Chapter Summaries

After Lin Yan and Ning Xiao died, Yue Yuan learned that their souls had been scattered and tried to care for their traumatized son, Lin Hanzhi. Lin Hanzhi later asked to see his family’s bodies and prepared to act on them, while Yue Yuan helped him borrow strength.

• Lin Hanzhi recognized Yue Yuan and fell unconscious in his arms after Yue Yuan promised he was safe.
• Yue Yuan found Lin Yan’s blood-written note saying “Don’t investigate,” then learned that the Lin family’s souls had been scattered when a medium failed to summon them.
• At the hospital, Lin Hanzhi threatened to jump from a window and said his parents’ souls were scattered; Yue Yuan stayed outside until he climbed down.
• Lin Hanzhi accepted Yue Yuan’s quiet company and later asked where his family was, so Yue Yuan took him to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau’s morgue.
• Lin Hanzhi asked for a large blade, and Miao Jianye offered his Miao Dao; when Lin Hanzhi could not lift it, Yue Yuan drew a talisman on his wrist to let him borrow strength from the Strength God.

After Lin Yan’s death, Lin Hanzhi began using the Ning family’s secret method to gain the strength to face the unknown enemy who had killed his family. He endured the method’s terrible cost, grew increasingly self-loathing, and joined the Anomalous Affairs Bureau at fourteen to take on dangerous missions.

• Lin Hanzhi cut off Lin Yan’s arms in the morgue, while Yue Yuan and Miao Jianye watched in horror.
• Lin Hanzhi told Yue Yuan that he needed strength, though he did not know what had happened the night his family was killed or who had left.
• Lin Hanzhi practiced the Ning Family Secret Method, learning that wielding relatives’ remains required feeding them his flesh and blood and fusing part of his soul into them.
• As Lin Hanzhi endured unbearable pain and considered giving up, Yue Yuan repeatedly urged him to stop, but Lin Hanzhi continued refining Bone Blades and carving memorial tablets for the mourning hall.
• At fourteen, Lin Hanzhi joined the Anomalous Affairs Bureau and volunteered for highly dangerous missions.

Yue Yuan forced Lin Hanzhi to practice talking with his teammates, and the withdrawn boy gradually learned to communicate. Years later, after Miao Jianye and Yue Nanxing died, Lin Hanzhi raised their daughter Miao Yue and became a talkative father.

• Yue Yuan assigned Lin Hanzhi to work with Miao Jianye and Yue Nanxing and ordered him to speak to them every day.
• Lin Hanzhi initially met his daily speaking quota with short, awkward phrases, prompting Yue Yuan to raise the requirement to ten sentences of more than ten characters each.
• As Lin Hanzhi spent time with his teammates and the bureau's chatterboxes, he became more able to communicate, and Yue Yuan eventually ended the assignment.
• Lin Hanzhi continued to struggle with guilt and self-loathing even as he grew from a boy into a man.
• After Miao Jianye and Yue Nanxing died, Lin Hanzhi took responsibility for raising Miao Yue and became a chatterbox dad.

Lin Hanzhi learned that Yue Yuan had concealed the truth about the Lin family to protect him, and that Yue Yuan had arranged for him to find the information after his death. At Yue Yuan’s grave in Shanyin City, Lin Hanzhi paid his respects and opened the burial chamber to retrieve the urn and its secrets.

• Yue Yuan investigated the Lin family in secret, fought a Grade-B Vengeful Ghost, and concealed what he learned after his health declined.
• Yue Yuan asked Lin Hanzhi to stop investigating, but they parted on bad terms, and Lin Hanzhi learned of Yue Yuan’s death the following day.
• Yue Yuan hid his information in his urn and set up a program to send Lin Hanzhi the grave’s address when he accessed the Lin family files.
• Lin Hanzhi traveled to Shanyin City with Miao Yue under the cover of a mission, then returned to the cemetery alone in the rain.
• Lin Hanzhi bowed before the headstone bearing Yue Yuan’s birth name, Wang Shi, opened the burial chamber, and found the urn.

After Lin Hanzhi retrieved the USB drive from his mother’s urn, Qi Gu cared for him through a cold over a late-night call, deepening their closeness despite defining it as friendship. The next morning, Lin Hanzhi showed off Qi Gu’s care to Miao Yue as they left the hotel.

