Chapter Summaries

Zhong Xueran escaped the Vengeful Ghost by realizing that the ancient name “Meat Slope” referred to Moon Slope, where the ghost’s untended grave lay. Her body returned to normal after the ghost vanished, and she reunited with Xia Nan on the mountain path.

• Zhong Xueran discovered that she had only minutes to find Meat Slope, while her body began shrinking and the Vengeful Ghost approached.
• Zhong Xueran realized the ghost wore ancient clothing beneath its black paper disguise and inferred that the disguise concealed a clue to escaping the Ghost Story.
• Zhong Xueran connected the ancient meaning of “meat” to “moon” and identified the crescent-shaped Moon Slope as the ghost’s destination.
• The Vengeful Ghost walked to an untended grave on Moon Slope and disappeared, restoring Zhong Xueran’s body to normal.
• Zhong Xueran left candy at the grave and returned to the main road, where she found Xia Nan waiting.

Qin Manjiang discovered that Abyss was an imitation of himself housed in Xu Yi’s body, created by Yi Lianhai and suffering from painful restrictions. After learning that Abyss wanted to stand in the rain, Qin Manjiang gave him the name Yi Yu, leaving him smiling as Qin Manjiang feared the fate awaiting him.

• Abyss revealed his face beneath a human-skin mask, and Qin Manjiang recognized Xu Yi.
• Abyss named Yi Lianhai as his maker, but trying to explain more caused him severe pain.
• Qin Manjiang realized Yi Lianhai treated Abyss as a disposable experiment and felt sorrow for him.
• Abyss said he wanted to stand in the rain because it was cool and quiet.
• Qin Manjiang named him Yi Yu, and Yi Yu smiled at his new name.

Qin Manjiang learned that Yi Lianhai had used the Doctor to create Yi Yu and had likely taken several bodies, while Yan Xiao admitted he had trusted the Doctor to revive a dead patient. Before the group could question Yi Yu, a new Ghost Story Game began and announced “Hide-and-Seek.”

• Xia Nan and Shen Hai told Qin Manjiang that Yu Zeming had attacked Zhong Xueran and that Zhao Fengchuan was likely the Paleontology Research Association’s head, Yi Lianhai.
• Qin Manjiang confirmed that Yi Lianhai was the Doctor Yan Xiao had trusted, and Yan Xiao recounted how the Doctor had revived a patient after Yan Xiao’s surgical mistake.
• Zhong Xueran learned that Yan Xiao had handed Xu Yi’s body to the Doctor, while Shen Hai warned that the Doctor might also have taken the backup bodies of Shen Hai, Mei Sijun, and Qiao Ziruo.
• A new Ghost Story Game began, transporting Qin Manjiang and the others into the Eye Realm.
• The eighth Spirit Pupil Dark Spot announced the new Ghost Story: “Hide-and-Seek.”

On August 12, Qin Manjiang learned that his friend Li Xijiu was trapped in a cinema on the previous night, despite a fire there that appeared to have killed everyone. After Li begged him to save him, Qin Manjiang promised to bring him back.

• Qin Manjiang skipped class to care for his unconscious sister, Qin Manyi, and remembered how their father, Old Qin, had drowned after Qin Manyi witnessed his death.
• Li Xijiu called Qin Manjiang from Threshold Cinema on South Sky Road, saying it was August 11 at night and describing strange people in the theater.
• Qin Manjiang heard a news report that a fire had destroyed Threshold Cinema and realized Li Xijiu was calling from the past.
• Li Xijiu sent Qin Manjiang a message asking him to save him.
• Qin Manjiang told Li Xijiu to hide and stay alive, then promised to bring him back.

Qin Manjiang investigated the connection between Li Xijiu’s calls and the fire at Threshold Cinema, then went to the ruins to reach him. He learned that a child had died in an earlier fire after becoming trapped in a restroom, and Li Xijiu was now trapped behind a broken restroom door as someone tried to kill him.

• Qin Manjiang searched for reports about the cinema fire and planned to enter the ruins after dark to contact Li Xijiu.
• Qin Manjiang asked the Class Monitor to look after his younger sister, Qin Manyi, that night.
• Qin Manjiang took a taxi to Threshold Cinema and learned from the driver that a child had died in a previous fire after being trapped in a restroom.
• Qin Manjiang crossed the cordon after Li Xijiu called to say a lunatic was trying to kill him and ordered him to leave the restroom.
• Li Xijiu told Qin Manjiang that he could not get out because the restroom door seemed to be broken.

