Chapter Summaries

After Fang Man was killed in a suspicious traffic accident, Chen Mo and Song Xiaotian struggled with their grief and were stopped from attacking the driver. Chen Mo attended Fang Man’s funeral and promised her parents he would care for them, while hiding his belief that her death was connected to him and might go unpunished.

• At the traffic police station, Chen Mo lunged at the driver with a pen but officers restrained him and talked him down.
• Song Xiaotian arrived, blamed the driver for Fang Man’s death, and beat him before officers pulled him away.
• A traffic police captain said the driver’s condition seemed abnormal and promised to investigate whether the crash was deliberate.
• Chen Mo and his coworkers handled Fang Man’s funeral, and Chen Mo finally broke down crying when she was cremated.
• After the funeral, Chen Mo promised Fang Man’s parents he would visit and care for them, while keeping his suspicions about her death secret.

After Fang Man’s death, Chen Mo and Meng Yifan wanted to kill Du Ruhai, but Song Xiaotian stopped them and investigated the suspicious hit-and-run payment. Unsure who hired the driver, they went to confront Du Ruhai at Weihai Group, where Song Xiaotian forced their way past security.

• Chen Mo and Meng Yifan prepared to avenge Fang Man by killing Du Ruhai, but Song Xiaotian stopped them and warned them not to act rashly.
• Song Xiaotian explained that the driver who killed Fang Man had a terminal illness and had been found with two hundred thousand in cash, but investigators could not trace who paid him.
• Song Xiaotian said he suspected Du Ruhai but needed to investigate the inconsistencies before identifying Fang Man’s killer.
• Chen Mo, Meng Yifan, and Song Xiaotian arrived at Weihai Group to meet Du Ruhai, but the receptionist refused them without an appointment.
• Song Xiaotian struck the head of security and headed for the elevators as the guards surrounded them, then produced a short baton.

Song Xiaotian, Chen Mo, and Meng Yifan confronted Du Ruhai over Fang Man’s death, but Du Ruhai denied arranging it and suggested someone was framing him. They left without answers, and Chen Mo began to suspect Du Ruhai might not be responsible.

• Song Xiaotian led Chen Mo and Meng Yifan past Weihai Group’s guards to meet Du Ruhai, who was sitting with Zhao Laoqi.
• Song Xiaotian accused Du Ruhai of paying a cancer-stricken driver to kill Fang Man, but Du Ruhai denied knowing the driver or ordering the crime.
• Chen Mo suggested Li Xiumei might be framing Du Ruhai, and Du Ruhai angrily told them to take their suspicions to the police.
• Zhao Laoqi defended Du Ruhai and warned Chen Mo to recognize Weihai Group’s power, while Meng Yifan challenged him.
• Song Xiaotian apologized for their visit and led the others out, kicking a bodyguard who looked at them; Du Ruhai ordered his guards to let them go.
• Outside Weihai Group, Chen Mo said he was beginning to think Du Ruhai might have had nothing to do with Fang Man’s death.

Chen Mo and his friends questioned whether Du Ruhai was involved in Fang Man’s death, but they decided to keep investigating the driver instead of provoking him. That night, Chen Mo saw Fang Man’s ghost outside his apartment and chased her to an old building, where she vanished and left him facing something impossible.

• Meng Yifan suspected Du Ruhai and wanted to kidnap Zhao Laoqi, but Song Xiaotian warned that doing so could provoke Du Ruhai.
• The group agreed to investigate the driver who had hit Fang Man, while Chen Mo returned to his apartment alone.
• Chen Mo heard Fang Man crying outside his door and saw her ghost through the peephole.
• Fang Man told Chen Mo not to open the door, said goodbye, and urged him to care for himself and her parents.
• Chen Mo chased Fang Man to an apartment on the seventh floor, where she disappeared and he saw something he could not explain.

The narrator found Du Yuwei’s stolen body in a sealed apartment and discovered a diary that revealed years of abuse by Du Ruhai. The chapter left him overwhelmed after reading how Du Yuwei’s attempt to report Du Ruhai had ended in further violence.

• The narrator found Du Yuwei’s body in a chair beside a pale green candle, while the apartment door and windows were sealed shut.
• He realized Du Yuwei’s body had been stolen from Du Ruhai’s villa and wondered who had taken it and left offerings.
• The narrator found a familiar black dress and red high heels in the wardrobe, then discovered a diary in its top compartment.
• He read Du Yuwei’s diary and learned that Du Ruhai had abused her since she was a child.
• The narrator read that Du Yuwei had reported Du Ruhai to the police at eighteen, but Du Ruhai got the letter and beat her in retaliation.

