Ghost Matchmaker

夜冷狐

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Word count: 2.1M words

Summary

Ghost Matchmaker is a supernatural web novel by Ye Leng Hu, serialized on Hongshu Chinese Network under Zhangyue Literature from December 2014 to July 2015, and completed at approximately 2.1261 million Chinese characters. It is also known as Yin Yuan Zai Xu Zhi Gui Mei Ren (Ghost Matchmaker: Love Beyond Death). The story centers on the obscure folk profession of the "ghost matchmaker": rather than arranging matches for the living, these practitioners join the bones of the dead in marriage.

The protagonist, Chu Xiaotian, inherits his grandfather's mantle and takes up the ghost matchmaking trade within the funeral business, partnering with Liu Daneng to handle posthumous marriage cases. The novel opens with a ghost wedding in a remote mountain village: on a stormy night, a group brings the beautiful corpse Xu Jiaojiao into the village. Unable to return because of the muddy, ruined roads, they are forced to spend the night in the mortuary. The coffin then opens on its own, the dead woman refuses her arranged marriage, and a series of eerie incidents ensues. Thereafter, hauntings in the mortuary, bone digging at the graveyard flats, Li Quan's bizarre suicide, and hauntings in the detention center follow one after another, with a mix of horror and a comically worldly jianghu flavor.

As the fortune-teller Jin Yitian, his cousin Dong Hanlin, and others enter the story, the thousand-year mission of the Four Great Families and the struggle over the demon-revealing mirror gradually come to the surface. Story arcs unfold layer by layer, including exploration of an ancient village in the Tianshan Mountains, adventures in the Cavern of Ten Thousand Ghosts, and turmoil in Sanshao City, while the main thread is driven throughout by defiance of fate and the resurrection of a beloved. Blending funeral folk customs with esoteric arts, the novel uses bizarre plots to probe the ethics of life and death and the choices of human nature, making it one of the more representative supernatural works in the Zhangyue lineup.

Editor's review

如果你偏爱“职业设定+民俗志怪”的路子，《鬼媒人》值得一读。它没有一上来就堆砌神通法术，而是从鬼媒这行当的规矩、禁忌和人情世故讲起：怎么搭骨、怎么下聘、什么时辰不能动土，这些细节写得扎实，读起来有街巷里传说的烟火气。主角楚小天自由散漫却讲义气，搭档刘大能又胖又怂，两人一唱一和，把恐怖场面调节出几分喜感，惊悚与轻松交替，节奏不闷。中段转入情感与阴谋，四大家族、照妖镜、万鬼域窟的设定逐渐展开，格局从单元小案升到家族宿命，后半段为复活挚爱一路拼命，悲情收束也让人物立住了。全书两百多万字，篇幅不短，适合愿意跟着主角长线成长的读者。作为2014—2015年的网络连载作品，文风带着那个时期灵异文的直白与爽利，不追求精致文笔，但故事推进快、钩子密。适合深夜无事时一口气追几十章，也适合对冥婚、丧葬民俗感兴趣的读者当作通俗读物一窥门径。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢灵异、惊悚题材网络小说的读者
对冥婚、丧葬民俗等民间习俗有兴趣的读者
偏爱“职业流”设定、看主角从业内规矩里打怪升级的读者
能接受两百余万字长线连载、愿意追读大长篇的书友

Not a good fit for

对鬼怪、尸体、丧葬细节描写感到不适或易受惊吓的读者
偏好文学性强、语言精致的严肃小说读者
希望短篇速读、不愿投入大段时间的读者

Reading tips

前几十章以单元鬼事为主，建议按顺序读，先熟悉鬼媒行当的规矩与人物关系
恐怖段落密集，建议白天或光线充足时阅读，睡前慎入
中段涉及四大家族与照妖镜主线时，可留意伏笔回收，读起来更顺
篇幅较长，可把每个单元案件当作一个小故事分段读，不必强求一气读完

FAQ

《鬼媒人》是实体书还是网络小说？

它是夜冷狐创作的网络灵异小说，2014年12月至2015年7月在掌阅文学旗下红薯中文网连载完结，约212.61万字，目前未见正式出版实体书的信息。

这本书讲的是什么职业？

讲的是民间“鬼媒”，即给亡者搭骨、为死者缔结阴亲的殡葬从业者。主角楚小天继承祖父衣钵，与搭档刘大能一起接冥婚生意，由此撞上一连串灵异事件。

《鬼媒人》和《鬼媒人之红线阴媒》是同一本吗？

两者都出自夜冷狐，但《鬼媒人之红线阴媒》是另一部以冥婚为背景的都市灵异作品，主角以第一人称叙述，情节与人物设置不同，不宜混为一谈。

读起来会不会很吓人？

开篇停尸房、坟滩挖骨等段落氛围较足，但主角与刘大能的插科打诨会冲淡紧张感，整体是惊悚与诙谐交替的路子，属于通俗灵异而非硬核恐怖。

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About the author

夜冷狐 Author

Yeleng Hu is an author about whom very little public information is available. The library currently holds only one work by this author, Bad Girl. Judging from the existing category information, the book belongs to youth literature, which suggests that the author's writing tends toward themes of adolescent growth and campus life. As basic details such as dates of birth and death, nationality, and English name are not recorded, nothing can be reliably established about the author's personal history, creative career, or literary influences, and speculative additions would be inappropriate. Based on the work currently available, Yeleng Hu is still at a stage of being initially discovered by readers, and Bad Girl, as the representative work, serves as the main entry point for understanding the author's thematic interests and narrative style. Readers seeking a fuller picture of this author will need to wait for more works and public information to accumulate before a more complete assessment can be formed.