It's time to become an evil god.

"You all stay here and sing 'Two Tigers Love to Dance' obediently. Don't stop until I get back. Anyone who dares to run away can try."

The fishhook darted between their fingertips, startling a group of little devils who nodded hastily and began wailing and howling like ghosts in a funeral procession in the warehouse.

……

The sweltering summer was followed by a steady stream of rain.

Moths, drawn by the light, fluttered back and forth before the spiderwebs spun on the lampshade, adding a touch of life to the lifeless darkness. As night fell, the city lights quickly dimmed, and the black curtain of night was drawn back.

A dark, deep alleyway appeared before Bai Ge. He glanced at the location notification on his phone, then, holding a black umbrella, steeled himself and stepped inside.

The area was deserted, filled with old, dilapidated buildings and a maze of paths. The streetlights hanging along the alleyways had long since lost their shades. After walking a while into the darkness, I encountered numerous puddles on the ground, and my shoes were already soaked. In the silent alley, only the sound of raindrops pattering against my umbrella filled the air, making a soft, pattering sound like beans falling to the ground.

The walls on both sides of the alley are covered with missing person notices, which have become yellowed and worn after being exposed to wind and rain.

The shops had already closed early, with their shutters down. The few remaining shops, still emitting a faint glow, displayed paper houses, spirit horses, wreaths, funeral clothes, and incense and candles.

News reports of missing persons were broadcast on television, and police urged citizens not to go out late at night.

The locals in the store seemed to have a very unfriendly attitude towards outsiders who appeared late at night. After Bai Ge came into view, they kept looking at him with a wary gaze.

Bai Ge wiped the sweat from his temples and groped his way through the darkness, only the faint light from his phone screen giving him a sliver of security.

The rain suddenly intensified in the darkness, and a misty fog appeared between heaven and earth. The barking of dogs could be heard in the distance. Looking around, there was not a single light in the entire alley. Just as he was about to give up, a villa hidden in the deep alley of the old city appeared in front of him.

The old villa was completely dark. Bai Ge tentatively walked to the doorway under the eaves, but didn't knock. The fishing line that had been slipping out from under her fingernail silently disappeared into the wall.

After making all the arrangements, Bai Ge reached out and knocked on the old peach wood door.

dong dong dong.

From the other side of the door came the sound of hurried footsteps descending the stairs. Then the door opened a crack, and a flash of lightning illuminated the pale, bloodless face in the doorway. Fear filled the face, and the lips trembled incessantly.

"Bai Ge".

Alai lowered his voice, "Shh, keep your voice down, come in quickly."

As Alai spoke, he kept looking back, as if worried that something might hear him or make a sound.

Bai Ge folded his umbrella and walked into the villa. As soon as he entered, he smelled a strange, pungent odor, which seemed to be a mixture of disinfectant and alcohol from a hospital, permeating the closed room and lingering for a long time.

Alai, holding a flashlight, led Bai Ge into the living room and said apologetically, "I'm sorry, the thunder tonight blew out the fuse."

Bai Ge noticed that the wooden display case in the corner of the living room was filled with all kinds of exquisite dolls dressed in Western-style dresses. Occasionally, a pale flash of lightning would illuminate the dark living room, and the jewel-like eyes on the display case would emit an eerie luster in the darkness.

"What exactly happened?"

Alai's eyes kept darting around, as if he dared not look the other person in the eye, and he seemed to be preoccupied.

However, Bai Ge made a pause gesture, nodded seriously, and said, "No need to explain, I understand."

"What do you understand?"

After saying that, Bai Ge unzipped his backpack and took out items that were sealed and wrapped in transparent plastic bags.

Bone saw, scalpel, bone cleaver, small electric saw, luminol reagent, medical rubber gloves, and anti-permeability membrane—everything is available.

Alai was terrified. "Wait, what are you going to do?"

Where is the body?

Bai Ge put on medical rubber gloves and sprayed them with disinfectant alcohol. Under the other person's stunned gaze, he asked seriously, "Don't panic, I'm a professional at dismembering bodies."

