Red Shoes Summon Souls: A Survival Record of Folk Taboos

After his grandfather mysteriously disappears, Lin Mo is forced to return to Qingwu Village, a place cut off from the outside world. The old locust tree at the village entrance, the funeral wails heard in the dead of night, and the ancestral shrine with its nameless memorial tablets conceal terrifying taboos passed down through generations. The ghosts here all take form from folk legends. They have no physical bodies, follow no rules, and, most importantly, cannot be killed. The only way to survive is to follow the taboos and find a way out. One wrong step means eternal damnation. From the first night the “Hanging Ghost” haunts him, Lin Mo understands that the battered copy of Notes on Ward Off Evil left by his grandfather is his only guide to survival. Never look back when you hear a funeral wailer; never blow out a life-borrowing lamp; send a substitute when returning a soul to a corpse... Behind every taboo lies a horrifying tale of death. He must escape one folk horror legend after another and uncover the truth behind his grandfather’s disappearance, while also watching out for the villagers, each with their own schemes. They seem to obey the taboos, but are actually using the legends for their own unspoken purposes. As his investigation deepens, Lin Mo discovers that Qingwu Village is a vast “cage of legends,” and that the unkillable ghosts are monsters the villagers’ obsessions and taboos have fed for a hundred years. He himself has long since been chosen by legend as its next “sacrifice.” Either he masters every taboo and escapes the ghosts’ pursuit, or he breaks a rule and becomes the latest footnote in the legend. This is a deadly game with no way back: taboos are the path to survival, and legends are death warrants.