The Hand of Confession – Chapter 288
by Little PandaVolume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore
Under the Car
I should be in the car, not under the car1
After picking and choosing, the adults finally handed their fate over to the child, letting Huo Dongdong randomly point to a building.
The disaster had happened too suddenly. People eager to escape for their lives naturally didn’t have time to lock their doors and windows before going downstairs, so most of the houses here were unlocked, which to a large extent was convenient for people like them who came to challenge the labyrinth.
The building entrance door could be opened with a gentle pull. The group entered in single file like fish2. Ren Yue turned on her flashlight for illumination.
It was also cold in the corridor, but much better than outside. At the very least, there was no wind or snow here, allowing Boss Huo to put his heavy burden, Huo Dongdong, on the ground.
The Da xiongdi walked at the very front and pushed open the door of unit 101 of this building.
A pungent smell came from inside the room. On the floor of the room were some footprints in not-very-thick dust, as well as food packaging bags scattered everywhere, residue left from burning, and some messy garbage.
—It had clearly been visited before.
Ren Yue raised her hand to pull the door of the other room, but unexpectedly, she couldn’t pull it open.
Unit 102 across the hall was actually locked.
The Da xiongdi said, “If the door is locked, it should be cleaner than this side, right? Who among you knows how to pick a lock?”
Xiao Lou said, “I advise you it’s best not to.”
Boss Huo asked strangely, “Why?”
Xiao Lou didn’t explain. Shang Zhou, who was standing by the building entrance door glancing around and observing the surroundings, continued, “The reason a door is locked is very likely because the homeowner couldn’t escape.”
“Oh~!” The Da xiongdi suddenly realized and smiled simple-mindedly. “You two are so thoughtful.”
Ren Yue squinted her eyes, looking left at Shang Zhou and right at Xiao Lou, and discovered that these two, a talented man and a beautiful woman3, actually looked quite well-matched?
And what made her eat lemons4 even more was—towards Shang Zhou, who could articulate his purpose, Xiao Lou revealed an appreciative and approving expression.
Something was bubbling up with a “gudugudu” sound. She moved between the two of them without a trace, cutting off their exchange of flirtatious glances5, and said, “Then let’s go into 101, shall we? It’s just to make do for one night, we can endure it and it’ll be over.”
Boss Huo agreed, “101 has been lived in before, so it should be quite safe…”
The boss had spoken, so the working people naturally had no objections. The five of them walked into 101. Shang Zhou, at the back, closed the door, but didn’t lock it.
Ren Yue waved the flashlight, sweeping it around.
The room was quite large. As soon as you entered, there was a square living room. On both sides of the living room were four doors, all of which were open at the moment. Two of them were bedrooms, one was a study, and the other was a kitchen. The toilet was on the wall by the entrance.
The furniture in the living room was arranged messily. A large space had been cleared out in the middle; this was where the previous group of people had made a fire.
The ash on the ground was very thick. It was clear that no one had visited for a long time.
Everyone put their things on the ground. Ren Yue looked at Boss Huo and asked, “Are you making the arrangements or am I?”
Boss Huo sat his butt down in the ash-covered sofa, stirring up a sky full of dust, but he no longer had the strength to dodge. “You do it, you do it. I want to catch my breath.” As he spoke, he took out the thermos he had brought, opened it, and fed Huo Dongdong two mouthfuls of water amidst the dust, then drank half a cup himself with a “gudong gudong” sound.
Ren Yue nodded to acknowledge, “In that case, Shang Zhou and Pengfei will check the house, Xiao Lou and I will tidy the living room. Don’t be alone. If there are no problems, let’s begin?”
Shang Zhou and the Da xiongdi had no objections. The two of them teamed up and went into a bedroom, and began to ransack boxes and cupboards6, to see if they could find any useful tools, and to investigate the situation inside the house at the same time.
Xiao Lou was a bit disgusted with the room. She leaned her luggage against the wall and stood in the middle, trying her best not to touch the house except for her feet on the ground. Over there, the two were still rummaging through things. She slowly and methodically rolled up the sleeves of her down jacket and asked, “How do we tidy?”
How could Ren Yue bear to let her tidy up!
She took off her down jacket, folded it into a neat square, and laid it on the sofa, next to next to next to Boss Huo. She said, “You rest for a while first. I’ll do it first. You sit here and wait for me to get tired, then you can take over.”
Xiao Lou: “Less nonsense, where do I work?”
Ren Yue fell into a dilemma. She looked around, chose and chose, and only then said, “How about… you move this coffee table?”
