Seven Nights to Ferry Souls

Seven Nights to Ferry Souls Prologue: The Ghost Gate Talisman Lin Ye received the package at three in the morning. The courier wore a baseball cap that covered half his face. He shoved a kraft-paper envelope sealed with a crimson wax stamp into Lin Ye’s hands and said only, “Come claim your things after seven nights.” Then he turned and disappeared into the thick fog at the mouth of the alley without even asking Lin Ye to sign for the delivery. Lin Ye opened the envelope. Inside was nothing but a sheet of old, yellowish paper covered in crooked brush-written characters: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the Ghost Gate opens. The soul ferrier enters Fengdu and braves seven trials to find the Gate of Life. Those who pass return to the world of the living; those who fail become ghosts.” A blood-red seal marked the lower-right corner of the paper, looking just like a bloody fingerprint, with a faint, still-damp metallic stench. Lin Ye assumed it was a prank and tossed the paper into the trash. But that very night, as soon as he closed his eyes, he heard someone reciting those words beside his ear. Before him stretched an endless sea of dense fog, and within it stood a dark, imposing city gate. Three gilded characters were inscribed above it: Fengdu City. When he woke again, he was lying in a drab courtyard house. Seven people stood around him: an office worker in a suit and tie, a student with a canvas backpack, a muscular man with a buzz cut and tattoos, and others. Each of them clutched a sheet of the same yellowed paper as his. “Welcome to the Fengdu Soul-Ferrying Bureau.”