Qin Manjiang entered the burned Threshold Cinema to rescue Li Xijiu, who was trapped there in the past, and discovered an eerie game link tied to the haunting. The same link revealed that Qin Manjiang had opened the game two years earlier, and he pressed the sinister face on the screen in anger.

• Qin Manjiang crossed into Threshold Cinema’s ruins and climbed upstairs to find Li Xijiu in the restroom.
• Qin Manjiang noticed the ruins looked uncleared despite the firefighters’ search and found the last stall standing, empty in his present.
• Li Xijiu told Qin Manjiang he had come to the cinema to play a game after receiving a link from him.
• Qin Manjiang opened Li Xijiu’s old link and saw the same blood-red smiling face he had encountered two years earlier.
• Qin Manjiang remembered his younger sister Qin Manyi taking his phone after he first opened the link, then pressed the face on the screen and cursed it.

Qin Manjiang chose the code name Abyss and was transported back in time to the intact Threshold Cinema, where the ghost story game began. He reunited with Li Xijiu and planned to evade a machete-wielding figure and investigate the cinema’s past fire.

• Qin Manjiang entered Abyss as his code name, and the game assigned him the Threshold Cinema ghost story in personal mode.
• The game transported Qin Manjiang backward through time to the cinema before its fire, where he saw a message announcing the start of the game.
• Qin Manjiang reunited with Li Xijiu in the restroom and learned that a nearly three-meter-tall figure with a machete was patrolling outside.
• After hearing eerie laughter and seeing black handprints appear on the mirrors, Qin Manjiang planned for one of them to distract the figure while the other went downstairs for information about the old fire and its dead.
• Li Xijiu agreed to lead the figure around the screening rooms, then told Qin Manjiang his code name was Invincible Tyrannosaurus Warrior.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu were hunted through the cinema by two ghosts, and Qin Manjiang discovered the tall wraith’s clothes were its weakness. After they reached the first floor, they found the cinema doors opened onto endless darkness rather than Fu City, leaving them trapped in the Game.

• Li Xijiu lured the tall wraith away while Qin Manjiang tried to reach the first floor, but a charred child ghost blocked the stairs and forced him back.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu reunited while fleeing both ghosts, and Qin Manjiang asked about the movie theater where Li Xijiu had been.
• The tall wraith attacked Li Xijiu, but Qin Manjiang tore its clothes, making it abandon its machete and search for the scraps as they escaped downstairs.
• Qin Manjiang deduced that the ghosts were a father and son who had worn matching outfits, and Li Xijiu questioned why only the child appeared burned.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu tried to leave through the cinema entrance but found only a vast darkness beyond it, then Qin Manjiang turned back while Li Xijiu called after him with his back thrown out.

Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu used the cinema’s old floor plans and work log to discover that Screening Room Three had been retired after the fire, then fled into the forbidden theater to escape the Tall Wraith. The Tall Wraith could not enter, but the audience inside turned their heads toward them.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu pieced together five floor-plan fragments while hiding beneath the ticket counter, and Li Xijiu found a work log.
• Li Xijiu sensed danger and pulled Qin Manjiang away just before the Tall Wraith split the counter with its cleaver.
• Qin Manjiang read the work log and realized that the fire had begun in the now-retired Screening Room Three, which did not exist in the cinema’s current layout.
• Li Xijiu distracted the Tall Wraith while Qin Manjiang solved the clue, then they ran toward Screening Room Three.
• The Tall Wraith struck Li Xijiu’s forearm with its cleaver as they reached the room, but Qin Manjiang dragged him inside before the ghost could seize them.
• The Tall Wraith turned away from the doorway, but Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu saw the audience members turn their heads completely around to stare at them.

Qin Manjiang and the wounded Li Xijiu hid among the ghosts in the Screening Room, where a movie revealed the tragic story of a father and son who died in the cinema fire ten years earlier. The audience vanished after the film ended, leaving Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu alone as the danger outside remained unresolved.

• Qin Manjiang led Li Xijiu to empty seats and deduced that the ghosts would leave them alone if they stayed quiet and watched the screen.
• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu took their seats, and the static on the screen changed into a film showing a father bringing his son from their mountain village to Fu City.
• The film showed the father and son entering the cinema, where the boy became trapped in a restroom stall when a fire broke out.
• The father failed to reach his son, escaped the burning building with a firefighter's help, and later died by suicide, while the boy and other audience members perished in the fire.
• The film ended and the ghostly audience disappeared, leaving Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu alone in the Screening Room.

