Blood money

Author: Li Ximeng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: The Blood Banknotes is a classic work of Chinese horror fiction. Since its publication in 2003, it has captivated a vast audience of horror enthusiasts in China with its irresistible charm, being reprinted on over 4,000 websites worldwide. The suspenseful film adaptation, Fatal Illusion, received acclaim at the Shanghai Film Festival and is set to be released soon. Reading The Blood Banknotes is a test of willpower. The pervasive suspense and terror are like a noose around your neck, tightening as the plot progresses. During the reading experience, you'll feel as though your fate is now in the hands of the author lurking behind the scenes. When you reach the peak of terror, feeling breathless and on the verge of suffocation, rest assured that Li Ximeng will suddenly loosen the noose, safely escorting you back to reality.
—Cai Jun, Southern Metropolis Daily
Writing horror novels may be a fate that has been thrust upon me. Sometimes, I feel as though I am a dead person telling stories to the living—not to scare them, but to reveal the truth.
—Li Ximeng, Western
Li Ximeng does not deliberately create gory scenes or play with feigned tension. The horror in his novels is like the relentless monsoon rains—they seep slowly into the reader's heart, damp and lingering. Once they catch hold of you, it's hard to shake them off. You'll feel as though you've fallen into an abyss of a nightmare. Even if you struggle fiercely, the darkness around you remains, with only yourself standing in it. Thus, Li Ximeng's novels truly confirm, to some extent, the fear of human existence, and reading becomes a byproduct of fear—shuddering.
—Renowned critic Xie Youshun
Sixteen-year-old Gu Chenguang saw a line of blood-red words at the corner of his home one noon in June: "My blood and your blood will forever merge." At that time, a missing girl case was causing a stir in the city. The day before the monsoon arrived, he dreamed of the room that had always been closed to him and his long-lost parents. Upon waking, he opened the room door and found a hundred-yuan blood banknote. From then on, wherever the blood banknote appeared, disaster struck. The nightmare continued. Who had killed his parents over a decade ago? His grandmother? His mother's lover? His father's mistress? Or someone else entirely? And who was responsible for murdering the beautiful women in the city, dismembering them, and throwing the remains into the sewers? Many terrifying events unfolded during that long monsoon season.