Recaps

Song Xiaotian confronted Wu Tong and the loan shark company over what they had done to Xu Hui, then attacked the men who mocked and threatened him. After beating everyone in the office, he continued toward the boss until the narrator knelt in front of him to stop him.

• Song Xiaotian called Wu Tong, demanded the company's address, and drove there with An Ning and the narrator.
• Song Xiaotian entered the company's office on the eighteenth floor, where Wu Tong and more than twenty men waited for him.
• Song Xiaotian asked what the company had done to Xu Hui, and the boss taunted him by claiming they had done everything to her.
• Song Xiaotian rushed the boss and fought the company's men, leaving them all beaten and the boss unable to speak.
• Song Xiaotian drew his short baton and grabbed the boss by the hair, so the narrator dropped to his knees in front of him.

Song Xiaotian failed to get the truth about Xu Hui’s death from the loan sharks and vowed to investigate if the police made no progress. After learning the police still had no suspect, he began building a profile of the killer and planned to search among Xu Hui’s neighbors and school staff.

• Song Xiaotian questioned and beat the loan-shark boss, who admitted he had lied about killing Xu Hui and denied any involvement.
• Song Xiaotian let the boss go after photographing his ID and phone, then gave the police five days to catch Xu Hui’s killer.
• The narrator and An Ning tried to summon Xu Hui’s spirit at Dongli Park, but the ritual failed because it was not where she had died.
• The narrator told An Ning about Xu Hui and Ji Ziyang, and they worried about how Ji Ziyang would feel if he learned Xu Hui was dead.
• Five days later, Brother Liu told the narrator that the case remained unsolved and Xu Dajun was demanding justice at the Police Bureau.
• Song Xiaotian reasoned that the killer was likely a neighbor or someone from Xu Hui’s school who had access to a car, and planned to investigate those people.

Song Xiaotian and the narrator failed to find a lead in Xu Hui’s death until Ke Yuting went missing and revealed that Xu Hui’s father, Xu Dajun, had questioned her. Ke Yuting also uncovered that Xu Hui had gone to a hotel for Liu Xiaoxiao’s birthday on the night she disappeared, giving the investigation a new lead.

• Song Xiaotian investigated Xu Hui’s neighbors and school staff but found no suspect with the time and opportunity to kill her.
• Xie Peng told the narrator that Ke Yuting had not come home, and the narrator used a hexagram to judge that a middle-aged man was holding her up but that she was safe.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian met Xie Peng and found Ke Yuting outside a convenience store after she called her parents.
• Ke Yuting said Xu Dajun had taken her aside to ask who might have wanted to harm Xu Hui, and she told him about Xu Hui’s troubles and her acquaintance with Ji Ziyang.
• Ke Yuting revealed that Xu Hui had planned to attend Liu Xiaoxiao’s birthday at a large hotel after school on the night she disappeared.

After learning that Xu Hui had been lured to a birthday party, the narrator and Song Xiaotian investigated Liu Xiaoxiao and discovered that the party had actually been for Lu Jie, whose family owned a hotel chain. Convinced Liu Xiaoxiao had helped Lu Jie target Xu Hui, they staked out her school to abduct and question her.

• Ke Yuting told the narrator and Song Xiaotian that Xu Hui had gone to Liu Xiaoxiao's supposed birthday party at a hotel, and they suspected the gathering was connected to Xu Hui's death.
• The narrator warned Song Xiaotian that the police might already know the killer but be unable to act because someone powerful was involved, and they considered whether Xu Hui's father, Xu Dajun, might seek revenge.
• An Ning suggested that someone had targeted Xu Hui and Liu Xiaoxiao had lured her to the hotel; she revealed that six years earlier she had stabbed a man who tried to trick her and was sentenced to juvenile detention.
• Song Xiaotian reported that the party on the twenty-seventh had been Lu Jie's birthday, not Liu Xiaoxiao's, and that Lu Jie's father, Lu Tianxing, owned the hotel where it was held.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian decided to gather conclusive evidence about Xu Hui's death and who disposed of her body, then went to stake out Xu Hui's school and prepare to question Liu Xiaoxiao.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian followed Xu Dajun as he pursued Liu Xiaoxiao, suspecting he planned to avenge Xu Hui. After Xu Dajun killed Liu Xiaoxiao at an abandoned maternal and child health clinic, they cleaned the scene to conceal his traces and left.

