My best friend mailed me the ribs she had removed during her weight-loss surgery and told me to make soup with them and send her a video.

I just couldn't bring myself to eat it, so I posted online asking for help.

An anonymous account left a comment under my post, "Don't drink it! This is called fate-altering through bone, she's trying to switch lives with you!"

An idea struck me, so I went to the market, bought a pound of beef ribs, made soup and filmed a video of myself drinking it for her.

Then I turned around and threw the ribs she gave me into a stone trough at a pig farm.

The next day, when I went to check, I saw the mother pig nursing five piglets stared at me with eyes full of hatred…

——

"Selina, these ribs were specially removed for you during my surgery. You have to make soup and drink it and don't forget to send me a video." My best friend Agnes Sinclair sent a message, followed by a smiling emoji.

Right after that, I received a local express delivery. When I opened it, I saw two ribs, cut off with some sharp tool.

One of them still had bloodstains on it. I gagged and quickly pushed the box away.

Two weeks ago, Agnes said she felt fat and was going for full-body liposuction. I gently advised her that surgery was risky and she should think carefully.

Unexpectedly, she not only went through with the surgery, but also had two ribs removed.

I took a moment to calm down and replied to her: [Are you crazy? You want me to make soup with your ribs?]

[If you want to drink it, drink it yourself. I won't!]

As soon as I sent the message, Agnes called me. The ringtone sounded like a death knell, especially sharp in the middle of the night.

I looked at the smiling face flashing on the phone screen, hesitated to answer.

On the sixth call, my boyfriend Drew Jefferson suddenly appeared behind me and complained, "Selina, what are you daydreaming about? Why aren't you answering the phone?"

I froze and tried to stop him, but it was too late. He had already pressed the answer button.

I quickly grabbed the phone and went to the balcony to take the call.

Before I could say anything, Agnes's sickly sweet voice came through the receiver, "Selina, didn't we agree a few days ago? We'll be best friends forever! This is a special ritual between besties. As long as you drink the soup, our wish will come true!"

All the hairs on my body stood on end. Because I hadn't seen Agnes for two months and we hadn't even talked in the past week due to work. What does she mean by 'a few days ago'?

The last time we chatted, she was congratulating me on my lucky streak for dating Drew Jefferson, a rich second-generation heir. The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

So I used a side account to post online asking for help, "My best friend wants me to make soup with her ribs and record a video of it, is this normal?"

Right after I posted, dozens of comments came in, "Hey, could you really eat that? I sure couldn't."

"I've heard of psycho boyfriends, but this is the first time I've heard of a psycho bestie. girl, are you just farming for views?"

"Exactly, I love reading twisted novels, but if this happened in real life, I'd be shaking."

***

Amid the jokes and shock from netizens, I suddenly noticed one anonymous account stood out.

They posted three comments in a row, "Don't listen to her! This is called fate-altering through bone, your best friend wants to switch lives with you!"

"If you do what she says, your fate and body will swap with hers!"

"Hurry up and get rid of the ribs, but don't just throw them away or you'll be cursed. It's best to let a living creature absorb it!"

I stared at those comments, cold sweat streamed down my back.

Agnes was my childhood friend and later we even got into the same university. We had promised since we were kids that whoever got married first, the other would be the bridesmaid.

When we had children, even if they couldn't become childhood sweethearts, they'd be sworn siblings. How could she possibly want to harm me?

But the voice on that call just now really was Agnes's.

While I was staring blankly at my phone, my boyfriend Drew suddenly walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of soup.

He brought it to me and said gently, "Didn't you just say you were hungry and wanted a late-night snack? I saw you bought ribs, so I stewed them, come, drink it while it's hot!"

As he spoke, Drew scooped up a spoonful of the oily bone broth and brought it toward my mouth.

I looked at the two familiar ribs in the bowl, I was startled and instinctively pushed it away. The soup splashed out.

Drew's face changed instantly, "Selina, what's wrong with you? You nearly burned me."

Seeing the displeasure on his face, I quickly explained, "You know I can't drink meat soup without black pepper."

"There's no black pepper at home, how about you go buy some from the convenience store downstairs?" I didn't know why, but I vaguely felt something was off about Drew.

Usually, he wouldn't even cook instant noodles himself, he'd just order takeout. But now, so late at night, he actually made soup? That was way too suspicious. Could he be working with Agnes?

After heard me say that, Drew's expression eased a little and he was about to order a delivery.

I immediately pretended to be disappointed and clung to his arm, acted cute, "The store's just downstairs, you'll be back in ten minutes. If you order delivery, it'll take at least half an hour. The soup will get cold by then."

Seeing I wouldn't give in, Drew had no choice but to go out.

As soon as he was gone, I poured the steaming rib soup into a thermos and hid it.

Then I took out the leftover beef ribs from the fridge, carefully picked two small ones, added water and boiled them and poured it into the bowl Drew had used.

The two beef ribs were oily and shiny, almost identical to the ones Agnes sent me.

The store was just ten minutes away, but Drew came back in less than ten. He was panting and looked like he was in a hurry.

I pretended not to notice and took the pepper with a smile, sprinkled it into the soup.

While drinking, I recorded a video for Agnes, "Agnes, Drew helped me stew the ribs. I'm going to drink it now."

As I spoke, I had Drew hold the phone and I tilted my head back and drank the whole bowl clean. After finished, I even praised his cooking skills.

I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but Drew seemed to visibly relax after I finished the soup.

Less than a minute after I sent the video to Agnes, she replied with a cute emoji.

Seeing she hadn't suspected anything and that Drew had also left, I finally felt at ease.

I quickly took the two bones out of the thermos. For some reason, after soaked in soup for several hours, their color had changed. One of them had even turned a bluish-gray, as if it had been cut from a long-dead corpse.

Suddenly, a bold idea came to my mind. Early the next morning, I took the thermos of bone soup to a pig farm in the suburbs.

The farm owner was a distant relative of mine, I used to play there a lot as a kid.

Inside the pen, a large old sow was lazily basking in the sun.

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.