The Hand of Confession – Chapter 125

Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses

Are You Afraid of Death?

Then let’s live on together, Lou jie!

So what happened last night? Besides the window in her room being opened by someone unknown, Shen Maomao hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Guan Qiwen closed his book and said to her: “Last night, that monster emerged from the mist.”

Shen Maomao: “?!” How could she not know about something so important!

Lou Jingmo continued: “It tried to attack the funeral home, but failed.”

It must have failed, or they wouldn’t be here now.

Shen Maomao could imagine what a heart-stopping night it must have been for the players—except for Shen Maomao herself, of course.

Last night, the monster that had been watching them from the mist finally showed its true face. Its entire body was emerald green, with red hair that jumped and burned like flames. Under the hair was a crescent-shaped eye on its forehead, while another eye was located on its chin.

It stood several zhang [about 3.3 meters] tall, with a string of skulls hanging from its neck, stiff fur standing up on its arms, and holding a blackened giant axe, looking both hideous and terrifying.

During the day, it could only move within the mist, attacking any creature that entered. At night, the mist seemed to no longer restrict it, so it emerged from the mist and launched an attack on the funeral home where humans still existed…

The players inside were like walking on a steel wire over a ten-thousand-zhang abyss [萬丈深淵 | wàn zhàng shēn yuān | meaning: extremely dangerous situation], with the funeral home’s precarious defenses as their last safety rope.

After explaining what happened last night, Lou Jingmo said: “Go to your room and change into work clothes, prepare to start working.”

Shen Maomao had psychological trauma about her room, looking at her pitifully.

Guan Qiwen said thoughtfully: “In that case, why don’t you accompany Xiaoshen to change clothes? I’ll go down to eat by myself.”

Lou Jingmo nodded in agreement and led Shen Maomao into room 218 in the middle.

As soon as they entered, she was hit in the face by a draft. The curtains inside were dancing wildly, as if possessed.

Lou Jingmo wasn’t a naive sweetie [傻白甜 | shǎ bái tián | internet slang for naive, innocent person], she wouldn’t innocently ask Shen Maomao if she wasn’t afraid of catching a cold sleeping with the window open. She stepped forward, directly closed the window, then turned to ask Shen Maomao: “What happened?”

Shen Maomao bolted the door and said sheepishly: “I slept too deeply, I’m not sure what happened either.”

Hearing this reason, Lou jie wanted to sigh: “You really aren’t afraid of death, are you?”

In such an environment, she still dared to sleep so deeply – probably wouldn’t even know if someone put a knife to her throat in the middle of the night.

Shen Maomao took out a deep blue work uniform from the cabinet she hadn’t dared touch yesterday, casually unbuttoned it and threw it on herself, answering: “I don’t know why I slept so deeply either, maybe I felt that even if there was danger, I couldn’t handle it anyway? Might as well sleep properly, and if I survive to the next day, I can investigate clues with full energy.”

She spoke with such openness, Lou Jingmo wanted to laugh but couldn’t, her heart inexplicably heavy. So she asked a question she had never considered before: “Shen Maomao, are you afraid of death?”

Shen Maomao answered frankly: “Yes, very afraid.”

If she could live to 80, she had only lived through a quarter of her life, with three-quarters still ahead, so many scenes unseen, so many delicacies untasted, and she hadn’t even experienced one earth-shattering romance.

So she was afraid of death, didn’t want to die, and wasn’t resigned to it.

Lou Jingmo: “What a coincidence, I’m actually afraid too.”

Shen Maomao looked at Lou Jingmo, while Lou Jingmo leaned against the curtain, looking back at her.

The two gazed at each other for a moment, then inexplicably laughed together. Shen Maomao’s eyes curved like crescents as she said: “Then we’ll live on together, okay Lou jie!”

Lou Jingmo helplessly extended her hand to her: “Let’s go, time to eat downstairs.”

Shen Maomao’s stomach let out a timely growl.

She took Lou Jingmo’s hand and went downstairs with her, complaining as they walked: “The food tastes so bad, hunger will kill me before the ghosts and monsters do.”

Lou Jingmo pondered for a moment, then said: “The game has no reason to starve players to death, but there must be something wrong with that food… Let’s see how it is today, then decide what to do.”

When they reached the first floor, they found the security room’s door open but no one inside. The person on night watch must have survived safely until dawn and gone to eat now.

Today’s cafeteria was different from yesterday’s.

Yesterday, as soon as they approached the cafeteria, Shen Maomao had smelled an aroma that drilled straight into her nose, though the dinner that smelled fragrant had no taste when eaten.

Today when they reached the cafeteria entrance, Shen Maomao couldn’t smell anything at all, neither pleasant nor unpleasant, as if no cooking had been done.

Could it be that today’s food would have no smell but taste especially good?

With this doubt in mind, she entered the cafeteria ahead of Lou Jingmo.

