The Hand of Confession – Chapter 358
by Little PandaVolume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror
Forum
Where did the twelfth person come from?
“According to what you’re saying… this place was already haunted before we came, right?” Shen Maomao said.
Bai Lu nodded. “Yes. But asthma isn’t a strange cause of death, so it’s not enough to determine whether it’s haunted or not. And Zhang Xiao didn’t say which of these two dorm rooms was the one someone jumped from, and which was the one with the asthma death. When we tried to ask her again, she just slumped over on the desk and wouldn’t move.”
Peng Xiaorui also said, “Xuejie1 and I took her back to her dorm. Building 16 next door isn’t cold at all, and there are no mirrors. It feels much better than Building 18.”
“They started with 12 people, and now there are 10 left. We have 11. It’s very likely there will be a reduction in personnel tonight.” At this point, Shen Maomao reminded them, “There’s something under the beds and under the desks. You all be careful.”
Hearing this, Bai Lu directly grabbed a nearby broom, bent over and pulled out her own suitcase, and shoved the broom in for a frantic sweep.
Immediately, a large cloud of dust billowed out. Shen Maomao covered her mouth and yelled for her to stop, “Don’t! Stop sweeping! Dage2, stop! It’s all dust!”
Hai Dongqing quickly opened the window, letting fresh air pour in.
Only then did Bai Lu realize the impact of her actions and said embarrassedly, “Sorry… I was just thinking of finding that thing quickly.”
Shen Maomao said, “It’s useless. That thing usually only comes out when there’s only one person in the dorm. I bent down to check just now. It’s very fast; you can’t even see its tail.”
Only then did Bai Lu put the broom back where it belonged. She pulled Peng Xiaorui to sit on her bed and actually started a round of a game with her.
Shen Maomao had finally found people whose hearts were bigger than hers3. She couldn’t help but get a little worked up. “At a time like this, you two still have the heart to play games?”
Hai Dongqing shot her a sidelong glance, the general meaning of which was: How do you have the face to say others have big hearts?
Shen Maomao pretended not to see and continued to watch the two with a fervent gaze, making the person next to her inevitably eat vinegar4.
“Xiaorui said it, playing games to relax. It’s actually pretty fun, and pretty relaxing too.”
Bai Lu and Peng Xiaorui’s eyes were glued to the screen. Peng Xiaorui was also chewing a piece of bubblegum, blowing a big bubble from time to time, which would then “POP——” and explode, sticking all over her lips before she licked it off nonchalantly.
Hearing her name, Peng Xiaorui looked up and smiled at them, then went back to her game, saying, “I’m a hedonist. As long as the conditions allow, I’ll do whatever makes me happy. This game is really fun, you guys want to try? Eh! Xuejie! Don’t go there! Crap! I’m coming to save you!”
“Huh? Ah, ah! I’m dead.”
The two were so addicted to the game they couldn’t pull themselves away, and had no time to pay attention to the others at all.
Hai Dongqing went back to her own bed. With the window open for a long time, the dorm had gotten a bit cold, so Shen Maomao simply closed it and flopped onto her bed to browse her phone as well.
Of course, she wasn’t doing this for fun, but to make her own contribution to advancing the plot!
For most university students, cell phones have become an inseparable part of their lives. Everyone’s clothing, food, housing, and transportation5 rely on the help of their phones, and they’ve practically developed a habit of pulling out their phones whenever something happens. And with something as major as two consecutive deaths, it was impossible for the school’s Tieba6 and forums to have no news at all.
Yesterday, Shen Maomao had been looking for the Tieba, but after searching all night, she only found a small “ba” with fewer than two thousand followers and a total of less than one hundred posts. It was clearly not the main battlefield where students blow water7.
Today, she refused to give up and continued to fish for a needle in the vast sea8. Finally, from an old, yellowed post, she found a link. After clicking it, her phone stuttered for a moment, and then the page jumped rapidly, revealing a webpage that looked very similar to the Confession Game forum.
Found it!
Shen Maomao started scrolling down. Without even needing to look carefully, she discovered a hot post pinned in red at the very top——How long do you guys guess those exchange students will live?
She furrowed her brows and clicked into the post.
1st Floor 【OP】
As the title says, 3056 and 3058 are occupied again. How long do you think they’ll last?
2nd Floor 【Anonymous】
Wow, the school already ordered a ban on discussing this matter, and you guys still dare to talk about it. Your guts are fat enough9, I like it～
3rd Floor 【Anonymous】
If one dies a day, I guess twelve days!
4th Floor 【Anonymous】
This time, for some reason, only eleven came. It should be eleven days.
5th Floor 【Anonymous】
How do you all know so much? Are you from their class? You guys are so bad bad.
She kept scrolling down. Most of the floors inside were betting on how long they could last, the words filled with malice, as if they were enjoying an absurd comedy.