Qin Manjiang carried the wounded Li Xijiu through the burning cinema while the Tall Wraith pursued them. After realizing the cinema’s window was the way out, Qin Manjiang tried to lead Li Xijiu there, but Li revealed that he could not return.

• Qin Manjiang and Li Xijiu fled the fire, but collapsing rubble blocked their route and the Tall Wraith pursued them.
• The Tall Wraith stabbed itself, causing Li Xijiu to suffer the same wound, and Li warned Qin Manjiang not to meet its eyes.
• Qin Manjiang carried Li Xijiu past the Little Ghost and recognized it as the dead child who had followed him from the real world.
• Qin Manjiang recalled the story’s clues and realized that the window beside the last restroom stall was the way out of the cinema.
• Li Xijiu faced the Tall Wraith as Qin Manjiang tried to pull him toward the exit, then said that he could not go back.

Qin Manjiang realized that Li Xijiu had died and had been guiding him through the Ghost Story Game while fighting to protect him. As the theater collapsed, Li Xijiu threw Qin Manjiang to safety, and Qin Manjiang understood that Li Xijiu’s consciousness had vanished in the flames.

• Qin Manjiang recognized that the message from Li Xijiu had come after Li Xijiu’s death and that the ghost had repeatedly saved him despite being drawn toward killing him.
• Li Xijiu fought the Tall Wraith while Little Ghost tried to lead Qin Manjiang to safety, and Qin Manjiang urged Li Xijiu to return to the real world.
• The Tall Wraith’s blade and body sank into Li Xijiu as the two ghosts fused, and Li Xijiu also swallowed Little Ghost.
• Li Xijiu carried Qin Manjiang through the collapsing theater and told him that there was no separate Ghost Story World and that Little Ghost existed because of the game.
• Li Xijiu called himself Qin Manjiang’s dead end, said he was happy, and threw Qin Manjiang out of the window to keep him alive.
• The theater exploded, and Qin Manjiang realized that Li Xijiu’s consciousness had disappeared completely.

After surviving the Threshold Cinema fire, Qin Manjiang unlocked multiplayer and other modes in the Strange Tales game and learned that Li Xijiu was not among the recovered victims. As he left the police station, he learned that his sister Qin Manyi had woken up—and killed someone.

• Qin Manjiang woke among the ruins of the Threshold Cinema, found the Strange Tales game icon on his phone, and unlocked multiplayer, challenge, and exploration modes, along with a player leaderboard.
• Qin Manjiang went to the police station to ask whether Li Xijiu was among the victims, and an officer confirmed that the victims’ DNA did not match Li Xijiu’s.
• Qin Manjiang filed a missing-person report for Li Xijiu and held onto the possibility that his friend had survived.
• The class monitor called Qin Manjiang and told him that Qin Manyi had woken up in the hospital.
• The class monitor warned Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi had killed someone.

At Giantwood Hospital, Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about his sister Qin Manyi, who had been unconscious but was accused of murdering a villager. Qin Manyi had confessed despite having an apparent hospital alibi, and when Qin Manjiang finally saw her, she did not recognize him.

• Xi Wutong questioned Qin Manjiang about Qin Manyi’s illness, their father’s death, and their family circumstances.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Qin Manyi was suspected of murdering a villager from their hometown, though she had been hospitalized and unconscious.
• Qin Manjiang insisted Qin Manyi could not have committed the murder, but Xi Wutong said eyewitnesses identified her and she had confessed.
• Qin Manjiang thanked the class monitor for offering to testify and told her he planned to withdraw from school because he could not return to a normal life.
• Qin Manjiang entered the intensive care ward and found Qin Manyi chatting with a police officer; she looked at him and asked who he was.

Qin Manjiang rejected Qin Manyi as his sister and said he would try to retrieve her lost memories while investigating the murder in Hometown and his father's death. After Xi Wutong recognized the Ghost Story Game icon on his phone, they met that night, where Qin Manjiang asked whether she believed in ghosts.

• Qin Manjiang told Xi Wutong that the girl in the Special Care Ward was not his sister because she looked at him with unfamiliarity.
• Qin Manjiang described people as cameras defined by their memories and said he intended to retrieve Qin Manyi's lost memories.
• Xi Wutong said Qin Manyi would not be prosecuted for the murder while the case was secretly reopened, and she guessed Qin Manjiang planned to investigate the murder and his father's death.
• Xi Wutong saw the Ghost Story Game icon on Qin Manjiang's phone, reacted with alarm, and arranged to meet him that night.
• Xi Wutong contacted someone to investigate Qin Manjiang, then met him at eight that evening.
• Qin Manjiang asked Xi Wutong whether she believed in ghosts.

