Novels like The Unusual Case Investigation Bureau
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Unusual Case Investigation Bureau, best match first.
- 151 The Secret of Chaoxiao 朝校的秘密 In the village where my family lives, every household's first child has to be a girl. The day after their tenth birthday, these girls are sent to a place called Chaoxiao on the other side of the mountain. They say it's a paradise for girls. That is, until a black cat appeared in the village. 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 152 The Secret of Chongcao Village 虫草村的秘密 “The cordyceps we raise are so fast, you can’t even catch them.” I was watching this funny video on a certain short-video app. Comments flew across the screen. Some people said the joke was hilarious, while others earnestly explained that cordyceps couldn’t possibly run fast. But I knew the joke wasn’t funny at all, because I had seen fast-running cordyceps myself. Perhaps “rabbit cordyceps” would be a more fitting name. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 153 Huizhu Village 慧猪村 My college roommate claimed she came from an ancient village called Huizhu Village. She said the village got its name because, from ancient times to the present, it had produced many high-ranking officials and top scholars, as if its villagers were born with pearls of wisdom. It wasn’t until she talked the rest of us in the dorm into visiting her village around the Qingming Festival that I learned it was actually called “Wise Pig Village.” 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 154 The Doll Grows Cold 人偶失温 Everyone says I must have done something virtuous in a past life for Qin Chuan to choose me. Only I know that's not the case. He married me because he wanted me dead. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 155 The One-Yuan Villa 一元别墅 Never believe that a windfall will fall from the sky. At 28, I was “hit” by a villa, but I don't have much time left. Now I have to find my next heir. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 156 True Tales of Ghost Encounters: Paranormal Files 撞鬼实录之灵异档案 Li Yuanfeng was born with unusual eyes and ears. It was those eyes that helped him solve one bizarre case after another... One shocking tragedy after another, desperate screams for help, a terrifying game at a university in the dead of night... A man embedded in a wall... A child used as a sacrifice... The secrets of an ancient, haunted house... What are the voices from the well trying to tell us?... How can severed limbs be pieced back together?... A pair of eyes that can see through every cycl 334Reads8.8Score103Shelves
- 157 Paper Cutting to Prolong Life 剪纸续命 Three days after his master's death, Chen Zhi's name was pressed into a paper-cut figure. Someone cut paper outside his door late at night. A paper figure bearing his name appeared at the doorstep, and from then on, the blue-black mark on his hand began to seep inward along his veins. Paper can ward off evil and bind souls. And the darkest art of the Paper-Cutting Sect is called Name Binding. To stay alive, Chen Zhi can only follow the torn pages his master left behind, the black sand beneath t 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 158 Night Talks at the Threshing Ground 打谷场夜话 Long ago, in the countryside, there were no phones, televisions, air conditioners, or fans. When darkness fell in summer, people would head to the threshing ground to cool off, sit in a circle, chat, and start telling strange and terrifying ghost stories… 1.7kReads—Score103Shelves
- 159 The Vanishing Her: Who Is My Girlfriend, Really? 消失的她：我的女友究竟是谁 I'm a corporate wage slave. I've noticed my girlfriend has been acting strangely lately. She often dances in front of the mirror in the middle of the night and makes all sorts of eerie expressions. Worried about her, I started investigating her in secret. I discovered that she has a twin sister with dissociative identity disorder. The hospital staff said her sister went missing a month ago. My girlfriend seems to have changed completely around the same time. Just as I sat at my computer, feeling —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 160 The Death Camera 死亡相机 I don't like digital cameras. I like old-fashioned film cameras. After my grandfather's funeral, I inherited one of his belongings: an unused roll of film. My grandfather once said, "Don't touch the future, or you'll be caught up in an unknown disaster." I didn't understand what he meant then, not until a short while later, when I used that roll of film to photograph a murder. A murder that had yet to happen. 12Reads—Score—Shelves