Later, she sped up her scrolling and finally reached the bottom of the post. There were over three thousand floors of replies in total, every single one anonymous, all with a tone of watching a good show10, which made one feel extremely uncomfortable.
It seemed that the fact that 3056 and 3058 had problems was already something most students at this school knew without speaking, and that others had likely lived here before them, though they probably didn’t have a good ending.
Just as she was about to exit, a small spinning circle suddenly appeared below the last floor. Her phone automatically refreshed without her touching it, loading three floors that were sent in almost the same second——
3056th Floor 【Wu Huiling11】
Stop watering12 the thread. It’s not like this is something fun. Watching you guys water this every day, even if you’re not sick of it, I am.
3057th Floor 【Anonymous】
It’s like this every time. Is it interesting? Some people are really just idle. Does seeing others suffer make you feel better?
3058th Floor 【Zhan Xin13】
First time seeing people like you. You’re simply toxic. Do you dare to strip off your anonymous skin? And express your opinion openly and honorabl like me?
Among the many anonymous posters, these two names were particularly conspicuous. Moreover, their three views14 were clearly much more proper than the people in the preceding floors.
She sat up abruptly and asked the two who were playing the game, “Did Zhang Xiao say what the two dead girls were called?”
Peng Xiaorui didn’t even raise her head. “She didn’t.”
Bai Lu followed up, “What? Did you find something?”
Shen Maomao answered truthfully, “I found a forum. The most popular post in it is discussing when we’re going to die.”
Bai Lu put down the game. “Got a link? Send it to me.”
Peng Xiaorui also said, “Just send it to our little group of 11, right? So everyone can look for clues together?”
Shen Maomao was a bit hesitant. “What if the forum is a death trigger?”
The two of them fell silent for a moment.
Hai Dongqing poked her head down from the top bunk. “Send it to me.”
Shen Maomao said, “I’ll send the link to the group and give them a heads-up. Whoever wants to look can click it themselves.” As she spoke, she found the Penguin group15. The moment she opened it, she noticed the number in the parentheses to the right of the group name wasn’t right.
The Penguin group has a function where the number of members is displayed to the right of the group name. That big (12) practically stung her eyes.
Where did the twelfth person come from?
She clicked open the member list and discovered that under the newbie’s name, there was an extra gray female avatar with no alias, and its screen name was completely blank.
She first sent the link into the group, saying: 【This is the Jiang Da16 forum. There might be some clues inside. There are a lot of posts, I can’t get through them all myself, so I need your help. However, I can’t guarantee the forum is safe, so look at your own discretion.】
There was no activity in the group.
She added another sentence: 【By the way, we have an extra person in our group】
【Peng Xiaorui: ！！！！！】
【Peng Xiaorui: Who is this!!!】
The group was still very quiet. No one spoke except for the two of them.
Peng Xiaorui said, “Where are the people from the dorm next door? Why isn’t anyone talking?”
“Maybe they’re busy.” Shen Maomao didn’t pay it any more mind, exiting Penguin to continue browsing the forum.
She was more focused on those two names, Wu Huiling and Zhan Xin. The floor numbers before their names happened to be the two dorm room numbers, which might have something to do with the main storyline.
She searched for Wu Huiling in the forum, and a large number of posts immediately popped up.
【The bitch Wu Huiling from Class 1701 of Chinese Language Education, School of Humanities, Room 616】
【Why hasn’t Wu Huiling dropped out of school yet? How does she have the face to stay?】
【Girls, learn from this. As long as you can be as shameless as Wu Huiling, you too can enjoy a life of making money while lying down.】
【Who has the contact info for Wu Huiling from Chinese Language Ed? No other reason, just want to drive the public bus17.】
Even more unbearable filth and foul language assaulted her eyes, making one’s heart grow cold. It was hard to imagine how Wu Huiling lived under a situation where a thousand fingers are pointing18.
She then tried searching for Zhan Xin, and just like with Wu Huiling, there were countless posts.
【Zhan Xin in Dorm 3058, Building 18, is addicted to stealing. Everyone, be careful to hide your money and valuables.】
【Why do people like Zhan Xin exist? I came back to the dorm the other day and found her sneakily using my makeup. So shameless.】
【I lost a necklace and suspect Zhan Xin stole it. Should I search her cabinet? Would that be inappropriate?】
Two dorm rooms right next to each other, two girls who were similarly ostracized.
She just didn’t know if the things said on the forum were true or false.
Shen Maomao turned off her phone screen. Those posts had too much hostile energy19. Reading them for too long made her feel a bit uncomfortable.
The sounds from Bai Lu and Peng Xiaorui’s game had stopped a long time ago. They were probably also browsing the posts.
After a while, Gan Ze also returned. After classes let out at noon, she had said she wanted to go buy medicine by herself and didn’t let Shen Maomao and Hai Dongqing accompany her. When she came back, her face was very pale, and she was covered in dust and grime20, as if she had rolled around in the dirt.
