Recaps

Qin Manjiang was selected for the Candy Game again, where players could either unravel the Ghost Story or win its rule-based game. Before the game began, he asked Qin Manyi to help Qiao Ziruo if she could do so safely, then received a call from Shen Hai arranging a meeting.

• Qin Manjiang noticed Shen Hai had also been selected repeatedly, and read the Candy Game’s opening lines with the other players.
• The game instructions said players had to arrive at Blue Bay Villas by midnight the next day and could clear the level by unraveling the Ghost Story or winning the game.
• Qin Manjiang realized the two routes to survival could make the players suspicious of one another.
• Qin Manyi offered to join Qin Manjiang, but he told her to help Qiao Ziruo only if she could do so safely and warned that she might not be able to enter or use her item.
• Shen Hai called Qin Manjiang and asked to meet beforehand at Catface Café.

Yu Ruoli joined Shen Hai and the other players at the Catface Café to discuss how they would survive the upcoming Ghost Story at Blue Bay Villas. Everyone agreed to cooperate and seek the source of the haunting, but Shen Hai’s response to Qin Manjiang left open the possibility that he would kill rivals to win.

• Yu Ruoli arrived at the café and met Shen Hai, Yang Liuye, Qin Manjiang, Tan Murong, and Xu Youqing before their midnight encounter with ghosts.
• Shen Hai asked the group to choose between solving the Ghost Story at its source and competing to win the Candy Game, and everyone chose cooperation.
• Shen Hai proposed killing anyone who harmed the group’s interests, while Qin Manjiang suggested they stay together at Blue Bay Villas.
• Xu Youqing shared what he had learned about the abandoned villas by the Ming River, and the group discussed the opening lines before parting.
• Qin Manjiang asked whether Shen Hai would have killed the others if someone had chosen competition, and Shen Hai admitted that killing rivals could secure victory.

Tan Murong went to the bar after her boss refused to give her three days off and spoke to the Boss's wife about her lonely, exhausting life and the Ghost Story Game. She left feeling that she wanted to survive at least long enough to return for the rest of her wine.

• Tan Murong's boss refused her request for three days off and warned her not to return if she missed work the day after tomorrow.
• Tan Murong went to the bar and drank red wine while telling the Boss's wife that she felt her life had no meaning beyond work and aimless phone scrolling.
• The Boss's wife listened as Tan Murong drunkenly said she expected to die in the Ghost Story Game, then let her sleep.
• The Boss's wife told Tan Murong to stay alive and welcomed her back whenever she felt unhappy.
• Tan Murong left the bar and walked into the fog, thinking that she had to return and finish the half bottle of wine.

On a rainy day, Shen Hai, Qin Manjiang, and the others crossed the Ming River to reach the Blue Bay Villas for the Candy Game. As the boat arrived, they considered the possibility that the game could last indefinitely and Yu Ruoli showed Qin Manjiang a portrait she had drawn of him.

• Xu Youqing, Shen Hai, and the others discussed whether to scout the Blue Bay Villas before the Candy Game began.
• Qin Manjiang warned that the game had no stated time limit, so they might need supplies if they failed to clear it quickly.
• Yu Ruoli announced that the boat had arrived, and the boatman cautioned them to avoid homeless people living in the unfinished development.
• Yu Ruoli thanked Qin Manjiang for his past help and showed him a portrait she had drawn, which he said no longer looked like him.
• The boatman brought the group to the Blue Bay Villas.

The six players searched the gloomy Blue Bay Villa District and found a fully furnished, spotless home at No. 666, which they suspected was prepared for the Ghost Story Game. They settled inside as Qin Manjiang struggled with his unusually intense fear, and Yu Ruoli startled him by quietly announcing her presence.

• Xu Youqing explained that the still water and wind made the villa district feel dead and oppressive.
• Qin Manjiang stayed close to Shen Hai because he was overwhelmed by fear, while Shen Hai suggested that the group find a place to settle.
• The six searched the district and found the only completed villa, Blue Bay Villas-No. 666.
• Shen Hai kicked open the locked gate, and the group entered the spotless, furnished home.
• Yang Liuye switched on the chandelier, and Qin Manjiang sat down on the sofa before Yu Ruoli startled him by saying, "I'm here."

At midnight, the six participants began the Candy Game and learned that they had to find unique red objects to trade for candy. Shen Hai discovered that his own blood could be exchanged for candy, and eating it protected him from a monstrous woman approaching the villa as the others rushed to search.

