The Hand of Confession – Chapter 419

Epilogue: The Final Instance

Obsession

Vessel

Shen Maomao understood the unspoken half of her sentence—You’re a good kid, but your fate is cruel.

            

Was her fate cruel?

No. Although her poor judgment of character had dragged her into this absurd game, it had also led her to Lou Jingmo, and she had found a love that would last until death.

Though Lou Jingmo had temporarily left her, they would be able to see each other again very soon.

            

She had only been unlucky for a short while; countless fortunate paths still lay ahead. This was the motivation that kept her going, the belief she had always held.

The look on Xiao Qi’s face suggested he wanted to tear her limb from limb. Shen Maomao quickly opened the car door and jumped out. With her schoolbag on her back, she turned and waved to Police Officer Bai. “Thank you, Police Officer Bai. I’m off to school.”

Police Officer Bai waved back. “If anything comes up, I’ll find you.”

            

Shen Maomao said her goodbyes and walked through the school gates without a backward glance.

It was still early, and there were few people at the entrance. She first went to Lou Jingmo’s classroom to check on the situation. After confirming Lou Jingmo hadn’t arrived, she returned to the school entrance, planning to wait for her.

Time ticked by, second by second. It was almost eight o’clock, and the number of people coming and going dwindled, but Lou Jingmo never appeared.

            

Shen Maomao’s mood shifted from anticipation to anxiety.

Where’s Lou Jingmo?

Where did she go?

            

Why isn’t she coming to school?

Her once lighthearted mood began to fray with agitation. She craned her neck and stood on her tiptoes, searching for a long time, but still couldn’t find Lou Jingmo.

A terrible premonition bloomed in her heart—if something had happened to Lou Jingmo because she had left, she would never be able to forgive herself.

            

Before long, the school bell rang. A head poked out from the guardhouse. “Which class are you in? Why aren’t you in class?!”

Afraid she’d be dragged back to class, Shen Maomao turned and ran.

The guard came out and chased her for a couple of steps, but he couldn’t leave his post. Seeing how far she had run, he gave up and went back to report the situation to the school’s leadership.

            

Shen Maomao ran quickly, a sense of urgency pushing her forward. She followed that impulse and ran toward Lou Jingmo’s house, planning to check things out first. If Lou Jingmo wasn’t there, she would figure out something else.

After running for who knows how long, she finally saw the gate to Lou Jingmo’s home.

The gate was wide open, as if welcoming her.

            

Shen Maomao walked inside, step by step, stopping at the front door to knock.

The door was opened by a man.

He was handsome, with a bit of a beard and downturned eyes that made him look like he was smiling when he spoke. He seemed very refined. He looked down at Shen Maomao and asked with a grin, “Child, who are you looking for?”

            

He was a far cry from the scumbag Shen Maomao had imagined, but perhaps this was what it meant to be a beast in human clothing​¹—wearing human skin on the surface while secretly doing things worse than a pig or a dog.​²

Shen Maomao controlled her expression, making sure not to show her disgust. “Excuse me, is Lou Jingmo home? I came to play with her.”

“Isn’t it a school day today?” the man said. “Lou Jingmo has already gone to class. Why aren’t you at school?”

            

“We don’t go to the same school,” Shen Maomao said. “My school is off today.”

The man stepped aside, clearing the doorway. “Would you like to come in and wait? Maybe she’ll be back for lunch.” He truly looked the part of a good parent.

In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through Shen Maomao’s mind.

            

She couldn’t kill people inside an instance, even if this man was a scumbag, a beast, a degenerate.

But maybe she could use other methods to prevent Lou Jingmo from suffering any more harm.

With that thought, she took a step forward.

            

“She’s not going!”

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind her. Shen Maomao turned to see Lou Jingmo striding toward them, her face set like stone.

Lou Jingmo rushed over expressionlessly, grabbed Shen Maomao’s arm, and repeated to the man, “She’s not going.”

            

The man smiled, looking perfectly good-natured. He simply asked, “Xiao Mo? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in class?”

Lou Jingmo didn’t answer him. Her face grim, she pulled Shen Maomao by the hand and quickly left the yard.

The man was still shouting behind them, his voice fading with distance. “Where are you going? Aren’t you going to class today?! I’m calling your teacher—!”

            

Lou Jingmo’s grip was tight, and her pace was fast.

Shen Maomao stumbled along as she was led away from the house and out onto the main street. Then, Lou Jingmo let go of her hand and asked coldly, “Who told you it was okay to follow just anyone who calls for you?”

Shen Maomao wanted to smile, because Lou Jingmo was worried about her, but her heart ached more. “I know what kind of person he is. I wanted to help you…”

            

“I have my own way,” Lou Jingmo said. “I don’t need your help.”

“What way do you have? You plan to drag this out until you get into university? And then leave this place for good?”

“What does it matter to you what I’m thinking? This is my own business. I don’t need you to do things for my own good!”

