The Hand of Confession – Chapter 118

Volume 4: Days of Making Mischief at School

Nancheng

Living together with Lou Jingmo

Shen Maomao nodded frantically: “Yes!! She’s just a f*cking idiot!!”

Lou Jingmo reached out and patted her head.

The two reached a consensus, making Shen Maomao feel much better. She didn’t need to cry over that b*stard. Speaking narcissistically, Ren Yue should be the one crying for missing out on such a good friend like her!

Lou Jingmo: “Have you no shame?”

Shen Maomao glared at her again.

Lou Jingmo: “……” This Shen rabbit is getting bolder and bolder.

The two hailed a taxi at the school gate and took Shen Maomao’s luggage to the hotel where Lou Jingmo was currently staying.

To care for Shen Maomao’s unpleasant mood, Lou Jingmo treated her to a meal at Jiangcheng’s number one ranked restaurant. The restaurant was really expensive but also truly delicious – a place Shen Maomao had always craved but couldn’t afford to go to.

As the saying goes, there’s nothing that can’t be solved over a meal, and if there is, then make it two meals.

They had one meal in the evening, and another the next day at noon after they woke up. After two meals, Shen Maomao no longer felt like having a heart attack whenever she thought of Ren Yue.

After eating, Lou Jingmo asked about her plans for the future.

Shen Maomao looked completely confused: “Aren’t I already your person?!”

Lou Jingmo, who had originally wanted to consult Shen Maomao’s opinion: “……I advise you not to say such misleading things.”

Shen Maomao froze for a moment, only then remembering that the woman before her had said she liked the same sex……

She covered her mouth and corrected herself: “What I mean is, I’m already an employee of your company now, boss, wherever you arrange for me to go, I’ll go.”

Lou Jingmo immediately made a decision: “Then it’s settled——your current position is my personal secretary, mainly responsible for my daily life and accompanying me on business trips. As for where these business trips will be, I’m sure you understand without me explaining in detail……”

Shen Maomao nodded repeatedly like pounding garlic.

Lou Jingmo continued: “Before, to let you better adapt to the game, I didn’t take too many power-leveling tasks, but now everything will get on track, so I’ll be going on missions very frequently, prepare yourself mentally.”

Shen Maomao weakly raised her hand: “Um…… how frequent is very frequent……”

Lou Jingmo’s lips curled up: “You’ll know when the time comes.”

Shen Maomao: “……” Feels like she’s gotten onto a pirate ship.

Unfortunately, it’s too late to get off now.

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Golden Retriever went to investigate Chen Meihan’s matter and never returned. The day Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao left, he only said “have a safe journey” to them on the chat app, then threw himself back into the search for the person.

Shen Maomao had already sent her extra luggage home, and now she carried a suitcase following behind Lou Jingmo, climbing the train station steps one by one.

This city of Jiangcheng left her with many memories, both good and bad, happy and sad. Now that she’s really leaving, there isn’t even a bit of reluctance in her heart.

Perhaps it’s because there’s no one left here to make her worried sick, and no reason for her to stay anymore.

The warm wind brushed past her cheeks, people came and went in front of the train station. Summer had unknowingly already invaded among the crowd, bringing with it its unique restlessness and passion, leading her towards a brand new life……

“Shen Maomao? What are you spacing out about?”

“Ah…… coming!” Shen Maomao responded, refusing the young man who wanted to help carry her luggage, lifted her suitcase and went up the stairs in no time, very neat and swift.

The young man’s half-extended hand was left hanging, he could only show a shocked expression, staring at her dumbfounded.

Lou Jingmo stood at the higher level, taking everything in, so she felt like laughing, but she held it back. Shen Maomao, this cosmic straight girl, both straight and stupid, completely couldn’t tell that someone was trying to flirt with her, not giving even a bit of chance.

Shen Maomao followed Lou Jingmo through security check, then boarded the high-speed rail, heading towards a city completely foreign to her, thoroughly bidding farewell to her past.

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Nancheng [南城 | Nán Chéng | South City] was a typical Jiangnan [江南 | Jiāng Nán | region south of Yangtze River] city.

