Chapter Summaries

After realizing Pan Xiaorou had invented a haunting to keep Song Xiaotian company, the narrator left him with her for the night. The next morning, they went to collect Meng Yifan from detention, where the narrator noticed hickeys on Song Xiaotian’s neck.

• Seventh Master told the narrator that Pan Xiaorou was lying about a ghost to lure Song Xiaotian to her home.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian visited Pan Xiaorou’s villa, found no sign of a Yin Soul, and heard her ask Song Xiaotian to stay with her.
• The narrator teased Song Xiaotian about his involvement with Pan Xiaorou and urged him to talk things through after Meng Yifan’s release.
• The narrator and Seventh Master picked up Song Xiaotian and drove to the detention center to wait for Meng Yifan.
• The narrator spotted several hickeys on Song Xiaotian’s neck and whispered to Seventh Master that someone had really had their way with him.

After Meng Yifan was released, he explained that an anonymous text had led him to Tao Xiaoyu’s villa and nearly made him look guilty of murder. Song Xiaotian and the narrator recognized the sender’s number as belonging to someone they knew, leaving the narrator shaken by the discovery.

• Meng Yifan was released from detention, and the narrator, Seventh Master, and Song Xiaotian took him out to eat.
• Meng Yifan said he had come to terms with Tao Xiaoyu’s betrayal and wished her peace.
• Meng Yifan explained that an unfamiliar number had texted him Tao Xiaoyu’s villa address, and he had gone there after drinking and buying a knife.
• Seventh Master concluded that the sender had set Meng Yifan up, while Song Xiaotian suspected Du Yunting.
• Meng Yifan learned that Du Yunting was actually Du Ruhai, then showed Song Xiaotian the text.
• The narrator compared the text’s number with a saved number and realized the message had been sent by her.

The narrator and the others realized Pan Xiaorou had manipulated Meng Yifan into becoming a scapegoat while concealing her own role in Xiang Kai’s death. After Meng Yifan was freed, he planned to profit by selling Tao Xiaoyu’s villa, and the narrator understood that the villa was the benefit foretold by the hexagram.

• Meng Yifan learned Pan Xiaorou had sent the text that led him to Tao Xiaoyu and angrily wanted to confront her, but the others stopped him.
• The narrator explained that Pan Xiaorou had planned to frame Meng Yifan for the attempted murder and likely used Xiang Kai’s driver as her killer.
• The narrator and the others left the restaurant and urged Meng Yifan to go home and rest, but he proposed selling Tao Xiaoyu’s villa for a profit.
• The narrator realized the hexagram predicting that Tao Xiaoyu would benefit Meng Yifan referred to the villa and suggested it also showed Meng Yifan would not be executed.

After Meng Yifan recovered, the narrator moved in with him and Song Xiaotian while the agency prepared to auction Tao Xiaoyu's villa. Du Yunting escaped punishment after a scapegoat confessed and died, and the chapter ended when Seventh Master summoned the narrator because he had found Du Yuwei's child.

• The narrator moved in with Meng Yifan, who also had Song Xiaotian move in, and their small agency began arranging the sale of Tao Xiaoyu's villa.
• Meng Yifan sent Sun Tianyang and Lin Qiao to negotiate with Tao Xiaoyu's parents, who agreed to list the villa for a minimum return of 1.3 million yuan.
• Pan Xiaorou used surveillance footage and public pressure to get Du Yunting detained, and the Weihai Group was barred from bidding on a major city project that the Jiangling Group won.
• Du Yunting was released after forty-eight hours, and Xiang Kai's driver and assistant confessed to the murders in a suicide note before jumping to his death.
• Song Xiaotian hid from Pan Xiaorou after learning the driver had died, while the narrator kept lying to her about his whereabouts.
• Seventh Master called the narrator and said he had found Du Yuwei's child, asking the narrator to come to his house.

After Seventh Master found Du Yuwei’s infant son abandoned at his door, he asked the narrator to persuade the ghost child to accept reincarnation. The child agreed after the narrator promised to find him by the birthmark he made on his arm, and they waited for someone to come collect him.

• Song Xiaotian drove the narrator to Seventh Master's home, where Seventh Master said An Ning had left the crying child outside before disappearing.
• The narrator entered the room, freed the child from Seventh Master's formation, and held him as memories of his lost family and Du Yuwei overwhelmed him.
• The narrator explained that Du Yuwei was gone and urged the child to be reincarnated, but the child gestured for the narrator to go with him.
• The narrator refused, saying he had promised his father to live well, and the child marked his arm with a red circle so the narrator could find him in another life.
• The child agreed to go after the narrator promised to find him, and Seventh Master said someone would soon arrive to take him away.

