.
• The book’s revised prediction says Chen Miao will be assigned to watch the cold storage room after Old Wang’s death. In the early hours, a refrigerated cabinet door will open, and Chen Miao will die.
• Unsure how to defend himself against what seems like a supernatural threat, Chen Miao tries several possible protections: he takes a willow branch and buys a peachwood talisman and sword. None changes the book.
• He visits the Old Mother Shrine on Jingshan and offers unusually costly incense, but the prediction remains unchanged. Only after he takes a handful of incense ash does the book update, mentioning the ash—yet still predicting that he will die when a cabinet door opens.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more methodical and alert, using the book to investigate his future and test what might alter it. Despite his fear, he acts rather than simply accepting the prediction.
• Chen Weiyi is shaken by Old Wang’s death, and his trembling hand reveals how deeply it affects him. He is also relieved Chen Miao did not enter the cold storage room.
• Old Wang is revealed to have been under severe personal strain: his marriage was breaking down, and he returned to work after drinking.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao lies to Chen Weiyi about why he stayed away from the cold storage room, concealing his knowledge of the predicted danger.
• Chen Weiyi explains Old Wang’s death and the circumstances surrounding it, then tells Chen Miao to get out of the funeral home if he needs a break.
• At the shrine, Chen Miao’s unusual act of taking incense ash draws astonished looks from nearby worshippers.

Significant themes

• Knowledge versus control: The book reveals what may happen, but knowing the future does not automatically show Chen Miao how to prevent it.
• Fate and intervention: Chen Miao tests whether practical or spiritual actions can change the prediction; the ash changes the book’s account, but not the fatal outcome.
• Grief, isolation, and death: Old Wang’s private despair culminates in death at the place where he spent much of his working life, while Chen Miao confronts the possibility that he may meet the same fate.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao realizes the incense ash altered the book’s prediction but did not save him: the cold-storage-room incident now kills him just after nightfall, and the compartment door slams shut. He returns the ash to the shrine’s cauldron.
• Worried that his uncle will investigate the cold storage room and die, Chen Miao decides to reveal the book to him.
• At the funeral home, Chen Weiyi explains that they paid Old Wang’s family 200,000 yuan to prevent further trouble, especially since the rival North City Fushou Funeral Center is watching them. He plans to hire someone for the cold storage room and asks Chen Miao to keep an eye on it meanwhile.
• Chen Miao shows his uncle the book, but Chen Weiyi sees only an ordinary copy of If Eyes Deceive You. Chen Miao discovers that the book appears to him as Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World; its supernatural text is invisible to others.
• Unable to persuade his uncle without risking another death or damaging the funeral home’s reputation, Chen Miao decides to investigate the cold storage room himself during daylight, hoping the book’s predictions will change.
• He enters the room, opens the compartments containing Old Wang and Qian Xiaomei, and finds that the book’s first-page prediction remains unchanged after checking Old Wang’s body. Suspecting Qian Xiaomei is connected to the danger, he opens her compartment and begins pulling her out.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao grows more determined to protect his uncle, even though he must act without his support. He shifts from trying to convince Chen Weiyi to investigating the danger directly.
• Chen Weiyi is exhausted and focused on keeping the funeral home operating. He treats the book as an ordinary title and does not realize Chen Miao’s version is supernatural.
• Their conversation shows their familial concern but also a growing gap: Chen Miao knows a lethal threat is coming, while his uncle cannot see the evidence.
• Chen Miao also considers the funeral home’s financial vulnerability and the danger of rumors, showing that his choices affect more than just his own survival.

Significant themes

• Knowledge and isolation: Chen Miao’s special access to the book leaves him unable to prove what he knows.
• Fate and intervention: He tests whether changing events—first with incense ash, then by entering the cold storage room early—can alter the predicted outcome.
• Family loyalty and sacrifice: Chen Miao prioritizes his uncle’s life over keeping the book secret.
• Survival amid institutional pressure: The funeral home’s fragile finances and its rival’s scrutiny make every supernatural incident a practical threat as well.

Plot points and events

• The mysterious book updates after Chen Miao enters the cold-storage room and approaches Qian Xiaomei’s body. Its new account says that, while guarding the storage, Chen hears a sound from the compartment beside Old Wang’s, opens it, and is killed by a corpse that grabs his wrist and reaches into his chest. Before dying, he hears, “Why won’t you give me…”
• Chen suspects the ghost’s unfinished words concern an unresolved attachment. He investigates Qian Xiaomei’s life and finds her beauty-content videos, where she looks strikingly different from the face he saw in the mortuary.
• He calls her mother, who blames Xiaomei’s cosmetics and independent lifestyle for her sudden death, then breaks down with guilt. Chen learns that Xiaomei cared deeply about her appearance and that her mother selected the free, natural-makeup package, rejecting heavier cosmetics.
• Chen suggests that leaving Xiaomei without the look she would have wanted might cause regret. Her mother reluctantly agrees to let the funeral home give her makeup.
• Chen hires his colleague Shi Manman to recreate the look from Xiaomei’s most-liked video. While Shi works, Chen waits nearby. Once she finishes, the book changes again: its chapter title becomes “Beautiful even in death.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao moves from fear of the corpse and confusion about the book to investigating the ghost’s likely wish. He shows empathy toward Xiaomei’s mother and takes responsibility for testing his theory, even paying for the makeup himself.
• Qian Xiaomei is revealed through her videos and her mother’s account as someone who prized her appearance and beauty work. Her attachment to her face may explain the ghost’s unfinished plea.
• Xiaomei’s mother begins angry and blaming, but her anger gives way to grief and self-recrimination. She ultimately accepts Chen’s proposal, putting her daughter’s wishes ahead of her own objections.
• Shi Manman proves efficient and considerate: she agrees to help without demanding an explanation, offers Chen a discount, and gets to work. Chen’s opinion of her warms, and he recognizes her as a colleague who regards him as an acquaintance.

