The Hand of Confession – Chapter 132

Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses

Blood Drop

Life is hard, Lou-jie sighs

This demon was the legendary Yaksha [夜叉 | yè chā | Buddhist demon].

The next page contained an introduction to the Yaksha. It was described as a hideous demon in Buddhism, fierce and gluttonous, fond of consuming humans, capable of all evil.

Lou Jingmo casually flipped through two more pages, then returned to the Yaksha page and asked Shen Maomao, “What do you think?”

Shen Maomao hesitated for a few seconds before tentatively saying, “Um… Natsume’s Book of Friends?”

Lou Jingmo: “??”

Shen Maomao thought Lou Jingmo might not have time to watch anime, so she explained, “I mean, could this book be a seal? Each illustration has sealed a demon inside, and that Yaksha outside somehow escaped from the book, and now wants to dedicate itself to the cause of liberation by releasing all its brothers and sisters?”

Lou Jingmo fell into deep thought.

Guan Qiwen asked in surprise, “Why would you think that?”

Shen Maomao replied, “Well, most other illustrations look terrifying to me, but this Yaksha doesn’t give me any feeling at all.”

She took the book from Lou Jingmo’s hands, flipped forward a few pages, her slender, fair fingers resting on the slightly yellowed pages, the fingertips suffused with a translucent pink, appearing as luminous as jade.

Lou Jingmo’s gaze lingered heavily for a while, then deliberately averted her eyes, unclear whether she had been looking at the book or something else.

As Shen Maomao’s finger traced the outline of one of the demons, just as she was about to say something, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her fingertip and couldn’t help but cry out.

“What happened?” Lou Jingmo stepped forward, quickly grabbed her wrist, and pulled it close to examine—

A drop of bright red blood, the size of a bean, had coagulated on Shen Maomao’s finger, resembling a pure-colored amber.

Lou Jingmo had always known that Shen Maomao had beautiful hands, but she never imagined that these hands, when stained with blood, could become so breathtakingly beautiful.

Her eyes reflected that streak of red, and a crimson flash crossed her pupils. Her mind went blank for a few seconds, her expression becoming dazed.

When she came back to her senses, the situation had already become extremely delicate and uncontrollable.

In her line of sight was Shen Maomao’s snow-white wrist, with her slightly cool finger in her mouth, as she was still sucking the blood from the wound…

Lou Jingmo’s mouth froze. She looked up at Shen Maomao’s expression and found her predictably shocked, while Guan Qiwen beside them also had his mouth slightly agape, clearly startled by her sudden action.

Lou Jingmo rarely felt like cursing, but now she wanted to use the most vulgar national expletives.

She spat out Shen Maomao’s finger, unable to look at the crystal-clear saliva on it, and hurriedly wrapped the finger with her uniform sleeve, stammering: “I can explain…”

Shen Maomao also came to her senses, so embarrassed she didn’t know where to put her hands, and could only laugh dryly: “Hahaha, Lou-jie, are you finally making your move on me?”

Lou Jingmo lowered her eyes to the floor, meticulously wiping her finger while saying: “I’m not that desperate for food.”

Shen Maomao became angry: “I’m warning you! If you keep rejecting me like this, you’re going to lose me!”

What a threat that didn’t inspire any sense of crisis.

Thoughts surged through Lou Jingmo’s mind as she desperately tried to find an excuse for her previous behavior. How could she make it sound more convincing? Should she say “I didn’t mean anything by it, I just didn’t have anything to wipe the blood with, so I used my mouth for convenience”?

Life is hard, Lou-jie sighs.

As she was thinking, her eyes moved to the book in Shen Maomao’s other hand.

The book now had a spot of bright red color, which had landed precisely on the teeth of the demon illustrated within.

With this drop of blood, the flat illustration seemed to have undergone some earth-shattering change, yet upon closer inspection, it appeared as if nothing had changed at all.

Not possessing Shen Maomao’s sharp intuition, she called to the sixth sense professional: “Look at this illustration, do you sense anything?”

Shen Maomao, also wanting to quickly turn the page on what had just happened, pulled her finger from Lou Jingmo’s hand, held the book with both hands, and began examining it carefully.

Lou Jingmo stared at her own hand, feeling an inexplicable sense of loss.

After a while, Shen Maomao said decisively: “This is what I wanted to use as an example earlier. When I look at it, I feel very scared and terrified, completely opposite to how the Yaksha illustration made me feel…” She swallowed, “But now I don’t have that feeling anymore.”

If her guess was correct, had this demon already escaped from the book?

Great, she was in big trouble now.

Shen Maomao defended herself dryly: “I… I only touched it once, I don’t know what’s going on either…”

Guan Qiwen said: “If touching it caused problems, something would have happened long ago. I looked through almost half the book before you, and I wasn’t bitten.”

Lou Jingmo said: “Let’s first see what kind of demon this is.”

This demon had a humanoid form, with features similar to humans. Its nose was black, protruding significantly from its face, making its head look like a skull covered with a thin layer of skin. Sharp fangs extended from its mouth, with that fresh drop of blood on the left fang.

