Chapter Summaries

Su Bai prepared to impersonate the Ghost Bride in the eastern courtyard as the Beginner Game began, then discovered that the estate had reverted from a ruined state to its newly built condition. In the rear courtyard, Lin Wenhua and the other newcomers listened to a questionable trainee explain the Nightmare World as the lanterns began to light.

• Su Bai put on A Xi's wedding dress, concealed the wound on his chest, and prepared to pose as the Ghost Bride while Little Fire fell asleep after devouring its past blue flame.
• Candlelight appeared throughout the estate, and Su Bai noticed that the dusty, damaged eastern courtyard had transformed into a clean, newly furnished residence.
• Su Bai recognized the transformation as the estate returning to the time when Master Wang had built it to take a wife, and wondered whether its people had also changed.
• Lin Wenhua listened as a man claiming to be a core member of the Relevant Authorities described the Nightmare World and its recurring horror games.
• Teddy Bear challenged the man's claim to be a core member, and the man admitted he had only recently begun training as lanterns lit around the rear courtyard.

Lin Wenhua and the others saw the abandoned Back Courtyard transform into a brightly lit garden and learned they had entered the Wang Residence as servants on the day three brides arrived. Steward Zhao began explaining their duties and the unusual situation, leaving the players to learn more about the brides and the murder.

• The Back Courtyard transformed, its dry pond filling with water as lanterns, plants, and paving stones appeared anew.
• Teddy Bear reasoned that the players had moved closer to the time of the bride’s murder and warned that someone was approaching.
• Steward Zhao arrived and told the players that one of three women staying in the East, North, and West Courtyards would become Master Wang’s wife.
• Wen Wen introduced herself as a prospective personal maid to gain freedom to visit the brides, and Lin Wenhua, Huang Qi, and Sha Linghai gave their names.
• Steward Zhao told the four players they were servants of the Wang Residence and began explaining the circumstances of the three brides’ arrival.

Steward Zhao briefed Lin Wenhua and the other new servants on the three brides, favoring the bride in the Eastern Courtyard, and assigned them to deliver soup. Lin Wenhua then briefly saw the estate as a ruined place beneath a Red Moon, with Steward Zhao appearing translucent, before everything returned to normal.

• Steward Zhao warned the four new servants not to gossip and described the three brides in the Western, Northern, and Eastern Courtyards.
• Steward Zhao urged the servants to treat all three brides carefully and suggested visiting the Eastern Courtyard bride to comfort her.
• Steward Zhao assigned the four servants to deliver meat soup to the three brides, and Huang Qi received the food carrier from the cook.
• Lin Wenhua saw the pond's moon turn blood-red and the soup become mud and bones in a battered carrier.
• Lin Wenhua saw the estate become an abandoned ruin and Steward Zhao appear translucent beneath the Red Moon.
• Huang Qi tugged Lin Wenhua, and the estate and soup returned to their pristine appearance.

Sha Linghai explained what he knew about Beginner Games, Player talents, and the Relevant Authorities’ preparations, then suggested that the group could clear their game by investigating the brides’ deaths in the Back Courtyard. Lin Wenhua remained doubtful that they had truly traveled into the past, despite Sha Linghai’s confidence.

• Sha Linghai told Lin Wenhua, Wen Wen, and the others how the Relevant Authorities had learned about the Nightmare World and built systems to train Players.
• Sha Linghai explained that Beginner Games offered clearer hints and weaker or constrained Strange Creatures, but could still be especially frightening to new Players.
• Sha Linghai described how talents granted after clearing a Beginner Game could develop into unique abilities, and told the group about the Player Forum.
• Lin Wenhua said their most urgent concern was figuring out how to clear the game, and Sha Linghai proposed watching events in the Back Courtyard to find clues about the three brides’ deaths.
• Lin Wenhua questioned whether the group had really traveled back to when the brides were alive.

Lin Wenhua told the Players that he could see the courtyard and their food turn into their abandoned, ghostly forms, leading Wen Wen to propose that they might be trapped in an illusion rather than sent back in time. The Players realized that the brides could be ghosts, and Wen Wen suggested they visit the Eastern Courtyard first.

