Recaps

Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao hid from the pursuing monsters with Chen Yu, but Swimming Fish spotted them and changed course to protect them. Qin Manjiang ran to join her, used Yan Xiao’s scalpel to put himself into a thirty-minute deathlike state, and stabbed Swimming Fish as the monsters closed in.

• Yan Xiao confronted Chen Yu about her claims and hid with her and Qin Manjiang as the monsters approached.
• Swimming Fish fled from the monsters and changed direction after seeing Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao hiding in the hollow.
• Qin Manjiang asked Yan Xiao for his scalpel, entrusted Chen Yu and the Path to Survival to him, and ran toward Swimming Fish.
• Qin Manjiang stabbed himself in the heart with Yan Xiao’s scalpel, which would keep him from dying for thirty minutes while leaving him able to feel pain.
• Swimming Fish revealed that her name was Yu Ruoli, and Qin Manjiang stabbed her in the heart as the monsters surged toward them.

Yan Xiao confronted Chen Yu, who revealed that she had become the ghost’s eyes and wanted them to remain forever in its dream. After rejecting her plan to kill others for that life, Yan Xiao turned against her.

• As Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish faced being devoured, Chen Yu urged Yan Xiao to stop and questioned whether they could clear the Ghost Story by waking the ghost.
• Chen Yu recalled how Yan Xiao had saved her during their first Multiplayer Mode Ghost Story and told her that her life belonged to him.
• Chen Yu explained that the boatman had taken them to the island in a dream, where she had become the ghost’s eyes and could live forever by obeying its taboos.
• Yan Xiao reminded Chen Yu that the Opening Lines said the dream was like a bubble, shattered at a touch, and rejected her plan to kill others to preserve their lives there.
• Yan Xiao said he loathed anything that tried to take life away and declared that he now loathed Chen Yu.

Yan Xiao realized Chen Yu had become the Ghost’s Eyes after seeing her reflection, and used a phone camera to force the ghost to reveal itself. As the mist and flowers turned hostile, he carried the trapped monster toward Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish, while Qin Manjiang and Yu Ruoli endured their injuries under the Cursed Scalpel’s effect.

• Yan Xiao questioned Chen Yu and deduced that seeing one’s reflection had caused her to become the Ghost’s Eyes.
• Yan Xiao aimed his phone’s front-facing camera at Chen Yu, triggering her transformation into a monster and making the blood-red flowers sprout teeth.
• Yan Xiao crushed the attacking flowers and carried the immobilized monster away to find Qin Manjiang and Swimming Fish.
• Qin Manjiang discovered that being torn apart caused him little pain and shielded Yu Ruoli as the monsters attacked them.
• The half-human, half-pig monsters fled when the mist and flowers became hostile, and Qin Manjiang concluded that Yan Xiao had succeeded.

Qin Manjiang, Yan Xiao, Yu Ruoli, and Chen Yu escaped the immediate danger of the Vengeful Ghost, only to face a gigantic pig-like monster in the fog. Qin Manjiang realized the Ghost Story had never taken place on Butterfly Island, but at White Dew Bay, and that the entire journey had been a trap.

• Yan Xiao explained how seeing one's own appearance exposed the ghost, while Qin Manjiang grew uneasy despite the Vengeful Ghost being captured.
• The ghost reverted to Chen Yu as a colossal pig-like monster emerged from the fog, and Yan Xiao warned the others to run.
• Yan Xiao used the Cursed Scalpel to revive Chen Yu, but the monster seized Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu and swallowed them.
• As Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao fled, the monster's debris knocked Qin Manjiang down, and a newspaper about White Dew Bay flew from his pocket.
• Qin Manjiang recalled the boatman's words and realized they had never reached Butterfly Island; the Ghost Story had been a trap at White Dew Bay.

Qin Manjiang realized the group had mistaken White Dew Bay for Butterfly Island and that reaching the real island was their way to survive. Chen Yu stopped the Vengeful Ghost by reclaiming it as its stand-in, clearing the fog and revealing Butterfly Island, before Qin Manjiang used the Single Pure Bell to teleport himself, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli away.