• As midnight arrived, a ghostly girl appeared on the ceiling and announced a six-round Candy Game with one fewer candy each round.
• The girl set the first round’s task: find something red in the villa, bring back a unique item, and eat the candy immediately.
• Shen Hai cut his palm and discovered that his blood turned into a candy when it dripped into one of the five trays; he ate it and gained a red glow.
• A blood-soaked woman appeared on the courtyard wall and charged toward the living room, ignoring Shen Hai because of his glow.
• Shen Hai told the others to find red items for candy, then relaxed on the sofa as they scattered through the villa to search.

Tan Murong searched the villa for something red while Xu Youqing hid from the female ghost and realized his red underwear could satisfy the game. After Xu turned it into candy, Qin Manjiang attacked Shen Hai, stripped away his protective red glow, and ate the candy it became.

• Tan Murong inferred that the villa had reverted to the way it was when the family in the Opening Lines lived there and went upstairs to search for something red.
• Xu Youqing hid behind the living-room curtains while Shen Hai deliberately opened a nearby curtain to test whether the female ghost would react to him.
• Xu Youqing discovered Qin Manjiang hiding beside him, then placed his red underwear on a tray and watched it transform into candy.
• Qin Manjiang slammed Shen Hai’s glowing head onto a tray, causing the red light around him to turn into candy, which Qin Manjiang ate.
• Qin Manjiang taunted Shen Hai for using others to test the game, and Shen Hai promised that he would pay for it.

Qin Manjiang and Xu Youqing used the candy’s red glow to investigate during their temporary period of safety, while Yu Ruoli risked returning to the front courtyard for a red flower. As Yu Ruoli picked it, the Floral-Dress Woman appeared above her, and a message declared the entire team wiped out.

• Qin Manjiang confronted Shen Hai for using them as bait, and Shen Hai left the living room.
• Qin Manjiang explained to Xu Youqing that the red glow made them temporarily invulnerable and that Shen Hai had shown no interest in resolving the Ghost Story.
• Qin Manjiang suggested using his reddened face as an item to trade for candy, and Xu Youqing was astonished.
• Yu Ruoli circled back to the front courtyard and searched the weeds for a red flower to exchange for candy.
• Yu Ruoli found and picked a little red flower, then saw the Floral-Dress Woman hanging upside down beneath the third-floor eaves.
• A message appeared on Yu Ruoli’s phone stating that the entire team had been wiped out.

Qin Manjiang and Yu Ruoli used red candies to evade the Vengeful Ghost, but Yang Liuye died when her red dress failed to turn into candy because someone had already supplied an item of the same type. After Tan Murong obtained the final candy, the first round ended and the players were given a new challenge: turn into something inside the villa and hide.

• Qin Manjiang smashed a third-floor window to distract the Vengeful Ghost and give Yu Ruoli time to escape, then admitted his legs had frozen from fear.
• Yu Ruoli used a red tray to turn her flower into candy and ate it, then threw her Sketchbook at the Vengeful Ghost to give Yang Liuye time to place a red dress in the last tray.
• The red dress burst into flames because another item of the same type had already been used, and the Vengeful Ghost caught and killed Yang Liuye.
• Tan Murong placed a Pressure Cooker's Safety Valve in the tray, ate the candy it produced, and joined the other glowing players beneath the chandelier.
• The chandelier went dark, Shen Hai was teleported from the Back Courtyard into the Living Room, and the little girl announced round two: four candies, with the players required to turn into something in the villa and hide.
• A blood-red countdown appeared at sixty, and Qin Manjiang, Shen Hai, Xu Youqing, Yu Ruoli, and Tan Murong ran in different directions.

During the second Candy Game round, the players had to hide as objects inside the villa while a new Vengeful Ghost appeared. Qin Manjiang discovered they could only become the red objects they had found in the first round, and the chapter left him searching for a way to hide as red light while Shen Hai concealed himself as blood.

• Xu Youqing identified the ghost pursuing them as Miss Yezi, and the players saw a second Vengeful Ghost in a bloodred dress on the villa wall.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the players could transform only into the red objects they had found in the first round and shouted the discovery to the others.
• Qin Manjiang turned into a human-shaped mass of red light and realized that ordinary lights could not conceal him.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the new ghost near the front courtyard, where Yu Ruoli would have hidden among the weeds after finding a flower.
• After hearing Qin Manjiang's warning, Shen Hai turned into blood and blended into rainwater on the back-courtyard lawn.