While reading Du Yuwei’s diary, I learned that she had become a killer after years of suffering and had planned to murder a boy’s girlfriend. The diary continued writing by itself, revealing that the culprit from the first case had hired someone to kill Fang Man.

• I discovered diary entries showing Du Yuwei had arranged to run over two men she loved and their girlfriends, killing one couple.
• Du Yuwei’s diary began writing on its blank final page, describing how she recognized the first-case culprit as an enemy who had helped kill her family.
• I saw a memory of Lü Zhengxian strangling Li Xiumei while the first-case culprit covered young Du Yuwei’s eyes.
• I realized Du Yuwei’s entry identified the first-case culprit as the person who had paid a driver to kill Fang Man.

After Du Yuwei’s ghost gave Chen Mo another terrifying vision, he escaped the apartment and told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan what he had discovered. He believed a living accomplice could help identify the principal perpetrator behind Fang Man’s death, and he planned to return to find him.

• Chen Mo begged Du Yuwei’s diary to reveal the principal perpetrator’s face, but the writing vanished and the diary remained blank.
• Du Yuwei appeared behind Chen Mo, called his name, and triggered a vision of Chen Mo lying dead in an operating room as his family mourned him.
• Chen Mo realized the scene was another hallucination, fled the apartment, and ran home after dawn.
• Chen Mo called Song Xiaotian and told him he knew who had hired the killer.
• Chen Mo, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan returned to the residential complex, where Chen Mo explained that Du Yuwei had lured him out by appearing as Fang Man.
• Chen Mo told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan he believed Du Yuwei had a living accomplice and that he would return to identify him and find the person responsible for Fang Man’s death.

After finding the apartment where he had seen Du Yuwei, the narrator discovered that it had completely changed and was occupied by an elderly couple, leaving him and his friends unsure what had happened. A surveillance photo then confirmed that he had really met Du Yuwei and identified the masked man connected to Fang Man’s death.

• The narrator, Meng Yifan, and a reluctant Song Xiaotian went to the seventh floor of the old residential building to check apartment 7-2.
• An old man opened 7-2, where the furnishings and layout were completely different from the night before and an old woman watched television.
• The old man denied that anyone named Du Yuwei lived there and shut the door, prompting Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan, and the narrator to flee downstairs.
• Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan questioned whether the narrator had been sleepwalking, but he remembered running home and buying cigarettes afterward.
• Song Xiaotian showed the narrator and Meng Yifan a surveillance photo of the driver who killed Fang Man standing with the masked man from the first case.
• The narrator recognized the masked man as the person who had met him outside the villa, and Song Xiaotian concluded that the narrator’s encounter with Du Yuwei had been real.

After Fang Man’s death, Meng Yifan and the narrator returned to the shop, where they discovered two memorial portraits and ash urns hidden in the narrator’s locker. Surveillance footage showed Du Yuwei placing them there, even though she had supposedly been luring the narrator into a nonexistent house at the same time.

• Song Xiaotian went to investigate the principal culprit, using the motorcycle’s license plate as their only lead.
• The narrator and Meng Yifan returned to the shop, where five longtime employees submitted resignation letters and Meng Yifan planned to close it.
• The narrator opened his locker and found two memorial portraits and ash urns, which Meng Yifan recognized as urns they had stolen before.
• Meng Yifan stopped the employees from calling the police and reviewed the shop’s surveillance footage with the narrator.
• The footage showed Du Yuwei at the shop entrance at 2:30 a.m., apparently placing the portraits and urns inside, even as she lured the narrator into a nonexistent house.

Chen and Meng traced the two memorial portraits Du Yuwei had left at the shop to Lihetang, where they learned she had ordered them herself. The owner revealed that a third portrait was waiting for Chen and Meng to collect.

• Chen and Meng found Lihetang engraved on the backs of the memorial portrait frames and decided to investigate the shop.
• Xie Peng told Meng Yifan he and Li Xingyang planned to stay at the shop, and Meng promised to share what he had if the business survived.
• Chen and Meng stored the Ash Urns at Chen’s rented place, then drove to Lihetang.
• The Lihetang owner recognized the two portraits and said a young woman in a long black dress had ordered and collected them; Chen realized it was Du Yuwei.
• The owner gave Chen a black parcel containing a third memorial portrait, explaining that Du Yuwei had left it for someone surnamed Chen and someone surnamed Meng to collect.