Chapter Nine: This person tried to unlock your phone.

"What corpse?"

Alai realized that the other party seemed to have misunderstood something, and quickly waved his hand, "You've got it wrong, I didn't kill anyone."

Bai Ge frowned, stuffed all the tools back into his bag, and said with dissatisfaction, "No, why did you call me over in such a hurry if I didn't kill anyone?"

"Holy crap, does that mean I can't call you over if I haven't killed anyone? Wait, and why are you so well-equipped with dismemberment tools?"

"Did you call me here to kill someone?"

Bai Ge's expression immediately changed, and he waved his hand seriously, saying, "Friend, murder is illegal. Even if you are an old friend... you still have to pay more."

"Does dismembering a body not cost extra? Oh wait, isn't it illegal?!"

Sitting on the sofa, Alai rubbed his hands together and said, "You... do you see that pile of dolls in the corner?"

"A doll? Oh, I see."

Bai Ge withdrew his gaze from the pile of strange dolls in the corner, thought for a moment, and then handed him a business card. "Although people's preferences are free, as a friend, I know a particularly excellent psychiatrist. This is his business card. If you mention my name, you can get a few more free electroconvulsive therapy sessions at the hospital in the future."

Upon hearing this, Alai's expression changed instantly, and he hurriedly explained, "No, you've got it wrong. Actually, it's like this: my father collects dolls, but lately I feel like there's something wrong with him..."

Bai Ge interrupted, "Are you asking me if I believe there are living dolls in the world?"

"How did you know?"

He thought for a moment, then said with a serious expression, "Of course I believe it. I was once chased by a ghost doll that looked like Pinocchio because I thought it was strange that its surname was Pinocchio."

"Ahem, this joke isn't funny at all."

Alai coughed, his voice sounding somewhat mechanical and numb. He said in a low voice, "A few days ago, my father locked himself in his room and wouldn't come out. You could only hear him pacing back and forth in the corridor in the middle of the night. What's even stranger is that the dolls he collects seem a bit strange."

"strangeness?"

Bai Ge pondered the meaning between the lines, then emphasized it again, slightly arousing his interest, "Are you sure it's not your own father playing tricks? After all, I've done such despicable things before. Like taking a taxi alone in the middle of the night and pretending to chat with thin air, only to be sent to a mental hospital for forced treatment by the taxi driver. Or pretending to be possessed by an ancestor during Qingming Festival, lying on the ground eating offerings, only to be slapped twice by my father and forced to kneel in front of the grave until I kowtowed a hundred times before I was allowed to get up."

"...What do you mean by proudly saying these despicable things in such an arrogant tone?"

Alai clenched his fist and whispered, "When I was cleaning, I found a large clump of long hair stained with blood inside the doll. My father is bald, I have short hair, and my mother died a long time ago."

As he spoke, Alai's voice trembled, and he said with a face full of suppressed fear and a mournful expression, "Tell me, where did this big clump of long hair with scabs still on it come from?"

pat.

The sudden noise in the deathly silent living room startled Alai so much that he almost jumped off the sofa.

Somehow, a doll's head fell out of a corner display shelf and rolled all the way to his feet before slowly coming to a stop.

Bai Ge looked down and saw the doll staring at him with a half-smile on its face. For some reason, at that moment, he felt as if the doll had come to life.

Alai cursed his bad luck, kicked the doll's head away, and continued, "And these past few days I've had this feeling that there's something in the house."

Bai Ge's expression instantly turned serious. He looked around warily and asked, "You mean someone is hiding in your house?"

"I'm not really sure either. I always feel like someone is secretly watching me, but I don't dare to call the police without evidence."

"Long, blood-stained black hair was found inside the doll, and something is secretly watching you, wait..."

After pondering for a moment, Bai Ge tentatively offered an answer, "I've heard a similar urban legend before. Someone once heard the sound of chopping vegetables coming from the kitchen cutting board in the middle of the night while they were half asleep. One day, this person finally couldn't resist their curiosity and secretly staked out the kitchen to check what was going on. Do you know what they saw?"

