Broken Face

In the old campus of Jiangjing Second Medical College, many ghost stories circulate about the anatomy laboratory: footsteps at midnight, body parts in the formalin tank, and a sorrowful figure drifting past in white. Every night after evening study ends at eleven, the place becomes forbidden ground in students' eyes. More unsettling still are the rumors about Room 405 in Building 13: on June 16, 1977, a young female student jumped to her death from that room; afterward, on dates near that day, girls again fell to their deaths from Room 405, and their beautiful but shattered faces became a nightmare the whole school could not shake. This year, the freshman Ye Xin happens to move into Room 405. Curious and bold by nature, she does not believe in ghosts at first, but strange things keep finding her: at night someone seems to follow behind her, footsteps sound from the anatomy room, and a boy named Xie Xun falls in love with her, though the real Xie Xun has no recollection of her. She gradually discovers that she shares striking similarities with the girls who fell before her: living in 405, having visited that anatomy building, and being equally curious. As June 16 approaches, her close friend falls ill and withdraws, her father dies suddenly, the doctor treating her commits suicide, and she herself is committed to a psychiatric hospital, with only the lover who always appears at crucial moments and always vanishes without cause by her side. To crack the "405 murder case," Ye Xin pursues the clues step by step, and they ultimately point to the piano piece "Moonlight," to a disfigured woman, and to an old matter from a special era—crushed individuals, distorted hearts, and resentments that refuse to disperse. The story sways repeatedly between reality and hallucination, medical explanation and supernatural suggestion, giving an unexpected answer only at the very end. The book was first serialized online in late 2004, became famous for its extremely high click count, and was published by Shanghai People's Publishing House in 2005.