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.
- 51 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 6Reads—Score—14d adds
- 52 365 Nights of Corpse Tales from the Gorge 峡江尸话365夜 The poorer and more desolate the land, the stranger the tales; deep in the gorges along the river, there are stories of the supernatural. My hometown lies in the mountains of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in an area where several ethnic minorities live together. Before Liberation, it was a backward wilderness beyond the reach of government control. Over the long course of history, many baffling things happened here. After I was born, I heard plenty of chilling tales of strange happeni 120Reads8.0Score—14d adds
- 53 The Golden Bait Project 黄金鱼饵计划 [Modern mystery, dark crime, twist-filled power fantasy] Cornered with no way out, he came up with a plan: the Golden Fish Bait scheme. He deliberately posted huge amounts of fake gold online, posing as a wealthy recluse to lure greedy thieves to his door. He set up layers of mechanisms, surveillance cameras, and traps in advance, hoping to take the thieves down and get the money he needed to save his life. But once the hunters took the bait, everything spiraled out of control. The intruders wer 4Reads8.2Score—14d adds
- 54 Eternal Damnation 永世沉沦 When I was little, my family was very poor. My father made me a kite out of paper, but when it came down from the sky, it was covered in blood... After that, all kinds of strange, inexplicable troubles began to descend upon me. To deal with them, I traveled across the country and ventured into one forbidden zone after another, places where no one knew there was life. It took me years to understand that what is truly terrifying is the human heart. When raging desire intertwines with the ugliness 735Reads7.9Score10414d adds
- 55 The Strange Rural Tales My Aunt Told Me 姑姑给我讲的农村怪事 When I was little, I was timid, but I still loved listening to my aunt tell stories. Today, I'm sharing with you the stories she told me. I'll do my best to keep writing, and I hope you'll support me. 15Reads—Score—14d adds
- 56 A Horror Story Lives Next Door 你的隔壁住着恐怖故事 Have you ever noticed how horror lurks everywhere in your everyday life? Listen. Listen closely... Where does horror come from? Nothing is scarier than reality. The unknown parts of our real lives, and the anxieties and desires we feel about them, are the greatest sources of horror. 11.6kReads9.4Score1.8k14d adds
- 57 The Vengeful Ghost Curse 怨诡咒 (Traditional supernatural horror + No System + Not a power fantasy + Deduction + Suspense) My coworker died. He died in his own bathtub. By the time the police arrived at his home, his corpse had already begun to rot and stink. His limbs had been gnawed down to the bone, and the coroner found undigested flesh in his stomach. That very night, I received a WeChat message from my dead coworker. It said I was next... 19.3kReads8.6Score1.4k14d adds
- 58 The Sixth Man's Strange Tales 老六诡事 A collection of true stories about all kinds of inexplicable, supernatural events personally experienced by people around me. Just think of it as my attempt to pass off some tales as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio! Not for the faint of heart! Not for the faint of heart! Not for the faint of heart! I’m repeating it three times because it’s important! I don’t make up stories. I’m simply passing them along! 62Reads—Score—14d adds
- 59 Medium's Notes: My Left Eye Can See Ghosts 灵媒笔记：我的左眼能见鬼 The Cangye lineage of the Southern Frontier unleashes chaos. The Cherry Blossom Curse, Yin Soil summoning, Ruin Spirits, and malevolent earth veins emerge one after another, leaving the seals protecting the land on the brink of collapse. In a desperate battle, pure Yang Heavenly Energy collides with the turbid qi of Yin Soil inside him, forming a yin-yang vortex whose blessings and dangers are impossible to predict. His old enemies flee into the Hundred Thousand Mountains, seeking a chance to p 12Reads—Score—14d adds
- 60 Born of a Corpse: I Landed a Government Job by Catching Ghosts 尸生子：我靠抓鬼混上编制 My new work is out! You can read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you’ll enjoy it. Your support motivates me to write, and I’ll do my best to tell every story well! 66Reads—Score—14d adds
