The Hand of Confession – Chapter 415
by Little PandaEpilogue: The Final Instance
Black Cat
The Rotten Smell
Shen Maomao killed in all directions1, and in no time, she had cut down all the big-eyed cuties2 that had surrounded her. After all that, she couldn’t help but feel drained, collapsing to her knees, unable to support herself.
The weakness from using the item washed over her. She simply lay down on the ground and quietly watched the dawn break in the distant sky.
Lou Jingmo ran over from the park entrance, carefully weaving around the things scattered all over the ground. She knelt beside her and asked softly, “Are you okay?”
Shen Maomao blinked, struggled to her feet, and said weakly, “I’m fine. Don’t be scared, I’ll protect you.”
Lou Jingmo helped her up and supported her as they walked back to the park entrance to sit down. “You’re so amazing,” she said along the way. “Why can you run so fast? How did you do that?”
Shen Maomao said, “It’s simple, you’ll be able to learn it in the future too. But you can’t tell anyone, so can you help me keep this a secret?”
Lou Jingmo’s eyes lit up. “Then… can we pinky swear?”
The childish Lou-jie is still so cute!!
Shen Maomao hooked her little finger with hers, then took her hand and refused to let go.
The two of them waited at the park entrance until daybreak.
After the sun came up, the fog dispersed, and their surroundings became clear.
Shen Maomao rested for a while. Feeling she had recovered enough, she stood up from the corner of the wall and looked around.
They were still in front of the park, but the environment had completely changed.
When they arrived, they had walked on a wide asphalt road, but now, the path before them was a sidewalk paved with red and yellow tiles, with seven or eight steps leading down behind it.
The park gate was shut tight, with a large lock hanging on it.
She took two steps forward, her view widening, and only then did she realize that last night’s big-eyed cuties were still there!
They remained in the state Shen Maomao had knocked them into, lying scattered on the ground. A bad feeling rose in her heart. Quick as a flash3, she leaped down the stairs and flipped one of them over for a look.
It was a man. His eyes were closed, and he looked quite normal, making it impossible for Shen Maomao to tell if he was a person or a ghost.
She tried to pry the man’s eyes open with her hand, but just as she reached out, his eyelashes fluttered twice, and he opened his eyes right in front of her.
Shen Maomao’s heart skipped a beat, but she quickly relaxed.
Because his eyes were normal.
The man sat up with a confused look, rubbing his sore neck. He couldn’t help but sneeze. “A-choo! What’s going on? How did I get here?”
After muttering to himself, he looked at Shen Maomao. “Who are you?”
Shen Maomao stood up and said, “Uncle, why are you all sleeping here? Isn’t the ground cold?”
The man looked around in confusion. Seeing a pile of people lying on the ground just like him, he grew even more bewildered. “What the hell?”
Nearby, two more people sat up, looking utterly dumbfounded as they stared at each other.
Seeing that things were getting complicated, Shen Maomao seized the opportunity to slip away, pulling Lou Jingmo along as she grabbed their school uniforms and ran off in the other direction.
More and more people were waking up in front of the park. Amidst all the noisy chatter, no one paid any attention to the two children sneaking away.
As she pulled Lou Jingmo away, Shen Maomao was actually feeling a little scared in hindsight.
She was glad that she’d chosen to knock them all out instead of killing them just to avoid trouble. Otherwise, what she’d be facing now would probably be a ground full of corpses and her own hands covered in blood.
I think I know what the game is trying to do now…
…
In the end, the spicy hot pot she had promised Puck was gone.
Shen Maomao used those ten kuai to take Lou Jingmo out for breakfast. At the table, she asked about Lou Jingmo’s plans.
Lou Jingmo had many plans, but none of them could be told to Shen Maomao. So, she silently finished a bowl of porridge, pretending she hadn’t heard anything.
Shen Maomao didn’t mind whether she answered or not.
It had been too long since she’d spoken with Lou Jingmo, so even with no response, it didn’t matter. Just being able to see Lou Jingmo made her happy enough that she could just babababa4 by herself for ages without her mouth getting dry.
By the end, Lou Jingmo was clearly getting impatient. Shen Maomao finally let out a long sigh and said, “It’s so good to see you again.”
Lou Jingmo looked at her.
Shen Maomao’s gaze seemed to rest on her, yet it also seemed to be looking through her at someone else. A visible tenderness filled her eyes as she spoke.
Is the person she’s thinking of right now me? Or is it that so-called “future me”?
Lou Jingmo averted her gaze, took a bite of her bun, and then stood up, grabbing her school bag.
Shen Maomao snapped back to reality and quickly stood up as well. She paid with the last ten kuai she had on her, and then followed Lou Jingmo out of the breakfast shop, one after the other.
Puck was still on her head, groaning half-dead as he mourned his lost spicy hot pot.
Shen Maomao carried her dirty school uniform and trailed after Lou Jingmo like a little tag-along5. “Where are you going? Let me go with you.”
Lou Jingmo stared straight ahead. “To school.”
Only studying could change her destiny, and only by getting into university could she completely escape everything. That’s why Lou Jingmo studied desperately, enough to neglect sleep and forget to eat, continuously skipping grades as she longed for that day to arrive.
Shen Maomao thought about it. The school wasn’t dangerous during the day, and she needed to go out and investigate the situation. There was no need to have Lou Jingmo run around with her, so she didn’t object.
She walked Lou Jingmo back to school, reluctantly watching her enter the campus before turning to leave through the main gate.
After leaving Lou Jingmo, Shen Maomao’s feverish brain gradually cooled down, and she began to think about everything related to this instance.
First, she never expected to see Lou Jingmo in this instance. A living, breathing, adorable Lou Jingmo who hadn’t yet been driven to a dead end.
