I assume everyone knows that a house is called ‘haunted’ because someone suddenly dies there, of course not counting natural death. ‘Sudden death’ is a term relatively colloquial, generally referring to unnatural death such as accident, suicide, homicide and so on. People who die this way usually die with resentment because, as the legend says, their destined lifespan has yet to finish. Their soul couldn’t go to the resting place, hence in most haunted houses, strange things will happen. Even if nothing strange actually takes place, people’s words of mouth will make the place seem bizarre. The owners of such houses are pitiful. If they rent out their house and…

Novel introduction & Translation masterpostTranslator: Michelle _______ I turn off the lights, pull out a chair and sit down comfortably. I look up — Behind the lamp on the coffee table, nine people are waiting for me to speak. There are both men and women, all of them of similar age. In the dim light, they are looking at me with different expressions. I don’t know them. In fact, they also meet each other for the first time. The reason why they are sitting here is because of the house where we are in now. A month ago, I posted on a forum a promise that if anyone could, for…

“If you love the sprawling mystery of Daomu Biji, adore the friendship of Iron Triangle and savour the dynamic of PingXie, you will definitely find a strikingly similar vibe in this novel.” – My personal review in one sentence Xiongzhai Biji, or Haunted Houses’ Chronicles / Handbook, is a supernatural webnovel that tells the adventures of two real estate speculators who deal specifically with houses that are affected by ‘supernatural forces’. Soon after its launch, Haunted Houses’ Chronicles took the Chinese Internet by storm and quickly became a favourite of tens of millions of readers, ultimately earning the title “The Most Popular New Suspense Novel of 2012”. Famous author of…