The Cursed Curio Shop: I Run a Pawnshop for Evil Artifacts

Chen's Pawnshop in Guazi Alley only accepts "yin objects" that belonged to the dead.

On Chen Wudao's third day running the shop, a Republican-era red wedding gown comes crashing through the door. The phoenix's eyes turn on their own, hair at the collar grows back when pulled, and at night the gown dresses itself on a paper effigy. Blood-red words demand a red hair tie.

A performer in the fitting-room mirror demands his life. His grandfather's body vanishes into thin air, and something pounds on the door of a forbidden area at the Town-Guard Bureau. The Yin Object Journal reveals bloody words: "The red wedding gown must be suppressed with the blood of a close relative." The half-lotus jade pendant around his neck fits perfectly with a keepsake left by his aunt, who died young.

An old man in a black robe grins eerily on the street corner. The Soul-Suppressing Bell has been ringing for seven days. He doesn't know that, ever since he was born, he has been a "vessel" for nurturing a vicious entity.

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