Chapter Summaries

Qin Manjiang entered the fog around Butterfly Island, convinced that the ghost story unfolded there rather than in the town. After finding a mound among the flowers, he was attacked by a monster with a human head and a pig’s body, leaving him questioning what kind of ghost it was.

• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the town was likely a ghost’s dream and that the former players had been misled into searching there.
• Qin Manjiang followed a blurry figure deeper into the fog, where a sea of flowers covered the ground.
• Qin Manjiang concluded that the fog, not the town, held the true clues to surviving the ghost story.
• Qin Manjiang found a raised mound of earth among the flowers and crouched to dig it open.
• A monster with a human head and a pig’s body lunged at Qin Manjiang, who barely dodged its bite and wondered whether it was the ghost that had eaten Chen Yu.

Wang Million drank all the pork rib soup to keep Liang Yue from drinking it, then vomited live cockroaches as they escaped the inn. Liang Yue discovered a pork inspection stamp on the landlady, and the chapter left them surrounded by townspeople bearing similar bluish marks.

• Wang Million drank the entire basin of pork rib soup, causing the landlady to vanish and the kitchen door to open.
• Wang Million vomited soup and live cockroaches, while Liang Yue overcame her terror and helped him leave the inn.
• The landlady reappeared at the foot of the stairs and calmly watched as Wang Million and Liang Yue escaped through swarms of cockroaches.
• Wang Million passed out outside the inn, and Liang Yue carried him to the town's main street.
• Liang Yue told Wang Million that the landlady had a pork inspection stamp and was not a ghost that had once been human.
• The townspeople fell silent and stared at Liang Yue, who noticed bluish marks on every person's exposed skin.

Liang Yue and Wang Million were overwhelmed and devoured by the town’s pig-human monsters, while Swimming Fish fled into the fog as the town transformed into a pigpen. Qin Manjiang uncovered a newspaper report about a girl killed at a pig farm, but the discovery deepened his confusion about whose dream they were in.

• The town’s residents transformed into pig-human monsters and attacked Liang Yue and Wang Million, who were killed and eaten.
• Swimming Fish witnessed their deaths, fled into the fog, and saw the town’s streets and buildings decay into a pigpen.
• The pig-human monsters caught the scent of a scream and charged into the fog as Swimming Fish ran.
• Qin Manjiang ignored the scream, dug into a mound, and found a newspaper-wrapped parcel containing a report about a girl devoured by pigs at White Dew Bay pig farm.
• Qin Manjiang read the report and wondered whose dream the ghost story depicted.

Qin Manjiang deduced that the town was part of a dream and exposed Chen Yu as the ghost’s eyes, disguised as Swimming Fish. Chen Yu threatened him, but a tall figure emerged from the fog with a scalpel at her neck.

• Swimming Fish warned Qin Manjiang that the locals had become Pig People and were hunting them, then hurried deeper into the fog with him.
• Qin Manjiang connected the newspaper report about the pig farm accident to the ghost story and questioned whether a child’s soul could resist the ghost’s malice.
• Qin Manjiang reasoned that the fog was devouring the dream’s main body as its owner woke, and noticed that Swimming Fish’s hair and clothes were not damp.
• Qin Manjiang accused Swimming Fish of being Attorney Chen Yu, the ghost’s eyes, and explained how she had faked her death after seeing the ghost in a windowpane.
• Chen Yu revealed herself and challenged Qin Manjiang, but a tall figure stepped out of the fog and held a scalpel to her neck.

Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao concluded that the town was part of a dream and that Chen Yu had become the Vengeful Ghost’s viewpoint inside it. They decided to use the mist to lure her out, with Yan Xiao tracking Qin Manjiang if he ventured into it.

• Yan Xiao told Qin Manjiang that Chen Yu was alive and explained how her missing heart revealed that the corpse was a decoy.
• Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao compared their suspicions that the Ghost Story Game was a dream, citing forgotten details and illogical events.
• They reasoned that the dream’s ghost could not see its own face and had chosen Chen Yu to observe the players, but that she had fled because staying near them was dangerous.
• Qin Manjiang decided to enter the mist alone the next day, and Yan Xiao gave him a severed finger that could help track his location.

Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao hid with the captured Chen Yu as half-human, half-pig monsters pursued Swimming Fish through the fog. After Swimming Fish diverted away instead of exposing them, Qin Manjiang joined her and used Yan Xiao’s scalpel to stab them both, hoping to wake them from the nightmare; the monsters closed in around them.

• Yan Xiao and Qin Manjiang concealed themselves with Chen Yu in a hollow as the monsters approached, and Yan Xiao bound and gagged her.
• Swimming Fish fled from the monsters, spotted Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao, and changed direction without revealing their hiding place.
• Qin Manjiang realized Swimming Fish had seen them and asked Yan Xiao for his scalpel; Yan Xiao lent it to him and promised to hold off the monsters for thirty minutes.
• Qin Manjiang ran to Swimming Fish, learned her name was Yu Ruoli, and stabbed himself in the heart with the scalpel.
• Qin Manjiang plunged the scalpel into Yu Ruoli’s heart as the monsters roared and surged toward them.

Yan Xiao confronted Chen Yu after she revealed that she wanted to remain forever in the ghost’s dream. He rejected her plan to murder others and turned against her as he spoke about the value of life and his hatred of anything that took it away.

• Yan Xiao and Chen Yu stopped in the fog, and Chen Yu argued that they knew too little to clear the ghost story within thirty minutes.
• Chen Yu recalled how Yan Xiao had saved her during their first multiplayer ghost story and told her that her life belonged to him.
• Chen Yu explained that the boatman was a ghost and that the group had entered the island through a dream, where she had become the ghost’s eyes.
• Chen Yu urged Yan Xiao to stay with her in the dream forever, claiming that following the ghost’s taboos would let them live happily and escape the Ghost Story Game.
• Yan Xiao invoked the Opening Lines, rejected remaining frozen in the ghost’s world, and warned Chen Yu against murdering others.
• Yan Xiao spoke of his experience of death and told Chen Yu that he now loathed her.

Yan Xiao forced Chen Yu to look at her reflection on his phone, exposing the monster possessing her and restraining it. As the fog and blood-red flowers turned hostile and the humanoid monsters fled, Qin Manjiang realized Yan Xiao had likely succeeded.

• Yan Xiao questioned Chen Yu and deduced that seeing one’s reflection had caused the ghost to choose her as its eyes.
• Yan Xiao forced Chen Yu to face his phone’s front camera, and she transformed into a monster that could not act while its face appeared on the screen.
• Blood-red flowers grew teeth and attacked Yan Xiao, who crushed them before carrying the restrained monster away.
• Qin Manjiang endured being repeatedly torn apart and healed, finding the pain surprisingly manageable, and shielded Yu Ruoli from the monsters.
• The fog churned, the blood-red flowers screamed, and the humanoid monsters fled as Qin Manjiang concluded that Yan Xiao had pulled it off.

Qin Manjiang realized the group had never reached Butterfly Island and were trapped in White Dew Bay, as a gigantic pig-like monster attacked them. With Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu swallowed and the others under attack, the revelation left their escape uncertain.

• Yan Xiao explained how the Vengeful Ghost had exposed itself, and Qin Manjiang grew uneasy while the mist began to clear.
• The Vengeful Ghost escaped its grasp, and a huge human-pig monster emerged from the mist, spitting out the mangled corpses of Liang Yue and Wang Million.
• Yan Xiao used the Cursed Scalpel on himself and Chen Yu, then the group fled as the monster attacked.
• The monster seized Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu and swallowed them, while Qin Manjiang and Yan Xiao struggled to evade its attacks.
• Qin Manjiang saw the newspaper about White Dew Bay and realized the boatman had brought them there instead of to Butterfly Island.

Qin Manjiang realized the group had not reached Butterfly Island and was swallowed by the Vengeful Ghost, but Chen Yu’s sacrifice caused the ghost to collapse and the fog over White Dew Bay to lift. Qin Manjiang, Yan Xiao, and Yu Ruoli used the Single Pure Bell to escape as the Butterfly Island game was cleared, while Chen Yu disappeared into the fog.

