Shen Hai

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Shen Hai was abandoned in a river as a child and survived after someone pulled him out. After turning eighteen, he chose the name Shen Hai, an expression meaning “to drown oneself.” He describes the change as symbolically granting the wish of those who abandoned him and settling his debt for being given life 943 946.

He associates closeness with disaster. His memories include the deaths of his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother, for which he blames himself. He also remembers an unnamed woman who accepted him despite his belief that everyone who understood his nature would leave 395 865.

That woman discovered that the lane in Yin-Yang Two Lanes consisted of overlapping yin and yang spaces with exits in opposite directions. Shen Hai remembers her choosing to walk toward death and disappearing without a recoverable body. He believes that keeping his distance from her would have prevented her involvement in the Ultimate Game 395 865.

Appearance

Shen Hai is described as refined and handsome, with a pleasant voice 74.

• Silver-framed glasses: Worn during the Sick Village investigation 371.
• White cashmere sweater: Worn at a later gathering with Yan Xiao and the other players 451.
• Pocket watch: Frequently toys with the item before losing it in Sick Village 74 367 851.

Personality

Shen Hai commonly presents himself with gentle smiles, polite speech, and apparent detachment, even while recommending brutal choices. During My Aging Self, he tells Soup Dumpling to surrender whatever the ghost requests—even his eyes—if doing so will keep him alive. He is willing to use other players for trial and error and proposes killing anyone who endangers a cooperating group 74 171 176.

His pride makes receiving help more uncomfortable than being insulted or attacked. After Yan Xiao saves him while he is injured, Shen Hai feels compelled to explain how he became vulnerable. Yan Xiao’s refusal to treat the rescue as a favor only makes the debt harder for him to accept 122 451.

His attitude toward survival is contradictory: he exploits others to preserve his life while repeatedly taking extreme risks himself. Ordinary life holds little interest for him; danger makes him feel alive. Beneath that appetite for risk is a sustained desire to destroy the Eye Realm permanently, rather than merely escape it 376 385 1071.

His indifference is not absolute. Xu Tingfang’s death provokes anger he cannot explain, and Qin Manjiang’s willingness to remain in a collapsing world makes him openly anxious. His harshest, most direct criticism is reserved for people he cares about; with others, he generally remains polite and distant 853 946 1102.

Shen Hai fiercely rejects the idea that shared origins erase individuality. When other survivors begin accepting Jiang Du as part of a common identity, he insists that his personality belongs to him because it was shaped by his own experiences—not by bloodlines, imposed memories, or an original soul 1110.

Abilities & Skills

Faded Memories

Faded Memories is Shen Hai’s Permanent Item, a pocket watch that reveals fragments of the current ghost story’s past 181 187.

• Usage limit: Once per game 181.
• Investigation: Reveals the secret of the Ghost in the Opera during Yellow Springs Opera 181.
• Historical clues: Shows fragments of an earlier Candy Game, allowing him to recognize that its second round had been interrupted 187.
• Broader discoveries: Shows current players within past ghost-story scenes, raising the possibility of participation across multiple rounds 245 715.
• Limitation: Offers information rather than an immediate means of escape; Shen Hai explicitly recognizes its inability to save him while he is being consumed during the Candy Game 181.
• Loss: Surrendered to the Sick Village Supermarket’s Sales Assistant as payment for help completing a purchase 367 395.

Golden Light Mantra

Shen Hai learns the Golden Light Mantra from Mei Sijun under life-threatening conditions and successfully directs its power into him 133 134.

• Protecting others: Uses the ending that bestows golden light on another person rather than the caster 134.
• Restoration: Mei Sijun’s heartbeat resumes, vitality returns to his eyes, and golden light covers his palm 133.
• Precision requirement: Both the words and melody must be exact. Each line requires multiple changes in pitch; singing off-key causes failure 134.

Rule Analysis and Exploitation

Shen Hai looks for what a game’s rules permit rather than simply following their apparent intended procedure.

• Supermarket: Calls a Sales Assistant outside and arranges a purchase through the employee, avoiding entry, invisible customers, and the normal checkout route 367.
• Nine-Bend Alley: Enters backward so he can observe the entrance without violating the prohibition against looking back 383.
• Sick Village map: Connects five special locations into a five-pointed star and identifies the Nursing Home at its center as the likely source of the mystery 372.
• Candy Game: Tests his own blood as a red object. The resulting candy grants a red halo that initially prevents the female ghost from noticing him 645 646.

Investigation and Deception

• Burial knowledge: Interprets tomb carvings depicting a Taoist priest sealing a five-headed man-eating monster and recognizes talismanic inscriptions on its coffin 123.
• Feigning control: Pretends the Old Director has taken control of him, using staged attacks to guide Qin Manjiang toward the hidden ritual chamber 392 393.
• Undercover work: Infiltrates the Bai Group at Qin Manjiang’s request. His injured leg helps him appear less suspicious 1049 1052.
• Disguise and escape: Evades police by knocking an officer unconscious and leaving in the stolen uniform 1072.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Faded Memories pocket watch — Former Permanent Item; relinquished in Sick Village. He removes the photograph inside before offering it as payment 367.
• Gazing Mirror glasses — Single-use item capable of reverse-tracking a curse. He gives them to Qin Manjiang during the confrontation with the Old Director 862.
• Light dagger — Concealed in his cuff during the Candy Game 187.
• Cooking wine bottle — Improvised weapon used to ambush an elderly figure at the Nursing Home and during his staged assault on Qin Manjiang 391 862.
• Eye Realm backup — Created by Jiang Du after Shen Hai bargains with Qin Manjiang for a reserved place. The backup exists by the Sick Village investigation 245 854 943.

