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Chapter 30 Paper Figurine Death Demand
Mr. Lin told me that this Paper Figurine was indeed made for Lin Xiaoqi while she was still alive. Hearing this, I was puzzled and asked him why they would let her take something so inauspicious home, and why they didn't dispose of it immediately.
Mr. Lin sighed and then explained the situation to me.
It turned out that a few years ago, one night, Lin Xiaoqi was driving to buy a late-night snack when she passed an Intersection. Suddenly, a stray black cat darted out from somewhere, and worried that her car would hit the cat, Lin Xiaoqi quickly turned the steering wheel to the right. However, on the right side of the Intersection, someone was burning Joss Paper, and beside them were a pair of Paper Figurine. As a result, her car hit one of the Paper Figurine directly, crushing it.
At that time, there was a pair of Paper Figurine, one male and one female, representing Yin Yang, and the one Lin Xiaoqi hit was a maiden.
Lin Xiaoqi was startled and fortunately did not hit the person burning Joss Paper. This could be considered a small blessing in misfortune. She hurriedly got out of the car, but the old Granny who was burning Joss Paper was furious and said that Lin Xiaoqi should have been more careful while driving and had ruined her Paper Figurine.
As a girl, Lin Xiaoqi felt helpless against the angry old Granny and was terrified. She apologized to the Granny. However, the Granny refused to forgive her, saying that it was hard to come by a Paper Figurine, and it couldn't just be settled with an apology. She demanded compensation from Lin Xiaoqi.
In a panic, Lin Xiaoqi quickly took out her wallet from the car and pulled out several hundred yuan to compensate the Granny, but the Granny refused to accept her money. So Lin Xiaoqi asked her how much a Paper Figurine cost since she only had this cash on hand.
To her surprise, the Granny said she didn't want money; she just wanted Lin Xiaoqi to replace the broken Paper Figurine.
Lin Xiaoqi thought about it and realized that the Granny wasn't trying to extort her; she just wanted a replacement for her broken Paper Figurine. This seemed reasonable enough. So Lin Xiaoqi said she didn't know where to buy a Paper Figurine at that moment and asked if she could bring one tomorrow instead.
The Granny nodded and thought for a moment before agreeing.
Lin Xiaoqi then asked the Granny where she lived so she could deliver the new Paper Figurine. The Granny replied that Lin Xiaoqi could come back to this Intersection at this time tomorrow, and she would be waiting for her with the new Paper Figurine.
Everything was settled, and then the Granny let Lin Xiaoqi drive away...
Initially, there was nothing wrong with this situation; it was quite ordinary and not too troublesome—just buying a new Paper Figurine to replace the broken one at the Intersection, and that would be that.
However, trouble arose because Lin Xiaoqi forgot about it after attending a class reunion the next day. This led to serious consequences.
A few days later, one night when Lin Xiaoqi drove out of her garage, she suddenly saw a girl in green clothes appear in front of her car on an otherwise empty road. This frightened her greatly; she slammed on the brakes but still ended up hitting the girl under her wheels.
Realizing she had hit someone, Lin Xiaoqi panicked and hurriedly got out of the car. Looking under her vehicle, she saw a girl in green lying beneath it; her body had been completely crushed by the wheels of Lin Xiaoqi's car, with blood everywhere on her green clothes.
At that moment, Lin Xiaoqi was paralyzed with fear, completely stunned. Seeing no one around, she quickly called the police and then hid nearby, crying in terror.
Soon the police arrived, but when Lin Xiaoqi brought them to the scene, the officers told her not to cry, that she hadn't hit anyone, and to not worry.
This left Lin Xiaoqi confused. She pointed to the woman in green under her car and said, "But she's right there! How can you say I didn't hit anyone?"
The police replied that the figure was not a person at all, but just a Paper Figurine. They suggested that she might have been so scared at the time that she didn't see clearly.
As they spoke, the officer dragged the Paper Figurine from under the car for Lin Xiaoqi to see.
Upon closer inspection, Lin Xiaoqi realized that the woman in green was indeed not a person but a Paper Figurine. Although it wasn't a real person she had hit, she felt even more frightened because she distinctly remembered seeing a person covered in blood. However, the Paper Figurine on the ground was still dressed neatly in green clothing.
Since there was no traffic accident, the police quickly left.
Lin Xiaoqi remained alone at the scene, staring at the Paper Figurine on the ground. It felt strange to her because this Paper Figurine looked very familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
After thinking it over, Lin Xiaoqi finally realized what was wrong: this Paper Figurine was the same one she had hit a few nights ago at the Intersection!
