Chapter Summaries

Qiqi's Mom gathered the players to mark Xu Jingqi's test papers, but Xiong Qianshan was struck by a supernatural punishment after marking an answer incorrectly. Bo Yi recognized the injuries appearing on Xiong Qianshan as bruises and burns.

• Qiqi's Mom brought the players to Room 404 and forced them to help Xu Jingqi study and mark her test papers.
• Xiong Qianshan confidently began marking Xu Jingqi's answers without reading the questions.
• Xu Jingqi told Xiong Qianshan that he had made a mistake, and he dropped his pen before screaming in pain.
• Xiong Qianshan curled up and begged his mother to stop hitting him as bruises and small scars appeared on his body.
• Bo Yi identified the small scars on Xiong Qianshan as burns.

Xiong Qianshan survived a terrifying dream in which he became Xu Jingqi, and Ning Ran revealed that she was his stepsister. As the players resumed grading the papers carefully, Ning Ran made a marking error and Xu Jingqi noticed.

• Xiong Qianshan collapsed after the little girl announced that time was up, then woke and clung to Ning Ran, revealing he had dreamed he was Xu Jingqi.
• Ning Ran admitted that Xiong Qianshan was her younger stepbrother, while Mitian teased them about being a sister's boy and a brother's boy.
• Ning Ran realized Xiong Qianshan had marked Xu Jingqi's tenth answer correctly even though it was wrong, so she warned everyone not to make mistakes while grading.
• Ning Ran saw Xiong Qianshan struggling with his paper and accidentally marked an answer with a check instead of a cross.
• Xu Jingqi turned her eerie gaze toward Ning Ran and said, "Teacher, you made a mistake..."

As the players graded Xu Jingqi’s test papers, Ning Ran and Jiang Miaoyi experienced separate traumatic visions after making mistakes. Bo Yi reached the final questions, but Xu Jingqi announced that Mitian had answered one incorrectly.

• Ning Ran’s mistake triggered a vision in which Xu Jingqi’s mother cut apart her beloved teddy bear, leaving Ning Ran overwhelmed with grief.
• After recovering, Ning Ran warned the others to avoid mistakes and urged them to continue grading the papers.
• Jiang Miaoyi guessed at a poetry answer, fell unconscious, and later described a vision of Xu Jingqi being left hungry while working at her desk.
• Bo Yi progressed through the test faster than the others, but Xu Jingqi told Mitian that he had answered a question incorrectly.

The players completed the test-marking task, but Qiqi's Mom served them a soup made with disturbing ingredients. Mitian realized he had been discovered, while Bo Yi revealed that his vision had trapped him in a dark room.

• Mitian told the players he had been made to stand as punishment, though he had actually been pinned in a void and realized he had been discovered.
• Bo Yi marked the final correct answer wrong, fell under the vision, and later said he had been locked in a small dark room.
• Bo Yi reassured Mitian that the dark room had not affected him, and the players finished grading their test papers.
• Qiqi's Mom praised Xu Kexin for making no mistakes, collected the papers, and brought the players a pot of soup.
• The players saw disturbing ingredients floating in the soup and stopped short of celebrating their success.

Qiqi's Mom served the players a foul pot of brain soup and urged them to eat before asking them to help Qiqi with her questions. Bo Yi noticed that she carried a bowl matching one he had seen before and followed her to a supposedly empty room, whose door opened after she knocked in a strange rhythm.

• Qiqi's Mom served Xu Jingqi brain soup and pressed the players to eat and explain the questions she had gotten wrong.
• Bo Yi found a short black hair in the soup, but Qiqi's Mom dismissed it as a pig bristle.
• After Qiqi's Mom left with a bowl, Bo Yi recognized it as one he had seen the previous night and quietly followed her.
• Qiqi's Mom knocked in a strange rhythm on a first-floor door that Bo Yi had thought was empty, and it slowly opened.

Bo Yi eavesdropped on Qiqi's Mom discussing the dangerous rituals and medicine she was using on Qiqi with an elderly woman. The women planned to begin another ritual that night, and Bo Yi ended the chapter hearing a hiss that seemed to come from beside him.

