Chapter Summaries

Qin Manjiang reunited with Qin Manyi in the hotel cellar and learned that her boss suspected the Lower River Village Ghost Story was man-made and connected to Moon City's [Eye Realm]. After reflecting on Flower and the Permanent Items, he agreed to go with his sister to her boss's residence, though her boss disliked men.

• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi sat in the cellar while Lian Yan went to deal with the hostile group outside.
• Qin Manyi explained that her boss had forbidden her from contacting Qin Manjiang and believed she might be useful because she was unusual.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang that her boss suspected someone from Moon City had created the Lower River Village Ghost Story, causing Qin Manyi to be taken into Moon City's [Eye Realm].
• Qin Manjiang suspected that Flower had come to reclaim the Permanent Item [Flower] and wondered whether his own items might also draw attention.
• Qin Manyi invited Qin Manjiang to stay with her at her boss's place, despite warning him that her boss did not see men.

After escaping the ruined Yuelai Hotel, Qin Manjiang rode with Qin Manyi to her boss’s seafood shop, where she asked for him to stay. The boss agreed after seeing him asleep, then reflected on the past and recognized that this Qin Manjiang was not the person she remembered.

• Qin Manjiang and Qin Manyi left the ruined Yuelai Hotel and drove through Moon City in Qin Manyi’s unlicensed van.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang about her female boss and urged him to act cheerful so they could work together.
• Qin Manjiang fell asleep in the van after bickering with Qin Manyi during the drive.
• Qin Manyi asked her boss to let Qin Manjiang stay at the seafood shop, and the boss agreed to clear an empty room for him.
• The boss watched the sleeping Qin Manjiang and reflected that, despite their resemblance, he was not the person from her past.

Yan Xiao recalled the stormy night when Chen Zhiyuan used Yang’s phone as a clue for his [Continuation Pen] and recorded a possible future at the cost of nearly dying. The recorded words revealed Yang’s plan for Fu City, and Yan Xiao left determined to help all its players survive.

• Yan Xiao remembered Chen Zhiyuan calling him to his home during the [Wedding Dress] Ghost Story and asking him to record what the [Continuation Pen] revealed.
• Chen Zhiyuan explained that he had used Yang’s phone to write a possible storyline about the real world and asked Yan Xiao to preserve it in full.
• Chen Zhiyuan dictated clues about the Eye Realm, Yang’s plan for Fu City, and the heavy price of death there, while Yan Xiao wrote everything down.
• Yan Xiao gave Chen Zhiyuan adrenaline and stabilized him, but Chen Zhiyuan later forgot what he had written and worried about Zhong Xueran and remembering Yang.
• Yan Xiao left in the rain and called the Doctor, asking for all the players in Fu City to survive.

After a peaceful half-month in Moon City, Qin Manjiang learned more about Spirit Pupils and realized his boss was trying to determine whether he was Jiang Du. A new Ghost Story began, and Qin Manjiang prepared to leave for the next scenario.

• Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that his impostor seemed to be searching for two Players from another time in Fu City's [Eye Realm].
• Qin Manjiang learned from Qin Manyi that Hunters gained the Spirit Pupils of Players they killed, and that an organization in Moon City was collecting them.
• Qin Manyi revealed that the boss had been asking about Qin Manjiang's personality and habits, leading him to suspect she knew Jiang Du.
• Qin Manjiang felt the familiar panic and burning sensation that signaled a new Ghost Story, then told Qin Manyi he was going to see some ghosts.

The Players gathered for the seventh Ghost Story as Nie Yunzhen warned that ghosts were targeting them in the real world. The new Game, Seven Children, selected Qin Manjiang, marking him as Professor and leaving him to wonder if this was his first proper selection.

• The Players noticed that only about twenty people had returned to the Eye Realm, and Qin Manjiang appeared wearing a bloodstained apron and a white mask.
• Nie Yunzhen told the Players that ghosts had begun targeting them in the real world, prompting them to suspect foul play.
• Qin Manjiang noticed that Chen Zhiyuan and Yu Ruoli continued to watch him as the Ghost Story Game began.
• The Eye Realm announced the seventh Ghost Story, Seven Children, with no time limit.
• The pupils fixed their gaze on Qin Manjiang, and the Eye Realm marked him as Professor; he realized he had been selected normally this time.

