Novels like Forbidden Strange Tales: The Taboos of the Folk
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Forbidden Strange Tales: The Taboos of the Folk, best match first.
- 101 I'm Just a Photographer, So Why Do I Keep Seeing Ghosts?! 我就是个摄影师，为什么总见鬼！ [Original Work] [First Published Here] [Supernatural Horror] [Mystery and Puzzles] [Chinese-Style Horror] [Folk Supernatural] [Light Transmigration] Photographer Lin Shen ventured alone to an abandoned manor in the wilderness, hoping to capture a series of supernatural photographs that could turn his career around. Instead, he was lost in a ravine forever. When he opened his eyes again, he had transmigrated into the body of He Xun, another freelance photographer. Like before, he made a living wi 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 102 Heimu Creek: Bloodstained Human-Skin Paper Spat Out in the Dead of Night 黑木溪：深夜吐出的带血人皮纸 Blackwood Creek: Bloodstained Human Skin Paper Spat Out in the Dead of Night —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 103 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
- 104 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 51Reads—Score—14d adds
- 105 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—14d adds
- 106 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. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 107 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—14d adds
- 108 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. 16Reads—Score—14d adds
- 109 The Wolf King’s Revenge 狼王的报复 They say wolves are spiritual creatures and must never be killed recklessly. That winter, heavy snow sealed off the mountains. The village was bitterly cold and hungry, and nearly every household had run out of food. When a she-wolf died at the village entrance, the villagers took notice. Desperate to survive the famine, they skinned her, enraging the pack in the mountains. That was when misfortune began. Every farm animal in the village was bitten to death. Hair began growing on the villagers' 19Reads—Score114d adds
- 110 Graveyard Hauntings 坟地诡事 Strange things have been happening in the village lately. Every night, a chilling woman's voice can be heard asking, "Who has seen the father of my child?" "Come back, child's father. Look how adorable our baby is." The villagers say it's the ghost of a young woman who hanged herself from a tree, returned to claim lives. But more than one girl hanged herself from that tree. Which of them is the ghost? 7Reads—Score—14d adds
- 111 The Red Ghost in the Village 村里的红厉鬼 The village lies far from anywhere, with winding mountain roads. The harvest is good every year, but the crops simply can't be transported out. The only family in the village with a vehicle is Niu Dakui's, who owns a secondhand three-wheeler. The whole village relies on the two Niu brothers to haul its crops to the city and sell them for cash. The brothers use this advantage to bully people in our village all the time. And now Niu Dakui has set his sights on Xiaorou, the new wife of Chen Sheng. 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 112 Back from the Dead 死而复生 When I was little, there was a saying in the village. If someone in a family died, then came back to life after lying in state for three days, they might turn into an evil ghost. But that was just something the old folks said. Nobody had ever seen it with their own eyes. Then one day, something like that happened to Old Zhao's family. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 113 The Longevity Lock 长命锁 For the past two weeks, whenever Song Yaozu steps into the bathroom to shower, he sees a woman's head dangling from the ceiling, glaring at him. He gets a longevity lock from a Maoshan medium, but everyone who later receives the lock dies in a freak accident… A longevity lock, a longevity lock. But isn't it also a lock that demands a life in payment?… 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 114 The Village of the Dead 死人村 Rainy days gather ghostly energy. Moving graves is most taboo at such a time, but someone ignored the warning, dug up their grandmother's grave, and threw her bones into a mass burial ground. After that, strange things began happening in the village. People died one after another. Yet Grandpa Tianci was thinking of using ghosts to summon the souls of the dead! 141Reads—Score314d adds
