The Hand of Confession – Chapter 164

Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab

Restless

Where did Shen Maomao go?

Shen Maomao hadn’t returned.

After parting ways with Shen Maomao, Lou Jingmo first searched the vicinity and even saw the time on a machine. It was two in the afternoon when she saw the time; about four hours had passed since they separated. Humans’ sense of time wasn’t as precise as a machine’s, but she had a prop that could accurately record the passage of time.

Yesterday, about eight hours had passed from lunch until the bell rang. Today, at eight in the evening, the life-chasing bell rang right on schedule.

At that moment, she happened to be wandering back near the cages, so she wasn’t too flustered and slowly made her way back.

It was only after returning that she realized Shen Maomao actually hadn’t come back.

Lou Jingmo’s good mood for the entire day vanished.

Where had that idiot run off to? Did she forget about the bell? Or did something happen that prevented her from returning?

She sat on the edge of her bed, staring intently at the corridor outside the cage. Shen Maomao lived below her; if she returned, she would inevitably pass by her.

The bell rang for a full five minutes, but even after the five minutes passed and all sound abruptly ceased, she didn’t see Shen Maomao’s figure rush past her in a panic, nor did she hear her say thankfully, “Good thing I ran fast, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it back.”

Shen Maomao hadn’t managed to return in time.

She would disappear from this instance, just like the player who had run out before.

But it didn’t matter; she had resurrection armor¹. She would revive beside her shortly.

Perhaps when she returned, she could give her a good scolding, scold her until she wouldn’t dare to rely on her resurrection armor to do as she pleased anymore.

Lou Jingmo thought this.

There was no need for her to go looking for her; that would put herself in danger too.

Lou Jingmo’s thoughts began to wander. She felt her approach was correct; not looking for Shen Maomao was the most rational and right thing to do.

As she thought this, her index finger tapped rhythmically against the tabletop, one tap after another, though she herself wasn’t aware of it.

Where on earth did Shen Maomao go?

The white coats delivering nutrient fluid came again. Lou Jingmo collected her portion, downed it in one gulp after confirming there were no issues, then returned to her bed to lie down.

She should be sleeping.

But she didn’t feel sleepy at all.

However, she was already used to it. Ever since being pulled into the game, she had developed insomnia.

She stared wide-eyed at the red light of the camera, as if simultaneously seeing the eyes of the person behind the computer screen.

So where did Shen Maomao run off to?

She took out her prop again and checked the time.

It was now 8:25 PM. The bell had started ringing at 7:55 PM and ended at 8:00 PM. Nearly half an hour had passed since the designated time.

Nothing unusual happened tonight, possibly because the white coats returned the way they came after distributing the nutrient fluid and didn’t enter that highly dangerous door. Yet, Lou Jingmo felt tonight was even more irritating than last night.

The sound reaching her ears was the snoring of some unknown experiment subject, along with the even breathing of several people nearby.

Lou Jingmo turned over.

Subject 290, diagonally opposite, suddenly spoke: “Your friend didn’t come back?”

Lou Jingmo frowned, inexplicably annoyed.

She knew she hadn’t come back; did he need to specifically remind her? She previously thought this 290 was quite perceptive, but now he seemed utterly tactless.

She hadn’t yet realized she was projecting her anger. 290 merely assumed she was in a bad mood due to her friend’s disappearance and continued, “Missing people aren’t necessarily dead. This laboratory probably has more than one floor. I found an elevator, but I was chased away before I could take a closer look. However, I saw someone swipe a card and get on the elevator. I think if we want to leave this place, we need to figure something out with the elevator. Also, the missing people might very well be on other floors, undergoing other experiments.”

Lou Jingmo had also seen the elevator and naturally could have thought of this.

She turned over again, annoyed.

Was Shen Maomao an idiot? Experiments didn’t necessarily all cause physical harm; some could have unavoidable effects on the body. Mental trauma wouldn’t disappear just by leaving the game. Couldn’t she just hurry up and die to come back?

Thinking this, she had clearly forgotten her earlier intention to teach Shen Maomao not to rely too much on the contract.

A male voice interjected, “If your guess is correct, then we need to find an elevator card and figure out how to get into the elevator without alerting the guards.”

Another person said, “Who went to Experiment B today? Did they also fail to return?”

So, no one was asleep. Right, in this kind of environment, not everyone was as carefree as Shen Maomao.

This was probably a case of “if you do nothing wrong in your life, you won’t fear ghosts knocking at midnight.”²

290 asked, “Was your friend in Experiment B?”

Lou Jingmo knew he was asking her.

She replied coldly, “No.” She offered no further explanation.

290: “Was no one from Experiment B?”

A weak female voice spoke up: “The person opposite me was Experiment B, and she didn’t come back either… She was number 281. After drawing Experiment B, she didn’t go because she was worried something would happen. But…”

She didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone understood: she still couldn’t escape her fate.

After she spoke, everyone fell silent. After a while, another person added, “My opposite, 293, isn’t back either.”