            

Tears suddenly streamed down Shen Maomao’s face. “I’m not doing it for your own good, I’m doing it because my heart aches for you!”

Lou Jingmo froze.

Ever since her mother left, it had been a long time since anyone had cared for her so directly…

            

Because she kept skipping grades, she was much younger than the other students in her class and was subtly excluded by them. When the teachers learned about her family situation, they would only look at her with pity. And when she went home, she had to face her strange mother and her stepfather with ill intentions…

She was so tired. Sometimes, she thought about giving up.

Maybe, she thought, what Shen Maomao said is true. Maybe she really did come back from the future to save me.

            

She raised her hand and wiped away Shen Maomao’s tears. “I’m not blaming you… I…”

Shen Maomao looked at her through blurry, tear-filled eyes.

“I… I was afraid something would happen to you,” Lou Jingmo said, her face flushing red.

            

Shen Maomao lunged forward and hugged her again. “Lou Jingmo, you have to be okay…”

Lou Jingmo stroked her hair. “I will. You… too.”

…

            

Shen Maomao decided to speed things up.

She was afraid that if she stayed too long, she wouldn’t be able to bear leaving.

Based on the information she had, she knew that something in this instance could manifest a person’s deceased relatives.

            

The resurrected relative would develop an extraordinary possessiveness toward the person who missed them—that was why Xiao Qi hated Shen Maomao for sharing his mother’s love; that was why the original owner’s grandmother had killed her parents.

Shen Maomao felt it was only a matter of time before Mother Lou finished off that scumbag.

None of this could have appeared from thin air. The supernatural events in the instances almost always had a vessel—like Chen Meihan’s black umbrella, the evil book that could grant any wish, or the mirror that held Wu Huiling and Zhan Xin.

            

So, as long as she destroyed the vessel, the problem would be readily solved.​³

As for what this vessel was, Shen Maomao guessed it might have something to do with a teddy bear.

The teddy bear in her refrigerator, the teddy bear in Xiao Qi’s arms—perhaps there was a teddy bear in Lou Jingmo’s house, too.

            

Tempered by many instances, Shen Maomao had long since developed the ability to trace the root of an instance from spider threads and horse tracks.​⁴

But she also had a sliver of doubt—could the so-called final instance really be this simple?

She first took Lou Jingmo to eat spicy hot pot, holding the now-sober Puck in her left hand and making him watch her eat.

            

The entire spicy hot pot restaurant echoed with Puck’s sobs and slurps, creating a surprisingly cheerful atmosphere.

While they were eating, Shen Maomao asked, “Lou Jingmo, do you have a teddy bear at your house?”

“I do,” Lou Jingmo said. “My mom bought it for me. I stuffed it at the bottom of a box.”

            

“I want to study it. Are you willing to part with it?”

“Do whatever you want.” The teddy bear had never been the important thing; the person who gave it was.

For her, the person was gone, so there was no point in keeping a bear.

            

But that scumbag was at home now, and neither of them wanted to go back. So they decided to go to Shen Maomao’s house first to get the bear from the refrigerator.

Considering Lou Jingmo’s young age, Shen Maomao was afraid she might suffer psychological trauma​⁵, so she had her wait downstairs while she went up alone.

She opened the door with her old method, entered the house, and stood in the entryway, surveying the living room.

            

Even though no one had cleaned, the room was still bright, tidy, and spotless, as if a snail girl​⁶ lived there. But she could faintly smell a foul odor coming from the kitchen; the cat’s body must have rotted.

Beyond that, the first thing she noticed was the black cat on the refrigerator. Puck had already retreated into the item bar.​⁷

The girl and the cat stared at each other from a distance. Shen Maomao took a tentative step forward. “Hello?”

            

The black cat tilted its head, looking at her shoulder.

Shen Maomao asked tentatively, “Why do you keep looking at my shoulder? Are you seeing my grandmother?”

Two of the three heads the police couldn’t find were in the refrigerator. She felt it was highly likely the last one was on her shoulder.

            

The head on her shoulder was the original owner’s grandmother.

The moment she finished speaking, the little black cat let out a sharp, piercing cry. It leaped down from the refrigerator, its eyes glowing red, and flew straight at her.

Shen Maomao’s first instinct was to retreat, but she realized the cat’s target wasn’t her, but her shoulder. She forced herself to stop and stood perfectly still.

            

The little black cat looked plump and healthy, but it weighed next to nothing. When it landed on her shoulder, she barely felt a thing, as if it were a weightless leaf.

A wave of chilling air spread from her shoulder, making Shen Maomao shiver violently.

The little black cat stood on her shoulder and bit down toward her head.

            

Shen Maomao reflexively tilted her head to the side.

The little black cat bit into the air, chewing heartily as if it were delicious, and wagged its tail happily.

She looked toward the kitchen door. Using the reflection on its surface, she saw the little black cat gnawing on a pitch-black head. The head was facing her ear, its mouth wide open, enclosing the better half of her own head as if it were about to swallow her whole.

            

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