Paper Gentleman - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The mourning hall of the Gu Family was set up in the eastern courtyard.

When I arrived, white lanterns hung everywhere inside and outside the Gu Manor. A thick layer of paper talismans was pasted at the courtyard entrance, rustling loudly in the wind.

There were many mourners, but everyone spoke in hushed tones, as if afraid of disturbing something.

The Old Steward came to receive me personally.

When he saw the Paper Bridegroom, his eyes visibly twitched.

“Miss Song,” he whispered, “is this face…”

I interrupted him. “The portrait you gave me looked exactly like this.”

The Old Steward’s lips moved, but he didn’t dare say more.

He wasn’t a fool.

He could also see that this Paper Figure bore no resemblance to Third Young Master Gu at all.

But he didn’t dare pursue the matter.

I followed him through the long corridor. On the way to the mourning hall, I heard the sound of crying. The one crying most bitterly was a young woman, likely the bride-to-be who had not yet married into the family. The sobbing was intermittent and grew irritating after a while.

Before entering the mourning hall, I saw the coffin.

Black-lacquered wood with gold-copper corners, placed right in the center and surrounded by seven layers of white silk curtains. The Gu Family was truly willing to spend money; even a dead man’s display was grander than most.

I placed the Paper Bridegroom on the left side of the mourning hall, arranging it according to the rules. But just as I stepped back, I heard someone behind me gasp.

“Why that face?”

“Third Young Master Gu didn’t look like that, did he?”

“Quiet, now.”

When I looked back, several female relatives avoided my gaze.

Madam Gu sat by the coffin, her eyelids swollen from crying. When she looked up and saw the Paper Bridegroom, she froze, and then her face turned pale inch by inch.

That kind of paleness wasn’t from grief.

It was fear.

My heart sank.

As expected, the Gu Family knew something.

Madam Gu stood up and walked over to me. She was younger than I had imagined, in her early thirties at most, yet she already had white hair at her temples.

Her voice was very low. “Miss Song, can this Paper Figure be changed?”

I also lowered my voice. “No.”

“Look at the portrait again.”

“I have.”

She stared at me, her eyes bloodshot. “Do you know what night tonight is?”

“I do. The eve of the First Seven, the night the spirit enters the ghost marriage.”

Madam Gu’s lips trembled. It took a long time before she said, “Then you shouldn’t have made him with that face.”

She said “him.”

Not “my son.”

I stared at her. “Does Madam recognize this face?”

Madam Gu immediately looked away. “I don’t.”

Suddenly, a scream erupted from outside the mourning hall.

It was as sharp as a knife, piercing straight into the ears.

Everyone was startled. Madam Gu’s expression changed, and she turned to rush out. The courtyard instantly fell into chaos. Someone shouted, “It’s back!” another yelled, “Quick, burn the paper!” and someone else cried, “Don’t let the Young Madam see!”

I followed them out.

A temporary mortuary shed had been set up in the back courtyard of the mourning hall. A distant grand-uncle of the Gu Family had just passed away this morning, and there hadn’t been time to shroud the body yet. But beside that mortuary bed, a Paper Figure had appeared at some unknown time.

The Paper Figure was dressed in the deceased’s blue cloth robe; its face, stature, and even the stubble on its chin were identical to his.

Even more eerie was the newly written Rebirth Talisman pasted on the Paper Figure’s forehead.

It was as if someone had personally completed the entire funeral rite for it.

People in the courtyard scrambled backward in fear.

Someone knelt on the spot, muttering, “The Substitute is here.”

It was the first time I had heard those words.

“Substitute?” I asked the Old Steward beside me.

The Old Steward’s face was ashen. He only dared to answer in a breathy whisper. “Rumors have been spreading through the city lately. Whenever someone dies, a Substitute Paper appears before their spirit. At first, it only happened to commoners, but later, even official and merchant households couldn’t escape it.”

“Then why didn’t you report it to the authorities?”

“We did.”

“What did the magistrate say?”

“The magistrate said someone is just playing ghost.”

I gave a cold laugh.

If it were just someone playing ghost, Madam Gu wouldn’t have been that terrified just now.

The courtyard was in total disarray, and no one paid me any mind. I looked at that Substitute Paper, my heart growing heavier, because the craftsmanship of that Paper Figure was all too familiar to me.

Constructing the bones, setting the shape, pasting the skin, dotting the features.

Especially that final stroke on the eyebrows and eyes-it was incredibly steady, just like my father’s hand.

Before I could make sense of it, someone behind me suddenly called out softly, “Ah He.”

The voice was very low.

So low it sounded as if it were vibrating through paper.

I whipped my head around.

No one was there.

But at the entrance of the mourning hall, the head of that Paper Bridegroom had clearly tilted an inch in my direction.