290: “Anyone else?”

No one spoke.

Including Shen Maomao, three people had gone missing today.

290 sighed, “Everyone, rest well. Tomorrow, let’s look for the elevator cards together. At the very least, we can’t waste away on this floor anymore. Downstairs might be dangerous, but danger coexists with opportunity.”

Lou Jingmo turned over again.

She felt restless but didn’t know why she was so annoyed—perhaps she knew, but just didn’t want to admit it.

Wutong’s influence on her was truly immense; previously, she definitely wouldn’t have worried about Shen Maomao this much.

After blaming Wutong from the last instance, Lou Jingmo let out a long sigh.

It was time to rest.

It was already approaching midnight. Lou Jingmo closed her eyes, deciding not to think about Shen Maomao anymore.

An hour passed like this. Lou Jingmo irritably opened her eyes again.

She sat up abruptly from the bed, put on her shoes, and prepared to take a stroll outside under the cover of night, maybe find some clues…

Just as she reached the door, pulled it open, ignoring the cells throughout her body frantically screaming “Danger!”, and prepared to step out of the cage, a figure flashed past her from the end of the corridor like the wind, then reversed back to stand before her.

The long-unseen Shen Maomao waved at her, a huge grin spreading across her face. “Hi—? Why aren’t you asleep yet, Lou-jie?”

Lou Jingmo silently retracted her foot, feeling like a f%cking idiot.

A head popped out from over Shen Maomao’s shoulder: “Ya ya…”

Lou Jingmo shifted her gaze from Shen Maomao’s face to the head: “What is this?”

Shen Maomao lifted the child down from her head, gave it a little shake, then offered it to Lou Jingmo. “This is baby. Want to hold him? Just hold him and spin around, he likes it.”

Lou Jingmo looked at the child’s face full of eyes and discovered for the first time that she might have trypophobia too.

So how did Shen Maomao manage to hold him so calmly??

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Shen Maomao also felt she was pretty awesome³.

She actually managed to coax this Little Ancestor⁴!

Not only did the Little Ancestor heal her wounds, but he also brought her up from below!

As for the process of getting up, being dragged spinning three-hundred-and-sixty degrees in the air… those were just necessary hardships on the way back up.

When she first emerged from the darkness, she was nearly blinded by the lights. When she finally adjusted to the light and saw the little one’s face clearly, she only wished she had been blinded.

She thought the Little Ancestor only had two pairs of eyes, but she had been too naive.

The Little Ancestor’s palm-sized face was covered in eyes of the same size, though thankfully, the mouth for speaking and the nose for breathing still existed.

Shen Maomao plucked up her courage and counted: he had a total of thirteen eyes.

Although the other eyes were usually closed, the shock they delivered wasn’t diminished in the slightest.

“Getting the god is easy, sending him off is hard.”⁵ Shen Maomao couldn’t just abandon him, so she could only suppress her fear as much as possible, holding the child facing outwards, which instantly gave her a lot more security.

The laboratory was quiet at night. The lights in the corridor were still on. The cold light, combined with the Little Ancestor’s cold body, made her feel for a moment like she was in an ice cellar.

The Little Ancestor stretched out his chubby little lotus-root-like arm, pointed ahead, and cried out “Ya ya” twice.

Shen Maomao’s heart leaped into her throat. She didn’t dare cover his mouth directly, afraid of accidentally poking his eyes, so she could only make a loud “Shhh—!” sound, signaling him not to make any noise.

“Haha~~” The little rascal thought she was playing with him and laughed even more happily.

Just then, a team of guards patrolled over. Shen Maomao nearly threw the child away.

She hugged the Little Ancestor tightly, picked a direction, and took off running. After a few steps, she realized: the guards weren’t chasing her; it was as if they couldn’t see them.

“Ya ya~” The Little Ancestor waved at the guards. Shen Maomao cautiously tried walking right in front of them—

The row of burly men walked straight past, without looking sideways, not sparing her a single extra glance.

Only then did she realize the Little Ancestor’s awesome power. She couldn’t help but lift him high three times, delighting him greatly. His little paws patted her shoulder.

Things were much simpler after that. With the Little Ancestor’s blessing, Shen Maomao swaggered off in a chosen direction, even stealing several door cards along the way, returning to the cage completely unimpeded.

Lou Jingmo, having heard her experience: “…”

She expressionlessly took the child and, following Shen Maomao’s instructions, lifted him high twice. The cold light in the Little Ancestor’s eyes gradually melted away, and he happily waved his arms and legs.

Shen Maomao handed over the cards she had gathered along the way, saying, “I thought these doors were like something out of a sci-fi movie—iris scanners or something. I was nervous for ages, but then I realized I was overthinking it. And those guards, hahaha, you have no idea how dumb they were…”

Lou Jingmo held the ice-cold child with one hand and took the cards with the other, listening to Shen Maomao’s non-stop chatter. The strange emotion that had made her restless for half the night vanished just like that, effortlessly.

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