• Lin Hanzhi took the USB drive from the urn, returned the ashes and urn to the burial chamber, and drove back to his hotel in the rain.
• Qi Gu learned Lin Hanzhi was caught in the rain, ordered him ginger soup and cold medicine, and stayed on a voice call while Lin Hanzhi ate and took the medicine.
• Lin Hanzhi found strawberry-flavored condoms among the items Qi Gu had ordered by mistake, and Qi Gu grew embarrassed while Lin Hanzhi discreetly kept the box.
• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi fell asleep on the call, then messaged each other the next morning after both woke to dead phones.
• Miao Yue questioned Lin Hanzhi about the pharmacy bag, and Lin Hanzhi proudly explained that Qi Gu had bought him medicine and called him a special friend.

Lin Hanzhi visited Wang Shi’s grave with Miao Yue and approved Sang Ma’s request to take the dangerous mission tied to her fallen team. Meanwhile, Qi Gu prepared for the General’s Mansion investigation, and Jiang Haojie joined the show intending to exploit Qi Gu for information and take revenge.

• Lin Hanzhi and Miao Yue brought cream puffs and taro ball milk tea to Wang Shi’s grave, where Lin Hanzhi told him that he had someone caring for him now.
• Lin Hanzhi told Miao Yue he would approve Sang Ma’s application for the mission connected to the Z Province team’s deaths, and Miao Yue began gathering protective tools for her friend.
• Qi Gu received the General’s Mansion assignment from Sang Ma and recalled the rumors surrounding General Mo Zhou and his mysterious opera-singing wife.
• Jiang Haojie persuaded Song An to let him join the fourth episode so he could research Mo Zhou for his film, and Qi Gu agreed to his participation without remembering him.
• The production team announced Jiang Haojie as the episode’s final guest, prompting fans to argue online while Jiang Haojie planned to use Qi Gu for clues and retaliate discreetly.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi traveled to Beijing for filming, where Lin Hanzhi brought Qi Gu’s favorite snacks and led him through a hutong to his own courtyard house. The chapter ended with Qi Gu learning that Lin Hanzhi’s grandmother had given him the valuable home, leaving the livestream viewers stunned by his wealth.

• Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi met at the airport and boarded a plane together with a large supply of snacks Jing Ping had packed.
• Qi Gu told the livestream that he had studied and worked in Beijing before, while Lin Hanzhi said he was familiar with the city because it was where he usually lived.
• After reaching Beijing, Qi Gu and the production assistant searched for the address in Lantern Hutong until Lin Hanzhi offered to guide them.
• Lin Hanzhi opened a grand private courtyard house with his fingerprint and explained that his grandmother had put it in his name when he was little.
• Qi Gu was surprised by Lin Hanzhi’s wealth, and the livestream viewers wondered about his family background.

Qi Gu arrived at Lin Hanzhi’s courtyard residence and met the other guests before filming began, where he rejected Jiang Haojie’s handshake and secretly placed a talisman on him. Later, Jiang Haojie tried to lure a black cat with treats, but its touch suddenly felt ice-cold to him.

• Qi Gu explored Lin Hanzhi’s courtyard residence and learned that the socially anxious Butler Anonymous had meticulously labeled its plants, furnishings, and supplies.
• Mu Xingchen asked to take portraits at the residence, so Lin Hanzhi sent Miao Yue to photograph him and gave Pubu Gesang fish food to keep him occupied.
• Jiang Haojie introduced his animal rescue foundation, then offered Qi Gu a handshake that Qi Gu refused before taking his hand to apply a hidden talisman.
• After filming the introductions, Qi Gu returned to rest with Lin Hanzhi while Jiang Haojie went out with cat food to lure stray animals.
• Jiang Haojie stroked a black cat, felt a bone-piercing chill, and then convinced himself he had imagined it when its fur felt warm again.

Jiang Haojie brought a black cat home, unaware that it was a Cat Ghost drawn by Qi Gu’s rune to judge him. After Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu woke from a peaceful nap, the group shared dinner while Jiang Haojie struggled to hide his anger at being ignored.

• Jiang Haojie decided to take the black cat home after it followed him, and he pretended to welcome it affectionately for the livestream.
• Miao Yue, Pubu Gesang, and Mu Xingchen continued their afternoon activities while Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu slept side by side after playing five-in-a-row.
• Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu woke, collected the scattered game pieces, and agreed to order lamb hot pot for dinner.
• The black cat, revealed to be a Cat Ghost drawn by Qi Gu’s rune, recognized Qi Gu and became wary of him and Lin Hanzhi.
• At dinner, the others fussed over the Cat Ghost and ignored Jiang Haojie, who realized he could not easily threaten anyone at the table.

