Knock on the Door at Midnight

Knock on the Door at Midnight is a supernatural horror web novel by Nannan Yuxi. Serialized on Chuangshi Chinese Network starting in 2014 and completed in February 2016, it spans 699 chapters plus side stories and was entered in the 2014 Next Idea Original Literature Awards. The story follows Pei Zui, a newly released convict who joins the Ghost-Catching Investigation Agency and is drawn into a series of supernatural incidents and layered conspiracies. As he investigates the truth behind a "Chinese Ebola virus," explores the ancient city of Luyuan in the Taklamakan Desert, and unravels the mystery of a monstrous creature in the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains, he gradually awakens his innate "ghost eye" ability. Built around the core concept of the ghost eye subduing spirits, the novel links standalone cases—a gruesome skinning case, a mountain village's rouge jade, a zombie family, and a power struggle among the eleven halls of the underworld—while weaving in folk horror elements such as beauty skin, Miaojiang gu magic, corpse driving, kuman thong, the realms of yin and yang, and the courts of hell. Pei Zui is closely connected to several women, including Ning Sang, Jiang Xiaowei, and Yao Fei, while companions such as Lu Dong, rival Meng Jiling, and the ambiguous ally-and-enemy Xuan Yishisi together spin a web spanning the human world and the underworld. Structured around standalone supernatural cases and a central conspiracy, the work combines thrills with adventurous wonder and includes a modern romance thread.