Why I built HSKStory

You open a graded reader and it's about buying fruit at the market. Again. Or you try a real novel and understand every third word. There's nothing in between.

That was me at HSK 3. I could pass the test and I still couldn't read anything real. So in 2026 I started building the stories I wanted: slice of life, mystery, romance, sci-fi.

There are 175+ of them now, across all nine levels of HSK 3.0. That includes HSK 7-9, which basically doesn't exist anywhere else.

Most of my time went into the Reader itself: audio that follows every word, pinyin only when you need it, no popups or clutter.

Editors tailor every story to its HSK level and check it word by word against the HSK 3.0 lists. New stories added every week.