Novels like The Living Must Keep Away
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Living Must Keep Away, best match first.
- 151 36,036 Terrifying Stories You’ll Regret Not Reading 不看后悔的36036个恐怖故事 [Standalone Stories] [Paranormal Events] [Unbelievable] [Forest Spirits] [True Cases] [Rural Ghost Stories] There is no overarching plot. Each chapter tells a self-contained story adapted from the encounters of a shamaness who can see spirits, and the strange, gripping tales surrounding each young friend she meets. 314Reads—Score—Shelves
- 152 Case Files of Unusual Investigations 异案调查录 Throughout the vast world, from ancient times to the present, there have always been mysterious events that humans cannot explain. And there is a group of people who endure countless hardships in their pursuit of the truth. The cases they investigate are all considered paranormal… 522Reads7.4Score—Shelves
- 153 Corpse Driving in Western Hunan: The Soul-Calling Guide on the Night Road 湘西赶尸：夜行引魂人 A sudden disaster at a mass grave! Wu Liangzi is struck on the back of the head and wakes among rotting coffins and bones, clutching a bloodstained piece of yellow paper. It bears the name of the man he has spent three years tracking down for murdering his father! Seven corpses in black robes dance around him all night, their lifeless eyes seeming to “acknowledge their master.” A mysterious corpse driver tosses him a life-and-death contract. “Four of your seven souls have scattered. If you can’t 240Reads—Score—Shelves
- 154 Strange Tales from the Road 行路诡闻 [Folk customs and suspense | Episodic stories | Immersive accounts] There's an old saying: Walk the night road three times, and ghosts and gods will follow you. Writer Lin Sui travels around gathering material, recording the rural ghost stories he hears along the way in the old notebook he carries with him. He has no spirit-seeing eyes and can't draw talismans or chant incantations. Faced with those indescribable horrors, his only weapons are the pen in his hand and his instinct for survival. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 155 Mysterious Curse 1 神秘诅咒1 [Supernatural Mystery + Urban Cultivation + Folk Taboos + A Passionate Coming-of-Age Story] Enter a sinister world concealed beneath the bustle of the modern city! I have no control over life or death. My name is Zhang Wen. I thought getting into college would let me escape that bleak village in the southwest. Then my grandfather died suddenly, with these words written in cinnabar on his palm: "Dig three feet down at the southeast corner of the wall." I unearthed a bloodstained notebook. Its fir 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 156 The Godslayer of the Countryside 乡村弑神者 [Chinese-style horror + not a power fantasy + more terrifying the more you think about it] When I was eight, my maternal grandfather took my two uncles and me to Chang'an Village to help harvest rice. Not long after we arrived, someone died under mysterious circumstances. Worried something might happen to me, my grandfather told my eldest uncle to take me home first. Before we left, he repeatedly warned us not to speak to anyone we met on the road. My eldest uncle agreed, and we hurried back. Ha 722Reads8.9Score105Shelves
- 157 Protected by My Ghost Wife, I Roam Freely Between the Worlds of Yin and Yang 鬼妻护体，我在阴阳两界横着走 [Multiple Heroines + Supernatural + Ghost Stories + First Person] To stay alive, I was forced into a ghost marriage and wed a female ghost in a coffin. Everyone laughs and says I won’t live long, but they don’t know that my ghost wife is the most terrifying being in both the world of the living and the underworld. The soul-takers come to claim souls? She beats them into submission. Vengeful ghosts harm people? She suppresses them with ease. From then on, protected by my ghost wife, I’m avoided 131Reads—Score—Shelves
- 158 A Collection of 365 Strange Tales and Horror Stories 365个奇闻异事和恐怖故事合集 This is a series of short horror stories. The writing isn't the focus; it's all about telling the stories. [Standalone stories + horrors that grow worse the more you think about them + mystery and the supernatural + urban legends + haunted homes + folk tales + strange tales + feng shui and mysticism] Are you ready? When night falls, these terrifying stories will begin crawling into the ears of the living... 736Reads—Score—Shelves
- 159 The Skinning Ghost 扒皮鬼 (Traditional supernatural horror + extreme horror + multiple twists + mystery + entirely handcrafted) Lately, I've been having nightmares every night. A fortune-teller said I might have a ghost clinging to me. He told me about a forbidden folk ritual: Put on a pair of worn underwear over your head, and it will block a ghost's sight. That night, I got home and followed his advice, half believing it. My girlfriend came back to the room after washing up and stared blankly at where I was. "Where... 64.7kReads8.3Score7.2kShelves
