Chapter Summaries

Qi Gu’s group reached Wish Temple, where its seductive atmosphere bewitched several guests and revealed the temple’s blood-red threads. Qi Gu knocked out the affected men and faced the temple’s power as the livestream went dark.

• Song An found Sha Chuan’s bloodied body at the foot of Qingji Mountain, called the police, and checked the livestream to see Qi Gu eating safely.
• Song An noticed an Internet Water Army account spreading claims that Qi Gu’s ghosts were his allies, while Wei Cai’s hired company continued posting attacks manually.
• At Wish Temple, Pubu Gesang revealed a golden Vajra and offered to sever the temple’s blood-vessel-like threads, and Qi Gu led the group inside.
• The temple’s fragrant air bewitched Mu Xingchen, Lao Li, and Lin Hanzhi, so Qi Gu knocked them unconscious before confronting the Golden Image.
• Golden Toad challenged the temple’s ghost, and the fallen phone left viewers listening to the dark livestream as a faint breathing sound continued.

Qi Gu and his companions destroyed the Wish Ghost that formed the golden Buddha, but Qi Gu realized the Golden Hall itself had not vanished. The exhausted group faced the revelation that the hall might also be part of the Wish Ghost.

• Lin Hanzhi secretly propped up his phone to film Qi Gu confronting the golden Buddha, which offered to grant wishes.
• Qi Gu rejected the golden Buddha's offer, and Pubu Gesang's wish to make his boss act human failed.
• Qi Gu, Pubu Gesang, Stone Ghost, and Earless Ghost attacked the golden Buddha and exposed its body as countless merged Wish Ghosts.
• While the others held off its blood vessels, Qi Gu completed a cinnabar array that stopped the Wish Ghost's attacks and made it explode.
• After the fight, Qi Gu pointed out that the Golden Hall remained, suggesting it was part of the Wish Ghost itself.

Qi Gu and the others destroyed the Wish Ghosts and their source, Azure Bone, then secured a peaceful next life for Stone Ghost and Earless Ghost. The chapter ended with the two reborn as a cat and a dog, living together until they died and were buried side by side.

• Qi Gu revealed that his array had stunned the Wish Ghosts, and Pubu Gesang, Wine Ghost, and the others finished them off while Qi Gu rested.
• Lin Hanzhi secretly struck Azure Bone, causing the Wish Temple and the remaining Wish Ghosts to vanish.
• Qi Gu summoned a ghost official, who recorded their merit, took Wine Ghost into custody, and agreed to let Stone Ghost and Earless Ghost reincarnate together as animals.
• Stone Ghost and Earless Ghost were reborn as Shitou, a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog, and Yuanyuan, a silver-shaded cat, in a loving household.
• Yuanyuan and Shitou lived together until they died one day apart, and their owners buried their ashes together in the courtyard.

Wei Cai’s attempt to damage Qi Gu’s reputation backfired as Qi Gu’s name filled the trending list, prompting Wei Cai to suspect Vivian was supporting him and plan to have paparazzi follow them. Meanwhile, Qi Gu returned to Floating Mist Mountain and accepted lunch with Vivian and Han Yunshu, naming their new restaurant Between Water and Clouds and receiving a Han Family dining card.

• Wei Cai’s hired troll pushed a negative hashtag about Qi Gu into the trending list, but online arguments and grateful Qingji District residents helped make Qi Gu’s other topics dominate the top spots.
• Wei Cai woke to find nine of the top ten trending topics praising Qi Gu and decided Vivian must be supporting him, so he planned to have paparazzi photograph them together.
• Qi Gu returned to Floating Mist Mountain, slept until morning, and accepted Vivian and Han Yunshu’s invitation to lunch.
• A paparazzo followed Qi Gu to the Han Family’s new restaurant but could not enter the private room, so he ordered the cheapest set meal while waiting for Qi Gu to leave.
• Vivian and Han Yunshu welcomed Qi Gu and told him about Vivian’s pregnancy with Green Ghost’s child.
• Qi Gu named the restaurant Between Water and Clouds, and Han Yunshu gave him a card for free dining at the Han Family’s restaurants.

