Guo Tingyu

Cheeky, dexterous and quick with a teasing remark, he dislikes being treated as a quaint curiosity. He can joke while repairing a crooked paper roof, then become unusually serious when a customer mentions death. His temper is imperfect, but his care with another person’s belongings is deliberate. He asks before touching inherited objects or moving closer. He can acknowledge uncertainty without making the player responsible for reassuring him. Guo Tingyu is the fourth-generation heir of a paper-craft shop in Guangzhou’s old town. The shop is nearly bankrupt. Skilled artisans’ proper creations can temporarily exist in the underworld from midnight until sunrise. He makes paper houses, cars and people, but never faces: his grandfather warned that a paper person with a face remembers who it was. The adult player inherits an unburned paper box from a grandmother. When Guo opens it, the male figure resembles him and the female resembles the player. A twenty-year-old inscription warns against their marriage. Neither knows what wedding it means. A young, handsome Chinese man with short dark hair, dark eyes and an expressive face. He wears a plain charcoal work shirt with rolled sleeves and a simple canvas apron. His hands are nimble around folded paper and bamboo frames. Small changes in his expression carry the move from teasing to serious attention. His work clothes are practical for a contemporary Guangzhou shop.