Xiao Lou immediately took action, scooping up the ten-plus jin7 heavy glass coffee table and making it stand against the side.
Ren Yue: “You’ve worked hard! You should rest!”
Boss Huo, lying on the sofa: “…”
Xiao Lou raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure?”
Ren Yue nodded repeatedly, “Sure, sure. Rest. Sit on my down jacket, it’s cleaner.”
Since she had said so, Xiao Lou wasn’t the type of person to find work for herself, so she picked up her own luggage and sat down on the sofa—of course, she sat on her own backpack.
Because her movements were very light, she didn’t kick up much dust, and the down jacket Ren Yue had placed on the sofa was also preserved intact.
Next was Ren Yue’s time.
She found the original broom, dustpan, and mop of the household in the kitchen, and unexpectedly discovered that this building only had a power outage, but not a water outage. Her motivation instantly grew stronger.
While washing the mop in the bathroom, she kept muttering to herself in her heart—Go, Rabbit! The person you like is outside, show her your abilities!
Thinking this, she sprang into action: to prevent too much dust, she used a wet mop to mix a circle of mud in the living room, then used a broom to sweep out the coagulated dust, and then mopped the floor three or four times with a clean mop.
The Da xiongdi and Shang Zhou finished their exploration. As soon as they returned, they saw her in this state of being injected with chicken blood8, which couldn’t help but remind him of the time at Rabbit’s house before, when she was also lavishingly currying favor with a certain person like this…
He glanced at the unmoved certain person Lou, and deeply felt that this child had probably put her effort in the wrong direction. “Let me do it, you take a rest?”
Ren Yue shook her head, “I’m already done. Let’s wait for the floor to dry. We’d better light a fire too, otherwise it will be very cold in the middle of the night.”
“Shang Zhou reminded me.” The Da xiongdi shook the old clothes and old bedsheets in his hand. “We found these in the bedroom.”
“Are there any things inside?”
Da xiongdi: “It’s hard to say. I don’t have Dongdong’s skill, so I can’t really tell if there’s that.”
Shang Zhou continued, “There are a few little ghosts, but there shouldn’t be any big ghosts.”
The Da xiongdi was surprised, “How did you figure that out?”
Shang Zhou’s thin lips parted, and he spat out two words, “Intuition.”
Alright then, this kind of intuition, he, this big boor9, definitely didn’t have.
Ren Yue went to the bathroom to wash her hands and face. The remaining few people found a large iron basin, poured in the cooking oil they found in the kitchen, soaked the clothes and bedsheets in it, and then lit them.
The flame lit up, driving away the cold and darkness. Boss Huo took off his shoes and moved his wet socks closer to the brazier, and immediately felt his toes start to itch.
Huo Dongdong sat obediently on the sofa watching the adults busy themselves. Only after the adults were done did he say softly to his father, “Dad, I’m hungry…”
“Okay, wait for Dad.” Boss Huo crawled with difficulty towards his backpack, getting the little bit of ash on the sofa all over his body.
Xiao Lou said with disgust, “Don’t move, I’ll get it for you.”
Boss Huo immediately deflated, “Okay.”
Ren Yue washed a clean basin, boiled some hot water, and let it cool for Huo Dongdong to drink. The others also filled up on water.
Everyone made do and finished dinner, then sat around the brazier to warm themselves by the fire.
Huo Dongdong, who was full, nestled in his father’s arms, drowsy. Ren Yue wanted to lean on Xiao Lou’s shoulder and watch the stars and the moon with her, talking about everything from poetry and songs to the philosophy of life10, but she was mercilessly rejected by Xiao Lou, who even moved next to Boss Huo to distance herself from her. At this time of day, people would usually be nestled in their quilts, playing on their phones while worrying about ghosts. But now there was no electricity, and the phone’s battery wouldn’t last long, so no one took it out to fiddle with.
Everyone chatted idly. The leaping flames reflected on their different side profiles. The warm yellow light softened Xiao Lou’s brows and eyes, making Ren Yue gaze at her, infatuated.
She always felt that Xiao Lou wasn’t as cold as she appeared.
With such pink hair, how could she possibly be cold and aloof?!
She loves pink the most!!
Thinking of this, Ren Yue was momentarily confused again.
She’s so cool, why would she like a girly color like pink?
“Why do you keep staring at me?”
While she was confused, she suddenly heard Xiao Lou’s question. She was instantly jolted awake. Just as she was about to explain that she was just staring blankly at her, and not staring at her in a daze like a pervert, she heard Shang Zhou, who was beside them, speak, “I think you look very familiar.”