• The narrator spotted a masked, raincoat-wearing taxi driver outside Liu Xiaoxiao's school and suspected he was Xu Dajun.
• Song Xiaotian decided they would let Xu Dajun act and help clean up afterward, while they followed the taxi as it pursued Liu Xiaoxiao and a blond motorcyclist.
• Xu Dajun rammed the motorcycle, leaving the blond man unconscious, then drove Liu Xiaoxiao up the slope toward an abandoned clinic.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian found Liu Xiaoxiao dead inside the clinic, stabbed more than a dozen times in the chest.
• Song Xiaotian and the narrator removed traces from the scene, then drove away.

After covering up their tracks, Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian returned to watch Lu Jie’s school, where they discovered plainclothes police were watching Xu Dajun. They had An Ning warn Xu Dajun and planned to meet him, while Song Xiaotian explained the police could only arrest him if they caught him in the act.

• Song Xiaotian took Chen Mo to a bathhouse and planned to erase its surveillance footage; the next morning, they heard the owner asking about the broken system.
• Chen Mo worried about the police, but Song Xiaotian said they had no evidence and warned that asking about the investigation would make them look suspicious.
• Song Xiaotian and Chen Mo returned to the school gates and saw Xu Dajun standing there as plainclothes officers watched him.
• Song Xiaotian had An Ning slip Xu Dajun a warning note with an address, and Xu Dajun left the school as the officers followed him.
• Song Xiaotian and Chen Mo abandoned their stakeout and went to a barbecue stall, where Song Xiaotian said the police lacked evidence to prosecute Xu Dajun unless they caught him in the act.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian confronted Xu Dajun, who vowed to avenge Xu Hui, and urged him to wait until they uncovered everyone responsible for her death. The next night, they went to Lu Jie's family hotel to summon Xu Hui's spirit, and the ritual began.

• The narrator and Song Xiaotian found Xu Dajun beneath a bridge and learned that he had killed Liu Xiaoxiao after she said Lu Jie took Xu Hui away from the birthday party.
• Song Xiaotian rebuked Xu Dajun for gambling and neglecting Xu Hui, while the narrator gave him food and urged him to wait before seeking revenge.
• Xu Dajun agreed to hide and follow their instructions after the narrator warned that acting rashly could get him arrested before he uncovered everyone responsible.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian went to Lu Jie's family hotel, where they believed Xu Hui's assault had begun, and booked a room near the end of the fourth-floor corridor.
• The narrator lit yellow paper in a basin and began calling Xu Hui's spirit back to the hotel.

Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian finally found Xu Hui’s ghost, who showed them the events leading up to her death. The memory ended with Liu Xiaoxiao secretly putting a pill into Xu Hui’s drink while the others watched.

• After failing to summon Xu Hui on the other hotel floors, Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian returned to their room and heard crying from a cabinet.
• Chen Mo opened the cabinet and found Xu Hui’s ghost, soaking wet and terrifying in appearance; Song Xiaotian pretended to faint.
• Xu Hui’s ghost showed Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian a memory of her attending a birthday dinner with Lu Jie and Liu Xiaoxiao.
• When Xu Hui refused alcohol, Liu Xiaoxiao poured her a soft drink and secretly dropped a pill into it as the others watched.

Song Xiaotian and the narrator witnessed Xu Hui’s memories of being drugged and taken toward a hotel room by Lu Jie, but her fading consciousness left what happened next unknown. Xu Hui asked them to stop her father from taking revenge, while the narrator wondered who had shouted at Lu Jie and later disposed of her body.