- 115 The Cursed Mirror That Takes Your Place 替命诡镜 A strong, heavyset man becomes so emaciated that he's on the brink of death. Doctors can't figure out what's wrong with him, and even fortune-tellers are helpless. His wife gets him a Yin-Yang Mirror that can restore his fortune. But the mirror's power comes at a price: every name written on it makes someone else suffer his misfortune. The man is overjoyed. As one name after another is written down, death follows close behind… 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 116 The Hanged Girls 吊死的姑娘们 Strange things had been happening in the village with increasing frequency. Every night, an eerie woman’s voice could be heard asking, “Has anyone seen my child’s father?” “Come back soon, dear. Just look at our little one, isn’t the baby adorable?” The villagers said it was the ghost of a young woman who had hanged herself from a tree, returned to claim lives. But more than one woman had hanged herself from that tree. Which one was this ghost? 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 117 Soul Calming: A Violent Death 镇魂之死于非命 Latest murder case: A wealthy couple in a villa district have both met gruesome ends. The husband was found dead in bed, dressed as a woman. The wife turned on the gas and burned herself to death! The scene was bizarre, yet surveillance footage showed that both deaths were suicides! No one knew that this was simply the just deserts of their own evil, the consequences of their sins coming back to haunt them… 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 118 The Bloodstained Embroidered Shoe 染血的绣花鞋 In the mountain villages of Northeast China, there are rules: those who die violently must not be cremated. At the very least, they should be put in a coffin and buried on the back hill. Lin Xiu, the new bride in Granny Wang’s household, was found naked and abandoned in a field. Her eyes and lips had been sewn shut while she was alive, and the embroidered shoes on her feet had mysteriously disappeared. The villagers cursed and complained about the bad omen. Granny Wang simply tossed the body int 95Reads—Score—14d adds
- 119 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—14d adds
- 120 The Nuo Dancer's Ordeal 傩人难 Isolated and misunderstood, two people just alike meet because of fate. What kind of story will unfold? Will it be funny or terrifying? Everything takes place beneath a vast shadow. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 121 The Bronze Coffin Seals the Soul: The Yin Corpse 铜棺封魂·阴尸 The Bronze Coffin Seals the Soul: The Yin Corpse 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 122 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—14d adds
- 123 Yang Xiaocao's True Ghost Stories 杨小草的见鬼实录 A collection of true stories about Yang Xiaocao's encounters with ghosts. They may not be that scary, but they're absolutely true! The story begins when Yang Xiaocao is in middle school. Born with a yin-attracting constitution, she often encounters unclean things. 9Reads—Score—14d adds
- 124 Three Partners in Crime 黄雀三人行 I went to the bathroom to take a shower. When I came out, I found my client lying dead on the floor. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 125 Trapped in a Horror Script World, Fighting to Escape 穿到鬼怪剧本世界，拼命逃生 I was inexplicably pulled into the world of a script. The System told me that the only way to return to reality was to break the curse. How is someone as weak as me supposed to survive in a world full of ghosts and monsters?! 25Reads—Score—14d adds
- 126 Sisters of Vengeance 怨鬼姐妹 Chunlan became pregnant before marriage and was driven out of her home. Everyone despised her and kept their distance. The vicious, hard-hearted Old Madam Zhao unexpectedly gave Chunlan a bowl of meat today. Chunlan died, and Zhao Er panicked. "Mother, the child in Chunlan's belly is mine." "Hmph. I never intended to spare the baby in your wife Xifeng's belly, either." 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 127 The Curse of the Graveyard 坟地咒怨 Zhang Fushan was the village's great benefactor. Every household in the village had received his help. His pregnant daughter-in-law died. The villagers wanted to notify his son, who lived in the city, but he refused and had the body burned instead. Zhang Fushan stared at his pregnant daughter-in-law's corpse in the flames. "Heh heh, let's see what you can do to me." The next day, someone found that eight women's graves in the cemetery behind the mountain had split open. 348Reads—Score414d adds
- 128 A Fetus in a Living Corpse 活尸孕胎 As she ran, Widow Sun shouted, "Oh my! This is terrible! There's a child's bones by the river at the village entrance!" Widow Sun raced ahead without looking and crashed straight into Lin Dong as he came around the corner. "Auntie Sun, what's wrong?" Widow Sun didn't dare look back. She pointed to a spot not far behind her, off to one side, but was so terrified she couldn't get another word out. She was in a hurry to get back to the village and report what she'd seen. She ran so fast that she ne 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 129 Rule Horror: Escaping Death in a Haunted Hospital 规则怪谈：我在诡异医院死里逃生 On my first day trapped in the hospital, I realized: The rules here can kill! The smell of disinfectant mingled with blood filled my nostrils. The eyeless doctor made rounds every day, while bloodstained nurses roamed the halls with knives. Two of the eight rules contained fatal errors. I had to figure them out to survive: I watched a fellow patient get stabbed through the heart by a nurse, and I personally sent a traitor off on a death stretcher. The traitor’s dying words were: “Pet, Rule Four. 8Reads—Score—14d adds
