Strange Tales of Youyang: The Red Thread Around the Heart

My name is Liu Mian. I've lived for eight hundred years, and I'm a willow tree spirit.

I run an antique shop in an old alley, specializing in old objects that are “impossible to tell apart from fakes.” Then one day, a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses walks in...

The thing in his hand can look up my “case history.”

The screen reads: Liu Mian, willow tree spirit, likelihood of involvement in crimes: 97%.

I smile. “Officer, I'm a law-abiding citizen.”

He remains expressionless. “A law-abiding citizen? Then explain why there are things from your shop at every crime scene.”

I lean closer and lower my voice. “Want to know? Then first tell me this...”

“Is my name in that ledger of karma you carry?”

His pupils contract sharply.

Only later do I learn that he has been waiting a thousand years for that answer.

And I've been searching for that person for eight hundred years.

The moment the red thread binds us, neither of us wants to let go.