Novels like Midnight in the Countryside
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Midnight in the Countryside, best match first.
- 51 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—Shelves
- 52 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—Shelves
- 53 A Snake's Many Pregnancies 蛇孕连连 My ancestors killed countless snakes, and generations of my family have had snake blood on their hands. A passing Taoist priest said we would have to pay for those blood debts. A fire burned my father to death. As I was collecting his remains, a snake on his body bit me. The village chief said it was a subterranean dragon snake from Hell, come to claim my life, and that I had less than three months to live. I refused to believe it, until one day a handsome young man came and insisted on marrying 79Reads8.7Score—Shelves
- 54 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 1.9kReads8.5Score120Shelves
- 55 Strange Feng Shui Affairs 风水异事 My grandfather is a feng shui master. While he was away, a woman came looking for him. After I greeted her, I saw purple-black veins of blood on her face, writhing on their own… 1.7kReads8.8Score520Shelves
- 56 The Corpse Carrier 背尸匠 My name is Fang Youde, and I was born in 1990. I enlisted in 2009. After two years of mandatory service, I volunteered to stay in the army for another three years. During that time, I received two third-class merits and one second-class merit, so I had quite a record of service. In 2014, for some reason, I left the military. Under the regulations on resettling discharged soldiers, the local government assigned me a job at a funeral home. That was where my career as a corpse carrier began. Corpse 8.1kReads8.3Score471Shelves
- 57 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—Shelves
- 58 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 8Reads—Score—Shelves
- 59 Ghost Stories at Three in the Morning 三更讲鬼 This book recounts some strange events from the 1980s. One place holds far more than a hundred stories. Perhaps it would be more fitting for me to be a bystander, or a listener. I have written down the stories I heard to remember the past. You can simply take the people and events in these pages as a joke, if you like. Or you can read them as stories that invite self-reflection. Who knows... the characters in them might bear a resemblance to you. Or perhaps they reflect someone close to you. Wit 154Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 60 One Hundred Thousand and One Folk Horror Stories 十万零一个民间恐怖故事 A collection of short horror stories in an episodic format, with a new story every chapter. No dragging things out! Haunted houses in the countryside, mountain spirits, urban legends, old customs and taboos... Every kind of Chinese-style horror is covered, with nonstop thrills and no filler. Anti-superstition disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional. Believe in science and read rationally. Please don’t apply it to real life~ 304Reads—Score101Shelves
- 61 Weeping Evil 哭邪 People watch over a temple for ten years; the temple watches over them for a lifetime. 107Reads6.9Score—Shelves
- 62 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 66Reads—Score—Shelves
- 63 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. 23Reads—Score—Shelves
- 64 The Yin-Yang Affairs Office 阴阳事务所 The Yin-Yang Affairs Office is closed during the day and open at night. We don't take cases from the living, only from ghosts. I'm a man of principles. What? A pretty young lady wants to come visit? Yo, I might consider it! A bewitchingly beautiful, sultry red-robed female ghost; a headless ghost whose head was chopped off with an axe; the Black and White Impermanence from the underworld... They're all regulars here. To tell you the truth, even the King of Hell was raised by me! 354Reads7.8Score101Shelves
- 65 Wayfarer Between Yin and Yang 阴阳行者 The ultimate truths of heaven and earth are two: death and parting, and the way between yin and yang. I protect the living in the world of light, driving out evil and subduing demons until every specter is vanquished. I guide the dead across the Yellow Springs, and set foot upon the Bridge of Helplessness without hesitation. A traveler between the realms of yin and yang, I bear the balance of life and death on my shoulders. Have you ever seen an old sheep knock at your door, or a paper figure sp 268Reads5.6Score—Shelves
- 66 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