Alai swallowed hard and asked cautiously, "What...what did you see?"

Bai Ge said in a serious tone, "He saw an inflatable female doll chopping off a living person's arm with a kitchen knife in her home!"

Alai's heart clenched. "What happened to the last person?"

"In the end, he sent the inflatable female penis to work in an electronics factory to earn money."

"...Are you fucking kidding me again!"

A creaking sound came from the second floor, as if someone was walking on the wooden planks. Alai quickly shut his mouth and stopped talking. He only breathed a sigh of relief after the sound disappeared.

"And look."

Alai pulled out several crumpled newspapers, highlighting key points with a red pen, and said, "These strange reports in the newspapers—about the suddenly sealed-off abandoned buildings, the eerie roars in the forest reserve, the unidentified creatures that appeared over New York a while ago, the shadowy figures in the Paris catacombs—are you sure... there's really nothing wrong with this world?"

A curious glint appeared in Alai's eyes.

"I'm talking about you."

Bai Ge took the newspaper from the other person's hand and said reassuringly, "Can't you read less of 'There's a Demon Here'? I'm still recovering my spiritual energy. Here's what we'll do: you send your dad away later, and I'll sneak into your room to check it out for you."

Alai seemed hesitant. "Will this work?"

"Then get your dad away now, I'll go hide in the bathroom for a bit."

With no better option, Alai had no choice but to reluctantly agree to Bai Ge's plan.

After the two finished discussing, Bai Ge stood up and walked towards the bathroom. Halfway there, she suddenly remembered that her phone was still on the coffee table, so she turned back to get it. However, Alai, who had just been in the living room, had inexplicably disappeared.

"Alai?"

He called out to the empty living room, but there was no answer.

Only the dolls on the display shelf watched him quietly.

"That's strange, where did they go?"

Bai Ge instantly sensed something was wrong and quickly walked over. He noticed a faint light emanating from the phone screen on the table and instinctively assumed someone was calling, so he looked at the phone screen.

A pale flash of lightning illuminated Bai Ge's deathly pale face.

The photo captured on the screen showed the appearance of a doll, along with a chilling text message below it.

"This person tried to unlock your phone."

Chapter Ten: You've Given It Out

Rainwater drifted in through the dark window blown open by the wind, wetting the cold floor and making a wet, squelching sound underfoot. The dolls displayed in the transparent glass case appeared even more eerie and strange, their pale, bizarre faces reflected behind the glass, illuminated by white light.

Bai Ge clenched his fists nervously, a series of terrifying scenes flashing through his mind. Then his gaze shifted to the dress-up doll sitting in the chair, its pale face staring at him with a half-smile that was increasingly unsettling.

Bai Ge immediately pulled a bone saw from his bag, pressed the doll against the edge of the table, and lightning illuminated the dark living room. The shadow was cast on the snow-white wall, reflecting a scene of murder and dismemberment on a rainy night. He sawed off the doll's head directly.

Bai Ge grabbed his hair, lifted his head in his hand, threw down the bone saw, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Try looking at me then?"

Bang.

A loud crash suddenly echoed down the wooden staircase on the second floor, as if the door had been forcefully kicked open, and even the doors and windows on the first floor were trembling.

The old mahogany planks creaked underfoot, as if someone was slowly descending the stairs.

Bai Ge hid in the storage room at the bottom of the stairwell, and only quietly emerged after the footsteps gradually faded away. He then suppressed his footsteps and climbed up the handrail to the second floor.

The higher up the corridor went, the stronger the pungent smell of disinfectant became. At the end of the corridor was a half-open door. Bai Ge pushed the door open and entered. The murky air mixed with the stench of decay and the pungent smell of disinfectant hit him.

The windows of the room were sealed shut, letting in no light at all. It was a room similar to an operating room, but neither the dirty walls nor the rudimentary operating lights overhead, which even bore traces of dried blood, met the standards of a hospital.