Novels like The Embroidered Shoes of Death
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as The Embroidered Shoes of Death, best match first.
- 1 Notes from Another Realm 异境手记 Every story is a prism of twilight. When the collector turns to the final page, silhouettes of every story’s protagonists suddenly appear on the blank paper. The instant their fingertips touch, the embossed gold pattern on the handbook’s cover reverses into flowing dusk, drawing the reader into this endless twilight narrative as well. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 2 Tales of the Haunted Temple 鬼庙怪谈 A haunted temple swallowed an entire village. I thought it was all just a natural disaster and human misfortune. I never expected that it had all started because of me. 177Reads—Score—14d adds
- 3 The Seven-Night Spirit Coffin Corpse 七夜灵棺尸 In my dream, I mistakenly believed that Li the Lame, seeking revenge for having his wife stolen, had made a door for my family out of the coffin wood of a girl who had been dead for seven days. Its yin energy clung to us, causing the pillars of our family to leave one after another. I couldn’t get over it. My future father-in-law, Old Yu, saw what was going on and brought over Zhang Baifa, who I would later take as my master. My master dispelled the evil yin force. Once I learned what had happen 228Reads—Score—14d adds
- 4 The Man-Eating Old House 食人老宅 One night, Zhou Zheng, editor-in-chief of "The Strange World", is working late and replying to readers' letters when he happens upon an anonymous letter that defies explanation. It sets off a string of strange events... 824Reads9.0Score10714d adds
- 5 Married to an Evil Spirit: The Red Veil of Huaian Village 嫁煞：槐安村的红盖头 Married to a Malevolent Spirit: The Red Veil of Huaian Village —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 6 My Sister-in-Law's Lateral Thinking Puzzles Drove Them to Kill 嫂子的海龟汤让他们杀疯了 [Mind-bending puzzles + deduction + horror survival + urban legends + Turtle Soup] Qin Xuehua is a beautiful woman burdened with a blood feud. To find clues to the person who killed her sister, she marries into Turtle Soup Village. The men in the village spend all day thinking about how to make her theirs. Until that day. An indescribable monster takes over the isolated mountain village. The uncanny runs rampant, strange tales abound, and evil flourishes. To survive, the villagers are forced to 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 7 The Uncanny Path: Invasion of the Aliens 诡道：异形入侵 Aliens + ghosts + demons + parasites + lurking horrors. Maximum terror! The protagonist comes down from the mountain to investigate aliens and ghosts, honing his Daoist arts in real combat. Chapters 1–12 focus on aliens. From Chapter 13 onward, the story combines evil ghosts and aliens. Later, certain aliens will transform into demons, but the sense of oppression and the level of danger will stay just as high. The sect is the Hidden Immortal Sect, founded by Laozi’s disciple. Its history can be 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 8 Horror and Terror 恐怖，惊悚 A classmate by the bed calls out softly. A cat's cries echo through the woods. Shadows flicker at the edge of the street. A piercing scream comes from inside the restroom. Are all the things you see and hear real? And are they all human? 696Reads—Score—14d adds
- 9 Senior Sister in Red, Don't Look Back! I'm Really Your Senior Brother! 红衣师姐别回头，我真是师兄！ [Horror, Infinite Worlds, Survival, One Female Lead, No Cultivation] A figure in blood-red robes, claiming lives as it wanders through a quiet dormitory. A creepy scarecrow stands in a remote manor. At midnight, a chilling clown's laughter rings out from an amusement park. The distant chimes of a bell echo through an empty old mansion... One bizarre, terrifying party after another begins amid bloodshed, while lives struggling against fate fight desperately to survive the clutches of the uncanny! 4Reads7.2Score—14d adds
- 10 The Super Spooky Classroom 超级惊悚教室 At a certain high school, an ordinary afternoon was supposed to mean nothing more than a routine chemistry lesson. No one could have imagined that a terrifying disaster would begin there, and that our lives would never be peaceful again. 5Reads—Score114d adds
- 11 Ghostly Tales from Fengdu 丰都鬼事 In her previous life, young artist Lin Wan set out alone for the fabled ghost city of Fengdu to search for her missing older sister, Lin Zhixia. Naively, she trusted the seemingly kind innkeeper and local gentry, unaware that she had stepped into a carefully laid trap. Coveted for her yin constitution, she was ultimately sacrificed in an old mansion behind Fengdu's famous mountain by the so-called “good Samaritans” to a traitor in the underworld who had disguised himself as Black Impermanence. H 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 12 Strange Tales from the Teaching Mission 支教诡事 I'm an ordinary teacher at a key secondary school, but after I talked back to the principal, I was “volunteered” for a long-term teaching assignment at a middle school in the countryside. I was furious, but to keep my job, I had no choice but to accept being “volunteered.” What I never expected was that this school would be anything but ordinary. (Note: This book is set in a parallel world. Any resemblance between its place names, characters, or events and those in real life is purely coincident 3.6kReads8.2Score37314d adds