- 67 A Madman's Fate 癫人命 [The uncanny + mind-bending suspense + horror + fictional setting + no System] At the end of that rainy night, Chen Xiu gazes at the unfamiliar world before him. He discovers that the curses have taken everything from him, even himself. Curses and uncanny horrors run rampant before his eyes, while madness and fear relentlessly batter his heart. It says: “Having witnessed what the curse can do, you must also suffer its gifts.” It says: “The death curse descends upon past and present, twisting all 10Reads—Score—Shelves
- 68 Tales of the Supernatural Among the Common Folk 感灵之民间异事 In the old days, there were all kinds of strange happenings in the villages of northern China: ghost stories, tales of immortals appearing, and encounters between humans and monsters. Here, you can read about the people and stories of the past. What kind of mischief will the intriguing huangpizi get up to? What stories did the elders tell children during the quiet nights of that bygone era? This book will take you back in time to see those curious old tales. The huangpizi aren’t the only ones he 4Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 69 Supernatural: I Bring Home an Old Immortal in Inner Mongolia 灵异：我在内蒙领老仙儿 My name is Li Tianshu. I was originally called Li Chengcai. I was sickly from childhood and plagued by hardship. I was so familiar with the gates of death that even the King of Hell knew my face. My grandparents said I had been cursed just like my great-grandfather, and planned to abandon me in the mountains to be raised by wolves. It was my maternal grandfather who gave me back my humanity and renamed me Li Tianshu, hoping Heaven would forgive me and free me from the curse. From then on, my fat 322Reads8.6Score—Shelves
- 70 365 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 117Reads8.0Score—Shelves
- 71 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... 731Reads—Score—Shelves
- 72 The Last Grave Chaser 最后一个撵坟人 [Tomb raiding + the supernatural + suspense + Taoist arts + feng shui + spirit-walking + witchcraft + no System + original, not fanfiction + slow burn] In southwest China, there is a little-known profession whose practitioners are called grave chasers. They read the flow of qi and water, scour the mountains and track down tombs, and are experts in feng shui, burial sites, Taoist arts, and witchcraft. What are grave chasers really looking for? How did I get dragged into all this? It all began whe 6Reads—Score—Shelves
- 73 Secrets of the Mortuary 殓尸秘录 Chen Mo is the young heir to the Wangsheng Studio funeral home. He thought he would spend his life in quiet company with cold, lifeless bodies. Then he took charge of a strange corpse known as the “Bride in Red,” and everything began to spiral out of control. The body never decays, and its smile is as lovely as a flower. The bronze bell tied around its ankle rings silently in the dead of night. From then on, Chen Mo is swept into one whirlpool after another, woven from local ghost stories and ho 3Reads8.3Score—Shelves
- 74 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 765Reads7.9Score104Shelves
- 75 Bureau of Supernatural Investigations 超自然事件调查局 A bizarre murder case draws me into the investigation of mysterious supernatural events: crew members on a deep-sea fishing vessel inexplicably slaughtering one another, immortals hiding in the city, legendary vampires, Nazi doomsday troops of a godlike race and their Aryan holy city, and a gigantic human-face structure on Mars. We are not alone in the universe, and human society is just as complicated. 358Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 76 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—Shelves
- 77 Strange Tales, Volume 1 奇闻诡事录1 This is a collection of folk tales about the uncanny, strange accounts from across the land. Each chapter is a complete story, each tale a separate supernatural mystery, revealing the mysteries of yin and yang, folk taboos, and the obsessions of the dead. You never know when a casual remark might draw the attention of spirits lurking in the wilderness; when an old object you pick up might hold the memory of a tragic death; or when an everyday habit might already have crossed a forbidden boundary 20Reads—Score—Shelves
- 78 The Horror Story Editorial Department 惊悚故事编辑部 “Welcome to the Horror Story Editorial Department. Here, you’ll enjoy an extraordinary horror-reading experience. In these stories, you are both the author and the reader. Now, begin your reading journey and share your frightening experiences with other readers.” 131Reads6.8Score—Shelves
- 79 Married to a Snake 蛇嫁 My mother died in difficult labor while giving birth to me. As they were lowering her coffin into the grave, a white snake coiled around it. The pallbearers fled in terror, and when the coffin hit the ground, I crawled out of my mother’s corpse. Ever since, the great white snake has pursued me relentlessly, insisting I bear him a whole brood of little white snakes. What am I supposed to do? 93Reads8.4Score—Shelves
