Liao Zhai
新聊斋
A mysterious beauty’s severed head appears in the bustling marketplace. A fox spirit, trapped in the treacherous depths of human desire, struggles to escape her fate. When the Judge of the Underworld descends to swap heads and hearts, chaos erupts. A paper doll awakens to life with the final stroke of a brush, a wooden puppet grows a beating heart, and a withered tree stirs with forbidden longing. In this world where the boundaries between flesh and fantasy blur, ancient magic and human folly collide—revealing that even the most lifeless things may hunger for a soul.