- 13 Multiple Fears 多重恐惧 An invitation to a party brings together nine writers, each with a very different style. At the party, the novelist who invited them traps everyone inside and demands that each guest tell a story. With no other choice, they comply. One story after another unfolds at the party: will they reveal the clash of human nature or unleash ghostly terrors? Everything will come to light here. "This is my debut work. I hope you'll show it plenty of support." 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 14 Forbidden Tales of the Desolate Village: A Midnight Whistle, and a Shrouded Corpse Spirit at the Door 荒村禁忌：夜半吹哨，白布尸魂找上门 Taboos of the Abandoned Village: A Whistle in the Dead of Night, and a White-Cloth Corpse Spirit Comes Calling —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 15 Route 44 Ticket Seller 44路售票员 In 2005, an 18-year-old bus conductor mysteriously dropped dead on the bus. The cause of death was unknown. In 2009, a last bus hit and killed a pregnant woman at an intersection, even though its brakes had not failed. In 2014, a woman suddenly pulled out a sanitary pad on the bus and slapped the driver in the face with it, despite showing no signs of mental illness. On the last Route 44 bus, I've seen far too many strange and bizarre things, and heard all kinds of spine-chilling rumors. Unless 56Reads6.3Score—14d adds
- 16 Grandpa Started the Trouble, Three Generations Must Pay 爷爷闯下的祸，三代来还 The trouble Grandpa caused will take three generations to repay. 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 17 Bureau 749: A Yin Messenger on the Road to the Underworld 749局：黄泉走阴人 There is an organization that exists only in the darkness: Bureau 749. Founded in 1974, with no records and no official status, it is made up of scientists and people with supernatural abilities. It handles the dirtiest, most sinister, most forbidden affairs in the human world. Ghost soldiers march through the night, leaving nothing but empty skins in an entire village. The White God of Wealth kills anyone who worships him, taking their souls to feed evil. An ancient Buddha opens its mouth to de 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 18 Coming for My Life on the Seventh Night? I Can Command the Most Ominous Creatures 头七索命？我能御大凶之物 Anyone who makes money from the dead knows there are three kinds of corpses you must never handle. First, don’t take the bodies of people who died violently or are missing limbs. Such corpses carry baleful energy, damage your fortune, and bind you to karmic debts. Second, don’t take a corpse that has been left unattended for seven days after death. After seven days, the flesh has begun to decay and the soul has nowhere to settle. Disturb it, and you may find yourself haunted by evil things. Thir 243Reads—Score—14d adds
- 19 The Temple That Eats People 吃人的庙 The Man-Eating Temple 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 20 Old Tales of Strange Happenings 民间旧诡事 The woman in red who knocks on doors late at night, the soul-binding bones beneath the locust tree, the copper-bell curse in an old house in an abandoned village... These old tales of the uncanny, scattered across the countryside, are the idle chatter of old folks and stories sealed away by time... 42Reads—Score—14d adds
- 21 Come Listen to a Ghost Story! 来听诡故事！ The chime of midnight is the switch that starts each story. Hidden here are 365 eerie legends from every corner of the world. Maybe it's the strange sobbing in the night-shift office during overtime, a stranger's long hair beside your pillow in an old residential complex, or a passenger in a white dress who vanishes in front of a cemetery. One short ghost story every night, tearing through the everyday facade to reveal the chilling truth beneath. Do you dare open this collection of midnight tale 42Reads—Score514d adds
- 22 Living Human Pillar 活人桩 Bridge and road construction inevitably disrupts the local feng shui. If a malign force is encountered, an expert must be called in to counter evil with evil at the site of the incident, driving two living human stakes into the ground. 664Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 23 Shadows in the Daylight 白昼暗影 The criminal he hunts is himself. The shadow he cannot escape is his only protector. Lin Mo, the police department’s star profiler, cracks one extraordinary case after another with his precise criminal psychology analyses. But he doesn’t know that every night, another self awakens: Shen Ye, a “dark vigilante” who fights violence with violence, hunting down criminals who escaped justice through Lin Mo. The massacre that destroyed his family when he was a child split ten-year-old Lin Mo’s mind, cr —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 24 The Hundred Venerables Record: Tales of Another Day 百崇录：异日谈 A sealed ancient scroll has come to light once more: "The Hundred Abominations: Tales of Strange Days". Its faded, uncanny writing: written in blood? Annotated in