The Haunting Photo

The night in early May was not yet sweltering, nor was it particularly cool.

Within the police hall, the officers sensed a sudden, inexplicable drop in temperature.

Mr. Chen, who had initially been shouting with abandon, found his unrestrained cries slowly devolving into throttled gasps, as if an invisible hand constricted his windpipe.

“Hngh… hngh…”

His neck stretched to an alarming length, his sinews bulging beneath the skin.

Mr. Chen’s thumbs were jammed into his own ear canals, his palms cupped over his ears, and his fingers tightly pressed to cover his eyes.

Was there some terrifying sound or sight that had seized him?

“Mr. Chen!”

Officer Wang finally snapped back to reality, wiping the now-cold moisture from his face. A moment ago, a chill had run down his spine, but now hot blood surged anew, only to be replaced by a sudden, intense heat that consumed his entire body.

“Chen Jinquan! Wake up! Chen Jinquan!”

Officer Wang desperately tried to rouse Mr. Chen, who was trapped in an unknown terror. He bellowed his name several times, but the effect was precisely the opposite of what he intended.

Chen Jinquan thrashed like a rabbit lifted by its ears, destined for slaughter, his legs kicking wildly. His back pressed against the sofa with such force that its base scraped against the smooth floor tiles, emitting a grating, unnerving shriek.

Officer Wang watched as Chen Jinquan’s hands pressed harder and harder, his thumbs squeezing deeper into his ear canals, and his fingers bearing down on his eyes.

Fear had all but obliterated Chen Jinquan’s will. His desperate attempts at self-preservation were, unbeknownst to him, transforming into acts of self-mutilation!

“Guh… guh… guh… guh…”

Eerie, guttural syllables squeezed from his throat.

Seeing the situation escalate to this point, Officer Wang made a resolute decision.

Smack!

“Chen Jinquan, you goddamn idiot! Wake the hell up!”

A resounding slap landed squarely on Chen Jinquan’s face, accompanied by Officer Wang’s sudden curse. It brutally severed the eerie, unsettling wails.

The oppressive chill in the police hall dissipated significantly, and the strange, heavy feeling in the other officers’ chests vanished instantly.

“Old Wang… this…”

Someone voiced their concern, but Officer Wang dismissed it without a second thought.

“It’s fine! I hit him, I’ll take responsibility!”

Officer Wang’s attention remained solely on Chen Jinquan.

Chen Jinquan no longer emitted those strange howls. Officer Wang’s slap seemed to have snapped him back to reality. He slowly released the hands covering his eyes, and when his thumbs were pulled from his ear canals, the pain made him pause momentarily. Then, as if bracing himself, he yanked them out with a sudden motion.

“Ugh… ah…”

Chen Jinquan squeezed his eyes shut, his facial muscles twitching faintly.

Under the bright overhead lights, fresh crimson blood could be seen staining the edges of Chen Jinquan’s ear canals.

“Mr. Chen, can you still hear me? Mr. Chen?”

Officer Wang leaned closer to Chen Jinquan, bending slightly to ask.

Chen Jinquan shook his head. After a moment, he finally looked up and opened his eyes, his voice hoarse.

“It hurts a bit, but I can still hear you.”

Officer Wang’s expression relaxed slightly. He issued an immediate order.

“Li Dong, Cao Yun, take Mr. Chen to the hospital. Treatment is the priority.”

“Understood, Captain Wang!”

Two young officers stepped forward and carefully helped Chen Jinquan. Despite his poor physical and mental state, he waved them off, declining their assistance. He rose from the sofa on his own, then suddenly turned to Officer Wang.

“That’s right! It was that photo!”

“Hm?”

The officers present were all momentarily stunned. Officer Wang quickly pressed for more details.

“What photo?”

He keenly sensed that Chen Jinquan was speaking the truth this time. Though Chen Jinquan appeared weak and dispirited, Officer Wang felt this was the clearest he had been yet.

“It was a month ago, late on the night of March 24th. Before I went to sleep, I was browsing a forum online…”

Chen Jinquan’s Adam’s apple bobbed twice, and his bloodshot eyes twitched erratically. For him, this was a memory steeped in terror, the very origin of his month-long nightmares.

