The Moon-Burying Coffin

Before my dad went missing, he mailed back a bloodstained notebook with just one sentence inside: “When the moon coffin appears, all living things will be buried.” To find him, I followed Fu Qingci’s archaeological team into Moonshadow Village, cut off from the rest of the world. Paper figures walked at night, and a blood-red sedan chair stopped outside my window. The paper bride inside, wearing my dad’s jacket, bared a blood-red grin at me. Everyone says he’s dead. Only I know he’s still alive. Because the moment I touched that jacket, I heard his desperate roar in my ear: “Run! They’re not human!” Now Fu Qingci, sleeping in the room next door, carries an ancient book with the same origins as my dad’s in his pocket, and a rune-engraved dagger hidden in his backpack. The way he looks at me is more and more like he’s sizing up… an offering. Tonight, the moon turns strange, and the coffin lid will open. Guess which of us will bare their fangs first?