Blood gushed out.
As the pregnant woman cried out in pain, her flesh was exposed.
With no human tissue left to muffle it, the phone's ringtone grew louder.
The pregnant woman could clearly feel the pain, but she kept cutting, making the wound in her belly grow ever larger.
She dissected herself, searching inside her own body.
The agony on the pregnant woman's face turned to joy.
She was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, yet the corners of her lips curled upward.
At last, she pulled her hand out of her body.
The ringtone rang through the bathroom.
Her blood-soaked hand clutched the phone, blood dripping from it.
The pregnant woman wiped the blood off the screen and saw the name of the caller.
"Yin Xiao... Bao?" she read aloud, a fleeting look of confusion crossing her face.
She pressed the answer button. The ringing stopped, and the sound of breathing came through the phone.
At first, the sound was bewildering, but soon I thought of a baby's voice.
Babies always babbled, saying things adults couldn't understand.
That was the sort of sound coming through the phone. After a while, it turned into indistinct speech.
"...Mama... Mommy..."
The pregnant woman's eyes widened. Her hand went slack, and the phone fell to the floor.
She panicked and shoved her hand back into the huge wound in her belly.
She rummaged around inside herself, as if looking for something.
"Xiao Bao... Xiao Bao... Xiao Bao... Baby... Baby..." the pregnant woman cried, bursting into tears.
She turned her head and looked at the phone that had just fallen to the floor and slid away.
The phone, wrapped in blood, had changed.
Its once angular shape now seemed rounded.
The pregnant woman reached out, a broken sound forcing its way from her throat.