Significant themes

• Unfinished attachments and the dead: The chapter suggests that a deceased person’s unresolved wishes may keep them from resting peacefully.
• Appearance, identity, and remembrance: Xiaomei’s carefully crafted public image contrasts with her mother’s preference for a “clean” face, raising the question of whose wishes should shape how someone is remembered.
• Grief and guilt: Xiaomei’s mother’s anger masks sorrow and regret, while Chen’s tact helps her reconsider what her daughter might have wanted.
• Compassion through action: Chen responds to the supernatural threat not only by investigating it, but by trying to honor the person behind it.

Key plot points and events

• After Chen Miao finishes the chapter about Old Wang and Qian Xiaomei, the book reports that he gained two qian of yin virtue, learned Makeup · proficient, earned Qian Xiaomei’s gratitude, and incurred Old Wang’s seven-day grudge. A side story becomes available.
• Chen Miao confirms that Qian Xiaomei appears peacefully satisfied after the mortuary artist, Shi Manman, does her makeup. He wonders whether Old Wang also has an unresolved grievance, but leaves the cold-storage cabinet unopened.
• The book’s first page changes into a table of contents. Its new sections list Chen Miao’s profile, skills, side stories, and a redemption list. His profile shows he is haunted by resentment for seven days.
• The side story reveals the danger: Chen Miao repeatedly dreams of being trapped in a freezing, cramped space. Each time he wakes, his health worsens; after the seventh dream, he dies. The implication is that Old Wang’s grudge will pursue him wherever he goes.
• The redemption list offers ritual materials and objects in exchange for yin virtue. Chen Miao tests it and summons four incense sticks from the book. They appear to be extremely valuable, high-grade incense.
• The chapter ends with Chen Miao suspecting the four sticks are intended as an offering to ghosts, recalling the saying: “Three for gods, four for ghosts.”

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from puzzled reader to someone confronting the book’s supernatural rules. He learns that his actions can earn rewards and provoke dangerous consequences, and begins testing the book’s powers.
• Qian Xiaomei is presented as grateful for being made up before burial; her apparent smile suggests her wish was fulfilled.
• Old Wang becomes a threatening presence after death. His resentment is distinct from Qian Xiaomei’s and may affect Chen Miao even outside the cold storage.
• Shi Manman, the mortuary makeup artist, performs Qian Xiaomei’s makeup. Chen Miao praises her work and pays her 400 yuan; she offers him a discount on future jobs.

Significant themes

• Ritual care and dignity in death: Chen Miao’s decision to arrange makeup for Qian Xiaomei gives her a more dignified farewell.
• Moral actions have consequences: Helping the dead earns yin virtue and gratitude, but neglect or unresolved matters can invite resentment.
• The supernatural becomes transactional: The book turns virtue into a currency for obtaining ritual goods, while also recording spiritual debts and dangers.
• Curiosity versus survival: Chen Miao’s discovery of the book’s powers offers practical advantages, but its rules are still unclear—and its costs may be lethal.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao considers whether the four precious incense sticks he redeemed from the mysterious book could help resolve Old Wang’s lingering resentment. He suspects the book’s items may be useful for the situations it foretells, but decides to test ordinary incense first.
• He discovers that items can also be returned to the book: when he lowers the four sticks to its [Item list] page, they vanish from his hand and appear listed inside.
• Chen Miao gathers ordinary funeral offerings from the funeral-home store and cafeteria. At dusk, he sets them before Old Wang’s compartment in the cold-storage room: four incense sticks, spirit money, plain rice, three apples, and clean water.
• Following funeral customs, he lights the incense without blowing on it, places the sticks evenly, bows, and burns the spirit money while wishing Old Wang a peaceful departure. He leaves only after the incense has burned out.

Character development

• Chen Miao remains cautious and methodical, relying on his knowledge as a funeral officiant while testing his supernatural theories in a controlled way.
• His growing certainty that ghosts are real makes him take traditional taboos and rites more seriously. Although curious, he avoids using the precious book-redeemed incense until he knows more.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao briefly interacts with Li Fang at the funeral-supplies store. She cheerfully gives him the requested items without charging him, suggesting he settle the cost with his uncle.
• His main interaction is with Old Wang, whom he addresses through offerings and prayers rather than direct conversation. Chen Miao treats him as a resentful spirit who may be helped, but not yet as an immediate threat.

