The Uncanny Files

Forensic doctor Jiang Cheng'an has only ever trusted autopsy reports. Until a corpse that "drowned in bed" is pushed onto the dissection table—the deceased's lungs are filled with river water, and a piece of old-fashioned hemp rope is caught between the fingers. He has only seen that kind of rope at the Jiang family's old mansion. No one has returned to the old mansion in twenty-one years, but suddenly someone reports noises inside. He pushes open the door and finds a trail of wet footprints on the floor, stretching from the entrance all the way to his grandfather's bedroom. The footprints are small, like those left by a seven- or eight-year-old child. He hasn't set foot in this house since he was eight. And his younger sister, Jiang Yu'an, has painted one picture every year since she was fifteen—pictures of the old mansion's basement, a place she has never been. There are cracks in the wall, and behind the cracks, something is breathing. He thought that as long as he didn't touch those things, he could keep his sister outside the door. But he was wrong. Those things aren't unable to find him—they are waiting. Waiting for him to come back, pick up the bronze seal, take over from his grandfather, and become the last generation of night watchers of the Jiang family. ------ "What science can't explain, I explain with a knife. What the knife can't explain—then I use my life." ------ — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: The Uncanny Files — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