• Lin Wenhua stopped Sha Linghai and told the Players that he had seen Strange Creatures in the Real World and had glimpsed the courtyard's true, abandoned state.
• Lin Wenhua described seeing Steward Zhao turn translucent and Huang Qi's meat soup become mud and bones, while Sha Linghai dismissed his account as hallucination.
• Wen Wen proposed that the Players might be inside an illusion resembling the past, with Lin Wenhua able to see through its disguise.
• Wen Wen reasoned that if the courtyard was an illusion, the brides they were about to meet would be the ghosts of the drowned women, not living brides.
• Huang Qi asked which courtyard they should visit first, and Wen Wen suggested the Eastern Courtyard.

The newcomers chose to deliver the meat soup to the Eastern Courtyard first, where Su Bai waited in bridal attire. A mysterious visitor who called himself Master Wang revealed himself to be Lord Ghost Shaman, but vanished before the approaching players arrived.

• Lin Wenhua, Wen Wen, and Sha Linghai agreed to visit the Eastern Courtyard first and deliver the meat soup.
• Su Bai overheard the newcomers discussing the Nightmare World and realized one might belong to the Relevant Authorities.
• A shadow appeared outside Su Bai’s door and identified himself as Master Wang, claiming Su Bai was his bride.
• Su Bai recognized the shadow’s voice as Lord Ghost Shaman’s and recalled their Marriage Contract.
• Lord Ghost Shaman vanished when the newcomers approached, leaving Su Bai waiting gloomily beneath his bridal veil.

Lin Wenhua, Sha Linghai, Huang Qi, and Wen Wen entered the Eastern Courtyard to bring the bride meat soup, while debating how to question her safely. The veiled bride refused the soup and invited them to share it in her room.

• Lin Wenhua and the others entered the Eastern Courtyard and spotted a candlelit room with a red-clad figure inside.
• Wen Wen warned the group that asking a Ghost Bride how she died might break a taboo, and Sha Linghai admitted he had not yet learned how to speak to ghosts.
• The group agreed to avoid treating the bride as a Ghost Bride and settled on a few cautious questions before entering the room.
• Sha Linghai opened the door, and Wen Wen introduced herself to the veiled bride and offered her the meat soup.
• The bride said she was not hungry and invited Wen Wen and the others to sit and share the soup in her room.

Su Bai, posing as the Bride of the East Courtyard, spoke with four novice players and used their questions to hint that the brides might have motives to attack one another. He left them with the impression that he wanted to escape the estate and earn money for his family, not claim Master Wang’s wealth.

• Su Bai refused the foul-smelling meat soup and recognized two of the novices as Lin Wenhua and Huang Qi, whom he knew must survive this Beginner Game.
• Wen Wen told Su Bai that Steward Zhao had asked the novices to keep the Bride company and chat with her.
• Su Bai realized that meeting Steward Zhao could expose his identity because the steward came from the Bride’s village.
• Su Bai asked whether Master Wang had returned and hinted that other brides had entered the estate, drawing attention to Master Wang’s disappearance.
• When Wen Wen asked whether she wanted to stay, Su Bai said her family and village expected her to remain, but she would leave to work and pay for her mother’s treatment and her younger brother’s schooling.

Wen Wen and the others spoke with the East Courtyard Bride, who asked to walk in the courtyard and knew little about anything strange. Afterward, Wen Wen reasoned that the three Brides’ deaths were tied to conflicts over their marriages, but the group lacked enough clues to identify a motive and continued delivering meat soup.

• The East Courtyard Bride asked to leave her room and walk in the courtyard, and Wen Wen agreed.
• The Bride said the master had not appeared and that she had seen nothing strange beneath her Wedding Veil.
• Wen Wen reassured the Bride before leaving the door open, and the group departed the Eastern Courtyard.
• Wen Wen proposed investigating the motives and conflicts behind the three Brides’ drownings, noting that the pond seemed too shallow for them to have drowned accidentally.
• The group concluded they had too few clues and decided to deliver meat soup to the other courtyards.

Wen Wen and the others visited the North Courtyard Bride to deliver meat soup and ask about her needs, but she angrily sent them away. Her remarks suggested that the villagers had forced her into the estate and that Master Wang was an older man who had proposed to three women.