Significant themes

• Tradition and ritual: The chapter explains the customs and symbolism behind incense, offerings, and funeral practices.
• Experimentation under uncertainty: Chen Miao tests whether ordinary rites can affect a supernatural problem before risking scarce, powerful resources.
• Respect between the living and the dead: The offerings express compassion for the departed while also asking the spirit not to return to the living world.

Key plot points and events

• After making modest offerings to the ghost of his former coworker Old Wang, Chen Miao began suffering recurring dreams of being trapped in a cramped, freezing space. Each dream worsened his health, and the book revealed the haunting would last six days.
• Chen Miao reasoned that Old Wang’s resentment was dangerous but survivable if he stayed awake, unlike Qian Xiaomei’s fatal threat. He also concluded that supernatural remedies depended on using the right items at the right quality.
• Hoping to end the haunting, Chen Miao prepared more substantial offerings: fruit, bottled spring water, joss paper, gold and silver paper ingots, and Five-Grain Rice. Most importantly, he used four sticks of Jiangzhen Incense.
• The incense smoke spiraled strangely. The book’s account changed, reducing the haunting to one remaining day. Chen Miao still had the same cold, immobilizing dream, but no further harm followed.
• After staying awake through the night and reaching morning, Chen Miao completed the side story. He gained one qian of Yin Virtue, a fragment of Old Wang’s memory, and “Six Jiangzhen Secrets.”

Character development

• Chen Miao becomes more cautious and methodical about supernatural dangers, treating folk customs as potentially real and learning that ineffective tools may be unsuitable or poor quality.
• He shows growing responsibility by guarding the cold storage room, honoring his promise to his uncle, and preventing others from disturbing Old Wang.
• He also begins actively rebuilding his knowledge of folklore to better handle future encounters.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao’s relationship with Old Wang is indirect but central: through offerings and ritual, he tries to address the ghost’s resentment and respectfully see him off.
• Chen Miao’s earlier experience with Qian Xiaomei shapes how he judges Old Wang’s threat, while his promise to his eldest uncle motivates him to keep watch over the cold storage room.

Significant themes

• Respect and ritual: Proper offerings and observance can affect the dead and the living.
• Knowledge and preparedness: Supernatural problems require understanding the specific threat and choosing appropriate remedies.
• Fear tempered by responsibility: Chen Miao acts despite uncertainty, balancing self-preservation with care for others.
• The lingering bond between living and dead: Old Wang’s haunting may also represent a final visit, rather than simple hostility.

Plot points and events

• After a long night in the cold storage room, Chen Miao checks his supernatural book. His karmic merit has risen to two qian, and he has learned the Six Jiangzhen Secrets: incantations for resolving the resentment of violent-death victims, calming natural-death souls, aiding suicides and infant spirits, helping unattended ghosts pass on, and subduing evil spirits.
• A new item, Old Wang’s memory fragment, appears. Chen Miao falls asleep while trying to retrieve it and experiences Old Wang’s repetitive life as a cold-storage caretaker. He eventually stops resisting the routine and finds calm in it; the dream ends when Old Wang falls asleep beside the refrigerated cabinets.
• On waking, Chen Miao finds the memory fragment gone and gains the status Iceheart, which makes him less susceptible to distractions and improves concentration.
• The next morning, Chen Miao prepares and presides over Qian Xiaomei’s memorial service, carefully checking the arrangements and guiding her grieving parents and relatives. He opens the ceremony with a eulogy honoring her wish to live each day vividly.

Character developments

• Chen Miao remains dutiful and composed in his work, but the new secrets stir his curiosity about testing them on spirits.
• Experiencing Old Wang’s memories gives Chen Miao insight into the caretaker’s quiet, focused way of life. The Iceheart status formalizes that focus as a supernatural ability.
• Chen Miao’s professionalism at Qian Xiaomei’s service contrasts with the family’s grief; despite having witnessed many funerals, he treats the ceremony with care.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao works with funeral-home staff to prepare Qian Xiaomei and confirm the service details.
• He greets Qian Xiaomei’s parents, confirms the arrangements with them, and escorts them to view their daughter. Her mother breaks down in tears.
• He guides the arriving relatives through the memorial procedures and addresses the mourners as the service begins.

Significant themes

• Ritual and compassion: The Jiangzhen incantations frame funeral rites as ways to ease the suffering of different kinds of departed souls.
• Routine and acceptance: Old Wang’s memories show how surrendering to an unchanging routine can bring a kind of peace.
• Grief and remembrance: Qian Xiaomei’s service emphasizes the lasting value of a life, regardless of how short it was.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao oversees Qian Xiaomei’s final arrangements, from the farewell ceremony through cremation. Her parents accompany her to the crematory; her mother asks to see her once more, and the family lingers before the coffin enters the furnace.
• After the two-hour cremation and cooling period, crematory operator Old Yu sifts out the larger bone fragments and crushes them by hand because the funeral home’s old furnace lacks the necessary equipment. Chen Miao arranges for Qian Xiaomei’s mother to wait outside, sparing her from witnessing this step, while her father remains.
• Old Yu places the remains in the urn. Chen Miao helps Qian Xiaomei’s father obtain the cremation certificate, completing the funeral home’s responsibilities.
• Chen Miao accepts the customary white envelope from the family, reflecting his reluctant accommodation of funeral-home customs. He then meets with his uncle, Chen Weiyi, who asks him to assess the business. After Chen Miao explains the funeral home’s advantages and challenges, his uncle unexpectedly offers him the director’s position.