- 130 Ghostly Romance 鬼运桃花 “Don’t let the female ghost touch the red thread around your wrist.” Clutching the demon-catching bottle my grandfather left me, I rushed into the mourning hall. Thick black blood was seeping through the crack in Qin Qi’s coffin. Beside his name, the pool of blood twisted into two characters: “Liu’er.” Three days ago, when I returned to the village to drive out a ghost, I never imagined that the vengeful spirit who had haunted him for three lifetimes would be one I’d released with my own hands. 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 131 Rule Horror: Beastmen Keep Humans as Livestock? I Pretend to Have Amnesia and Strike Back! 规则怪谈：兽人圈养人类？我靠装失忆反杀！ I was kept as a pet by beastfolk in a “paradise,” surviving each day by pretending to have amnesia. When I crawled out of the CT scanner, my parents were sitting at the dining table, gnawing on bloody raw meat. Rules suddenly appeared before my eyes: [Do not enter the kitchen] [When danger appears, hide in the study for two hours] One moment, I was enjoying a warm breakfast with Mom and Dad. The next, their skin was crawling with eerie talismans, and they were forcing me to enter the forbidden k 18Reads—Score—14d adds
- 132 Surviving the Deadly Amusement Park by Exploiting Rule Loopholes 我在死亡游乐场，靠规则漏洞求生 Welcome to the Strange Amusement Park Happy Valley Daytime Visitor Rules: 1. Visitors must keep the park clean. Littering is prohibited. 2. Visitors must follow staff instructions to make management easier. 3. Visitors must queue in an orderly manner. Cutting in line is prohibited. 4. Smoking and bringing flammable or explosive items into the park are prohibited. 5. If you see a clown, you must greet them and accept a balloon. One of the rules above is false. Find it before 6 p.m., or die! 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 133 The Last Piece of Fox Meat 最后一块狐狸肉 When I chopped off the white fox's right hind leg, what flowed from its wound wasn't blood, but the cries of the landlady's missing beloved cat. Three days ago, when Boss Zhou forced me to butcher the spirit fox, he never could have imagined that the lump of meat in the kitchen freezer, which would never rot, was a death sentence for every diner. At that moment, Uncle Li's compass needle suddenly began spinning wildly. The last piece of fox meat on the stove was oozing thick black liquid. The po —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 134 Drowning Terror 溺水惊魂 When I opened my eyes, I'd become a plainclothes policewoman, standing by a bridge and looking down. In the river below, a bald middle-aged man was about to sink beneath the surface. The onlookers desperately tried to stop us. “Officers, don't save that murderer! Let him die!” But suddenly, a voice rang in my ears: “Get the drowning man to shore within 10 minutes, or die!” But I can't swim at all! —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 135 The Secret Buried in the Mountains 被埋葬在山里的秘密 Never answer a dead person's call. That night, my old classmate Shi Shoupeng suddenly called, saying he'd found five million yuan buried on Phoenix Mountain thirty years ago. But Zhao Shuang and the others insisted we'd killed him long ago. His body was stuffed in a suitcase, buried right beneath my feet. My phone was clearly out of battery, yet I heard the rasp of bones grinding together from the receiver. “Lu Liang... You said... if we couldn't find the money... you'd leave me to die in the mo 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 136 Village of Sin 罪恶村庄 After Lu Yan returned from an out-of-town interview, it was as if he were possessed. Wherever he stayed, everything before his eyes would turn into ruins after sunset! He went for a medical examination, but nothing was wrong. There seemed to be no explanation for any of it. But he didn't know that from the moment he became a cold, detached observer, his fate was no longer in his own hands... —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 137 The Bronze Ritual Cauldron 青铜法鼎 Chen Junsheng has been seeing ghosts lately. While walking down the street, his vision would suddenly warp, and then he'd see a woman in a red traditional wedding gown. But he'd done plenty of good deeds in his life, so why would a ghost come after him? It wasn't until he sought help from an expert that he learned someone had made him take their place in death. Before long, he would die a sudden, violent death... 