Return to the Desolate Village

The Return to the Barren Village begins six months after The Barren Village Apartment was published. I receive a bizarre-looking reply card from a fan club, with a strange circle drawn in the name field. At the same time, I get a desperate text from Su Tianping, a college student and one of the survivors who returned from the Barren Village. At his home, I find the exact same circle drawn on his window.

The ancient village is clearly involved, and the Liangzhu curse may still be unbroken.

In Su Tianping's computer, Chunyu and I find an important clue: footage from a DV tape shows a face so beautiful it is almost breath-taking. Her name is A Huan, the last queen of the ancient Liangzhu kingdom. Speaking to the shaky camera, A Huan says she has only seven days left to live. Then, just a few hours later, I have a strange encounter in a bar with Lin You, a waitress whose face is identical to A Huan's.

Hoping to see my beloved Xiao Zhi again, I cannot help but believe A Huan and put the jade ring from the Barren Village back on. I even overlook the fact that six whole days have passed since the day Su Tianping's trouble began.

Only twenty-four hours remain.

Chunyu and I have no choice but to return to the Barren Village.

Though the logic and reasoning seem flawless on the surface, the ending changes in an instant...

Following the threads of the bestselling novel The Barren Village Apartment, the story presents a huge mystery from the very beginning. The protagonist is forced into a state of anxiety, knowing that the truth must be uncovered within a limited time or disaster will strike. The characters' relationships are tangled, and the plot takes one unexpected turn after another. In the author's imagined world of suspense, love is the unchanging theme that runs through both history and the present.

Upon returning to the Barren Village, the curse of the jade ring still haunts us. Is the queen's spirit returning to life, or are two personalities locked in conflict? Perhaps the devil and the angel share the same body. Can love excuse selfishness, even when it demands a life in exchange? Near-perfect reasoning faces doubts about human nature, and the ending changes in an instant...