Character developments

• Chen Miao demonstrates practical competence and compassion. He carefully manages procedures while recognizing how painful they are for the family, especially when he shields Qian Xiaomei’s mother from seeing her remains crushed. He also shows a thoughtful grasp of the funeral home’s business.
• Chen Weiyi appears to be evaluating Chen Miao’s judgment and readiness to take on greater responsibility.
• Qian Xiaomei’s parents are portrayed in profound grief: her mother repeatedly breaks down, while her father tries to endure the process and complete the necessary arrangements.
• Old Yu is introduced as an experienced, matter-of-fact crematory operator whose grim task reflects the funeral home’s aging equipment.

Significant themes

• Grief and dignity: Funeral procedures can be painful and unsettling, and Chen Miao tries to preserve the family’s dignity through small acts of consideration.
• The practical realities of death: Cremation is shown as a lengthy, physical process rather than the simplified version often depicted in films.
• Tradition and compromise: Chen Miao is uneasy about customary envelopes but accepts that personal refusal may not change the custom.
• Change and survival: Tianmen Funeral Home competes with a newer, better-equipped center by serving customers who need simpler, more affordable services and value its location.

Character interactions

• Chen Miao guides Qian Xiaomei’s family through each stage, allowing her parents time to say goodbye and arranging for her mother to leave before the most distressing part.
• He works efficiently with Old Yu, coordinating the cremation and the handling of the remains.
• In the office, Chen Weiyi listens to Chen Miao’s business analysis and responds by offering him the director’s role, ending the chapter on a major career turning point.

Key plot points and events

• Chen Weiyi tells his twenty-four-year-old nephew, Chen Miao, that he intends to make him director of the Tianmen Funeral Home. The decision is not sudden: he had been considering it since Chen Miao chose to study funeral services.
• Chen Weiyi wants to spare his daughter, who dislikes the family business and may face prejudice from a future in-law family. He offers Chen Miao a favorable arrangement: Chen Miao will give him 100,000 yuan a year from the roughly 300,000 yuan annual profit, but owes him nothing if profits fall below 200,000 yuan or the business closes.
• Though initially doubtful of his ability, Chen Miao accepts that he should take the opportunity seriously. He begins studying the funeral home’s records and history, using the concentration-enhancing effect of “Iceheart” to absorb the material quickly.
• He learns that Chen Weiyi built the business through bold investment: after receiving demolition compensation and making a successful stock investment, he leased land, bought a hearse, refrigerated cabinets, and a cremation furnace, and took on debt. Despite public ridicule and high costs, the business became successful, with equipment rentals providing an additional source of income.
• Chen Miao identifies the responsibilities he must learn to oversee, including equipment maintenance, supplies, staff, business arrangements, and the land lease. He plans to study the operation rather than act as a hands-off owner.
• In the evening, he returns to the cold-storage area, where he is temporarily covering for the still-unfilled attendant position. Before entering, he checks Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World for signs of danger, and considers expanding his daily inspections to other areas of the funeral home.

Character developments

• Chen Miao moves from surprise and self-doubt toward cautious acceptance. The prospect of a much higher income and independence excites him, but he resolves to prepare carefully and take responsibility for the business.
• Chen Weiyi reveals that his succession plan is long-considered and motivated by care for both Chen Miao and his daughter. He is generous with the financial terms and remains confident that Chen Miao can succeed.
• Chen Weiyi’s daughter, though absent, is central to the decision: her dislike of the funeral business and possible social stigma surrounding it lead her father to seek another successor.

Significant themes

• Family duty and succession: Chen Miao’s new role is framed as a way to support his relatives, not merely as a career opportunity.
• Stigma versus necessity: Funeral work is considered unlucky and socially embarrassing, yet every family eventually needs its services.
• Courage and foresight: Chen Weiyi’s willingness to invest in an overlooked industry—and his investment in Chen Miao—contrasts with the people who mocked him.
• Responsibility and preparation: Chen Miao recognizes that taking over means learning the business in detail, not simply enjoying its profits.
• Practical success: The funeral home’s history shows how sound planning and persistence can turn risky investments into lasting prosperity.

Character interactions

• Chen Weiyi gently but firmly counters Chen Miao’s refusal, explaining his motives and reassuring him about the financial risks.
• Chen Miao is persuaded partly by the prospect of protecting his cousin from potential prejudice, as well as by her past kindness toward him.
• The chapter also recalls Chen Weiyi’s strained relationship with public opinion: outsiders once ridiculed his investment, then came to respect the family’s success when they needed funeral services.

