The Hand of Confession – Chapter 119

Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses

Guan Qiwen

Starting a New Journey

Lou Jingmo was a homebody.

This was the conclusion Shen Maomao drew after spending a week with her.

During this week, except for meals, she stayed in her room writing a new book, and refused to let Shen Maomao preview the manuscript, making Shen Maomao feel anxious.

Shen Maomao was very bored, fortunately Lou Jingmo sent her the address of the gamers’ forum, allowing her to browse the forum to pass time.

That forum was like a madhouse, with all kinds of posts—people paying for power leveling, searching for reliable teammates, selling game props, criticizing game plots, guilds recruiting members……

Shen Maomao also discovered a post from a nouveau riche who was constantly collecting various props, and from the way this nouveau riche talked, she realized this ID named “Liao Fugui” was likely Golden Retriever.

The game forum wasn’t established by players, but was an official forum created by the game developers. Props could be traded directly on this forum, and the props obtained through trading would appear directly in the buyer’s inventory after entering the game.

Speaking of the official forum… did it mean all topics in the forum were under the game developers’ supervision? Would the developers know everything players said?

Shen Maomao felt something was amiss and specifically asked Lou Jingmo about this matter.

Lou Jingmo’s response was: “He claims to be the embodiment of justice, if he were to do something like monitoring others’ privacy, wouldn’t that be slapping his own face?”

Indeed, that made sense.

The two of them spent seven days peacefully like this. On the morning of the eighth day, when Shen Maomao finished washing up and was about to go downstairs for breakfast, Lou Jingmo suddenly said to her: “Pack up, we’re entering the game tonight.”

Shen Maomao: “So sudden?!”

Lou Jingmo said: “I accepted a mission on the forum. We’ll fly directly to Xi City, someone will pick us up there.”

Shen Maomao was a bit excited: “Are we going to meet the boss?!”

Lou Jingmo nodded: “Pack up, we’re leaving soon. Don’t bring too many things, if nothing goes wrong, we can return tomorrow.”

If something goes wrong… then we won’t be coming back.

“Aren’t we waiting for Golden Retriever?!”

Lou Jingmo: “It’ll be a while before his next game, no need to worry about him for now.”

There wasn’t much to pack anyway. Shen Maomao only brought her phone, wallet, and charger, then boarded the flight to Xi City with Lou Jingmo.

The temperature in Nan City was rather high, warm enough for short sleeves. When coming, Shen Maomao had checked Xi City’s temperature, seeing it was in the twenties, she thought it wouldn’t be too cold, so she didn’t bring thick clothes.

After getting off the plane, she regretted it as soon as Xi City’s strong wind hit her.

The difference between temperatures in the twenties could actually be quite significant. In Nan City, Shen Maomao felt hot in short sleeves, but after arriving in Xi City, she hugged her shoulders, feeling like she had aged—shivering like an old person.

In the game, Lou jie was a dominating boss, but in reality, she was just another poor soul freezing alongside Shen Maomao.

Fortunately, the new boss’s business car was waiting at the entrance. Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo climbed in, both letting out heartfelt sighs of relief.

The car moved smoothly forward. Inside, besides the driver, there was also the big boss’s assistant. The assistant’s surname was Li, and he sat across from them, introducing Xi City’s local customs and practices.

Shen Maomao listened drowsily, her head swaying back and forth before finally falling onto Lou Jingmo’s shoulder.

Lou Jingmo: “…How embarrassing.”

Assistant Li had been repeatedly instructed by his boss to respect the guests before departure, so how could he dare laugh at them? He quickly shook his head and said softly: “Not at all, you both must be tired from the journey.”

After saying this, he fell silent and remained quiet until they reached their destination.

Lou Jingmo woke Shen Maomao: “Get up, we’re here.”

Shen Maomao jolted awake, letting out a big yawn: “Did I fall asleep?”

Lou Jingmo: “Yes, you slept the whole way.”

Shen Maomao: “……”

“This way, please.” Assistant Li led the way, taking them to a private elevator to go upstairs.

Shen Maomao was in awe, secretly leaning close to Lou Jingmo’s ear and asking: “Lou jie, is your company as big as theirs?”

Lou Jingmo stepped on her foot with a blank expression, using full force, extremely vicious.

Shen Maomao’s face instantly became like a spilled palette, displaying various colors brilliantly, but at least mindful of her dignity, she didn’t cry out loud.

“The boss has been waiting for some time.” Assistant Li stopped in front of a room with a conference room sign, then helped them push open the door, “Please enter.”

Dazzling light streamed out from the room as the two walked in one after another, and Assistant Li closed the door behind them from outside.

A man sitting in the boss’s chair turned around, revealing an exceptionally handsome face. He wore a tailored suit, sat with his legs crossed, hands clasped on his knee, looking very elegant and graceful.

The man’s lips carried a gentle smile as he said with spring-like warmth: “Welcome to my empire, ladies.”

Shen Maomao: “……” What the hell, showing off like a peacock?

