Hu Sanjin, from the outskirts of a city in Northeast China, learned how to read signs of the supernatural from his grandmother as a child. His family venerates the five spirit clans: fox, weasel, hedgehog, snake, and rat. A huge black dog named Tiedan, who can communicate with spirits, sits in the courtyard. He usually helps the neighbors deal with minor hauntings and diagnose spiritual ailments, earning a little money along the way. By chance, a small job brings him into contact with the entertainment industry.
First, there’s a fan girl plagued by “something unclean,” with two of the three lights above her head extinguished, muttering nothing but a celebrity’s name. Then there’s a young traffic star who’ll stop at nothing to get famous, stealing luck and souls and using his fans’ vitality as stepping stones. There are also entertainers and industry bigwigs who raise little ghosts, wear yin talismans, and keep birds in cages to prove their loyalty, treating forbidden arts as shortcuts to ascension... Beneath the entertainment industry’s glitter lies a greed greater than any ghost or god, and hearts more poisonous than any baleful energy.
