The Third Commandment

This is a novel written to dispel childhood fears.

A ghost in the mirror? That's a demon who's been lonely for a thousand years and sometimes, when terribly bored, teases the girls in the restroom.

A ghost under the bed? That's the God of Misfortune, who sometimes sneaks over to use your phone charger while you're asleep.

That hanging ghost on the power line? That's just their idea of a fun pastime. They're really not trying to scare you.

Oh, and the abandoned schools and ancient mountain temples... The ghosts in those places are good, law-abiding socialist ghosts, with blood in their veins, cold bodies, and warm hearts!

Wen Xiaodao had been a coward since childhood, so to give himself courage, he invented a way to comfort himself: whenever he was scared, he'd shout, "May gods and ghosts haunt me!"

On his seventeenth birthday, Wen Xiaodao finally realized that his words had caused countless ghosts and gods to haunt him.

And for all these years, he had never even noticed that "they" were there...

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