The Hand of Confession – Chapter 129

Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses

Someone Behind the Door

What if she was lying on the ground?

Shen Maomao was completely bewildered. Facing the accusing gaze of the Great Poet, she didn’t even know how to explain.

So was Gong Lian dead or alive?

She personally leaned towards dead, after all, that piercing scream earlier was so spine-chilling that even listening from outside made her hair stand on end.

She pushed aside the men crowding around Gong Lian with their concerned questions, standing two steps away from her, their eyes meeting.

Gong Lian smiled at her: “Thank you, you’re truly a good person.”

Shen Maomao felt chills down her spine: “Thanks for the compliment, but good people usually don’t live long.”

Gong Lian kept smiling. She grabbed Shen Maomao’s retreating arm, placing her hand on her own face: “See, my body is warm.”

Lou Jingmo narrowed her eyes, squeezed through from behind, and grabbed Shen Maomao’s other arm, pulling her into her embrace.

Having achieved her goal, Gong Lian stopped persisting and simply let go.

Shen Maomao, held by Lou Jingmo’s shoulders, stared at her with wide eyes: “It’s… warm.”

The surrounding people stood down from their alert state and stopped circling around Gong Lian. The Great Poet mumbled something inaudible and wobbled away with their group of supporters who had appeared from nowhere.

Only three women remained at the doorway, staring at each other, no one speaking, the atmosphere turning strange.

Gong Lian’s smile disappeared as she stared at the floor, as if trying to find patterns in the gaps between the tiles.

Shen Maomao hesitated before speaking: “Since you’re fine, then we…”

Gong Lian suddenly interrupted her: “Don’t be too curious about anything. If I were you, I wouldn’t enter this room again.”

Shen Maomao nodded repeatedly: “Okay, okay, I’ll try not to come back! Then… shall we go?”

Gong Lian said bluntly: “Goodbye.”

So Shen Maomao quickly pulled Lou Jingmo towards the exit. After walking a short distance, she slowed down and looked back – Gong Lian was still standing at the doorway, even watching their retreating figures.

Shen Maomao: “Holy sh*t…”

Lou Jingmo pulled her to keep moving. Only after reaching the hall, when Gong Lian’s figure was completely out of sight, did she ask: “What happened?”

Shen Maomao truthfully recounted everything that had occurred.

Lou Jingmo pondered thoughtfully: “There’s a fifty percent chance she’s dead.”

Shen Maomao asked, puzzled: “Doesn’t that mean there’s still half a chance she’s alive?”

Lou Jingmo shook her head: “No, half chance she’s become a regular ghost, the other half she’s become a changgui.”

People killed by tigers often become changgui, and once they do, their first action is to lure their own family members to be eaten by the tiger. If Gong Lian had become a changgui, the first person to suffer misfortune would likely be Xiaoqiao.

However, Shen Maomao felt no obligation to warn Xiaoqiao. For someone so devoid of righteousness, she had no desire to extend a helping hand.

Not long after, others came flooding back to the room’s entrance, preparing to carry Huang Hongxing for cremation.

Shen Maomao certainly couldn’t forget what Gong Lian had just told her so quickly. She didn’t want to go to that makeup room, but was forced forward by the surrounding crowd.

The crowd separated her from Lou Jingmo by quite a distance, packed tightly in the entire corridor. As Shen Maomao stumbled forward from being pushed, her mind went blank, left with only one thought – earlier… were there this many people?

How many players were there at the start?

Fifteen? Twenty?

Why did she seem to have trouble remembering??

When the crowd reached the makeup room’s door, Gong Lian had vanished. San Huang was still leading, standing at the doorway, first trying to press down the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Then he had no choice but to take out the keys he had privately kept, found the key to Room 102, and inserted it into the keyhole.

With a crack, the key broke off inside.

San Huang cleared his throat and said: “Why is this key so flimsy?”

His followers exchanged glances, unsure what to do next.

The middle-aged auntie mocked him: “Can’t open a door but so eager to keep the keys? I suggest you hand over the keys quickly, before you break all the others too.”

Shen Maomao, who had already squeezed out of the crowd to reunite with Lou Jingmo, whispered to her: “This auntie is really going all out, finding every chance to confront San Huang.”

Lou Jingmo said flatly: “She just wants the keys, that’s all.”

San Huang was so angry he started jumping: “When I was turning the key, I felt something blocking it inside. There’s clearly something wrong with the lock and key, okay?”

The auntie retorted: “If you couldn’t turn it, why force it? Now the key’s broken, are you blaming me instead of yourself?”

The two engaged in a war of words, trading barbs and veiled insults, nearly ready to fight on the spot.

Finally, Guan Qiwen stepped forward: “Everyone, stop arguing! This is only the second day of the game, are we going to let internal division tear us apart? Since this door can’t be opened now, there’s no point dwelling on it. Why don’t we use San Huang’s keys to check other doors? We might find something.” This speech immediately gained everyone’s agreement, especially the middle-aged auntie, who said with full vigor: “Should have done this long ago!”

San Huang glared at Guan Qiwen, his face darkening.

