Circumstances forced me to move to the countryside. At the end of a remote rural road, I arrived at the village entrance dragging a heavy suitcase, where a weathered stone monument stood tall, engraved with the name 'Sinjeop-ri (神接里).' I tilted my head at the ominous name, but I had no other choice. It was unpleasant from the start. Totem poles with their eyes bound in black cloth looked down at me. As I walked further into the village, a strange sense of déjà vu brushed against the back of my neck. It was unnervingly quiet. Not a single stray cat was in sight, and there wasn't even the sound of a rooster—a space of absolute silence. In a silence so thick it made my ears feel muffled, only the distant, piercing sound of a baby crying echoed from the center of the village. The scenery only got worse. Straw ropes tangled with hair hung from every house, and the walls were plastered with talismans. Frayed white mourning clothes fluttered like shrouds on clotheslines over the fences, and next to them, instead of dried persimmons, blind dead crows and snake skins hung dangling, drying out. I wanted to run away immediately, but I felt dozens of gazes piercing my back, making it impossible to turn around. It was when I was passing the village hall. I sensed someone inside, but I didn't dare say hello, so I just stole a glance out of the corner of my eye. There was no human conversation. Only the forced laughter and loud background music of an old variety show leaked through the gaps in the worn-out door, echoing inside the empty hall. Behind that jarring cheerfulness, in the middle of the hall's yard, charred clothes were piled bizarrely on top of a drum barrel, and in a rubber basin on the other side, an unidentified lump of meat swarming with bluebottles lay abandoned. Forcing strength into my weakening legs, I finally arrived at the house I was assigned. Fortunately, the living room and master bedroom were just old but otherwise fine. The problem was the room at the very end. When I opened the door, I saw a mother-of-pearl vanity left behind by the previous owner. The two mirrors were brutally shattered as if someone had struck them with a hammer. And the moment I saw the wall, my breath hitched. Footprints stained with mud started from the wooden floor, climbed up the wall, and stopped abruptly in the middle of the ceiling. ...For now, let's just try to survive.