The Hand of Confession – Chapter 14

Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site

Monster

Where are you two going?

Shen Maomao supported herself to sit up, touched her own arm, but her ears were unable to capture the sound of skin friction.

In such an environment, losing hearing is not much different from death.

Just now, that loud noise was not far from her, otherwise she wouldn’t have been so greatly shocked. Regardless of what the source of the sound is, she must immediately leave her current position to avoid a head-on collision with it.

She staggered forward, supporting herself on the shelves, glancing left and right in search of a second living creature in the supermarket.

The shelves blocked her line of sight, and Shen Maomao didn’t know where the thing was. However, she could feel the shelves vibrating—a slight vibration, but not one to be ignored. It was as if a heavyset person was bouncing around nearby.

Optimistically thinking, maybe it’s been an earthquake ever since just now.

—No matter how optimistic, everyone knows this possibility isn’t very likely.

Shen Maomao hid behind a shelf, observing the fresh food area not far away.

The fresh food area consists of half-person-high cabinets, making it difficult to hide there. Especially since she can’t hear any sounds now, it’s very easy to be sneak attacked from behind when getting meat, and carrying meat also makes it inconvenient to escape…

She tightly gripped the five hundred yuan in her pocket, feeling for the first time that spending money was so painful.

Just as she was thinking about how to safely complete the task, a sudden gust of cool wind blew on the back of her neck! The wind wasn’t strong, but it felt like someone’s hand was quickly reaching for her neck, carrying a bone-chilling cold that made her hair stand on end.

Shen Maomao almost exploded with fright; she lunged forward, rolling on the ground to put distance between her and the thing behind her.

Then she quickly got up, glanced back, and took off running.

F*ck! What was that thing behind her?

It looked like a human, yet its body was several times larger than a human’s. It had a giant black belly, and on top of the belly was a shiny bald head, resembling a century egg, with two black hole-like cavities in the front; below the belly were two thin legs like bamboo poles. It was hard to imagine how such legs could support such a large body.

The mall’s floor lightly shook, and although she couldn’t hear it, Shen Maomao could imagine what kind of noise the monster would make while walking.

Contrary to its huge body, its movement speed was not slow, with an agility that defied common sense, not even knocking over a single shelf.

Not having hearing is really troublesome! She couldn’t judge how far the monster was from her by listening, so she could only keep turning her head while searching for a direction.

To shake it off, Shen Maomao turned randomly around the counter, purposefully running towards the daily necessities area.

The supermarket certainly doesn’t lack weapons, and as she passed by the shelf with kitchen knives, she randomly grabbed an unsealed knife, closed her eyes, and threw it behind her.

However, that monster seemed completely unafraid of injury, allowing the icy blade to cut open its skin.

A gush of fishy stench reached Shen Maomao’s nose, as the monster’s body erupted with a pungent green-gray slime, corroding the surrounding buildings.

A gust of strong wind came from behind, and Shen Maomao immediately realized it had caught up.

She casually grabbed the mop from the shelf next to her, using it as a defensive weapon to block.

The monster’s sharp claws directly split the mop in two, and Shen Maomao retreated just in time to avoid sharing the mop’s fate.

At such a close distance, she saw the monster’s abdomen. Its pitch-black body was covered with various ferocious human faces, some crying, others laughing, with twisted expressions. Every face’s lips were continuously wriggling, endlessly giving a speech.

Shen Maomao felt nauseous, almost to the point of vomiting.

She stuffed the two halves of the mop stick into two big mouths, then turned her head and ran, continuing to circle around nearby with it.

But this was not a long-term plan; even if her physical strength was sufficient, she couldn’t afford to waste all her time here.

Failing to complete the task and returning would also mean death, and facing this big guy head-on would also mean death. With things as they were, she might as well take a chance and fight.

She looped back to the fresh food area, grabbed a boning knife, and crushed the life-saving small pill given to her by Xiaolou. A warm airflow rushed into her body, with blood flowing into her limbs and bones. In an instant, she felt she possessed endless strength.

She gripped the boning knife in reverse and charged head-on, raising the knife and accurately stabbing it into one of the many eyes. Sticky green-gray slime splattered everywhere, and Shen Maomao immediately dodged, but still inevitably came into contact with some, causing her skin to feel a burning pain.

The face to which this eye belonged showed a painful expression, and the eyes on the other faces all turned towards her, glaring with resentful gazes.

With her hair standing on end from being stared at, Shen Maomao gritted her teeth and charged up a second time, pulling out the boning knife and fiercely stabbing it into another eye.

Strangely, even after she stabbed two eyes consecutively, the monster did not grab her to tear her apart or throw her aside. Its only reaction was that the mouths on these faces continuously spoke, saliva flying everywhere. Could it be it wants to communicate with her?

Shen Maomao put away the knife, stepped back two steps to stand firmly, and loudly shouted: “What are you babbling about?! I can’t hear!!”