Lou Jingmo: “……”

The man was handsome, but unfortunately, one woman was straight as an arrow, and the other was curved like a mosquito coil, so his flirtatious glances were all wasted on blind eyes.

He also realized his opening hadn’t achieved the intended impact, so he cleared his throat, sat up properly, and looked at the two women: “Please sit down. Which one of you is Xiaolou?”

“That’s me.” Lou Jingmo sat down and got straight to the point, “How many games have you been through?”

Man: “Four.”

Lou Jingmo: “You still need a carry after four games?”

The man smiled bitterly: “I originally thought I could rely on myself, but in the last game, I almost died in the instance, and the instances are getting increasingly difficult, so…”

So he chickened out and decided to find himself a backup plan.

Lou Jingmo nodded: “How many props do you have?”

The man hesitated for a moment.

Shen Maomao added: “We won’t steal your props, don’t worry. Lou jie has plenty of props herself.”

“I didn’t mean to doubt you two.” Saying this, the man smiled, “The props I have might be a bit less than the last instance, some rich guy appeared on the forum and took half of the resources I could gather…” By the end, he was speaking through gritted teeth.

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo: “……”

Lou Jingmo said: “Then let’s follow the rules. I’ll do my best to get you out, but don’t rely on me too much.”

“The binding prop is ready.” The man looked at Shen Maomao beside them, “But this person…”

Lou Jingmo: “Don’t worry about her, we’re already bound together.”

“Miss Xiaolou…” the man said slowly, “This isn’t very proper of you…”

After all, carrying one person versus two people in the game isn’t simply twice the difficulty, having one carrier protect two clients could result in a situation where focusing on one means losing track of the other.

Lou Jingmo wasn’t bothered: “She’s useful to me.”

Shen Maomao nodded: “Don’t worry, in the previous worlds we were always a group of three, we’ll definitely get you out safely.”

The man hesitated for two seconds, then could only compromise, standing up to extend his right hand to Lou Jingmo: “Alright then, hope we can have a pleasant cooperation.”

Lou Jingmo grasped his hand: “Pleasant cooperation.”

The man’s surname was Guan, called Guan Qiwen, owner of this building and master of a vast business empire, thirty-two years old this year.

On Baidu Encyclopedia, one could find Mr. Guan’s profile, from his net worth to the Guan family behind him, and the Qiming Group he single-handedly established, all clear as day.

Lou Jingmo used the one-time binding prop with him right in front of his face. Guan Qiwen breathed a sigh of relief and sent his assistant to take them for meals and sightseeing, waiting until evening when they would enter the game together.

On their way downstairs, the company employees cast curious glances at the two, probably already spreading stories privately about how “President Guan spent a day with two girls in the conference room.”

Shen Maomao whispered to Lou Jingmo: “Lou jie, with such an important person, what if something goes wrong while carrying him?”

Lou Jingmo replied matter-of-factly: “Then we’ll all be finished together, why else do you think he made such a big show of calling me to his territory?” The implication being that if he couldn’t make it out, these two wouldn’t need to leave either.

Shen Maomao: “! Why didn’t you say this earlier?! If you had, I wouldn’t have come!”

Lou Jingmo patted her shoulder: “Since we’re here, we might as well accept it.”

Shen Maomao: “QAQ I feel even more unsettled…”

Assistant Li kept his eyes carefully averted, pretending he hadn’t heard anything.

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The afternoon passed quickly, and by eight o’clock in the evening, they sat with Guan Qiwen in the conference room, quietly waiting for the game to begin.

Guan Qiwen showed them a portrait of a handsome man: “I’ll use face customization in the game, roughly looking like this.”

Lou Jingmo pointed at Shen Maomao and said: “I’ll use face customization too, but I’ll appear with her, just look for her.”

So that’s how the big shots used face customization.

Shen Maomao wanted to shake her leg again, but restrained herself because of the outsider’s presence.

Time passed second by second, and the minute hand of Guan Qiwen’s Patek Philippe [watch brand] pointed to five.

A white light suddenly appeared, enveloping everyone. This time, Shen Maomao opened her eyes wide, trying to understand the principle of this transmission, but only vaguely saw some quickly flashing zeros and ones.

Just that one glance made her eyes feel a burning pain, and she quickly closed them, not daring to look anymore.

After a bout of dizziness, she finally felt her feet touch solid ground, and immediately opened her eyes to survey her surroundings.

She was standing beside a building that was hard to see clearly, the entire structure surrounded by tall fencing, likely difficult to climb over.

Around the building were dense shrubs, with red and yellow stone bricks paving the ground. Behind the shrubs was a small grove, tall trees blocking the sky, the interior of the grove appearing somewhat eerie, with contents unclear within.

She rubbed her uncomfortable eyes and walked along the fence with familiarity, not encountering any players along the way.

In front of the building was an endless road, completely empty of people, looking particularly vacant.

Several blurry figures gathered at the building’s main entrance. Shen Maomao squinted her eyes but couldn’t make out who was who even after staring for a while.

Great, if only she hadn’t looked at those zeros and ones. Was she going to be blind in this instance?!

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