After Qi Gu was summoned to discuss important matters with Pubu Gesang, Wei Cai used a paparazzo’s photo of Qi Gu and Vivian to try to turn Han Yunshu against them. Han Yunshu instead beat Wei Cai for insulting Vivian and their family’s benefactor, and Wei Cai stood before the gathered guests clutching the photo.

• Qi Gu agreed to meet Pubu Gesang after receiving his message about important matters.
• Wei Cai received a photo of Qi Gu and Vivian, mistook Vivian’s belly for a pregnancy, and decided to use it to win Han Yunshu’s favor.
• Wei Cai obtained an invitation to the An Tea Banquet, rented a luxury watch, and approached Han Yunshu with the photo.
• Han Yunshu stopped to hear Wei Cai when he mentioned Vivian, then punched him after Wei Cai accused her of infidelity and insulted her.
• Mr. Qian and the reception guests gathered, and Han Yunshu explained that Wei Cai had insulted his wife and their family’s benefactor.
• Wei Cai stood up, clutched the photo, and prepared to show it to the crowd.

Wei Cai was exposed at Mr. Qian’s reception, thrown out, and left facing a ruined watch and Mr. He’s anger, but he resolved to target Qi Gu’s career. Inside, Han Yunshu revealed Qi Gu’s supernatural ability to the executives, leaving a grieving businessman desperate to seek his help finding his son’s remains.

• Han Yunshu showed the guests that the man in the photograph was himself, clearing up the accusation against Vivian and Qi Gu.
• Mr. Qian ordered security to eject Wei Cai, compensate him for medical expenses, and blacklist him from future receptions.
• Wei Cai damaged his expensive watch in a fall, learned Mr. He had blocked him, and decided to report Qi Gu to the Radio and Television Bureau.
• Han Yunshu told the executives that Qi Gu had identified Vivian’s unborn child as their deceased son, Xiao Song, returned to them.
• An elderly businessman who had lost his son begged Han Yunshu for Qi Gu’s contact information so he could find his son’s remains.

Mu Xingchen returned home and reconciled with his parents, while Qi Gu’s protective sachet saved Mu Xiaoxiang from a truck crash. Qi Gu and Golden Toad arrived at the Anomalous Events Management Bureau’s Z Province Branch, where Pubu Gesang waited with the branch director.

• Mu Xingchen visited his parents after three years away, and Mu Xiaoxiang accepted his decision to stay on the variety show and prepared gifts for Qi Gu and Floating Mist Temple.
• Mu Xingchen gave his parents the protective sachets Qi Gu had supplied, and one sachet stopped an overloaded truck from hitting Mu Xiaoxiang’s car.
• Mu Xiaoxiang returned to the bureau after the near-crash, while Yang Liuxin and Mu Xingchen decided to add more gifts for Qi Gu.
• Qi Gu and Golden Toad reached the outskirts, and Qi Gu messaged Pubu Gesang to reveal the concealed Z Province Branch building.
• Pubu Gesang greeted Qi Gu from behind a lounge sofa, leaving Qi Gu and Golden Toad unable to see him.

Sang Ma recruited Qi Gu into the Anomalous Events Management Bureau’s Z Province branch, where he agreed to join while keeping his filming contract. After completing onboarding and handing over the Purple-Gold Gourd for research, Qi Gu left with Pubu Gesang and Golden Toad, who asked for Mu Xingchen’s phone number.

• Sang Ma rescued Pubu Gesang from an awkward conversation with Golden Toad, who paid him four thousand to make peace.
• Sang Ma offered Qi Gu a bureau job, and Qi Gu accepted on the condition that assignments would not be too frequent or too trivial.
• Auntie Zhao remembered Sang Ma’s late daughter and regretted that Sang Ma no longer came by for mango sago.
• Qi Gu, Pubu Gesang, and Golden Toad finished the desserts, completed his onboarding, and collected his equipment; Qi Gu agreed to let the Research Department study his Purple-Gold Gourd.
• Pubu Gesang took the gourd back to the bureau and asked Qi Gu for Mu Xingchen’s number so he could claim the promised jars of lollipops.