Qi Gu and the crew entered the General's Mansion to investigate after learning that more than a dozen visitors may still be trapped inside. As they prepared to search, viewers reported entering a supposedly sealed rockery passage, suggesting something had lured visitors into a dangerous place.

• Qi Gu explained why visitors should step over, not on, the mansion's thresholds.
• Song An showed the audience the grounds and recounted how Mo Zhou had been killed with poisoned wine.
• Sang Ma told Qi Gu that the entry and exit records differed by more than a dozen visitors, and Qi Gu promised to try to bring them out.
• Song An announced that visitors might be trapped inside the mansion, alarming the livestream audience.
• Viewers described being touched and injured inside a dark rockery passage, while mansion staff insisted it had been closed for ten years and another viewer shared an image showing a welcome sign at its entrance.

The guests explored the General's Mansion, where the black cat created a terrifying illusion of bloody hands emerging from the stone tablet for Jiang Haojie. Jiang Haojie dismissed the vision as a hallucination and took the cat back into his arms.

• Qi Gu held Lin Hanzhi's hand despite Lin Hanzhi insisting he had become braver.
• Jiang Haojie found the black cat at the mansion and carried it with him as Miao Yue suggested it could ward off evil.
• The black cat clouded Jiang Haojie's vision, and he saw bloody hands reach out from the stone tablet.
• Jiang Haojie screamed and threw the cat away, but it landed safely and dispelled the illusion.
• Qi Gu and the cameraman said they had seen nothing unusual, so Jiang Haojie blamed his strained nerves and picked up the cat again.

Qi Gu’s group encountered Fat Cat and a skeletal ghost in the General’s Mansion, then continued searching for the missing tourists. As they left the front assembly hall, the mansion’s eerie operatic singing began behind them.

• Fat Cat asked to join the crew, but Song An refused.
• Qi Gu revealed that Fat Cat’s quiet companion was a skeleton and used spiritual power to retrieve Fat Cat’s camera.
• Fat Cat thanked Qi Gu with a livestream tip and hurried out through the east side gate, where police were waiting to take him in for questioning.
• Qi Gu searched the front assembly hall and confirmed that no missing tourists were there.
• The eerie operatic singing began behind Qi Gu as he was leaving the hall.

Qi Gu and the others discovered that three missing tourists had been forced to perform as opera puppets in the General’s Mansion. After Qi Gu cleared the ghostly energy from them, one woke and revealed that a ghost had carried the students from their dorm back to the mansion.

• Three costumed performers appeared behind a screen and acted out Mo Zhou’s farewell to his mother while Qi Gu protected the crew.
• Lin Hanzhi spotted the performers’ modern shoes, and Qi Gu and Miao Yue pulled off their costumes to reveal three male tourists.
• Qi Gu checked the men and removed the ghostly energy from their bodies, waking the fashionably dressed student first.
• The student said he and his roommates had returned to their dorm, and Miao Yue explained that a ghost had carried them back to the General’s Mansion.
• Qi Gu told the student to wake his roommates, leaving him confused by the others’ claims that he had missed a television appearance.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi took in three college students who had blacked out, then continued exploring the General's Mansion. At the stable, Jiang Haojie’s cruelty toward animals surfaced as the Cat Ghost prepared to trap him in another hallucination.

• Lin Hanzhi offered to guide the three college students and send them out if they showed no problems, and Qi Gu agreed.
• Qi Gu learned that the students had not visited the artificial hill, so he concluded that entering it was not why the Opera Ghost selected people.
• The students ignored Jiang Haojie and crowded around the Cat Ghost, then joined Pubu Gesang and Mu Xingchen at the kids' table.
• Qi Gu's group explored the main hall and learned about Mo Zhou's faithful horse, Chasing Clouds, before continuing toward the stable.
• Jiang Haojie recalled abusing animals and killing a rabbit for a film, while the Cat Ghost stroked by him began weaving his next hallucination.

At the reconstructed stable, Jiang Haojie hallucinated a warhorse and brutally tortured it, then suffered the same abuse at the hands of an imagined version of himself. He woke to the production team’s staff and realized the horse and his attacker had been hallucinations, but the pain and a loose tooth were real.

• Jiang Haojie imagined a proud warhorse in the stable and tied it up while the others watched him handle empty air.
• Jiang Haojie beat and tortured the imaginary horse with stable tools, then raised a stone to strike its head.
• Jiang Haojie found himself facing an imagined version of himself, who tied him up and inflicted the same brutal treatment on him.
• Jiang Haojie woke when a staff member from the Explore the Supernatural Production Team checked on him, but his injuries and pain remained.