- 161 A Sheet of Human Skin 一张人皮 When beads of blood seeped from the claw marks on Li Jun's back, I recognized their shape: they were fingernail marks, exactly like the ones on the female corpse at the crematorium thirty years ago. Three days earlier, when he tremblingly handed me that faded pellet drum, the smiling faces of the boy and girl painted on its surface had suddenly split open, revealing locust-wood grain writhing beneath the skin. Now the lights above the emergency room flickered, and black blood was flowing through 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 162 A Security Guard’s Guide to Survival 保安求生之路 After a phone call and a nightmare, the ordinary life of Qin Yun, a lowly security guard, is turned upside down. He encounters one bizarre event after another, unsure whether the people around him can be trusted or the things beside him are safe. As dreams and reality intertwine, he searches through the unknown for a way to survive. 54Reads—Score—Shelves
- 163 749 Special Incident Investigation Bureau 749特殊事件调查局 [Based on real experiences. Just listen for fun, and I hope you enjoy it.] [No superpowers + first person + in the style of Strange Tales from the Ministry of Culture. If you like Strange Tales from the Ministry of Culture, jump right in.] At last, I have the chance to write a story about this mysterious department. I don't know how many people have heard of Bureau 749, let alone how many know anything about it, but Bureau 749 has always been shrouded in mystery. Its full name is the Bureau of S 7.5kReads7.5Score493Shelves
- 164 Major Crimes Unit: The Struggle Between Good and Evil 刑侦重案组：正与邪的博弈 [High-Stakes Suspense] [Mystery] [Forensic Medicine] [No Romance] [Clash of Wits] At the heart of this novel is the political protection shielding a cross-border organ trafficking network, along with the infiltration of foreign forces. The provincial public security department's Criminal Investigation Corps has a Major Crimes Special Operations Unit. Using a big-data analysis platform, it investigates cases through an integrated approach combining crime-scene examination, psychological profiling 2.8kReads6.9Score179Shelves
- 165 The Outcast Ghost of Wancun Village 万丛村的边缘鬼 Some say death, the end of life, is the fairest thing of all because everyone dies. But in truth, unfairness is absolute, fairness is relative, and even the end can be unfair. There are homeless wanderers with nowhere to live and no place to call home, and there are the rich, with mansions everywhere. The same goes for ghosts: some are lonely spirits with "nowhere to be buried," while others are wealthy ghosts with burial grounds bigger than a kingdom... Wanderers are pitiful, and lonely ghosts 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 166 The Number One Yin Messenger 第一阴差 Wandering souls, where will you linger? Three souls, come back at once; seven spirits, return! Lost soul, the gates of heaven open, the gates of earth open. A thousand-mile journey, let the child bring the soul home! The day I was born, strange signs appeared in the heavens. Misfortune plagued me from childhood, and it’s a miracle I survived this long. After I came of age, something happened that shattered everything I thought I knew. My dad told me he was the underworld’s bailiff in Spring City 142Reads—Score—Shelves
- 167 A Dead Man Fathers a Child 死人生子 Zhang Ni was the prettiest girl for miles around. Yet even though she was old enough to marry, not a single matchmaker came to ask for her hand. Some said she willingly sneaked off into the fields with the village chief's son. Others said the village chief followed right behind his son as soon as he went in. Smack! A slap landed on Zhang Ni's rosy cheek. "I've nearly settled the bride price, and now you're telling me you don't want to marry him?" Marry whom? This was going to be the death of the —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 168 My Girlfriend and Best Friend Are Plotting to Have Me Killed 女朋友和好兄弟密谋让我去死 “Do you believe a painting can kill someone?” I took a job worth three hundred thousand yuan: recreating Along the River During the Qingming Festival. At first, I thought it was just an ordinary copy, until the old man from the coffin shop in the painting knocked on my bed in the middle of the night, a woman in a white dress silently watched me from the entryway, and the “boat girls” that had appeared out of nowhere seeped into every stroke of paint like a curse. My buddy urged me on: “Fortune f 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 169 At Bureau 749: I Slay Everything with a Nuo Mask 人在749局：我以傩面杀穿一切 [Decisive and Ruthless + Supernatural Resurgence + Plenty to Read] A bloody urban legend at Cangnan University tears a hole in Yin Hong’s peaceful life. The red sandalwood Nuo mask his parents left behind before disappearing turns out to be a forbidden object connected to the ancient Nether Ruins. As the bronze pattern of a glaring face and bristling beard creeps across his skin, he hears countless shamans chanting war songs inside his skull, while the golden-red blood surging through his veins 5.3kReads7.3Score615Shelves
