A Truly Short Story, But One That Gets More Terrifying the More You Think About It

161 腺 Adenovirus Swimming Pool: My Child Disappeared After Being Dragged into the Live Broadcast After Sleeping Con Mao Ri11k WordsCompleted 44Reads8.5Score—Shelves

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"The rotten child is killed head-on" + "the sound of chattering teeth", the author is so good at writing! The oppressive feeling of a monster crawling above your head is simply mind-numbing! Purely recommended!

162 睡 Short Bedtime Horror Stories Gorgeous SevenMystery172k WordsOngoing 4Reads—Score—Shelves

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One chapter, one story, if you are too timid to enter by mistake

163 那 Is That Loser Me? Destroyed He Quanguo44k WordsCompleted 56Reads8.5Score—Shelves

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The most horrifying thing is human nature!

164 民 Folk Ghost Stories My Name Is XiaobaiMystery564k WordsCompleted 694Reads—Score—Shelves

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On those souls that refuse to rest in folk ghost stories. On moonlit nights, old people sit around the fire, their voices rising and falling, telling stories that "shouldn't exist but do exist". The children listened with bated breath, eager and fearful, wanting to escape but to get closer. This is the mysterious scene that has been passed down for thousands of years in folk ghost stories - a night ritual of collective unconsciousness, where the living and the dead reach a certain tacit conspiracy to jointly maintain the darkest but most real corner of the national spiritual world. The wandering spirits in Chinese folk ghost stories never follow a simple dichotomy of good and evil. The ghost foxes in Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" often value friendship more than humans. The souls who died unjustly in Ji Xiaolan's "Notes from the Yuewei Cottage" only seek the most basic justice. These stories constitute an inverted world view: the world of the living is hypocritical and snobbish, but the soul after death retains pure humanity. According to the legend of the "drowned ghost" circulating along the coast of Zhejiang, the water ghost's search for a substitute for three years is a rule allowed by heaven. However, when it finally gave up the opportunity to become a substitute and rescued a child who fell into the water, it showed a moral choice that transcended life and death. This complexity elevates ghost stories beyond a mere scare function into thought experiments exploring the limits of human nature. The undead spirits that refuse to leave in folk ghost stories are essentially unfinished narratives. The recurring plot of "injured souls entrusting their dreams" in "Taiping Guangji" is actually the projection of social injustice in the collective psychology. When the real judicial system fails, people create a justice compensation mechanism in the underworld. Behind the legend of "removing corpses" in western Hunan is a poetic expression of the desire of those who died in a foreign land to return to their roots; the story of "ghost marriage" in North China contains gentle compensation for the unfinished life of those who died young. The ghosts in these stories are "troublesome" not because they are inherently evil, but because they have unfulfilled wishes, unsolved grievances, and unexpressed emotions. Folk narratives give them a chance to complete their stories. When justice is achieved and wishes are fulfilled, those souls will leave quietly and complete the transformation from ghosts to ancestors. Today, with the advancement of science, we still need ghost stories. Not because of belief in ghosts, but because these stories carry marginalized memories that mainstream history is unwilling to record. A folklorist recorded in a village in Guizhou: The local legend about the "starving ghost" accurately preserved the traumatic memory of three difficult years, but official documents did not mention it at all. Ghost stories become unofficial historical archives, the wandering undead are unacknowledged victims, and their "haunting" behavior is the resurgence of memory. In the ghost stories of Taiwanese aborigines, their slaughtered ancestors turned into "bird spirits" and returned to their homeland every year; in the stories of old miners in the Northeast, gas explosion victims would continue to patrol the lanes in the form of "blue fireballs". These stories allow obscured historical truths to continue to have a supernatural voice. Contemporary urban legends are variations on ancient ghost stories. The "elevator ghost" in Shanghai's high-rise buildings continues the structure of the traditional house ghost story, but the setting has changed from an old house to a modern apartment; the "last train ghost" mentioned by Beijing taxi drivers is nothing more than an urban variation of the ancient "ghost hitchhiking" story. These new ghost stories also follow the ancient narrative logic: suddenly disappearing passengers, extra seats, unexplained surveillance footage... They constitute the spiritual defense mechanism of modern people - using supernatural explanations to digest the accidents and surprises in urban life. The legend that the ghost of an employee who died suddenly while working overtime at an Internet company "appeared at his workplace on time" is a silent indictment of the overwork culture. The charm of folk ghost stories lies precisely in this ambiguity - they are neither completely true nor purely fictional. When we tell these stories, we are actually conducting a philosophical discussion about the nature of existence: What is reality? Do the invisible things not exist? Where is the dividing line between memory and imagination? In a village in Gansu, people have passed down from generation to generation that there is a "ghost beating the wall" in the back mountain, and geological survey found that there is indeed a strong magnetic field abnormality there, causing disorientation. Scientific explanation and folklore reach a wonderful reconciliation here - the ancients used ghost stories to explain natural phenomena that they could not understand, and this explanation itself contains the confirmation of the phenomenon's existence. Those who laugh at the absurdity of ghost stories may not realize that each nation's attitude towards the dead reflects its civilization's attitude towards history, memory and death. There are very few purely evil ghosts in Chinese folktales; most can be appeased through sacrifice, salvation, or redress of grievances. This concept of "negotiable supernatural" embodies a unique spirit of secularism - even death cannot cut off the ethical responsibilities between people. Burning paper money on the Qingming Festival and setting off river lanterns on the Hungry Ghost Festival are essentially conversations between the living and the dead, and a continuous writing of unfinished stories. In the dead of night, when you walk alone down a dark corridor and suddenly feel an inexplicable chill, when you hear a soft knock on the door despite being alone at home... At that delicate moment between rational explanation and ancient memory, folk ghost stories gain their eternal vitality. They are the code words of our collective subconscious, the embodiment of repressed memories, the faint echoes of countless nameless figures in history. Next time you hear a bizarre ghost story, you might as well put aside your scientific arrogance and think about what kind of memory this story is trying to preserve, what kind of warning it is trying to convey, and what kind of narrative it is trying to complete. Because the souls wandering in the story may be an unrecognized part of ourselves. Although the story has just started, I follow these things (. O‿o.)✎

