Paper Man Crossing the Soul

1994, Nanping Town, the rainy season. When Lu Yanan returned to this forgotten corner, someone had just died on the old stage. The shape of death was very strange - the skin was close to the bones, like a dried bacon that had been drained of blood. There was half a disaster list left at the scene, with Lu Yanan's name written on it with a cinnabar pen. Following the smell of blood, he caught Shen Ciqing, whom he had not seen for seven years, in the paper shop at the end of the town. The man was still pale and gloomy, holding scissors in his hand and cutting out a faceless paper man in police uniform. The blood on the fingertips dripped on the paper, blooming a small red plum blossom. Shen Ciqing raised her eyes to look at him, her smile uglier than crying: "Officer Lu, are you here to arrest me, or are you here... For a funeral?" Lu Yanan always thought that the hospital was the savior back then and it was luck. It wasn't until this moment that he discovered that Shen Ciqing had spent half of his ancestral house, his blood, and even a rib to gain seven years of life. Now the creditors are coming to take back this body that has been "papered" for a long time. Lu Yanan drew her gun and put it between his eyebrows, but when she touched his spine, which was as cold as bamboo strips, her eyes turned red: "Shen Ciqing, do you want me to be buried with you? Unless you step over my body."