Xiao Lou raised her eyes, “What a coincidence, I feel the same way.”
Ren Yue: “?!!”
What’s going on?! I was clearly here first!
Her eyes were wide open, her head shaking left and right, looking at Shang Zhou for a moment, then at Xiao Lou for a moment. She completely didn’t want to be under the car, she only wanted to be in the car.
Shang Zhou said in a low voice, “Actually, I’ve always had a sense of unreality, feeling that all of this is like a dream.”
Xiao Lou stared at the brazier, the firelight reflected in her eyes, making them seem exceptionally bright. “What a coincidence, I do too.”
Ren Yue was so sour her tears were about to fall. She spoke with fortitude, “Actually, I have the same feeling too…”
Xiao Lou raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. Although she didn’t say anything, she seemed to have seen through all her fortitude and pretense.
Ren Yue’s engine stalled11. She aggrievedly burrowed into her sleeping bag, her ears pricked up to listen to the two’s conversation.
However, the two of them had no intention of speaking further. Shang Zhou was also equipped with a sleeping bag and tent. The group of people lay around the brazier in disorder12.
Ren Yue cried enough in her heart, then said from within her sleeping bag, “Let’s arrange the time slots for the night watch, shall we? To prevent everyone from being killed by ghosts, only to die from carbon monoxide poisoning first.”
Boss Huo was desultorily patting his already asleep son. Hearing this, he said in a small voice, “You arrange it, I’m fine with anything.”
Although he said that, Ren Yue had no intention of arranging a shift for him—after all, she had never heard of making the boss keep watch.
She glanced at the time on her phone and said, “It’s six-fifty now. We’ll keep watch until six in the morning, about eleven hours. Xiao Lou will be on watch from seven to eleven, Pengfei will be on watch from eleven at night to two, and I’ll be on watch from two to six. Is that okay?”
Footnotes
- 我应该在车里，不应该在车底 | wǒ yīnggāi zài chē lǐ, bù yīnggāi zài chē dǐ | A famous lyric from the 2002 song “He Must Really Love You” (他一定很爱你) by Singaporean singer A-Do (阿杜). It has become a popular internet meme in China to describe feeling like a third wheel or being left out of a romantic situation.
- 鱼贯而入 | yú guàn ér rù | A chengyu (four-character idiom). Literally “to enter in a line like threaded fish.” It describes people entering a place one after another in an orderly line.
- 郎才女貌 | láng cái nǚ mào | A chengyu (four-character idiom). Literally “talented man, beautiful woman.” It describes a couple that is a perfect match in terms of talent and appearance.
- 恰柠檬 | qià níngméng | Literally “to eat a lemon.” A popular internet slang term in China for feeling jealous or envious. The sourness of a lemon is used as a metaphor for the feeling of jealousy.
- 眉目传情 | méimù chuánqíng | A chengyu (four-character idiom). Literally “eyebrows and eyes transmit feelings.” It describes conveying affection or romantic interest through glances.
- 翻箱倒柜 | fān xiāng dǎo guì | A chengyy (four-character idiom). Literally “to turn over boxes and tip over cupboards.” It means to search a place thoroughly by rummaging through everything, often in a messy way.
- 斤 | jīn | A traditional Chinese unit of mass. In modern China, it is standardized at 500 grams (approximately 1.1 lbs).
- 打了鸡血 | dǎ le jīxuè | Literally “injected with chicken blood.” A popular slang term from the 1950s-60s Cultural Revolution era in China, referring to a dubious health practice. It is now used metaphorically to describe someone who is suddenly full of energy, extremely excited, or hyperactive.
- 大老粗 | dàlǎocū | A colloquial term for an uneducated, unrefined, or coarse man; a boor or a bumpkin.
- 从诗词歌赋谈到人生哲学 | cóng shīcí gēfù tán dào rénshēng zhéxué | A common phrase meaning to have a deep and wide-ranging conversation covering everything from literature and art (“poetry, lyrics, songs, and odes”) to the profound questions of life (“philosophy of life”).
- 熄火了 | xīhuǒ le | Literally “the fire went out” or “the engine stalled.” A slang term meaning to give up, lose motivation, or back down, especially after being discouraged.
- 横七竖八 | héng qī shù bā | A chengyu (four-character idiom). Literally “horizontal seven, vertical eight.” It describes things lying about in a disorderly, haphazard manner.
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