- 170 The Soul Ferryer Between Yin and Yang 阴阳渡魂人 Soul-snatching ghost weddings, bathroom hauntings, the legend of the red-clad senior, Thai black magic, ghost soldiers borrowing the road, man-eating mountain demons, nightmare fiends that enter your dreams, the mystery of the headless woman, a bizarre bride in an escape room, vengeful child spirits, games that summon ghosts, human organ trafficking, a shocking exhibition of human deformities, and long-lost Maoshan secrets... Do these things send a chill down your spine? - The truth is, this wor 186Reads9.2Score102Shelves
- 171 Daughter Village 女儿村 I was born in Daughter Village. For twenty years in a row, every child born in our village was a girl. Every nightfall, the cries of baby girls echoed through the valley. Once, a Taoist priest came to our village and said the entire village was cursed. During the summer of my first year of graduate school, my advisor ignored my protests and brought me and several other students to the village to conduct research. 11Reads—Score—Shelves
- 172 Trading a Life for Wealth 借命换财 The money Grandma had secretly buried in the ground to treat her terminal illness was gone. I didn’t find out it had been stolen until our neighbor started livestreaming to show off his wealth. He’d also stolen the lucky doll I used to pray for Grandma’s recovery, and showed everyone how its wishes always came true. But the neighbor had no idea: he was trading luck for money. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 173 Seven Hours of Terror in the Villa District 别墅区惊魂七小时 In the early hours of Qingming, a notice from the deceased property manager, Bohe, appeared in the residents’ group chat: “Pay your property fees in full by nine.” The residents sneered, until the doors and windows locked, the phones lost signal, and at exactly nine, everyone who’d skipped their payments jumped to their deaths. The bloody footage played on loop across every screen. I pulled out the payment records. My wife looked away. When I was tearing down an illegal structure, she’d secretly —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 174 The Skeleton in the Wall of Dorm Room 404 404女寝墙里的尸骨 In November 2025, human remains were discovered in a girls' dormitory at a high school. I sat in my swivel chair, with the DNA test report the lab had just sent over beside me. It read: DNA testing was conducted on hair follicles from clothing found with the remains inside the wall of Room 404, the girls' dormitory at Xingming Private High School. Preliminary findings suggest the victim died between six and ten years ago. Name: Chi Zhuo, male, 181 cm... I stared intently at the name, then took a —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 175 Possessed by a Starving Ghost on the Ghost Festival 七月半饿死鬼附身 When I was little, the village elders used to say that on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell swung wide open and restless spirits roamed everywhere. It was the worst night of all to go out. But I refused to believe in that sort of thing. I opened a tea shop in a mahjong parlor, thinking I could make a little extra money. Instead, I came face to face with something I should never have seen. No one was in the private room, yet I heard it bustling with noise. A customer —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 176 Who Killed Him? 是谁杀了他 At 8:30 on Saturday night, a woman arrived at her friend's home for dinner, as invited. The security door was ajar, and light from the hallway spilled through the gap, brightening the entryway. She could just make out the outline of a person lying flat in the bedroom opposite the door. As she turned on the lights, she caught sight of a woman lying facedown in the middle of the kitchen, vomit piled around her nose and mouth, half her face submerged in dirty water. Water from the sink dripped over —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 177 Department of Paranormal Investigations 神秘事件调查处 The Secret Incident Investigation Bureau, Book One As a child, Zhuge Yun was struck by lightning and branded with a thunder rune. During an archaeological excavation, he accidentally awakened the thunder element within himself. After joining the Ninth Division, under the Huaxia government’s secret agency, Bureau 749, Zhuge Yun and his teammates handled all kinds of supernatural incidents. The mysterious Poyang Lake Delta, ghost soldiers crossing the land, resurrected terracotta warriors in the M 4.4kReads8.4Score250Shelves
- 178 Bureau 749: What's Wrong with a Rogue Cultivator Taking the Civil Service Exam? 749局：我一个邪修考编怎么了 (The rating just came out, and it’ll go up later.) A special new member has joined the 749th Branch Office in Xikai City. Chen Xie, a transmigrator, male, 20 years old, and the only decent person ever to come out of Villain’s Valley in the Ten Thousand Mountains. His three masters are the Ghost-Refining Patriarch, the Gu Poison Ghost Doctor, and the Yin Trade’s Paper Effigy Granny. They taught him: “Be reasonable when dealing with people. If reason doesn’t work, send them off with physical exorc 76.8kReads8.7Score7.4kShelves
