My name is Zhang Changqing. I'm eighteen, a handsome young fellow born and raised in some corner of Northeast China.
I've been sick since I was in the womb. I have a low fever that never goes away, and I stagger when I walk, but the local clinic can't find anything wrong.
My dad says it's not an illness. It's a debt!
A debt to the Underworld!
On the first day of every month, the Underworld sends a bunch of collectors to my door on schedule to demand payment.
The scene is as loud as drums and firecrackers, just like New Year's.
While other families reunite on the first of the month, mine gets wiped out.
To keep me alive, my dad traveled all over the three northeastern provinces, begging every kind of immortal for help.
But as soon as they saw my birth details, they'd turn and leave:
"This debt is too big. The immortals can't handle it."
My dad passed away last month...
Now all those Underworld debt collectors are coming for me!
I thought I was done for this time, but then the black cat at my house suddenly started talking!
Yes, the one that eats dried fish all day and does nothing but sleep in!
That's when I learned that the guardian spirit my Zhang family worshipped wasn't a guardian spirit at all. It was an unofficial employee of the Underworld!
The boss cat said, "Kid, if you want to live, learn how to fight ghosts from me. Each one you beat buys you ten years of life."
I figured, if I beat ten thousand ghosts, wouldn't that be enough to pay off my Underworld loan?
The boss cat looked at me like I was an idiot.
"First, try to survive the first of this month..."
It's great that a cat can also be a guardian angel!
Cats are guardians of the family and can also be used as lucky cats
This book is written about the Northeast in 1997, full of sense of age and horror!