• At the Northern Courtyard entrance, Huang Qi said he wished they could go back in time and save the brides, and Sha Linghai urged him to put his own survival first.
• Wen Wen led the group into the North Courtyard and knocked on the bride's door to offer meat soup.
• The North Courtyard Bride let Wen Wen enter but ordered Sha Linghai and the other men out for violating propriety.
• The bride complained that the estate's people were keeping her prisoner and mocked Master Wang for proposing to three women despite his age.
• The North Courtyard Bride refused to answer further questions and slammed her door, while Lin Wenhua and Wen Wen concluded that she had revealed useful clues.

Wen Wen and the others speculated that Master Wang’s guilt and desire for a beautiful young bride may have caused the conflict that brought three brides to the estate. With Master Wang missing, they decided to visit the West Courtyard and meet the last Bride.

• Sha Linghai suggested the villagers were still near the estate, but Wen Wen and Sha Linghai reasoned they were unlikely to be the killers because all three brides had drowned.
• Sha Linghai explained that the nightmare game’s setting was the estate and that obstacles would likely prevent them from leaving it.
• Wen Wen, Lin Wenhua, and Sha Linghai speculated that Master Wang had sought an eminent monk because he feared a calamity and felt guilty about something.
• The group guessed that Master Wang had added a beautiful young wife to the monk’s advice, setting off conflict between the three villages.
• Wen Wen wondered whether an enemy had taken Master Wang and led the group toward the West Courtyard to meet the last Bride.

Wen Wen visited the timid West Courtyard bride and learned she longed for home and had forgotten a protective charm. After Steward Zhao urged the Players to drink the meat soup, Wen Wen suspected it was dangerous and rushed toward the Eastern Courtyard.

• Wen Wen brought meat soup to the West Courtyard bride, who let her enter alone and said she was hungry and wanted to go home.
• The West Courtyard bride revealed that she missed her grandmother and had left behind the protective charm her grandmother gave her.
• Wen Wen left the bride's room, and the Players heard her start drinking the meat soup.
• Steward Zhao told Wen Wen and the others to drink the extra meat soup and sleep before work began at daybreak.
• Wen Wen connected Steward Zhao's remarks about the sleeping laborers and the pond with the meat soup, suspected something was wrong, and ran toward the Eastern Courtyard.

Wen Wen suspected the meat soup was drugged and hurried to warn the Brides not to drink it. The Players found the East and North Courtyard Brides’ soup untouched, then discovered the West Courtyard Bride sitting unveiled and applying rouge.

• Wen Wen told Huang Qi and Sha Linghai that the Brides might have been drugged with the meat soup before being drowned.
• Wen Wen asked the East Courtyard Bride about her soup, and Huang Qi retrieved the untouched bowl.
• The North Courtyard Bride angrily threw her untouched bowl of soup outside before the Players could speak with her.
• Wen Wen and the others entered the West Courtyard and found its Bride unveiled, seated by the stone table and applying red lip rouge.

Wen Wen and the other Players questioned the bride in the West Courtyard about the meat soup and Master Wang, but learned little before she began crying again. Wen Wen decided their next move was to search the residence and identify everyone who might be the killer.

• Wen Wen and the others found the bride in the West Courtyard applying lip rouge, then watched her return to her room and weep.
• Wen Wen saw that the bride had drunk the meat soup without any obvious ill effects and asked why she could not sleep.
• The bride called her prospective spouse utterly wicked, but began sobbing when Wen Wen asked whether she meant Master Wang.
• Sha Linghai noticed Huang Qi was still carrying the meat soup, and the Players decided not to risk drinking it.
• Wen Wen told the group to search the residence and count every suspicious person, including the cook and the missing handyman.

The players searched the estate and found that the cook, laborers, and Steward Zhao were nowhere to be seen, while the rooms they supposedly occupied were empty. As they struggled to explain the brides’ deaths, Su Bai received an unexpected visit from Steward Zhao, who urged him to drink the meat soup.

• The four players found the kitchen empty and discovered bowls of meat soup in the bare Servants' Room.
• Sha Linghai concluded that the estate’s inhabitants had been dead for a long time and were reliving the night of the brides’ deaths through reset memories.
• The players found no one in the Front House and failed to open the main gates or escape through the mist beyond the wall.
• Back in the Back Courtyard, the players discussed whether Steward Zhao or one of the brides could have killed the others.
• Steward Zhao visited Su Bai in the Eastern Courtyard and asked whether he had drunk the meat soup, urging him to drink another bowl.

