I Opened a Hotpot Restaurant Chain in a World of Strange Tales

Tales of the uncanny are returning, and midnight has fallen.

An abandoned school has reopened for classes, an unmanned subway train never reaches its station, hospital records devour people, and a clown from an amusement park knocks on doors in the dead of night. Everyone is desperately trying to escape the uncanny tales. Only Lu Buping charges into the instance carrying a yin-yang hot pot.

Others awaken powers over thunder and fire. He awakens a hot pot domain.

Others turn and run when they see a vengeful ghost. When he sees a ghostly woman in red, he hands her a menu: “Miss, tripe is best when you dip it seven times in and out. Even your resentment can rise and fall with every bite.”

His tiny hot pot restaurant is on the verge of closing when it unexpectedly binds to the “Myriad Worlds Hot Pot Chain System.” From then on, Lu Buping embarks on an utterly absurd path to survival: hiring vengeful ghosts as dining-room managers, recruiting faceless nurses for the front desk, having paper servants wipe the tables, and issuing membership cards to the followers of old gods.

A rules-based horror tale? Sit down and have a bite first.

A terrifying instance? We can open a franchise.

A hungry old god? Sorry, no dine-and-dash in this restaurant.

When darkness swallows the city and fear sweeps across all the heavens, Lu Buping finally realizes that what he has been cooking in his pot was never just ingredients, but the last trace of warmth left in the human world.

He says, “No matter how cold this world gets, someone has to keep the pot boiling.”

One bubbling pot, and ten thousand ghosts take their seats.

The warmth of everyday life cures all defiance.