• Liu Xiaoxiao and Liu Yan drugged Xu Hui, fed her alcohol, and helped Lu Jie take her from the restaurant.
• Song Xiaotian and the narrator followed Lu Jie and Xu Hui to the sixth-floor corridor, where someone shouted at Lu Jie as he was about to open a room.
• The scene returned to the fourth floor when Xu Hui’s memory ended, and the narrator explained that she had shown them what she knew through a Ghost Wall.
• Xu Hui reacted when the narrator said her father had avenged her, then pleaded for them to stop her father from seeking revenge.
• Xu Hui vanished, and Song Xiaotian argued that Lu Jie’s family would protect him; the narrator questioned why the person who shouted at Lu Jie had later disposed of Xu Hui’s body.

At the Lu Family patriarch’s eightieth birthday banquet, Song Xiaotian publicly accused Lu Jie of Xu Hui’s death and provoked Lu Jie and Lu Tianxing. After Song Xiaotian knocked them both down, the narrator pulled him away, and Song Xiaotian asked the narrator to seek help from his father before the police arrived.

• Song Xiaotian broadcast accusations about Lu Jie and Xu Hui throughout the Lu Family birthday banquet, causing an uproar.
• Lu Tianxing denied the accusations, then confronted the narrator and Song Xiaotian privately and offered them money to stop.
• Lu Jie burst into the room and charged at Song Xiaotian, who kicked him unconscious.
• Lu Tianxing attacked Song Xiaotian, who knocked him down and reached for a chair before the narrator dragged him away.
• Song Xiaotian said the police would arrest him and asked the narrator to find his father for help.

Song Xiaotian was arrested after beating Lu Tianxing and Lu Jie, and the Song family tried to negotiate his release. Lu Tianxing demanded five million and threatened to press charges, leaving the negotiations on the verge of collapse.

• The police arrested Song Xiaotian, while Lu Tianxing and Lu Jie were taken to the hospital.
• Chen Mo told Uncle Song and Old Master Song that Lu Jie and Lu Tianxing were connected to Xu Hui’s death, and they decided to negotiate rather than use Pan Xiaorou’s connections.
• Two days later, Uncle Song apologized to Lu Tianxing at a meeting mediated by a square-faced leader and offered compensation to prevent charges.
• Lu Tianxing demanded five million, and the mediator appeared to support the demand for his own benefit.
• Lu Tianxing threatened to take Song Xiaotian to court, and Uncle Song asked whether he intended to end the meeting without an agreement.

Uncle Song attacked Lu Tianxing and forced the Square-Faced Boss to release Song Xiaotian, while Old Master Song arranged for Xiaotian to be freed the next day. The narrator then visited Xu Dajun, who refused to abandon his plan to avenge Xu Hui and asked for help taking her killers down with him.

• Uncle Song flipped the restaurant table, beat Lu Tianxing, showed the Square-Faced Boss his and Song Xiaotian's schizophrenia diagnosis certificates, and demanded that Xiaotian be released.
• Uncle Song asked the narrator and Meng Yifan to claim they had beaten Lu Tianxing, and Old Master Song later arranged for Song Xiaotian to be released the next day.
• The narrator told Xu Dajun that Lu Jie was certainly involved in Xu Hui's death and that Lu Jie's father might be involved too, but they had no proof.
• The narrator urged Xu Dajun not to seek revenge and told him Xu Hui's ghost wanted him to live, but Xu Dajun insisted that he had no future and asked for a chance to take the perpetrators down with him.

After Song Xiaotian was released, Chen Mo told him about the plan to bring Xu Dajun, Lu Jie, Lu Tianxing, and Liu Yan together. Chen Mo recruited Liang Yi and Zhang Bo to arrange separate meetings with Lu Jie and Liu Yan, leaving the next steps in Xu Dajun’s hands.