- 80 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. 152Reads6.7Score—Shelves
- 81 A Fated Yin Bond Must Not Be Betrayed 天命阴缘不可负 My dream man suddenly confessed his love for me. I thought a romantic love story was about to begin, but it turned out the scumbag only wanted to trade my life for his girlfriend’s. They sacrificed me to a disgusting Huang Xian, never realizing that I had already pledged myself to someone else. I, Shi Yuwei, am not someone just anyone can mess with. I don’t care what kind of monster or demon you are, or how high your status or how great your abilities may be. Anyone who dares bully me will pay a 5Reads—Score—Shelves
- 82 The Eerie Coffin Bearers 诡抬棺 Nine peaks, a sea of blood, mountains of bones... Murderous danger lurks everywhere. Every step is fraught with peril, and I never know how much longer I'll survive. It wasn't until I deciphered the nursery rhyme I'd heard when I became someone's disciple that I uncovered a shocking secret... 63Reads9.0Score—Shelves
- 83 God Suppressor 镇神 A deadly evil curse, a Taoist priest ascending to immortality, and a great calamity on the horizon. The Daoist sect's young patriarch has no choice but to descend the mountain and save the world, only to find a greater conspiracy unfolding one after another. 2.5kReads6.9Score161Shelves
- 84 The Taboos of Moving a Grave: I’m Forced to Be a Dead Man’s Best Man 迁坟禁忌，我被迫给死人当伴郎 Inside a brightly decorated hall, I was serving as best man to a corpse. After that, I went through all kinds of bizarre events... The dead kept sending me gifts I couldn't get rid of. A dried corpse murder case that claimed three lives in a single day. The undead patrolling a wilderness graveyard. A pale child who nailed himself inside a coffin. And the thatched hut that stole people's lifespans. To understand what started this endless string of events, we have to go back to the part-time job I 35Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 85 The House of the Dead 空亡屋 There is a kind of house in this world whose door is always half open and half closed. The open half is for the living to enter. The closed half is for the dead. This kind of house is called a House of the Lost. As it happens, I'm the owner of one. In three years, I've encountered both clingy ghosts and evil people who cling to ghosts. 780Reads8.7Score125Shelves
- 86 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! 7.7kReads7.7Score353Shelves
- 87 I'm a Bar Owner, Forced to Catch Ghosts 我，酒吧老板，被迫营业捉鬼 [Horror + supernatural + semi-invincible + no System + not brainless + ruthless decisiveness] I’m Heibai, an utterly ordinary bar owner. I only wanted to live a quiet life, but one commission and one problem after another keep landing on my doorstep. Curse magic, a drug-induced dreamless sleep, a yin-yang wedding, a deadly text message... As the Underworld descends, little Jiangcheng becomes a den of danger, and one strange incident after another unfolds. Well, looks like I can’t hide my abiliti 1.2kReads8.8Score110Shelves
- 88 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 185Reads8.4Score109Shelves
- 89 The Uncanny One 邪门儿 In the old days, bandit gangs had four pillars and eight posts. The foremost pillar was called the Heaven-Supporting Pillar, and its holder served as the gang's strategist. Since strategists tattooed goshawks on their chests, they were also known as Mountain-Circling Eagles. A Mountain-Circling Eagle is neither monk nor Daoist, yet can discern yin and yang, communicate with spirits, and foretell fortune and misfortune. Neither immortal nor shaman, yet can cast talismans, drive out evil spirits, 1.4kReads8.6Score154Shelves
- 90 EN Otherworldly Merchant 阴间商人 I’m a merchant who specializes in collecting sinister, supernatural objects. Anything that belonged to the dead is valuable! In the hands of ordinary people, these things can bring anything from a haunting to the ruin of an entire family. But in my hands, they can help you get promoted, make a fortune, defy fate, and meet every need a client could have. Want to know why? Shh. If you’re brave enough, come hear about the first terrifying deal I took after entering the business... 188Reads8.9Score—Shelves
- 91 Haunted University: I’m the Only Living Person on Campus 诡大学：全校就我一个活人 [Supernatural + one female lead] He scored 320 on the college entrance exam and just wanted to find a decent university to attend. He never expected to meet a ghostly version of Zhang Xuefeng, who recommended a ghost university 😭 His classmates and teachers are all ghosts 👻 —Reads—Score—Shelves
