Have you ever heard this urban legend? It involves calling the underworld...
The origin of urban legends
This legend used to circulate in schools, and almost every mischievous kid played it. Back then, there were no mobile phones; home phones were rotary dial phones. The legend said that if you dialed nine "9"s in a row at midnight, and then dialed twelve more times, you could connect to the underworld. It was said that whoever connected would die.
I have a personal experience about dialing the number "nine" multiple times to connect with the spirit world. Back when I was in elementary school, I was just playing around with my phone out of boredom. I kept dialing the number "nine" nine times, and the phone kept making that "didi didi didi didi..." sound.
The strange thing was that amidst the "ding-ding" sound, there was a woman's voice, talking incoherently, but I couldn't hear what she was saying. I immediately hung up, but driven by curiosity, I tried again. The result was the same; a woman's voice kept talking incoherently, sounding like the legendary "ghost eating mud" sound.
Just after I hung up again, at 12 o'clock, the phone suddenly rang... I was startled and wondered if I had really connected to the underworld.
I mustered up my courage and picked up the phone to listen, only to hear: "This is the 999 emergency call center. Kid, don't play with your phone anymore..."
💡 The city is full of unknowns, just like every in-depth journey always has something unexpected.