The players hid as the search began, and Tan Murong realized the little-girl host might be a participant who could be eliminated if the ghosts found her. Her discovery was interrupted when Yang Liuye stared directly at her while she was disguised as a Pressure Cooker Safety Valve.

• Yu Ruoli struggled to find a plausible hiding place, while Tan Murong turned into a Safety Valve and Xu Youqing hid as red underwear.
• The countdown ended, trapping Qin Manjiang, Shen Hai, Yu Ruoli, Tan Murong, and Xu Youqing in place as the search began.
• Yang Liuye appeared as a Vengeful Ghost and searched the Kitchen, where Tan Murong was hiding.
• Tan Murong reasoned that the little-girl host was also a player and that finding her could end the Game.
• Yang Liuye bent over the Pressure Cooker and stared at Tan Murong in her Safety Valve form.

Shen Hai was nearly killed when [Older Sister] tracked his blood through the rain, while Tan Murong was found in the Kitchen as a red Safety Valve. Yu Ruoli used her Spirit Medium Sketchbook to request a pause, briefly freeing the players to move.

• [Older Sister] followed the smell of Shen Hai’s blood to the Back Courtyard and began sucking up the rainwater mixed with it.
• Tan Murong realized the Vengeful Ghost knew which objects the players had become and found her at the Pressure Cooker.
• A scream from the Kitchen distracted [Older Sister], allowing Shen Hai to realize he could move again.
• Yu Ruoli saw a painting in her Spirit Medium Sketchbook that suggested players could request a pause and formed the thought to do so.
• A little girl’s voice announced that the players had one chance to pause the game.

During the pause in the hide-and-seek game, the players rushed to find new hiding places while Qin Manjiang warned Yu Ruoli that the rules might make being caught safe for everyone except the first player. He told Yu Ruoli to let the ghost catch her.

• Shen Hai hid in Yang Liuye's bloodstain in the Living Room to mask his own bloody smell.
• Xu Youqing decided to stay disguised as Red Underpants in the Wardrobe because moving could expose him.
• Tan Murong hid beneath the Drain, determined to survive and reveal that the terrifying girl was also a player.
• Yu Ruoli moved from the Exterior Wall to the Weed Patch in the Front Courtyard after pausing the game.
• Qin Manjiang told Yu Ruoli that the candies suggested only the first player caught might die, then instructed her to let the ghost catch her.

Qin Manjiang used the rain to watch the game from a wide vantage and asked Yu Ruoli to identify which ghost was truly deadly. As [Older Sister] searched the Living Room where Shen Hai hid, he realized the Candy Game’s winner became its next ghostly host, leaving the players trapped in a repeating game.

• Qin Manjiang told Yu Ruoli he had scattered himself through the rain and could see the players and ghosts.
• Qin Manjiang described how [Older Sister] vanished during the pause while Yang Liuye's Corpse was injured, and asked Yu Ruoli to work out which ghost killed players.
• When the game resumed, Yang Liuye's Corpse crushed a Pressure Cooker, while [Older Sister] reappeared and crawled toward the Back Courtyard before turning to stare into the Living Room.
• Shen Hai stayed hidden in Yang Liuye's blood and questioned why [Older Sister] seemed to find him so quickly.
• Shen Hai recalled the Opening Lines and concluded that the Horror Girl was [I], the previous Candy Game's winner, who had become the host of the next game.

Yang investigated the newly emerged multiplayer ghost story [Wedding Dress] after learning that players had to survive six hours in Huai'an Residential Complex. The entire team was wiped out within half an hour despite using powerful survival items, and Home Flower’s final message called the story unsolvable.

• Yang learned that Home Flower and four other players had begun suffering bride-related hallucinations before [Wedding Dress] started.
• Home Flower told Yang that the game took place in the abandoned Huai'an Residential Complex and required the players to survive for six hours.
• Yang gathered information about Huai'an Residential Complex and prepared to support Home Flower’s team from outside the game.
• Just after midnight on November 8, Yang received notice that all five players in [Wedding Dress] had been wiped out.
• Yang learned that Home Flower’s final message had been: “Unsolvable!!!!!”

During the hide-and-seek game, Xu Youqing realized the Vengeful Ghosts could locate every player and questioned why hiding mattered. After Older Sister found him, he discovered he could move, and Tan Murong had the same experience when Yang Liuye found her.