• Qin Manjiang realized they were still at White Dew Bay, but the Terrifying Giant Ghost crushed him before he could escape.
• Qin Manjiang awoke inside the Vengeful Ghost with Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu, and learned they could not get out from inside it.
• Chen Yu told Qin Manjiang she no longer wanted to live and gave him a Single Pure Bell that could teleport three people within the game's boundaries.
• Chen Yu saw her face on her phone, becoming the Vengeful Ghost's stand-in and causing the ghost to collapse and return to her body.
• The fog lifted to reveal the real Butterfly Island nearby, but Chen Yu was nowhere to be seen.
• Qin Manjiang shook the Single Pure Bell and teleported himself, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli away as the fog rose again and the game was declared cleared.

The players prepared for their second night caring for the obese woman in Twilight Apartment, while the cleared Butterfly Island game stirred uncertainty. March entered the suite first, and an unnervingly aged voice called her inside.

• The Butterfly Island Ghost Story was marked cleared, and Qin Manjiang left White Dew Bay Dock with Doctor and the others.
• Yezi and the other players reviewed the rules and considered whether the obese woman's curse could make them age.
• The players searched Twilight Apartment and found it abandoned, with no sign of anything abnormal.
• The six players reversed their caregiving order, putting March first and Shen Hai last.
• March took her Congealed Jade Gourd and entered the suite after hearing the woman urgently call her inside.

March faced the bloated woman’s demand to trim her black nails, but found human skins in the bedside table and was forced to change the skins on the woman’s hands instead. The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms and dragged her into the mosquito net while the others waited outside.

• March entered the bedroom and the woman demanded that she trim her long black fingernails.
• March realized she had no nail clippers and asked the woman where to find them.
• March opened the bedside table and found it filled with neatly folded human skins.
• The woman tore the skin from both her hands and ordered March to change them.
• The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms, grabbed her by the neck, and dragged her into the mosquito net.

After March died inside the bedroom, Deep Valley Dusk entered to take his turn, while the others tried to work out what had killed her. He followed Shen Hai’s advice and agreed to fulfill the ghost’s requests, but the chapter left him carrying the ghost as its grotesque shadow rose behind him.

• At 1:01, Deep Valley Dusk entered the apartment after Shen Hai told him to do everything he could to fulfill the ghost’s wishes.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March’s severed head and a snow-white arm reach from behind the mosquito net to pick it up.
• Xiaotian, Yezi, and Soup Dumpling speculated that March had died after failing to give the ghost the body part it wanted.
• Shen Hai told Soup Dumpling to give the ghost whatever it requested, even if he had to gouge out his own eyes.
• The ghost asked Deep Valley Dusk to carry it to the bathroom, and he agreed as its huge body rose behind him.

Qin Manjiang returned home after a Ghost Story and reflected on his strange body while Mi Qiao made him noodles. At Twilight Apartment, Deep Valley Dusk carried a bloated woman to the bathroom, heard another woman pleading from inside her, and fled after seeing the trapped woman in a mirror.

• Qin Manjiang came home late and found Mi Qiao asleep on the sofa because her bedroom door had locked shut.
• Qin Manjiang recalled feeling free when the monster tore his body apart and wondered what he was.
• Qin Manjiang told Mi Qiao not to clean his bedroom after realizing she had entered it while he was away.
• Deep Valley Dusk carried a bloated woman toward the bathroom and heard a younger woman inside her pleading for help.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March and an unfamiliar, still-living woman emerge from the bloated body in a mirror, then ran out of the apartment.

Deep Valley Dusk emerged from the Apartment unharmed, but rapidly aged after describing what he had seen inside. Shen Hai confirmed his death and warned the others that their own deaths might be worse.

• Deep Valley Dusk told Shen Hai and the others that the entity had ordered him to stand by a window and carry it to the toilet.
• Deep Valley Dusk suddenly began aging, losing his hair as his body withered before the group.
• Deep Valley Dusk described seeing March and another woman’s head on the entity, and said the woman had called for help from inside its belly.
• Deep Valley Dusk asked Shen Hai how to stop aging, then died despite Shen Hai’s comforting words.
• Shen Hai checked his pocket watch, confirmed Deep Valley Dusk’s death, and warned the survivors that their deaths might be more painful.

After Deep Valley Dusk died of old age, Shen Hai reasoned that a curse came from ignoring a young woman trapped inside the Vengeful Ghost, while disobeying the ghost itself meant being eaten. Soup Dumpling entered the apartment as the third player, determined to heed the ghost and listen for the woman’s voice.

