"Hello, 911. What is your emergency?"
"Officer, I just had a breakup. Can you help me?"
"I'm sorry, we can't help you. Would you like to be transferred to a mental health hotline?"
.....
"911, how can I help you?"
"Oh, my head hurts..."
"Medical issue requiring emergency services. Transfer to 911 Medical Center?"
.....
"911, please state your emergency."
"Officer! Someone, someone wants to kill me!"
"Non-emergency—wait, what did you say?!"
"They're chasing me! I'm being hunted!"
"Who threatens you? Locate immediately!"
At the Cangli City 911 dispatch center, the operator handed the call to rookie dispatcher Huang Liting.
The conversation in the room stopped immediately.
He picked up the receiver clumsily, his voice a little nervous: "Exact location. Now."
The rapid breathing on the other end of the phone made her nervous, and comforting her would only be a waste of her time.
"Save me! I don't want to die... wuwuwu..."
"I...I..."
The middle-aged man's voice sounded full of fear, and his words were choked with tears.
"I'm here... I'm here..."
"I am..."
There was silence on the other end of the line.
"Sir? Are you there?"
No reply. There was only the sound of dead silence.
She checked the connection: it was working.
Then the screams began.
"Ah! He found me! Aaah!"
"Officer, help! Help—"
A mechanical friction sound interrupted his words.
She heard the sound of tearing and water splashing. The machine made a humming sound, accompanied by faint, uneven breathing sounds.
"Sir? Are you there?"
The humming continued; the breathing stopped.
Her scalp tingled.
No response. She had just reached for the phone when his voice came back again—flat, dull:
"B021 Mengdongfang Villa, Tiannan District, Cang'er City."
"The officer is on his way—"
She stared at the dial tone and was startled by her colleague's touch. She sent a telegram without saying a word.
Two police cars rushed out of the Tiannan Police Station, sirens blaring - this was the first homicide case in the police station in three years.
At Villa B021, Officer Zhang Donglei came out, hoping that this was a prank.
The iron smell of blood wafting from the half-open door shattered this hope. Pulling on boot covers: "Stay alert. Vomit outside. The criminal may still be inside."
Mr. Zhang motioned for the police to surround the house, then he and the other two went inside. The stench grew stronger. The first floor is clean.
drop. drop.
The female police officer turned pale: "There is blood on the stairs."
Deep red drops of water dripped from the upper floors and gathered below.
"up."
They avoided the stain and came to the bedroom door -
"ah!"
The female officer rushed out and retched in the garden.
Inside the house, Mr. Zhang and the male police officer were stunned.
The man sat propped up against the bed, his body cut into horizontal slabs by a chainsaw, his flesh still attached to a grotesque humanoid shape, soaked in blood.
There was a river of blood beneath him, and a little doll with a ghost face was sitting in the pool of blood, next to it was a circular saw covered in blood.
.....
Thousands of miles away, Zhongzhou Airport.
A boy wearing glasses and with a bookish face walked down from a flight from Caiyun Province. He was dressed in white silk and linen and had a wind chime hanging from his shoulder bag.
He smiled and listened to the bell: "Laughing, kid, good job..."
At the crime scene of Cang'er, the doll's black eyes sparkled with vitality.