• Bo Yi hid near the door and overheard Qiqi's Mom give an elderly woman a small amount of “heavenly spirit essence.”
• The elderly woman told Qiqi's Mom to complete Qiqi's seven-day “Aperture Opening” and insisted that the painful process was for Qiqi's benefit.
• Qiqi's Mom thanked the elderly woman for more medicine and said it had helped Qiqi recover during the “Spirit Planting.”
• The elderly woman questioned Qiqi's Mom about the catalysts, and Qiqi's Mom said she had brought four, chosen the first, and would find the remaining two.
• The elderly woman agreed to begin the ritual that night, and Bo Yi heard a hiss that seemed to be right beside his ear.

Bo Yi was nearly bitten by a snake in the corridor, but Mitian rescued him and told him to return to Room 404 to answer the other players’ questions. After showing them the dead snake, Bo Yi prepared to visit the spirit medium again, but he noticed Xu Kexin slipping out alone as the corridor lights began to flicker.

• Bo Yi spotted a snake attacking him in the corridor, and Mitian stopped it with a chopstick and killed it.
• Mitian told Bo Yi to return to Room 404 because the other players had finished and were waiting for him.
• Bo Yi brought the dead snake to Room 404, where Jiang Miaoyi and Xu Kexin worried that snakes might enter their rooms; Bo Yi suggested their head pains could have come from bumping into their bedposts.
• Bo Yi chose a table knife from the weapons Mitian had gathered and prepared to visit the spirit medium again.
• Bo Yi saw Xu Kexin leave alone and noticed the corridor lights flickering.

Bo Yi followed Xu Jingqi through the flickering stairwell and discovered that the lumps on her feet had grown and were moving beneath her skin. Xu Jingqi posed him a riddle, then vanished after he answered correctly, leaving him an eraser.

• Bo Yi saw Xu Jingqi disappear and reappear in the corridor, and noticed the lumps on her feet had grown and were pulsing beneath her skin.
• Bo Yi followed Xu Jingqi downstairs as her footsteps led him to the first floor.
• Xu Jingqi recited a riddle about figures climbing walls and asked Bo Yi to identify the thing it described.
• Xu Jingqi tightened her arms around Bo Yi's neck until he answered, "An eraser."
• Xu Jingqi released Bo Yi, vanished after giving him a present, and an eraser fell onto the stairs by his shoe.

Bo Yi, Jiang Miaoyi, and Ning Ran investigated Xu Kexin’s disappearance after Bo Yi said he had seen her in the corridor the night before. The chapter ended when they found only five servings of breakfast in Room 404, and Bo Yi suspected he had identified the catalyst behind the strange events.

• Bo Yi hid a strand of hair before opening the door to Jiang Miaoyi and Ning Ran, who told him Xu Kexin was missing.
• Bo Yi said he had seen Xu Kexin in the corridor the previous night, but Ning Ran and Jiang Miaoyi insisted she had not gone out.
• Bo Yi noticed Qiqi's Mom appeared only after he got up, then watched her clean his room and knock on Mitian’s door.
• Xiong Qianshan rushed back with a warning about breakfast in Room 404, and Jiang Miaoyi hurried there to investigate.
• Bo Yi entered Room 404 and saw only five servings of breakfast on the table.

Bo Yi and the others discovered that Xu Kexin had been turned into a notebook made of human skin, which Xu Jingqi said her mother had given her to help her study. After the notebook answered Bo Yi’s questions with tears, he recalled that Xu Kexin had been the only one to grade the exam papers without making a mistake.

• Ning Ran, Bo Yi, Jiang Miaoyi, and the others searched the apartment block for Xu Kexin but found no trace of her.
• The group returned to Room 404 and noticed a strange notebook on the coffee table in front of Xu Jingqi.
• Bo Yi opened the notebook and recognized its pages as human skin, realizing they had found Xu Kexin.
• Xu Jingqi told Bo Yi that her mother had given her the notebook and said a teacher inside it would answer her questions.
• Bo Yi wrote Xu Kexin’s name and a question on the notebook, and the writing vanished beneath tears, including bloody tears when he asked how she had died.
• Bo Yi said Xu Kexin’s only unusual act was grading the exam papers without making any mistakes.

Bo Yi realized the players had been distracted from their Home Visit mission and began investigating Xu Jingqi’s medical records. Qiqi’s Mom drove them out, and her insistence that Qiqi needed just one more day led Bo Yi to connect her recovery to the seven-day warning and suspect Room 404.