• Soup Dumpling asked whether players should obey the Vengeful Ghost or the game's one-hour requirement after Deep Valley Dusk died upon leaving early.
• Yezi suggested Deep Valley Dusk had suffered a curse, and Shen Hai explained that March had been eaten for defying the ghost while Deep Valley Dusk's aging death pointed to a separate curse.
• Soup Dumpling concluded that Deep Valley Dusk had ignored a living woman inside the Vengeful Ghost, and Shen Hai agreed that the woman might be the source of the aging curse.
• Soup Dumpling resolved to obey the ghost, respond to the young woman's voice, and stay calm.
• When Shen Hai announced the time, a voice inside the apartment ordered them to come in, and Soup Dumpling entered as the third player.

Soup Dumpling entered the bathroom to carry out the Vengeful Ghost and discovered that it was wearing the skin of his companion March. After helping it put on March’s skin, he was ordered to carry it out.

• Soup Dumpling opened the restroom door after the ghost fell silent, but found no one inside.
• The ghost told Soup Dumpling it was in the bathtub, where he discovered human skins covering the floor.
• Soup Dumpling saw the Vengeful Ghost holding March’s skin and realized that March had been killed and skinned.
• The Vengeful Ghost ordered Soup Dumpling to help it put on March’s skin, and he obeyed despite his fear.
• After dressing in March’s skin, the Vengeful Ghost told Soup Dumpling to carry it out.

Soup Dumpling carried the Vengeful Ghost through the Apartment and resisted its attempt to frighten him into breaking the Game Rules. When Anran appeared and begged him to pull her out of the heap of rotten flesh, he decided to take the risk.

• Soup Dumpling saw the Vengeful Ghost's monstrous shadow in the washroom light but reasoned that it was trying to scare him into dropping it.
• Soup Dumpling carried the ghost into the bedroom, where the shadow returned to normal, confirming his suspicion that it had been a trap.
• The woman inside the ghost appeared and told Soup Dumpling her name was Anran and that she was a nineteen-year-old student at Fucheng University.
• Anran begged Soup Dumpling to pull her out of the rotten flesh, explaining that she could not escape without someone pulling from outside.
• Soup Dumpling recalled Shen Hai's theory that the flesh might be a shell and agreed to try pulling Anran out.

Soup Dumpling risked confronting the Vengeful Ghost to help Anran escape its body, but he could only pull her partway out before the ghost woke. After he reported what he learned, Shen Hai asked to enter the apartment before Xiaotian and try a reckless idea.

• Soup Dumpling turned around and found Anran trapped inside the Vengeful Ghost wearing March’s skin.
• Anran told Soup Dumpling that an old person’s skin had seized her after she arrived at Twilight Apartment for a volunteer assignment.
• Soup Dumpling and Anran tried to pull her free, but the flesh’s suction kept her from escaping before the ghost woke.
• Soup Dumpling lowered the mosquito net as Anran instructed, then emerged from the apartment unharmed and told the others what had happened.
• When the ghost called Xiaotian inside, Shen Hai stopped him and asked to go in first so he could try a reckless idea.

Soup Dumpling died of rapid aging despite completing the tasks, and Shen Hai sent Xiaotian into the Apartment while hiding his true intentions. Xiaotian entered believing Anran was the living core of the ghost story, then heard her plead for help from inside the Vengeful Ghost.

• Soup Dumpling rapidly aged and died while Shen Hai refused to use his ordinary Pocket Watch to help him.
• Shen Hai urged Xiaotian to enter the Apartment, and Xiaotian agreed to follow their original plan.
• After Xiaotian entered, Shen Hai's anxious expression vanished, revealing his indifference and mockery.
• Xiaotian reasoned that Anran was still human and the core of the ghost story, and believed killing her could end it.
• Xiaotian massaged the Vengeful Ghost's leg for nearly twenty minutes before hearing Anran faintly ask to be saved.

Qin Manjiang headed to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital to visit Qin Manyi, carrying the mysterious phone left by his birth father. On the shuttle, a stranger named Zhou warned him to avoid unlucky places, and Qin Manjiang arrived at the hospital with the phone still switched off.

