Chapter Summaries

The narrator and his companions investigated the fire at 2386 and found the scarred former security guard who had been convicted of starting it. After they returned to question him at night, someone locked them inside his warehouse, where blood began dripping from the ceiling.

• Bun Head introduced the narrator to Shunzi, who said a security guard had been jailed for accidentally starting the fire at 2386 and had only recently been released.
• Shunzi gave the group the guard's address, and they found him scavenging at a dump near 2386.
• The guard, whose face was badly burned, accepted the narrator's money but told them to return at night.
• The narrator, Bun Head, and Little Six returned after dark and entered the guard's foul-smelling warehouse to look for him.
• The warehouse doors slammed shut and locked, and blood dripped from the ceiling as the three men shone their phones upward.

The narrator, Bun Head, and Little Six found a decomposed corpse in a crate and were pursued through the warehouse by glowing red eyes before Shunzi broke them out. Outside, Little Six spotted a hunched figure holding a crowbar on a nearby rubbish heap.

• The narrator and Bun Head saw glowing red eyes in the warehouse, and Bun Head called Shunzi to get help.
• Little Six walked deeper into the warehouse, and the narrator and Bun Head followed him past the blood-dripping ribs.
• Bun Head pried open a crate, and the three men found a badly decomposed corpse inside.
• The red eyes approached the men as they waited by the doors, but Shunzi smashed the lock and they escaped.
• Shunzi explained that no one else would come out at night, and Little Six pointed out a hunched figure holding a crowbar on a rubbish heap.

After the police discovered a corpse in the dump warehouse, the narrator tried to learn whether the old security guard had started the fire at 2386 Residential Compound. A witness connected someone in Tang Yao’s photograph to the corpse’s crate, leaving the narrator fearing that one of his friends might be involved.

• Bun Head, Little Six, Shunzi, and the narrator found a corpse and human ribs in the warehouse, but the old security guard escaped before police arrived.
• Tang Yao rode the narrator’s bus and left behind a photograph of him, Bun Head, Little Six, and Shunzi at the dump.
• The narrator returned to the dump, where Shunzi said police had not found the old guard and warned that the warehouse ribs were human.
• An old man recognized the photograph and said he had seen someone push a slatted wooden crate into the warehouse.
• The old man pointed to the person in the photograph who had pushed the crate.

After learning that Shunzi had framed the warehouse murder on the old security guard, the narrator met the guard and heard how Liu Yunbo’s curse led to the fire at 2386 Residential Compound. The account revealed that Liu Yunbo had started the fire to save the building’s residents, while the narrator discovered the yellow paper figure Liu had given him had vanished.

• An old man identified Shunzi as the person pushing the crate, and Bun Head later confirmed that Shunzi had confessed to killing the man and framing the old security guard.
• Tang Yao took Bai Fan and the narrator to the haunted Great East Gate Restaurant, where the narrator stopped Bai Fan from eating the noodles.
• Bun Head, Little Six, and the narrator waited for the old security guard after his release and questioned him about the fire at 2386 Residential Compound.
• The old security guard said Liu Yunbo had given him a yellow paper figure and cursed him with A Hundred Ghosts Cry at the Door, prompting his friend to start a fire to save the residents.
• The narrator realized Liu Yunbo had started the fire as a sacrifice to break the curse, then found that the yellow paper figure Liu had given him was missing.

After the yellow paper figure disappeared, the narrator searched for Old Liu and grew increasingly frightened by strange incidents. One night, he and Little Six encountered a ghostly family waiting for a bus, and the chapter ended with a Route 13 bus passing them.

• The old security guard said Liu Qingzhu had sacrificed an eye to save him during the fire, and Bun Head recognized him as Elder Liu.
• The narrator went to 2386 Residential Compound to find Old Liu, but found his home shut and apparently empty.
• The narrator spent several days anxious and unable to sleep without alcohol, while Little Six tried to reassure him.
• The narrator saw a family of three waiting at a bus stop after midnight, and they seemed to draw closer each time he looked back.
• Little Six led the narrator into a late-night restaurant, where the owner called the family ghosts waiting for a bus and said the living must not look at them.
• As the narrator and Little Six returned to the company, a bus passed with Route 13 glowing on its front.