• Song Xiaotian was released, and Pan Xiaorou warned him not to get into trouble again.
• Chen Mo explained that Xu Dajun planned to take down Lu Jie, Lu Tianxing, and Liu Yan over Xu Hui’s death.
• Chen Mo asked Liang Yi to arrange a meeting with Lu Jie outside the Meiyi Hotel on the night of the nineteenth.
• Chen Mo warned Liang Yi to stay away from the organization whose members she had known.
• Chen Mo paid Zhang Bo and instructed him to lure Liu Yan to a hotel meeting with promises of money.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian prepared Xu Dajun to abduct Liu Yan, Lu Jie, and Lu Tianxing as revenge for Xu Hui’s death. As the plan began, Seventh Master arrived with Xiuzhu to help draw Lu Tianxing out.

• Zhang Bo warned that the revenge plan carried legal risks, then asked the narrator to help find work for an apprentice from the Lushan Sect.
• The narrator agreed to help Zhang Bo place the apprentice at the shop once Meng Yifan opened a branch.
• Six days later, the narrator and Song Xiaotian gave Xu Dajun anesthetic and explained the routes and timing for abducting Liu Yan and Lu Jie, then intercepting Lu Tianxing.
• Xu Dajun thanked them, kowtowed, and refused to abandon his plan to avenge Xu Hui, despite the risk of arrest and imprisonment.
• The next night, the narrator and Song Xiaotian waited in a car as Xu Dajun was meant to abduct Liu Yan and Lu Jie.
• Seventh Master arrived with Xiuzhu and complained that they had made him help with something illegal.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian staged a car crash to lure Lu Tianxing out, then received Xu Dajun’s account of how Lu Tianxing assaulted Xu Hui and disposed of her body. A plume of smoke rose near Lu Jie’s home, suggesting Xu Dajun had set the car on fire with himself, Lu Tianxing, Lu Jie, and Liu Yan inside.

• The Seventh Master deliberately ran a red light and collided with the car of Lu Tianxing’s wife, prompting her to call him for help.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian waited nearby, then retrieved Lu Jie’s and Liu Yan’s phones and deleted their social media accounts.
• The narrator received a text from Lu Tianxing’s phone containing Xu Dajun’s interrogation of him.
• The text revealed that Lu Tianxing had assaulted Xu Hui after Lu Jie left, then dumped her body in the river and erased the hotel surveillance footage.
• A plume of black smoke rose near Lu Jie’s home, and the narrator suspected Xu Dajun had burned the stolen car with himself, Lu Tianxing, Lu Jie, and Liu Yan inside.

After Xu Dajun and the others died in a car fire, police questioned the narrator and Song Xiaotian about Liu Xiaoxiao's death, but they denied involvement and avoided suspicion. An official notice blamed Xu Dajun for the killings and said the Loan Shark had been brought to justice, leaving the narrator and Song Xiaotian feeling guilty about their role in setting events in motion.

• The narrator and Song Xiaotian saw news that four bodies had been found in a burned car near Lu Jie's residential complex.
• Plainclothes police questioned the narrator and Song Xiaotian separately about where they had been on the night Liu Xiaoxiao died.
• The narrator denied knowing Xu Dajun and said Song Xiaotian had fought Lu Tianxing and Lu Jie because he secretly liked Xu Hui.
• An officer told the narrator that Xu Hui's death had been ruled a suicide caused by academic pressure.
• About a week later, an official notice said Xu Dajun had set the car on fire and killed himself and the others, while the Loan Shark had been brought to justice.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian felt guilty because they had encouraged Xu Dajun to steal the Loan Shark's car to divert police suspicion.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian summoned Ji Ziyang, only for Xu Hui to arrive and reveal that she had also been killed; the two reunited before leaving to reincarnate. After reflecting on their fate and young love, the narrator decided to visit their other mother’s grave, and Seventh Master agreed to take them.

