Chapter Summaries

Yang Jian found Tong Qian alive beneath a ghost face that had replaced her own and took her to the hospital. After learning that the ghost face had already been removed, he left the Caesar Hotel with Xiong Wenwen to plan their next move while Feng Quan and Guo Fan remained inside.

• Yang Jian found Tong Qian's satellite locator phone inside the female receptionist and realized the receptionist's face might be a mask covering Tong Qian.
• Yang Jian used the ghost shadow to tear off the human-skin face, revealing Tong Qian beneath it.
• Yang Jian found that Tong Qian was still breathing and had a heartbeat, though her scalp was badly injured and she was unconscious.
• Xiong Wenwen contacted Zhang Gao, and Yang Jian carried Tong Qian out of the Caesar Hotel to an ambulance.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Gao to notify him if Tong Qian woke, then left with Xiong Wenwen to rest and prepare a new plan while Feng Quan and Guo Fan stayed at the hotel.

Dai Yong’s disbelief in Z City’s hauntings ended when a floating head resembling his wife entered his home and his son lost his head. Inside the Caesar Hotel, Feng Quan and Guo Fan remained trapped on the fourth floor and chose to investigate a strange corridor and its open room.

• Dai Yong dismissed his friend’s warnings about the Head Balloon Incident while cooking dinner for Lele.
• Dai Yong found Lele at the balcony window, then saw a floating head resembling his wife drift into their home; Lele’s head rose from his neck and floated away.
• Feng Quan and Guo Fan admitted they had been lost in a looping fourth-floor corridor for four hours and discussed asking Yang Jian for help.
• Feng Quan and Guo Fan followed the sound of a door into a corridor with unfamiliar room numbers, including a half-open room numbered 31.
• Feng Quan and Guo Fan saw a figure moving inside room 31 and agreed to confront whatever was there together.

Yang Jian went to Z City's Third Hospital to investigate Tong Qian's condition after learning she remained unconscious despite her injuries stabilizing. He learned that her main problem was supernatural and centered on her head, leaving her recovery uncertain.

• Yang Jian reviewed the failed hotel operation and suspected the memory-altering ghost was combining supernatural incidents to thwart his investigations.
• Zhang Gao told Yang Jian that Tong Qian could not wake and might become vegetative, so Yang Jian decided to visit her at the hospital.
• Yang Jian arranged for two people to guard Xiong Wenwen before leaving with Zhang Gao for the Third Hospital.
• At Tong Qian's ward, attending physician Qian Zhiqiang explained that her physical injuries were not the main concern and pointed to her head.

Yang Jian learned that Tong Qian’s brain had no detectable activity because a ghost had taken her memories, then consulted the human skin paper for a way to wake her. The paper revealed that Yang Jian could recover her memories only after restraining the source ghost, and suggested a way to make Tong Qian tame two ghost faces if he succeeded.

• Doctor Qian told Yang Jian that Tong Qian’s body was healing, but her brain showed no activity and she remained in a brain-death-like state.
• Yang Jian asked Zhang Gao to leave the ward and concluded that Tong Qian could be awakened only by restoring her memories, which a ghost had taken.
• Yang Jian opened the golden box, took out the human skin paper, and threatened to abandon it until it revealed information about Tong Qian and the Caesar Hotel.
• The human skin paper explained that Yang Jian needed to find Tong Qian’s newspaper, restrain the source ghost, and then restore her memories without letting the ghost alter them.
• The human skin paper revealed that Tong Qian could potentially tame two ghost faces and gave Yang Jian a special method, leaving him shocked.

Yang Jian suspected the human-skin paper was luring him into a dangerous plan involving Tong Qian, then discovered that the ghost had infiltrated her family and might be monitoring Z City through informants. He left Zhang Gao to secure the hospital while realizing that Zhao Lei’s intelligence had made the ghost far more dangerous.

• Yang Jian considered the human-skin paper’s proposal to use a memory-altering ghost to change Tong Qian’s personality, but distrusted the paper’s motives.
• Zhang Gao told Yang Jian that Tong Qian’s relatives had arrived, and Yang Jian spotted a smiling middle-aged man among them who resembled the figure he had seen at the hotel.
• Yang Jian seized the man, ordered Zhang Gao to detain him and restrict access to Tong Qian, then fired a warning shot when her relatives tried to interfere.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Gao that the ghost might be trying to contact Tong Qian and left him to handle the family and hospital security.
• Yang Jian suspected that the ghost had informants throughout Z City and had become more capable under Zhao Lei’s direction.