- 61 Someone New Appeared in the Footage 录像里多出一个人 The test shoot’s discarded footage was four seconds longer. Everyone in the frame held the same poses they had at the end of filming. No one moved. I counted three times. There were six people every time. But only five people had been there that day. On the hard drive my mother left behind, there was an empty folder with a four-character name: Do Not Fast-Forward. In the recycle bin was a deleted video, four minutes and twenty-five seconds long, which couldn’t be recovered. Our production crew w 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 62 As the Whole Village Called Back the Soul of His Missing Son, He Came Home Through the Door 全村替失踪的儿子收魂时，他从门外回来了 As the whole village performs a soul-summoning ritual for their missing son, he comes home through the front door. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 63 Republic-Era Notes on Summoning Evil 民国招邪笔记 Chinese-Style Horror + Episodic Mysteries + Ancestral Taboos + Republican-Era Suspense + Cursed Objects That Claim Lives Each supernatural case wraps up in three to five chapters. The pace is breakneck, with no dragging things out! Folk-horror elements: red wedding gowns, ancestral halls, midnight opera troupes... If you’re a scaredy-cat, read during the day. If you’re brave, listen to the audiobook at night for the full dose of terror. 78Reads—Score—14d adds
- 64 I Inherited a Funeral Shop During the Hundred Ghosts' Night Parade 百鬼夜行时，我继承了一家冥铺 Lu Ci thought all his grandfather had left him was an old shop on the verge of closing. Then, one rainy night, the first customer walked through the door and bought a stack of spirit money. The next day, that very “ghost currency” appeared in someone else’s account. From then on, the shop, open only at night, began receiving one unusual customer after another: some sought wealth, some wanted to buy a life, and some only wished to exchange something for a long-overdue truth. At the end of the lon 7Reads—Score214d adds
- 65 The Celestial Tribulation Inspection Bureau 天劫巡检司 Whenever a cultivator in Linchuan City undergoes tribulation, the Heavenly Tribulation Inspection Bureau must survey the area in advance and verify the tribulation order to prevent stray lightning from harming innocent people. On his first solo night patrol, trainee inspector Shen Yan encounters a tribulation that should never have happened. The order calls for three bolts of lightning, but the scene bears seven scorch marks and eight corpses. The dead have no names, the order lists no target, a —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 66 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 2.4kReads8.4Score36714d adds
- 67 The Girl Born of a Corpse with a Yin Fate 尸生阴命女 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a human-skin lantern appears at the mass grave on Shiping Mountain. A little girl cradles a skull and slowly follows behind the lantern. The girl is called Qiyue. Born from a corpse and destined to live among the dead, she grows up determined to uncover the truth about her corpse-mother’s origins. When all the clues point to a mysterious ghost village...! 1.5kReads8.6Score17514d adds
- 68 Eerie Revival: I Became Invincible by Making a Pact with a Ghost Bride 诡异复苏：我与鬼新娘契约无敌 [Urban legends] [Mystery] [Ghost-wife ally] [Reborn] [Transmigration] [Urban fantasy] [Another World] [Traditional cultivation] I transmigrated to the Northern Song Dynasty as a sickly young Taoist, only to find a thousand-year-old tree demon blocking my door from the start. My master bound me to a spiritual soulmate in a desperate attempt to save us both. The result? A temperamental, absurdly powerful, tsundere and yandere Red Fiend Ghost Queen. Jia Tianzhen was livestreaming his own death-def 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 69 Tales of Feng Shui and Tombs 风水墓事 My name is Gu Xiaochuan! I went to move a woman’s grave, and then… 8.4kReads8.7Score81414d adds
