Chapter Summaries

Chen Mo, Song Xiaotian, and Wang Jun went to the Huang Family Old Residence to exchange money for Du Yunting, following Huang Wenlong’s unusual demands. Du Yunting staggered out badly wounded, but Song Xiaotian and Wang Jun were missing, and Du collapsed before reaching the gate.

• Wang Jun ordered the other teams to withdraw beyond two kilometers, then drove with Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian to the Huang Family Old Residence.
• On the way, Song Xiaotian and Wang Jun discussed Huang Wenlong’s strange demand that three people come to the exchange and agreed not to risk their lives for Du Yunting.
• Huang Wenlong told them by phone that only two of them could enter while the third waited at the gate, and said he would release Du Yunting after receiving the money.
• Song Xiaotian and Wang Jun went inside while Chen Mo waited at the gate, increasingly worried as several minutes passed.
• Du Yunting staggered out covered in knife wounds, but Song Xiaotian and Wang Jun did not appear, and Du collapsed before reaching the gate.

Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian were captured after Du Yunting staged his own kidnapping to lure members of the organization into a trap. Du Yunting revealed that he had copied Chen Mo’s earlier setup, and explained that Huang Wenlong had been an actor while the real man had been cremated.

• Chen Mo found Du Yunting apparently dead and rushed into the villa to look for Song Xiaotian, where Wang Jun held him at knifepoint.
• Wang Jun’s masked allies drugged Chen Mo, and he later woke to find Song Xiaotian, Wang Jun, and the supposedly dead Du Yunting in a room with surveillance footage.
• Du Yunting revealed that he had staged the kidnapping and ordered his people to carry Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian outside.
• Song Xiaotian woke and confronted Wang Jun as Chen Mo explained that Du Yunting had tricked them.
• Du Yunting explained that he had lured the organization’s members into a trap by copying Chen Mo’s earlier plan, then confirmed that Huang Wenlong had been an actor and the real Huang Wenlong had been cremated.

Du Yunting revealed that he had staged his kidnapping and car accident to deceive the narrator, Song Xiaotian, and the organization while exposing its Chongqing branch. He also admitted that he had secretly swindled thirty million from Du Rushan, leaving the narrator stunned by the scale of his plan.

• The narrator confronted Du Yunting about the deaths caused by the staged car crash, and Du Yunting said the taxi driver had accidentally caused the deaths while carrying out his plan.
• Du Yunting explained that he had killed the real Huang Wenlong and hired people to make it seem as though Huang Wenlong had kidnapped him.
• Du Yunting said he had used the narrator and Song Xiaotian to draw out God Judge and the organization's Chongqing members, and the narrator and Song Xiaotian beat God Judge after he insulted the narrator.
• The narrator discovered that Jiang Dalei was tied up, and Du Yunting and Wang Jun explained that Jiang Dalei had been Qingyuan's spy and had sabotaged their efforts.
• Du Yunting said Du Rushan had not known about the scheme, then revealed that he had maneuvered the old man into giving him thirty million.

After Du Yunting exposed and killed the organization members, he refused to pay Song Xiaotian and the narrator for rescuing him. They returned to Lanjiang City and confronted him at Weihai Group, where Song Xiaotian threatened to kidnap him again.

• Du Yunting ordered his men to kill the organization members and dispose of their bodies, while Song Xiaotian and the narrator waited in another room.
• Du Yunting refused to pay the promised ten million or five million, claiming he had never made those offers, then drove away without giving them any money or a ride.
• Song Xiaotian and the narrator walked back to the hotel and told An Ning that Du Yunting had fooled them and refused to pay.
• The next day, Song Xiaotian and the narrator went to Weihai Group to demand payment, but Du Yunting said he had no money and lectured them about being greedy.
• Song Xiaotian threatened to kidnap Du Yunting again, and Du Yunting warned him that he would call the police if Song Xiaotian hit him.

Song Xiaotian failed to collect much money from Du Yunting, but the Seventh Master reassured him that their trouble with the organization had likely ended for now. The next day, the narrator learned that Xu Hui believed a male shadow had been following her home and planned to investigate that night.

• Song Xiaotian stripped Du Yunting's office of its furnishings and sold them for just over twenty thousand yuan.
• The Seventh Master and Meng Yifan laughed at Song Xiaotian's small haul but said the loss had helped deter the organization from attacking again.
• Xie Peng brought his cousin and Xu Hui to the shop, explaining that Xu Hui thought a ghost was following her home after evening study sessions.
• The narrator identified the shadow as a recently deceased male ghost and gave Xu Hui a talisman, promising to wait outside her school that night.