Peng Xiaorui asked, “What happened to you? What’s wrong?”
Gan Ze put down the plastic pharmacy bag in her hand, twisted open a bottle of mineral water and took a big gulp, and only then did she say, “On the way back, I was almost smashed to death.”
Shen Maomao shot up with a start. “Was it the statue?!”
Gan Ze glanced at her. “You experienced it too? I was walking under the statue when that thing’s head suddenly fell off. If I hadn’t reacted quickly, I’d probably be a pile of meat paste right now.”
Shen Maomao nodded. “Us too. The statue’s shadow predicts its movements. Everyone, pay more attention and try to stay away from the statue.”
Footnotes
- Hanzi: 学姐 | Pinyin: xuéjiě | Explanation: Older female schoolmate/senior. A respectful and familiar term of address.
- Hanzi: 大哥 | Pinyin: dàgē | Explanation: Literally “big brother”. Used here as a colloquial, gender-neutral term of address for someone acting forcefully or taking the lead, similar to “dude” or “bro” in English.
- Hanzi: 心大 | Pinyin: xīn dà | Explanation: Literally “heart big”. A slang term describing someone who is carefree, laid-back, optimistic, or unconcerned, sometimes to the point of being careless or oblivious to serious situations.
- Hanzi: 吃味 | Pinyin: chīwèi | Explanation: A colloquial expression meaning to feel jealous, envious, or sour, often in the context of romance or rivalry.
- Hanzi: 衣食住行 | Pinyin: yī shí zhù xíng | Explanation: A Chinese idiom that literally means “clothing, food, housing, and transportation”. It’s a set phrase used to refer to the basic necessities of life.
- Hanzi: 贴吧 | Pinyin: tiēbā | Explanation: A massive Chinese online community platform owned by Baidu, where users can create and follow interest-based forums called “ba” (bars).
- Hanzi: 吹水 | Pinyin: chuī shuǐ | Explanation: Literally “blow water”. A Cantonese slang term that has become widespread, meaning to chat idly, shoot the breeze, or engage in casual and often boastful conversation.
- Hanzi: 大海捞针 | Pinyin: dàhǎilāozhēn | Explanation: It describes doing something that is extremely difficult and has a very low chance of success.
- Hanzi: 胆子够肥 | Pinyin: dǎnzi gòu féi | Explanation: Literally “guts are fat enough”. A slang expression meaning someone is very bold, audacious, or has a lot of nerve.
- Hanzi: 看好戏 | Pinyin: kàn hǎoxì | Explanation: Literally “watch a good show”. An expression meaning to watch a situation unfold from the sidelines, often with a sense of schadenfreude or detached amusement, especially when it involves conflict or misfortune for others.
- Hanzi: 吴慧玲 | Pinyin: Wú Huìlíng
- Hanzi: 水 | Pinyin: shuǐ | Explanation: Literally “water”. In Chinese internet slang, this verb means to post meaningless, off-topic, or repetitive content to increase post count or bump a thread. It’s equivalent to spamming or shitposting.
- Hanzi: 展鑫 | Pinyin: Zhǎn Xīn
- Hanzi: 三观 | Pinyin: sānguān | Explanation: A term referring to a person’s worldview (世界观, shìjièguān), values (价值观, jiàzhíguān), and outlook on life (人生观, rénshēngguān). It collectively represents a person’s core beliefs and moral compass. “Three views are proper” (三观正, sānguān zhèng) means someone is morally upright and has a good character.
- Hanzi: 企鹅群 | Pinyin: Qì’é qún | Explanation: “Penguin group” refers to a group chat on the instant messaging app Tencent QQ, which is immensely popular in China. The company’s mascot is a penguin.
- Hanzi: 江大 | Pinyin: Jiāng Dà | Explanation: A common abbreviation for a university name, likely “Jiang University” (江州大学).
- Hanzi: 开公交车 | Pinyin: kāi gōngjiāochē | Explanation: Literally “drive a public bus”. This is vulgar internet slang. A “public bus” (公交车) is a derogatory term for a woman who is perceived as promiscuous and sleeps with many men, implying she is “available for anyone to ride”. “Driving the public bus” means to have sex with such a woman.
- Hanzi: 千夫所指 | Pinyin: qiānfūsuǒzhǐ | Explanation: A Chinese idiom (Chengyu) that literally means “to be pointed at by a thousand men”. It describes a situation where someone is universally condemned and accused by the public.
- Hanzi: 戾气 | Pinyin: lìqì | Explanation: A term describing a pervasive atmosphere of hostility, animosity, and malevolence. It suggests a kind of negative, aggressive energy that can be felt in a place or emanate from a person or group.
- Hanzi: 灰头土脸 | Pinyin: huītóutǔliǎn | Explanation: A Chinese idiom (Chengyu) that literally means “gray head, earthy face”. It describes someone who is covered in dust and dirt, looking disheveled and dejected, often after a setback or difficult experience.
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