- 179 Thirteen Tales of the Strange 十三事诡录 Her mother-in-law works in obstetrics and gynecology and is always bringing home strange medicinal soups to drink. Little Lu saw someone dump a body by the river with her own eyes, but the body disappeared. All night long, lights and shadows move inside the psychiatric hospital... 27.9kReads8.8Score492Shelves
- 180 I Have the Body of a Ghost King, Yet Became the Strongest Exorcist 我，鬼王之体，却成了最强术士 [Traditional supernatural horror, folk horror, strange tales and bizarre encounters, taboos of yin and yang] On the third day of the third lunar month, ghosts go mad. Chen Sansan was born on just such a day. Because of him, his father was buried alive by his master in the old house in Heilong Village. For his sake, his master was trapped in a tiny room. As for Chen Sansan, he has no choice but to keep signing contracts between yin and yang with ghosts to prolong his life. Otherwise, he won't sur 40Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 181 The Sins That Linger in the Long Night 长夜余罪 Crimes run rampant through the city late at night. Behind seemingly unrelated deaths lie layers of conspiracy and grudges decades old. Task force captain Huo Xun is called in during a crisis and leads his elite team into action. Forensic analysis, online tracking, psychological profiling, field operations and manhunts... Every case is a battle of wits against the devil. The end of the night does not necessarily bring the dawn. But as long as the truth remains hidden, they will never stand down. 3Reads—Score—Shelves
- 182 Forbidden Horror: Don't Look in the Mirror at Night 禁忌怪谈：晚上不要照镜子 Taboo Horror: Don’t Look in the Mirror at Night —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 183 Horror Park: I Teach in the Ghost Realm, and the Boss Cries While Doing Homework 惊悚乐园：我在鬼域搞教育，BOSS哭着写作业 Horror Paradise: I Teach in the Ghost Realm, and the Boss Cries While Doing His Homework 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 184 The Ghost Bride (Based on a True Story) 鬼新娘（真实事件改编） The Ghost Bride (Based on a True Story) 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 185 Fish Woman 鱼女 My father was a famous fisherman in the villages around us. Whenever he went out to sea, he always caught more fish than anyone else. He gutted countless live fish, scraped off their scales, and chopped off their heads. Then one day, he brought home a sea fish as tall as a person, and the entire village came to gawk. He turned down a merchant's offer to buy it, killed the fish himself, and put on a feast for the villagers, serving every part of it. The banquet lasted all night. The next day, the 56Reads—Score—Shelves
- 186 The Secret of Dad's Death 爸爸死亡的秘密 When I was seven, my dad died. An accident sent me back to the 24 hours before his death. I did everything I could to save him. But I never could have imagined it. This time, the one who killed my dad was... —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 187 The Real Lunatic and the Fake Patient 真疯子假病人 In my dream, I thought it was nothing more than a dream. But when I woke up, someone beside me was lying on the ground, clutching their arm and crying out in pain. Now, I've dreamed of the crime scene once again. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 188 Lover in a False World 虚假世界的爱人 My wife has been acting strangely lately. She keeps pestering me, saying she wants me to stay by her side forever. I can't help finding it a little funny. "Of course I'll stay by your side forever and ever, honey." But whenever she hears me say that, her body stiffens noticeably. Then she goes back to her room alone and locks the door. No matter how I try to coax her from outside, she refuses to open it. —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 189 Longevity Soup 长寿汤 When I was little, Liu Laoer’s family in the village made a living selling goat-horn powder. The powder came from the horns of female goats. Though those horns were short and slender, Liu Laoer would skin and butcher female goats alive right after they gave birth. Then he would cut off their horns and grind them into powder. He would add the powder to soup made with freshly slaughtered lamb. They said drinking it regularly could help you live a long life. 13Reads—Score—Shelves