Qi Gu and Lin Hanzhi led Jiang Haojie to another stable, where the Opera Ghost showed the childhood romance between Mo Zhou and Zeng Qinghuan. After Qi Gu freed two possessed tourists, they joined the group but nervously declined the trendy guy’s invitation.

• Jiang Haojie accused Qi Gu of letting him suffer, but Qi Gu denied that there had been a ghost in the stable.
• Despite his unexplained pain, Jiang Haojie went with the group to the stable on the right to help rescue more tourists.
• The Opera Ghost revealed Mo Zhou and Zeng Qinghuan as childhood sweethearts who had shared a brief, happy moment with the horse Chasing Clouds.
• Miao Yue removed the girls’ costumes, and Qi Gu dispelled the ghostly energy inside them.
• The two girls introduced themselves as best friends on vacation, then shyly declined the trendy guy’s invitation to join the group.

Lin Hanzhi and Qi Gu found Steward Yi inside the General's Mansion after following sticky-note maps he had left to help people escape. Steward Yi joined them, and his eagerness to impress Qi Gu unsettled Jing Ping watching the livestream.

• The group found panda-shaped sticky notes with a crude map of the General's Mansion and realized someone else might be inside.
• Lin Hanzhi called Anonymous Butler No. 2, learned he was at the General's Mansion, and asked him to meet them without revealing his connections to Pubu Gesang and Miao Yue.
• Steward Yi arrived and communicated with the group using sticky notes, while Lin Hanzhi explained his past and Qi Gu told the crew not to film him.
• Steward Yi explained that he had escaped his room and stayed to leave directions in case others needed help getting out.
• Steward Yi enthusiastically asked Qi Gu about his service, prompting Jing Ping to resent his efforts to impress him.

Qi Gu, Lin Hanzhi, and the others explored Mo Zhou’s General’s Mansion while the Cat Ghost tormented Jiang Haojie for his cruelty toward animals. The visit ended with Qi Gu inviting Lin Hanzhi to Osmanthus Garden, and Lin Hanzhi eagerly accepted.

• Steward Yi joined Qi Gu and the socially anxious girls as they found six people, and Lin Hanzhi offered Qi Gu an orange Sucking Jelly.
• Jiang Haojie mocked Qi Gu for eating, but Lin Hanzhi challenged him, and the Cat Ghost caused Jiang Haojie sudden pain.
• Qi Gu led the group toward Mo Zhou’s parents’ main house and mentioned the golden osmanthus tree he remembered from the courtyard.
• Lin Hanzhi mused about planting the tree at home, and Qi Gu suggested they choose a peach tree together at the Flower and Bird Market.
• The group found the osmanthus tree had not yet bloomed, so Qi Gu invited Lin Hanzhi to Osmanthus Garden next time, and Lin Hanzhi happily agreed.

Qi Gu and the group encountered a despondent ghost in the General's Mansion after Jiang Haojie photographed its shadow outside a window. Qi Gu rescued Jiang Haojie from being dragged away, but the ghost remained a threat as the group learned what its touch could do.

• Jiang Haojie photographed a shadowy figure outside the window, though nothing was visible when he looked up.
• Qi Gu told everyone to move away from the window, and Jiang Haojie revealed the ghost had appeared in his photos.
• The despondent ghost emerged through a second, hidden window and touched Jiang Haojie, leaving him too weak to resist.
• Qi Gu struck the ghost with spiritual light and knocked it away before it could drag Jiang Haojie out.
• Qi Gu explained that the despondent ghost drained people's strength and fighting spirit, and could steal their will to live if it dragged them away.

Qi Gu sent the crew and rescued tourists toward the east gate while he, Lin Hanzhi, and Mu Xingchen stayed behind. Miao Yue’s group encountered and captured a half-bodied old woman, then exposed Jiang Haojie’s animal abuse to the livestream audience as evidence against him began trending online.

• Qi Gu agreed to have Miao Yue and Pubu Gesang escort the crew and tourists out while Mu Xingchen carried the equipment and Jiang Haojie was taken along with the Cat Ghost.
• Miao Yue led the group toward the east gate, where they heard an old woman’s cane tapping in the darkness.
• Miao Yue warned the group not to approach the old woman, then slashed at her when she turned and revealed that she was only half a body.
• Miao Yue knocked the half-bodied ghost down, captured her in a Purple-Gold Gourd, and led everyone out through the east gate.
• At the gate, Miao Yue told the livestream audience that Jiang Haojie had tortured animals, as the Cat Ghost’s blogger released gathered evidence online.