Relationships

• Qin Manjiang — Initially an adversarial fellow player who retaliates against Shen Hai’s experiments by stripping away his protective Candy Game glow. They later unite around destroying the Eye Realm. Shen Hai ultimately refuses to regard him as an opponent and becomes distressed when Qin Manjiang risks dying with his sister 176 385 943 1102.
• Yan Xiao — Rescuer and uneasy companion. Saves Shen Hai from being dragged into a coffin; Shen Hai remains uncomfortable with the unacknowledged debt and frequently needles him afterward 123 451.
• Mei Sijun — Teaches him the Golden Light Mantra. Shen Hai completes the chant and uses it to save him 133 134.
• Xu Tingfang — Fellow Sick Village player whose information helps him locate the Nursing Home. Her death angers him, and he carries her body out of Nine-Bend Alley 372 853 854.
• Jiang Du — Creates Shen Hai’s backup. Shen Hai approves of some of his methods but remains wary of him and regards him as a potential opponent, unlike Qin Manjiang 943.
• Yang / Bai Yang — Helps Shen Hai early in his participation. Discovering Yang’s deception leaves Shen Hai feeling manipulated; he later confronts him over the Bai family’s role in the Ghost Story Game 1060 1061.
• Nie Yunzhen — Fellow high-ranking player whom he openly criticizes. During Hide-and-Seek, he questions her hesitation and declares her unworthy of being First Seat 968.
• Unnamed woman from Yin-Yang Two Lanes — Accepted him when others withdrew and urged him to value himself. Her death remains central to his guilt about bringing misfortune to people close to him 395 865.

Story Role / Major Arcs

My Aging Self

• Advises players to fulfill the ghost’s requests regardless of the bodily harm involved 74.
• Refuses to use his ordinary pocket watch to help Soup Dumpling as he rapidly ages and dies. After sending Xiaotian into the Apartment, his anxious expression gives way to indifference and mockery 551.

Yellow Springs Opera

• Discovers a route into the Southern Branch Troupe and warns that sound may expose players to the ghost amid its disordered spaces 579.
• Investigates the underground tomb with Yan Xiao despite an abdominal wound 123.
• Saves the collapsing Mei Sijun by reproducing the Golden Light Mantra 133 134.

Candy Game

• Advocates cooperation before the game while making clear that competitors could be killed to secure victory 171.
• Clashes with Qin Manjiang after using others to test the villa’s dangers 176.
• Recognizes the chandelier as the game’s switch after Qin Manjiang explains its stages. Following its destruction, helps Qin Manjiang flee; four players escape and clear the game 658.

Sick Village

• Clears the Supermarket through an indirect purchase, after which the village’s fog disappears from his perception 367 371.
• Uses Xu Tingfang’s discoveries to identify the Nursing Home as the central location, then clears Nine-Bend Alley and retrieves her corpse 372 384.
• Joins Qin Manjiang in confronting the Old Director through a staged possession and reverse-traced curse. The deception works because the director was given the false name “Shen Qing,” not his real name 392 393.
• Experiences intrusive memories of the woman lost in Yin-Yang Two Lanes despite no longer possessing Faded Memories 395.

Hide-and-Seek

• Travels to Snake Mouth District for the next ghost story 943.
• Runs to find Chen Zhiyuan without first weighing the personal benefit, an action that influences Qin Manjiang’s understanding of human behavior 963.
• Deduces that Qin Manjiang’s ghost may have no fixed location and follows Nie Yunzhen into a concealed passage behind a wall 968.

Bai Group Investigation

• Discovers the Bai family’s underground game operation and reports that the Eye Realm has no consciousness: the family uses it to observe players 1049.
• Reveals that the ninth and Ultimate games—including the players’ endings—have been arranged in advance 1049.
• Supports Qin Manjiang’s plan to liberate the true Eye Realm and unite the Eye Realms of Fu City and Moon City. Qin Manjiang also heals his injured leg with divine power 1052.

Alternate World and Snow Mountain

• Encounters a faceless version of himself who dies after a mysterious swallowing motion. Escapes the ensuing police response and resolves to avenge even this other version of himself 1072.
• Investigates Truth despite suspecting a trap, then reunites with Qin Manjiang in the alternate world 1076 1078.
• Tries to stop Qin Manjiang from remaining with Qin Manyi in a world about to disappear 1102.
• Rejects the survivors’ surrender of individual identity and leaves the Snow Mountain group rather than accept Jiang Du’s authority 1110.
• Receives Qin Manjiang’s memories before the Snow Mountain Giant Ghost explodes. Survives the catastrophic flood by emerging from a crack in the cliff and calling out to Qin Manjiang 1124.

Notable Quotes

“Anything you do to stay alive is understandable, isn't it?” 74

“Don't underestimate me. I'm the only person who cleared the Ultimate Game on a single life.” 133

“I'm Shen Hai... I'm Shen Hai!”
“I'm not anyone else!” 1110