In his performances, Yan Xing often collaborates with humans of flesh and blood in their real-life contexts; this makes his works different from works of theatrical fiction. In 2016, he invited Ao Wang (then Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures at Wesleyan University) to direct seven students in an adaptation of seven stories from the eighteenth-century folk-tale collection Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. At the same time, Yan Xing began researching in the archives of Wesleyan University at Olin Memorial Library. In the Special Collections section, he uncovered documentation concerning a tragic campus accident from 1984. Later, he staged a performance with the students in the form of a ghost-story sharing session, which took place at Wesleyan University on February 26, 2016.

This work combines literary ghost stories with the students' newly adapted supernatural tales and the results of his research from the Wesleyan University archives. Rooted in the narrative traditions of literature, Yan Xing deploys unconventional integration methods to break down the boundaries between different forms of artistic practice. The fresh and eerie narratives emerging from this project are rewriting the history of this small New England town.