Chen Mo reluctantly let a Walking Impermanence take the unborn child away, then learned from the Seventh Master that the old man was a living person who collected souls for the underworld. The chapter ended with the Seventh Master explaining how Walking Impermanence worked and why its members could not freely discuss the underworld.

• A Walking Impermanence assured Chen Mo that the child could reincarnate and took him away, but the crying child reached for Chen Mo as he left.
• Chen Mo followed the old man until he warned that the child could not reincarnate if Chen Mo kept following, so Chen Mo backed away and let them disappear.
• Chen Mo returned to the Seventh Master's house, where the Seventh Master comforted him and Song Xiaotian asked about the old man.
• The Seventh Master told the story of Liang Hao, a jailer who served as a Walking Impermanence and collected a scholar's soul while in a deep sleep.
• The Seventh Master explained that living Underworld Deputies helped collect souls, were unaffected by yang energy, and risked punishment if they revealed underworld affairs.

The narrator and Meng Yifan struggled to hire staff until An Ning returned and asked for a job at the shop. Meng Yifan hired her, but she revealed that after another arrest she had lost her belongings and had no clothes besides the outfit that reminded everyone of Du Yuwei.

• Meng Yifan finished interviewing applicants, but none wanted to work at the shop, so the group discussed recruiting elsewhere.
• An Ning entered the shop asking whether it was still hiring, and the narrator brought her into the office to talk.
• An Ning told Meng Yifan she had sold fake medicine and pickpocketed before, and that police had arrested her for both.
• Meng Yifan offered An Ning a job with a base salary, allowances, a bonus, and sales commissions, and she accepted.
• An Ning said she had no other clothes because she had just been released from jail and her landlord had thrown away her belongings after she fell behind on rent.

An Ning returned to work after being released from police custody, and the narrator helped her find a home and buy clothes. Over dinner, An Ning revealed she had sold her motorcycle to pay for Du Yuwei’s funeral arrangements.

• An Ning explained that she had lost her belongings after falling behind on rent, and Meng Yifan offered her a job and help buying clothes.
• The narrator thanked Meng Yifan for hiring An Ning, and Meng Yifan said he wanted to repay the sisters for saving them from an attack.
• The narrator rented his old apartment to An Ning as staff housing and learned she had once helped her sister scare him.
• The narrator bought An Ning work and casual clothes, then took her to dinner.
• An Ning told the narrator she had sold her motorcycle for ten thousand yuan to pay for Du Yuwei’s cremation and place her ashes in a columbarium.

After taking An Ning home, Chen Mo reviewed two haunted-house cases with Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian, both involving people who had died by suicide. The group planned to investigate the houses the next day, with Chen Mo paired with An Ning and Meng Yifan with Song Xiaotian.

• Chen Mo told An Ning to keep calling him Chen Mo because Li Fuguang’s parents and the person who remembered him were gone.
• Chen Mo found two haunted-house case files at home and learned that buyers had paid deposits for both properties.
• Chen Mo read that a mother who had recently given birth had killed herself and her baby, and neighbors had reported seeing her apparition in their bedroom.
• Chen Mo learned that a corporate executive had slit his wrists in a bathtub, and his elderly mother had died a month after finding him.
• Meng Yifan explained the fees for handling the houses and assigned Chen Mo and An Ning to one case while he and Song Xiaotian took the other.

After Meng Yifan raised the shop’s commissions and introduced An Ning, he sent her and the narrator to investigate a dangerous haunted home. The narrator’s ominous divination warned them not to enter, but all three coins landed inscription-side up, so he led An Ning inside.

• Meng Yifan introduced An Ning at the morning meeting and increased everyone’s commissions and meal allowance.
• Song Xiaotian gave out Seventh Master’s Peace Talismans, then he and Meng Yifan drove off to investigate the less dangerous haunted home, leaving the narrator and An Ning the home where a mother and son had died.
• An Ning returned to the narrator’s rented place to retrieve something before they drove to the haunted residential complex.
• The narrator waited until the hour of the Horse passed, then cast a reading that showed the ghosts overcoming him and An Ning.
• The narrator asked An Ning to toss three copper coins, and when all three landed inscription-side up, he led her into the building.