- 70 The Corpse of a Mountain Village Woman 山村女尸 [Feel-Good Read + Urban + Suspense + Supernatural] He Xi is an ordinary security guard. One day, the west gate of Chaoxi Psychiatric Hospital desperately needs a guard. The pay is 30,000 yuan a month, but nobody dares take the job! Nobody else dares, but He Xi does! Only after arriving does he realize something is wrong. The west gate isn’t meant for people to pass through at all. It’s a gate for ghosts! 7.7kReads7.7Score35314d adds
- 71 Fifth Watch 五更 The stories my grandpa used to tell me were probably meant to scare me into staying put, or maybe to lull me to sleep. He always told them with such conviction and vivid detail that I often found myself dreaming of the very scenes he had lived through. I met the old flower-growing woman on Yinshan Mountain, and one villager after another from Sangen Village. Their faces were gloomy and strange, and their deeds served as a warning, reminding us that “the gods are watching from three feet above yo 705Reads7.2Score10014d adds
- 72 Old Tales of the Dead Village 死人村旧事 Chen Ergou holds a stalk of grass and gently pokes at the paper money still smoldering in front of him. Behind him, a dense crowd of “people” from the village and beyond stands packed together... Hanwa, his belly slit open and his tongue hanging down to his chest; Sufen, naked, with raw flesh exposed; the Fat Taoist, whose limbs and head are covered with tightly packed stitches at the joints; Tian Da, his body stiff, a walking stick jutting from his wide-open mouth; Xiao Zhao, pale-faced and dri 174Reads8.4Score10914d adds
- 73 The Mystic Arts Curse Master 玄门咒神 On the day Yang Xuan was supposed to get engaged, a blood-red coffin inexplicably appeared in his home. Inside lay a beautiful woman with skin like jade. On the first day, his father died. On the second day, a yin-yang master told Yang Xuan: If he wanted to survive this calamity, he had to consummate his marriage with her... 115Reads—Score—14d adds
- 74 Married to a Ghost on My Wedding Night: My Ghost Husband's Beloved 冥婚夜嫁，鬼夫心尖宠 My name is Liu Yueli. I was born in a remote mountain village. When I was little, my grandmother would often sit in front of our house, staring blankly toward the place where I was born and murmuring... “On a night when a hundred ghosts roam, red candles will light the way. Paper figures will carry the coffin, and a hundred ghosts will serve as matchmakers. The worlds of yin and yang shall not be divided; the paths of humans and ghosts shall not be separate. With heaven and earth as witnesses, o 1.2kReads8.7Score17214d adds
- 75 The Strange Realm: From the Start, I Dismembered the Monstrous 怪域诡界，我开局分尸诡异 [A handsome male lead, just like the readers] [Horror-leaning; do not read if you scare easily] [Mystery and the supernatural] [A story where despair and hope intertwine and ebb and flow] [Similar to Taming the Supernatural] It was an ordinary night, but it led Lu Ying into a new world woven from madness and death. This world has lost its light, and people like Lu Ying need a constant supply of “candles” to stay alive. But “candles” can only be found in the realms of those unkillable, rule-bound 8Reads—Score—14d adds
- 76 The Yin Walker: The Last Stick of Incense 走阴人：最后一炷香 Xu Zhaolin makes a living with his ears. He is a sound documentary field recorder, traveling through the countryside with a recorder on his back to document folk crafts on the verge of disappearing and the oral histories of the elderly. Three years ago, his twin brother, Xu Zhaochuan, vanished near the reservoir in Baishi Town. No one had seen him alive, and no body was ever found. Three years later, Xu Zhaolin returns to Baishi Town to record the final oral history of an old man. A stretch of b 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 77 Tales of the Unextinguished Lights 不熄灯异闻录 More chilling than ghost stories, these tales recount the uncanny happenings secretly passed down by our elders! Children will be too scared to walk alone at night after hearing them, and adults will want to pay their respects to their ancestors. This is a book of taboos that the village elders tried to keep from being written! This collection of short stories features folk horror, supernatural mysteries, thrillers, legends, strange tales, and fantasy from across China and around the world. 17Reads—Score214d adds