Chapter Summary

Key plot points and events

• Chen Miao continues settling into work at Tianmen Funeral Home under his uncle’s guidance. Staff begin to assume he will become the next director, prompting some to reconsider leaving for a rival funeral center.
• His uncle remains unconcerned about staff departures, saying the home can replace ordinary workers as long as its three licensed professionals—crematory operator Old Yu, mortuary cosmetologist Shi Manman, and funeral officiant Chen Miao—stay.
• Chen officiates Old Wang’s memorial service, which the funeral home funds in full after paying the family compensation. Despite the elaborate ceremony, few mourners attend, and Old Wang’s wife leaves his urn in the home’s columbarium.
• Chen overhears news that twin sisters drowned in the Twin Ridge River. His growing exposure to death has made him less immediately emotional, though an earlier sight of an elderly man carrying his son’s ashes affected him deeply.
• Chen studies folk customs and reconnects with former classmates in their funeral-industry group, partly to identify possible future recruits. He learns that Yang Jiuhua has built an audience through eerie-location livestreams, while ambitious Wang Feiyang earns well as an officiant in a major city and hopes to enter management.
• Sales representative Kong Fang messages Chen about a new case involving twins. The photographs she sends show two identical girls, apparently the sisters who drowned.

Character developments

• Chen Miao becomes more confident in his funeral-home role and more engaged with folk studies and professional networking. He is also growing accustomed to death, though certain losses still affect him.
• Chen’s uncle implicitly supports Chen’s eventual succession and prioritizes retaining the essential licensed staff over keeping every employee.
• Wang Feiyang is presented as highly capable and ambitious, aiming to move into management and establish a stable life in a first-tier city.
• Yang Jiuhua has found an unconventional career through spooky livestreams.
• Old Wang’s wife accepts the funeral home’s assistance but leaves her husband’s ashes there, leaving her motives unclear.

Significant themes

• Death and emotional desensitization: Repeated exposure dulls Chen’s reactions, but quiet, personal moments of loss can still move him.
• Work, ambition, and reputation: Funeral work offers varied opportunities and income, yet its social stigma can limit workers’ personal lives.
• Succession and change: Chen’s possible leadership creates uncertainty among staff, while his uncle treats turnover as an ordinary challenge.
• Professional community: Chen’s classmates represent different paths through the industry, and his relationships with them may help sustain the funeral home.

Character interactions

• Chen learns about his likely succession through his uncle’s actions and the staff’s reactions rather than an explicit announcement.
• The funeral home provides Old Wang’s family with compensation and a complete funeral, while Chen reflects on the limited grief shown at the service.
• Chen follows his former classmates’ careers through their group chat and begins cultivating connections for potential recruitment.
• Kong Fang brings Chen the twins’ case, setting up the chapter’s closing hook.

Plot points and events

• Tianmen County’s geography and folklore are introduced: the county sits among mountain ranges, and local legend says an immortal once descended on Mentou Mountain. The Tianmen Funeral Home lies in the southwest, between Twin Ridge Mountain and Twin Ridge River.
• The drowned twins, Li Shilei and Li Shirui, had died while picnicking with their family. Their memorial service is scheduled for two days later.
• Chen Miao helps new cold-storage attendant Tang Rui receive the twins’ bodies. Tang, a former programmer laid off at thirty-five, is glad to have found a comparatively manageable job despite its demanding hours.
• Chen checks Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World and finds no new material. He wonders why previous cases involving Old Wang and Qian Xiaomei triggered supernatural events, while the twins’ deaths have not.
• After repeated unanswered calls, Chen visits the twins’ father, Li Liang, to gather details for their eulogy. He explains that a eulogy can serve as a final message to the dead, but warns against urging them to remain in the world.
• Li Liang opens up for about an hour, and Chen records his memories and takes notes. Li Liang seems relieved, though the state of the home suggests strain between him and his wife.
• As Chen leaves, he encounters an unhealthy-looking man with dyed hair, a black jacket, and unsettling triangular eyes. The man learns Chen is from the funeral home and briefly reacts with interest.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shows patience and empathy toward the grieving Li Liang, while continuing to investigate the unexplained rules behind the book’s supernatural episodes.
• Li Liang is exhausted and grief-stricken, but talking about his daughters and what he wants them to hear appears to ease his burden.
• Tang Rui is adapting to his new job after losing his corporate position; he values the better pay and reduced pressure, despite the isolation and long hours.
• The encounter with the mustached stranger hints that Chen’s work has drawn the attention of someone potentially significant.

Significant themes

• Grief and remembrance: The eulogy offers a way for the living to express what remains unsaid.
• The boundary between life and death: Chen cautions that words meant to comfort can also risk keeping the dead from moving on.
• Uncertainty and hidden rules: The lack of supernatural activity around the twins contrasts with earlier cases, leaving Chen unsure what causes such events.
• Economic pressure and work: Tang’s career change reflects age discrimination, job insecurity, and the compromises people make to find stability.

