[Mild Horror + Single Heroine + Infinite-Loop Plot]
"Sign this pact of nine lives on the line, and enter my theater beyond the mortal world..." On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of the underworld open, and an ancient theater suddenly appears in the gap between yin and yang. Chen Yan and four others are forced to become "actors," don masks of mystery, and plunge into terrifying performances where their lives are the stakes.
A folklorist's scholar mask can break taboo symbols; an undertaker's makeup artist's night-watchman mask can commune with the dead; a retired detective's Judge mask can spot lies; an opera student's Qingyi mask can soothe vengeful spirits; and a mute boy's Di Ting mask can hear the sounds of all things. From the fifth set of footsteps in a Republican-era columbarium to a blood-red betrothal letter at an urban ghost wedding, from a living person buried beneath a bridge to a killer on the thirteenth floor of a mirror world, every performance conceals folkloric secrets and historical grudges.
The "spectators" in the darkness watch every move, while the troupe leader in a golden Nuo mask holds life and death in his hands. The secrets each of the five carries about their family are all tightly bound to the theater's century-old feud. They can survive by following the ritual rules, but only uncovering the truth behind the chain of events can bring redemption. Will they complete nine performances, surrender their souls, and return home, or face the ultimate Nuo ritual and rewrite the rules? This terrifying feast spanning yin and yang was fated from the start to leave no one unscathed.
The Chinese-style horror is very good, the Nuo setting is eerie and atmospheric, the folk taboos are intertwined with the unit cases, and the group portraits are vivid and full of arcs. There is human torture hidden in the fear, and the main plot is dense with foreshadowing. The more you read, the more you get hooked. It is worth staying up late to catch up!