- 78 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 14Reads—Score—14d adds
- 79 Hell Is Empty, and Evil Spirits Walk the Earth 地狱空荡荡，恶灵在人间 This is a horror novel centered on mystery, a traditional supernatural story with no System and no cultivation. The setup is lengthy, there are many mysteries, and the truth is revealed gradually. A mysterious apartment brings endless nightmares. To escape, you must complete the nine tasks assigned by the apartment. Hunted by evil spirits, mocked by ghosts, and consumed by resentment, everyone will be trapped in a terrifying cycle of death and rebirth, played out in blood. “All who are ruled by 486Reads8.6Score10014d adds
- 80 Stealing Faces 偷脸 One day, a stranger added me on QQ and told me my girlfriend was a man. I called him an idiot. Then my girlfriend died, and when she died, she really did become a man. Her head had been cut off and sewn onto the neck of a male corpse... 225Reads8.9Score—14d adds
- 81 Demons of the Northern Mountain 北山有妖 When I was twenty, someone killed me. My killer dumped my body at Beishan, a thousand miles away… 2kReads7.5Score24314d adds
- 82 Survived Eighteen Times: The Third Real Horror Movie 活过十八次：第三度真实恐怖电影 (Starring in Real Horror Movies) + (Infinite-Flow Supernatural Instances) If you happen to scroll through videos, Weibo, or Tieba and come across an invitation to the Third Degree Horror Movie, you will find yourself thrown into a horror movie, playing one of its characters. As the plot unfolds, bizarre, spine-chilling curses and eerie ghosts lurking everywhere will descend one by one. A village shrouded in a blood spring, a strange building, thirteen flights of stairs, a dark corridor, a silent 3.3kReads—Score39614d adds
- 83 The Yin-Walking Incense Master 走阴女香师 Ever since I can remember, there has been a paper doll on my bed every night. With straight bangs and a bob, a pale face with rosy cheeks, a round face and almond-shaped eyes, it was clearly made to look just like me. As I slowly grew up, the paper doll “grew up” too… 316Reads9.0Score10514d adds
- 84 The Man Buried Upside Down 倒着埋的人 The Man Buried Upside Down 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 85 Rule Horror: Don't Look Back During 72 Hours in the Dorm 规则怪谈：宿舍72小时不要回头 A word of warning: this is terrifying, so timid readers beware. (No female lead, no cheats, no romance, game instances, infinite flow, horror, mystery) Eight university students who returned to campus early found a mysterious sheet of rules in their empty dormitory building: Rule One: No matter what strange “person” you see, don’t cry out or scream. Rule Two: No matter who calls you from behind, don’t turn around or answer. Rule Three: One of you is an impostor who will eat people in the middle 4.5kReads6.0Score37414d adds
- 86 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. 1kReads8.8Score10114d adds
- 87 Shattered Yin-Yang Jade 阴阳玉碎 [Supernatural + horror + suspense + first person + no idiots in the story + clever protagonist + a touch of angst] "I'm turning eighteen soon. I should die, too." Yu Yue and I are twin sisters, born eighteen years ago on Ghost Festival. A fortune-teller gave us each a jade pendant and said that on our eighteenth birthday, whoever's pendant broke would die. We're seventeen now, and suddenly both pendants have shattered. How can we possibly survive? 39Reads—Score—14d adds
- 88 Spirit Village 灵村 Thrills and the supernatural! There's an ancient village called Lingzhuang, also known as Bagua Village. I was born there. Lingzhuang is always shrouded in an atmosphere of terror: Enormous pythons, centipedes, black spiders, strange birds, and ferocious beasts roam about, attacking people... Lingzhuang is also rife with strange tales and bizarre happenings: A female ghost haunts the village; a cave in Longmian Mountain holds an arsenal from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom; a mysterious master live 69Reads—Score—14d adds
