The Seventh Self-Portrait is a gripping mystery novel blending psychological horror with an artistic puzzle. Art therapist Su Xun discovers that seven psychiatric patients have all painted the same “divided portrait”: the right half of the face is rendered with lifelike detail, while the left is horrifyingly blank. Then they begin dying under bizarre circumstances. At every crime scene, a seventh painting, completed in the victim's blood, is left behind. The portrait is of Su Xun herself.
Three years ago, Su Mi, Su Xun's younger sister, mysteriously disappeared after an art competition. Now, this killing game, with the number seven as its curse, seems inextricably linked to that competition. When Lu Shen, a criminal investigation captain, returns with an old case still unsolved, and Lin Wan, claiming to be a psychologist, approaches Su Xun behind a warm, reassuring facade, Su Xun is forced to confront her altered memories and a secret about mirror-image genes hidden deep within her family.
From blood paintings in a psychiatric hospital to a mirrored room in an art museum, from shattered glass to merging consciousness, a mad experiment in “perfect symmetry” gradually comes to light. Before the seventh painting is finished, Su Xun must unmask the eighth person, because on the other side of the mirror, someone is waiting to take her face and become a “complete” work of art.