tears? No one can say. All that remains are over a hundred strange accounts, each word sinking into the bone, all told by the “ill omens” lurking among humankind. Some nest in the dark corners of people's hearts, watching for greed; some lie in the shadows of the streets, drinking in sobs; others haunt desolate wilderness and ancient h —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 25 Horror Mountain Village: I Get a Golden Finger by Completing Quests 恐怖山村：我靠做任务得金手指 [System] [Horror] [A touch of romance] [White-lotus heroine] [Two male leads] Gu Xi enters a real-life scenario called “Horror Mountain Village,” but she doesn't even survive the first volume before the ghost bride kills her. She has barely been buried when someone comes to dig up her grave. After finally making it back to the village alive, she must face an enormous natural disaster. The fog from the mountain behind the village is spreading. What will become of the entire Dizang Village? With t 642Reads8.6Score—14d adds
- 26 Tales of the Strange 怪谈 [A Born Ghost-Busting Saint vs. A Bewitching Beauty Bound by a Sinister Fate] [Case-by-Case Stories + Criminal Investigation + Folk Legends + Ghost Hunting + An Overarching Plot + Horror + Two Powerful Leads + Fighting Side by Side] "Corpses become curses, souls become gu; strange cases arise, and every road is hard to tread." Zhang Miao was short of water in his five elements, and before he was even born, he was given a "water ghost" as his godmother. As a result, he awakened a special constit 1.9kReads8.5Score12014d adds
- 27 The Ominous Coffin 凶棺 It all started with a coffin that floated up from the river... I thought it was a fortune dropped from the sky, but it turned out to be a disaster. After I pried open the coffin, I began to feel that something unclean had followed me home. My daughter grew stranger by the day. She was only three, yet she had already started developing! 125Reads—Score—14d adds
- 28 I Have a Ghostly Wife 我有鬼娇妻 [Mystery] [Comedy] Have you ever experienced something like this? I mean, asking for a wife at the bottom of a dry well! I live in a small village in the mountains, cut off from the outside world. No outsiders have visited in hundreds of years. Maybe it's because of a curse, but no baby girls have ever been born in our village. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 29 Notes on Strange Folk Tales 民间诡事札记 The countryside hides the strangest legends and lays bare the truest depths of the human heart. A single red embroidered shoe beneath an old pagoda tree holds a grievance and a hatred left unspoken. A strange peddler knocking at the door in the dead of night carries no ordinary goods in his pack, only old stories frosted over with time. A bronze mirror rising from an ancient well can reflect ghosts, but not the depths of the human heart... These curious tales scattered across bustling streets an 67Reads—Score—14d adds
- 30 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 735Reads8.9Score10514d adds
- 31 The Spirit Guide 送灵先生 A madwoman from the neighboring village died, but even in death her eyes wouldn’t close. No matter how many people tried, they couldn’t lift her coffin. The living face trials in life, and the dead face trials in death. An infant who cannot pass the trial between life and death cannot enter the new world. A dead person who cannot pass the trial of death cannot move on, and remains by their loved ones’ side. A sprig of green bamboo summons the spirits; a three-foot spirit banner sends the souls o 16Reads8.9Score—14d adds
- 32 Nighttime Tales from the Old Mountain Village House 山村老宅夜事 After my grandfather passed away, I returned alone to a remote mountain village to take over the century-old ancestral home. Before I left, the village elders warned me again and again: under no circumstances should I break the old house's four taboos. Don't stare into the mirror in the old house late at night. Don't answer calls from outside the courtyard at midnight. Don't open the small back-garden door at three in the morning. And never go upstairs on a stormy night. I dismissed it all as ol 260Reads—Score—14d adds
- 33 The Eerie Realm: It Starts with an Elevator 诡界：从电梯开始 [No System]+ [No Heroine]+ [Dungeon Progression]+ [No Saintly Protagonist]+ [Eerie]+ [Original Dungeons] Have you ever wondered? Beneath the neon lights and atmosphere of this city, things lurk that defy all reason. They were chosen by the Eerie [Elevator] and marked by a terrifying curse. Again and again, they must take part in death games, until death claims them. 54Reads—Score—14d adds
- 34 The Ghost Candle Craftsman 诡烛匠人 In a narrow alley in the old part of town stands a candle shop that has been in the same family for three generations. No one knows that it only takes on business involving the cursed. Those driven to despair by ghosts, possession, or paranormal hauntings all come knocking on its door late at night. Zhong Ling, the third-generation heir, doesn't burn talismans or summon deities. He simply hands them a candle. “Light it. Before it burns out, either you die, or the truth comes to life.” Ghostly 13Reads—Score214d adds
- 35 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 177Reads9.2Score10214d adds
