[Rule-based horror + Supernatural resurgence + Folk magic + One heroine]
When others see a rule, all they can do is obey. Break it, and you die.
When Lu Ze sees a rule, the first thing he looks for is a loophole.
"Those entering the building must not look back", loophole: looking behind you in a reflective surface doesn't count as turning back.
"You must obey any announcement you hear", loophole: if you can't hear it, the rule can't reach you.
"Do not touch the walls", loophole: touching them through your clothes doesn't count.
While everyone else trembles in fear under the rules, Lu Ze exploits their loopholes and makes his way to the source.
Thirty years ago, his grandfather discovered the "Source of Rules," was betrayed, and died beneath its seal.
Thirty years later, Lu Ze grips the cinnabar dagger his grandfather left behind and pushes open the door that was sealed shut.
A stranger in a raincoat delivers him a rulebook, a lamplighter invites him to serve as an outside consultant, and the Third Concubine, buried alive in an old Republic-era mansion, asks him, "You can hear me, can't you?"
The rules are alive.
And he is the only one who can see their loopholes.