• Qin Manjiang left Mi Qiao and set out for Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital after receiving a message from a woman he wanted to avoid.
• On the shuttle, Qin Manjiang considered turning on the phone Doctor had mailed him, but his urge faded after the vehicle stopped.
• A man surnamed Zhou sat beside Qin Manjiang, said his friend had gone mad, and asked whether they had met before.
• Zhou warned Qin Manjiang that an ill omen darkened the space between his brows and told him to stay away from unlucky places.
• Qin Manjiang agreed to remember Zhou's warning, put the phone away, and reached Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital shortly before eleven.

Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi in the hospital and learned that she was Evening Primrose, the Sixth Seat, after clearing only one Ghost Story Game. Qin Manyi told him how her dream of Lower River Village had led to their father’s death and blamed Qin Manjiang, before he comforted her as her older brother.

• Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi and brought her fruit, then told her he would try to get her leave to visit their parents’ graves.
• Qin Manyi revealed that she was Evening Primrose, the Sixth Seat, and had reached that position after clearing her first Ghost Story Game.
• Qin Manyi explained that her Beginner Level mission involved Lower River Village and that she had dreamed for two years about people walking into the river to kill themselves.
• Qin Manyi said she had tried to stop their father from going to the river, but he locked her inside, and she blamed Qin Manjiang for his death and her place in the game.
• Qin Manjiang held Qin Manyi as she cried and reassured her that he was her older brother and always would be.

After the Ghost Story: My Aging Self ended, Qin Manjiang reflected on his lack of personal desires and decided to open the Relic Phone despite the warning in the suicide note. Thick fog suddenly covered Fu City, and players received an inexplicable notice that Ghost Story: Person in the Coffin had been cleared.

• Qin Manjiang comforted Qin Manyi in the hospital and left to bring her lunch.
• The players received a notice that Ghost Story: My Aging Self had been cleared, and Fu City endured repeated overnight fog.
• Qin Manjiang made plans to get Qin Manyi out of the psychiatric hospital and find a job while putting off thoughts about the Ghost Story Game.
• Qin Manjiang decided to stop hesitating and unlocked the Relic Phone with his fingerprint.
• Thick fog descended over Fu City as players received a notice that Ghost Story: Person in the Coffin had been cleared, though they did not remember taking part.

Zhong Ping'an discovered that the Ghost Story Game had marked a story called “Person in the Coffin” as cleared, just as a body vanished from the funeral home’s mysterious underground cold storage. Meanwhile, Nie Yunzhen took First Seat, and Qin Manjiang received a call from that person on a keepsake phone.

• Zhong Ping'an saw the game announce that “Person in the Coffin” had been cleared and learned that a body had gone missing from the funeral home.
• Zhong Ping'an went down to the third underground level and saw the chained, locked cold-storage room standing open.
• Zhong Ping'an checked the leaderboard and saw that Singer had fallen to Tenth Seat.
• Qin Manjiang called Zhong Xueran, who told him to look at the new First Seat.
• Qin Manjiang saw Nie Yunzhen at First Seat and Yang at Second Seat, then ended the call with Zhong Xueran.
• Qin Manjiang received a call from Nie Yunzhen on the keepsake phone he had just unlocked.

Qin Manjiang answered a call from a woman who could not remember who she was and went to find her near Mermaid Fountain. Meanwhile, Ghost Story players reacted to Nie Yunzhen’s sudden rise to First Seat, and Shen Hai explained how he and Yang Liuye survived [My Aging Self] as the city disappeared into thick fog.

• Qin Manjiang heard a confused woman ask who she was, identified Mermaid Fountain as her location, and hurried to find her.
• Ghost Story players speculated that Nie Yunzhen had cleared an ongoing, no-time-limit Ghost Story called [Person in the Coffin] and reached First Seat.
• Shen Hai met Yang Liuye at Catface Café after they cleared [My Aging Self] and she thanked him for helping her survive.
• Shen Hai explained that “retribution” suggested the victim was not innocent and that “care” meant the players were not obliged to obey the ghost’s every demand.
• Shen Hai said that avoiding physical contact and adapting instead of following the ghost’s requests had allowed Yang Liuye to survive.
• Thick fog suddenly shrouded the city as Shen Hai said goodbye to Yang Liuye.

Qin Manjiang found the amnesiac, deathly pale Nie Yunzhen in the fog and brought her to his home, where Mi Qiao helped her clean up. When Qin Manjiang tried to reassure her, Nie Yunzhen reacted with terror and called him “Professor.”

