The Hand of Confession – Chapter 128

Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses

Gong Lian

“Please… please save me…”

To be honest, Shen Maomao, a complete girly-girl, couldn’t do anything except apply lipstick.

However, with the brush already in her hand, she had no choice but to forge ahead.

Xiaoqiao’s process of handling the corpse was both bloody and nauseating. Shen Maomao felt pain just watching, but she not only had to watch but also had to follow along.

Gong Lian didn’t dare to look properly, crouching in the corner with her hand over her mouth, wanting to vomit but unable to, tears streaming down her face.

Using her postmodern artistic instincts, Shen Maomao followed Xiaoqiao’s instructions step by step to apply makeup to Huang Hongxing, barely daring to breathe from nervousness.

Xiaoqiao watched as half the face under her hands gradually took shape, her expression indescribable, yet she said nothing.

Time passed second by second until both finally put down their brushes. Shen Maomao shook her numb arm, deliberately ignoring the half of the face Xiaoqiao had done, admiring her own work: “Seems not bad.”

Xiaoqiao looked at Huang Hongxing’s left side of the face with its purple eyeshadow, delicate eyelashes, and scarlet lips, her mouth twitching involuntarily, remaining silent.

Gong Lian rubbed her arms, asking in a trembling voice: “Don’t you feel… it’s a bit cold in here…”

Shen Maomao suddenly lifted her head, exchanging a shocked glance with equally startled Xiaoqiao.

The room’s temperature had dropped without anyone noticing, just like that security room where each breath produced a small white mist.

Only then did Shen Maomao realize her fingertips were ice-cold – her hands weren’t numb from fatigue, but from the cold!

Xiaoqiao calmed down and said: “The makeup’s done, let’s go find two men to change his clothes.”

Shen Maomao rarely agreed with her, but both felt it would be better to leave this place soon.

Hearing them say this, Gong Lian immediately stood up and rushed to the door, gripping the handle and pushing down, but it wouldn’t budge.

On the verge of tears, she looked at the two women behind her and said frantically: “What do we do? It won’t open!”

Xiaoqiao turned to open the window, but as she turned around, she suddenly realized—the room’s window was actually a single piece of glass, sealed within the frame, completely impossible to open.

Gong Lian slid down against the door to the floor, clutching her work uniform jacket: “It’s so cold… are we going to freeze to death in here?”

Shen Maomao stared at the wooden door and said coldly: “Move aside.”

Gong Lian, frightened by her icy gaze, almost reflexively crawled aside following her command: “What… what are you going to do?”

The next second, she saw Shen Maomao turn sideways, raise her right leg, and kick the iron door with thunderous force.

With a loud “hong”, the iron door didn’t move an inch, leaving the other two women dumbfounded.

If she had kicked her like that, could she have withstood it? Gong Lian looked left at the corpse, right at Shen Maomao, unsure which direction to scoot.

However, Shen Maomao had already delivered a second kick, another thunderous boom, the walls seemed to shake twice, yet the iron door still showed no response.

Shen Maomao withdrew her slightly numb foot, maintaining a poker face, and sighed: “Looks like we can’t escape by force.”

Xiaoqiao asked: “Did they lock it from outside?”

Shen Maomao shook her head, placing her hand on the cold iron door: “Doesn’t seem like it. My kicks actually didn’t reach the door—it’s more like they hit some kind of solid barrier…”

She’d seen similar barriers before, in the school from the previous instance, though back then as a player she could freely pass through the air wall, while NPCs couldn’t get out.

Gong Lian glanced at the corpse, quickly averting her gaze. She said weakly: “Could it be because we haven’t dressed him yet, so he… he won’t let us leave…”

The room had no burial clothes, but there was a work uniform belonging to someone unknown.

The room temperature kept dropping. Shen Maomao’s hands were frozen stiff. Knowing they couldn’t delay any longer and having no time for fear, she grabbed the clothing and rushed to the corpse, starting to remove his blood-stained jacket.

The man’s skin was colder than the iron door, giving Shen Maomao the sensation of frostbite.

Xiaoqiao followed: “Will this work?”

Shen Maomao didn’t even look at her: “Treat a dead horse as if it were alive.”

Together they stripped Huang Hongxing completely—who could care about gender propriety at a time like this—Shen Maomao lifted his upper body while Xiaoqiao put on the clothes, then flexed her frozen fingers as she buttoned up his shirt one by one.

After fully dressing him, Shen Maomao ran back to the door. Gong Lian reached the handle first, pushing down hard, but it still wouldn’t budge.

“No good… it still won’t open!”

How could this be? Would the game kill three people on the first day?

Shen Maomao thought this unlikely.

Her mind raced as she calmly pushed Gong Lian aside and placed her own hand on the door handle.

As soon as she touched it, she noticed it felt different from before—that transparent barrier seemed to have vanished.

