The Hand of Confession – Chapter 126
by Little PandaVolume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses
One Extra
The promised corpse refers to the NPC himself
Lou Jingmo smiled mysteriously: “I was just saying.” Then no matter how Shen Maomao asked, she refused to say more.
Shen Maomao felt helpless, but seeing Lou Jingmo’s expression suggested she was already prepared, so she simply stopped asking. After all, Lou Jingmo could take care of herself; rather than worry about her, she might as well worry about herself.
The entire morning passed in such aimless wandering.
When the cafeteria opened for lunch, Shen Maomao clutched her growling stomach as Lou Jingmo practically dragged her to the cafeteria.
Before even entering, Shen Maomao caught a whiff of an enticing aroma and immediately felt dejected: “It’s over, I already know how this meal will taste.”
The three body collectors hadn’t returned yet, but all other players except those three had arrived at the cafeteria.
San Huang hadn’t returned to the dormitory and was still wearing his previous shirt. He was again surrounded by people like the moon among stars, but hadn’t taken any food.
Shen Maomao strangely understood him somewhatโafter tasting those delicious meals and becoming accustomed to the flavor, who could still swallow such bland food?
Lou Jingmo placed a pile of dishes in front of her and said just one word, concise and to the point: “Eat.”
Hot tears seemed to stream down Shen Maomao’s eyes.
But hunger was real hunger; no matter how unpalatable, she had to eat if she didn’t want to starve.
For her past self, eating was a pleasure; for her current self, it was just torture to satisfy a physiological need.
She mechanically swallowed the food, and as soon as she felt slightly full, immediately put down her chopsticks: “I can’t believe I’ve reached the day where I’m full from eating dirt.”
The night watch man mockingly said: “You won’t eat the good stuff but insist on eating the tasteless food.”
Xiaoqiao held a piece of bread in her hand, eating it slowly as she said softly: “I’ve heard thatโfood that has been offered as tribute becomes tasteless, because ghosts have no physical form and can only absorb the essence from food, so this kind of tasteless food might very well be offerings for the dead.”
After speaking, she covered her mouth and giggled delicately: “Though I’m just guessing, this is a funeral home after all, so it’s better to be careful.”
Gong Lian beside her nodded: “I think Xiaoqiao-jie makes sense, we’d better not eat anymore?”
Several people silently put down their chopsticks, clearly believing Xiaoqiao’s explanation.
Shen Maomao wore an indifferent expressionโshe had already finished eating anyway, so it didn’t matter what was said, and she couldn’t exactly regurgitate what she’d already eaten.
Few people touched their chopsticks during this lunch, and just as the meal ended, the sound of a car engine roaring came from outsideโGuan Qiwen and the others were back!
Several people hurried out to greet them.
Who knows what they had experienced during their time awayโthe originally intact windshield was half gone, with only some precarious shards of glass hanging on; one of the passenger side mirrors was also damaged, though only deformed, not yet fallen off.
The entire vehicle looked like it had just survived a disaster, with small dents scattered across its body.
Guan Qiwen jumped down from the driver’s seat with a cigarette of unknown origin between his lips.
San Huang walked over voluntarily and asked: “Did you bring back the corpse?”
Guan Qiwen exhaled a cloud of smoke and said: “Brought it back, fresh and warm.”
San Huang: “?”
Dao Ba [ๅ็ค | dฤo bฤ] jumped down from the passenger seat, and together with Guan Qiwen opened the back door. Xiaokong immediately jumped out from the cargo area with a bruised face, carrying a heavy smell of blood.
All three who had left returned intact, with a mutilated corpse lying in the cargo area, but the NPC was nowhere to be seen.
So San Huang asked again: “Where’s the NPC who went with you?”
Dao Ba pointed at the cargo area: “In there.”
Shen Maomao: “???”
Under Guan Qiwen’s methodical narration, everyone finally understood what had happened during their trip.
Guan Qiwen explainedโthe so-called “job” wasn’t about someone planning to transport a corpse to the First Funeral Home; the promised corpse actually referred to the NPC himself.
That morning, they drove smoothly from the asphalt road to the city center without attracting the monster’s attention.
Guan Qiwen was driving, the NPC sat in the passenger seat giving directions, while Dao Ba and Xiaokong were huddled in the cargo area.
When the vehicle reached a bustling area, the NPC, who had been quiet throughout the journey, suddenly shouted “wrong” and began frantically grabbing at the steering wheel. The fast-moving truck made a sharp turn, lost balance, and tilted right. The NPC wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and was carried forward by inertia, smashing through the windshield before continuing forward and landing heavily on the ground in the distance.
Blood poured out, and he died on the spot.
None of the three men expected something like this to happen, especially the two in the cargo area who nearly vomited from the violent motion.
With the quest-giving NPC dead, the three lost their objective and received a stern lecture from the responding police and traffic officers. Only after the truth about the accident was investigated were they allowed to collect the corpse.
