The House That Never Dies

Within the Huo family's ancestral home, Huo Lianqi falls for Lu Die Yu, a woman outside their social world. The family refuses to honor their union, forcing Lu Die Yu into a posthumous marriage with the second deceased son. After the wedding, Lu Die Yu is sealed into a coffin with that pale corpse. In a shocking turn, Huo Lianqi returns, frees her from the coffin, and the couple elopes and marry right there, unaware of the family’s disapproval.

Following the coffin wedding, Huo Lianqi frees Lu Die Yu, and the two elope and marry in front of the coffin, shocking the rest of the family. The next day, Huo Lianqi has vanished.

In Beijing, Xu Ruoqing moves into the haunted mansion with her daughter and begins to feel the mansion's oppressive presence. Night after night, visions intensify and the house seems to stir with a hidden history.

The family’s spectral sightings escalate as Xu Ruoqing’s daughter reports a red-dressed girl who wants to play. The mysterious child pushes Xu Ruoqing to seek Zhao Yitang’s return, and the encounters grow more frequent at night.

Liu Li reveals that Zhao Yitang remains in an unconsummated marriage, complicating his ties to Xu Ruoqing and the mansion's secrets. This revelation deepens the sense that loyalties are divided and the house's history continues to exert control.

Xu Ruoqing seeks counsel from psychologist Qin Hailu, hoping to decode her visions and the mansion's hold on her. The session deepens the mystery and ties to the past.

One night the red butterfly leads Xu Ruoqing and her daughter to the basement, to Lu Die Yu's old room during her pregnancy. There they uncover a box of letters and photographs that reveal a link between Xu Ruoqing and Lu Die Yu.

Gen recounts the Huo family's tragedy: Lianxiu, the eldest, manipulates Lu Die Yu with marijuana-infused medicine to drive her mad, and admits he has been the author of the letters. Lu Die Yu, overwhelmed by grief, commits suicide in the basement wearing a red wedding dress.

On the seventh day after Lu Die Yu's funeral, the mansion's occupants perish—Lu Die Yu's husband's family, her sister, and cousin—leaving Huo Lianxiu to raise the child and flee the mansion. The tragedy marks the collapse of the family legacy and sets the stage for Xu Ruoqing's fight to protect her own child.

Zhao Yitang is summoned back to the mansion with an ultimatum: tear up the divorce papers in exchange for a vast fund to rescue his career. He refuses, determined to protect Xu Ruoqing. The confrontation exposes the mansion's power over his family's fate.

He learns that his wife bribed Gen to secure the mansion’s inheritance by altering Xu Ruoqing’s medicine to trigger dangerous hallucinations. The betrayal deepens the peril for Xu Ruoqing and her daughter.

Xu Ruoqing and her daughter escape the spectral danger by retreating into the basement, where brief moments of peace punctuate the terror. The basement becomes a fragile sanctuary as silhouettes from the past hover at the edge of perception.

The red-dressed child is revealed to be Zhao Yitang’s daughter, kept in red until her father returns. This revelation binds the families across generations and reframes the living stakes of the mansion.

Zhao Yitang rushes back and reunites with Xu Ruoqing and their daughter in the basement, as danger presses in from the mansion’s spectral history. They begin to regroup and plan a safer future.

Gen reveals that Huo Lianqi has returned, waiting for Xu Ruoqing and the rightful heirs. The wheelchair scene reveals the decomposed body of Huo Lianqi, which dissolves to dust as the mansion is cast out and Xu Ruoqing steps into uncertain light.