• Qin Manjiang realized the group was still at White Dew Bay and was crushed and swallowed by the giant Vengeful Ghost.
• Qin Manjiang awoke inside the ghost with Yu Ruoli and Chen Yu, and Chen Yu admitted she had lost the will to live.
• Chen Yu gave Qin Manjiang the Single Pure Bell, then saw Yan Xiao’s message and used her phone camera, becoming the Vengeful Ghost’s substitute.
• The Vengeful Ghost collapsed and the fog cleared, revealing the real Butterfly Island nearby, while Chen Yu vanished.
• Yan Xiao pulled Qin Manjiang and Yu Ruoli free, and the three used the Single Pure Bell to teleport away as the ghost story was cleared.

After clearing Butterfly Island, Yezi and the other players prepared for the second night of My Aging Self, where they had to care for an obese woman in turns. March went into the woman’s apartment first, leaving the rest waiting outside.

• Qin Manjiang watched the fog at White Dew Bay as the cleared Butterfly Island game awarded Spirit Pupil points, including twenty unallocated points belonging to the person in the fog.
• Yezi reviewed the rules and opening lines of My Aging Self, while the six players worried that the woman’s curse might make them age.
• The players searched Twilight Apartment during the day but found no signs of anything abnormal beyond the abandoned building and broken lights.
• The group reversed the previous night’s caregiving order, making March the first to visit the woman and Shen Hai the last.
• March took her Congealed Jade Gourd, knocked on the woman’s door, and entered after a frightening voice urged her to come in.

March faced the woman in the bedroom when she demanded that March trim her black nails, then asked March to change her hands after March found human skins in the bedside cabinet. The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms and dragged her into the mosquito net, while the other five people waited outside.

• March entered the bedroom to care for the woman and was ordered to trim her nails.
• March realized she had no nail clippers and asked the woman where to find some.
• The woman directed March to the bedside cabinet, where March found folded human skins and screamed.
• The woman tore the skin from her own hands and demanded that March help change them.
• The woman stripped the skin from March’s arms, seized her by the neck, and dragged her into the mosquito net.

After March failed to emerge from the bedroom, Deep Valley Dusk entered to fulfill the ghost’s request while the others tried to understand what had killed her. Shen Hai advised them to satisfy the ghost’s wishes, and Deep Valley Dusk agreed to carry the terrifying figure to the bathroom as its shadow rose behind him.

• March did not come out of the apartment, and Deep Valley Dusk entered the bedroom when the next turn began.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March’s head beside the bed before a pale arm retrieved it from inside the mosquito net.
• Xiaotian and Yezi suspected March had died after triggering an instant-death curse by failing to fulfill the ghost’s request.
• Shen Hai told Soup Dumpling to give the ghost what it wanted, even if that meant harming himself.
• The ghost asked Deep Valley Dusk to carry it to the bathroom, and he agreed as its enormous shadow grew behind him.

Qin Manjiang returned home and reflected on his body’s strange lack of control while Mi Qiao prepared him food. At Twilight Apartment, Deep Valley Dusk encountered a trapped young woman inside the bloated figure and fled after the apparition drove him from the bedroom.

• Qin Manjiang came home late and found Mi Qiao asleep on the sofa because the bedroom door had locked with its key inside.
• Qin Manjiang recalled feeling free when the monster tore his body apart and wondered what he was, then learned Mi Qiao had entered his bedroom while he was away.
• Mi Qiao served Qin Manjiang egg noodles, and he told her he would clean his own room and asked how long she planned to stay in Fu City.
• Deep Valley Dusk carried the bloated woman toward the bathroom and heard a frightened young woman pleading for help from inside her body.
• Deep Valley Dusk saw March and an unfamiliar, tearful woman emerge from the bloated figure in the mirror before its largest head confronted him.
• Deep Valley Dusk fled the bedroom and emerged at the apartment door before Yezi and the others, drenched in sweat.

Deep Valley Dusk escaped the apartment but rapidly aged after carrying the creature, and Shen Hai confirmed that he had died. The others were left facing their own turn inside the apartment, with no clear way to survive.

• Deep Valley Dusk told Shen Hai, Soup Dumpling, and Xiaotian that the creature had ordered him to carry it to the bathroom.
• Deep Valley Dusk suddenly lost his hair and rapidly aged, and Shen Hai showed him his appearance on a phone camera.
• Deep Valley Dusk described seeing March and another woman inside the creature, with the woman calling for help.
• Deep Valley Dusk asked Shen Hai how to stop aging, then died as Shen Hai urged him to rest.
• Shen Hai checked his pocket watch, confirmed Deep Valley Dusk's death, and warned the others that their own deaths might be worse.

