Matching Scars

Shen Yuan, 24, lives alone in a small town. One rainy autumn night, Lin Zhou, his childhood friend from the same village, shows up, claiming he needs a place to stay during a business trip. As they chat, Lin Zhou reveals a crescent-shaped scar on his right arm and says Shen Yuan pushed him and caused it when they were children. But Shen Yuan is startled to discover that he has an identical scar on his left arm, from falling by himself years ago. For the first time, he feels a seed of doubt.

Over the next few days, Lin Zhou’s words and actions are riddled with inconsistencies. He contradicts himself about their childhood, keeps probing into Shen Yuan’s private life, and is even caught rubbing Shen Yuan’s arm in front of a mirror. On his neck is a mark identical to the concealed surgical scar Shen Yuan got after a car accident. Grandma Wang, an old neighbor from their home village, calls to vaguely warn him that the Lin family is sinister, then vanishes mid-conversation. Growing increasingly uneasy, Shen Yuan begins investigating in secret.

After returning to his hometown, Shen Yuan learns the truth. His ancestors tricked the fortune-teller Chen and were cursed: for three generations, no male heir of the Lin family would live past 25. Lin Zhou was adopted from a collateral branch to prolong the family line. To break the curse, they need three natal scars from someone born on the same day as him. Shen Yuan’s crescent scar, surgical scar from the car accident, and burn scar on his lower back are exactly the three required. The child who fell in the old alley was Lin Mo, the Lin family’s legitimate heir. Shen Yuan tried to save him but was stopped. The Lin family twisted the story, accusing him of refusing to help and making it a karmic bond they could use to steal his life.

To prolong his own life, Lin Zhou has been keeping Shen Yuan under surveillance for years and has already killed two people born on the same day. On Shen Yuan’s birthday, Lin Zhou sets up a life-borrowing ritual in the old alley and summons the lingering souls of three generations of the Lin family to forcibly take Shen Yuan’s scars. Shen Yuan’s memories return completely. Relying on the blood talisman his mother left behind and his natal jade pendant, he uses the blood of a close relative and his own natal fortune to break the formation.

In the end, Lin Zhou is destroyed by the backlash of his own sorcery. But a stranger appears outside Shen Yuan’s window, with a crescent scar on his arm. The hidden threat of the Lin family’s curse has never been completely eradicated