The Shen Family Paper Effigy Shop in Jiangnan’s Paper Town is a place people would rather not talk about. Its bridal effigies carry the breath of the living and are never made to order for the living, while the red-lacquered paper figure in the backyard is strictly forbidden to touch.
The day twenty-four-year-old Shen Qingyuan took over the shop, the half-finished paper wedding robe embroidered with twin lotuses, left behind by her grandmother, suddenly glowed red. The silver ring enclosed with an anonymous order turned out to be a keepsake from the time her grandmother disappeared. Then a girl who had ordered a paper effigy died mysteriously, her fingernails embedded in the paper figure’s fingers. Townspeople saw reflections of themselves wearing paper wedding robes in their mirrors. Children clutched paper candies and murmured, “I’m going to be a bridesmaid,” while fine paper-effigy stitches began to appear on Shen Qingyuan’s wrist.
Lin Wanqiu, an archivist, arrived with her best friend’s death certificate. Following an old, yellowed map of Paper Town, the two women reached the end of a dark river, its waters pale as paper pulp. There, among floating paper lotus lanterns, they saw the faces of those who had disappeared over the years. Her grandmother’s diary gradually revealed the truth: her great-grand-aunt, who had burned herself to death during the Republican era, was driven by an undying grudge. She stayed alive by stealing the “wedding wishes” of the living, and every stitch added to the paper wedding robe dragged a new sacrifice into the world of paper weddings.
The bells rang on Qixi night. A paper figure in red shoes, followed by one that looked like Su Yao, advanced step by step as the stitches over Lin Wanqiu’s heart began to close. Clutching her grandmother’s silver scissors, Shen Qingyuan finally understood why her grandmother had willingly faced danger: she had traded her own obsession for the time Shen Qingyuan needed to grow up. This time, the thing she had to cut wasn’t the wedding robe. It was the loneliness that had trapped her great-grand-aunt for a hundred years.
Good book, everyone come and read it