• The narrator asked Ji Ziyang whether he wanted to see Xu Hui, and he refused because he did not want to burden her with a goodbye.
• Xu Dajun arrived with Xu Hui, whose death had been avenged, and the narrator explained that she could not return to life.
• Ji Ziyang and Xu Hui embraced and left together with Xu Dajun to spend their final time before reincarnation.
• Seventh Master recalled two young lovers who had died for each other, prompting the narrator to reflect on the failures of their parents.
• The narrator asked Seventh Master to take them to pay respects to their other mother, and he agreed.

The narrator reunited with his estranged mother at a supermarket, but she refused his money and contact before leaving by bus. The next day, Brother Liu summoned him to work because a haunting in the morgue had frightened someone badly enough to require hospitalization.

• The narrator ran into his mother at the supermarket and drove her to a bus stop after she refused his offer to pay for her groceries.
• The narrator realized his mother had chosen a distant drop-off point to keep him from learning where she lived, and she declined his money and phone number.
• The narrator called out to his mother and apologized as she boarded the bus, and she told him none of what happened was his fault and urged him to live well.
• The narrator went to work the next day without telling anyone he had seen his mother.
• Brother Liu called the narrator to his workplace and explained that two suicides’ bodies had been in the morgue and that it had been haunted the previous night.

Chen Mo discovered that the ghost possessing Old Wang was Zhang Chengwen, who revealed that he and his brother Zhang Chengwu had been murdered by people from the organization. Before his cursed soul vanished, Zhang Chengwen gave Chen Mo an address, and Chen Mo hurried there while alerting the Seventh Master.

• Chen Mo found the ghost inside Old Wang and used chopsticks to draw it out.
• Zhang Chengwen possessed Old Wang, recognized Chen Mo, and said that he and Zhang Chengwu had been murdered by the people they had driven away before.
• Zhang Chengwen said the killers had returned for revenge, but a curse began making his soul scatter before he could identify them.
• Zhang Chengwen gave Chen Mo the address 188 Shuanghu Street, unit three, sixth floor, apartment 602, then vanished.
• Chen Mo told Brother Liu to drive him to the address and called the Seventh Master to report the brothers' deaths.

After Master Zhang’s lead took Brother Liu and the narrator to a suicide scene, they found a counselor’s business card and returned to the morgue, where Zhang Chengwu’s soul appeared. Before it scattered, Zhang Chengwu gave them a second address: 89 Tengxi Avenue, apartment 1406.

• The narrator and Brother Liu went to apartment 602 at 188 Shuanghu Street and found a woman hanged in a locked room.
• The narrator photographed the scene and noticed a business card for Saint An Psychological Clinic counselor Hua Wenfeng.
• Brother Liu and the narrator returned to the Police Bureau, where Seventh Master was caring for Xiuzhu and grieving Zhang Chengwen and Zhang Chengwu.
• Seventh Master and the narrator went to the morgue and found Zhang Chengwu’s corpse in drawer number eight.
• Zhang Chengwu’s Yin Soul appeared and began to scatter before he could identify his killer, but he gave Seventh Master and the narrator the address 89 Tengxi Avenue, apartment 1406.

After Zhang Chengwu’s soul scattered, Seventh Master and the narrator followed the address he had left to 89 Tengxi Avenue. They found a man who had died by charcoal burning, and Brother Liu promised to identify both victims as the investigation continued.

• Seventh Master left the morgue with the narrator and Brother Liu to investigate the address Zhang Chengwu had given them.
• The narrator told Brother Liu that Zhang Chengwen and Zhang Chengwu had been murdered by members of the group that had hypnotized him, and urged him to check surveillance footage.
• At apartment 1406 on Tengxi Avenue, Seventh Master picked the lock but left before the narrator and Brother Liu entered.
• The narrator and Brother Liu found a badly decomposed corpse in the locked bedroom and called for officers to bring protective gear.
• Brother Liu reported that the deceased was a man with late-stage syphilis and that a charcoal-burning basin indicated suicide, while Seventh Master and the narrator hurried away.