- 92 Grudge-Locked Patterns 怨气锁纹 Dai Xiaochao, the protagonist, is a college graduate in architecture from the 1990s. Under heavy financial pressure, he moves into a tenement building where a locked-room murder took place two years earlier. Surveillance was scarce in those days, so the police had to investigate door to door, and the case made little progress. Then the ancient Taotie jade pendant inherited by Dai Xiaochao’s family, along with its Taotie patterns, begins to react... And that is where the story begins. 7Reads—Score—Shelves
- 93 The Night-Sealed Door 夜封门 Seven months pregnant, the woman was brutally hounded to death, and her seven-month-old baby was thrown into a well. Her wronged soul is cut off from the road ahead, and evil spirits come to claim their due. The gates of hell swing open, and the underworld seals its doors in the dead of night. 2kReads8.3Score159Shelves
- 94 Paranormal Encounters: What I Saw and Heard 灵异事件之所见所闻 No System + no transmigration + no power fantasy + no harem + no invincible protagonist + no sweet romance + no clichés + no female lead + no cultivation. Important notice: if this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it. If this isn’t for you, don’t read it! Do you believe there are things in this world that science cannot explain? Have you ever experienced anything supernatural yourself? Treat the events in this novel as stories, and remember: Fear and respect the sp 130Reads—Score—Shelves
- 95 The Midnight General Store 午夜杂货铺 “Welcome to the Underworld General Store. Here, you’ll find merchandise unlike anything else, along with extraordinary service…” I run a midnight general store and work as a professional spirit walker, moving between the worlds of yin and yang. In the pitch-black night, I deal in things that must never be spoken of. Then one day, a strange customer dressed head to toe in red came in, and that was when the real horror began… 7.4kReads8.4Score574Shelves
- 96 I Won’t Survive the Night 活不过今夜 At some point, a strange old beggar showed up in our neighborhood. The strange thing was, he never spent the money people gave him. He’d burn it or destroy it instead. Then one day, the woman downstairs was burned to death, and the butcher was brutally murdered. That was when I finally realized the truth. He wasn’t begging for money. He was begging for lives! 1.1kReads8.2Score102Shelves
- 97 The Thirteenth Eye 第十三只眼 As a kid, I was a mischievous little brat, and I once caused a whole lot of trouble. As a result, I hit the jackpot and ended up with three shadows. One black, one red, and one blue. I bragged about them plenty, even though I was the only one who could see them. One night, the red shadow slipped away from beneath my feet and sprinted into the darkness... I panicked and chased after it! If you run off, what am I supposed to brag about? You've been with me this long. The least you could do is say 36Reads8.8Score—Shelves
- 98 Edict of the Mystic Eye 玄瞳敕令 [Chinese-Style Horror + Urban Cultivation + Livestream Fame + Ghost-Tormenting Face-Slapping + No Romance + “Easygoing Girl” + Episodic Story] My family runs a shop called the Worry-Free Pavilion, but our business deals with the realms of the living and the dead. One day, after delivering some clothes, I took a shortcut and stepped onto a long street where dawn would never come. A ghost wedding palanquin passed by, and ghosts roamed the night. I blended in, hoping to get home without drawing att 16Reads—Score—Shelves
- 99 Just Because You Can't See It Doesn't Mean It Doesn't Exist 你看不见不代表不存在 There are many strange events involving spirits, ghosts, and monsters in this world. To most ordinary people, they're just jokes or stories. Science explains them as changes caused by magnetic fields. But science ends where the occult begins. Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Ji Shisan grows from a novice who has just entered the spirit world into a powerful figure who shapes it. Alongside his companions, he safeguards order throughout China, gathers ancient div 2Reads7.3Score—Shelves
- 100 The Yellow Springs Pawnshop 黄泉典当行 The Underworld Pawnshop has existed since time immemorial, with a long and storied history. It can travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, reaching the far shores of the Yellow Springs to trade with ghosts and gods. It stands somewhere in the modern city. Find the Underworld Pawnshop, and any wish can be granted, but only at an equal price. You can pawn anything you own: organs, years of your life, ancestral treasures, even your soul. In exchange, you can get whatever you desire: m 123Reads7.4Score—Shelves