• Bo Yi reminded the group that their mission was to investigate why Xu Jingqi had not returned to school, rather than tutor her.
• Bo Yi asked Xu Jingqi where her family kept her medical records, but Qiqi’s Mom interrupted and refused to let them see them.
• Bo Yi pointed out that Xu Jingqi’s sick leave had ended, prompting Qiqi’s Mom to insist Qiqi was not recovered and drive the players out.
• Outside, Bo Yi repeated Qiqi’s Mom’s claim that Qiqi would be cured in one more day and recalled an elderly voice’s warning to keep something open for exactly seven days.
• Bo Yi looked toward Room 404 and suspected the events surrounding Qiqi might be connected to the seven-day warning.

Bo Yi and the other players realized they had only one day left to investigate why Xu Jingqi would not return to class. A gatekeeper gave Bo Yi a hospital envelope addressed to Room 404, but the medical records inside belonged to Huang Li-fen, not Xu Jingqi.

• Bo Yi told the players that the instance was nearing its final day, and they split up to search for clues.
• Bo Yi and Mitian met the elderly gatekeeper, who handed Bo Yi an old hospital envelope for Qiqi's Mom in Room 404.
• Jiang Miaoyi saw the envelope and excitedly gathered the other players to examine the medical records.
• Jiang Miaoyi read diagnoses of paranoid personality disorder and schizophrenia, then noticed the records named Huang Li-fen rather than Xu Jingqi.

Bo Yi and Jiang Miaoyi examined Xu Jingqi's mother's medical records as the Tenement Building suddenly aged and changed around them. Bo Yi confirmed that the snake was real and found Xu Jingqi's last report card, whose newly lower grades suggested why she had started falling ill after the exam.

• Jiang Miaoyi read Xu Jingqi's mother's diagnoses of paranoid personality disorder and schizophrenia while Bo Yi continued investigating the building.
• Bo Yi found that the Immortal Lady's room had vanished, replaced by a solid wall, and hurried upstairs to check whether the snake's body remained.
• Bo Yi found the snake's body, confirming that he and Mitian had not imagined their earlier encounter.
• Jiang Miaoyi and the others noticed the aged stairs and entered the now-open, empty Room 404 to search for clues.
• Bo Yi found Xu Jingqi's last report card and saw that her grades had dropped, leading him to connect the exam to her sudden illness.

Bo Yi and Ning Ran discovered that Xu Jingqi’s exam papers had been torn up in the “dream,” linking those dreams to what happened after she performed badly. Bo Yi recognized the altered door to Qiqi’s Mom’s room as the entrance to the Immortal Lady’s home and opened it with a particular knock.

• Bo Yi searched for Xu Jingqi’s missing exam papers and realized the papers from the changed report card were not in her room.
• Ning Ran remembered seeing the papers torn to pieces beside the stuffing and fabric scraps in the bear-cutting “dream,” and she and Bo Yi connected the dreams to Xu Jingqi’s experience after her poor exam results.
• Jiang Miaoyi explained that Xiong Qianshan had tried and failed to break down the locked door to Qiqi’s Mom’s room.
• Bo Yi recognized the door’s new frame as belonging to the Immortal Lady’s home and knocked three times in a repeated pattern.
• The door opened after Bo Yi’s knocks.

Bo Yi and the others entered the transformed Room 404 and found evidence that someone had been carrying out bizarre rituals and researching ways to treat illness through them. The chapter left them realizing that Xu Jingqi’s mother had likely tried to treat her daughter herself after being forbidden to take her to the hospital.

• Bo Yi opened Room 404, revealing a dark, foul-smelling room covered in red threads and strange papers.
• Bo Yi examined a rotten pig’s head and the ritual objects arranged before an incense altar.
• Jiang Miaoyi found reptile eggs while Ning Ran called the group to inspect books and documents on the table.
• Bo Yi read instructions about burning incense into people’s bodies, using black dog blood, reopening a head acupoint, and other rituals.
• Bo Yi pointed out that the documents were heavily annotated and matched the notes in the room’s books.
• Bo Yi and the others concluded that Xu Jingqi’s mother had chosen to treat her daughter herself after being barred from taking her to the hospital.

