Two Ancestors in My Bones

Lu Xun, an intern at a funeral parlor, has an occupational quirk: he can't help but check the backs of people's necks for stitches and door frames for patches. The doctors say it's all in his head, until one night an unidentified charred corpse drags him into a freezer, and his spine burns as if branded with a hot iron—two desperate women squeeze into the crevices of his bones. One is Xie Linghui, a sharp-tongued, cleanliness-obsessed fallen Taoist who complains his blood is impure and his talismans are crooked; the other is Amber, a starving ghost spirit who hides from people, steals offerings, and tattles. They claim this is the last 'Spirit-Bearing Divine Skeleton' in the world, capable of harboring souls and warding off evil, at the cost of lightning strikes making Lu Xun's hands tremble for three days, and the two ancestors bickering all night in his head whenever his soul aches. From then on, the Seventh Division of the city bureau gains an unofficial consultant: he pulls the power when an elevator stops at a nonexistent floor, pours hot oil into a sweet-water well in an old alley that sings at midnight, and when a demon elder demands a clan contract from across the street, he first throws a binding talisman and then clutches Amber tight. He says he doesn't seek divine power, only to mend the cracks throughout the city. But the two ancestors in his bones always chide: 'Less talk, solve the case, and add an apple to tonight's offerings.' Amidst the city's mortal bustle, those who see the flaws do not die. Forging a thousand techniques with bones is not for ascension, but so that beneath the lamplight, no wronged spirits knock on windows. — Description from novelcodex.org