The Eye Realm selected seven players for the Ghost Story [Seven Children], assembling a lineup that included several highly regarded teammates and the unlucky but capable [Abyss]. Qin Manjiang realized that the impostor using his identity had been selected alongside him, setting up an uncertain encounter.

• The Eye Realm selected Li Xijiu, Lin Ruonan, and Chen Xin after Professor and Abyss, while Qin Manjiang recognized their abilities and wondered what Li Xijiu knew about his situation.
• Wu Tiansheng and Hu Feifei were selected next, prompting the remaining players to envy the unusually dependable lineup.
• The seventh player appeared under the code name [Abyss], and Qin Manjiang's companions realized the impostor had been chosen for the same Ghost Story as the real Qin Manjiang.
• The selected players and onlookers recognized that Professor and Abyss would soon meet, though only a few knew they might not get along.

Qin Manjiang awoke in a snow-covered world after the game began, having dreamed of Xiao Qi, a child forced to steal and endure abuse alongside six other children. The children fled after poisoning and killing their adoptive parents, whose burning house left them with a promise of revenge.

• The seven selected players were transported into the Ghost Story: Seven Children, which began in Fu City in 2007.
• Qin Manjiang dreamed that he was Xiao Qi, a boy raised by abusive adoptive parents and forced to steal with six other children.
• When one of the children collapsed with a fever, Xiao Qi stole two meat buns from a neighboring block and gave them to her.
• The seven children planned their escape, revealing that they had drugged their adoptive parents, tied them together, and set their house on fire.
• The adoptive parents screamed threats from the burning house as it burned to ashes.
• Qin Manjiang woke in the snow and realized he was Xiao Qi.

Qin Manjiang woke in a snowbound wilderness as Xiao Qi and joined Wu Tiansheng, who was playing A-Si, to search for the meeting place named in their invitations. They found Hu Feifei and pieced together their three invitations into half a route map, then discovered a corpse beneath the snow.

• Qin Manjiang found an invitation saying the twelve-year pact was over and that the seven children should meet at the old place to dig something up.
• Qin Manjiang met Wu Tiansheng, and they identified themselves as Xiao Qi and A-Si before setting off in the direction they had both been facing.
• Wu Tiansheng found Hu Feifei, and Qin Manjiang noticed that the gold patterns on their invitations fit together to form half a route map.
• Hu Feifei uncovered a pale, rigid face in the snow as the three prepared to rest.

Wu Tiansheng, Hu Feifei, and Qin Manjiang found a mummified corpse with Wu Tiansheng’s face, then followed the invitation map through the snow. The seven players reunited and discovered their roles included Xiao Ba but no [One], leaving Qin Manjiang wondering whether someone was lying or an eighth child had existed.

• Wu Tiansheng identified the mummified corpse with his face as the body of A-Si, the character he was playing.
• Qin Manjiang pieced together the invitations, revealing their location on a route map and a path that might meet the others’ route.
• Xia Nan, Chen Xin, Lin Ruonan, and [Abyss] followed the map through the blizzard and met Qin Manjiang, Wu Tiansheng, and Hu Feifei.
• The seven introduced their roles, naming Xiao Qi, A-Si, Xiao Wu, A Er, Three, Xiao Liu, and Xiao Ba, but no [One].
• Qin Manjiang wondered whether someone had lied or whether an eighth child had existed.

After assembling their invitations into a route map, Qin Manjiang and the others began speaking and acting out scenes they could not control, revealing a past expedition by seven children twelve years earlier. The chapter left them wary of defying the apparent script as they learned that the group had since become divided and that A Er had recruited Xia Nan to leave with him.

• The seven gathered their invitations and assembled a route map pointing toward a door-shaped destination, triggering a chilling sensation of being watched.
• Hu Feifei, Chen Xin, Lin Ruonan, and Qin Manjiang began delivering involuntary lines about finding a place and surviving a dangerous mountain journey.
• Lin Ruonan privately told Qin Manjiang to follow her orders, then hinted that he was good at deceiving people.
• Abyss urged Wu Tiansheng and Xia Nan to abandon the others and seek shelter in a cave, but Wu Tiansheng refused while Xia Nan agreed to go.
• The players realized they could resist the scripted actions only with mounting terror, and inferred that the seven had once fled the Demon Cave together but were now at odds.