- 89 The Strange and Supernatural Things I’ve Heard and Seen 那些我所闻所见的灵异事 I’ll tell stories about the strange things that have happened to me over the years, along with the folk secrets and I Ching mysticism I’ve learned. At the start of each story, I’ll say whether I experienced it myself or heard it from someone else. I may not tell them in chronological order. I need to remember and organize everything, so I’ll just talk about whatever comes to mind. Things I experienced myself may be exaggerated, but they’re absolutely true. As for some of the stories I’ve heard, 2.4kReads—Score15614d adds
- 90 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—14d adds
- 91 Strange Tales of a Mountain Village 山村异事 Mom tied a rope around her mouth and hanged herself over Dad's coffin! Forty-nine days later, Mom came back for me! 341Reads6.7Score10314d adds
- 92 The Corpse Collector 接尸人 Do you know what happens to a corpse in a funeral home? Do you know that cremated remains aren't actually made by burning the body? And do you know why funeral home workers never stay long? I'm a corpse collector at a funeral home. Over the years, I've learned many secrets no one talks about, and handled all kinds of bodies: people who hanged themselves, people hacked to pieces, and people whose bodies were mangled after being hit by cars! But to me, they were nothing more than soulless shells, 1.1kReads7.3Score11614d adds
- 93 Bone Flute 骨笛 My grandmother was a famous spirit medium throughout the surrounding villages. I was a child she picked up and brought home. People in the village said that on the night she carried me home, flutes sounded throughout the village until dawn. The next day, every peach tree in the village had withered. They called me an ill omen, but my grandmother always treated me well, and life went on quietly like that, until the day I turned sixteen. Then everything changed. 1.3kReads9.0Score12714d adds
- 94 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 8.1kReads8.6Score23514d adds
- 95 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... 23Reads—Score—14d adds
- 96 I Am a Corpse 我是一具尸体 I slit my wrists and bled to death, my body drying into a corpse. They buried me in the ancestral copper coffin, and I came back to life on the Ghost Festival. I wielded my corpse with the will of a living person. I crossed between the worlds of yin and yang. I have loved, hated, killed people, and destroyed ghosts. I am a corpse. I will never grow old. Standing at the highest point in this world, I looked down and saw nothing but desire. This is my story. This is my biography... 158Reads6.7Score—14d adds
- 97 The Yin Messenger's Wife 阴差夫人 Twin sisters, one human and one ghost. My parents were brutally murdered before my eyes. I sought help from a ghost-catching official to avenge them, but he demanded I catch three thousand ghosts for him. I never imagined I would end up becoming a ghost-catching official myself... 3.7kReads9.0Score32514d adds
- 98 Welcome to the Real Nightmare Game 欢迎进入真实噩梦游戏 [Infinite Flow] [Horror Dungeons] [Plot-Heavy] [Mind Games] [No Romance] [Mystery and Escape] [Supernatural] Zhao Ding woke with a start in the middle of the night, only to find that his familiar bedroom had become strangely unfamiliar. The walls had turned old and yellow, inexplicable dust had appeared in his slippers, and eerie knocking echoed through the silent night... Listening to the strange knocking outside, Zhao Ding had no idea that the world beyond his door was no longer reality. The m 33.8kReads8.1Score4.2k14d adds
- 99 Heaven's Secrets Forbidden: A Metaphysics Master's Art of Feng Shui and Yin-Yang 天机禁忌：玄门风水相师镇阴阳 Xu Daoyi was born with a pure Yang constitution, a once-in-a-century rarity. The Yang energy within him was so strong it could burn vengeful ghosts to ash. But this gift was also a death sentence. His master told him that unless he found a woman with a pure Yin birth chart before the Summer Solstice and united their Yin and Yang, he would explode and die seven days later. The seven-day deadline drew closer, and the Yang energy in his body surged higher every day. Xu Daoyi had saved countless liv 115Reads—Score15514d adds
- 100 Classroom of Despair 绝望教室 What began as a prank voting game set off a string of tragedies. One classmate after another died, yet the voting continued. I knew that maybe I would be the next one to die… 671Reads8.2Score—14d adds
