Rule Horror: The Late-Night Convenience Store Doesn't Sell to the Living

Chen Yan takes over a convenience store that stays open late into the night. The contract says he has to keep it running for seven days straight or pay three million in damages. He owes sixty-three thousand and has nowhere to run.

There are five store rules. Rule Four: No living customers allowed.

On the first night, a faceless woman in red shoes comes in, wanting to buy back her own name. On the second night, an inspector uses a black card to change the store rules to last just one second. On the third night, a line appears on the register screen: The 100th customer is exempt from the rules. The countdown is seven days.

A man trained in law, sitting in a convenience store and tending the oden, lays down rules for ghost stories. He writes the store rules one by one and takes on the inspectors one by one. Rules aren't made to be obeyed. They're made to be enforced.

Seven days, one thousand and one transactions. When the 100th customer arrives, he has to write a rule for the entity that is "exempt from the rules."

If he can't, the store is gone, and so is he.