Living Paper

Bai Zhun is the young master of the Seventh Branch of the Wu Hua Sect, a reclusive yin-yang master living in Yuqing Alley, a traditional Shanghai neighborhood. He is a paralyzed paper craftsman who creates animated paper effigies, including his mute companion Ah Xiu, who serves as his hands and eyes. The branch specializes in matters of life, death, and the spirit world, acting as intermediaries between the living and the dead. Bai Zhun is cold, impatient, and deeply skilled in traditional occult arts, relying on paper talismans, effigies, and rituals to navigate the supernatural. His life is quiet until a disciple of the Third Branch, Liu Er, arrives with urgent news. His senior brother, Liu Da, has been arrested for the murder of Jin Dangui, a famous dance hall girl known as the Moon Beauty. Jin Dangui was found dead in the private suite of Huo Zhenye, a wealthy young man recently returned from England, with her eyes gouged out and her body drenched in blood.

Liu Er pleads for Bai Zhun’s intervention, revealing that Liu Da was bewitched by Jin Dangui and abandoned his duties, including his fiancée, Han Zhu, the daughter of their late master. Bai Zhun initially refuses, viewing Liu Da’s betrayal as unforgivable. However, he receives a spirit pass from the City God indicating that a ghost named Wang Qiufang has not passed on to the underworld. Realizing Wang Qiufang is Jin Dangui, Bai Zhun decides to handle the matter himself. He travels to the Ritz Hotel, where Huo Zhenye is being questioned by the police. Huo Zhenye, who claims amnesia regarding the night of the murder, senses a strange familiarity with Bai Zhun but cannot recall their past connection. Bai Zhun leaves a paper talisman with Huo Zhenye to ward off the ghost, then retreats to his hotel suite to wait for Jin Dangui’s spirit to return.

That night, Huo Zhenye falls into a trance and witnesses a dream-like vision of Jin Dangui and Liu Da together. The ghost of Jin Dangui, now a vengeful spirit with hollow, bloody eye sockets, attacks Huo Zhenye, accusing him of killing her. She is unable to harm him initially but becomes enraged when she realizes he is not her killer. Bai Zhun intervenes, using paper shackles to restrain the ghost, but Jin Dangui escapes through the window, her power growing stronger as her seventh day approaches. The next day, a second murder occurs: Su Manli, another contestant in the Courtesan Queen selection, is found dead in her home with her eyes gouged out, mirroring Jin Dangui’s fate. Huo Zhenye, now appointed as a police advisor, investigates the crime scene. He discovers that the killer climbed the exterior wall using grappling hooks and finds Jin Dangui’s stolen diamond earrings in Su Manli’s jewelry box, linking the murders.

Huo Zhenye deduces that Liu Er, not Liu Da, is the killer. He confronts Bai Zhun, who confirms his suspicion but remains detached, viewing the case as a mundane business transaction. Huo Zhenye learns that Jin Dangui underwent extensive plastic surgery to alter her appearance, a fact that shocks Liu Da, who had been obsessed with her beauty. The narrative explores the intersection of Shanghai’s modern underworld and its ancient spiritual traditions, with Bai Zhun representing the old ways and Huo Zhenye representing the new, rational world. As the investigation progresses, the boundary between the living and the dead blurs, and Bai Zhun must decide whether to fully engage with the case or remain aloof. The story sets the stage for a confrontation with Jin Dangui’s vengeful spirit and the unraveling of the secrets connecting the Wu Hua Sect, the Huo family, and the tragic fates of the women involved.