Now terrified, she wondered how this Paper Figurine could appear here. She clearly hadn't seen any Paper Figurines ahead of her at that time; it had suddenly appeared right in front of her car. Of course, she also remembered that she had forgotten to fulfill her promise to Granny and decided she needed to buy a Paper Figurine as soon as possible.
Just then, Lin Xiaoqi suddenly noticed someone standing behind her. She quickly turned around and saw that it was Granny, whom she had encountered at the Intersection!
Granny glared at her angrily and extended a bony arm, saying, "Return my Paper Figurine! Return my Paper Figurine..."
Lin Xiaoqi was so frightened that she began to cry. She said, "I forgot because I was busy a few days ago! I will definitely go buy a Paper Figurine today to compensate you."
Granny replied, "A life for a life. It's not me you need to compensate; it's her." As she spoke, Granny pointed behind Lin Xiaoqi. When Lin Xiaoqi turned around, she saw that somehow the flattened green-clothed Paper Figurine was now quietly standing behind her, covered in blood that stained its green outfit. Its crushed arm reached out toward Lin Xiaoqi just like Granny's did, calling out, "Compensate me! Compensate me..."
At this point, Lin Xiaoqi couldn't handle such terror and fainted.
When she woke up, she found herself in a hospital. That day, Lin Xiaoqi felt as if she had encountered something unclean and prepared some items related to Paper Figurines. That night, she went back to the Intersection to burn them.
However, this did not end there. While burning the Paper Figurines at the Intersection, Granny returned with another green-clothed Paper Figurine and told Lin Xiaoqi that she no longer wanted those burnt Paper Figurines but instead wanted her to find a paper shop and make a Paper Figurine resembling herself.
With no other choice, Lin Xiaoqi went to a paper shop and told the master there to make a Paper Figurine based on her appearance.
The master informed her that this wouldn't work and asked her to think carefully about whether she really wanted a Paper Figurine resembling herself. Remembering the terrifying green-clothed Paper Figurine and the eerie Granny made her feel afraid; all she wanted was to resolve this matter quickly. So she told the master of the paper shop, "I'm sure; please make one based on my appearance!"
Afterward, she left a photo of herself and several hundred dollars at the shop before going home.
A few days later, the Paper Craft store notified her that the custom-made Paper Figurine was ready. The paper crafting master indeed had some skills; the Paper Figurine looked remarkably lifelike and resembled her at first glance. However, Lin Xiaoqi didn't think much of it and took the Paper Figurine home.
That evening, Lin Xiaoqi placed the Paper Figurine in her car and drove out, heading to the Intersection to compensate the Granny with the Paper Figurine.
However, she never returned after that, as her car got into an accident at the Intersection, and Lin Xiaoqi died on the spot...
At this point, Mr. Lin was already shedding tears, lamenting about fate while recalling these sorrowful events. He blamed himself for not being home when this happened to Lin Xiaoqi because he was busy working to earn money. They were both at their company in Shenzhen at that time, and he learned all these details from his daughter's computer diary.
He began to resent himself, thinking that if he had been home, perhaps Xiaoqi wouldn't have encountered such a tragedy.
I told him not to be too sad; it was all in the past. However, I had a question in my mind: wasn't Lin Xiaoqi going to deliver the Paper Figurine to that Granny? Why was the Paper Figurine still at home?
Upon hearing this, Mr. Lin sighed again and said, "At that time, he was also curious, so he checked the community surveillance footage and found that Xiaoqi didn't take the Paper Figurine when she got into the car; she went alone. I also wanted to find that Granny to ask her why she pressured my daughter like this, but when we retrieved the surveillance footage from the police regarding the accident at the Intersection involving Xiaoqi and the Granny's Paper Figurine, we discovered there was no Granny present—only a young man who had burned Joss Paper and a Paper Figurine there."
"A young man?" I was surprised and puzzled.
Mr. Lin nodded: "Yes, later I asked the police to find that young man from the surveillance footage. He told us that he indeed burned a Paper Figurine and Joss Paper at the Intersection that night because his grandmother had been appearing in his dreams asking him to burn Joss Paper for her."
Hearing this made me feel terrified. Could it be that the Granny Lin Xiaoqi encountered was actually that young man's deceased grandmother? And was the Paper Figurine Lin Xiaoqi crashed into the same one he had just burned for her?
Of course, if this were true, then that Granny wanting Lin Xiaoqi to make a Paper Figurine identical to her must have been a way for her to have Lin Xiaoqi accompany her in death. In other words, in the end, what Granny sought was Lin Xiaoqi herself rather than her Paper Figurine, which is why Lin Xiaoqi went empty-handed while leaving the Paper Figurine at home...
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