The Bone Curses, Life Exchanges

Under her belly, there were seven or eight pink little piglets.

Uncle Joe saw me staring at the sow and laughed, "What's wrong? You don't recognize her? This is the piglet you used to feed every day as a kid, now she's a pig mama."

"But she's been acting strange lately. Always lowering her head, glancing sideways at people, it's pretty creepy," he said.

I froze, then finally snapped out of it.

I quickly urged Uncle Joe, "Uncle Joe, you go ahead with your work. I'll feed this sow for you."

Uncle Joe nodded and handed me a bucket of pig feed.

Once he walked away, I quickly pulled the thermos out of my bag, ready to pour the rib soup into the pigpen trough.

Just then, the sow, who had been lazily sunbathing with her eyes half-closed, suddenly opened her black-bean-like eyes and stared straight at me.

A chill ran down my spine. My hand trembled and both the soup and bones fell into the stone trough. The old sow suddenly acted like she was possessed, struggled to her feet.

She charged at the trough like a mad beast and began slurping frantically. Even those two bones were crunched to pieces with a sickening crack sound and swallowed whole.

She looked like a starving ghost reincarnated. The sound of the bones being crushed made my ears go cold. I was about to leave.

Just then, the sow behind me let out a strange whimper. That sound wasn't like a pig's cry at all, it was more like a human sigh.

Goosebumps crawled all over me as I turned to look.

I saw the sow, who had always been on all fours, now had her front hooves off the ground, standing upright. Her eyes were filled with an indescribable venom.

I was so shocked I screamed, lost my balance and fell to the ground.

Uncle Joe heard the noise and rushed over to help me up with concern, "Selina, what's wrong? You look pale."

I swallowed hard, my voice trembled as I stammered, "Uncle Joe … th-that sow … something's wrong with it …" As I spoke, I pointed toward the pigpen.

But to my surprise, the sow that had just stood up on two legs now looked completely normal again.

She was calmly eating the pig feed, as if everything from earlier had just been a hallucination.

In a daze, I suddenly noticed my phone had over a dozen missed calls. There were also seven or eight unread messages, all from Agnes.

[Selina, did you really drink the rib soup? Why doesn't it look like my ribs in the video?]

[Tell me the truth. Did you switch the bones?]

[Selina, how dare you lie to me!]

Just as I was hesitating on how to reply, a call came in from an unfamiliar number.

When I picked up, heavy breathing came from the other end, followed by Agnes's furious voice, "Selina, you actually fed the rib soup I gave you to a pig. How dare you …"

Before she could finish, the call abruptly cut off.

Then, Drew called again, "Selina, where are you? I need to talk to you, it's urgent!"

I heard the panic in his voice, I was finally certain, Agnes's scheme definitely involved him. Otherwise, why would he be calling me so quickly, so anxiously?

I sneered coldly and cut him off, "Drew, after this time together, I've realized we're not right for each other. Let's break up. Don't contact me again."

Before he could say anything, I hung up. I didn't know what kind of relationship Drew and Agnes had.

But as long as I stayed away from the two of them, I didn't believe they could trap me again.