Young Uncle’s Horror Stories

“South-Style Third Uncle”， a horror story writer of national renown， has published six books in his “The Grave Robber’s Notes” series since 2007. The six books have sold 2 million copies and earned him 1 million in royalty. They are extremely popular with young readers. But the uncle is not a real uncle. When his first “The Graverobber’s Notes” came out under this awesome penname， he was 25. He was much younger when he began to create his own horror stories.

“Third Uncle” is Xu Lei， a native of Hangzhou， the capital city of eastern China’s coastal Zhejiang Province. He was born in 1982 into a family of ordinary factory workers. He is the only child. As his parents worked， his grandmother took care of the baby boy. The grandmother lived in a large courtyard shared by many families.

Xu Lei had his first share of horror stories from his grandmother when he was 3. His grandmother didn’t tell horror stories at first. The stories she told were just conventional ones for children. The young boy had a very good memory and he protested whenever his grandmother tried to tell the same story with changed names and places. Before long， the storyteller exhausted her repertoire and her loyal but demanding listener wanted more. One night， after all the good stories were over， his grandma patted her knees and asked the little boy to sit there. She was ready to tell her first horror story to the little boy. The boy was scared but the next evening， he asked his grandmother for more horror stories.

These stories took roots in his mind and appeared in his dreams. The would-be writer began to keep a journal about his dreams. Sometimes he visited bookstores to see whether there were books that would explain why he was having such dreams. The dreamer began to tell his dream-turned horror stories to his classmates. They were horrified， thrilled and amazed and became his loyal audience. But his teachers intensely disliked him for his telling horror stories in classroom.

One day， his English teacher predicted to the whole class that Xu Lei would be an abject loser in the future and banned him from telling his horror stories to his classmates. With such a public blow， Xu Lei became depressed. He became shy and he stammered when he was nervous. He still stammers now and then.

Another person that plays a big part in Xu Lei’s writing career is his uncle who runs an antique store in Hangzhou. In his teenage years Xu Lei visited his uncle at his shop now and then. His uncle told him stories about the antiques in his shop. These high tales about antiques were often closely associated with grave robbers.

Like millions of young boys in China， Xu Lei dreamed of becoming someone like Bill Gates running a big company and having a lot of money. So he chose e-commerce as his college major. It turned out that the college years gave him an opportunity to be a storyteller again. The college courses were not particularly time-consuming and he found time to tell his stories. What stories he told! All the stories that he had accumulated in his mind but didn’t have a chance to tell now gushed out like torrents， holding his classmates spellbound.

In his junior year at the college， he set up his foreign trade company to sell toys to overseas buyers. In 2006， he got married with a small fortune he had made from his toy business. After the marriage， he thought it was time he turned to writing. When the financial crisis hit in 2007， his company ran into difficulties but he felt greatly relieved: at last he had ample time to read books， and visit his uncle’s antique shop as frequently as he chose. And he began to write his first grave robber story.

The first chapter was an overnight success. It was published at an online forum and it got more than 1 million comments. A publisher called him. Four months later “The Grave Robber’s Notes I: Seven-Star King Lu’s Palace” came off press. It sold 600，000 copies in a month. He chose “South-Style Third Uncle” as a penname without much thinking.

Xu Lei wrote fast in those days. He wrote about 20，000 words a day at home. Within a year and a half， he produced two sequences. He built up a large readership across the country. Some people even went so far as to conclude that his books triggered a nationwide tomb-digging mania. A teenager fan phoned him frequently， saying he was a real grave robber and he called to correct some mistakes in the uncle’s books.

Then a real grave robber visited him one day in early 2008. The mysterious mid-aged man came from Jinan， the capital city of Shandong Province. The man had tattoos on his chest and back and had a thick and long gold necklace. The necklace was so long that it reached his knees. The professional grave robber explained that the necklace had to be long and strong because it was used to remove corpses. Afterwards， Xu Lei did a research on the man and found the mysterious visitor was indeed a professional grave robber.

Success brought him more than fortune and fame. It also brought unexpected problems. When he was writing the fourth book of the series， he felt he was utterly bored. The publisher urged him every day to finish his writing. His pregnant wife often lost her temper when he tried to talk. He found himself overwhelmed by all the horror stories. He thought of his horror stories while awake and had more horror dreams at night. He heard one voice in his head telling him to stop and spend more time with his wife and another voice telling him to keep writing or all these stories would blast his head off. He lost his sleep for days. He was so frightened by all the uncertainties of his future that he looked into lives of some horror story writers to find out what happened to them. He was relieved to find that they had kids and they enjoyed life.

Things turned out pretty well. After writing ceaselessly for seven days and nights， he accompanied his wife to hospital. The moment he saw his baby boy， he found himself reborn. His depression and phobia were magically all gone. He became quiet and relaxed when he started writing the fifth book of the series.

In December 2009， Paramount Pictures of USA bought the film rights of his books. Another American publisher has bought the comic rights of his books and the publishing of an English version is underway.

Writing is a growing process for the horror novelist. Xu Lei still has his worries but he is more confident. He is looking forward to financial security. He hopes to write something like Avatar for his son after he writes his eighth book that will wrap up the series. He wishes he can successfully shed off the 20 km weight he had accumulated over the past three year while committing himself to writing.

Xu Lei thinks the sweetest thing out of this success is that he has proved the teacher wrong. Also sweet is the fact that his parents are now able to proudly boast to their friends that their son is a writer.

And he is grateful to his parents for their confidence in him and their tolerance to his mediocre scholarship in his student years. Dreams still swarm at night but they no longer scare him. However， he still has some fears about his future and himself. He fears that he might not be a good father to his son despite his fortune. All this is understandable. After all， the uncle who scares millions of readers across the country is only 28 years old. □