It was a peripheral city, carrying the unique gentleness of a water town, with a very slow pace of life, which made Shen Maomao, who came to the south for the first time, very curious.

This was where Lou Jingmo had always lived, she had a duplex apartment in the city center, completely enough for two girls to live in.

Shen Maomao moved her things into the bedroom Lou Jingmo assigned to her, then invited her to go together to buy some daily necessities.

Considering Shen Maomao was new and didn’t understand anything, plus feeling relaxed after coming home, Lou Jingmo agreed to her request in a good mood, and went downstairs with her.

The two pushed their shopping cart between the supermarket shelves, bought a lot of things and lined up waiting to check out.

They hadn’t been in line for long when someone called Lou Jingmo’s name from behind: “Lou Jingmo? You got a new girlfriend?”

Hm? Where?

Shen Maomao looked left and right, turned around and found Lou Jingmo looking at her with a gaze reserved for idiots.

She belatedly realized——could this so-called new girlfriend be herself?

“You’ve misunderstood!” Shen Maomao hurriedly proved her innocence, “I’m Lou-jie’s devoted fan, not her girlfriend.”

Lou Jingmo: “……” Better not to have explained at all.

The young woman who spoke to them gave Lou Jingmo a “you’ve changed, you’ve actually started leading people on” expression, uncomfortably flipped her long hair: “I was wondering how you suddenly changed your taste and started liking little brats…… though at your age you should indeed find a girlfriend, don’t tell me you couldn’t find anyone so you decided to just settle for anyone? Young ones don’t know how to care for people at all, right?” As she spoke, she subtly pushed out her chest, Shen Maomao completely lost.

Shen Maomao was so angry she wanted to dislocate her arm.

Just as she rolled up her sleeves ready to go at her, Lou Jingmo grabbed her hand, forcefully interlocking their fingers: “Maomao don’t listen to her, I’ve always liked younger ones, especially ones like you, both youthful and energetic.”

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo had been through three worlds together, their level of tacit understanding needed no explanation. One look at Lou Jingmo’s expression, she knew this woman came with ill intentions looking for trouble, immediately cooperating with Lou Jingmo to continue the act.

——Acting like a drama queen was what she did best.

Shen Maomao bit her lower lip, forcefully squeezed out two tears, making an extremely touched expression: “Uwu, Momo, are you saying…… you like me?” [LP: I choked]

Lou Jingmo’s mouth twitched, wanted to show disgust, but didn’t want to dismiss her good intentions, could only reluctantly nod: “Yes, let’s be together……”

The woman frowned, looking at Shen Maomao’s naive and innocent appearance, couldn’t help but start disparaging Lou Jingmo in front of her: “You think someone like Lou Jingmo would have true feelings? She just wants to play with you, you……”

Before she could finish, Shen Maomao placed Lou Jingmo’s hand on her chest with tears in her eyes, face reddening: “Momo…… please play with me as you wish……”

Lou Jingmo: “……” So disgusting…… how could she say such embarrassing words??

The woman got goosebumps from the cringe, making a disgusted “ugh” sound.

The people queuing around them pointed and whispered, Shen Maomao could faintly hear someone saying “Are young girls nowadays so shameless? How can they say anything without restraint?”, and others saying “These three must all be homosexuals, right? Homosexuals are so disgusting!”……

The woman couldn’t save face anymore, perfunctorily said “wish you happiness” then hurriedly walked away with her head down.

Shen Maomao looked around: “What are you looking at? Never seen beautiful women before? Get back to your queuing!”

Others immediately averted their gaze, afraid of getting into trouble.

After paying, the two carried their things out of the supermarket, Lou Jingmo finally let out a long sigh: “Thank you.” Although the process was somewhat bizarre, the result was what she wanted.

Shen Maomao curiously inquired: “Lou-jie, was she your ex-girlfriend?”

Lou Jingmo pursed her lips: “No.”

“Then why did she have to come pick a fight with you?”

Lou Jingmo: “Her girlfriend likes me.”

Shen Maomao: “??”