There were only two people in the cafeteria, one was Guan Qiwen who had come down before them, and the other was the young security guard who had been on duty last night.

The young guard looked very tired, with two dark circles under his eyes that hadn’t been there yesterday. But his overall demeanor was very relaxed, with a pile of food in front of him that he was eating with great relish.

He had completed his task, and could maintain this relieved state for the next two days.

Guan Qiwen greeted them, saying: “Today’s food is the opposite of yesterday’s, it tastes very delicious. I only tried a bit, then stopped eating.”

The man beside them said carelessly: “You’re overthinking it. Would we really starve to death from not eating? Dying from starvation would be too easy, it wouldn’t achieve the creator’s purpose of making us repent in fear.”

That made sense, but Shen Maomao still felt something was wrong. Besides, Lou jie hadn’t given any orders yet, so she just held her stomach and sat demurely beside Guan Qiwen.

The man curved his lips mockingly, enjoying his food without another word.

Lou Jingmo completely ignored his mockery, unhurriedly circled the food once, brought back two mantou, and placed one in front of her, saying: “Eat a little first to stave off hunger.”

Shen Maomao took the warm and soft mantou, and under Lou Jingmo’s affirming expression, took a bite.

That bite nearly brought tears to her eyes.

It was delicious! Compared to yesterday’s tasteless mantou, today’s was truly a delicacy!

She wolfed down the mantou, then felt even hungrier, only able to look pitifully at the one in Lou Jingmo’s hand.

Lou Jingmo pretended not to see her pitiful expression, quickly ate her own mantou, then smacked her lips: “The taste is indeed good.”

Shen Maomao lay on the table like a salted fish.

Not long after, others came down successively.

The newcomer Gong Lian had changed into work clothes like Shen Maomao’s, finally no longer trembling with fear.

Most others had also put on work clothes, with only two exceptions – the great poet and San Huang.

In the great poet’s words: “I absolutely won’t wear such aesthetically devoid clothing!”

While San Huang wore his ancestral plaid shirt, looking rather uncomfortable. He shared a room with the poet, and since the poet hadn’t worn the uniform, he hadn’t either. Now coming down, he and that fool had become the most conspicuous existence in the crowd.

In the game, standing out was most dangerous – being special meant being conspicuous, which meant he would more easily attract the attention of ghosts and monsters.

He gave the poet a sinister look, cursing him to dog blood [罵了個狗血淋頭 | mà le gè gǒu xuè lín tóu | idiom meaning: cursing severely], not thinking about how he too had believed most people wouldn’t randomly wear clothes from the funeral home, which was why he had chosen to come down without the uniform like the poet.

He’d put on the work clothes after eating! The food was too delicious – yesterday’s tasteless food hadn’t filled him up even though he barely ate – thought San Huang as he kept stuffing food into his mouth.

However well he planned in his mind, reality seldom goes as one wishes.

Before finishing their meal, that unpredictable NPC walked in from outside, urging them to quickly take their posts.

He distributed three red armbands with “Security” written in gold characters to the three guards, and assigned their tasks: the night watch man would control the gates at the main entrance, Lou Jingmo would patrol inside the building, and the remaining one would guard the crematorium.

The one assigned to the crematorium was reluctant but didn’t dare defy the NPC, and could only leave while muttering.

After dealing with the three security guards, he began arranging the three body collectors.

“You three pack up and follow me, we have work – there’s a deceased named Huang Hongxing [黃宏興 | huáng hóng xīng] waiting for body collection.” He then looked at the others, “The rest stay put and await orders. No returning to dormitories during work hours.”

They left immediately, with Guan Qiwen subtly leading Xiaokong and Scar Face following the NPC to get vehicles from the garage.

Lou Jingmo put on the red armband and conscientiously wandered the building – patrolling was secondary, finding clues was primary.

Shen Maomao followed behind her, wandering together.

The funeral home had two floors. The first floor had the security room, payment office, and some locked rooms – obviously, the locked rooms would contain something.

To find the keys, they made another trip to the security room, but clearly the game wouldn’t let them find clues so easily. There was nothing in the security room, only a cold air, the temperature so low their breath was visible.

Shen Maomao asked puzzled: “He stayed in this environment all night?”

The room’s bed had only a thin blanket, with white bedding sets that looked very clean and tidy.

But it was already cold, and with such snow-white bedding, wouldn’t it give one the illusion of sleeping in snow?

She began to worry about Lou Jingmo’s safety: “Lou jie, this room must have something strange…”

Lou Jingmo wore an expression of indifference, but her words were earth-shattering: “Don’t you think this place is suitable for preserving corpses?”

Shen Maomao wouldn’t have thought of it if she hadn’t mentioned it, but hearing this suggestion, she inexplicably shuddered from head to toe, her heart filled with an inexplicable fear: “W-why suddenly say that?”

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