Paper-Cutting Legacy: The Paper Doll Borrows a Life

At the end of the second floor was the studio where Grandma had worked during her lifetime. Its wooden door, the paint peeling away, was shut tight, with a faded red cord tied around the handle. Qi Yao remembered how, whenever she tried to go inside as a child, Grandma would gently but firmly stop her.

"Yao Yao, those are Grandma's little 'trinkets.' Children who see them have nightmares." Grandma always said this with a mysterious smile on her wrinkled face.