The Hand of Confession – Chapter 20

Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site

Seeking an Exit

Sister Rabbit, your singing is really awesome

Known clue A: The foreman named Shi Xin is hated by the workers and was caught with evidence by a certain worker; clue B: He is very afraid of the monster appearing at the construction site, has pasted the room full of talisman papers, yet cannot open the construction site; clue C: One newspaper recorded that Shuitian Commercial Concrete did not buy engineering accident insurance for the workers. Seek: the method to leave.

Shen Maomao: “…” This problem cannot be solved.

She only heard Yun Shengjin ambiguously mention a method to leave, which is roughly to find out the main storyline of the copy, then the game can be cleared, but how is it considered to have found the storyline? After discovering the storyline, is it necessary to shout it out loudly?

After hearing her speculation, Xiaolou looked at her with an expression as if looking at a fool.

She wrote on paper: 【By finding out the most crucial side point in the main storyline, one can discover the exit. As long as you defeat the gatekeeping boss or escape from the boss’s hand, you can successfully escape. The first person to discover the exit also has a great chance to trigger an option.】

What does triggering an option even mean? This answer is still very abstract, and Shen Maomao feels that, according to her intelligence, it’s very difficult to understand. However, she thinks it’s absolutely impossible for her to be the first to find the exit, and explaining it now is very troublesome, so she doesn’t ask.

The time left for them is already running out. By tonight at the latest, if they don’t find a way to leave, the three of them will be in trouble.

Since Shen Maomao can’t hear anyway, Xiaolou mainly communicates with Golden Retriever: “I already know the general direction of this copy, and I have a specific idea about the method to leave.”

Golden Retriever is completely not in the loop: “Ah? Sister Lou, how do you know?”

“Investigation, of course,” Xiaolou naturally said.

Golden Retriever, who also worked hard in the investigation but found nothing: “…”

Xiaolou: “In the copy, only one living NPC appeared, which is the foreman Shi Xin. Shi Xin is not a respected good foreman; on the contrary, he has long-standing grievances with the workers. In the storyline I understand, Shi Xin embezzled public funds and delayed workers’ wages…”

The day they went to search the building where the foreman lived, she saw even more than Shen Maomao did.

When she got rid of the foreman and circled back, she saw two black shadows arguing on the rooftop. The slightly chubby one lightly reached out, and the tall, thin black shadow fell from the top of the building, hitting the ground with a muffled “thud.” At that time, Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever, who were in the midst of escaping, also heard this sound, but the two of them didn’t dare to turn back and look.

Adding to that, the later newspaper, Ding Hou hanging dead in front of their door, the conversation in the bathroom, and the talisman papers in foreman Shi Xin’s room…

She speculated: After Shi Xin pushed the worker, who had caught evidence against him, off the building, he took advantage of the night to destroy the corpse and eliminate traces, burying it under the unfinished pond. But the worker’s wife did not believe her husband would disappear without reason; perhaps she knew her husband held something against the foreman, so she suspected the foreman had harmed her husband. She then caused a scene at the construction site and either committed suicide or was killed and made to look like a suicide. Following that, workers at the site began to disappear until now, only the foreman remains. Later, the pond where the body was buried underwent changes, prompting him to urgently want the players to seal the pond to save his own life.

Regarding the monster that followed Shen Maomao back from the mall—Xiaolou initially judged that before Shen Maomao went to the mall, it wandered outside during the day and came to the construction site at night. The noisy sounds they heard came from the face on the monster’s stomach. These sounds can irritate and unsettle people, causing thoughts of self-harm or suicide if they appear alone. When combined with the whistling sound, they can cause a splitting headache, making life unbearable.

After Shen Maomao returned from the mall, the creature also followed back, disrupting everything, and no one knows what its next action will be.

In summary, she believes that the most important item in this game is either the evidence against the foreman or the corpse buried under the pond.

Golden Retriever after hearing her explanation: “…?” Such an impressive appearance.

Shen Maomao: “…” It’s so annoying not being able to hear.

Xiaolou helplessly closed her eyes to calm the anger in her heart. She didn’t understand why she had to bring two fools along to escape, but since she did, she decided to take full responsibility.

So she directly said: “There are two paths now: one is to find evidence against the foreman; the other is to wait until the foreman leaves and then go to the pond to find the exit.”

Anyway, there is still plenty of time, and they can do each one step by step.

The evidence against the foreman has appeared multiple times in the game, so it must not be just talk. This item might be the construction site’s account book or a recording of the foreman; it was either discovered, taken away, and destroyed by the foreman, or it was hidden by the workers and remains undiscovered to this day…

So the investigation is considered a big project.

Fortunately, the foreman is anxious to seal the pond and has no time to come back and watch. And with three laborers missing, even if he works overtime, it’s impossible for him to lay the stone slabs well tonight, so they can search boldly and with assurance.

The three of them split into three paths and conducted a thorough search of the entire construction site. They searched the whole afternoon but found nothing. The construction site was even cleaner than their faces; except for some necessary design drawings, there wasn’t even a sheet of white paper, let alone an account book.

When the evening glow covered the sky, the three, having found nothing, met near the pond.

Shen Maomao was somewhat nervous: “Sister Lou, it’s getting dark, can we succeed?”

