According to the Secret Art of Paper Crafting, there are only two main methods for creating a three-dimensional paper servant.
The first is the binding method, using bamboo strips as a frame and layering paper over them to form the body. This approach is best for larger paper figures that require some mobility.
The second is the sticking method. Hundreds of flat, humanoid paper cutouts are layered and glued together, tightly pressed until a once-flimsy paper form becomes a solid figure with tangible thickness. After some fine-tuning, this produces a sturdy, unmoving paper servant—suitable for smaller models that don't need to move.
Substitute-position paper servants, injury-substitute paper servants, and life-substitute paper servants all rely on these smaller models. Since they're incapable of autonomous movement even after activation, the sticking method is more appropriate.
Song Miaozhu began with the cutouts.
It was her first attempt, and confidence was in short supply.
Fortunately, while the final product needed to somewhat resemble her in form or spirit, it didn't require a single flawless stroke to complete. She wisely made each paper cutout larger than necessary to leave room for later adjustments.
Unlike the standard sticking method, which called for each layer to be slightly smaller than the last to create a rounded form, Miaozhu cut each piece roughly the same size—or even larger than the previous.
After amassing a mountain of cutouts, she began gluing them together, layer by layer.
She also added a small strand of her own freshly fallen hair, tucked between the two innermost layers and sealed within.
Once the glue dried, the resulting paper servant had enough thickness, but the outer layers were uneven—some edges stuck out too much, while others were missing chunks.
This was where her earlier planning paid off.
With a small blade, she carefully trimmed the rough edges. Bit by bit, she shaped it into the rounded head and rotund body described in the Secret Art of Paper Crafting—a complete, three-dimensional paper servant.
Ever since learning how to make Paper Spirit Armor and Yin Paper Clothes, the most valuable lesson she'd learned was this: if your skills aren't enough, leave room for revisions. If one attempt fails, revise again. And again.
With enough patience, the result would slowly approach the image she had in mind.
But the current figure was just the starting point. It was far from usable as a substitute-position servant.
To make the technique of substitute-position spirit-linking work, the paper servant had to resemble her, even if only in spirit.
On this point, the Secret Art of Paper Crafting offered vague guidance. After all, everyone's face is different, and no substitute could ever be a perfect copy.
A skilled crafter could bring a paper servant to life with just the right touch—one stroke to capture the essence.
Song Miaozhu was clearly not there yet.
So, she made up for lack of skill with meticulous attention to detail.
She dragged a full-length mirror into her workspace and began crafting with herself as a direct reference.
Long, straight black hair? She twisted black paper into thin strands, layered them on the servant's head, and tied them into a ponytail.
White T-shirt? She folded white paper into a miniature paper top and dressed the servant in it.
Jeans and sneakers? She replicated her favorite styles as closely as possible.
She even found and marked every mole on her face and body, copying them onto the servant in their exact positions.
For features like eyebrows, lips, and the spacing between them—details too subtle to eyeball—she measured them with a ruler, calculated the proportions, scaled them down, and then transferred them precisely onto the paper face.
Each line, each curve, was accurate down to two decimal places.
By all logic, it should have resembled her.
Holding the paper servant up to the mirror, she could see it—her hairstyle, her clothes, even the eyes and lips began to feel familiar.
After several days of high-intensity work on Yin Paper Clothes, her spiritual energy had increased. Once she felt she was strong enough, she confidently summoned her spiritual power and began the ritual of substitute-position spirit-linking—infusing spiritual energy into key points of the paper servant's form.
The process drained almost ninety-nine percent of her spiritual energy. When it finally ended… nothing happened.
No sense of connection, no reaction, nothing like the linkage described in the Secret Art of Paper Crafting.
Miaozhu stared, stunned. "Did it… fail?"
She suspected it was her first-time nerves—the ritual's steps had felt clumsy, unfamiliar.
She restored her energy using a spirit stone and tried again.
Still nothing.
Had it not left her so spiritually depleted, her forehead throbbing with pain, she might have thought the entire ritual was just a hallucination.
She recovered again and gave it a third try.
Same result.
She was forced to accept the conclusion: there was nothing wrong with the ritual.
The problem lay with the paper servant itself.
She even tried a third time.
Finally, she had to conclude: her ritual technique wasn't the problem.
The problem was the paper servant itself.
Yet the more she looked at it, the more it seemed to resemble her.
"Maybe I've stared at it so long that my brain's filling in the gaps?"
To test her instincts, she took a photo of the paper servant and sent it to Chen Yuanyuan.
[Miaow Zhu]: [Image] Who does this look like?
[Smooth as Yuanyuan]:(#ﾟДﾟ)
[Smooth as Yuanyuan]: Where'd this creepy little paper guy come from?
[Miaow Zhu]: …
[Miaow Zhu]:Doesn't it look like me? I made it based on myself. Look at me now. [Image]
[Smooth as Yuanyuan]:Wow! Look at this stunning beauty! You've been living well since going home, huh? But why on earth would you make a paper version of yourself? And such an ugly one—it looks nothing like you.
Song Miaozhu felt as if an arrow had struck her heart.
So it was just her imagination. She'd been seeing what she wanted to see.
[Miaow Zhu]:How's that search for a handicraft skill coming along?
[Smooth as Yuanyuan]:I'm learning illustration! Specializing in food art—super motivating!
[Miaow Zhu]:Study hard!
~
After chatting, Miaozhu stared at the paper servant in silence. Eventually, she accepted reality, set it aside, and picked up a new sheet of paper to begin again.
Cutting, pasting, trimming—these steps she could handle smoothly now. But when it came time for the finer details, she hesitated.
She studied the old paper servant for a long time, comparing it with her reflection, searching for flaws like a critic picking apart a poor imitation. Eventually, she spotted a few areas for improvement.
The hair was too coarse, so she used softer paper and rolled it into finer strands.
The paper clothes looked too flat. She infused them with spiritual energy and upgraded them into fourth-grade Yin Paper Clothes. Though their outward appearance stayed the same, on a spiritual level they were completely transformed.
The arms and legs were out of proportion. She adjusted them accordingly.
~
With each revision, the paper servant grew more refined.
"This time," Miaozhu told herself, "it has to work."
She infused spiritual energy into it again.
Still, nothing happened.
"What… why?"
Even after refining every detail, the outcome was the same.
After enough failures, confusion took over. She no longer knew what to change or fix. So she let go of precision, abandoned caution, and began experimenting with bold, drastic changes instead.
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Check out the chapter "The Secret Art of Paper Crafting" in the 'Author's Thought' section to get more information about Miaozhu and Yuanyuan "new" WeChat ID, there I put some 'reason' why I chose that name, just like in the chapter "Qi Nourishment" about Lin Jiaojiao and Xu Xiaodan ID.