The Cheongsam

Every three years, a woman in a qipao appears, sometimes by day and sometimes by night, walking along the stone-paved roads. Strange things happen whenever she shows up.

This time, it all began with a red bellyband that carried a woman’s scent.

Then a qipao painting appeared, a painting so uncanny it was beyond belief.

It could be peeled back to reveal seven layers, and the qipao worn by the woman in each layer was different. Even her appearance changed from one layer to the next.

Each time one of these seven layers was peeled back, it revealed a woman in a different qipao and a different series of events. The paintings were the work of Feng Guizi, an artist who lived to the age of ninety-nine and left behind five paintings, each eerier than the last. A painting must not pass through more than three hands or visit more than three households. If it does, whoever receives it at the third household must keep it, and strange things will continue to happen around the painting.