Forbidden Countdown: If I Wear a Skirt, You're Dead

The System says: Wear women's clothes, and you can see the countdown to taboos. Take them off, and all you can see are corpses.

I say: Fine.

The System says: Each outfit grants access to a different identity. A maid's uniform gets you into a mansion, a nurse's uniform gets you into the morgue, and a school uniform gets you into a school.

I say: Fine.

The System says: Your normal sexual orientation won't be a problem, right?

I say: No problem. But I have one condition:

When I'm wearing a skirt, make sure the killer doesn't get away.

My name is He Zhi. I'm a consultant for the Folk Customs Association, and the only person in the city to solve a taboo case while dressed as a maid.

Draw eyes on a paper doll, and you'll die within seven days. I make the boss draw the eyes himself.

A funeral procession must never take the same route twice. I make the killer walk himself back to where he started.

A shrine taboo says men in women's clothes aren't allowed inside. I walk in wearing a maid's uniform, and the shrine doesn't stop me.

Why? Because the taboo identifies me as a woman. It recognizes clothes, not people.

Later, a killer kneels on the ground and asks me, "Are you a man or a woman?"

I say, "Does it matter? You're going in either way."

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