Haunted House

Name: Haunted House
ISBN: 9787501415052

牛伯成Qunzhong Publishing House · ChinaDec 2025

3.3

Word count: 176K words
Chapters: 20
ISBN: 9787501415052

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Summary

This is a mystery that shook the Qing court and the wider world. During the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty, in the household of Chancellor Zhang in Tongcheng County, Anhui, Chef Lu, whose marriage to his wife Liu Cuiyun had soured, wrote her a letter of divorce. Lu's friend Wang Wenlong, coveting Liu Cuiyun's beauty, asked Lu to speak for him as a matchmaker, promising that once he married Liu Cuiyun, Lu could enjoy her whenever he wished. Wang Wenlong did marry Liu Cuiyun, but he did not honor his promise to Lu. Enraged, Lu took out his anger on Liu Cuiyun and threatened to kill Wang Wenlong. Not long afterward, while Wang Wenlong was away on official business, Liu Cuiyun was murdered in the middle of the night—her eyes gouged out, her ears cut off, her face disfigured beyond recognition, a sight too horrible to behold. Wang Wenlong insisted it was Lu's doing. The county magistrate held a hearing and sentenced Lu to death. But the jail warden Wen Bihai discovered suspicious physical evidence at the murder scene; when the coffin was opened and the corpse examined, the dead woman turned out not to be Liu Cuiyun at all! Where is Liu Cuiyun? And who is the real killer?

Editor's review

This book is based on a homicide case from Tongcheng, Anhui, during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty: Chef Lu divorces his wife, Wang Wenlong marries Liu Cuiyun and then breaks his prior promise, Liu Cuiyun is soon gruesomely murdered, Chef Lu is sentenced to death by the county magistrate, and the assistant magistrate Wen Bihai spots something suspicious among the physical evidence at the scene—only to find, upon opening the coffin for an autopsy, that the dead woman is not Liu Cuiyun. The story advances through layer upon layer of reversal, moving from romantic entanglement to criminal adjudication, with tightly plotted suspense and the readability of a traditional case-solving novel. The author's narration is restrained, focusing on physical evidence and the process of investigation, so readers can follow Wen Bihai's perspective in gradually untangling the truth and can also glimpse some procedural details of local judicial hearings in the Qing dynasty. As popular historical suspense, it is better suited to leisure reading than to serious research in judicial or social history. The plot involves murder and descriptions of corpses, so readers should be prepared.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy case-solving stories and historical suspense, seeking plot reversals and puzzle-solving pleasure
General readers interested in Qing dynasty social life and local judicial procedures
Fiction lovers looking for light, entertaining reading on the commute or before bed

Not a good fit for

Readers sensitive to or easily unsettled by murder and corpse descriptions
Professional readers expecting rigorous judicial history or academic research materials
Readers who prefer modern urban settings or fast-paced, action-heavy plots

Reading tips

Read in chapter order where possible, and avoid flipping ahead, which would spoil the suspense
Pause at the autopsy and physical evidence sections and note how details drive the reversals
After finishing, compare with common knowledge of Qing criminal justice to distinguish fictional dramatization from historical fact
If the case's prototype interests you, look further into Qing dynasty notebooks and case records

About the publisher

Qunzhong Publishing House China · Founded in 1956

Qunzhong Publishing House is a publisher grounded in public security work and oriented toward society, focusing on books on politics, law, public security operations, public security teaching materials, and literature and art. Its current library contains 20 titles, covering categories such as war and military life, mystery and detective fiction, classic works, social novels, and otherworld fantasy. Representative books include The Secret Envoy, Black Ice, Ultimate Evil, Desperate Situation, Black Hole, The Case Is Solved: Chronicle of a Shocking Major Case, The Criminal Police Squad, and The Special Agent Company. Representative authors include Zhang Chenggong, Wang Xiaoyi, Zhu Weijian, Zang Qing, Zhang Ce, Zhang Liyu, Niu Bocheng, and Ding Yihe. Its publishing character lies in drawing on a public security professional background to combine legal and criminal investigation themes with literary narrative, forming a list that gives equal weight to mystery and detective fiction and social novels. As public information is limited, other publishing details are omitted.

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FAQ

Is this a true historical case or fiction?

The book narrates the outline of a homicide case from Tongcheng, Anhui, during the Qianlong reign, and is a work of popular fiction built on a historical case. The dialogue, scene details, and investigation process contain literary invention and should not be cited as rigorous historical sources. Readers may treat it as a book for experiencing the style of Qing dynasty case-solving stories; for factual verification they should consult archives and case records separately.

Does the book contain gory or horrifying descriptions?

Yes. The case involves the murder of Liu Cuiyun, with her eyes gouged out and ears cut off and her face rendered unrecognizable, and the autopsy scene is fairly direct. These passages serve the reasoning and suspense of the case and are not especially dense, but readers sensitive to murder scenes may still find them uncomfortable; decide whether to read based on your own tolerance.

Is it suitable for middle school students?

That depends. The language is plain and the plot tightly paced, so middle school students with reasonable reading ability can follow it, but it involves divorce, romantic entanglement, and gory murder descriptions, and the themes are fairly adult. Parents or teachers recommending it to middle school students should first consider their tolerance for violence and sexual content and offer appropriate guidance.

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About the author

牛伯成 Author

Niu Bocheng is a Chinese book author about whom little is publicly known; details such as nationality and dates of birth and death are not clearly recorded. Judging from the six works held in the collection, his writing spans social fiction, suspense and mystery, and otherworldly fantasy, showing considerable range in subject matter. Representative titles include The Haunted House, Dry Desire, Blood-Red Wanted Notice: A Chronicle of a Career Criminal's Wicked Life, Heavenly Prison, Heroes of the World (a true-crime series on major cases of the twenty-first century), and The Weightless Woman. These works include documentary-style writing centered on a career criminal as well as suspense narratives built around criminal investigation, and some titles suggest an interest in crime, prison, and marginalized social circumstances. Overall, his writing moves between social realism and genre narrative, preferring to carry his characters' fates through tense plots, and should appeal to readers interested in true-crime reporting and suspense.