Floating Mist Temple’s opening drew an overwhelming crowd, and its sachets sold out within an hour as Golden Toad advised visitors on their fortunes. After Qi Gu urged visitors to pray in the temple halls, worshippers reported dreams at Shifu’s small shrine that seemed to connect them with deceased loved ones.

• Huang Hongyuan opened Floating Mist Temple’s gates to a huge crowd, and visitors rushed to buy sachets, with each person limited to one.
• Golden Toad told Guan Aiai she would receive a ten-thousand-yuan windfall and gave her friend no windfall fortune.
• Qi Gu woke to learn that all two thousand sachets had sold out and that the temple had run short of incense and supplies.
• Qi Gu announced that the temple would offer free ticket reservations in the future and encouraged visitors without sachets to pray in the halls.
• A young man reported dreaming of his late grandfather after praying at Shifu’s small shrine, and a woman said her deceased cat had visited her in a dream and revealed that her dog had scattered the cat food.

Qi Gu explained that the figure in Floating Mist Temple’s shrine was his master, then learned that Fang Heng’s family tragedy might be connected to a sinister force in Huai Shui Village. He demonstrated a talisman that copied the Purple-Gold Gourd’s abilities and left Mu Xingchen facing a formidable stack of study books.

• Qi Gu told online commenters that the shrine’s figure was his master, while they speculated that his master might be more than an ordinary old man.
• Han Yunshu brought Fang Heng to Floating Mist Temple, where Qi Gu divined that Fang Heng had once lived in Huai Shui Village but could not probe the village further.
• Pubu Gesang noted that Huai Shui Village was the destination for the next episode of Investigating the Strange, and Qi Gu suggested that Fang Heng’s wife and son might not have died by coincidence.
• Qi Gu told Fang Heng that his son might still be alive, and Fang Heng left the temple energized and hopeful.
• Qi Gu offered to make a consumable talisman that copied the Purple-Gold Gourd’s abilities, then showed Pubu Gesang and Mu Xingchen how it worked.
• Qi Gu gave Mu Xingchen twenty thick books to study and told him to memorize the Qingjing Jing by the next morning.

After Floating Mist Temple’s opening day, Qi Gu treated the staff to dinner while Mu Xingchen stayed behind to study. Qi Gu learned that Lin Hanzhi was enduring a mysterious ordeal by a river and read an angler’s plea for help with a ghost that kept following him.

• Qi Gu and Huang Hongyuan finished the temple accounts, and Qi Gu treated the employees and Mu Xingchen to dinner.
• Pubu Gesang returned to the General Bureau with fifty Gourd Talismans, while Mu Xingchen stayed behind to memorize the Qingjing Jing.
• Lin Hanzhi congratulated Qi Gu on the temple opening and said he was sick but had to keep working; beside a river, he repeatedly plunged into the water and crawled back out in pain.
• Qi Gu read a post from Angler Never Gets Skunked, who admitted that he and his two fishing buddies had kept fishing after seeing a ghost because they did not want to lose their bet.
• Angler Never Gets Skunked said the ghost had latched onto him and floated closer each time he went fishing.

Qi Gu agreed to help three anglers haunted by a ghost and took Mu Xingchen to investigate, while Lin Hanzhi recovered in the hospital after a dangerous mission. Miao Yue confronted Lin Hanzhi about the riverbed threat and suspected he had feelings for Qi Gu.

• Qi Gu agreed to visit the anglers and asked them to donate a year's worth of charity lunches for children in the mountains after the haunting was resolved.
• Mu Xingchen recited the Qingjing Jing to Qi Gu, then joined him on a livestreamed trip to investigate the ghost.
• Qi Gu told viewers that the ghost was unlikely to be a vengeful spirit and explained how careless words could draw a ghost's attention.
• Lin Hanzhi sent Qi Gu a hospital photo after passing out, and Qi Gu asked whether he should change jobs once he recovered.
• Miao Yue scolded Lin Hanzhi for repeatedly risking his life to suppress something on a riverbed, but he refused to explain because it was a Bureau secret.
• Miao Yue guessed that Lin Hanzhi's messages were to Qi Gu and teased him about his apparent interest, but Lin Hanzhi denied there was anything between them.