Bo Yi and the others uncovered how Xu Jingqi’s mother’s delusions led her to treat her daughter and keep her out of school, but the Tenement Building’s black fog remained. Bo Yi concluded they still needed evidence that Xu Jingqi had never actually been ill.

• Bo Yi found Xu Jingqi’s medical records and realized the “Immortal Lady” was a hallucination created by Qiqi’s Mom.
• Jiang Miaoyi and Ning Ran led the group downstairs to check whether the Tenement Building’s black fog had cleared, but it still blocked the entrance.
• Jiang Miaoyi recounted how Qiqi’s Mom had blamed Xu Jingqi’s falling grades on an illness and subjected her to increasingly harmful treatments.
• Bo Yi explained that the system required evidence for their deductions and pointed out that they had found no clue proving Xu Jingqi was not actually ill.

Bo Yi questioned the old gatekeeper about Xu Jingqi’s missing medical record and uncovered clues about his connection to Room 404. After Jiang Miaoyi confirmed that Room 304 was empty, Bo Yi realized the gatekeeper’s story did not add up.

• Ning Ran sent Bo Yi to ask the old gatekeeper whether Xu Jingqi’s medical record was in the security office while the others searched elsewhere.
• Bo Yi noticed the gatekeeper knew details about Qiqi’s Mom’s medical record and pressed him about his interest in Room 404.
• The gatekeeper claimed he had no medical records and suggested Xu Jingqi might be carrying hers, then angrily defended the Room 404 Male Host.
• Bo Yi asked the gatekeeper what his name was, and the gatekeeper became wary and drove him out of the security office.
• Jiang Miaoyi told Bo Yi that Room 304 had been empty for a long time, and Bo Yi concluded that everything made sense.

Bo Yi and the others waited for Xu Jingqi to appear at night, hoping to find her medical record. When the flickering corridor lights led them to Room 404, they saw Qiqi's Mom pouring something into a barrel and carrying Xu Jingqi, who was struggling.

• Jiang Miaoyi, Ning Ran, and the others gathered in Room 402 and discussed whether Xu Jingqi's medical record was with her or her mother.
• Bo Yi told the group that Xu Jingqi appeared in the corridor at night and that the flickering lights signaled her arrival.
• Jiang Miaoyi noticed the corridor lights flickering, and the players followed a sloshing sound to Room 404.
• Jiang Miaoyi watched through the partly open door as Qiqi's Mom poured a dark, foul-smelling substance into a large barrel.
• Bo Yi saw that the moving figure Qiqi's Mom was holding was Xu Jingqi struggling.

Bo Yi and the others interrupted Qiqi's Mom as she tried to treat Xu Jingqi by immersing her in a barrel of black liquid. After rescuing Xu Jingqi, Bo Yi found she would only show him the medical record in exchange for his eraser, which she then threw away to reveal words carved into it.

• Bo Yi and the others saw Qiqi's Mom lowering a struggling Xu Jingqi into a barrel filled with black liquid, and noticed strange shapes writhing beneath the girl's skin.
• Xiong Qianshan spotted a paper marked with the word "hospital" in Xu Jingqi's hand, and Bo Yi ordered the others to save her.
• Ning Ran, Jiang Miaoyi, and Xiong Qianshan restrained Qiqi's Mom while Bo Yi pulled Xu Jingqi from the barrel.
• Bo Yi saw bite marks covering Xu Jingqi's limbs and tried to take the paper from her, but she held on tightly.
• Xu Jingqi agreed to let Bo Yi see the paper if he gave her his eraser, then threw the eraser away and exposed words etched into it.

Bo Yi found the old gatekeeper, who was Xu Jingqi’s father, and carried him back to Room 404 to face Qiqi’s Mom. Mitian stayed behind in the Tenement Building as the battle continued.

• Jiang Miaoyi and the others struggled to restrain Qiqi’s Mom while Bo Yi went downstairs to find something to trade for the medical records.
• Bo Yi met Mitian at the stairs, and Mitian gave him the unconscious old gatekeeper to take upstairs.
• Mitian told Bo Yi to hurry back to Room 404 and stayed at the foot of the stairs.
• The old gatekeeper woke as Bo Yi carried him upstairs and tried to get away.
• Bo Yi revealed that he had deduced the old gatekeeper was Xu Jingqi’s father from the mismatch between the aged building and the unchanged security office.