How could Shen Maomao possibly remain indifferent? How could she bear to let her get hurt a second time?
She wasn’t a perfect vessel; she was just an ordinary person. And as long as you’re human, it’s impossible not to have weaknesses.
Shen Maomao had weaknesses too, but among them, the most obvious—and the one that could deal her the most fatal blow—was clearly Lou Jingmo herself.
The game had seized upon this very point, because regardless of whether this Lou Jingmo was real or fake, Shen Maomao couldn’t bring herself to just leave her alone.
The instance’s main storyline wasn’t clear yet. From her past two days at school, she had gotten a general understanding of the situation and could basically confirm that the school wasn’t the main battleground for this instance.
Aside from the supernatural events that were guaranteed to occur every night, she felt there were a few other places that might hold clues. First, her home in this world. Although she didn’t have a key, she had now skillfully mastered Lou Jingmo’s little lock-picking6 trick, so getting the door open to take a look was doable. Second, Lou Jingmo’s house. Besides searching for clues, she had to find a way to kill that beast7. If that didn’t work, she’d send him to prison and make sure he never got out. Third, there was that kind Police Officer Bai.
In the plot constructed by this entire instance, what kind of role will Police Officer Bai play?
But there was no need to think that far ahead for now.
Shen Maomao followed the path from memory toward her in-game home. Before long, she saw the familiar little family apartment building8.
The voice-activated light in the hallway was broken. The windows were set high and small, letting in very little sunlight, but it was enough for her to see the path at her feet.
She took out a hairpin she had specifically bought from a small store and studied the old-fashioned lock for a long time. Then, with a soft click, the door opened.
A pure black cat, without a single speck of another color on its body, was sitting on a partition shelf behind the door. Its two emerald-like eyes were staring intently at her—or rather, at Puck on her shoulder.
Shen Maomao closed the door and stood in the entrance hall, surveying the room.
Puck locked eyes with the cat and was so scared his soul nearly flew out of his body. “Fuck! There’s a cat! A cat! A cat!!!”
Ever since a cat had pounced on him as if he were a butterfly, Puck had developed a psychological trauma toward the fluffy creatures. It manifested as him screaming at the sight of a cat, unable to flap his wings, and desperately grabbing onto Shen Maomao’s head as if it were his last lifesaving straw9.
The noise made Shen Maomao’s ears hurt. She snapped, “I heard you! Stop pulling my hair!”
Puck let go of her hair and switched to a chokehold.
Annoyed, Shen Maomao snatched him up and tossed him toward the little black cat.
But the little black cat didn’t move. It was still staring at her shoulder.
Puck didn’t realize he had completely failed to attract the cat’s attention and was still flying around screaming.
A possibility occurred to her. She tried shifting to the left—the little cat’s gaze followed her. She moved to the right—now she could finally confirm it. The little black cat was looking at her shoulder.
Perhaps because there was something on her shoulder.
She raised her hand, grabbed Puck without even looking, and placed him on her right shoulder, giving a concise command: “Sniff.”
“I don’t think I’m a spirit at all! I’m just a dog you keep!”
Shen Maomao stroked his dog-like face with her index finger. “Good boy.”
Puck: “…” Shit, now it’s even more true.
He landed on Shen Maomao’s shoulder, trembling as he looked at the cat that was several times his size. The memory of being toyed with by pets that could see him surfaced in his mind, and he began to shake even more violently. “C-can you hold the cat…? I’m scared…”
“Fine.” Shen Maomao took a step forward and tentatively reached her hand out to the little black cat.
Puck wished he could bury his head in Shen Maomao’s hair, repeatedly urging, “Are you done yet? Did you get it?”
The little black cat took an elegant step forward and lowered its head to sniff her outstretched fingertips.
Shen Maomao felt she had a chance.
She carefully turned her wrist, but just as she was about to pet it with the back of her hand, it leaped away again. Then, under the watchful eyes of the human and the spirit, it nimbly climbed onto the refrigerator and sat primly on top, its eyes still fixed on Shen Maomao’s right shoulder.
Shen Maomao plucked Puck off her shoulder. “It definitely won’t come over now. Sniff.”
Puck clung to her hand, brought his nose close to sniff, and said, “It’s a rotten smell. Like the smell of wood that’s been soaked in rain and is slowly decaying.”
Footnotes
- Hanzi: 大杀四方 | Pinyin: dà shā sìfāng | Context / Meaning: An idiom for completely dominating a battle and defeating enemies all around.
- Hanzi: 大眼萌 | Pinyin: dà yǎn méng | Context / Meaning: Internet slang for something with big, cute eyes. Often used sarcastically.
- Hanzi: 三下五除二 | Pinyin: sān xià wǔ chú èr | Context / Meaning: An idiom from abacus calculation meaning to act quickly and efficiently.
- Hanzi: 叭叭叭叭 | Pinyin: bābābābā | Context / Meaning: Onomatopoeia for incessant talking or chattering.
- Hanzi: 小跟屁虫 | Pinyin: xiǎo gēnpìchóng | Context / Meaning: A descriptive term for someone who follows another person around closely.
- Hanzi: 开锁 | Pinyin: kāisuǒ | Context / Meaning: The skill of opening a lock without a key.
- Hanzi: 畜生 | Pinyin: chùshēng | Context / Meaning: A harsh insult, literally “animal” or “livestock,” used to dehumanize someone.
- Hanzi: 家属楼 | Pinyin: jiāshǔlóu | Context / Meaning: A type of residential building, often provided by a state-owned enterprise or institution for its employees and their families.
- Hanzi: 救命稻草 | Pinyin: jiùmìng dàocǎo | Context / Meaning: A metaphor for a last hope in a desperate situation.
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