After Deep Valley Dusk died of old age, Shen Hai reasoned that the curse came from ignoring a young woman trapped inside the Vengeful Ghost, while disobeying the ghost caused victims to be eaten and breaking the game’s rules led to erasure. When the third round began, Soup Dumpling entered the apartment determined to obey the ghost and listen for the woman’s voice.

• Soup Dumpling asked whether players should obey the Vengeful Ghost or stay for the full hour after Deep Valley Dusk died of old age.
• Yezi suggested Deep Valley Dusk had suffered a curse, unlike March, who had been eaten by the Vengeful Ghost.
• Shen Hai explained that defying the ghost led to being eaten, breaking the game’s rules led to erasure, and ignoring the young woman inside the ghost caused the aging curse.
• Soup Dumpling guessed that the young woman might be the source of the curse and resolved to obey the ghost, listen for her voice, and stay calm.
• When Shen Hai announced the third round, the voice inside the apartment called for someone to come in, and Soup Dumpling entered as the third player.

Soup Dumpling entered the bathroom to carry out the ghost and discovered that it had killed March and was putting on her skin. After helping the ghost dress, he was ordered to carry it out, still terrified and trapped in the apartment.

• Soup Dumpling opened the bathroom door after the ghost stopped responding and found it hiding in the bathtub.
• He saw human skins covering the floor and recognized March’s face among them.
• The mangled Vengeful Ghost handed Soup Dumpling March’s skin and made him help put it on.
• After ten minutes, the ghost finished dressing and ordered Soup Dumpling to carry it out.

Soup Dumpling carried the Vengeful Ghost while resisting its attempt to frighten him, then heard Anran plead for help from inside its body. He decided to risk pulling her out as the chapter ended.

• Soup Dumpling left the bathroom carrying the Vengeful Ghost and resisted the terrifying shadow it cast under the red light.
• He recognized the shadow as a trap and continued into the bedroom, where the change in lighting returned it to normal.
• Anran appeared within the Vengeful Ghost and pleaded with Soup Dumpling to pull her out before she was locked inside again.
• Soup Dumpling recalled Shen Hai's theory that the ghost's outer flesh was only a shell and asked Anran how to help.
• Anran said she could not climb out on her own but could escape if someone pulled from outside, and Soup Dumpling chose to take the risk.

Soup Dumpling risked entering the apartment to pull Anran from the Vengeful Ghost, but he could not free her before it woke. After he told the others what he learned, Shen Hai asked to enter before Xiaotian so he could try a reckless idea.

• Soup Dumpling turned toward the Vengeful Ghost and found Anran trapped beside the head wearing March's skin.
• Anran told Soup Dumpling that an old person's skin had wrapped around her after she came to Twilight Apartment for community service.
• Soup Dumpling and Anran tried to pull her free, but the flesh held her fast, so he promised to tell the others and seek help.
• Anran warned Soup Dumpling to lower the mosquito net and avoid looking at the ghost, and he obeyed when it woke three minutes later.
• Soup Dumpling emerged and told Xiaotian, Yezi, and Shen Hai about Anran and the old person's skin.
• As the ghost called Xiaotian inside, Shen Hai stopped him and asked to go first to try a reckless idea.

Soup Dumpling died of accelerated aging after Shen Hai refused to help him, and Xiaotian entered the apartment to confront the Vengeful Ghost. Xiaotian suspected Anran was the living core of the supernatural tale, and he heard her pleading for help from inside the mosquito net.

• Soup Dumpling collapsed and rapidly aged to death while Xiaotian and Yezi watched, and Shen Hai showed him that his pocket watch was ordinary.
• Shen Hai urged Xiaotian to enter the apartment, and Xiaotian agreed to take his turn.
• Xiaotian reasoned that Anran was still human and might be the core of the supernatural tale, and suspected Shen Hai intended to kill her and claim the Spirit Pupils.
• Xiaotian entered the apartment and began massaging the obese Vengeful Ghost's leg when it demanded him to.
• After nearly twenty minutes, Xiaotian heard Anran faintly plead for someone to save her from inside the mosquito net.