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A high-end evening restaurant in Shanghai, with an outdoor seating area along the river.

Baihe occupied the best seat with the river view all by himself. The waiter came over for the third time to ask him, "Sir, would you like the food served first?" He waved his hand and said no as usual. He turned his phone on and off, and the lock screen showed nothing except for a list of to-do items sent by his assistant two hours earlier.

While he was waiting, the same number called twice more, but he didn't answer.

Baihe rubbed his temples, trying to shake off the fatigue that had accumulated over the past month, but his gaze kept drifting toward the coastal trail.

Where will she emerge from this time? Baihe was somewhat expectant.

To be honest, his acquaintance with Mary dates back to that night a month ago.

Outside, Baihe is a quintessential successful person.

He started his own company, caught the right trend, and basically handed over the business to his subordinates. He then flew to different cities every week to chat and laugh with his industry peers.

But once he gets home, he becomes a complete loser.

In my early years, I worked hard for the company, leading to irregular sleep patterns and eating habits, which caused me to develop stomach problems at a young age.

In my early years, I was so focused on my career that my eating and sleeping habits were completely disrupted, and my stomach was ruined long ago.

The house is a mess. He can't talk to his wife, and his child is going through a rebellious phase. He ignores his child except when he wants money, and he yells at him if you say anything more.

They say they can travel out of the province every week, but it's all for work. After a flight and a party, they have no interest in visiting the city's attractions; they just want to lie in bed and rest.

That night, he had another big argument with his wife about their child's education. His wife slammed the door and left, saying she was going back to her parents' house.

He was so angry that he went to bed without eating dinner.

That very night, his stomach problems flared up, causing him so much pain that he couldn't make a sound and could only fumble for his phone in the dark.

Just then, the cell phone on the bedside table suddenly rang.

Was it his wife calling to reconcile? Baihe still remembered the faint hope in his heart at that time. It was that hope that made him struggle to reach for his phone and answer it without even seeing the caller ID.

However, what came through the receiver was a somewhat eerie little girl's voice:

"...Hello...I...am...Mary..."

"What the hell?! Is this... this prank?!" He was in so much pain he felt like vomiting, he couldn't think straight, he just wanted to hang up as soon as possible.

But at that time, being able to answer the phone was already the limit. He fainted right after saying that.

When I woke up again, I was in the hospital, with my parents by my bedside.

The wife and children arrived last, and as soon as they arrived, the two elders pulled them aside for a lecture.

Regarding how he got to the hospital, everyone said that he called an ambulance before he passed out.

But Baihe clearly remembered answering someone else's call.

He checked the security camera footage in his living room afterward, puzzled, and discovered something terrifying.

Shortly after he fell into a coma, the front door was opened, and a little girl in a dark red dress stood silently in the doorway, her face hidden in the shadows and not clearly visible.

She looked around the living room for a while, seemingly trying to figure something out, before heading straight to Baihe's bedroom.

And then... he never came out again?

As a modern person, Baihe's first reaction was that he had a split personality, that another personality had called the ambulance, and that the little girl had been tricked into coming home and killed.

As for why he could arrange to meet a little girl at his home before calling an ambulance, he had no idea.

But Baihe quickly dismissed this half-crazy guess, because when he showed the surveillance footage to his parents and anxiously asked what to do, they looked completely bewildered: "There's nothing in the living room! Are you out of your mind?"

Not only them, but everyone who watched the video said they couldn't understand it and even subtly suggested that he get his brain checked.

In addition to this, the strange thing was that an unknown number dialed him three times in a row.

Baihe somewhat regrets that the surveillance cameras were only installed in the living room, not in the bedroom.

He was very curious about the contents of the communication that he hadn't been able to hear at the time.

"Mary, the telephone, the little girl..."

He tried searching online using keywords and found Miss Mary's urban legends.

The ghost stories closely resembled what Shirakawa had witnessed. The only difference was that all versions of the ghost stories ended with Miss Mary killing the person who answered the phone.

"But not only did I not die, she even took me to the hospital?" Baihe believes that the person who called the ambulance at the time was Mary.

Mary is an existence that science cannot explain, so imitating her voice should be a piece of cake.

After much hesitation, Baihe finally dialed the unfamiliar number.

The call went through, but it was immediately disconnected the moment it connected.

Shirakawa: "???"

Just as he was wondering if he was making the call incorrectly, the other party called back.

"...You...hello...I..." It was that same eerie opening line with its drawn-out ending.

Without hesitation, Baihe interrupted, "Hello, are you Miss Mary? Did you save me earlier?"

"...Interesting. It's been a long time since I've seen a human dare to fight back."

It was Baihe's boldness at the time that led him to meet Mary.

The strange story goes that a phone call would bring her to take care of him meticulously, and he could confide anything to her without ever asking him for money.