Qin Manjiang learned that the Ghost Story Game punished players who tried to reveal its existence, then heard Xi Wutong disclose that Lower River Village had suffered a river-drowning death by suicide each year for twenty years. Xi Wutong left Qin Manyi’s involvement in the latest death unexplained, despite a witness placing her at the river.

• Qin Manjiang questioned Xi Wutong about the Ghost Story Game icon, but she offered to tell him important information about himself instead.
• When Qin Manjiang considered explaining the game, he suffered intense head pain and saw a warning that players must not disclose the game or they would be eliminated.
• Qin Manjiang refused to explain the icon, but suggested Xi Wutong could work out its meaning herself.
• Qin Manjiang revealed that he knew Old Qin had adopted him, and Xi Wutong confirmed that they were not blood relatives.
• Xi Wutong told Qin Manjiang that Lower River Village had recorded one homicide a year for twenty years, with the victims—including his adoptive parents—walking into the river and drowning themselves.
• Xi Wutong said Qin Manyi would not be prosecuted for the latest death, though a witness had seen her by the river when the victim drowned.

Qin Manjiang resolved to settle his life through the Ghost Story Game and agreed to accompany Qin Manyi to a psychiatric hospital. The game then summoned players for two stories and unexpectedly activated a third mode, leaving Yang as its sole exploring player.

• Qin Manjiang learned that Lower River Village had become a Ghost Story destination known for its yearly suicides, and he agreed to contact Xi Wutong if he investigated there.
• Qin Manjiang decided he could not return to normal life and would keep playing the game, while holding on to memories of Old Qin, his adoptive mother, and Li Xijiu.
• 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 a statement.
• Qin Manjiang tapped the Ghost Story Game icon as it began, and the game summoned him and five other players for the multiplayer story Sick Sheep.
• The game activated Challenge Mode for Close Your Eyes, then unexpectedly opened Exploration Mode and named Yang as its exploring player.

Qin Manjiang received the rules and opening lines for the Sick Sheep Ghost Story, which would send him to Xianyang Village in seven days alongside several other players. Before Qin Manyi left for a psychiatric hospital, she secretly warned him not to trust the other players and told him to find her on September third.

• Qin Manjiang read the Sick Sheep Ghost Story’s opening lines and learned that arriving late, leaving early, or dying would count as game failure.
• Qin Manjiang searched online for Xianyang Village and considered the other players assigned to the game, including the Ten Seats player So Annoying.
• Qin Manjiang visited Giantwood Hospital to see Qin Manyi before she was transferred to Sleep Mountain Psychiatric Hospital.
• Qin Manyi initially rejected Qin Manjiang’s company, then pulled him aside and warned him not to trust the other players.
• Qin Manyi told Qin Manjiang to visit her at the psychiatric hospital on September third, the anniversary of their father’s death.

Chen Ping sneaked into Xianyang Village’s Immortal Sheep Ancestral Hall and witnessed the villagers transform Li Rong into the Sheep Immortal through a horrific ritual. The next morning, Qin Manjiang arrived in Maishan County for the game and met a man who introduced himself as Boss Shi.

• Chen Ping followed the village chief’s son through a hidden hole into the ancestral hall and discovered the villagers preparing Li Rong for the Sheep Transformation Festival.
• The village chief covered Li Rong’s body in strange symbols, drove black sheep horns into her temples, and fused a sheepskin with her flesh as the villagers welcomed her as the Sheep Immortal.
• Chen Ping made a noise while trying to escape, causing the village chief’s brush to fall; the villagers restored it and went searching for the intruder.
• After the villagers left, Li Rong opened her eyes in the empty ancestral hall, though the village believed she should not have awakened.
• On August 20, Qin Manjiang waited in Maishan County for the bus to Xianyang Village, and a middle-aged man in an SUV 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, they agreed to leave without the tenth-ranked player and trust that they could catch up.

• Shi Lianshan offered Qin Manjiang a ride and warned him that remote villages could have strange customs, drawing on his experience dealing antiques.
• Liu Jingqing arrived in her car, introduced herself as Pond Fish, and accepted Shi Lianshan’s offer to ride in his SUV.
• He Jian, also known as Knife-and-Brush Clerk, and Chen Ping, known as Green Vine, arrived with supplies and urged the group to cooperate and share information.
• The players realized So Annoying had not arrived and had never met the tenth-ranked player before.
• Qin Manjiang suggested they head to Xianyang Village without waiting, and the others agreed.