Chapter Summaries

Qin Manjiang received a call from Li Xijiu, who was trapped in a cinema on the night before a fire that had supposedly killed everyone inside. After Li Xijiu texted him to save him, Qin Manjiang told him to hide and promised to bring him back.

• Qin Manjiang learned that Li Xijiu was watching a movie at the Threshold Cinema on South Sky Road, though Li believed it was still August 11 at night.
• Qin Manjiang heard a news report that a fire had destroyed the Threshold Cinema and found that the report referred to the previous night.
• Li Xijiu said the cinema patrons had turned to stare at him, then ended the call as he tried to leave.
• Qin Manjiang received Li Xijiu's text asking him to save him and decided to act.
• Qin Manjiang told Li Xijiu to hide and stay alive, promising to bring him back.

Qin Manjiang investigated the fire at the Threshold Cinema and learned that a child had died there ten years earlier after becoming trapped in a restroom. He reached the ruins at night and, when Li Xijiu called from the cinema’s restroom, realized the old tragedy was repeating as Li Xijiu found himself trapped behind a broken door.

• Qin Manjiang searched for information about the Threshold Cinema fire and found reports of strange events after the cinema was rebuilt.
• Qin Manjiang prepared for a nighttime visit, arranged for the class representative to look after Qin Manyi, and went to 36 South Sky Road.
• The taxi driver told Qin Manjiang that a child had died in the earlier fire after becoming trapped in a restroom, while a Safe Journey Pendant spun inexplicably.
• Qin Manjiang reached the cordoned-off cinema ruins and received a call from Li Xijiu, who said a maniac was trying to kill him and the other cinema patrons were acting strangely.
• Qin Manjiang rushed toward the restroom and urged Li Xijiu to escape, but Li Xijiu said the restroom door seemed broken.

Qin Manjiang entered the ruined Threshold Cinema to rescue Li Xijiu, who was trapped in the past inside a restroom stall. After discovering that the strange game link had appeared on his phone two years earlier, Qin Manjiang realized the haunting had targeted him from the beginning and pressed the grotesque face on his screen.

• Qin Manjiang entered the fire-ravaged Threshold Cinema and climbed to the second floor to find Li Xijiu.
• Qin Manjiang noticed the ruins looked uncleared despite firefighters having searched the building, then reached the restroom and opened the last stall, finding it empty.
• Li Xijiu told Qin Manjiang that the haunting was part of a game and reminded him about a link he had sent two days earlier.
• Qin Manjiang opened the link and saw a grotesque face, realizing he had encountered the same game two years earlier.
• Qin Manjiang remembered that Qin Manyi had taken his phone and explored the game, then pressed the face on the screen in anger.

Qin Manjiang entered the Ghost Story Game as Abyss and was sent back ten years to Threshold Cinema, where he reunited with Li Xijiu. They planned to evade a machete-wielding figure and investigate the cinema’s past fire, with Li Xijiu agreeing to distract the figure.

• Qin Manjiang chose Abyss as his code name and learned that he had entered the single-player Ghost Story Game set at Threshold Cinema.
• Qin Manjiang was swallowed by the ghost face as time reversed, bringing him back to the unburned cinema on August 11 at 11:05 p.m.
• Qin Manjiang reunited with Li Xijiu in the restroom, and Li Xijiu told him a tall, thin figure with a machete was patrolling outside.
• Qin Manjiang decided to seek information about the fire ten years earlier and its victims, despite eerie laughter and handprints appearing in the restroom.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the figure guarding the stairs and proposed splitting up so one of them could draw its attention while the other reached the escalator.
• Li Xijiu agreed to keep the figure chasing him while Qin Manjiang went downstairs, then revealed his code name was Invincible Tyrannosaurus Warrior.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu escaped two ghosts on the cinema’s second floor and deduced that they were a father and son whose matching clothes held the father ghost’s weakness. They reached the first floor, but the open entrance led into endless darkness, so they turned back to find another way to clear the game.

• Li Xijiu lured the towering ghost through the screening rooms while Qin Manjiang encountered a burned child ghost blocking the stairs, forcing them to flee together.
• When the towering ghost attacked Li Xijiu with a machete, Qin Manjiang tore his clothes, making the ghost abandon the fight to search for the scraps.
• Qin Manjiang explained that the ghosts were a father and son who had died in a fire and that their matching outfits were important to them.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu tried to leave the cinema but found only an endless darkness beyond the open doors.
• Qin Manjiang turned back from the entrance, while Li Xijiu, with his back thrown out, called after him in fear.

