Born in 1993, Niu moved in with her grandparents at the age of 6, and studied at a local school in downtown Hefei that covered all grades from primary to senior middle, and specialized in recruiting talented children.

When Niu's grandfather passed away in 2017, she returned to the old apartment to keep her grandmother company during the summer.

"I had a lot of time to doze at home, and it made me more attuned to subtle things in the room," she says.

Immersed into her own imaginary world, Niu started to "speculate" that all such things, from a breeze blowing into the room to the slight variation in sunlight, might be a "sign" from her late grandfather, as she believed he was not willing to "leave" them.

It was not the first time she had such "weird" imaginings. In 2013, when an elderly neighbor passed away in her community, she was curious about the impact and consequence of a person's death. That year, she, alongside several friends, spent five days shooting a short film, which became the precursor to Virgin Blue.