- 160 The Haunted Shroud 诡寿衣 My family sells burial clothes. Every seven days, a woman comes to order a set. Only at the end did I discover she had been ordering burial clothes for all four members of my family. 1.1kReads8.8Score117Shelves
- 161 Upholding Justice in Heaven's Name 替天行道 Yin cannot thrive alone, and yang cannot exist by itself. I grew up in the countryside, left behind by my parents and raised by my grandfather. All his life, Grandpa was either helping widows and orphaned girls or on his way to help them. So, for as long as I can remember, I heard the villagers cursing him behind his back. Then one day, a stranger in a burial shroud asked me a question. A tree without bark but with a soul is bound to die. What happens to a person with skin but no soul? The relat 3kReads8.9Score247Shelves
- 162 The Yin-Yang Artisan 阴阳诡匠 [Author's note: This book has no System and isn't mindless. Most of the events… really happened. Do not try any of the customs or taboos described here! Any consequences are your own responsibility!] It's better to offend the King of Hell than a poor carpenter. When you've worked as a carpenter long enough, you'll inevitably encounter all sorts of terrifying, bizarre accidents and stories. Sometimes, we're part of them ourselves. I used to think my grandfather was just an eccentric old carpenter 1.1kReads6.3Score102Shelves
- 163 The Daoheart’s Journey 道心征途 (This novel focuses primarily on horror, the supernatural, and suspense. It isn't mindless, it isn't about cultivating immortality, and the story is tightly connected. The early chapters lay the groundwork, and there are many genuinely frightening scenes. If you don't like it, feel free to say so in the comments!) My master said there are only two principles to being a Taoist priest. First: Never put off revenge until tomorrow. Let it fester in your heart, and it will throw your Daoist mind into 8Reads6.5Score—Shelves
- 164 The Last Paper-Cutting Artist 最后一位剪纸人 My name is Song Xiaohan. I’m a living corpse with no heartbeat, and a paper-cutting artist of the underworld. On the surface, I cut paper decorations for a funeral shop, but behind closed doors, I trade with humans and ghosts. My master passed away two months ago and left me the family craft, along with this modest little shop and my tools of the trade: a pair of scissors and a carving knife. “You want to make a deal with me? But all I want is your shadow!” Song Xiaohan grinned. 210Reads8.5Score—Shelves
- 165 Yin-Yang Headhunter: I Find Jobs for Ghosts, and They Ask Me Out 阴阳猎头：我给诡找工作，诡问我处不处对象 On the day he was laid off, Jiang Ye received a death notice: in thirty days, someone would throw him off a rooftop. To stay alive, he was forced to take a job at Yin-Yang Headhunting Co., Ltd., a company that specializes in finding jobs for ghosts. Every time he finds a job for a ghost, he unlocks part of the truth behind his own death. Every time he fails, another corpse spot appears on his body. Once they cover him from head to toe, the company will devour his soul. Every high-level order com 2.4kReads8.4Score369Shelves
- 166 The Ghost Physiognomist in Hemp Robes 麻衣鬼相 Some say it's difficult to understand another person, but to a face reader, understanding someone is easy. Others say you can't judge a person by appearances. I think it depends on who's doing the judging. My grandfather was a famous face reader of ghosts. He could read disaster and fortune, life and death, heaven and earth, and even uncover a person's past lives and future incarnations. When I was little, egged on by a group of friends, I kicked over the mound of an old grave. Luckily, my grand 1.4kReads8.5Score177Shelves
- 167 The Mountain and Sea Coffin 山海棺 Wooden coffins bury the dead, iron coffins conceal ghosts; silver coffins nurture demons, and golden coffins seal gods. After Grandpa dies, all spirits pay their respects at the shrine, and he is buried in a coffin among the mountains and seas... 371Reads8.2Score100Shelves
- 168 The Year I Was Born, Ghosts Came Looking for a Groom 我出生那年，鬼招婿 The year I was born, ghosts came seeking a bride. To stay alive, I slept in a haunted coffin. When I was twelve, I was forced to marry a ghost bride, bringing disaster upon us all. My grandfather had me take an unclaimed grave as my master. I thought things would finally be peaceful from then on. But the good times didn't last. I discovered by chance that my ghost wife had been by my side all along... 12.1kReads8.2Score1.1kShelves
- 169 My Master Gave Me a Car for Investigating the Supernatural 师父传我一辆看事儿车 A thousand-year-old van? Built by hand from scratch [Traditional horror]➕ [Even more immersive as an audiobook]➕ [Uncovering the truth about my origins] Greetings, dear readers! [Traditional supernatural horror, primal fear] The original experience of horror is the fear a person feels when experiencing it firsthand. [First person, highly atmospheric] Give me a chance to tell this story from my own point of view. [Uncovering the truth about my origins] Along the way, I met many people. “The gates 17Reads—Score—Shelves