Qi Gu investigated the ghost haunting the reservoir and discovered she was a newly dead woman who had been trying to scare three anglers for days. The anglers learned that their persistence at fishing had frustrated her, and Qi Gu left them to confront how ridiculous the whole situation was.

• Qi Gu warned the anglers that their cabin was structurally unsafe, and they moved outside with their fishing gear.
• Qi Gu told the anglers to fish as usual to lure the ghost out, and a red-haired female ghost approached them.
• The anglers initially fled, but returned to help one another haul in what they thought was a heavy fish while the ghost angrily swore at them.
• Mu Xingchen translated the ghost’s explanation that she had only wanted to scare people and kept pursuing the anglers because they ignored her.
• Qi Gu explained that the anglers had been scared but stayed to avoid returning without a catch, and the anglers protested that the ghost had harassed them for days over nothing.

Qi Gu and the fishermen discovered that the strange blind fish had taken a child’s eyes and asked them to rescue its owner, Shuishui, from a safe at the bottom of the reservoir. The fishermen brought the rusted safe to the surface, and its age suggested Shuishui had been trapped there for many years.

• Qi Gu sent the female ghost off to reincarnate and directed the fishermen to keep pulling in their catch.
• The fishermen landed a beautiful blind fish with human eyes, and Qi Gu explained that its kind stole eyes to obtain them.
• The blind fish said it meant no harm and asked the group to help rescue its owner, Shuishui, from a heavy safe underwater.
• The three fishermen dived into the reservoir with the blind fish and brought a rusted, sludge-covered safe to the surface.
• Everyone realized the safe had been underwater for many years and that Shuishui inside could not have survived.

Qi Gu and Mu Xingchen opened the safe and freed Shuishui’s soul, who reunited with Xiao Yu and revealed how the blind fish had tried to protect her for years. After Xiao Yu learned that Shuishui had given her eyes before dying, Shuishui comforted her and turned to speak with the fishermen.

• Xiao Yu celebrated as Qi Gu, Mu Xingchen, and the fishermen hauled the safe ashore and Qi Gu broke its rusted lock with the Purple-Gold Gourd.
• Shuishui’s soul reunited with Xiao Yu beside her bones and told her she had died because she was human and had remained underwater.
• Shuishui’s memories revealed that Xiao Yu had lived with her in a vase, heard about her abuse, and tried to persuade her to trade her eyes for safety.
• After Shuishui’s family sealed her in the safe and sank it in the reservoir, she gave Xiao Yu her eyes and promised to stay with her until Xiao Yu could find help.
• Years later, Xiao Yu led fishermen to the safe by driving fish to their hooks and biting a hook herself, and the fishermen finally pulled Shuishui out.
• Shuishui stroked the sobbing Xiao Yu and asked her to quiet down while she spoke to the fishermen.

Qi Gu helped Shuishui expose her murder to the authorities, and she chose to travel with the little fish instead of reincarnating. After the little fish shared an eye with her, the two set off together while the police arrested and later secured death sentences for Shuishui’s parents.

• Shuishui told Qi Gu and the livestream viewers that her mother and stepfather had beaten her to death and dumped her body in a safe in the reservoir, and viewers contacted the police.
• Shuishui chose to stay with the little fish and travel to see other bodies of water, and the little fish asked Qi Gu to give her one of its eyes.
• Qi Gu transferred one of the little fish’s eyes to Shuishui, and Mu Xingchen gave them matching pirate eyepatches.
• Shuishui left with the little fish after Qi Gu gave her a Soul-Nurturing Talisman, while the little fish brought a bumper catch to the anglers.
• Police arrested Shuishui’s parents, and they were sentenced to death with immediate execution the following year.
• Shuishui and the little fish traveled through a grassy meadow together as online commenters speculated about ghosts and recent policy changes.

