Japanese folk tales adapted into detective novels, "Once upon a time, there was a corpse somewhere..." after reading

Author: Qingliu Biren<br class="smart">Traditional Version Title: Once upon a time, there was a corpse somewhere...
Simplified version of the book title: A long, long time ago, in a certain place...

This is a very interesting detective novel, and also a blackened version of a Japanese folk tale that tells you that "fairy tales are all lies".

This book adapts 5 classic Japanese folk tales and turns them into a series of short stories of reasoning. The characters originally thought to be kind are transformed into murderers who can kill for their own selfish interests. As the book review said, after reading it, you will sigh: "The My childhood is still here!"

⏺ Who would I recommend to read this book?

I would highly recommend you to read this book if you meet any of the following criteria:

❇️ I like to read detective novels ❇️ I like to darken fairy tales ❇️ I want to re-understand fairy tales from different perspectives

⏺ Plot summary

❇️One Inch Mage×Alibi, adapted from "One Inch Mage": The original story tells how a 16-year-old boy who was only one inch tall (3.33 cm) who was bullied since childhood became a princess guard in Kyoto, Japan with the swordsmanship he had developed through hard work , and then defeated the evil ghost to protect the princess, and finally won the inspirational story of the beauty's return.

In this book, although Master Yi Inch is also highly skilled in martial arts, there is still a secret hidden in his heart that cannot be told...

❇️Grandpa Huakai × Message before his death, adapted from "Grandpa Huakai": The original story is that a kind old couple took in a stray dog. The puppy took them to dig gold coins before he died, but later because he was unwilling to take the bad couple next door Dig for gold coins and get killed. After he died, he did not forget to ask the kind old couple to use the tree in front of the grave to make a wooden mortar that could make gold coins. Later, the wooden mortar was robbed by the bad couple next door, but they couldn't get the gold coins and burned them in anger. The puppy continued to dream that they would sprinkle the burned ashes on the withered cherry tree, so the cherry blossoms made the passing officials very happy and rewarded a lot of treasures. When the bad couple next door stole the ashes and did the same thing, not only did the cherry blossoms not bloom, but instead ran into the eyes of the high officials and received severe punishment.

In this book, the story begins when the cherry blossoms bloom, and the protagonist becomes a stray dog newly adopted by a kind old couple. The kind old grandpa who should have lived happily ever after was killed, and the puppy vowed to find the real murderer to avenge the old grandpa. !

❇️White Crane Repaying Kindness × Narrative tricks, adapted from "White Crane Repaying Kindness": a very common animal repayment story, mainly for a bachelor who rescued a white crane, and later Baihe turned into a woman to repay her kindness and woven a lot of very beautiful feathers with her own feathers. Beautiful cloth, so the benefactor sold a lot of money. At the end of the story, because the benefactor did not abide by the agreement, he peeked while she was weaving, and found that she was actually a white crane, and the white crane could only leave.

In this book, the story gets a lot more complicated. The bachelor turned into a scumbag who only regarded Baihe as a cash cow and married someone else. Even more thought-provoking, how does a good person become a bad person? In addition, the story of reincarnation and the way of hiding corpses are also very interesting.

❇️Urashima Taro × Murder in the Secret Room, adapted from "Urashima Taro": A fisherman who got a trip to the Dragon Palace for several days because he saved a turtle, came back and found that it had been hundreds of years. The jade hand box that must not be opened turned into a centenarian in the end.

There is no change in the original content in this book, but in addition to enjoying himself in the Dragon Palace, he also played a detective and "broken" a case of killing "people" in a secret room.

❇️Momotaro × Lonely Island Murder, "Momotaro": Everyone probably knows that, to put it simply, a little boy was born in a big peach. He was adopted by an old couple. When he grew up, he used glutinous rice dumplings to get the help of dogs, monkeys and pheasants. We went to the ghost island to eliminate ghosts and brought back many treasures. Since then, we have lived happily ever after with our adoptive parents.

This book tells the story of the ghost island after Momotaro left. After many years, the ghost who survived by chance ushered in a series of "ghost" murders. Who is the real culprit?

⏺ Feelings

A very special magic reform folk story , each short story has a different narrative angle. The One Inch Mage is cut from the perspective of other princess guards, the Grandpa Blossom is cut from the perspective of the newly adopted puppy, the White Crane story is cut in with flashbacks, the Momotaro story is cut in with a ghost from Onishima, and then the old monkey and the little monkeys say way of telling a story.

I don't want to spoil the story, so I can't say too much, but the logic of the crime is reasonable, and the logic of killing Hua Kai's grandfather is also very reasonable, but it is too ruined. I thought that a good person would kill for profit. The author's details in the original story captured some reasonable character profiles. For example, isn't it normal for children who have been bullied to grow up to be resentful? It's weird that you don't want revenge at all, right? After reading it, it was surprising but reasonable. Bai He's repaying kindness seems to be a story of one person, but at the end, I realized that this is the story of two people with the same name. Although it is a bit confusing, it is very interesting. Because the Momotaro chapter is a follow-up, it actually has little to do with Momotaro, but the characters and readers in the book are misled by Momotaro who killed the ghost island, but at the end, it is revealed that the murderer who killed the "ghost" was actually Momotaro...

⏺ Off topic

I was curious to take a look at the cover of the Japanese version, and found that the traditional Chinese version is loyal to the original, but it feels really ugly... I wonder what do you think of the original cover when you are reading this article?

It turns out that I haven’t written and read it for two months, time flies so fast!