Records of Yin and Yang

My name is Lu Jiuyuan, and I make paper effigies. Grandpa said our trade has three ironclad rules: never give a paper person eyes, never point a paper horse west, and never take a job in the middle of the night. But on the night of the Ghost Festival, I took a job in the middle of the night. My client gave me a bag of hell money and asked me to make a paper groom for a woman in a red wedding dress. I finished the job and was just about to set it alight when I realized the paper figure… had moved by itself. It turned its head and stared straight at me with eyes drawn in ink. That was when I realized I hadn’t made a paper person. I’d made a substitute. From that day on, I took on one bizarre job after another: putting makeup on a century-old corpse, seeking justice for wronged souls who had died unjustly, and battling evil spirits in deserted villages and ancient mansions. With the paper-making art in my hands and a peachwood sword at my side, I carved out a way to survive in a world where the living and the dead are hard to tell apart. Other people fear ghosts. I make my living off them. This is my Yin-Yang Journal. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.