Guan Qiwen smiled slightly, paying no mind to this hostility, and gracefully turned the question back to him: “What do you think, San Huang?”

Under so many watchful eyes, even though he wanted to keep the keys for his own investigation, he didn’t dare do so anymore. He could only grip the keys tightly and reluctantly say: “Fine then, follow me.”

Regarding his behavior, Lou Jingmo had only four characters to evaluate—utterly stupid.

She somewhat doubted how someone so incompetent yet extremely narcissistic and self-important had survived in the game world. Could he have some life-saving trump card?

The crowd began moving, going to Room 104 next to 102. San Huang opened the door, and people rushed in hualala [onomatopoeia for rushing sound], starting to ransack everything.

104 was also a makeup room, with a small platform in the center and cabinets containing tools on the side.

Shen Maomao didn’t believe the game would let them find clues so easily, and she had psychological trauma about makeup rooms, so she just stood at the doorway without entering.

Lou Jingmo, for whatever reason, didn’t go in either, instead keeping her gaze fixed on Room 102’s door, her eyes deep and heavy.

Shen Maomao couldn’t help asking softly: “Lou-jie? What are you looking at?”

Lou Jingmo withdrew her gaze and said in a low voice: “Someone’s behind the door.”

Shen Maomao: “?? WTF ??”

Lou Jingmo pointed at the ground: “Look, there’s light in the gaps above and on the sides of the door, but none at the bottom.”

Shen Maomao looked in the direction she pointed, and indeed found that the floor in front of the door was exactly as she described, with no light at all at the bottom.

But if someone was standing behind the door, shouldn’t there be shadows cast by their legs? Instead of just this large patch of darkness…

As if seeing her confusion, Lou Jingmo said eerily: “What if she’s lying on the ground?”

Shen Maomao felt a tremendous shock in her heart, even experiencing momentary tinnitus.

Because she remembered how Gong Lian had been lying at the doorway, desperately begging her and Xiaoqiao to save her.

Looking at the lower half of the door, she had an illusion that her gaze had penetrated the metal plate, seeing how Gong Lian was lying at the doorway in some rigid posture.

Lou Jingmo said: “Are you scared?”

Shen Maomao: “Just a little bit scared.”

Lou Jingmo couldn’t help but laugh: “What are you afraid of? The one who should be afraid is that person.” Shen Maomao thought about it and agreed – after all, Gong Lian had just praised her as a good person, so surely she wouldn’t do anything to her… right?

Xiaoqiao had disappeared after leaving, and the Gong Lian who came out of 102 was nowhere to be found either – perhaps she went to settle scores with Xiaoqiao for refusing to help.

The makeup room was still a scene of bustling activity, the room turned upside down by their searching. The middle-aged auntie even lifted up a loose floorboard, but found nothing.

Lou Jingmo couldn’t be bothered to look inside. She crossed her arms, leaning lazily against the wall, calmly waiting for them to finish their search.

Shen Maomao couldn’t help asking her: “Lou-jie, aren’t you worried they might hide something?”

Lou Jingmo: “With more than ten pairs of eyes watching, how could they hide anything?”

How true.

Shen Maomao turned back to look inside the room.

Some people were responsible for searching, while others were responsible for watching. Under these circumstances, if anyone found anything, it would immediately become public knowledge.

However, after searching for quite a while, just as Shen Maomao had expected, they found nothing.

But they hadn’t lost hope, after all, many rooms remained unexplored. People were full of enthusiasm, as if playing a treasure hunt game, fanatically wanting to be the one who ultimately finds the treasure.

Somehow, Shen Maomao felt a bit excited in her heart, as if injected with chicken blood.

If she could…

If she could find the treasure…

Just two seconds into this thought, Lou Jingmo suddenly slapped the back of her head, startling her with a full-body shiver.

“What was that for?!” Shen Maomao exclaimed.

Lou Jingmo: “Your expression just now was like a dog seeing sh*t.”

Shen Maomao: “…Can we not use such disgusting metaphors?”

Lou Jingmo shrugged.

Shen Maomao, still rattled, couldn’t help looking at the frenzied players ahead: “Then… have they also been bewitched?”

Lou Jingmo nodded, directing her to go pull Guan Qiwen out.

Shen Maomao, showing no timidity, hands in pockets, confidently squeezed through the crowd and tapped the shoulder of Guan Qiwen, who was absorbed in searching boxes.

Guan Qiwen turned around impatiently: “What do you want?”

Shen Maomao whispered to him: “Come with me, I know where the clues are.”

Guan Qiwen’s eyes instantly lit up, but he still said very carefully: “Quick, lead the way!”

Shen Maomao thought, worthy of being a big corporation’s boss, still remembering to keep secrets despite such excitement. She led Guan Qiwen out of the crowd to Lou Jingmo’s side, saying: “She’s the one who knows where the clues are. Following her won’t lead you wrong.”

Lou Jingmo played along with the script: “Alright, don’t make a sound, don’t ask questions, follow me out, and don’t draw others’ attention.”

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The author has something to say:

Where did all these cards come from? What are you all thinking!

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