Plot points and events

• Li Liang’s father brings Master Zhong to the family home to perform rites for Li Liang’s twin daughters, who drowned. Zhong says their intertwined resentment must be separated and their souls delivered individually; otherwise, they may become vengeful.
• Li Liang angrily rejects the implication that his daughters might harm their family and sends Zhong away. Li Weiguo, still grieving, weeps after his son retreats to his room.
• At his shop, Zhong secretly descends into an underground chamber and prepares a hand-rolled cigarette containing tobacco and a mysterious white powder. After smoking it, he cuts his palm, lets blood drip into a sealed jar, and says, “Go.” The incense smoke briefly stirs as if something has departed.
• Later that night, Li Liang wakes grieving and finds his younger daughter’s plush rabbit outside her bedroom. He suspects his father moved it, but then discovers an identical rabbit beside his own bed.
• Believing the toy may be a sign from his daughter, Li Liang decides to enter her room. A small, bruised-blue hand reaches from beneath the bed, grabs him, and he collapses after seeing eerie green eyes.

Character developments

• Li Liang is consumed by grief but fiercely protective of his daughters’ memory. His anger toward Zhong masks his refusal to accept that his children could be dangerous; curiosity and longing ultimately lead him toward the apparition.
• Li Weiguo is grieving deeply and turns to Zhong’s rites as a way to help his granddaughters pass on peacefully. He tries to calm his son but is left alone with his sorrow.
• Zhong Fa presents himself as a modest ritual specialist, yet his secret chamber, strange smoking mixture, blood offering, and command suggest he is involved in occult practices. His motives remain unclear.

Significant themes

• Grief and denial: Li Liang cannot bear the thought of his daughters as threats, while both he and his father struggle with their loss in different ways.
• Parental love and attachment: Li Liang’s longing for his daughter overrides his fear when he sees the rabbit.
• The supernatural and hidden danger: The rites and the presence beneath the bed suggest the boundary between the living and dead is becoming unstable.
• Uncertainty and suspense: The chapter leaves open whether Zhong’s actions summoned the entity, whether it is one of the girls, and what it intends.

Character interactions

• Li Weiguo introduces Zhong and advocates for his rites; Li Liang confronts Zhong and drives him away.
• Li Weiguo physically restrains Li Liang to prevent him from attacking Zhong, then grieves after both men leave.
• Zhong’s interaction with the unseen presence occurs privately through his blood ritual.
• Li Liang’s final encounter with the hand beneath the bed turns his longing to reconnect with his daughter into a sudden supernatural attack.

Key plot points and events

• Li Weiguo finds his son, Li Liang, unconscious and pale, with a black handprint on his wrist, and begs Zhong Fa for help.
• Zhong Fa explains that two vengeful ghosts have drained Li Liang’s yang energy. He gives him talisman-infused water and prescribes glutinous rice porridge and sunlight, restoring his consciousness.
• Zhong Fa’s dramatic burning-talisman display is partly a staged trick to impress Li Weiguo, though the Yin-Dispelling Talisman itself is genuine.
• Li Liang confirms that one of the ghosts was his deceased daughter. Zhong Fa explains that the ghosts act on resentment rather than affection, and that the daughters cannot reincarnate until their resentment is resolved.
• Li Liang agrees to let Zhong Fa help them pass on. The younger daughter, Li Shirui, is identified as the one who attacked him, so Zhong Fa plans to deal with her first, then the older twin, Li Shilei.
• Zhong Fa gives Li Weiguo a protective talisman for the night and accompanies him to the funeral home to retrieve Shirui’s body. There, he secretly takes a lock of Shilei’s hair and several of her nails.
• Funeral attendant Tang Rui accepts a bribe to leave them alone, then reflects that his job may be profitable despite the unsettling work.

Character developments and interactions

• Li Weiguo is terrified for his son and increasingly trusts Zhong Fa, paying the funeral attendant to cooperate.
• Li Liang moves from despair and guilt over his daughters’ deaths to accepting that they must be released, even if they cannot be reached through love.
• Zhong Fa shows both compassion—using a valuable talisman and agreeing to help the family—and calculated showmanship, using a trick to strengthen his authority. His collection of Shilei’s hair and nails hints at further plans.
• Tang Rui is frightened by the corpses but readily accepts money, revealing a practical, opportunistic side.

Significant themes

• Grief and guilt: Li Liang blames himself for his daughters’ deaths and struggles to accept what they have become.
• Resentment and release: The ghosts are defined by their obsessive anger, and resolving that resentment is necessary for them to move on.
• Faith, performance, and deception: Zhong Fa combines genuine supernatural tools with theatrical tricks to gain trust.
• Practical self-interest: The bribe and Tang Rui’s response show how money shapes even unsettling situations.