She pressed down on the handle, barely applying any force when the lock made a soft “ka-cha” sound.

The door opened.

Shen Maomao stepped across the threshold, her face met with warm air from outside, instantly feeling the ice-locked blood in her veins begin flowing again, as if her whole being had come back to life.

Seeing her successful escape, Gong Lian hurriedly tried to step out, but with a “dong” sound, she hit something and stumbled back two steps, landing on her bottom.

“What’s happening?” Seeing this, Xiaoqiao didn’t dare advance rashly. She cautiously extended her hand toward the doorway, but encountered no obstacle, reaching straight through the frame.

Shen Maomao grabbed that hand from outside and pulled her whole body through with one strong tug.

“Ah…” Xiaoqiao sighed contentedly, “It’s so warm outside…”

Gong Lian completely panicked.

Ignoring her throbbing forehead, she crawled on all fours to the doorway but couldn’t advance another step.

She placed her hands on the transparent barrier, pounding it until her fists turned red, crying as she hit: “Why?! Let me out! Let me out!”

She looked at Shen Maomao like a final lifeline: “Please… save me, okay? Xiaoqiao Jiejie… please save me, okay?”

Everything seemed to overlap with that school instance.

The person inside the air wall was begging for help, she had extended her hand, but what was the final outcome?

Gong Lian continued pleading: “Please… I’m so cold… save me…”

Xiaoqiao coldly watched her struggling within the barrier, showing no intention of helping.

In Shen Maomao’s mind, images of those terrible children’s faces replayed, yet she still knelt down on one knee, extending her hand toward the air wall.

She had the ability to protect herself.

If Gong Lian tried to drag her down too, she could simply twist her wrist.

In Gong Lian’s beautiful eyes, something like starlight flickered as she stared intently at Shen Maomao’s extended hand, not daring to blink.

However, Shen Maomao’s hand stopped at the doorframe, unable to advance another inch.

Gong Lian, as if losing her last hope, collapsed to the ground.

Shen Maomao furrowed her brow and threw a punch, her fist turning slightly red from the impact, but still couldn’t break through the invisible barrier.

“I’m sorry…” she stopped, stood up, and turned away, unable to bear looking at Gong Lian’s expression.

Gong Lian became eerily calm, saying coldly: “It’s not your fault, thank you.”

After watching the scene unfold, Xiaoqiao suddenly spoke: “Lianlian, could it be because you haven’t touched the corpse at all? Quick, go touch it, maybe then you can come out!”

“Okay…” Gong Lian struggled to her feet, trembling as she walked forward, quickly reaching the small bed.

She extended her hand, already turned blue from the cold, shaking as she reached for the man’s face.

The next second, a piercing scream erupted from her mouth, and the room’s door slammed shut with a “hong” before their eyes, the scream cutting off abruptly.

“F*ck!” Shen Maomao’s fist struck the cold iron door as she cursed, then grabbed the handle again while shouting Gong Lian’s name: “Hey! Gong Lian?! Gong Lian?!”

The door handle didn’t budge.

Beside her, Xiaoqiao said coldly: “Stop knocking, she’s already dead, who are you putting on this show for?”

Shen Maomao shot her an icy glare.

Xiaoqiao remembered her door kick from earlier, her expression changed, and she immediately fell silent, turning to walk toward the hall.

Shen Maomao bit her lip, feeling deeply troubled.

She didn’t like Gong Lian, but watching helplessly as something happened to her right before her eyes, unable to prevent it, was unbearably painful.

Several people came running at the sound, led by the Great Poet who asked: “What happened here? What just occurred?”

“Gong Lian is locked inside.”

The Great Poet exclaimed, then quickly composed himself and sighed: “Oh… poor lamb-like woman, may you repent your sins in hell, the great deity will forgive you and guide you to heaven…”

Shen Maomao didn’t want to hear him recite his new work. She quickly walked to Lou Jingmo who stood at the back of the crowd, and like a child who had been wronged outside, threw herself into her arms.

Lou Jingmo patted her head, saying softly: “It’s alright, you did your best…”

“Ka-cha…”

A tiny sound came from the iron door’s direction. Shen Maomao’s ears twitched, and she suddenly lifted her head from Lou Jingmo’s embrace, turning to look at the doorway.

The door handle tilted down by itself, the iron door opening a crack, startling the crowd into scattering with cries of surprise.

The next second, the iron door was pulled open from inside, and there stood Gong Lian, completely unharmed, smiling at everyone outside: “You scared me to death… I thought I was going to die in there…”

There wasn’t a spot of blood on her, and her expression wasn’t stiff at all—she looked no different from a living person.

The Great Poet, startled at first, then sighed in relief and complained to Shen Maomao: “You, why are you so dramatic? Being locked in a room doesn’t mean death—aren’t you just wasting our emotions?”

Shen Maomao: “??” What was going on??

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