Meng Yifan and the narrator discovered that Du Yuwei had left them a portrait of her dead baby and a note offering the identity of the First Case Offender in exchange for retrieving the child's ashes. They went to Le'an Funeral Services to investigate where the ashes were kept, while the narrator questioned how the baby had died.

• The narrator and Meng Yifan found a third memorial portrait of a baby in the package Du Yuwei had left at the portrait shop.
• The narrator found a note inside the portrait frame naming Le'an Funeral Services, saying Du Yuwei's child was there, and offering the First Case Offender's identity for the child's ashes.
• The narrator questioned whether Du Ruhai was the baby's father and called Song Xiaotian to check for Du Yuwei's hospital records.
• The narrator and Meng Yifan visited Le'an Funeral Services and posed as wealthy clients to learn about its cemeteries.
• The narrator asked the company specialist for details about its newer, more expensive cemetery.

Chen and Meng Yifan investigated the cemetery where Du Yuwei’s child was buried and learned that a wealthy buyer had purchased one of its phoenix sites three months earlier. After finding no birth record for Du Yuwei, Chen suspected Du Ruhai had buried a ghost infant, and the group began planning to retrieve the child’s ashes.

• The funeral salesman told Chen and Meng Yifan that one of the cemetery’s two phoenix sites had been sold three months earlier, but he refused to reveal the buyer’s identity.
• Chen connected the purchase date to when something happened to Du Yuwei and suspected Du Ruhai had bought the burial site for her child.
• Chen, Meng Yifan, and Song Xiaotian met for hot pot, where Song Xiaotian revealed that Du Yuwei had prenatal records but no record of giving birth.
• Chen theorized that Du Ruhai had taken the unborn child from Du Yuwei after her death and buried him in the phoenix site.
• Chen proposed that the child had become a rapidly growing ghost infant and suggested that they steal his ashes from the cemetery.

The narrator and Song Xiaotian planned to enlist Li Xiumei’s ghost to steal Du Ruhai’s ashes so Du Yuwei could identify the First Case Offender. They pressured Brother Liu into helping them retrieve Li Xiumei’s remains, but learned that the police had already cremated them because they were haunted.

• The narrator proposed asking Li Xiumei to help steal the ashes, since she held a grudge against Du Ruhai and could evade the cemetery’s security.
• Song Xiaotian agreed to contact Brother Liu and threatened to expose his illegal handling of police files if he refused to help.
• Brother Liu came to Song Xiaotian’s car, confronted them, and agreed to cooperate after Song Xiaotian claimed he had evidence of Brother Liu accepting cigarettes.
• Song Xiaotian asked Brother Liu to bring out Li Xiumei’s remains, but Brother Liu revealed that they had already been cremated because they were causing hauntings and someone had died.

The narrator and his companions obtained Li Xiumei’s ashes from Brother Liu so they could ask her for help with their plans. Li Xiumei possessed Brother Liu and agreed to help, but warned them they would die horribly if they lied to her.

• Brother Liu explained that forensic examiner Lao Zhou died after Li Xiumei appeared to him and caused him to crash his car.
• Brother Liu said he had arranged for Li Xiumei’s ashes to be stored after a monk performed a rite, and agreed to bring them out that night.
• The narrator, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan waited in an alley while Song Xiaotian voiced his fear of working with Li Xiumei.
• When the narrator reached for the urn, Li Xiumei possessed Brother Liu and asked what they wanted with her ashes.
• The narrator told Li Xiumei they had found Lü Zhengxian and needed her help with something they planned to do that night.
• Li Xiumei warned that they would all die horribly if they lied, then Brother Liu regained consciousness and handed them the urn.

Master Chen, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan climbed White Stone Mountain at night to reach Blessed Joy Manor and retrieve hidden remains, relying on Li Xiumei’s spirit to get them inside. Li Xiumei entered the security office and the guard collapsed, leaving them unsure whether he was dead or merely unconscious.

• Master Chen carried Li Xiumei’s ashes as the group climbed through the woods toward the cemetery, avoiding the monitored mountain road.
• Master Chen noticed qilin statues along the railings and considered the cemetery’s unusual entrance, security scanner, and iron fencing.
• At the cemetery gates, Master Chen offered rice and incense to Li Xiumei and asked her to help them retrieve the remains safely.
• After the incense burned out, Li Xiumei appeared as a dark, hair-covered figure and moved toward the cemetery entrance.
• Li Xiumei passed through the closed security office door, and the guard came out stiffly before collapsing; Song Xiaotian wondered whether she had killed him.