• Zhong Fa’s preparations: At Fushou Funeral Center, Zhong Fa collects a bag of children’s ashes from owner Du Rui. He tells Du Rui that everyone at Tianmen Funeral Home will die that night, prompting Du Rui to promise help through his Funeral Association connections.
• A larger scheme takes shape: Back at his shop, Zhong Fa divides the ashes among four porcelain jars and prepares two cigarettes. He reviews his scarce collection of talismans, reflecting on his inability to make more since a magical duel left him injured and unable to enter places rich in yin energy. He resents his late master for withholding the corpse-refinement methods.
• Plans for revenge: Zhong Fa intends to use the sole Corpse-Control Talisman he inherited to refine a corpse he has been nurturing, then take revenge on people from his past.
• Li Shirui becomes part of the ritual: Zhong Fa places a Heart-Linked Talisman containing Li Shirui’s hair and nails in her mouth, sets a Yin-Gathering Talisman on her chest, and surrounds her coffin with crow’s blood. The ritual will channel the gathered yin energy to Li Shirui’s corpse at Tianmen Funeral Home, strengthening its resentment. Though he claims he will help the twins pass on afterward, he privately plans to keep their spirits in a jar.
• Chen Miao’s warning: At Tianmen Funeral Home, Chen Miao discovers a new, untitled chapter in Notes on Achieving Divinity in the Mortal World. Its five characters read: “In the early hours, I died!”
  Character developments and interactions: Zhong Fa’s calm, controlled manner masks a growing drive for revenge and a willingness to deceive others to achieve it. Du Rui is eager to support him, though puzzled by his request for children’s ashes. Meanwhile, Chen Miao’s discovery links the book’s strange new entry to the danger gathering at the funeral home.
  Key themes: The chapter explores revenge, the abuse of the dead and supernatural forces, and the tension between promises and hidden motives. Zhong Fa’s limited supply of talismans also underscores the cost and scarcity of his power.

Plot points and events

• Chen Miao discovers that the mysterious book predicts his sudden death at midnight, but gives no location or explanation.
• Using his “Iceheart” state, he reconstructs the day’s events and suspects the family who took one of the twins away from the funeral home may have triggered the warning.
• He checks the cold-storage room, including the remaining twin, Li Shilei, while watching for any change in the book. Nothing happens.
• Chen Miao also searches the columbarium and cremation room, but finds no clues. With less than ninety minutes before the predicted danger, he stops searching and prepares to confront whatever comes.
• He redeems four Jiangzhen Incense sticks and arranges ritual offerings in the cold-storage office, intending to perform a spirit-delivery rite if a ghost appears at midnight. He stays there because he feels mentally clearer in the cold.
• As midnight approaches, Chen Miao repeatedly feels cold and raises the room’s temperature. At 11:50, he checks the book again: its contents have changed. He immediately gathers the ritual supplies and rushes into the refrigerated-cabinet room.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao is methodical under pressure, using careful reasoning to trace the warning, but his tension briefly makes him shout at Tang Rui to keep him from opening the cabinet.
• He remains secretive about the book and his supernatural plans, leaving Tang Rui confused. Tang Rui misreads Chen Miao’s behavior around the corpse, then quickly leaves when Chen Miao tells him to go home.
• Chen Miao’s decision to stay at the funeral home and prepare for a direct confrontation shows his growing readiness to rely on the Six Jiangzhen Secrets, even without knowing what threat is coming.
• The chapter ends on a cliffhanger: the book’s new message prompts Chen Miao to rush toward the cabinets, but its contents are not revealed.

Significant themes

• Reason versus the unknown: Chen Miao investigates logically, yet the danger resists explanation.
• Preparation under uncertainty: With no clear target, he turns to ritual supplies and plans to respond in the moment.
• Isolation and secrecy: Chen Miao bears the threat alone, while Tang Rui can only guess at his motives.
• Foreshadowing and suspense: The approaching midnight deadline, Chen Miao’s unexplained cold, and the sudden change in the book build tension.

Plot points and events

• At 23:51, Chen Miao realizes the book predicts he will drown in the cold-storage room before morning. With only minutes to act, he lights four Incense Sticks and recites the Resolving Grievances with Jiangzhen Incantation for the drowned girl in the cabinet.
• The incense smoke streams into the cabinet, and the book’s account changes: Chen Miao no longer dies that night in the cold-storage room, but is still fated to drown the following morning in his dormitory.
• Chen reasons that the ritual worked but only delayed his death, suggesting the force behind it survived. With limited yin virtue left, he decides not to wait and try again tomorrow.
• He opens the cabinet and sees Li Shirui’s eyes open and unfocused. Though startled, he finds he is not attacked. He draws her partly out, moves the incense burner beside her head, and begins a second ritual—this time the True Evil-Subduing Incantation—intended to drive out malevolent forces.
• Elsewhere, Zhong Fa, a practitioner who has placed talismans on Li Shirui, discovers that a powerful heat has burned up her Yin-Gathering Talisman. He suspects someone at the funeral home is interfering and plans to investigate.
• When Zhong Fa tries to remove the Heart-Linked Talisman from Li Shirui, incense smoke pours from her mouth and burns his fingers. He hears the evil-subduing incantation; the smoke surges back into the corpse, and the yin energy around her vanishes. A remnant of smoke moves toward the bedroom, and Zhong Fa follows—only to cough up blood and collapse outside the door.

Character developments and interactions

• Chen Miao shifts from urgent, improvised action to deliberate investigation. He studies the changed prophecy, enters his focused “iceheart” state, and concludes that the first ritual was effective but insufficient. His decision to escalate reflects growing resolve and practical understanding of the supernatural rules.
• Li Shirui remains a frightening, largely silent presence. Her open eyes unsettle Chen, while her corpse becomes the channel through which the incense and incantation act.
• Zhong Fa is revealed as an antagonist or at least a practitioner working against the spirit’s release. Confident in his talismans, he becomes cautious when they are destroyed, then is overwhelmed by the force Chen has unleashed.
• Chen and Zhong Fa never meet, but their actions collide through Li Shirui: Chen’s rituals counter Zhong Fa’s talisman-based attempt to gather and control yin energy.