Qin Manjiang pieced together the old cinema floor plan and work log to identify the abandoned Theater 3 as a safe haven from the cleaver-wielding ghost. He and Li Xijiu escaped inside, but found the audience staring at them with their heads turned backward.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu collected five pieces of the old floor plan and found a work log while hiding beneath the ticket counter.
• The cleaver-wielding ghost attacked, and Li Xijiu pulled Qin Manjiang to safety before the counter was split apart.
• Qin Manjiang learned from the work log that the fire had started in the abandoned Theater 3, whose number had been retired.
• Li Xijiu drew the ghost away while Qin Manjiang solved the clue, then they ran for Theater 3 as the ghost chased them.
• Li Xijiu took a cleaver strike to his forearm while shielding Qin Manjiang, and the two barely reached Theater 3 before the ghost could seize them.
• The cleaver-wielding ghost stopped at the entrance and left, but Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu saw the audience turn their heads around to stare at them.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu watched the auditorium’s ghostly audience reveal the father and son’s tragic past in a screening of real events. When the lights came on, the audience had vanished, leaving Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu alone with the truth of the fire and the father’s death.

• Qin Manjiang led the wounded Li Xijiu to seats in the auditorium, and the strange audience turned back toward the static screen.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu took the places of two missing audience members, and the screen began showing a movie.
• The film showed a father bringing his son from a mountain village to Fu City, where they struggled to navigate the city and entered a movie theater to watch cartoons.
• The father failed to reach his son during a fire in the theater, and a firefighter rescued him before the ceiling collapsed again.
• The film showed that the father later died by suicide, after which the auditorium lights came on and its ghostly audience disappeared.

Qin Manjiang carried the wounded Li Xijiu through the burning cinema while the Tall Wraith pursued them and Little Ghost blocked their escape. Qin Manjiang discovered that the window beside the last stall was the way out, but Li Xijiu revealed that he could not return.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu fled the fire as the Tall Wraith appeared, and the wraith stabbed itself to inflict a matching wound on Li Xijiu.
• Li Xijiu warned Qin Manjiang not to meet the Tall Wraith's gaze, and Qin Manjiang carried him onward despite Li Xijiu's pleas to be left behind.
• Qin Manjiang recognized Little Ghost as the child who had followed them from the real world and realized the child had never harmed anyone.
• Qin Manjiang recalled the firefighters rescuing the Tall Wraith through the window beside the last stall and concluded that the window was the way out.
• Li Xijiu faced the Tall Wraith as Qin Manjiang tried to pull him away, then told Qin Manjiang that he could not go back.

Qin Manjiang realized Li Xijiu had died and that his ghost had been guiding and protecting him while struggling against its malice. As the cinema burned, Li Xijiu saved Qin Manjiang by throwing him outside, then vanished in the explosion.

• Qin Manjiang understood that Li Xijiu had died after their phone call but had repeatedly protected him despite being drawn into the Ghost Story Game by his ghostly nature.
• The little ghost led Qin Manjiang toward the restroom, and he realized it might retain its sanity because it came from the real world.
• Qin Manjiang urged Li Xijiu to leave the Ghost Story Game with him, but Li Xijiu explained that there was no separate ghost story world and that the child existed because of the game.
• Li Xijiu absorbed the towering ghost and the little ghost, then carried the collapsing Qin Manjiang to a restroom window.
• Li Xijiu called himself Qin Manjiang's dead end and threw him out of the window so he could survive.
• The cinema exploded in flames, and Qin Manjiang watched Li Xijiu's figure disappear as his consciousness vanished completely.

Qin Manjiang learned that the Ghost Story Game had unlocked new modes and rankings, then confirmed that Li Xijiu’s DNA did not match any victims from the burned Threshold Cinema. As he headed to the hospital after hearing that Qin Manyi had awakened, the class representative warned him that his sister had killed someone.

• Qin Manjiang woke beside the ruins of the Threshold Cinema and opened the Ghost Story Game, which announced new modes and displayed its ten-player rankings.
• Qin Manjiang saw messages from other players and took a taxi to the South Sky Road Branch to ask about Li Xijiu.
• An officer told Qin Manjiang that Li Xijiu’s DNA did not match any of the victims and that the police would continue investigating his disappearance.
• Qin Manjiang received a call from the class representative, who said Qin Manyi had awakened and warned that she had killed someone.

Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about his sister Qin Manyi after she was accused of a murder committed while she was unconscious in Giantwood Hospital. Qin Manjiang visited her in the intensive care ward, where she failed to recognize him.

• Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about Qin Manyi’s illness, their father’s death, and his home address.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi was suspected of intentional homicide despite having an alibi, and that she had confessed.
• Qin Manjiang asked to see Qin Manyi, while telling the class monitor he could no longer return to a normal life and planned to withdraw from school.
• Qin Manjiang entered the intensive care ward and found Qin Manyi chatting with a female police officer.
• Qin Manyi greeted Xi Wutong but asked Qin Manjiang who he was.

Qin Manjiang insisted that the girl in the hospital was not his sister, then agreed to meet Xi Wutong after she recognized the Ghost Story Game icon on his phone. Their meeting began with Qin Manjiang asking whether she believed in ghosts.

• Qin Manjiang told Dr. Xi that Qin Manyi was not his sister because her gaze and behavior were unlike the person he remembered.
• Dr. Xi said Qin Manyi would not be prosecuted for the murder while the case was discreetly reinvestigated, and she inferred that Qin Manjiang planned to investigate the murder and his father's death.
• Xi Wutong recognized the Ghost Story Game icon on Qin Manjiang's phone and arranged to speak with him that night.
• Xi Wutong reflected that Qin Manjiang's blinking did not change when she drew attention to it, then called someone to ask them to investigate him.
• Xi Wutong met Qin Manjiang at eight that evening, and he asked whether she believed in ghosts.

Qin Manjiang learned that the Ghost Story Game would punish him for revealing its existence, then heard Xi Wutong explain that Lower River Village had suffered a series of mysterious drownings. The chapter ended with Qin Manjiang’s adoptive family and younger sister tied to the village’s unexplained deaths.

• Xi Wutong admitted that she believed in ghosts and offered to tell Qin Manjiang something important about himself if he explained the game icon.
• When Qin Manjiang considered revealing the Ghost Story Game, he suffered intense pain and received a warning that players must not disclose the game or be eliminated.
• Qin Manjiang refused to explain the icon but hinted that Xi Wutong could draw her own conclusions, and he correctly guessed that Old Qin had adopted him.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Lower River Village had seen roughly one suspicious death each year for twenty years, including the deaths of his adoptive parents, Qin Linghan and Chen Xiuzhi.
• Xi Wutong said the victims had all walked into the river and drowned, and that Qin Manjiang’s younger sister had confessed to the latest case but would not be prosecuted.

Qin Manjiang committed himself to investigating the deaths around Lower River Village and surviving the Ghost Story Game after losing his remaining ties to ordinary life. When he opened the game, it summoned players into two ghost stories and unexpectedly launched an exploration mode with Yang as its player.

• Qin Manjiang learned that Lower River Village had become notorious for yearly suicides and agreed to cooperate with Xi Wutong in investigating the cases.
• Qin Manjiang reflected on the deaths of Old Qin and Li Xijiu, his adoptive mother's fate, and his decision to leave university and keep winning the game.
• The South Sky Road Branch told Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi would be sent to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital, and he agreed to accompany her and sign the consent form.
• Qin Manjiang opened the Ghost Story Game, which activated multiplayer mode for “Sick Sheep” and summoned him along with six other players.
• The game activated challenge mode for “Close Your Eyes,” then unexpectedly announced exploration mode and summoned Yang.

Qin Manjiang learned that he had been assigned to the Sick Sheep ghost story, which would take him and five other players to Xianyang Village in seven days. Before departing, he visited Qin Manyi, who warned him not to trust the other players and told him to find her on September third.

• Qin Manjiang read the Sick Sheep opening message and learned that he had to reach Xianyang Village with Green Vine, Pond Fish, Knife-and-Brush Clerk, Boss Shi, and So Annoying.
• Qin Manjiang searched online for Xianyang Village and wondered about the game modes and why the location was in Fu City again.
• Qin Manjiang visited Qin Manyi at Giantwood Hospital before she was transferred to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.
• Qin Manyi privately warned Qin Manjiang not to trust the other players and told him to visit her on September third, the anniversary of their father's death.
• Qin Manyi returned to acting disdainful toward Qin Manjiang, and he dismissed her words as crazy talk to Doctor Xi.