• Qin Manjiang confirmed that the woman beneath the tree was Nie Yunzhen and took her away from the freezing fog in a taxi.
• Nie Yunzhen could not recognize her name or remember where she was, and she told the driver she wanted to go with Qin Manjiang.
• Mi Qiao welcomed Qin Manjiang and helped Nie Yunzhen bathe and change into her clothes.
• Qin Manjiang asked Doctor Xi to investigate Nie Yunzhen’s identity, and Doctor Xi agreed to look into it.
• After Qin Manjiang told Nie Yunzhen not to be afraid, she hid behind Mi Qiao and fearfully called him “Professor.”

After Nie Yunzhen arrived, Qin Manjiang withdrew to his room and examined the strange Relic Phone. Touching its eye plunged him into a barrage of horrific voices, and he emerged to find a new interface labeled Eye Realm and Proxy.

• Qin Manjiang stopped Nie Yunzhen from asking about the professor, then asked Mi Qiao to look after her and went to his room.
• Mi Qiao noticed Little Yellow Dog cowering around Nie Yunzhen and realized the dog seemed afraid of the girl.
• Qin Manjiang examined the Relic Phone and found the Ghost Story Game icon and contacts named Zuo Xian and Yi Lianhai.
• Qin Manjiang pressed the eye on the screen and was overwhelmed by a spinning world and a flood of eerie voices.
• After collapsing, Qin Manjiang saw the phone display an interface labeled Eye Realm and Proxy.

Qin Manjiang entered a higher-dimensional space connected to the Relic Phone, where he saw the players and cities through countless eyes. He summoned Yang and several other players into the space, just as the Ghost Story Game announced an Ultimate Game: Yellow Springs Opera.

• Qin Manjiang entered his real name under the blood-red Proxy label and was drawn out of his body into a vast space filled with pupils.
• Qin Manjiang saw the players’ code names within a sphere representing Fu City, including the intensely red names Yang and Nie Yunzhen, and glimpsed other cities beyond it.
• Qin Manjiang focused on Yang’s name, pulling Yang from his body and into the space, though Yang could not see him or the city sphere.
• Qin Manjiang tried to summon Swimming Fish but failed, then summoned Doctor, Player, Xinxin, Chen Zhiyuan, Let Me Out, Dense Forest, Singer, So Annoying, and Nie Yunzhen.
• The Ghost Story Game summoned its players and announced the Ultimate Game, Ghost Story: Yellow Springs Opera.

Qin Manjiang’s use of the mysterious phone triggered an Ultimate Game that summoned the Ten Seats and unexpectedly included him as Abyss. The game began with Yellow Springs Opera, leaving the players facing its opening lines.

• Qin Manjiang realized the phone had summoned the Ten Seats into an unfamiliar space and started an Ultimate Game.
• Chen Zhiyuan, Dense Forest, Doctor, and Shen Hai examined the lit Spirit Pupil symbols and speculated that the space required players to clear ten Ultimate Games.
• Crimson writing summoned ten players, then added Abyss; Qin Manjiang’s body appeared in the space and drew the others’ attention.
• Let Me Out questioned why Qin Manjiang had been summoned and whether he possessed a Permanent Item, while Qin Manjiang reflected on the phone and his unexplained actions.
• The opening lines of Yellow Springs Opera appeared on the players’ phone screens and in the void.

After leaving the mysterious space, Mei Sijun returned to his study and reflected on the Southern Branch Troupe, then dreamed of its past. He awoke to a call from Yang, still unaware whether the dream had revealed anything about the coming Ghost Story.

• The Crimson Text disappeared, and Qin Manjiang saw the labels Yin-Yang Alley and Yellow Springs Opera appear beneath two Spirit Pupils before he was expelled from the space.
• Mei Sijun returned to the real world and dismissed Uncle Li, then considered the Southern Branch Troupe and his family's history with opera.
• Mei Sijun fell asleep and dreamed of a crowded opera house where merchants Wang Youde and another man watched the Southern Branch Troupe perform.
• Wang Youde spotted a young woman backstage and demanded that Zhao Qigong bring her to him; Zhao said the troupe had six newcomers.
• Mei Sijun woke when Yang called and answered, still thinking the dream was strange.