Wang Hai was utterly frozen, staring blankly at Zhang Xiaohui on the sofa, unsure if the sheer terror had rendered him catatonic. In truth, that was close to it; Wang Hai couldn't move an inch, feeling a complete loss of bodily control and a corresponding failure of cognitive function. Yet, watching what Xiaohui was now doing, a single, horrifying question suddenly pierced his mind: Was she about to slice open her own abdomen to retrieve the baby?

Or perhaps something would erupt from her belly, much like in Alien? These thoughts were a chaotic jumble, but before Wang Hai could fully form them, he heard Zhang Xiaohui let out a piercing, agonizing shriek. Her body on the sofa convulsed violently, as if struck by an electric current.

Her face was contorted beyond recognition by excruciating pain, her jaw clenched so tightly that white foam began to bubble at the corners of her mouth. Wang Hai was paralyzed with dread, but she was, after all, his girlfriend. In that instant, the residual fear from his earlier experience was momentarily overpowered by the instinct to help.

Still slumped on the floor, he pushed himself up with his hands, spun his body around, and shifted from a seated position to lying prone. "Xiao Hui..." he choked out instinctively, scrambling forward on all fours, until he noticed something critical: his inability to stand properly was almost certainly related to his lower garments being completely down. Aside from a pair of briefs, his trousers had slid all the way down to his ankles, exposing his furry thighs.

However, given the urgency, he couldn't spare a moment to pull up his pants, continuing to crawl towards Zhang Xiaohui using all four limbs. What he could never have anticipated was that, just as he neared Zhang Xiaohui's body, without the slightest prelude, a chalk-white, skeletal hand—fingers sharply curved—suddenly burst through the smooth surface of her distended abdomen. The palm pointed directly toward the sky, while its five claw-like digits aimed squarely at Wang Hai.

This was not merely a severed hand, however; an arm was attached beneath the palm, though the rest of the limb remained hidden inside Zhang Xiaohui's stomach, not having fully emerged. The sudden sight of this limb overwhelmed Wang Hai's nerves. He let out an involuntary, terrified scream—a high-pitched, thin sound akin to those frequently emitted by women watching a horror film.

But the ordeal was far from over. Following the appearance of the ghastly claw, the entire arm could be seen slowly pushing out of Zhang Xiaohui’s belly, seemingly straining to extend outward. When the arm was almost fully extended, it suddenly swung to the side, the palm bracing itself flat against the sofa cushion.

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaohui had not yet recovered from her systemic agony; her screams continued unabated. The moment he saw the hand, Wang Hai's nascent courage evaporated. He wanted nothing more than to retreat from Zhang Xiaohui.

He scrambled backward on hands and knees, his sole thought being to put distance between himself and her, but his limbs felt weak, and he barely managed to inch backward. As the hand pressed onto the sofa, a shoulder emerged, followed by a neck and a head obscured by a mass of thick, black hair, rendering the face invisible. It appeared, however, to be female.

Soon, the other shoulder and arm emerged from Zhang Xiaohui’s gut. Then, the woman paused her emergence, slowly turning the head, still hidden by the hair, towards Wang Hai, who was prone on the floor, as if having registered his presence. A chilling, rasping laughter then erupted—a sound like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, grating and piercing, making the scalp tingle.

Wang Hai could endure no more. He immediately lowered his head, jamming both hands hard against the sides of his skull, desperate to shut out the sound. Naturally, his retreat also stopped.

The agonizing screams and the shrill laughter echoed together in the room, creating a sound so heartbreakingly distressing that Wang Hai slipped into a state of dissociation. Sweating profusely, as if hauled from a deep pool, the sounds relentlessly assaulted his ears, driving him toward madness. He began beating his own head heavily, roaring meaninglessly, trying to ward off the terrifying chorus.

Just as his prone body curled almost into a ball, the woman gradually pulled herself further out of Zhang Xiaohui’s abdomen, though only her upper body emerged, giving the impression she was parasitically attached to the stomach. As more of her form became visible, Zhang Xiaohui's agonizing cries seemed to subside, her voice lowering. If Wang Hai had been able to lift his head, he would have seen that despite the prolonged torture, she hadn't lost consciousness; however, she was clearly totally drained of strength, her limbs only capable of faint trembling.

The woman showed no sign of stopping. Before long, she fully extruded herself from Zhang Xiaohui’s body and stood beside her. Yet, her feet were not touching the floor; they hovered in the air above the ground.

She was clad in a blood-splattered white robe. A closer look would reveal fine fragments of tissue clinging to the long hair obscuring her face. Even through her blurred vision, Zhang Xiaohui could see those tiny specks of flesh behind her.

At this point, she lacked the capacity for thought, unable to process whether those remnants had been dragged out from her own stomach. It was then that Wang Hai felt a flicker of consciousness return. He sensed a change in the room's atmosphere.

After a deep breath, he cautiously eased his hands away and tentatively lifted his head, only to be met with the terrifying sight of the woman in the white robe—or more specifically, her stark white feet suspended in mid-air before the sofa. As if sensing his gaze, the owner of those feet slowly began to shift, gliding closer toward Wang Hai. Seeing this movement, Wang Hai’s whole body jolted, his heart leaping back into his throat; the tension left him utterly clueless as to how to react.

As he stood there paralyzed, the white-robed woman floated right in front of him. Crouched on all fours, Wang Hai looked up just as those hovering feet stopped a mere few inches from his head. He could actually feel the wave of icy chill radiating off her.

Astonished by her speed, Wang Hai nearly let out another scream of terror. But perhaps the chilling cold snapped him back to lucidity; a sudden surge of strength, origin unknown, propelled him backward several steps. The sudden shift caused him to turn without checking his surroundings.

With a dull thud, a sharp pain shot through his head. Looking up, he realized he had crawled all the way to the wall beneath the window; the pain was from his skull slamming violently against the plaster. However, this impact allowed him to grab the windowsill, and with that leverage, he managed to pull himself up, even hastily yanking his pants up in the process.

He was about to turn around to assess the situation when a sudden chill swept over him, freezing his muscles. Reflected in the dark glass of the window, he saw the white-robed woman floating directly behind him. Wang Hai didn't even have time to feel fear before a sudden gust of sinister, cold wind whipped up, swirling around and blowing back the long hair obscuring the woman’s face.

What was revealed beneath made Wang Hai’s mouth fall open, but no sound escaped; he realized, somehow, he had gone mute. He didn't need to turn around; through the glass reflection, he saw everything happening behind him. Beneath the lifted hair, the white-robed woman’s face was utterly featureless—smooth, like an eggshell, devoid of any eyes, ears, nose, or mouth.

This sight instantly made Wang Hai gag with revulsion. His whole body prickled with goosebumps; nausea outweighed terror. Suddenly, amidst the swirling, cold wind, the woman tilted her head back slightly.

The featureless expanse of her face ripped open into a wide gash, like a monstrous mouth, revealing rows of small, sharp teeth both above and below. In the dim light, they flashed a sickly white, gleaming coldly. She lunged at Wang Hai with that terrible aperture wide open.