Significant themes

• Ritual, belief, and practical knowledge: Chen’s offerings and incantations are not merely symbolic; their effects alter the book’s predictions and disrupt Zhong Fa’s work.
• Partial victories and escalating stakes: Chen avoids immediate death but has not yet escaped his fate, making each intervention a race against time.
• Compassion versus control: Chen approaches the dead girl through offerings and rites of release, while Zhong Fa uses talismans to manipulate the corpse’s energy.
• Fear tempered by reason: Chen is frightened by Li Shirui’s appearance but resists panic, using observation and deduction to guide his next move.

Key plot points and events

• Restless at night, Chen Miao covers Brother Tang’s shift at the cold-storage facility, bringing incense, candles, and offerings for the dead person sharing the building.
• As midnight approaches, the facility grows unusually cold. Chen checks the refrigerated cabinets, then offers incense and recites an incantation for the drowned deceased.
• The incense burns away almost instantly, with its smoke drawn into a refrigerated cabinet. After another incantation, the temperature seems to return to normal. Though unsettled, Chen continues treating the phenomenon respectfully.
• The chapter’s reward system grants him five qian of yin virtue, the twins’ gratitude (“kindred connection”), and Zhong Family Talismans.
• Chen realizes that incense and incantations require preparation, leaving him vulnerable to sudden danger. He considers saving yin virtue for a century-old peach-wood weapon as a more immediate defense.
• The talisman knowledge includes methods for gathering or dispersing yin energy, linking minds, sealing spirits, and controlling corpses. Chen is puzzled by the “Zhong Family” name and suspects the talismans may be connected to the twins.
• Recalling that the cold snap began suddenly, he wonders whether a Yin-Gathering Talisman caused it. He searches Li Shilei’s body but finds no talisman, so he decides to review the surveillance footage.

Character developments

• Chen grows more alert to supernatural warning signs, while remaining skeptical of ghosts and gods. He nevertheless chooses caution and courtesy when dealing with the dead.
• His experience makes him recognize the limits of his current protection and think more practically about self-defense.
• The new kindred connection may let him share feelings and sense thoughts more deeply with someone close, though he has not yet tested it.

Significant themes

• Courtesy toward the dead: Chen’s offerings and prayers reflect the belief that respect is prudent, even amid uncertainty.
• Preparation versus sudden danger: Rituals can be powerful but take time, prompting Chen to seek faster ways to defend himself.
• Mystery and inference: The cold snap, incense smoke, and new talismans may be connected, but Chen has only clues—not proof.
• Supernatural rewards and obligations: The chapter’s events grant useful abilities and resources, while raising new questions about their origins.

Character interactions

• Chen interacts with the unseen deceased through offerings and incantations, and the extraordinary incense behavior suggests some response.
• The twins’ gratitude becomes a formal bond in Chen’s book, hinting at a deeper connection between them.
• Chen addresses Li Shilei respectfully before closing her eyes and searching for a possible talisman, then turns to surveillance footage when the search yields nothing.

• Key events: Chen Miao reviews the cold-storage footage and discovers that Tang Rui accepted money to let Li Weiguo and a triangular-eyed man into the freezer. The man took hair and nail clippings from Li Shilei, while Li Shirui was removed to serve as a vessel. Chen concludes that the man used a Heart-Linked Talisman and a Yin-Gathering Talisman to transfer yin energy into Li Shilei’s corpse, potentially creating a vengeful ghost and setting off the chapter’s supernatural events. The man’s glance at the camera suggests he knows—or at least does not fear—being recorded. Chen then studies the exchange list, intending to spend his six qian of yin virtue preparing for future threats. The next day, an elderly woman, Aunt Mei, visits the Yin-Yang Breaker Shop looking for Zhong Fa. He promises to see her Uncle Dong and says he will return soon, though he appears pale and seriously ill.
• Character developments: Chen moves from shock and fear toward cautious resolve. He reasons that the attacker may be targeting everyone at the funeral home, not Chen personally, and decides to rely on warnings from his book and tools recorded in that book rather than risk using talisman knowledge he barely understands. Zhong Fa presents a reassuring front to Aunt Mei despite his frail condition.
• Character interactions: The footage reveals a paid arrangement between Tang Rui and Li Weiguo’s group, with the triangular-eyed man directing the tampering. Chen has no direct confrontation with the attacker, but his recorded eye contact makes the threat feel personal. Aunt Mei speaks to Zhong Fa with trust and relief, while he gently sends her home and reassures her about Uncle Dong.
• Significant themes: The chapter explores supernatural malice concealed behind apparently ordinary actions, and the limits of legal proof when harm has not yet occurred. Chen’s response emphasizes preparation, inference, and learning from danger; his caution about misusing unfamiliar power contrasts with his growing willingness to confront future threats. The closing scene adds a note of vulnerability and unresolved concern around Zhong Fa.