Chen Ping witnessed the villagers transform Li Rong into the Sheep Immortal through a gruesome ritual, then feared his mother had undergone the same fate. The next morning, Qin Manjiang arrived in Maishan County for the game and met a man who introduced himself as Boss Shi.

• Chen Ping sneaked into the Immortal Sheep Ancestral Hall and watched the village chief and clan elders prepare Li Rong for the Sheep Transformation Festival.
• The villagers covered Li Rong in strange symbols, drove black sheep horns into her temples, and fused a sheepskin robe with her body to make her the Sheep Immortal.
• Chen Ping made a noise while escaping, causing the chief to order a search; after the hall emptied, Li Rong opened her eyes despite being expected to remain unconscious.
• Qin Manjiang arrived in Maishan County on August 20 to wait for a bus to Xianyang Village, where the game was set to begin.
• A middle-aged man in an off-road vehicle called to Qin Manjiang and introduced himself as Boss Shi.

Qin Manjiang joined Shi Lianshan and several other players preparing to enter Xianyang Village for a seven-day ghost story. With So Annoying still missing, the group decided to set off without the tenth-ranked player, trusting that he had a plan.

• Shi Lianshan offered Qin Manjiang a ride and told him about his antique-dealing experiences as they waited for the other players.
• Liu Jingqing arrived as Pond Fish, and Shi Lianshan offered to take her in his SUV because her car could not handle the road to Xianyang Village.
• He Jian introduced himself as Knife-and-Brush Clerk and urged the group to share supplies and information to survive the game.
• Chen Ping arrived as Green Vine, while the group realized So Annoying had not shown up.
• Qin Manjiang suggested that So Annoying likely had a plan, and Shi Lianshan drove the group toward Xianyang Village.

On the drive into the mountains, Qin Manjiang learned about spirit pupils, player rewards, and the differences between challenge and exploration modes. Chen Ping then said Qin looked identical to a professor who had died twenty years earlier, and Qin briefly behaved unnaturally before returning to normal.

• He Jian and Shi Lianshan explained spirit pupils, purchasable items, and the difference between challenge mode and exploration mode.
• Liu Jingqing described a past game in which Yang received all the spirit pupils, prompting Qin Manjiang to suspect Li Xijiu had been involved in his beginner stage.
• Shi Lianshan explained that the tenth-seat player might have a permanent item, and He Jian said exploration mode involved ghost stories the game could not investigate.
• Qin Manjiang asked Chen Ping why he had been watching him, and Chen Ping said Qin resembled a professor who had died twenty years earlier.
• Qin Manjiang stiffened and drank his coffee in a mechanical, eerie manner, alarming the others, but soon returned to normal and asked what was wrong.

Qin Manjiang and the others entered Xianyang Village for the Sick Sheep game, where every household kept black sheep that watched them. After a villager named Chen registered them and led them to an inn, they saw his reflection briefly turn into a sheep, signaling that the danger had begun.

• Shi Lianshan drove Qin Manjiang and the others to Xianyang Village and warned Qin about the dangers of multiplayer mode.
• The five entered the village as a blood-red barrier sealed it off from the outside world, then noticed black sheep staring at them from homes and courtyards.
• A middle-aged villager invited the group to register for the Sheep Transformation Festival and mentioned another local named Chen Ping when Qin gave his name.
• Chen led the group to an inn, where they saw his face appear as a black sheep in a dressing mirror before it returned to normal.

Qin Manjiang kept watch while the group rested, then escorted Liu Jingqing to the bathroom, where she explained her theory about the Sick Sheep Ghost Story. As she revealed that the ghost could move only in darkness, the corridor went dark and the sheep’s head appeared directly in front of Qin Manjiang.

• Qin Manjiang took the first watch while the others rested in the brightly lit living room.
• Liu Jingqing asked Qin Manjiang to accompany her to the bathroom and stay outside while she talked.
• Liu Jingqing told Qin Manjiang that the ghost story’s clues suggested villagers were transforming a person into a god.
• Qin Manjiang spotted the Sick Sheep’s head outside the window, but it vanished when the corridor light returned.
• Liu Jingqing concluded that the ghost could move only in darkness, and the sheep’s head appeared in front of Qin Manjiang when the lights went out.