Crimson Garments, 1900

In the twenty-sixth year of the Guangxu reign, the Gengzi Incident threw the land into turmoil. Yuan County, where the scholar Pei An lived, was no peaceful place either. Drought demons ran rampant and refugees clogged the roads, while stranger things still unfolded inside the Pei family’s deep old mansion: an heirloom bronze mirror, a sealed dry well, and the gruesome death of his fiancée... One eerie encounter after another drew Pei An into a whirlpool of personal grudges and national duty, unveiling a legendary tale woven from personal tragedy and a lament for a fading age.

This story has no dazzling effects or duels of magic. It seeks only to return traditional supernatural fiction to the classical charm of strange tales.