Introduction to Paper Effigies Ferrying Grievances
Peach branches line the thresholds of Paper Effigy Town. No one dares touch a paper figure with a human face. This taboo is etched into the townspeople’s bones, born from the fire of vengeful paper effigies that has burned at the Chen family’s old residence for eighty years.
On the twenty-ninth day of the seventh lunar month, retired teacher Chen Jingshan is found dead in the main hall of the Chen family residence. A paper effigy bearing a cinnabar-drawn curse is stuck to his chest. The doors and windows are locked from the inside, and the dark red mark on his fingertip is identical to the “Seven Branches Curse of Retribution” left behind by the head of the Chen family in the Republican era. The townspeople erupt: “The Chen family’s paper effigies have come to claim another life!”
Only Detective Captain Li Yan frowns at the paper effigy’s icy touch. He doesn’t believe in ghosts or gods. He believes only in the old police badge his mentor left beside a paper-effigy grave fifteen years ago, and in the conspiracy by the living hidden within this case.
One grisly murder follows another: a truck driver dies in an abandoned paper-effigy factory, and an unemployed drifter is found beside a paper-effigy grave. A paper effigy marked with a curse is placed beside each victim. Li Yan follows the surviving fragments of The Record of Paper Effigies Ferrying Souls, stumbling upon the paper-folding knife hidden in art student Su Ya’s cloth bag and exposing the greed behind the smiling paper figures of paper-effigy shop owner Zhao Huai.
Is this the vengeful spirit of the Chen family’s secret arts striking back? Or is it blood debt paid in full by the descendants of the seven? As the candle burns out, the truth finally emerges from the wood grain of the Eight Immortals table, in the ashes of paper: all these “curses” are nothing but evil folded from the human heart.
The peach branches of Paper Effigy Town cannot keep the bloodstained paper figures at bay, and the fire of resentment in the Chen family’s old residence cannot burn away the sins hidden in human nature. Head to Tomato Novel to unlock this mystery, where eerie folk customs intertwine with a detective’s hunt for the killer.
"When I finished typing the end of Chapter 99 of "Paper Wrapping Grudges", I stared at the sentence on the screen, 'The paper horse carried the remnant soul into the morning mist.' I suddenly felt that the half-year creation process was like sewing the weirdness and tenderness of the old alley paper shop into the paper figures. At first, I just wanted to write about the folk custom of 'Paper Wrapping Grudges', but as the protagonist squatted in the shop to make paper figurines and figure out the dark grid, I slowly wrote 'Grudge' into an unspoken word. For example, the paper figure sewn with seven red threads actually wanted to deliver the unsent letter to the girl from the previous year. Some readers said that the resentment scene in the middle was too "soft", but I always felt that no matter how cold the resentment was, no one would be willing to squat down and fold it into the warm paper. By the end of this story, even the scraps of paper in the corner seemed to be soaked with candle warmth. I hope you can feel the softness hidden in the mystery when you read it. "
"The night after I finished writing Chapter 47 of "The Paper Man Opens His Eyes" in "The Paper Man Opens His Eyes", I stared at the keyboard for half an hour - the 'half-sheet' that was originally buried in the secret compartment of the paper shop was finally revealed when the protagonist was dismantling the paper sedan, and this foreshadowing actually started in the first chapter. The "red paper stained with blood" is hidden. When we first designed the process of "overcoming resentment", we deliberately made each paper tie have a "flaw": the paper man sewn with seven red lines is missing a button, and the paper horse's hoof is missing a piece. These seemingly omitted details are all left by the resentful soul. A rescue signal. Some readers guessed that the "old shopkeeper" was the mastermind, but no one discovered that the half-piece of paper butterfly always hidden in his sleeve was actually related to the paper shop burning case thirty years ago. The resentment in this story never appeared suddenly, but was layered like a paper man. The layers of paste glue all the old accounts, lies and worries together. Those readers who think the grudge drama is "soft" may wish to turn to Chapter 72 and see the second paper man hidden in the paper sedan. That is the root of all the grudges and the reversal that I hide the most. "
"When I finished typing the end of Chapter 99 of "Paper Wrapping Grudges", I stared at the sentence on the screen, 'The paper horse carried the remnant soul into the morning mist.' I suddenly felt that the half-year creation process was like sewing the weirdness and tenderness of the old alley paper shop into the paper figures. At first, I just wanted to write about the folk custom of 'Paper Wrapping Grudges', but as the protagonist squatted in the shop to make paper figurines and figure out the dark grid, I slowly wrote 'Grudge' into an unspoken word. For example, the paper figure sewn with seven red threads actually wanted to deliver the unsent letter to the girl from the previous year. Some readers said that the resentment scene in the middle was too "soft", but I always felt that no matter how cold the resentment was, no one would be willing to squat down and fold it into the warm paper. By the end of this story, even the scraps of paper in the corner seemed to be soaked with candle warmth. I hope you can feel the softness hidden in the mystery when you read it. " "The night after I finished writing Chapter 47 of "The Paper Man Opens His Eyes" in "The Paper Man Opens His Eyes", I stared at the keyboard for half an hour - the 'half-sheet' that was originally buried in the secret compartment of the paper shop was finally revealed when the protagonist was dismantling the paper sedan, and this foreshadowing actually started in the first chapter. The "red paper stained with blood" is hidden. When we first designed the process of "overcoming resentment", we deliberately made each paper tie have a "flaw": the paper man sewn with seven red lines is missing a button, and the paper horse's hoof is missing a piece. These seemingly omitted details are all left by the resentful soul. A rescue signal. Some readers guessed that the "old shopkeeper" was the mastermind, but no one discovered that the half-piece of paper butterfly always hidden in his sleeve was actually related to the paper shop burning case thirty years ago. The resentment in this story never appeared suddenly, but was layered like a paper man. The layers of paste glue all the old accounts, lies and worries together. Those readers who think the grudge drama is "soft" may wish to turn to Chapter 72 and see the second paper man hidden in the paper sedan. That is the root of all the grudges and the reversal that I hide the most. "