Seam

Author：Chang Yao-Sheng

Publisher：China Times Publishing Company

Published Date：2013.07

【Synopsis】

〈Sewing〉 In a tailor shop, Old Granny was confined for long years by her quarrelsome son in the attic. She was ignored by all other family members. One day, she insisted on going downstairs, but fell from the stair. She died soon after from the injuries. Old Granny became a ghost and her son saw her day and night. The guilt and horrors filled his mind…

〈Blue Collar〉 There was a grave secret hiding within the good-reputed private high school: Boys dormitory room No. 420 was haunted by ghosts. Anyone hanged himself at Room No. 420 will resurrect and become a gifted student, achieving excellent school performance. The only price is a bruise on the neck, just like a blue collar….

〈Icarus〉 Two best high-school friends got together for a trip to Japan in their college days. One of them lost any trace at the suicide mecca during the trip, the other one went back home alone. The one went back home graduated and married his friend’s sweetheart. He had a great job and a family life envied by his colleagues, but he felt lost inside without his high-school best friend. On a business trip to Japan, he met a stranger at the airport. The stranger looked just like his high-school best friend…

〈The Gourd Town Killings〉 A policeman was notified that his father who lived alone at family home at Gourd Town just died. When he went back home to take care of the funeral, he met his elder brother who was declared dead 10 years ago. At the campfire, he witnessed a large number of fireflies gathered together and became a humanoid like creature. He also witnessed the mysterious phenomenon of human spontaneous combustion. As a policeman, he tried to find out the truth of the incident. Just when he almost found out the truth, he saw his brother, surrounding by the town people, combusted spontaneously on the sandbar in the river….

〈Rat〉 Under Japanese colonial rule, Kominka movement, air strikes and food reduction policy were common occurrences. A woman worked in the An-Nei sugar refinery was close to starvation. She met a strange man from afar. The stranger brought roast pork, braised pork or even rat meat to seduce the woman. He even introduced her mentally handicapped sister for a “nursing” job in the army. After the stranger disappeared, the woman found out she’s pregnant. In the long-term starved state, she gave birth to a stillborn baby, looking like a rat. The woman buried the baby in the sugar cane fields. One day after the harvest, men folk caught, roasted and ate rats from the sugar cane fields. The woman saw those men ate her stillborn baby…