The seven players agreed to cooperate despite their conflicting roles and shared what they had learned about the mountain and their characters’ past. They concluded they would need to change the story during the next Auto-Enactment, even if doing so brought danger.

• Lin Ruonan asked whether the players would cooperate, and all seven agreed that their survival mattered more than their characters’ rivalries.
• Lin Ruonan and Qin Manjiang revealed that Xiao San and Xiao Qi may have used deception to get someone killed twelve years ago and survive on that person’s supplies.
• Wu Tiansheng explained that A Er had planned to take A-Si to a small cave and abandon the others, but A-Si refused and A Er then recruited Xiao Ba to escape with the supplies.
• Hu Feifei and Chen Xin revealed that A-Si liked Xiao Wu, Xiao Wu feared Xiao Liu, and Xiao Liu bore ill will toward Xiao Wu.
• Chen Xin argued that the players could resist their predetermined fate by changing the story, and Lin Ruonan said they must alter the next Auto-Enactment despite the risks.

The group debated how fate worked in the Ghost Story and agreed to distinguish unavoidable Constants from changeable Variables. They assessed their dwindling supplies and mountain-climbing risks before Hu Feifei spotted someone, triggering the second plot sequence.

• [Abyss] asked the group for their views on the Ghost Story's worldview, and Wu Tiansheng and Lin Ruonan debated whether fate was predetermined.
• Qin Manjiang proposed that the story contained unavoidable Constants and changeable Variables, and the group agreed to work with the plot while seeking safe opportunities to introduce changes.
• Lin Ruonan revealed that [Three] had all the group's food: ten energy bars that could last three days if rationed.
• Wu Tiansheng warned that reaching the summit would take a long time and that thirst and hypothermia posed major dangers.
• Hu Feifei spotted someone nearby, and the second plot sequence began.

The group’s plot enactment forced A-Si and Xiao Liu to investigate a figure, trapping them on a mountain path where their way back had become a sheer cliff. Meanwhile, Qin Manjiang and the others ended their enactment by refusing to investigate, only to encounter a terrifying many-legged figure in the snow.

• A-Si and Xiao Liu were compelled to follow the figure into the blizzard, and Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng could not interrupt the plot once the two had agreed to investigate.
• After regaining control, A-Si and Xiao Liu found that the path behind them had vanished into a bottomless cliff.
• Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng reasoned that the pair’s earlier choices might have been correct and agreed to continue along the mountain path.
• Qin Manjiang, Lin Ruonan, and Abyss refused to send anyone after A-Si and Xiao Liu, ending the group’s plot enactment.
• The five saw a thin, white-dressed figure with a mass of legs beneath it and fled up the mountain.

Qin Manjiang and the others struggled through a worsening snowstorm while trying to find shelter, and a new plot forced them to decide whether to split up. Xia Nan rejected the proposal, but [Abyss] volunteered to search alone and walked into the blizzard.

• Qin Manjiang and the others fled the vengeful ghost, then slowed when it disappeared into the snow behind them.
• Xia Nan warned the group not to eat snow directly and explained how to collect it safely while they searched for a place to camp.
• A new plot revealed that Xiao San Lin Ruonan remembered a nearby hunter’s cabin, and [Abyss] proposed splitting up to find it.
• Xia Nan rejected the proposal, arguing that the group should stay together as they had already lost [A-Si] and [Xiao Liu].
• [Abyss] said he would go alone and began walking into the blizzard.

Abyss deliberately triggered the plot, stole Lin Ruonan’s energy bars, and left the group, drawing the vengeful ghost closer to the others. Qin Manjiang pieced together Abyss’s plan as the four reached the hunter’s cabin, and he suspected Abyss might eventually undermine himself.

• Lin Ruonan revealed that Xiao San knew the hunter’s cabin’s location, but then discovered the energy bars were missing and blamed Abyss.
• A female ghost appeared much closer behind the group, and Qin Manjiang led the others toward the cabin Lin Ruonan had identified.
• The four found the cabin, barred the door against the storm, and discovered a stove, firewood, matches, and dried meat inside.
• Qin Manjiang explained that Abyss had broken free of the plot enactment, stolen the energy bars, and used the others to keep the ghost occupied while he escaped alone.
• Qin Manjiang suggested that Abyss’s plan might eventually backfire.

After Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng became lost in the snow, Chen Xin used the chance to examine his suspicions about the Ghost Story and its Players. He questioned whether the scenes of seven children escaping the foster home accurately reflected what had really happened.

• Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng struggled through the snow after their trail ended at a cliff, and Wu Tiansheng went ahead to find a safe route while Chen Xin rested.
• Chen Xin recalled that he had entered the Ghost Story Game determined to escape, and that his ability to focus helped him analyze its rules.
• Chen Xin remembered how Players could become trapped by following a story’s own logic, as Lian Yan had in [Ping'an Hospital].
• Chen Xin suspected [Abyss] was not human because his expressions and movements repeated identically, and he noticed the [Professor] displayed similar habits more naturally.
• Chen Xin questioned whether the shared scenes of seven children fleeing the foster home were reliable memories of the past.

Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng searched the snowy mountain for clues about why they had returned there twelve years after their first visit. Inside a cabin, they found the corpse of the woman the children had called “Mom,” leaving Chen Xin to confront the disturbing connection between the cabin and their memories.

• Chen Xin reconsidered the children's memories as beautified versions of events and recalled how the couple had driven them out to beg and steal in the snow.
• Wu Tiansheng warned Chen Xin to follow his footprints near a cliff, then revealed that the path ahead ended in a sheer drop.
• Wu Tiansheng led Chen Xin through the woods to a cabin and said its contents held the most important clue.
• Wu Tiansheng opened the cabin door, and Chen Xin saw the stiff, ashen corpse of the woman the children knew as “Mom.”

Chen Xin and Wu Tiansheng found the woman’s corpse and discovered her back had been stripped of flesh, leading Chen Xin to suspect their memories had been sanitized and the Seven Children’s real history was hidden on the snowy mountain. In another cabin, Xia Nan warned the group not to eat the air-dried meat they had found.

• Chen Xin examined the woman’s corpse and asked Wu Tiansheng to turn it over so they could check for injuries.
• Wu Tiansheng turned the corpse over, revealing that the flesh on her back was gone.
• Chen Xin proposed that the Seven Children’s memories had been altered and questioned whether the city and the couple had ever existed.
• Chen Xin suggested the woman might have been killed for her meat, while Wu Tiansheng struggled to follow his deductions.
• Qin Manjiang, Xia Nan, Lin Ruonan, and Hu Feifei settled into another cabin, where Hu Feifei wanted to cook the air-dried meat.
• Xia Nan warned the group not to eat the meat.

Xia Nan identified dried meat in the cabin as human flesh, while the group questioned the cabin’s history and the snowy mountain’s connection to their memories. As Qin Manjiang and Xia Nan waited for Lin Ruonan and Hu Feifei to return, Spider Woman appeared at the doorway.

• Xia Nan determined that the dried meat was human flesh and had been deliberately cut from over the shoulder blade.
• Hu Feifei’s remark about the seven children visiting the snowy mountain twelve years earlier led the group to question how the mountain connected to their city memories.
• Hu Feifei lit a fire, and the group planned to take turns resting and keeping watch through the night.
• Lin Ruonan and Hu Feifei went outside to use the toilet while Qin Manjiang and Xia Nan stayed in the cabin.
• After the women took too long to return, a gust blew through the doorway, and Spider Woman appeared.

Qin Manjiang realized the spider woman’s appearances were tied to plot changes, then chased it into the blizzard before losing its trail. After Lin Ruonan and Hu Feifei returned to the cabin, Lin recounted that they had seen an enormous skeletal figure beside the summit, leaving Hu Feifei paralyzed with terror.

• Qin Manjiang questioned whether the events they called the original plot were actually established, and concluded that [Abyss] could trigger plot changes.
• The spider woman retreated from the cabin, and Qin Manjiang ran after it while ordering Xia Nan not to follow.
• Qin Manjiang counted fourteen legs on the spider woman and suspected it was forced to appear when plot changes reached a certain degree.
• Qin Manjiang lost the spider woman’s tracks in the blizzard and returned to the cabin, where Lin Ruonan and Hu Feifei had come back in terror.
• Lin Ruonan recounted that the snow and wind stopped as she and Hu Feifei stood behind the cabin, and moonlight revealed a colossal skeletal figure gripping the summit.
• The moonlight vanished and the storm resumed; Lin Ruonan came to her senses and saw Hu Feifei’s face twisted and vacant.