Yang Jian listened to Tong Qian’s damaged recording and refused to rescue Guo Fan, believing the distress signal was a trap at the Caesar Hotel. He left to find allies who could help locate the source, but encountered a smiling man whose expression matched the ghost face.

• Yang Jian heard Tong Qian describe a maze-like third floor and a man-made signal jammer before interference erased the rest of her recording.
• Qin Meirou told Yang Jian that Guo Fan was trapped in Room 31 and Feng Quan had lost contact, but Yang Jian refused to provide support.
• Yang Jian explained that the ghost could alter memories and use intelligent Ghost Slaves, making the hotel rescue a dangerous trap that could worsen the incident.
• Yang Jian told Qin Meirou to follow his lead and ended the call, then decided to recruit a woman who could locate people with ghost sound and Xiong Wenwen.
• A suited man with a smile like the ghost face stopped beside Yang Jian, who used his Ghost Domain to vanish without firing.

Luo Suyī decided to flee Z City with Huang Fei and Lin Luomei, fearing the worsening supernatural incident. Yang Jian found their mansion and, after Lin Luomei’s companions refused to help him locate a ghost, ordered him to requisition the ghost inside her body.

• Luo Suyī urged Huang Fei and Lin Luomei to leave Z City after learning that Guo Fan and Feng Quan were trapped and the incident remained unresolved.
• A doorbell rang at 1:30 in the morning, and Yang Jian appeared inside the mansion after Luo Suyī found no one outside.
• Yang Jian asked Lin Luomei to help him locate a ghost that was hiding from him, promising to handle it himself.
• Luo Suyī refused, saying the task was too dangerous and Lin Luomei was close to ghost resurgence.
• Yang Jian said he would requisition the ghost inside Lin Luomei and declared that it was an order.

Yang Jian requisitioned Lin Luomei to help with the Z City supernatural incident, and Luo Suyī joined to protect her while Huang Fei stayed behind. As Yang Jian prepared for the next day's operation, Tong Qian unexpectedly awoke in the hospital and began smiling like the ghost face.

• Yang Jian used Zhao Jianguo's support to compel Lin Luomei to join the operation and warned her group that refusing could bring consequences.
• Lin Luomei agreed to go with Yang Jian, and Luo Suyī joined to protect her; Huang Fei stayed behind so one of them might survive.
• Yang Jian took Luo Suyī and Lin Luomei to the temporary resettlement center and told them to avoid contact with others until the operation began at eight the next morning.
• Tong Qian opened her eyes in the hospital ward and soon wore the same stiff, emotionless smile as the smiling ghost face, while no one noticed.

Yang Jian arrived at the Caesar Hotel to begin a second operation, but found it enveloped in expanding Ghost Fog that had appeared overnight. After hearing the security report, he faced the fog while Luo Suyī urged him to retreat, leaving the operation’s next move uncertain.

• Yang Jian drove to the Caesar Hotel with Luo Suyī, Lin Luomei, and Xiong Wenwen, assuring them that he would try to get them out if danger arose.
• Xiong Wenwen noticed that dense fog covered only the hotel, and Yang Jian suspected it might be Feng Quan’s Ghost Fog or the result of Feng Quan’s death.
• Zhang Gao reported that cries for help had come from the hotel around 1:40 a.m., silhouettes had appeared in lit windows, and the fog had begun spreading around 4 a.m.
• Yang Jian told Zhang Gao to leave the site and prepare for the worst if the incident could not be resolved.
• Luo Suyī urged Yang Jian to retreat, but Yang Jian stood before the fog and considered the changed situation without abandoning the operation.

Yang Jian sent Luo Suyī, Lin Luomei, and Xiong Wenwen back to the cordon while he entered the ghostly fog alone to prepare for the hotel operation. Inside the fog, he discovered it behaved like a Ghost Domain and spotted a mysterious figure following him before it vanished.

• Yang Jian decided the hotel was too dangerous to enter with the group and warned them to wait at the next cordon.
• Yang Jian entered the ghostly fog alone, losing his bearings as the hotel disappeared from view.
• Yang Jian opened his Ghost Eye and expanded his Ghost Domain, pushing back some of the fog and improving his visibility.
• Yang Jian noticed a motionless humanoid figure following him and prepared his Ghost Candle, but the figure vanished into the mist.
• Yang Jian continued toward the hotel through the fog, maintaining his Ghost Domain and staying alert for further danger.