Imagine this: you come home tired from get off work, and a blonde little girl peeks out from the kitchen, unties her scarf, and smiles sweetly at you, saying, "You're back? Wash your hands, let's get ready for dinner."

Who isn't confused? Who isn't tempted?

If this had happened more than thirty years ago, when Shirakawa was still a spirited young man, he probably would have fallen in love quickly and vowed to marry no one but Mary.

But not anymore.

When a middle-aged elite and a nine-year-old blonde girl go out together, they can only be recognized as father and daughter, or even some more unsavory relationships.

After all, the two don't look very similar, and Shirakawa's age and elite attire always make people think of certain storylines.

When Baihe and Mary went out together, his inferiority complex constantly reminded him of the gap between them.

Fortunately, Mary was able to adjust the perception of those around her, allowing them to observe her without being overly concerned about her delicate face. To this day, no passersby have specifically come up to ask her about the situation.

Baihe, who was fed up with weekly business trips, felt for the first time that going out was a good thing, at least he didn't have to make up reasons to explain why he wasn't going home.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, he knew perfectly well that he was probably fed up with the marriage a long time ago.

Even though his family seemed to have returned to normal on the surface after his stomach ailment, with his wife quickly returning from her parents' home and his children occasionally asking about his health, their interactions appeared distant and stiff, more like perfunctory formalities.

Perhaps the days he regularly goes out on fieldwork each week are also good days for his wife and children to relax and not have to keep up their facades.

Looking back on the past, Baihe stared at the empty table opposite him. He could no longer imagine his wife sitting there, and could only smile bitterly: "Perhaps I'm just making excuses."

He waited a while longer, watching the time on his phone change from 7:30 to 8:00, but there were still no new calls, and he gradually realized that something was wrong.

During this period of contact, Baihe realized that Mary was not as powerful as the urban legends suggested; at least she couldn't make three phone calls within ten minutes and reach him directly.

Based on the location of Baihe and the fact that the last phone call was unsuccessful, it could take anywhere from one to five hours for Mary to reach him.

On one occasion, Mary even surfaced from the sea, her smooth blonde hair sticking to her forehead like seaweed. On that occasion, Shirakawa noticed a hint of displeasure in her eyes.

Just as Mary reached the victim by walking, Shirakawa's frequent fieldwork forced her to undertake a long-distance marathon every time.

Sometimes, in order to take a shortcut, they even choose to swim wildly in the water, reaching speeds of up to 48 knots.

How could that be? Even if Mary is the worst, she's still a ghost story, a non-human creature. To have to chase people on foot is just too low.

It can't be that she's not actually that bad, but that the city I live in has a system that restricts her from using all sorts of superpowers, leaving only her pure physical abilities unsealed, right?

Thinking about this, Baihe couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Shirakawa had considered this beforehand, and she should have prepared in advance for the invitation that Mary had mentioned before their last parting.

"Speaking of which, is it because Mary doesn't provide any contact information other than that number, or is it because, according to legend, she can only communicate unilaterally like that?" Baihe had pondered this question, but unfortunately, Mary wouldn't give him an answer, and he currently had no other means of communication.

The calls Baihe makes are usually hung up the moment they are connected.

Whether Mary will call back or not is still uncertain.

Mary had also warned him not to do this: "You are deepening the karmic entanglement between us."

cause and effect……

Because of this description, Baihe also tried to get others to dial Mary's number, but unlike him, when they dialed it, they were immediately told that the number was not in service.

This made Shirakawa even more certain that Mary was a special being, someone he met by chance, just like in urban legends.

While he was lost in thought, the time on his phone reached 8:30.

"It looks like they're not coming." Baihe was slightly disappointed and ordered the waiter to serve the dishes.

The doctor had warned him that if he continued with his irregular eating habits, his next episode would not be a simple fainting spell.

Baihe looked at the exquisite dishes on the table, but they tasted like nothing. He felt like he had become that lonely person again, with nothing but the balance in his bank account.

He paid the bill listlessly and walked to the roadside to hail a taxi home.

The familiar phone rang.

"I am Mary..." The opening remarks were as usual, with that inhumanly drawn-out feeling.

A flicker of hope crossed Baihe's heart: "Mary? You've arrived?"

Although he was full now, a walk along the river seemed like a good idea.

However, the words on the other end of the phone chilled him to the bone: "...I...am...in...Gray Brick Alley..."

Gray Brick Alley? That's a nearly abandoned area slated for demolition on the other side of Shanghai, completely opposite to the riverside restaurant where he was located.

"Wait, are you sure you're not mistaken? I'm still at this restaurant by the river, the place we agreed to meet..."

The person on the other end of the phone hung up unilaterally before he could even finish asking his question.

This was the first time Baihe had encountered such a situation.

This was Mary's third call; she should have been by his side, or even behind him.

"Even if the second call came from a location in Lincheng, this still..."

Was it a prank? Or... did something unexpected happen?