The narrator and An Ning examined Liu Jing’s apartment and traced its oppressive feng shui, dark decor, and neglected plants to possible causes of her depression and death. As they prepared to summon her soul, the narrator found a talisman hidden behind the master bedroom door.

• The narrator explained that the spacious apartment’s few occupants and oversized master bedroom created the feng shui problem known as “house bullying people.”
• The narrator identified the withered vines in the southeast corner and the apartment’s dark, monotonous decor as further factors that may have worsened Liu Jing’s mental state.
• The narrator learned from the file that Liu Jing had killed her month-old son and then hanged herself after suffering postpartum depression.
• The narrator inferred that Liu Jing had felt unloved and had cared for the plants as an outlet for her need for affection.
• The narrator told An Ning to block the windows while he searched the apartment, where he found a talisman behind the master bedroom door.

Chen Mo and An Ning attempted to summon Liu Jing, but the ritual first revealed the dead baby’s resentment and then allowed Liu Jing to possess An Ning. Liu Jing began describing her loneliness and mistreatment before asking Chen Mo to hold her invisible child.

• Chen Mo arranged the candles and guiding lamp, then performed the ritual to summon Liu Jing with An Ning as the Spirit Medium.
• The candle flames turned green one after another, and a baby began crying, but An Ning was not yet possessed.
• A man’s voice comforted the baby before turning abusive, and Chen Mo realized the child’s resentment was making itself heard.
• An Ning’s eyes turned gray and pupil-less as Liu Jing possessed her and spoke through her.
• Liu Jing told Chen Mo that she was lonely, exhausted, and mistreated by her mother-in-law during postpartum confinement.
• Liu Jing offered her invisible baby to Chen Mo, who trembled as she faced the empty air.

The narrator tried to guide Liu Jing toward reincarnation while she possessed An Ning, but Liu Jing became agitated and attacked him. An Ning regained control before Liu Jing could strangle him, and the narrator fell as the unseen rope vanished.

• The narrator pretended to hold Liu Jing's invisible child and tried to persuade her that she and the child could reincarnate.
• Liu Jing began to cry, and An Ning's consciousness resurfaced as she mourned the withered plants and searched for her old home.
• Liu Jing grew enraged and strangled the narrator with an invisible rope, lifting him toward the ceiling.
• The narrator called out to An Ning, who grabbed the Vajra Pestle and nearly plunged it into her heart before regaining control.
• Liu Jing disappeared, the rope vanished, and the narrator dropped from midair.

After An Ning used a Vajra Pestle stolen from Seventh Master's house to save him, the narrator learned that the house’s talisman gathered yin energy and that Liu Jing might have been manipulated into suicide. The two became trapped in a ghost wall, and the narrator suspected someone had engineered Liu Jing’s death.

• An Ning woke from being possessed and used the Vajra Pestle she had stolen from Seventh Master's house to save the narrator.
• Seventh Master identified the talisman as a Yin-Gathering Talisman, and the narrator realized they could not contact him because their phones had no signal.
• The narrator and An Ning found that it was dark outside despite only an hour passing and discovered the door would not open.
• The narrator tried to smash the window, then recognized that Liu Jing had trapped them in a ghost-wall illusion.
• The narrator examined the talisman and the house’s feng shui and concluded that someone might have manipulated Liu Jing into killing herself.

Chen Mo and An Ning found evidence that Liu Jing’s apparent suicide was caused by three Yin-Gathering Talismans and learned from her diary that feng shui master Wang Guofu had persuaded her to place them. Liu Jing’s birth date linked her story to Lü Zhengxian, whom Chen Mo revealed was still alive as Du Yunting, leaving them unsure whether he was behind her death.

• An Ning found two Yin-Gathering Talismans beneath Liu Jing’s bed, and Chen Mo concluded that someone had used feng shui to drive her to her death.
• Chen Mo and An Ning read Liu Jing’s diary, which described her mistreatment by her husband and his family and how Wang Guofu convinced her to put up three talismans.
• Chen Mo noticed that Liu Jing and Lü Zhengxian were both born on the Ghost Festival.
• Chen Mo told An Ning that Lü Zhengxian was alive and now used the name Du Yunting.
• Chen Mo and An Ning considered whether Wang Guofu and Liu Jing’s death were connected to Lü Zhengxian.

After Liu Jing's diary revealed her deteriorating state of mind, Chen Mo and An Ning remained trapped in her apartment as its illusion decayed around them. Just as they weakened from thirst and hunger, Seventh Master arrived and carried them out.