- 170 The Demon in the Coffin 至棺重妖 The new novel, The Fragrance of the Living Dead: Handling Ghostly Affairs Among the Living, is now being serialized. The excitement never stops, with new chapters every day. If you enjoy it, please support the author, Ye Wei. Thank you all! [Mystery + Horror + Supernatural + Folk Tales of the Strange + Female Ghosts + Monsters + Mountain Spirits + Corpses] This is a strange little village hidden deep in the mountains... Ever since he was nine and encountered the dead rabbit crouched on his windo 1.6kReads9.2Score113Shelves
- 171 Grandma’s Ghost Stories 听奶奶讲灵异故事 I was raised by my grandmother. The bedtime stories I heard as a child were all supernatural events she had experienced herself. They scared me so badly I was afraid to go to the bathroom, but I could never resist listening to the end. What I didn't know was that the more stories I heard, the more likely they were to come true, and that I had plenty of secrets of my own. 159Reads6.7Score—Shelves
- 172 The Divine Mortician 神葬师 I am the peerless Divine Burial Master. I use heaven and earth as my coffin to bury every ghost and god in the world, and feng shui formations to safeguard the nation’s fortune for generations to come. The world honors me as the National Feng Shui Master. Bureau 749 regards me as its pillar of support, and I trounced the Kiku Sect. Yet in the ultimate battle ten years ago, I won but still lost everything. With my cultivation gone, all I could do was return to my hometown and wait to die. Then, o 28Reads—Score—Shelves
- 173 I Am a Taoist 我是一个道士 I'm a freak who combines the traits of a ghost, a virgin boy, and a star of ill fortune, and I also possess yin-yang eyes. I join a cursed Daoist sect. Watch as I struggle to make my way along the path of cultivation while bearing this curse. 159Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 174 Tales of the Supernatural 灵异怪谈 Yin-yang masters are fated to suffer the Five Evils and Three Deficiencies. Is there any way to escape their fate? A life-and-death romance with a bloodthirsty vampire zombie! After desperately searching for the Strange Records of Yin and Yang, he discovers it is all part of an even bigger conspiracy! The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, bloodthirsty vampire zombies, an inn in the underworld, an ancient Warring States tomb, and the Strange Records of Yin and Yang all feature in Strange Tales of the S 1.6kReads8.8Score137Shelves
- 175 The Grave Relocation Master 迁坟师 You've heard of yin-yang masters, fortune-tellers, and feng shui masters. But have you ever heard of a grave relocation master? Do you know how relocating a grave can affect the deceased's descendants? My name is Chen An, and I'm a grave relocation master. I've spent my whole life dealing with graves and bones. I've seen clients strike it rich after relocating a grave. I've seen clients rise to high office after relocating a grave. I've also seen clients whose entire clan died out after relocati 10.5kReads9.0Score911Shelves
- 176 I Have a Book of the Yellow Springs 我有一本黄泉书 [Decisive and Ruthless + Violent Ghost Exorcism + Kill, Never Save + No Goody-Two-Shoes] The most terrifying thing in this world is often not ghosts, but people, especially ruthless men like me, who kill instead of saving souls. Chanting sutras to send the dead to a better afterlife, saving all sentient beings? None of that exists where I’m concerned. In this age of underworld officials, vengeful ghosts, and supernatural monsters, I seek only one thing: exorcising ghosts. I kill them. I don’t sa 525Reads6.9Score—Shelves
- 177 The Coffin Bearer 抬棺匠 My family has dealt with the dead for generations. Following in my father’s footsteps, I became a coffin bearer. Before carrying a coffin, I always offer the deceased five incense sticks. When offering incense to the living, three long sticks and two short ones are taboo. When offering incense to the dead, three short sticks and two long ones are taboo. That day, I carried a coffin, and the dead pregnant woman inside gave birth to a pair of twins, a boy and a girl! [Shh, keep quiet! We’re settin 2.9kReads8.3Score194Shelves
- 178 The Corpse Keeper 守尸人 The morgue is where life and death meet. At this boundary, there are many taboos to heed. I grew up beside a hospital morgue, and I'll tell you about the hospital's taboos from a different perspective. Taboo 1: If you see a patient being resuscitated, don't gather around to watch. Taboo 2: If a patient's family throws away something the deceased used while alive, don't toss your own trash on top of it. Taboo 3: If you hear a cat meowing at night, don't go outside to look, whether you're a patien 917Reads6.3Score100Shelves