The only comforting thing is that she can still hear her own voice, though the voice is a bit small.

As soon as she said this, the monster was stunned for a while, with no reaction for a long time.

Shen Maomao said: “Go play by yourself! Find someone else to help! I can’t hear anything! Sorry for stabbing you a few times earlier! I thought you were going to attack me! But I’m not going to let you stab back!”

Then she saw that every face on the monster started spitting blood, looking greatly shocked.

She cautiously walked two steps toward the monster, and seeing that it had no intention of grabbing her for an extra meal, she stopped wasting time with it and turned to run to the fresh food area to take plastic bags to pack meat.

Because the foreman said he wanted a receipt, she packed the meat in each bag, put it on the scale, and manually printed and stuck the price on the bag.

After sticking prices on about five hundred yuan worth, she stopped.

The monster kept following behind her, and the eyes on that round shiny braised egg-like head were full of a covetous look, as if it were looking at a piece of delicious meat, but it just followed her and never took action.

Honestly, just being followed like that is quite scary.

Not taking action now doesn’t mean it won’t take action in the future. The time for the life-saving tool is about to end, and unknown side effects may appear afterward. She must leave quickly and return to the construction site.

She went to the hardware supplies area, found a burlap sack, threw in over forty pounds of pork, and with a strong pull on the sack’s opening, lifted the meat onto her back.

There was no one at the cash register, but the machines were all on. She imitated the memory of the cashier scanning codes, scanned all the meat and bags, and even printed a receipt for herself.

The monster’s body was so large, it couldn’t come to the cashier’s area. It stood inside the supermarket, quietly watching Shen Maomao’s actions.

The faces on its body seemed tired, as they all closed their eyes and mouths at this moment, no longer babbling.

Shen Maomao controlled herself as much as possible not to look at it, put five hundred yuan into the drawer, gave herself some change, and then carried the meat onto the escalator.

Halfway up the escalator, she suddenly felt a weight behind her, causing her back to bend suddenly.

That familiar hair-raising feeling surged to her mind again. She laboriously lifted her foot off the elevator and twisted her neck little by little to look behind, but there was nothing behind her except the burlap sack and meat…

F*ck you, QAQ!

She cursed in her heart to muster courage, pretending nothing had happened, and continued to walk forward.

After walking out of the shopping mall building’s main entrance, she was surprised to find that the outside world had actually returned to normal!

The mall entrance was full of pedestrians, some holding pets, some leading children. In front of the red light, the countdown still had five seconds. People waiting for the green light stood under the traffic light chatting, while nearby vendors hawked their goods…

Shen Maomao could only collect information visually, both useful and useless, and she recorded it all, just waiting to go back in the afternoon to share the information with Xiaolou.

Many taxis were parked by the roadside, with drivers inside the cars peering at the mall entrance, ready for business at any time.

She walked to the front of a car and signaled the driver to open the trunk, putting the burlap sack inside.

Then she opened the back seat car door and sat inside.

The driver looked at her through the rearview mirror and asked with a smile, “Where are you two going?”

Shen Maomao couldn’t hear what he said, but she knew she should mention the place: “Go to the Shuitian Yise residential area construction site.”

The taxi slowly started, driving in the direction she had come from.

The strength in her body ebbed away like a tide, and Shen Maomao rested her head against the car window, gasping for breath with difficulty.

Her heart was beating very fast, her vision went black, and a layer of fine sweat appeared on her forehead. She felt like she was in a vacuum, unable to breathe no matter how hard she tried.

At this moment, she was like a dehydrated fish, only able to roll her eyes helplessly with her mouth open, longing for the mercy of air.

It felt like a century passed when she suddenly noticed a hand patting her shoulder. The vanished air suddenly returned, and Shen Maomao greedily inhaled two breaths, feeling for the first time that the taste of air was f*cking sweet.

The taxi driver patted her awake, saying something, but unfortunately, she couldn’t hear anything.

But thinking about it, he was probably worried that something might happen to her in the car and he would be held responsible, right?

The construction site’s gate was right in front, and the destination had already been reached. Shen Maomao glanced at the meter, which showed a 6, proving that not much time had actually passed.

Shen Maomao took out ten yuan, handed it to the driver, and said, “I am fine,” then gently pushed the driver aside and got out of the car.

Her hands and feet were still somewhat weak, and her breathing wasn’t so smooth, but she could still manage.

The driver looked at her with a strange gaze, and Shen Maomao could only see his lips moving back and forth.

After pausing for a few seconds, she laboriously dragged the meat out from the trunk and said to the driver, “Sorry! I cannot hear! Could you please help me take these inside? I can pay extra!”

The driver’s face showed a frightened expression, he waved at her three times, then sat back in the driver’s seat and rushed off with one press of the gas pedal, not even having time to close the trunk.

Shen Maomao: “…?”

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