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 138 Soul-Locking Pavilion 锁魂阁 My hand trembled slightly as I clutched the diagnosis report. The clinic's heating was turned way up, but cold sweat had soaked the lining of my down jacket. The robed man before me slid over a cup of blood-red tea. The miniature carved pavilion in his palm glowed faintly. “The Soul-Locking Pavilion has recognized you as its master. That means the original owner of your heart was sacrificed alive.” Amid the crisp clink of the teacup against the table, he suddenly leaned in close: “Trade the glor 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 139 The Deadly Incense-Switching Pot 致命转香壶 Song Shiyan suffers from a strange illness, yet every medical examination comes back completely normal. A year has passed, and she's even lost her sense of taste. At her mother's suggestion, she seeks help from a mysterious shaman and receives a mandarin-duck aroma pot said to cure her illness. But this is the beginning of karmic retribution and the cycle of good and evil... 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 140 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. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 141 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—Score314d adds
- 142 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! 355Reads7.8Score10114d adds
- 143 Terrifying Tales 惊魂诡事 Deep, silent alleyways, eerie, terrifying deserted villages, reed marshes choked with weeds... Every scene holds some of my most unforgettable memories! Everything that happens in this book is something I saw or heard myself. You can also read it as a story. Curious about the supernatural tales that have taken place in rural villages and mountain hamlets? Have you ever heard of or seen something that made your hair stand on end? If you find yourself sleepless in the dead of night, put on your he 308Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 144 I Am a Personal Effects Organizer 我是遗物整理师 No one would do the job of sorting through people’s belongings after they died, even for money, but young Chen Jiaren dares to take it on! She earns a living while beating up bad guys and putting evil people in their place. The story is incredibly satisfying! Mystery + deduction + no System + golden finger The heroine is focused on saving money 105Reads7.4Score—14d adds
- 145 The Night of Sacrifice 献祭之夜 The Night of the Sacrifice 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 146 The Hand Reaching Out of the Coffin 棺材里伸出的手 The Hand Reaching Out of the Coffin —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 147 The Death Inn 死亡民宿 On the first night after checking into the guesthouse, the owner died. But at midnight that same night, Lu Shou actually received a text from the owner. “Please be sure to follow the rules of the Deerhorn Guesthouse. Find the landlady’s dowry box before five tomorrow morning, and you can leave with the deputy manager, an orange cat.” “Otherwise, you’ll be stuck here forever.” Lu Shou broke out in a cold sweat, utterly baffled. “I clearly took his phone. How can he still text me?” —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 148 The Silent Echo 沉默的回声 Five years ago, in Room 601 of Ningchuan High School, a girl was found hanged from a bathroom pipe. Her eyes bulged, her tongue was missing, and strange words had been written in blood on the mirror: “He… is back.” Five years later, the sealed cold case was suddenly reopened. Trainee criminal investigator Qin Chuan took over the investigation, never expecting that this bizarre murder would also uncover another buried case: the “South Campus Disappearance.” A deadly game of hunting, lying dormant 57Reads—Score—14d adds
- 149 The Horror Night-Duty Booth 恐怖值班亭 Back around the 2000s, I worked as a security guard at an apartment complex. The complex had a strange rule: [After midnight, do not leave the security booth.] It made no sense, but I always kept it in mind, until the day one of my coworkers died! That night, a woman in a skirt knocked on the security booth window… 31Reads—Score114d adds
- 150 After I Lost My Memory, a Woman Just Like Me Appeared at Home 失忆后，家里出现和我一模一样的女人 I've lost my memory. Since then, people have kept showing me all kinds of evidence and implanting all sorts of memories in my mind. But I feel like an outsider looking in on my own past, unable to relate to any of it. One day, I came home and found a woman fast asleep on the sofa. What terrified me was that she looked exactly like me! 8Reads—Score—14d adds