The police found a late-stage lung cancer test report on the NPC’s body, and after reviewing the accident scene surveillance footage, determined the NPC’s death as suicide, so they let them take the body back.
As for why Guan Qiwen said the “job” the NPC mentioned was himself, it was because when the police confirmed the accident details, the deceased’s name was Huang Hongxing [้ปๅฎ่ | huรกng hรณng xฤซng].
The NPC was called Huang Hongxing, and the corpse he mentioned from the beginning was himself.
San Huang cursed: “What’s this? The tutorial NPC dies on day one? What are we supposed to do next?”
Without waiting for others to speak, he continued as if talking to himself: “No… the game must continue. We’re at a funeral home, when someone dies we need to follow procedures. Who’s the funeral director? What should we do next?”
The middle-aged woman suddenly called out: “What? How would I know? Nobody’s died in my family!”
San Huang said coldly: “You can’t even do your assigned job properly, I bet someone in your family will die soon.”
The middle-aged woman panicked briefly, then regained composure and said sharply: “You really don’t know how to talk, kid. Did someone in your family die so there was no one to teach you manners?”
Although Shen Maomao disliked how this auntie immediately resorted to cursing about family members, she had to admitโit was quite satisfying to see San Huang at a loss.
After taking her dig at San Huang, the woman explained the funeral procedures, clearly not wanting to antagonize all the players: “Where I’m from, after someone dies, we hold a memorial service, then the funeral home takes the body for cremation, and the family just waits for the urn.”
San Huang was furious, his fists clenched tight, his face turning an unusual shade of red: “Don’t think I won’t hit you just because you’re a woman!”
The woman sneered dismissively: “Weren’t you asking about funeral etiquette? I tell you and you want to hit me? Young people these days are so difficult, don’t you understand respect for elders? I’m about your mother’s age, do you talk to your mother like this?”
San Huang clenched his fists and charged forward.
Everyone couldn’t just watch them fight, so the men quickly moved to restrain San Huang while four women surrounded the middle-aged woman.
Xiaoqiao spoke eloquently, persuading the auntie until her anger completely dissipated. She held Xiaoqiao’s hand, smiling: “Good child, you look about the same age as auntie’s daughter. When auntie sees you, it’s like seeing my own daughter.”
Saying this, she became emotional and couldn’t help wiping away tears: “Auntie doesn’t know when she’ll see her daughter again…”
Xiaoqiao comforted her thoughtfully: “Don’t worry, auntie, you’ll definitely make it out alive and reunite with your daughter.”
Auntie smiled, glancing sideways at San Huang: “Good child, you really know how to talk, unlike certain people whose words aren’t even as pleasant as a dog’s bark, acting like they’re somebody important.”
San Huang was so angry he wanted to hit her again, and the scene instantly became chaotic.
Lou Jingmo watched this farce with no expression on her face, her eyes filled with indifference.
Shen Maomao finally managed to squeeze out from the chaotic crowd, only to see this expression on her face.
A sudden impulse came from somewhere, causing her to step forward and grab Lou Jingmo’s hand, calling her name softly: “Lou-jie?”
Lou Jingmo snapped back to attention: “Hmm?”
Shen Maomao asked her quietly: “What are you looking at?”
Lou Jingmo looked at the noisy crowd in front and said: “There’s one extra…”
Shen Maomao: “???!!” What?!
She immediately looked at the group and started counting.
Three…
Four…
Thirteen…
…
Fourteen…?
Fourteen?
Where did fourteen come from?!
They clearly had five women and eight men in total, but now there was an extra man!!
Shen Maomao was dumbfounded.
Lou Jingmo said: “My memory is very good, but right now I can’t distinguish which one among them is the extra one.”
When did this person slip in among them? Why hadn’t they noticed anything before?
Besides Guan Qiwen and San Huang, who had been attention-seeking since entering the game, she couldn’t be sure whether the other men were dead or alive.
Thinking about it this way, being attention-seeking wasn’t so badโat least they wouldn’t be suspected of being disguised monsters.
Lou Jingmo comforted her: “Don’t be afraid, we’ll deal with problems as they come.”
While they were talking, the argument on the other side finally stopped under auntie’s mercy. None of the players had noticed that an unknown being, whether human or ghost, had joined their midst as they discussed what to do next.
Dao Ba said: “Have you searched all those doors? Can we get in?”
Lou Jingmo responded: “No.”
Dao Ba clapped his hands: “How about thisโlet’s break down all the doors and see what’s inside, there might be clues.”
San Huang immediately refused: “No way, if the ghosts get angered by this, can you guarantee you can calm their fury?”
Dao Ba shrugged indifferently: “Then forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything.”
After everyone talked over each other for a while, nobody convinced anyone else, until finally a usually unremarkable young man stepped forward and weakly said: “Can we stop leaving the NPC’s corpse exposed to the air? Let’s give him a proper burial?”
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