165 侦 Detective Mystery Book Lost SceneryMystery194k WordsCompleted 6Reads—Score—Shelves

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The second book is full of short stories! It's a suspenseful case to solve, and it's terrifying to think about it! These two books are worth recommending, both are well written! Very pretty! Solve the case through pure reasoning! ! The first one is a long continuous one! The same protagonist, unit crime solving type! The writing style is relaxed and humorous! The second volume has a different protagonist, and each volume is a new story! Every story has a different core! The content and writing style will be a bit depressing and heavy!

167 酒 Hotel Escape Yuzu Green Juice15k WordsCompleted 1Reads8.4Score—Shelves

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It's short, but the twists come one after another. You can't guess the truth until you see the ending.

170 送 Lose Yourself by Delivering a Takeaway? It's Really Yours! Partridge Yue6k WordsCompleted 14Reads8.6Score—Shelves

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A true horror story with a strong sense of immersion!

171 女 After My Girlfriend Betrayed Me, the Road to Revenge Was Long. The Rising BreezeMarriage & Romance13k WordsCompleted 574Reads9.3Score—Shelves

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A short revenge story with a compact plot and a coherent plot. In the face of betrayal, a real man will use bloody facts to make his life more exciting! Absolutely cool article!

173 半 My Door Was Knocked Down in the Middle of the Night. the Mysterious Man Told Me Not to Open the Door, but I Refused. Pumpkin Lanterns and Candied Haws Skewers25k WordsCompleted 4Reads8.6Score—Shelves

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Living alone late at night, with the screams for help outside the door, this short story is full of atmosphere. The mysterious message reminded me never to open the door. The woman outside the door was covered in blood, and the truth was hidden under fear.

174 一 One Flower, One Wine, One Immortal, Sleep, Get Drunk, and Live Forever Eat 100 Million Points LessEastern Fantasy1.0M WordsCompleted 224.3kReads9.5Score27.4kShelves

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Very sad to think about. Three swords per person. Don't believe the author when he says it's easy. The author's writing skills are profound and the pace is fast. Rare article. Quite unique.

175 夜 Listening to Strange Things at Night Qingluo LiuhuaMystery348k WordsCompleted 539Reads8.0Score—Shelves

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This little story is perfect for passing the time.

176 世 Strange Tales of the World Jia MuMystery899k WordsOngoing 740Reads8.5Score102Shelves

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It's really scary to think about it. The small workshop is so fierce in cutting materials. Show them all to me!

178 烟 Ashtray Huahua Sister-In-LawMystery323k WordsCompleted 81.4kReads9.5Score12.4kShelves

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Reversal, reversal and reversal. This book was so scary to me that I didn't dare to go to the toilet after reading it in the middle of the night. Don't be misled by the title and cover, the content is absolutely surprising [laughing]

179 阿 Aye's Diary of a Ghost Detective: Room 514 of the Old Hotel Wheat Watermelon RindMystery6k WordsCompleted —Reads8.5Score—Shelves

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Then I have to recommend this short story series that I am reading.

184 恐 Peak of Fear Zhou Mou Eating TomatoesMystery226k WordsOngoing 4Reads—Score—Shelves

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It's really a treasure book. It's very beautiful. I've been looking for it for a long time.

187 雨 Notes of the Rain God People Chasing the SunsetMystery400k WordsCompleted 4Reads—Score—Shelves

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The biggest feature of this book is that each fantasy story builds a huge and heavy realistic tone, with a lot of metaphors, satire, criticism and redemption interspersed in it. It has the curiosity and excitement of online novels, as well as the weight and depth of serious literature. It is worth reading.

188 欢 Horrible Twilight BirdUrban8k WordsCompleted 184Reads9.0Score—Shelves

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I have watched them all, they are really beautiful.

189 午 Midnight Surprise Qiaodou Sack QAQUrban171k WordsCompleted 522Reads8.7Score—Shelves

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🔥🔥These two are a collection of short stories. Each story is independent. It will make people scared after reading it. It's scary to think about it carefully. I highly recommend it [Like][Like][Like]

191 我 I Spent Ten Yuan on a Second-Hand Platform to Buy a Fiancé Singing Evening Among the Pines12k WordsCompleted 20kReads9.4Score145Shelves

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The plot is compact, the laughs are dense, and it's beautiful to watch.