- 179 Fate of the Yin Realm 阴缘逆命 I was born with an extremely yin fate, making me the fattest piece of meat in the eyes of yin creatures. When I was thirteen, Li Xiaopang’s father, who lived next door, suddenly died away from home. On the night his body was brought back, someone knocked on our front door… A hand covered in livor mortis reached for my throat. Grandpa traded half his life to keep me alive. Before he left, he gave me a note telling me to go to Haizhou City, a hundred li away, and find a female master surnamed Shen 23Reads—Score—Shelves
- 180 Taboo of the Living 2 活人禁忌2 Heaven Official's Blessing, no taboos under heaven. The second installment of Living People’s Taboos! 8.1kReads9.1Score1.3kShelves
- 181 Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin 九龙拉棺 I became a corpse retriever to get rich and marry a wife. But before I could make a fortune, I pulled a delicate, stunning beauty out of the Yellow River... 4kReads8.8Score281Shelves
- 182 The Demon Taoist Breaks Through the Underworld Pass 妖道破阴关 (Supernatural horror, feng shui and geomancy, warding off evil and misfortune, one heroine) My parents used forbidden magic to conceive me, but on the day I was born, my strange appearance frightened them away... My third uncle raised me in a cage. I barely managed to grow up on borrowed yin virtue and incense offerings... On my eighteenth birthday, I was buried alive in the ancestral graveyard. She saved me... but she wasn’t human... 5.5kReads9.1Score496Shelves
- 183 Folktales of the Mountains and Wilds 民间山野怪谈 The hidden truths behind ten major unsolved mysteries, revealing a host of terrifying taboos that will send chills down your spine! 14.5kReads9.1Score960Shelves
- 184 Heir to the Five Arts 五术传人 All the arts of divination under heaven fall into five branches. They are: Mountain, Medicine, Destiny, Divination, and Physiognomy. More specifically, they include magic, talismans and incantations, the Four Pillars of Destiny, Zi Wei Dou Shu, Qi Men Dun Jia, feng shui based on the principles of qi, face reading, bone reading, and more... Our Wei clan is the guiding principle behind all five arts. The five arts encompass everything and seize the workings of Heaven. Thus, only those blessed with 1.7kReads8.3Score171Shelves
- 185 Folk Horror Taboos 民间恐怖禁忌 Do you know the stories old people tell? Do you know there are many things in folk tradition that people say must not be spoken of? Do you know what the elders say about dreams? The elders say there are things you mustn't talk about at night. Did you know that? 130Reads6.3Score—Shelves
- 186 The Underworld Bureau of the Yellow Springs 黄泉阴司 When I was a kid, I went to the back hill of the village to play and pick up human bones. There I stumbled upon a ghost opera and nearly lost my life. Luckily, a green snake saved me, but the snake also began a strange, shadowy romance. Ghost operas, spirit summoning, yellow-skin spirits' yin graves, peachwood seals against evil: the bizarre folk customs of southern Guizhou and chilling, uncanny tales of the worlds of yin and yang are coming your way. Warning: Not for the faint of heart!!! 5.8kReads8.4Score586Shelves
- 187 Ghosts in Pieces 散装见鬼 Do you believe there are ghosts in this world? I think that question is as impossible to answer as whether there are dragons in this world. The answer you hear most often is: Believe in them, and they exist. Don’t believe in them, and they don’t. But if you ask me, my answer is simple: Yes! Not because I believe, but because I can see them. Of course, I wasn’t able to see them from birth. It all goes back to the strange experience I had when I was six... 32Reads—Score—Shelves
- 188 The Blood-Binding Corpse Scripture 血引尸经 The world of Changbai’s demons, home to the northern immortals. I was just an ordinary village boy from Changbai Mountain until I accidentally obtained the strange books Blood Guide to the Corpse and Soul-Eating Blood Eyes. I wanted to save people, yet somehow I was always killing them. My father’s bizarre sect legacy, the thousand-year secrets of the Twelve Strange Sects, the shadowy depths of the Tomb That Moves Mountains. Just how many plots and mysteries are hidden all around me? The bronze 1.2kReads8.8Score158Shelves
- 189 My Years in the Funeral Business 我干白事儿那些年 The funeral services provider Gouqie runs a one-stop funeral business on a shoestring. Uncle Yang is attacked, bringing the Chenxing List to light. A perfectly ordinary funeral services provider is drawn onto the path of spirit-mediumship. Gouqie has seen every side of the human world, yet is pulled into another supernatural realm. This isn't transmigration. Funeral shops, funeral homes: Gouqie's business keeps growing, and so does the number of enemies! Meng Qin, the Chenxing List, the Qia 793Reads7.6Score102Shelves