Yang Jian entered the Caesar Hotel to prepare for its dangers and broadcast the Door-Knocking Ghost’s recording to draw it inside. He left the hotel and waited outside the ghostly fog, which muffled the knocking and contained its spread.

• Yang Jian crossed the ghostly fog, sensing a presence following him, and reached the Caesar Hotel after nearly ten minutes.
• Yang Jian inspected the lobby and concluded that the first floor was relatively safe, while the second and fourth floors posed greater dangers.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to reach the surveillance room and uploaded the Door-Knocking Ghost’s recording to the hotel broadcast system.
• Yang Jian started the broadcast and quickly evacuated the hotel, letting the knocking curse spread inside while he abandoned plans to rescue Feng Quan and Guo Fan himself.
• Yang Jian confirmed that the ghostly fog blocked the broadcast’s sound, avoided a human-shaped figure approaching through the mist, and left the fog using his Ghost Domain.

Yang Jian returned from the ghostly fog after making preparations and told the others to wait for a signal before acting. His broadcast of the Door-Knocking Ghost’s curse began changing the hotel, but the effects on its deeper dangers remained uncertain.

• Luo Suyī and Xiong Wenwen argued while waiting outside the ghostly fog for Yang Jian to return.
• Yang Jian emerged from the fog and said he had made preparations that might produce results before noon, then led the group to a nearby rooftop to observe.
• The prerecorded knocking played through the hotel’s broadcast system and caused the dead people in the second-floor restaurant to collapse, apparently freeing them from other curses.
• A tall figure carrying a rusty butcher knife walked out of the second-floor kitchen after the knocking began.
• On the nonexistent fourth-floor corridor, the knocking toppled Guo Fan’s memorial tablet and briefly opened the doors to Rooms 13 and 31.

Yang Jian waited outside Caesar Hotel for the Door-Knocking Ghost to sweep away the ghost fog and reduce the hotel’s danger, then led the group inside to search for Zhao Lei. Lin Luomei’s supernatural voice found no sign of Zhao Lei on the first or second floor, leaving the group to continue their search upward.

• Yang Jian explained that the Door-Knocking Ghost’s arrival could carry the hotel’s dangers into its Ghost Domain, and he ordered the group to prepare to enter.
• Yang Jian and the others returned to Caesar Hotel after the ghost fog disappeared, though Yang Jian warned that powerful threats might remain inside.
• Yang Jian ordered Lin Luomei to use her voice to locate Zhao Lei, and she searched the first floor without finding him.
• Lin Luomei searched the second floor and found no Zhao Lei, while Yang Jian questioned where the dangerous ghost he had previously encountered had gone.
• Luo Suyī recalled that Xiong Wenwen had foreseen Yang Jian’s and his own deaths in the hotel, and Yang Jian reassured Xiong Wenwen that his foresight could help them avoid danger.

Yang Jian followed Lin Luomei's voice to the fourth floor, where it found Zhao Lei in a strange Room 13 and encountered another ghost. When Yang Jian's Ghost Domain concealed the route Lin Luomei remembered, he withdrew it, revealing a corridor that had not existed in the hotel.

• Lin Luomei's voice searched the fourth floor and received a reply from Zhao Lei inside a strange Room 13, but a tall black figure blocked its retreat.
• Lin Luomei reported that her voice had encountered another ghost, so Yang Jian led the group up to the fourth floor.
• Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to guide the group through rooms with unfamiliar numbers as Lin Luomei directed them toward Zhao Lei.
• The path Lin Luomei described ended at a window, and Yang Jian concluded the route was hidden by his Ghost Domain.
• Yang Jian withdrew his Ghost Domain and shone his flashlight ahead, revealing a deep corridor where the window had been.

Yang Jian and the others searched the corridor for Room 13, where they hoped to find Zhao Lei, while a ghost wandered nearby. After Yang Jian opened the room with his Ghost Shadow, another ghost stopped at the intersection behind them, trapping the group in danger.

• Yang Jian led Luo Suyī, Lin Luomei, and Xiong Wenwen through the corridor, where they found that the guest-room doors could not be opened by force.
• At the first intersection, they saw fresh, disorderly black footprints, and Yang Jian hurried on toward Room 13.
• Yang Jian matched the brass number plate to the unmarked door and used his Ghost Shadow to open it.
• Luo Suyī spotted a rotting, stiff figure walking toward the intersection, where it stopped motionless as he shouted Yang Jian's name.

