The Rules and Mysteries

With no way forward after graduation, Chen Mo inherits his great-aunt's old house at 44 Huai Shu Road, only to stumble into a bizarre vortex. The house is dim and oppressive, and an envelope lays out a set of chilling rules for living there: draw the curtains before sunset, light a red candle when the lights go out at night, do not investigate sounds from the kitchen in the early hours, and use the mirror only during a limited window at noon... Every prohibition carries an ominous edge. More unsettling still, when he moves the bed, he finds contradictory marks carved into the floor: "Do not trust the rules they give you." Before he can make sense of it all, a sudden knock sounds at the door in the dead of night. A figure in black outside, the thick darkness behind the peephole, and strange symbols on the door send his fear soaring. And when he glimpses the eye spying through a gap in the curtains, he realizes he has already been trapped in a dangerous cage he cannot easily escape. With the truth of the rules impossible to discern, every step could lead him into the abyss.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.