The narrator followed Xu Hui and discovered that the ghost shadow was protecting her from two thugs demanding her imprisoned father’s debt. After Song Xiaotian arrived and defeated the men, he began interrogating them.

• The narrator followed Xu Hui through the Old City District and noticed two thugs tailing her.
• When the thugs tried to corner Xu Hui, the ghost tripped one of them, revealing that it was protecting her.
• The thugs demanded that Xu Hui repay the million owed by her father, Xu Dajun, and threatened her when she refused.
• The narrator sent Xu Hui home and confronted the thugs, who tried to attack him.
• Song Xiaotian arrived, knocked both thugs down, and began threatening them for targeting Xu Hui.

Song Xiaotian drove off the loan sharks harassing Xu Hui, and the narrator discovered the ghost following her was Ji Ziyang, a teenage boy who had died in the taxi crash. Ji Ziyang said he was protecting Xu Hui and began telling them how they had met.

• Song Xiaotian learned the two men were loan-shark enforcers targeting Xu Hui over her father’s debt, then threatened them into leaving her alone.
• The narrator told Song Xiaotian that Ji Ziyang’s ghost was standing behind him, frightening him into dropping his cigarette.
• Ji Ziyang said he was protecting Xu Hui and remembered taking a taxi to meet her before a crash.
• The narrator realized Ji Ziyang had been the high school student killed in the taxi crash on the ninth.
• Ji Ziyang began telling the narrator and Song Xiaotian about his relationship with Xu Hui.

The chapter recounted Ji Ziyang’s troubled childhood and how rescuing Xu Hui led him to fall in love with her. After rejecting her confession, he resolved to change his life and eventually set out to see her with a fountain pen, but died in a traffic accident on the way.

• Ji Ziyang was abandoned by his parents and, after his aunt died and his uncle left him behind, drifted into street life.
• Ji Ziyang and his friends rescued Xu Hui from two men demanding repayment of her father’s loan-shark debt, and he began escorting her home from school.
• Xu Hui confessed her feelings, but Ji Ziyang rejected her because he believed he would hold back her future.
• Ji Ziyang continued watching over Xu Hui and, after learning her grades had fallen, decided to improve himself and earn money so he could be worthy of her.
• Ji Ziyang bought Xu Hui a fountain pen and died in a taxi accident while traveling to see her.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian tried to fulfill Ji Ziyang’s final wish by finding the fountain pen he had bought for Xu Hui and delivering his message to her. They could not find the original pen, but Xu Hui received a replacement and heard Ji Ziyang’s words as he remained at the Seventh Master’s home.

• Ji Ziyang asked the narrator to find his fountain pen and give it to Xu Hui without telling her he was dead.
• Song Xiaotian searched Ji Ziyang’s belongings at the Traffic Police Team but could not find the pen, while the narrator took Ji Ziyang to the Seventh Master’s home.
• The narrator told Ji Ziyang they would give Xu Hui a replacement pen, and Ji Ziyang shared the final words he wanted passed on to her.
• The narrator and Song Xiaotian visited Xu Hui and gave her the replacement fountain pen from Ji Ziyang.
• Xu Hui asked to see Ji Ziyang, and the narrator told her he had gone away to work before relaying Ji Ziyang’s feelings and hopes for her future.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian learned that Xu Hui had been found dead in a river, and Brother Liu’s investigation suggested her death might not have been a suicide or accident. Song Xiaotian nearly went after the men who had harassed her, but calmed down and used their ID photos to seek one man’s phone number.

• The narrator and Song Xiaotian learned from Xie Peng that Xu Hui had gone missing and was identified as a body recovered from Dongli Park’s river.
• The narrator rejected Song Xiaotian’s suspicion that Xu Hui had died by suicide, while Song Xiaotian feared she had been murdered by the loan shark company.
• The narrator asked Brother Liu to investigate, and Brother Liu said Xu Hui’s death seemed suspicious because the authorities were keeping details secret and she had been found far from home and school.
• Song Xiaotian demanded An Ning’s Broadsword and vowed to kill the people he blamed, but the narrator and An Ning stopped him and persuaded him to calm down.
• Song Xiaotian called the mother of Wu Tong, one of the men who had harassed Xu Hui, pretending he wanted to repay a loan so he could get Wu Tong’s number.

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.