Su Bai avoided drinking Steward Zhao’s suspicious meat soup, and the old steward fled after recognizing something unusual about the bride. Su Bai was left wondering what rumor frightened Steward Zhao and what more dangerous presence lurked in the estate.

• Steward Zhao brought Su Bai a bowl of foul-smelling meat soup and urged him to drink it, promising to pay for his mother’s medical care and his younger brother’s schooling.
• Su Bai stood up and stepped back from Steward Zhao, who suddenly froze and then retreated while keeping his face toward Su Bai.
• Steward Zhao left the soup on the stone table, backed out of the courtyard, and ran away, saying that the rumors were true.
• Su Bai suspected his height had revealed that he was not the original bride, but he received no mission failure notification.
• Su Bai questioned whether Steward Zhao had tried only to drug the brides and whether a more dangerous being or rumor was behind the estate’s events.
• Su Bai went to the East Courtyard gate and meditated, listening as Steward Zhao fled through the estate and outside.

Steward Zhao told Wen Wen and the other Players the rumors about Master Wang’s murderous past and his flight to the estate. He revealed that a ghost was haunting Master Wang and was now inside the house.

• Steward Zhao hurried to the estate gate and tried unsuccessfully to force it open, muttering that evil deeds brought retribution.
• Wen Wen questioned Steward Zhao, who explained that Master Wang had married into a wealthy family and allegedly killed his sick wife for her fortune.
• Steward Zhao described how Master Wang sold the family property for next to nothing and moved to the remote estate after seeking protection from a monk.
• Steward Zhao said people believed Master Wang’s first wife haunted him because he had murdered her and lived as a lecher.
• Steward Zhao told the four Players that the rumors were true: a ghost was in the house.

Steward Zhao claimed that the East Courtyard bride was the Ghost Madam haunting Master Wang, prompting Wen Wen and the other players to reconsider their suspicions. Wen Wen also suspected the West Courtyard bride might be possessed, and the group returned to the East Courtyard to investigate.

• Steward Zhao said the East Courtyard bride was a ghost disguised as a bride and identified her as the Ghost Madam haunting Master Wang.
• Wen Wen, Sha Linghai, Lin Wenhua, and Huang Qi debated whether the East Courtyard bride might be Master Wang’s murdered first wife and whether she could be responsible for his disappearance.
• Wen Wen questioned where the real bride had gone and said the West Courtyard bride seemed more like someone possessed.
• Wen Wen led the others back to the East Courtyard to verify the bride’s connection to Steward Zhao’s village.
• Wen Wen opened the gate and saw the bride standing in the courtyard in her red wedding gown and veil.

Su Bai used A Xi’s power to create a diversion when Wen Wen pressed the veiled bride about her identity. The Old Steward’s shouts revealed that everyone in the mansion had disappeared.

• Wen Wen questioned the bride about her name and the villagers’ surnames, putting Su Bai’s disguise at risk.
• Su Bai decided to redirect suspicion by releasing A Xi’s power into the illusion.
• A Xi’s power made the air colder, and Su Bai pretended to struggle to remember his name.
• The Old Steward shouted that the odd-job workers, cooks, and everyone else in the mansion had vanished.

As Su Bai, disguised as the Bride, shielded four rookie players from the transformed Old Steward, the Nightmare World’s threats rapidly escalated. Gates opened to the west and north, hinting that more creatures had arrived.

• Wen Wen and the others noticed the Eastern Courtyard’s red lanterns had turned white and saw that the Bride’s hands were deathly pale, with dark, sharp nails.
• The Old Steward appeared outside the courtyard, covered in writhing mud, and ordered the players to come disturb the Bride.
• Sha Linghai led the rookies backward as the mud reached toward them, but the Bride stepped between the players and the Old Steward.
• Su Bai spoke through the Bride, reassuring the rookies that he was still conscious and that their conversation was not over.
• The courtyard gates to the west and north began opening, and Su Bai realized his actions had accelerated the arrival of further threats.