• Chen Mo explained that the Yin-Gathering Talismans had intensified the feng shui's influence on Liu Jing, driving her to kill herself and her child.
• The apartment grew dusty, cobwebbed, moldy, and overgrown as Liu Jing lost hope, while Chen Mo and An Ning waited in vain for help.
• After at least forty-eight hours without water, An Ning and Chen Mo grew severely weak, and the apartment transformed into a haunted ruin.
• Seventh Master appeared and carried the unconscious An Ning and weakened Chen Mo toward the exit.
• Liu Jing tried to stop Seventh Master, but he roared at her and stamped the floor, making her vanish before he carried them downstairs.

After Seventh Master rescued them from the ghost walls, the narrator learned that only a few hours had passed and heard how Feng Gang had trapped Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan. Seventh Master suspected Yin-Gathering Talismans had strengthened the Yin Souls, and Song Xiaotian revealed three talismans he had found.

• The narrator woke in the hospital on the thirteenth, where Seventh Master explained that a Yin Soul’s ghost wall could distort perception of time through hypnosis.
• Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan told the narrator that Feng Gang had trapped them after they refused to help him reunite his family through their deaths.
• The narrator learned that Xie Peng had alerted Seventh Master when the group failed to return, allowing Seventh Master to rescue all four of them that night.
• Seventh Master explained that strong yin energy, the homes’ feng shui, and Yin-Gathering Talismans had made the ghost walls difficult to escape.
• Song Xiaotian pulled three talismans from his pocket after Seventh Master suggested that Feng Gang’s home had contained Yin-Gathering Talismans.

After identifying Wang Guofu as the feng shui master behind Liu Jing and Feng Gang’s deaths, the group realized the murders were part of Lü Zhengxian’s Seven Deaths for a Life. Two days after leaving the hospital, they made finding Wang Guofu their priority and chose the narrator to contact him.

• Seventh Master examined the Yin-Gathering Talismans and concluded that Wang Guofu had used magic to induce Liu Jing and Feng Gang to kill themselves.
• The narrator revealed that Liu Jing, Lü Zhengxian, and Feng Gang had all been born on the Ghost Festival, and Meng Yifan confirmed Feng Gang’s birth date.
• Seventh Master concluded that Lü Zhengxian had completed another Seven Deaths for a Life, with Wang Guofu likely helping him kill seven people.
• Seventh Master caught An Ning pretending to be unconscious, reclaimed her stolen Vajra Pestle, then sold it back to her for a hundred yuan and urged her to accumulate hidden merit.
• After the group recovered and left the hospital two days later, they decided the narrator would contact Wang Guofu and arrange a meeting.

Chen Mo posed as a businessman seeking a fortune reading to lure Wang Guofu into a meeting in Huangshikou, where Seventh Master and the others waited nearby. Wang Guofu detected the deception and identified the group waiting outside, leaving Chen Mo exposed in the teahouse.

• Chen Mo called Wang Guofu and claimed that Liu Jing had referred him, then arranged to meet for tea in Huangshikou.
• Chen Mo told Seventh Master and the others where the meeting would be, and they drove to the area with An Ning.
• Seventh Master warned Chen Mo not to give Wang Guofu his real birth details, so Chen Mo went to the teahouse alone.
• Chen Mo found Du Yunting meeting with Wang Guofu and made up a birth chart and company name for his cover.
• Wang Guofu switched from reading the birth chart to casting a hexagram, realized Chen Mo was lying, and said five people had come, including three men, one woman, and an old man.

Chen and his companions tried to take Wang Guofu, but Du Yunting’s presence forced them to improvise. An Ning and Song Xiaotian created a public disturbance that let the Seventh Master and Meng Yifan abduct Wang Guofu, while Chen left to meet them.

• Wang Guofu realized Chen had brought four companions and left the teahouse with Du Yunting and his bodyguards.
• An Ning attacked Du Yunting, and Song Xiaotian turned the confrontation into a noisy public scene by accusing the bodyguards of abusing them.
• The Seventh Master and Meng Yifan silenced Wang Guofu with silver needles and carried him away amid the crowd’s commotion.
• Du Yunting discovered Wang Guofu was missing, while Chen denied knowing where he had gone and then left to find Song Xiaotian and An Ning.
• Song Xiaotian told Chen that An Ning had rushed out to attack Du Yunting after learning he was there.