Yet, perhaps the stinging slap mark on his face and the throbbing pain in his ear canals stimulated his nerves, granting him a modicum of courage.

Unlike his previous bluster and rambling, Chen Jinquan now spoke with clarity, recounting his ordeal in a coherent narrative.

Chen Jinquan, a middle-aged bachelor living alone, would often seek solace in his carefully curated adult websites, relieving his physical urges with masterful dexterity. His other pastime was browsing bizarre forums, indulging in tales of ghosts and monsters, allowing the thrill of fear to stimulate his nerves and satisfy his psychological needs.

Whenever he immersed himself in these supernatural stories, he would gradually feel a presence: someone outside the window, someone under the bed, someone behind the door, even someone in the bathroom. His home, it seemed, had suddenly become quite lively!

He wasn’t, in fact, a particularly brave man. After reading those horror stories, if he needed to urinate late at night, he would often hesitate in bed for a long time, terrified of the ‘person’ in the bathroom.

But perhaps his solitary life was simply too lonely. In those moments, despite the fear, he would strangely feel a sense of inexplicable excitement, knowing his home now contained ‘others’.

Eventually, he would summon his courage, get out of bed, and head to the bathroom, a mix of fear, tension, and anticipation coursing through him. Sometimes he would even deliberately leave the lights off. Yet, the bathroom was always empty; there was never any ‘person’ there.

As time passed, he had gradually grown numb to the sensation.

He knew that the pitch-black window, the unknown space beneath his bed, the chilling bathroom—nowhere held those things. It was all merely a figment of his imagination.

Consequently, the supernatural stories on those forums lost their allure.

A month ago, late on the night of March 24th, Chen Jinquan, as was his custom, aimlessly browsed through a series of ghost stories.

As he grumbled about the monotonous and poorly written tales, a particular post was suddenly bumped to the top.

“[Absolutely Real! Shocking! I bought a doll and brought it home, and when I opened it, it turned out that…]”

“What trash! This is definitely just clickbait again!”

Chen Jinquan cursed aloud.

In the past year or two, such titles had become increasingly common, rampant on video platforms and news apps. They enticed people to click only to reveal mind-numbingly idiotic content. Had even this relatively niche supernatural forum been polluted?

Chen Jinquan moved his mouse and clicked on the post.

The content of the post was quite simple. The original poster claimed to have found an adult doll shop on Taobao. The vendor boasted absolute realism, and the images showed dolls as exquisitely beautiful and eerily lifelike. Yet, the price was less than a thousand yuan, remarkably cheap. The OP suspected photographic deception, believing them to be the common, grotesquely ugly inflatable models.

So, the OP placed an order, intending to take photos and report the vendor for fraud to claim compensation and a reward. However, when the package arrived and the OP opened it, they were utterly dumbfounded. The doll was truly as realistic as the vendor had claimed!

The OP attached a photo they had taken. In the picture, the doll, dressed in a Lolita-style outfit, sat on a wicker chair, holding a book, her head bowed in earnest concentration.

From the doll’s appearance and skin texture to her serene and graceful expression, she was uncannily human in the photograph!

The post concluded: “[I’m already living a happy life with my little darling. What about you? Haha! No need to envy or hate! Thank me! Taobao link attached: …………………..]”

“Damn it! Ad shill!”

“Ad shill! Scram, you pest!”

“May you be impotent forever! To hell with your ‘happy life’!”

“Second that! OP’s little d*ck will surely explode tonight!”

“Holy crap, that’s brutal, bro!”

“OP will definitely be butt-f**ked by a dog tonight!”

“Haha! Someone even more ruthless has arrived.”

…….

Chen Jinquan couldn’t help but curse as well, now understanding why the post had been bumped to the top.

“Where are the moderators? Are they in some shady deal with the OP, not deleting this?”

After typing that sentence, Chen Jinquan’s mouse glided towards the ‘X’ in the top right corner of the webpage. Just as he was about to click, he unconsciously scrolled the mouse wheel, his cursor drifting back to the photo in the post.

After staring at that photo for quite some time, Chen Jinquan moved his mouse…

Click!

He clicked the link.