The narrator, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan sneaked into the cemetery to retrieve Du Yuwei’s child’s ashes, while Li Xiumei disrupted the guard and surveillance cameras. After digging through the night and being grabbed by an unseen presence, they uncovered an urn covered in yellow talismans.

• The group found the guard unconscious and discovered that Li Xiumei had disabled the cemetery cameras.
• They followed the route to the Phoenix Acupoint, where they found burned talismans that the narrator believed Li Xiumei had overwhelmed.
• The narrator, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan dug by hand beside the child’s elaborate grave.
• An unseen presence repeatedly grabbed the narrator’s and Song Xiaotian’s buttocks, so the narrator offered spirit money to a nearby motorcycle influencer’s grave.
• After more than an hour of digging, the group reached an urn covered in yellow talismans, and the narrator stopped Meng Yifan from pulling it out.

Chen, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan retrieved the cracked urn containing Du Yuwei’s unborn child after Song Xiaotian broke the Primordial bagua mirror’s spell with his urine. As they left the cemetery, they saw the dead motorcycle influencer standing at her grave.

• Chen and his companions kowtowed and tried to reason with the spirit after the cracked urn’s contents pressed him to the ground.
• Song Xiaotian found a bronze mirror in a tree aimed at the child’s gravestone, and Chen identified it as a Primordial bagua mirror suppressing a Vengeful Ghost.
• Chen told the group that a virgin boy’s urine could break the mirror’s spell, and Song Xiaotian admitted he was a virgin and urinated on it.
• The pressure vanished, and Chen dug up the urn and put it in his backpack before the group left the cemetery.
• Chen, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan saw the dead motorcycle influencer standing by her grave, and Chen warned them not to make eye contact with her.

As they carried Du Yuwei's child's ashes toward the cemetery gates, Li Xiumei warned them that Du Ruhai's bodyguards were coming. The Motorcycle Influencer trapped the pursuers in a ghost maze, letting them escape over the cemetery wall and retrieve Li Xiumei's urn.

• The group passed the cemetery's corpse-guarding souls and found the security guard unconscious near the gates.
• A strange wind and Li Xiumei's shadow warned the narrator, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan to hide before Du Ruhai's bodyguards arrived.
• About twenty bodyguards came to the cemetery, so the group ran toward the wall near the Phoenix Acupoint.
• The narrator burned spirit money at the Motorcycle Influencer's headstone and asked her to hold off the pursuers.
• The Motorcycle Influencer trapped the bodyguards in a ghost maze while the group climbed out of the cemetery.
• The group retrieved Li Xiumei's urn and ran down the mountain.

After escaping the mountain, Chen Mo and his companions found sinister carvings buried in the mud and brought the recovered urn to Du Yuwei’s hiding place. Du Yuwei rejected the ashes as not belonging to her child, and another shadow appeared beside them.

• Chen Mo injured his shoulder while tumbling down the mountain, where Meng Yifan found numerous sinister stone carvings buried in the mud.
• Chen Mo, Song Xiaotian, and Meng Yifan reached a hospital and then returned to Chen Mo’s apartment to rest with the urn.
• Chen Mo woke in the corridor outside Du Yuwei’s hiding place, carrying the urn, and entered to return it in exchange for the First Case Offender’s identity.
• The urn fell and shattered, spilling its ashes, and new writing in Du Yuwei’s diary declared that the remains were not her child.
• A second shadow appeared on the floor beside the ashes.

After discovering that the ashes they gave Du Yuwei belonged to an adult man, the narrator and his friends suspected Zhao Laoqi had switched them and planned to search his home for Du Mingyang’s remains. Before they could leave, Meng Yifan learned that someone had trashed the shop.

• The narrator chased the adult male ghost from Du Yuwei’s apartment, but the man vanished before he could learn his identity.
• The narrator told Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan that the ashes were not Du Yuwei’s child’s, and they concluded someone had likely switched them.
• Song Xiaotian reasoned that Zhao Laoqi, as someone close to Du Ruhai, might have switched the ashes and hidden Du Mingyang’s remains.
• The three planned to stake out Zhao Laoqi’s home the next morning and search it after he left.
• Meng Yifan received a call from Xie Peng and told the others that someone had trashed the shop the previous night.