- 36 After My Face Was Stolen, I Drew the Six Realms of Living Beings 我的脸被夺走后我画出六道众生相 My face was stolen. It wasn’t disfigured. It wasn’t disguised. My face was literally gone. To stay alive, I had no choice but to paint one new face after another onto my own. Human, ghost, demon, beast, god, immortal. Every face I painted gave me a new ability. As I tried to reclaim my original face, I gradually discovered that this world was far more complicated than it seemed. 96Reads—Score12614d adds
- 37 Don't Look Back During Evening Study at School 学校晚自习别回头 Don’t Look Back During Evening Study at School 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 38 I Came from the Underworld to Deal with Those Who Defy the Rules 我从地府来，专治规则不服 I Came from the Underworld to Make the Rules Behave 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 39 Chinese-Style Horror Doesn't Work? Paper Figures Carry the Coffin to Send Eagle Sauce Packing 中式恐怖不行？纸人抬棺送走鹰酱 A mysterious power descended upon Blue Star, and the National Destiny Arena opened, unleashing terrifying showdowns. Every country had to bring forth something terrifying to compete. The winners would see their national destiny flourish and endure forever. The losers would be plagued by terror, their people massacred, and their nations reduced to nothing. To claim victory, every country brought out the terrifying secrets they had kept in reserve. Eagle Country: The Reborn Clown, Carrie the Witch 46Reads—Score—14d adds
- 40 Rules of the Rest Stop on a Stormy Night 暴雨夜服务区规则怪谈 Rules of the Rest Stop on a Stormy Night 5Reads—Score—14d adds
- 41 The Seventh Night After Death 头七 My grandfather said that whoever a hanged person sees last is the one they’ll come back to haunt. When I was twelve, the village hired a troupe to perform ghost plays. I went to play with them, never imagining that the troupe’s leading performer was hanging from the beam right behind me. 22Reads7.7Score—14d adds
- 42 I Heard of Strange Things That Year: Never Read This Late at Night 那年听闻怪事，千万别深夜翻看 These stories are adapted and fictionalized from various experiences shared by friends. They are written in an accessible style and make for a good way to unwind. A reminder: reject superstition. This is all imaginative fiction. Any similarities to real events are purely coincidental, so don't take it seriously! 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 43 Tales of the Uncanny in Jiangnan 江南诡事录 I was born in an old town in Jiangnan, and from childhood I loved hanging around beneath the eaves of the old teahouse. I would listen as Zhou the Blind sipped his strong tea and spun yarn after yarn, recounting the strange tales he had heard over most of his life. Half of what this book records came from the stories passed by word of mouth beneath the teahouse storyteller’s gavel; the other half came from what I saw and heard as I grew up wandering the streets and alleys of Jiangnan. Now the te 13Reads—Score314d adds
- 44 One Horror a Day 一天一个惊悚 One terrifying tale every day, and a different world each time. Just because you haven't seen it from in front of your phone doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Enough chatter. See you in the book, everyone. 7Reads6.6Score—14d adds
- 45 Changing Fate with Yin Lifespan: The Yin-Born Child Raised on Milk by a Fox Immortal 阴寿改命：狐仙喂奶养大的阴生子 The day I was born, all the ghosts wailed through the night, the locust trees withered, and the setting sun refused to sink! The heavens showed strange signs at my birth, yet I was born without a single day of allotted life! To steal years for me, Grandpa found me a stunning, sickly-obsessive fox immortal wife to nurse me! She even likes to bite me whenever she gets the chance! My parents used a Three-Corpse Coffin to steal years for me. After they died, they left me a shop, and the very first 30Reads—Score—14d adds
- 46 The Black Dog of Misty Mountain 雾山黑犬 Black Dog of Mist Mountain 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 47 Twelve Ghosts 十二鬼魂 Twelve Ghosts 17Reads—Score214d adds
- 48 Who’s Watching You Sleep? 谁在看着你睡觉 A collection of horror stories, including The Haunting of the Girls' Dorm, The Peeping Eye, and The Abyss of the Locked Room: A Mother's Checkmate! I guarantee you'll be too scared to use the bathroom after reading them at night! Each story is 80,000 to 100,000 characters long. I'm a newcomer, and this is my first time writing on Tomato Novel! I hope you'll give me lots of encouragement! Your support is what motivates me to create more and better stories! 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 49 The Yin Guardian: The Mysterious Divine Coffin Hidden Beneath the Mountain 守阴人：藏在山底的神秘天棺 After I encountered the Ghost Granny, my dad died. Later, I found my older brother, and then my grandpa died too. Somehow, I became the last Guardian of the Yin. Later, I discovered that it wasn't the Ghost Granny behind it all, but another conspiracy hidden from view. [Entirely written by hand, no AI writing!] 225Reads—Score—14d adds
- 50 My Neighbor Knocks on the Wall at 3 A.M. Every Day 我的邻居每天准时在凌晨3点敲墙 My neighbor knocks on the wall at exactly 3 a.m. every day 8Reads—Score—14d adds