Yang Jian led the group into Room 13 to avoid a ghost in the corridor, then asked Xiong Wenwen to use his precognition to check the room and their danger. Xiong Wenwen foresaw faceless people in the bedroom and his own unexplained death, leaving Yang Jian uncertain what caused it.

• Luo Suyī spotted a decaying ghost at the corridor crossroads, and Yang Jian judged that it had not yet targeted them.
• Yang Jian opened Room 13 and led Xiong Wenwen, Lin Luomei, and Luo Suyī inside to escape the ghost.
• Yang Jian asked Xiong Wenwen to predict what would happen in the room, while reprimanding Luo Suyī for worsening the group's fear.
• Xiong Wenwen foresaw an empty bathroom and faceless people in the bedroom, then saw his own head fall from his neck and cried for Yang Jian to save him.
• Xiong Wenwen described his vision, and Yang Jian questioned why he had died when no other ghost appeared.

Xiong Wenwen foresaw that he, Luo Suyī, and Lin Luomei would die in the hotel room within minutes, while Yang Jian would survive. Yang Jian rejected the prediction as unreliable and began investigating the room and the ghost outside before their predicted deaths.

• Xiong Wenwen predicted that he would die at 2:10, then saw Luo Suyī die at 2:15 and Lin Luomei die soon after, all without seeing a ghost enter the room.
• Xiong Wenwen foresaw Yang Jian escaping alive, but Yang Jian said the prediction had gone wrong and ordered him to stop using his ability.
• Yang Jian gave Lin Luomei the ghost candle and lighter, then told Luo Suyī to watch the ghost outside while he investigated the bedroom.
• Luo Suyī reluctantly opened the guest room door to monitor the ghost as Yang Jian headed into the bedroom to find and restrain the source ghost.

Yang Jian searched the bedroom for the ghost that had taken the victims’ faces and found Zhao Lei alive but faceless, while suspecting the missing faces were in Room 31. As time ran short, Luo Suyī spotted the corridor ghost turn back toward them and warned Yang Jian to decide whether to retreat.

• Yang Jian entered the bedroom and found many people without facial features, but no sign of the ghost carrying Tong Qian’s smiling face.
• Yang Jian recognized Zhao Lei by his build and clothes, found him alive with a mismatched human face, and tore the face away with the ghost shadow.
• Yang Jian failed to find Zhao Lei’s original face and considered whether the ghost had taken the faces to Room 31, despite the danger and dwindling time.
• Luo Suyī looked into the corridor and saw the tall ghost walking away, then watched it stop, turn around, and approach them.
• Luo Suyī warned Yang Jian that the ghost was likely connected to Xiong Wenwen’s predicted death and urged him to decide whether they should leave.

Yang Jian led the group away from the approaching corpse ghost while analyzing its killing pattern and the rusty machete it carried. When Xiong Wenwen’s predicted time of death arrived, the ghost swung the machete, and the Ghost Candle nearly burned away instantly, though Xiong Wenwen survived.

• Yang Jian told Luo Suyī that the ghost outside might be connected to the Head Balloon Incident and led the group out with Zhao Lei’s corpse.
• Yang Jian identified the approaching figure as the corpse ghost he had encountered earlier and noticed it carried a rusty woodcutter’s machete.
• Yang Jian concluded that the ghost killed according to a specific condition and likely targeted one person at a time as the group retreated.
• At 2:10, Xiong Wenwen’s predicted time of death arrived, and the corpse ghost stopped and raised its machete to his neck level.
• The corpse ghost swung its machete through the air, causing the Ghost Candle to flare and burn down to less than one-tenth of its length, while Xiong Wenwen remained alive.

After the Ghost Candle nearly burned out blocking the ghost’s attack, Yang Jian led the group toward Room 31 while trying to discover the ghost’s killing pattern. Xiong Wenwen foresaw that Luo Suyī would still die at 2:15, even inside Yang Jian’s Ghost Domain, leaving them with little time and no clear protection.

• The Ghost Candle’s flame extinguished, and Yang Jian led everyone deeper into the hotel as the motionless ghost remained behind them.
• Yang Jian told the group the candle could not protect them again and urged them to find the ghost’s killing pattern before the next attack.
• Yang Jian reached Room 31 and asked Xiong Wenwen to use his precognition to test what would happen next.
• Xiong Wenwen foresaw that the ghost would skip him after its failed attack and kill Luo Suyī at 2:15.
• Yang Jian covered Luo Suyī with his Ghost Domain, but Xiong Wenwen foresaw that Luo Suyī would die inside it.