Xiaolou glanced at her, and Shen Maomao strangely understood it as a kind of “a woman cannot say she can’t do it.”

Shen Maomao: “…?”

Xiaolou rubbed her chin and fell into deep thought: “It shouldn’t be like this…” The possibility of the foreman obtaining the evidence is not big; otherwise, the game wouldn’t need to remind them.

She has always had confidence in her judgment, which is also something she is proud of, so it can only be that her thinking is still not flexible enough to figure out the real method to obtain the item.

Not far away, the players, busy all day and full of the smell of blood, finished work. The foreman, like a mouse chased by a cat, ran straight to his room covered with yellow talismans.

No matter whether this talisman has any practical effect, it definitely provides psychological comfort.

Today’s end-of-work time was later than usual; the foreman forced them to work two extra hours, and the veteran players were full of complaints towards the three culprits who caused their overtime.

Xiaolou held back the anxious Shen Maomao, who wanted to go out and find the exit, and only took them out once the veteran players’ figures had completely disappeared.

The closer they got to the pond, the more Golden Retriever’s legs trembled.

In the morning, just working on top was still okay, but now needing to enter the mud pond again, he couldn’t control his own legs.

The originally orange bricks were plastered with a layer of cement that had almost dried. The red cross-section of the cement was laid neatly, and after an afternoon under the scorching sun, not a trace of the bloody smell remained.

The topmost boards of the pond still had a small section not sealed; except for this small section, other areas were tightly blocked, never seeing daylight.

Once the stone slabs are laid properly, it’s estimated that whatever is in the pond will be trapped underground forever, unless the developer takes over the project again; otherwise, it will never see the light of day.

They bypassed the part of the wall with bloodstains, tied the safety rope they brought into a dead knot on the scaffold, and then descended into the pond through the gap in the stone slabs.

Because it never sees sunlight, the sludge at the bottom of the pond was still not dry, and all three sank into the sludge up to their ankles. Judging by Golden Retriever’s expression, he seemed to want to jump onto Shen Maomao and Xiaolou to hug their necks.

Shen Maomao: “Such cowardice!”

Golden Retriever: “If you had come down with me that night, you would know how scary it was.”

Shen Maomao: “What did you say, I can’t hear.”

Golden Retriever: “…” Rascal.

Xiaolou stomped around with her foot and asked him: “Where’s the pit you dug?”

Golden Retriever took the initiative to lead the way: “It’s… over here.”

That pit looks less than three meters deep, and the pit walls are wet and soft, with remnants of the pit that Golden Retriever kicked out that night still visible.

Golden Retriever, still with lingering fear: “At the bottom, I heard a second breathing sound besides mine, and no matter how I climbed, I couldn’t reach the top. After you pulled me up, those hands appeared in the pond, trying to pull me back.”

As he said this, he walked in a circle and said curiously: “Why is there no reaction?”

Xiaolou calmly said: “Why rush?”

Besides, the sky isn’t dark yet.

The three people explored around the bottom of the pond, and besides discovering Ding Hou’s bald skull, they gained nothing else.

Waiting for nightfall in such an environment is a very terrifying thing. The air below does not circulate at all; it’s so quiet that there isn’t even the sound of wind, and with Ding Hou’s bald skull as a companion, Shen Maomao feels she will surely have nightmares when she goes back.

The sun gradually sinks to the west, and the bloody smell in their noses becomes increasingly stronger, like originally solidified blood gradually melting, eroding the precarious mental world of the two newcomers.

After eight o’clock, all is silent. The construction site is like a graveyard, and their location is the luxurious plus grave mound within the graveyard.

The three stood in the mud for several hours, and the continuously darkening sky was just like their lives continuously leaping toward the end.

Shen Maomao was already pondering how to write a will in a way that wouldn’t make her parents sad.

Not knowing if it was already nine o’clock, a familiar whistling sound and talking could be heard from afar. Under their feet, the sludge began to churn, and countless pairs of pale hands broke through the soil, wildly grabbing at the three people’s pants and legs.

Golden Retriever’s legs went weak, almost causing him to kneel, and Shen Maomao couldn’t control herself and screamed out loud, using her hands and feet to kick and hit those hands.

Xiaolou covered her ears and shouted loudly: “Rabbit! Sing!!”

Shen Maomao followed the order, opened her throat, and started yelling. She sang for a long time without a single line being in tune.

This unpleasant singing gave Golden Retriever enormous courage. He was scared to death, but still dared to loudly say: “Sister Rabbit! Your singing is really awesome!!”

The whistling sound, perhaps noticing it was overpowered, abruptly stopped, and the hands breaking through the soil in the pond all retracted. But Shen Maomao’s singing continued, like a demonic sound piercing ears; listening too long might threaten one’s life.

To prevent dying at the hands of their own, Xiaolou raised a hand to cover her mouth, placing the other hand at her lips and saying: “Shh——”

Sound-controlled Shen Maomao immediately stopped, waiting for the master’s permission to sing again.

But since the whistling sound was gone, she had no more value. Xiaolou tossed her a spade, pointed in a direction, and said: “Here!!” The whistling sound had just come from underneath!

Shen Maomao quickly complied, diligently digging the mud with Golden Retriever, and soon they dug out a big pit.