Its chest was bare, muscles knotted, stomach concave, and its legs had skin resembling that of a crocodile’s belly.

This demon was called Wutong [五通 | wǔ tōng], a demon of desire, most fond of lust, particularly favoring virgin blood, able to transform according to people’s desires or reveal its true form.

Reading this, Lou Jingmo silently glanced at Shen Maomao.

Shen Maomao’s face inexplicably turned red: “Why are you looking at me?!”

Lou Jingmo withdrew her gaze.

Shen Maomao then glared at Guan Qiwen: “Keep staring and I’ll gouge out your dog eyes!”

Guan Qiwen rubbed his nose, this differential treatment was too obvious.

The following content in the book mostly consisted of folk tales, describing stories of Daoist priests battling the Wutong demon and banishing it to the underworld.

After skimming through the remaining content, Lou Jingmo concluded: “Perhaps your blood aroused the Wutong’s desire, causing it to break through the seal…”

Shen Maomao deadpanned: “Just shut up, will you.”

Lou Jingmo’s lips curved slightly, then turned serious: “Speaking seriously, if your guess isn’t wrong, this Wutong has already escaped, and it can transform into a handsome man. With so many people around nowadays, it’ll be difficult to find him.”

Shen Maomao: “Can we just look for someone handsome?”

“That could work…” Guan Qiwen hesitated, “but can you even see people’s faces clearly?”

Shen Maomao: “No…”

The three couldn’t figure anything out, and the bell that rang punctually every night sounded again. Shen Maomao remembered the opened window and slowly walked out of their room.

Lou Jingmo chased after her, quickly stuffing something into her hand: “Go on, but don’t sleep too deeply tonight.”

“Alright.” Shen Maomao nodded, “I can protect myself, Lou-jie, you can go back.”

---

Tonight was destined to be sleepless.

Shen Maomao was on high alert – even if Duke Zhou [周公 | Zhōu Gōng | legendary figure who appears in dreams] himself came to visit her, she couldn’t fall asleep.

She lay in bed, clutching the finger that Lou Jingmo had put in her mouth.

The funeral home had limited facilities, and she hadn’t even had the chance to wash her hands…

Hmm… it seemed Lou Jingmo had put her unwashed finger in her mouth too.

It must have tasted quite salty when Lou-jie sucked on it?

With that thought, any romantic notions instantly vanished, and she felt slightly nauseated.

Lou Jingmo’s sudden action must have been due to the Wutong’s influence… right? After all, as a demon of desire, the Wutong could awaken people’s inner desires…

Never mind, the more she tried to explain it, the stranger it felt. Better to just assume Lou Jingmo had a moment of temporary insanity.

Shen Maomao rolled over, looking up at the window. A moon hung high in the treetops, casting its pure light upon the mortal world. From inside, she could see the mist outside, and within it, a massive shadow like a guardian knight of the funeral home – though this knight had quite a temper, readily raising its giant axe at the slightest provocation.

The night was deep and quiet, even the summer cicadas had ceased their singing. She was getting sleepy, but it wasn’t time to sleep yet. The Yaksha hadn’t made its move tonight, and she still wanted to see what this fearsome monster looked like.

As she kept watching, Shen Maomao belatedly realized something was amiss.

She was actually somewhat afraid of looking out windows at night, so whenever she was inside after dark, she would immediately draw the curtains.

Had she forgotten today?

No, that wasn’t right.

Shen Maomao quickly found the memory of herself drawing the curtains in a corner of her mind. Her drowsiness instantly vanished as she turned toward the wall, shrinking further under her blanket.

Who had opened her curtains?

Where was that person now? Could they be… right behind her?

Or perhaps hanging from the fluorescent light tubes?

Though her mind ran wild with these thoughts, she didn’t dare turn her head to look around, terrified she might see something she shouldn’t and end up silenced forever.

Time passed slowly. The side of her body touching the bed had grown numb, and she couldn’t help but roll over, facing toward the other bed.

The bed was empty, yet there were three distinct indentations in the sheets. Judging by their positions, they seemed to be from someone’s head, shoulders, and buttocks…

Shen Maomao’s heart pounded wildly, unsure how she should react.

Who was in the room? Was it someone who used to live here?

If there was someone on the neighboring bed, what about the one she was lying on? Could there be someone (?) lying with her right now?

She stared stiffly for a long while, seemingly hearing faint breathing sounds beside her, but when she listened carefully, she realized it was just her imagination.

After an unknown amount of time, an earth-shattering roar came from outside. The Yaksha in the mist indeed extended its arms as Lou Jingmo and Guan Qiwen had described, beginning its attack on the funeral home.

A semi-transparent barrier appeared above the funeral home, with the Yaksha’s arms repeatedly striking against it, making the ground tremble with each impact.

At that moment, the indentations on the bed beside Shen Maomao suddenly vanished. In the next second, the window inside the room mysteriously opened from within, and a gust of cold wind hit her full in the face, making her shudder violently, chilling her to the bone.

---

---