The Eighth Dead Person

"The Eighth Dead Man" is a family tragedy novel that combines rural narrative and mysterious fate. The story is set in Niuaodang in the deep mountains of northern Sichuan. The U-shaped ravine here is filled with fog all year round, as if it has been forgotten by time. In the twelfth lunar month of 1993, an old Taoist who was familiar with ghosts and gods predicted that Dang Nei would "collect eight dead people" that year, and the last one would "cause heartache and liverache to the whole family." The prophecy is like a cold nail, wedged into the fate of every listener. The novel focuses on the third aunt's family from the perspective of a young "me". Cousin Chun Xiu, a girl with hyperthyroidism and unusually bright eyes, gradually became abnormal under the influence of the prophecy. She eventually fell into madness and suffered from a strange ulcerative disease. She became the eighth person to die in extreme pain. Her death is not the end, but the prelude to the unveiling of an older truth: Niuwa Dang is actually the place where the ancient Kui Niu fell, and it needs to be sacrificed with the souls of its descendants, and the cycle continues. Chen Laodao's diary reveals that he himself is also the guardian and executor of this curse cycle. Twenty-five years later, "I" returned to my hometown for my grandmother's funeral. Things have changed, people have changed, wounds have not healed, and an unintentional movement by Dongwa's daughter overlaps with Chunxiu's childhood posture, implying that the curse has never ended, but has just been replaced by new characters and faces, starting a new cycle of sacrifice in this land locked by fate.