• Shen Hai suspected that the Ghost Story's instructions to solve the story were hiding something and planned to test his theories through the other players.
• Xu Youqing reasoned that the Vengeful Ghosts could find everyone, then heard Older Sister approach his hiding place in the wardrobe.
• Older Sister opened the wardrobe and reached for Xu Youqing, who realized he could move once the ghost touched him.
• Yang Liuye tore open the kitchen floor and found Tan Murong, who also discovered she could move after being found.

Qin Manjiang realized the players had to identify which ghost was the Candy Ghost and move when that ghost found them, while staying still when found by the Vengeful Ghost. Xu Youqing and Tan Murong both stayed still, but the ghosts switched places, leaving Xu Youqing face-to-face with Yang Liuye.

• Qin Manjiang concluded that hiding was meaningless and that the players’ choice to move or stay still depended on which ghost had found them.
• Qin Manjiang determined that Older Sister was the Candy Ghost and Yang Liuye was the Vengeful Ghost.
• Tan Murong and Xu Youqing both chose to stay still when the countdown ended.
• Yang Liuye placed Tan Murong safely back on the Kitchen Counter, confirming that staying still had protected her from the Vengeful Ghost.
• Older Sister and Yang Liuye switched places, and Qin Manjiang realized that Xu Youqing should have moved after being found by the Candy Ghost.
• Yang Liuye appeared before Xu Youqing in the second-floor bedroom and told him to die with her.

After Xu Youqing’s death ended the second round early, the survivors discussed the game’s rules and Yu Ruoli’s ability to pause it. Shen Hai uncovered the game’s underlying logic and prepared to kill, but Qin Manjiang claimed he had found a path to survival.

• Yang Liuye killed Xu Youqing, and the Horror Girl announced that the second round was over before the others had made their choices.
• The survivors returned beneath the chandelier, where the Horror Girl began the third round, Truth or Dare, and gave them ten minutes to prepare.
• Tan Murong described her encounter with the ghost, and Qin Manjiang explained his deductions about the second round.
• Yu Ruoli revealed that she had paused the game by raising her hand, interpreting a clue in her Spirit Medium Sketchbook.
• Shen Hai used his Faded Memories item to view the game’s past and concluded that it was forcing each round to begin with the required number of players.
• Shen Hai considered killing Qin Manjiang but found his hand resisting; Qin Manjiang confronted him and claimed he had found the path to survival.

Qin Manjiang realized that the chandelier controlled the stages of the Candy Game and shattered it during the transition to prevent the game from restarting. He and the others escaped Blue Bay Villa District, and Qin Manjiang’s phone confirmed that the Ghost Story was cleared.

• Tan Murong decided that she wanted to live, while Qin Manjiang confronted Shen Hai about hiding near Yang Liuye’s Corpse and accused him of affecting the game’s second round.
• Qin Manjiang explained that the Candy Game had hidden commands and that the chandelier marked its stages; Shen Hai recognized it as the game’s switch.
• As the ten-minute pause ended, Qin Manjiang broke the chandelier, disrupting the game’s restart and prompting the group to flee Blue Bay Villas No. 666.
• The ghosts pursued the group through the storm, and Tan Murong and Shen Hai each helped Qin Manjiang keep running while Yu Ruoli led the way.
• The four players escaped Blue Bay Villa District, and Qin Manjiang’s phone displayed that the Candy Game had been cleared.

Qin Manjiang received rewards after clearing the Candy Game and left the Blue Bay Villa District with Tan Murong and Yu Ruoli. He woke in Lin Ci’s bar, where Lin Ci explained how he had been brought there and invited him to talk.

• Qin Manjiang received fifty Spirit Pupil Points, while Player, Swimming Fish, and White Sandalwood received their rewards.
• Shen Hai mocked Qin Manjiang’s weak body before walking away, and Tan Murong helped Qin Manjiang up.
• Yu Ruoli asked whether the ghosts would disappear, and Qin Manjiang considered whether Fu City was an arena enclosed by the Eye Realm.
• Qin Manjiang fell asleep after leaving the Blue Bay Villa District and woke the next day in a staff room at Lin Ci’s bar.
• Lin Ci told Qin Manjiang that Tan Murong had brought him to the bar and that she had gone to work.
• Qin Manjiang checked that his phones and Eye Realm were still there, and Lin Ci asked him to get up so they could talk.

Qin Manjiang learned that Qiao Ziruo and Nie Yunzhen were trapped by the ghosts in [Don't Speak], and Qiao escaped only after Nie sacrificed herself. The game registered as cleared, but Nie then appeared alive outside the building and told Qiao she was fine.

• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that three players had died in [Don't Speak] and that only Qiao Ziruo and Nie Yunzhen remained.
• A Vengeful Ghost pursued Qiao Ziruo and Nie Yunzhen as a giant mouth blocked their path out of the apartment building.
• Nie Yunzhen broke the rule by speaking, causing both ghosts to teleport to her and bite her body in half, while Qiao's escape route cleared.
• Nie Yunzhen's arm briefly resisted the pursuing ghost, giving Qiao time to tumble out of the building and survive.
• Qin Manjiang's phone announced that [Don't Speak] had been cleared, and Nie appeared behind Qin Manyi, telling Qiao Ziruo she was fine.

Qin Manyi and Qiao Ziruo learned that Nie Yunzhen survived the Vengeful Ghost because her Shared-Fate Lock tied her life to Qiao Ziruo. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang began working at Lin Ci’s bar, Clear Pupil, whose name stirred an unexplained sense of familiarity in him.

• Qiao Ziruo hugged Nie Yunzhen after learning they had cleared the game, and Nie Yunzhen revealed that her Shared-Fate Lock let her survive as long as Qiao Ziruo lived.
• Qin Manjiang realized Nie Yunzhen had likely survived the Person in the Coffin Ghost Story by locking her fate to another player, and he feared that survivor might be watching him.
• Lin Ci offered Qin Manjiang a job at her bar, and he accepted a trial position for four thousand a month with the possibility of a raise.
• Qin Manjiang asked the bar’s name, and Lin Ci told him it was Clear Pupil, a name that sparked a fleeting, familiar feeling in him.

Qin Manjiang moved out to work at the Clear-Eyed Leisure Bar and urged Qin Manyi to return to school, while Mi Qiao left after warning him to stay away from Moon City. A week later, Qin Manjiang left work early to meet the other players at an opera performance, and Lin Ci wondered about his changed personality.

• Qin Manjiang told Qin Manyi he had found work at the Clear-Eyed Leisure Bar and encouraged her to resume school and prepare for the college entrance exam.
• Mi Qiao told Qin Manjiang she was leaving and quietly warned him not to go to Moon City.
• Qin Manjiang worked at the Clear-Eyed Leisure Bar for a week and grew suspicious that Mi Qiao had approached him deliberately.
• Qin Manjiang asked Lin Ci to leave early so he could attend Mei Sijun's opera performance and meet the other players.
• Lin Ci watched Qin Manjiang leave and wondered how his personality had changed so completely.

A fire consumed the Bai family estate, and Bai Yang was presumed dead inside. At the plaza, Qin Manjiang told the Ten Seats that Yang had tried to leave the Ghost Story Game and warned that rising Spirit Pupil Counts made the world and its people appear grotesque, ending with Qin saying he had not changed.

• Yan Lie and Zhou Fan learned that Bai Yang was still inside the burning villa, but explosions made rescue impossible.
• Qin Manjiang arrived at the plaza and learned from Chen Zhiyuan that Yang had not escaped the fire; Yan Xiao confirmed the report through his brother, the fire chief.
• Qin told the group that Yang had pursued Permanent Logout and asked him to help everyone find a new path if he died.
• Qin asked whether the world had changed in the others' eyes, prompting the Ten Seats to recall strange perceptions and changes in how people looked.
• Qin revealed Yang's belief that the world and its inhabitants became increasingly twisted as Spirit Pupil Counts rose, then said that he himself had not changed.

Yan Xiao learned that Yang’s body had been found and sent the others to the General Bureau, where Bai Yang’s sister arrived to identify him. The investigation found no burn marks on Bai Yang’s body, and Captain Zhou Fan asked Qin Manjiang if he was Jiang Du.

• Yan Lie called Yan Xiao to report that Yang’s body had been found and that something about it was strange.
• Chen Zhiyuan and Yang’s three friends went to Bai Yang’s villa, Yu Ruoli and Xinxin left, and Qin Manjiang, Zhong Xueran, Xu Yi, Shen Hai, and Liu Jingqing went to the General Bureau.
• Bai Hongdan arrived at the General Bureau, identified herself as Bai Yang’s younger sister, and brought Qin Manjiang inside to speak with Captain Zhou Fan.
• Zhou Fan said Bai Yang had no burn marks and that the cause of death was still being investigated.
• Zhou Fan stared at Qin Manjiang and asked whether he was Jiang Du.