Chapter Summaries

The narrator arrived early at police headquarters after a dizzying taxi ride and bought a notebook and pen at the strange Star Dream General Store. As he registered at the gate, he overheard that a car thief had stolen two sedans in a row.

• The narrator checked his belongings after the taxi ride and found everything intact, then noticed he had arrived well before his meeting.
• He searched for a stationery shop and entered the dim Star Dream General Store across the road.
• The shopkeeper showed him a brass-like notebook and an uncanny mirror, which made his reflection look unusually handsome.
• The narrator bought an ordinary notebook and a fountain pen for fifty yuan and returned to police headquarters.
• While he registered at the gate, a police car drove out and its driver said a car thief had stolen two sedans in a row.

Zhou Mingrui met with Officer Deng and Old Neil to coordinate an international project on behalf of the Intis Group. After the meeting, Old Neil announced he planned to retire and leave for the countryside, leaving Zhou Mingrui unable to speak as he watched them go.

• Zhou Mingrui arrived at the municipal bureau for his appointment with Officer Deng and discovered that Officer Deng had checked his residence permit the night before.
• Officer Deng introduced Old Neil, an Interpol representative and clergyman, who teased Zhou Mingrui about being troubled by ghosts and offered to exorcise them.
• Zhou Mingrui said Ms. Daly was already helping him, and Old Neil revealed that she was Officer Deng's fiancée.
• Zhou Mingrui, Officer Deng, and Old Neil spent over an hour discussing the project and gathering requirements.
• Old Neil announced he was retiring to the countryside, and Officer Deng escorted him out while Zhou Mingrui watched in silence.

After leaving work, I used my Assassin abilities to save a little girl from an SUV and accepted her father’s invitation to his bookstore. I relaxed there with an iced drink and a book, ending the afternoon peacefully.

• I chose to take a bus home, but it broke down one stop from my destination, so I walked.
• I spotted a little girl run into the road in front of a speeding SUV and rushed to save her, using my Assassin abilities to avoid injury.
• The girl’s father thanked me and invited me to his bookstore for a drink, and I accepted.
• At the bookstore, I picked up “Groselle’s Travels” and enjoyed an iced drink while the girl asked her father to take her to the swing.

The narrator alerted the female ghost that he had hired a spirit medium, then postponed the exorcism after the ghost left and Ms. Dai agreed not to come. Later, Huang Beibei approached him at a barbecue stall and asked him to investigate a cram school by signing up for classes.

• After the narrator warned her in the mirror, the female ghost thanked him and disappeared.
• The narrator messaged Ms. Dai that the ghost seemed to have left and asked to delay her visit; she agreed.
• At eleven, the narrator went out for barbecue and spotted Huang Beibei with a girl wearing black-framed glasses.
• Huang Beibei explained that the girl’s family ran a cram school and asked the narrator to sign up at Dream Cram School to check out its classes, offering to pay him.

The narrator agreed to attend a rival tutoring center's weekend business English classes to investigate its teaching, while Huang Beibei and Huang Jiajia funded the task. The narrator left with the tuition money and two bags of homemade dried mushrooms.

• Huang Beibei explained that she and Huang Jiajia could not enroll undercover, so the narrator offered to investigate the tutoring center instead.
• The narrator learned that the flyer distributor, Teacher Da, was also a foreign-language instructor and obtained details about the discounted class fee.
• The narrator agreed to attend four or five classes and asked Huang Beibei to send the investigation money through Huang Jiajia to avoid trouble with President Huang.
• Huang Jiajia transferred the narrator twenty thousand and gave them two bags of dried mushrooms as a thank-you gift.

After ordering a large barbecue and failing to persuade his friend Peng Deng to join him, the narrator went to a minimart for a drink and met a well-dressed, red-eyed stranger looking for the hospital. The stranger later appeared at the barbecue stall and admitted he had gotten lost again.

• The narrator ordered skewers and vegetables at a roadside barbecue stall, then messaged Peng Deng to invite him over.
• Peng Deng refused to come, first citing his girlfriend’s plans and then saying she wanted to lose weight.
• The narrator went to a nearby minimart to buy a cold drink and noticed a red-eyed man wearing a three-piece suit.
• The man asked the narrator for directions to the nearest hospital, and the narrator explained the route.
• After returning to the stall with a can of pineapple-flavored carbonated drink, the narrator saw the man again, and the man said he had gotten lost again.

The narrator helped the repeatedly lost Bai Ailin find a hospital, then returned home and discovered that his black notebook had opened by itself. The chapter left him staring at the unexplained change.

• The narrator gave Bai Ailin directions after finding him lost on the road.
• After seeing Bai Ailin return to the barbecue stall, the narrator agreed to escort him to the hospital.
• Bai Ailin introduced himself and mistakenly turned the wrong way before the narrator corrected him.
• The narrator showed Bai Ailin to the inpatient building, where Bai Ailin disappeared after taking out an antique-looking key.
• At home, the narrator noticed that the black notebook he had left closed was open.

The narrator found an Evil Spirit’s strange drawings and writing in his notebook, learned that the ghost following him was also an Evil Spirit named Sharron, and went to work the next morning. There, Rozanne offered drinks, and he drew a bottle labeled “Instigator,” which reminded him of the “Assassin” drink and the dried mushrooms Huang Jiajia had given him.

• The narrator found a crude worm-monster drawing and confusing passages in his notebook, and Sharron said an Evil Spirit had made them.
• The narrator learned that Sharron was an Evil Spirit and that she was called Sharron, though she did not know why the other spirit had written in his notebook.
• The narrator went to work after an uneventful night and thought about trying savory soy milk.
• Rozanne brought assorted drinks to the office, and the narrator picked a blue bottle labeled “Instigator.”
• The narrator refused to drink it immediately and brought out the dried mushrooms Huang Jiajia had given him.