- 190 Nine Dragons Hauling a Coffin 九龙拉棺 The day my grandfather died, all living things on Mount Kunlun paid their respects. Dark clouds churned as nine dragons pulled an emerald divine coffin down from the heavens... People said: When an immortal passes into meditation, heavenly thunder welcomes them back to their place in the celestial court; When nine dragons pull a coffin, a divine coffin buries an immortal's body. 4.5kReads7.9Score404Shelves
- 191 The Missing Body 丢失的身体 Two empty bottles of sleeping pills lay before the grave, and two kidneys lay before his son's grave. With a smile on his face, he leaned against his son's gravestone and slowly closed his eyes. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 192 Midnight Strangulation Marks on a Severed Hand 断手的午夜掐痕 That night on duty, my junior grabbed my sleeve, his voice trembling. “Senior, the patient who lost a hand in a drunk-driving accident half a year ago… he's dead.” A chill ran down the back of my neck as the memories came flooding back. Two accident victims had been brought to the hospital that day, and both had lost their right hands. Yet only one of them survived. Later, the survivor woke in the middle of the night with red marks where his own hand had choked him. His family sought help from e 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 193 The Forbidden Island of Human Nature 人性禁岛 I couldn’t get a ticket for the Spring Festival, so I took an unlicensed car home. I never expected the woman in the car to keep staring at me. I wanted to call the police... [Deep Dive] The horrifying truth behind going missing after getting into the wrong car during the Spring Festival. Don’t ride in unlicensed cars carelessly, because it’s not just your money that disappears, but your life! 1kReads8.6Score100Shelves
- 194 My Best Friend Disappeared While Picking Up Takeout, and Everyone Says She Never Existed 闺蜜取个外卖就失踪，所有人都说她并不存在 My best friend went out to pick up a delivery and never came back. She vanished from my life completely. Nobody remembered her. They all thought I was mentally ill. The truth was, we had been split across two different timelines. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 195 The Deadly Taboos of Horror 惊悚死人禁忌 [Definitely not ordinary paranormal fiction. Focused on horror and suspense, not mindless wish fulfillment. Folk tales of the supernatural, ghost babies. If you don’t like it after reading, feel free to criticize it.] A mountain village shrouded in mystery is beset by one strange incident after another. A coffin that cannot be lifted at a funeral, children mysteriously drowning, and the question of why a water ghost has appeared. What truth lies behind the deaths? A baby’s anguished cries ring o 154Reads—Score—Shelves
- 196 I Have a Book That Suppresses Ghosts 我有一本镇鬼书 [Wild imagination + ghost taming + fighting ghosts] [Punching Japanese Onmyoji in the face + kicking Satanist exorcists] During the Eastern Jin dynasty, the unorthodox Taoist Song Dingbo sealed more than a hundred evil ghosts that plagued the world inside a notebook. After his death, the notebook was buried with him in a grave on Yunwu Mountain. As the years passed, the grave was damaged one day in 2012, releasing all the ghosts. Li San, who happened to be on a mission nearby, was accidentally p 26Reads—Score—Shelves
- 197 Death Trip 死亡旅行 Before graduation, everyone wanted to take a graduation trip that was a little different, so one of my rich classmates rented an old, rundown cruise ship. On the first night aboard, the rich kid posted a raffle in the group chat: “I’ve prepared a grand prize for everyone. Entries close at midnight. We’ll reveal the luckiest winner tomorrow morning!” I was just about to open the link when an anonymous text came in. “Open it and you die.” 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 198 Horror Taboo: Returning the Soul Beneath the Coffin 恐怖禁忌，压棺回魂 The dead open their eyes, ghosts come to claim souls, the living borrow lifespans, and the dead press down on their coffins... One bizarre, uncanny experience after another keeps resurfacing in my mind like a nightmare. The strange tales in this book are mainly based on Yang Jian’s firsthand experiences... A warning: the actions in this book are for entertainment only. Do not imitate them! There are three kinds of people who read this book: thrill-seekers who aren’t easily scared... those who pu 997Reads6.2Score101Shelves
- 199 The Man Buried Upside Down 倒着埋的人 The Man Buried Upside Down 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 200 A Woman Fell from the Building at My Feet, Then Begged Me in the Middle of the Night to Avenge Her 坠楼女子落我脚边，半夜她哭着求我替她报仇 The Evil Spirit in the Talisman On a rainy night, I watched a girl jump from a tall building and die on the spot. Her soul latched onto me and demanded that I avenge her. 3Reads—Score—Shelves