Qi Gu discovered that Shifu had seemingly made two peaches appear on the temple tree, renewing his hope that they would meet again. After studying with Mu Xingchen, Qi Gu accepted Lin Hanzhi’s invitation to dinner and went with him to an arcade, where Lin Hanzhi bought an enormous number of tokens and proposed catching ten prizes.

• Qi Gu returned to his room angry about irresponsible parents, then hurried to the courtyard when Golden Toad noticed a new peach on the tree.
• Qi Gu asked the shrine for a second peach, and another, smaller peach appeared beside the first by morning.
• Qi Gu happily concluded that Shifu was still present, while Golden Toad promised to care for the tree and Mu Xingchen recited more of the Ghost Language Encyclopedia.
• Lin Hanzhi left the hospital and invited Qi Gu to dinner at Between Water and Clouds, where Qi Gu agreed to work with him on the next program.
• Lin Hanzhi took Qi Gu to an arcade, topped up ten thousand yuan for twenty thousand tokens, and suggested they catch ten prizes at the claw machines.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi spent hundreds of tokens trying to win a hamster plushie, with Lin Hanzhi refusing to give up despite repeated failures. Qi Gu secretly enlisted a ghost to help, and Lin Hanzhi caught the hamster, leaving him quietly grateful to Qi Gu.

• Qi Gu put his arm around Lin Hanzhi at the arcade, and Lin Hanzhi returned the gesture before they chose a hamster plushie to win.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi repeatedly failed to catch the hamster, and Lin Hanzhi refused to switch machines even after a nearby player won plushies easily.
• After Lin Hanzhi rejected the owner's offer of a free plushie, Qi Gu summoned a ghost and asked him to help Lin Hanzhi catch the hamster.
• The ghost nudged the hamster into the claw, allowing Lin Hanzhi to win it, and Lin Hanzhi thanked Qi Gu while the owner celebrated.
• Qi Gu explained that they were both unlucky, prompting other customers to joke about how much they had spent to win one plushie.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi played horror games at the arcade, where Lin Hanzhi sought comfort and invited Qi Gu to stay at his house. As they headed there, Miao Yue mistook their closeness for a date, while Pubu Gesang failed to understand her hints.

• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi entered a VR pod and played a horror-themed amusement park game, with Lin Hanzhi clinging to Qi Gu during the scares.
• Lin Hanzhi complained that Qi Gu had given his old sachet to Mu Xingchen, so Qi Gu gave him a Purple-Gold Gourd that could catch ghosts.
• Lin Hanzhi invited Qi Gu to stay at his house by tempting him with the chef’s lost palace dishes, and Qi Gu agreed after arranging for Mu Xingchen to send a study video.
• On the drive to Lin Hanzhi’s house, Qi Gu fell asleep in the car while Lin Hanzhi received Miao Yue’s photos of them together at the arcade.
• Miao Yue accused Lin Hanzhi of going on a date with Qi Gu, but Lin Hanzhi denied it, and Pubu Gesang insisted their closeness looked normal.

Qi Gu visited Lin Hanzhi’s lavish family estate, where they ate an elaborate meal and Lin Hanzhi showed him to a nearby bedroom. The chapter ended with Qi Gu settling in and figuring out the foreign-labeled toiletries with Taobao’s image search.

• Lin Hanzhi told Qi Gu that his eighteen-year-old adopted daughter was urging him to get married, then asked whether Qi Gu preferred boys or girls.
• Lin Hanzhi brought Qi Gu to his sprawling estate, where butler Jing Ping and the attendants welcomed them.
• Lin Hanzhi showed Qi Gu the extravagant mansion and explained his parents’ unusual decorating tastes and the chef’s artistic cooking.
• Qi Gu asked why Lin Hanzhi kept his demanding job despite his wealth, but Lin Hanzhi said the reason was a secret.
• After dinner and a variety show, Lin Hanzhi led Qi Gu to a nearby room and offered to help if he got lost.
• Qi Gu used Taobao’s image search to identify the toiletries in his bathroom before washing up.