At twenty-two, Su Mianmian is a student specializing in the restoration of ancient books, with mild color blindness. Because she has trouble distinguishing low-saturation colors, her classmates tease her by calling her “Little Blind Cat.” After graduation, she interns at the city museum, but keeps making mistakes, whether mixing paste or separating old paintings from their backing. On the verge of being fired, she discovers a book called Notes on Paper Repair in her grandfather’s old mounting shop in Paste Lane. It records thirty-six traditional paper-mending techniques, and she also rediscovers the fingertip skill she learned as a child: identifying paper by touch.
From then on, Su Mianmian uses Notes on Paper Repair as her guide, starting with the restoration of damaged Republican-era paintings and gradually mastering techniques such as the paper mulberry pulp repair method and silk-thread mending. Along the way, she meets Lu Shiyan, a sharp-tongued antiques appraiser. Initially at odds over their restoration philosophies, they gradually become partners who fight side by side. Together, they decode clues to a theft hidden in a Qing dynasty painting, search for the lost Golden Millet Mountain sutra paper, expose a counterfeit auction scam, and even travel to Dunhuang to restore Tang dynasty manuscripts.
She also joins forces with her senior fellow apprentice Lin Wei and veteran artisans to counter the threat chemical pigments pose to traditional techniques and clear her grandfather’s name after he was falsely accused. In the end, Su Mianmian grows from a good-for-nothing intern into an inheritor of intangible cultural heritage. She opens a workshop in Paste Lane and takes on apprentices, including a visually impaired boy, ensuring that her grandfather’s craft and the art of restoring ancient books continue in the modern age. The artifacts she restores are even selected for National Treasures, making her a true “mender of time.”