After learning that Qu Yan and He Feilong shared a birthday and had both visited Saint An Psychological Clinic, the narrator suspected another Seven Deaths for a Life and began pursuing the clinic as a lead. Meanwhile, Zhang Bo brought news of a new apprentice joining the shop, though he warned that Yi Yang lacked common sense.

• The narrator examined photos of Qu Yan's room over lunch, and An Ning stayed unfazed while Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan lost their appetites.
• Brother Liu identified the dead pair as Qu Yan and He Feilong, who were unrelated, poor, and born on the same lunar-calendar day, but police found no evidence of homicide.
• Brother Liu revealed that both Qu Yan and He Feilong had been patients at Saint An Psychological Clinic, giving the narrator and Seventh Master a lead to investigate.
• The narrator told Seventh Master about the deaths, and Seventh Master arranged care for Xiuzhu so he could join the investigation.
• Zhang Bo introduced Yi Yang, a thirty-one-year-old former Shaolin trainee who was reliable but inexperienced and short on common sense.

Yi Yang joined Meng Yifan’s shop and proved his ability by quickly capturing a lingering spirit. The narrator then investigated Saint An Psychological Clinic and found Hua Wenfeng’s profile and expensive fees, but had not yet met him.

• Yi Yang arrived for an interview, asked for a salary of at least two thousand a month, and accepted Meng Yifan’s offer after hearing about the shop’s pay and benefits.
• Meng Yifan sent the narrator and Yi Yang to test Yi Yang’s skills at a haunted house, where Yi Yang captured the old man’s lingering Yin Soul in a bottle within minutes.
• The narrator showed Yi Yang a photo of Hua Wenfeng’s business card and drove him to Saint An Psychological Clinic to investigate the clinic connected to two recent deaths.
• The narrator found Hua Wenfeng’s credentials and the clinic’s high service prices, then registered for an appointment without being able to use medical insurance.

Chen visited psychologist Hua Wenfeng, who diagnosed his depression as severe and warned that his guardedness was obstructing recovery. Before leaving, Chen secretly photographed patients’ consultation records and asked Hua whether a psychologist could drive someone in despair to hopelessness.

• Chen met Hua Wenfeng and discussed his depression, which Hua said was severe and had likely persisted for nearly a year.
• Hua observed that Chen’s friends helped sustain him but warned that his extreme guardedness kept him from discussing the distress at the heart of his condition.
• While Hua was out of the room, Chen hurriedly filled in a self-assessment scale and photographed the consultation records, including those of a woman who had hanged herself and a man with syphilis.
• Hua recognized that Chen had filled in the scale at random and urged him to lower his guard if he wanted to recover.
• Chen asked whether a psychologist could make a despairing person utterly hopeless, and Hua said it was theoretically possible but unethical and potentially illegal.

The narrator reviewed the histories of Qu Yan and He Feilong, two people who had died by suicide after severe psychological and personal crises. He grew suspicious that Hua Wenfeng, who had treated both of them, might have guided patients toward suicide, and the chapter ended with that possibility under consideration.

• Brother Liu told the narrator that Qu Yan had lived in poverty, recently been dumped, and suffered severe depression without having medication at home.
• Brother Liu reported that He Feilong had contracted syphilis from his girlfriend and had subsequently been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety.
• The narrator analyzed how Qu Yan’s isolation, insecurity, financial hardship, and breakup may have contributed to her despair and inability to afford medication.
• The narrator noted that He Feilong had a good income and friends but had been devastated by his girlfriend’s infidelity and the disease she passed on to him.
• The narrator recalled that Hua Wenfeng had treated both people and wondered whether, despite his professional skill, he could have led psychologically troubled patients toward suicide.