Bi Ming

Author’s Preface

I have always told readers to approach my thrillers as though they were watching a thriller film. So, in my imagination, you have just finished watching one and are leaving the cinema. Some couples are whispering to each other about the plot. Some friends walk in silence, letting the story sink in. Meanwhile, I am hiding in a dark, narrow alley across the road, watching your every move and listening to every word.

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I cannot hide my nervousness as I wait for the “box office results” and the “film reviews”. This is my first series to reach readers in Taiwan. Compared with the ease I have felt publishing in Hong Kong over the past seven years, this is different. I still have confidence in my work, but I would be lying if I said I was not nervous.

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I wonder whether you share my feeling about the world of my novels: people can be more wicked than ghosts. The struggle between human nature and our darker impulses, the havoc wrought by inner demons and resentment—these ideas began taking shape during my university years, when I studied Chinese philosophy under Dr 鄧立光, a Hong Kong expert in the I Ching. From the moment I began writing to the present day, I have continued to believe that people are more frightening than ghosts. This remains a central theme of my work.

If curiosity is part of human nature, have I exaggerated the chain of misfortunes set in motion by Fu Pak-hei’s curiosity? I can tell you this: never underestimate the instincts within us. Once a thought turns towards evil, the dark impulses lying dormant in the heart can prove far more powerful than we imagine. That is why I often say that a demon hides within every one of us, waiting to emerge.

《畸羅之眼》 is the first novel in the 靈異出版社 series. One thing is certain: the mysterious files within it will continue to wreak havoc. The characters, too, will continue to play crucial roles in the fictional world I have created. Their actions and consequences will connect, set one another in motion, and become increasingly entangled.

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Finally, I am deeply grateful to 叔慧姐, editor-in-chief of 明日工作室, for giving me the opportunity to introduce my work to you. I also thank lead editor 令葳, editor 君宇 and illustrator FC for their wholehearted assistance. Their efficient, professional collaboration has brought this book successfully to publication in Taiwan.

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And, of course, without your support, my words and my novels could not continue.

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I am grateful that fate has brought me to you—readers across the sea who enjoy Benny B.M.’s fiction. Let us promise to meet again in my next novel. I hope you have enjoyed this thriller of a film.

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Take care.

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陳夏民 · Editor-in-Chief of Taiwan’s 逗點文創結社

The atmosphere of horror in Benny B.M.’s 靈異出版社 series differs from that of comparable Western or Japanese works. It has an unmistakably Hong Kong flavour.

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Reading the series, I found the use of a publishing house as its central premise wonderfully inventive. At the same time, I sensed the psychological pressure that hangs over a densely crowded metropolis like Hong Kong: unless you belong among the successful, you are an utter failure. There is no grey area.

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Rather than saying Benny writes about ghosts, I would say he writes about the demons within us. Every story concerns people standing at the edge of a cliff, about to be blown off—or already falling. They would trade everything bound up in their love and hatred for one chance to turn their lives around. To rise again. To rise again. To rise again.

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That obsession is terrifying.

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After reading these two books, scenes from the Hong Kong television drama 《義不容情》, which I watched as a child, returned to me. I have long forgotten the plot, but I will always remember the character played by 溫兆倫: his obsession with climbing higher, his willingness to sacrifice those around him for a chance to get ahead. It cast a shadow over my childhood.

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People are the most frightening creatures of all.

典子 · Former Programme Host at Uonlive Online Radio

A good director is the soul of a good film.

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In Benny B.M.’s writing, the chilling atmosphere, bloody descriptions, carefully constructed plot and oppressive sense of being there draw you into a supernatural world to investigate its mysteries, then lead you to crime scenes to reconstruct what happened.

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The journey sends shivers down your spine. Every scene plants a clue. Mysteries hide within mysteries, new threads branch out from the story, and an unexpected ending awaits.

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You cannot help reading it in one sitting. Once you begin, you cannot stop.

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藍醉蝶 · Reader from Taiwan

Uncle Chung tells Fu Pak-hei: “Curiosity killed the cat!”

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But where did the mysterious files in Wing Kong’s collection come from?

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After gaining powers he has never possessed before, a man imagines himself master of the world—only to discover that he is merely a pawn of fate. To test his newfound abilities, he disregards whether others live or die and takes control of their lives.

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Fu Pak-hei uses people as test subjects, turning them into wronged spirits trapped within his paintings. When someone so cruel, so utterly devoid of humanity and conscience, finally meets his fate, it is hard to see it as anything other than karmic retribution…

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001xinren · Baidu Baike Contributor

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Recommended reading.

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Horror fiction is a genre of popular literature. This short book is worth reading for more than the stimulation of the imagination or the experience of fear.

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Its language is carefully chosen to create a sense of terror. Without drawing attention to what it is doing, the writing prompts your imagination to take over—and the more you imagine, the more frightening it becomes. It is easy to become completely absorbed in the story.

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There are also three other books in the series. As a university student who enjoys this kind of fiction, I found that reading this book deepened my understanding of the horror genre.