Rule Horror: From the Start, I’m the Doomed Groom in Liaozhai

Su Yu discovers that he has stepped into a matchmaking tower wedged between the realms of yin and yang. The entrance has vanished, there’s no way back, and bloodstained characters mar the wall: “Tenant Rules.” The tenants here are Nie Xiaoqian, Xin Shisiniang, Painted Skin, Ying Ning… Beautiful female ghosts, one and all, from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Trapped here by tribulations of love, they want to drain Su Yu’s yang energy, yet obsessively yearn for his love. The apartment’s rules are cold and bizarre: as the only compatible man, Su Yu must choose a room to spend the night in every evening. If he doesn’t, the yin energy surging through the building will tear him apart. If he fails, that night’s companion will devour him whole. Nie Xiaoqian, whose body is dozens of degrees below zero, pulls him into her arms, her breath as cold as frost. “I’m so cold. Hold me tight. Your body temperature… mustn’t fall below thirty-six degrees.” The nine-tailed fox Xin Shisiniang lazily raises her tail, her voice seven parts murderous intent and three parts seduction. “Pull out one hair and I’ll break one of your fingers. Come here and brush me.” Painted Skin draws on her brows, stifles her laughter with a kiss, and keeps him alive by sharing her breath… In this haunted apartment where the only way to survive is to “fall in love” with ghosts and monsters, Su Yu seems gentle and refined, but in truth he moves carefully at every turn. Until one day, he realizes that the female ghosts who once treated him like a plaything have started fighting each other over him.