The narrator left with Old Liu to find the renowned yin-yang master He, hoping he could help end the Route 13 curse. On the way, Old Liu exposed a fraudulent exorcist’s mistake, and the chapter ended with two women unconscious after a chopstick ritual revealed two spirits were involved.

• The narrator saw what looked like his Route 13 bus on the road, but it vanished when he looked again.
• Old Liu told the narrator he had found an expert named He and urged him to hurry before He moved on.
• The narrator left Little Six to drive in his place and traveled with Old Liu to an old residential complex, where an overcoat-wearing man was treating a possessed woman with needles.
• Old Liu stopped the man and used a chopstick in a bowl of water to identify the woman’s deceased second aunt as the possessing spirit.
• The man in the overcoat snapped the chopstick while trying to pull it out, and he was flung away as the woman fainted.
• A second elderly woman also fainted, and Old Liu realized another ghost was possessing the first woman.

Old Liu drove the ghost out of the old woman, then fought the spirit possessing the middle-aged woman while the man in the overcoat’s methods failed. Old Liu collapsed after defeating the spirit, and a nurse told the narrator that he had no heartbeat.

• Old Liu and the man in the overcoat each treated one of the two possessed women, with the overcoat man choosing the younger woman.
• Old Liu shouted at the spirit in the old woman and struck with his stick; the woman woke and asked about the child’s mother.
• The man in the overcoat used a talisman and a heavy iron weight on the younger woman, but she attacked him and tore his face.
• Old Liu struck the younger woman, was knocked down, then smeared his blood on his stick and hit her until she fainted.
• Old Liu collapsed, and the narrator carried him to the hospital, where a nurse said he had no heartbeat.

After Old Liu survived a mistaken death pronouncement, he and the narrator learned that Mr. He had been taken by Scorpion and joined Bun Head’s men to confront him. The resulting fight let the narrator reach the room where Mr. He was supposed to be, but he found only a young man watching television.

• The doctor explained that Old Liu’s heart was on the right, and the narrator forced him to have his head wound stitched before they returned to the apartment complex.
• A woman Old Liu had helped told them that Scorpion’s gang had taken Mr. He away to treat someone, so the narrator contacted Bun Head for help.
• Old Liu warned that the missing yellow paper figure could cause A Hundred Ghosts Cry at the Door and said they needed to find Mr. He before the fifteenth day of the lunar month.
• Bun Head gathered more than twenty men and led the narrator and Little Six to Scorpion’s hotel to demand Mr. He’s release.
• Scorpion refused to let them see Mr. He, Bun Head declared he would take him by force, and their groups broke into a brawl.
• The narrator rushed upstairs and entered the room where Mr. He was supposed to be, but found a young man watching television instead.

The narrator rescued Mr. He, who looked like a teenager but claimed to be seventy-three, and learned that Scorpion’s father had died shortly after Mr. He predicted a funeral. After hearing whispers beneath his bed all night, the narrator found that Little Six had swept a clump of long woman’s hair from under it.

• The narrator found Mr. He and asked for help escaping the Route 13 Last Bus, but Scorpion’s men burst into the room before they could talk.
• The narrator escaped with Mr. He, while Bun Head refused to believe the young-looking man was the legendary Mr. He.
• Mr. He went home to water his flowers and warned that Scorpion would be busy arranging a funeral; later, Bun Head reported that Scorpion’s father had died.
• The narrator heard a woman’s whispers beneath his bed, grew too frightened to investigate, and stayed awake beside Little Six’s bed until morning.
• Little Six swept the room and found a clump of long woman’s hair beneath the narrator’s bed.

After discovering long hair and hearing a woman's voice beneath his bed, the narrator sought Mr. He’s help with the haunted Route 13 bus. Scorpion attacked them, fatally stabbed Mr. He, and heard his final warning that someone the narrator trusted had been lying to him.

• The narrator found long hair beneath his bed and told Little Six that ghosts haunted the Route 13 last bus, but Little Six refused to quit.
• The narrator visited Mr. He, who began to explain how to deal with the bus before Bun Head warned that Scorpion was coming.
• The narrator tried to take Mr. He to city hall, but Scorpion and his men intercepted them at a gas station.
• Bun Head arrived with his men as Scorpion ordered his followers to kill the narrator and Mr. He.
• Scorpion stabbed Mr. He, who gave the narrator two final sentences, including a warning that someone he trusted had been lying to him.