Tales of Old Hometown Customs: The Occult Secrets Grandpa Never Passed Down

Young skeptic Chen Nian returns to his hometown to keep vigil, shattering the taboos of a rainy night in an ancient mountain village. A sinister presence lurks beneath the roof tiles; black water drips onto foreheads to bind souls. Resentment festers in a desolate pond, where a child’s ghost peers through windows, demanding justice. The village’s blood-soaked secrets, buried for thirty years, are laid bare by the folk tome for warding off evil and the black wooden box his grandfather left behind. Everyone knows that seven children drowned in the desolate pond north of the village. They assumed it was an accident, a cruel twist of fate. No one knew the tragedy was really caused by the whole village turning a blind eye and closing ranks to keep silent. More chilling still, the pond’s depths hide an eighth lonely child, whose name was erased and whose very existence was wiped from memory. He was an innocent child’s ghost, deliberately sacrificed by the villagers to suppress evil and appease resentment. His lonely suffering and injustice bought the entire mountain village thirty years of peace. For half his life, Chen Nian’s grandfather endured in silence, shouldering the pond’s overwhelming resentment alone, covering up the evil in the villagers’ hearts and desperately preserving a fragile, false balance. With his grandfather gone, the burden of cause and effect falls to Chen Nian. Afraid he will reopen the case, disrupt the status quo, and disturb the sinister spirits, the villagers surround his home and pressure him, hoping to silence him and hide their crimes once more. Old customs conceal filth, and human hearts become evil spirits, far more terrifying than ghosts. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.