The matter traced back to when Lou Jingmo was in high school, which was already a very long time ago from now.

Lou Jingmo had been cool since she was little, rarely communicated with others at school, and plus she was beautiful, this kind of coolness became especially attractive, especially to those teenagers going through puberty…… both boys and girls.

Listening to her flat-toned narration, Shen Maomao’s gaze seemed to follow her voice across the river of time, seeing that exceptionally young and inexperienced Lou Jingmo whom she had never met.

Her grudge with that woman was formed back in high school. The woman’s crush had a crush on Lou Jingmo, so even though she’s now married to her lover, every time she sees Lou Jingmo she still has to sarcastically mock her a few times.

Shen Maomao put that nonsensical woman out of her mind, focused on wanting to probe into Lou Jingmo’s romantic gossip: “So did you date in high school? What about university?”

Lou Jingmo shook her head: “I was planning to date in university, but later I didn’t go to university.”

Shen Maomao froze, the smile on her lips disappeared: “Why didn’t you go?”

Lou Jingmo said lightly: “The day before the college entrance exam, I entered the game.”

Shen Maomao was thunderstruck.

How old was Lou Jingmo at that time? Probably the same age as Golden Retriever is now, right? A girl like her, struggling alone in the game, barely surviving, then having to face the enormous pressure of the college entrance exam, so she couldn’t get good results……

Lou Jingmo: “What’s with that expression?”

Shen Maomao forced a smile: “Hahaha nothing……” Someone as proud as Lou-jie definitely wouldn’t want to see sympathy in her eyes…… besides, Lou-jie now doesn’t need any sympathy at all!

Lou Jingmo: “I scored 659 on the college entrance exam.”

Shen Maomao immediately consoled her: “It’s okay, Lou-jie……”

“Wait!” Shen Maomao was dumbfounded, “How much?”

Lou Jingmo laughed: “659.”

Shen Maomao: “……” What the hell was she feeling sorry about, she should feel sorry for herself instead.

“At that time I had just learned about the game, wasn’t even sure if I could survive, plus I couldn’t afford the tuition, so I tore up the admission letter, didn’t register, and focused on studying the game.”

In that simple sentence, she brushed past her fear, helplessness, and struggles of that time, Lou Jingmo smiled indifferently and said: “I don’t regret my choice, because my current life is exactly what I want.” Except for this damn game.

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The author has something to say:

Regarding the timeline issue of stranded players, I’ve explained it several times in the group, let me repeat it here——

The future is predetermined, regardless of what decisions are made in between that might change things, they are all inevitable results leading to the conclusion. For example, if a player from ’15 is stranded in the dungeon, and a player from ’18 who knows them coincidentally enters the same game with them, so ’18 meets ’15 from three years ago. (This possibility almost never happens in the game.)

For ’18, whether ’15 lives or dies, they already know. If ’15 didn’t die, and was saved by ’18, they might possibly tell ’18, ultimately leading to ’18 successfully saving them: if ’15 died, then ’18 entering the game might tell ’15, thus leading to ’15’s death and so on.

Just like Oedipus Rex, who was prophesied to walk the path of killing his father and marrying his mother, to avoid fate, his parents abandoned him, which led to the outcome of him killing his father and marrying his mother, no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t escape fate.

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LP: Let me visualize what the author is saying:

Timeline Example:

2015          2018
[15]------------[18]---→ Normal Timeline
 │              │
 │              │ 18 knows 15's fate from 2018
 ↓              ↓
   [Game World]
    15 meets 18

Two Possible Scenarios:

1. If 15 Survives:

2015          2018
[15]------------[15 is alive]---→
 │              ↑
 │              │
[Game: 18 helps 15 survive]

2. If 15 Dies:

2015          2018
[15]------------[15 is dead]---→
 │              ↑
 │              │
[Game: 18's presence leads to 15's death]

Key Point:

• Whatever 18 knows about 15’s fate in 2018 will happen
• 18’s actions in the game don’t change the future
• Instead, 18’s actions become part of causing that already-known future
• Like a loop: Future knowledge → Actions → Creates that same future

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