- 190 Escape from Hell 逃出地狱 Because my cousin is weak-willed and a classic henpecked husband, my sister-in-law's family wanted to take my father's inheritance all for themselves. Just before my father was about to die of his illness, they actually kidnapped me and sold me into northern Myanmar, that living hell, without my cousin's knowledge! —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 191 Double Taboo 双重禁忌 When Dongzi was a child, there were many deadly taboos in the village. For example, a pregnant woman must never cross paths with a funeral procession. If she did, the dead person's soul would enter her body, turning her into a man-eating evil ghost. Another taboo was that anyone who lived past a hundred would become an evil ghost. Three days before an elder turned a hundred, people had to take them to the back mountain and leave them to fend for themselves. If they kept the elder at home, the ev 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 192 The Haunted Inn 惊魂旅馆 An unexpected downpour drowned out the sounds of murder. Late at night, in a remote inn, a corpse lay sprawled across a bed, blood pouring from all seven orifices. The killer seemed to be hiding among the guests, none of whom trusted one another: a police officer, a writer, a psychiatrist, a celebrity, a fan, a college student... Every one of them had something to hide. After a second murder, the line between the dead and the living grew increasingly blurred. Everyone was a suspect, and everyone 4Reads—Score—Shelves
- 193 The People Around Me and I Had the Same Dream 我和周围人做了一样的梦 I knew I was dreaming, but everything in the dream was strange. When I woke up, I discovered that my coworkers and I had all shared the same dream. It turned out to be a monster's trap. 2Reads—Score—Shelves
- 194 Never Go to the Old House 千万不要去古宅 Na Ling and Bao Datong were looking for a thrill, so they drove around robbing old houses. One day, they came across a photo of Fengmen Village online and went there to steal a Grand Tutor's chair. They sold it to Li Wei, a chamber of commerce boss, but because the chair was haunted, he resold it to the speculator Meng Guozhao. During the handoff, Na Ling secretly kept the jade marrow hidden inside the chair. After leaving Fengmen Village, Na Ling traveled to Anhui, where he stumbled upon the an 7.8kReads8.6Score233Shelves
- 195 An Unremarkable Jumping Death Case 不起眼的跳楼案 My fiancé, who had been overseas for three years, called to tell me he was coming back the day after tomorrow. I went to meet him at the airport. On the way home, he proposed, and I said yes. But this morning, he disappeared again, because I had once more returned to the day he called me. I've already relived these three days seven times. 1Reads—Score—Shelves
- 196 The Life-Extending Money 借寿钱 After a friend dies in a bizarre car accident, could a hundred-yuan bill inscribed with “Borrow your years to buy my life” really be a deadly curse? At the funeral home, he uses “life-borrowing money” to buy an urn, only to be haunted by the dead man's mother in a strange way. A talisman hides a sinister plot, and three life-borrowing bills appear out of nowhere at midnight! A locked kitchen, boiling water, knives falling for no reason... Who is controlling this deadly game? 273Reads—Score—Shelves
- 197 The Dark River's Book of Crimes 暗河罪书 I write with care, creating stories readers feel were worth their time and cases they can talk about. Some characters and events in this novel are based on real cases, blending reality with fiction. Not AI-generated + no goody-two-shoes heroines + mind-blowing twists + explosive plot + every facet of life People can look up and see the Milky Way billions of light-years away, yet look down and fail to see the underground rivers just a few hundred meters beneath their feet. In those dark, turbulen 1.3kReads8.2Score214Shelves
- 198 The Haunted Houses I’ve Experienced 我经历的凶宅 The older generation often says that people who die violent deaths cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation. Their souls endlessly haunt the places where they died, seeking substitutes. Only then can they be reborn. That’s why we often hear in the news about car crashes that keep happening at certain locations. Sometimes the place isn’t even a proper intersection, yet terrible accidents leave cars wrecked and people dead. Some streams aren’t even as deep as a person is tall, yet every year there 2.1kReads8.9Score188Shelves
- 199 The Corpse Stitcher’s Daughter 缝尸匠的女儿 My father, Liu Si, was the most famous corpse tailor in Laoshan Village. After the start of winter, the women of the village were torn to pieces by wild bears in the mountains, one after another. My father suggested finding their bodies and sewing them back together so they could be buried in peace. But rumors spread through the village: “The bears were lured here by the Liu family. They'll do anything to make money sewing up corpses.” The village chief forced my father up the mountain to kill t 11Reads—Score—Shelves
- 200 The Wronged Ghost in the Incinerator 焚化炉里的冤魂 On the surface, he was an official who upheld justice. Behind the scenes, he was the most brazen crime boss around! He was a cunning, utterly inhuman demon! He killed, robbed, and took lives, yet remained above the law! And all his audacity came from his powerful "protectors"! Before he was brought to justice, he did whatever he pleased, leaving countless people and families with memories of unbearable pain... —Reads—Score—Shelves
