Volume 6: Days of Being Zapped in the Lab
Simon Peter
The prize is drawn
This move of cutting the firewood from under the cauldron1 directly severed all of Shen Wenyu’s escape routes. He let out a wail and hurriedly shouted, “No! Dad, I didn’t! Believe me!!”
Shen Maomao curled her lips and turned her phone screen over for him to see.
The screen was still black; she hadn’t called Shen Wenyu’s dad at all.
Shen Wenyu gritted his teeth, “…Women are the most venomous creatures!”2
Shen Maomao shook her head, unlocked her phone with her fingerprint, and opened the phone book.
Shen Wenyu immediately backed down. “Sis! My dear sis, I’ll get lost right now, goodbye!” After saying that, he yawned several times in a row, broke into a trot, and left the funeral home, heading home to catch up on sleep.
As Shen Maomao waited, drowsy, the first person she encountered wasn’t Mother Shen, but surprisingly, Fang Tian.
At six in the morning, Fang Tian appeared at the entrance of the body viewing hall with two dark circles under her eyes, her expression a mixture of sorrow and exhaustion, as if she had mourned Shen Wenwu’s death all night.
Shen Maomao’s heart gave a “thump”; she felt this woman was likely up to no good.
Sure enough, after greeting Shen Maomao, she prepared to head straight for the corpse to take another good look at her beloved.
Shen Maomao reflexively wanted to reach out and stop her but was pulled back by Lou Jingmo. She turned to look at her, and Lou Jingmo gave her a subtle shake of the head.
So she withdrew her hand and watched helplessly as Fang Tian rushed to the side of the body viewing platform, watched her movements freeze, her pupils suddenly contracting.
Fang Tian whipped her head around. “Did someone move the body yesterday?”
She didn’t immediately suspect Shen Maomao, though.
Shen Maomao answered truthfully, “No, but there was a sudden power outage last night. A few maintenance workers came by in between, and it sounded like some small animal got under the platform, the noise was quite scary…” As she spoke, she walked over to Fang Tian’s side with a puzzled look, looking at the corpse with her, and asked strangely, “Why do you suddenly ask that? Is something wrong?”
Fang Tian forced a smile. “It’s nothing… I just feel like the body moved. Maybe it’s because, deep down, I don’t want him to be dead?”
Shen Maomao patted her shoulder. “My condolences, don’t be too sad.”
Fang Tian found it somewhat hard to smile.
After a while, Mother Shen and Father Shen arrived. The couple hadn’t expected Fang Tian to come so early and were involuntarily moved by her devotion. They held her hand, spoke with her, and kept praising her as a good child.
After handing over the keys, Shen Maomao took Lou Jingmo’s hand, ready to go home to study the cards and catch up on sleep. Who knew that just as they walked out of the funeral home, someone would chase after them from behind, “Wait a minute!”
Shen Maomao turned around and saw Fang Tian running over, panting. “What’s wrong?”
Fang Tian leaned on her knees, catching her breath in front of the two of them, then said, “Do you guys usually like to play games?”
Shen Maomao’s heart skipped a beat, but her expression remained perfectly composed3. “What games? Mortal Pesticide4? Or Miracle Chilly-Chilly5?”
Fang Tian said, “The kind of card collection games…”
Shen Maomao said, “Not me, my luck is terrible. I’ve never drawn an SSR.”
Fang Tian squinted at her.
Shen Maomao met her gaze without fear, her face full of confusion, as if she had no idea what she was talking about.
Fang Tian was the first to look away. “It’s probably still busy inside, I’ll head back first.”
“Then… we won’t see you out?” Shen Maomao, looking completely baffled, continued walking with Lou Jingmo, muttering to her in a low voice as they went, “What do you think she’s up to? Why is she acting so weird and secretive? Was she traumatized by my cousin’s death?”
Fang Tian: “…”
Only when they were far away from the funeral home did Shen Maomao become agitated, her hand gripping Lou Jingmo’s, trembling. “Lou-jie, you have no idea how thrilling last night was…”
“Shh—” Lou Jingmo made a hushing gesture. “Let’s talk when we get back.”
After arriving home, Shen Maomao closed the door like a thief and almost impatiently pushed Lou Jingmo into her room.
The Shen family’s home was ordinarily decorated, with no valuable ornaments in the rooms, but it was very clean and tidy. Shen Maomao’s room was also very simple, with only a 1.8-meter double bed, a wall-mounted wardrobe, and a small desk for studying. The four-piece bedding set6 on the bed was a uniform sky blue, looking very neat.
Even though no one had lived there for a long time, the room was spotless. It was clear someone cleaned it regularly, so their daughter could move right back in anytime she returned. Father Shen and Mother Shen clearly doted on their only daughter.
After entering the room, Shen Maomao first turned on the lights, then climbed onto the bed to draw the curtains, looking as if she were about to conduct some sort of dirty transaction, which left Lou Jingmo speechless.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and said helplessly, “What are you doing? Your home is on the sixth floor, do you need to be so furtive7?”
Shen Maomao said righteously, “This is called taking precautions!”
She took out the card from her prop backpack and handed it to Lou Jingmo. “Ta-da! Lou-jie, look!”
Lou Jingmo took the card and, with just one glance, said confidently, “It’s Simon Peter from the twelve cards.”
Simon Peter?
Sounded a bit familiar.
It took Shen Maomao a full minute to remember that this card was the legendary Puppet Card, the very one Ren Yue had used to trick her!!!
The card was entirely black, its back covered with an exceedingly complex pattern, identical to the Fei Li card she had obtained. The front depicted a man wearing a cloak. The man’s hands were spread, fingers open, and a red thread was wrapped around each finger. At the end of each red thread was a small figure resembling a BJD doll8. The small figure had human-like proportions, only shrunk several times, with spherical structures at its joints, allowing it to make any movement.
Shen Maomao narrowed her eyes, staring at the small figure’s facial features for a long time. Suddenly, as if she had discovered something, she looked up at Lou Jingmo, her face filled with terror. “Its face…”
Lou Jingmo completed the unspoken half of her sentence: “Is your cousin.”
The small figure’s facial features weren’t particularly clear, but upon closer inspection, one could tell that the face depicted on it was clearly Shen Wenwu, looking terrified!
“How could this be…” Shen Maomao said in disbelief. “Why would Shen Wenwu’s face be on the Puppet Card?”
Lou Jingmo touched the card, closed her eyes, and sensed it for a moment, then said, “No, the card Ren Yue used on you wasn’t Simon Peter!”
Shen Maomao: “???”
The card they now held was definitely the Puppet Card, no doubt about it, but its effect was vastly different from Lou Jingmo’s previous speculations.
The Puppet Card was named after Simon Peter, one of the Twelve Disciples9, but its function was more like making a deal with a demon. It indeed represented a life, but each person could only use it once. After being used, it wouldn’t become a useless card; rather, the original owner could no longer utilize it.
A person who died after using the Puppet Card would have their soul trapped inside the puppet, becoming the next puppet, awaiting a new master.
Its function was completely different from the card Ren Yue had.
Things were becoming increasingly convoluted.
The only thing that could be confirmed now was that Fang Tian was definitely a game player and was after the Puppet Card. The life-saving grace she spoke of probably happened in the game. It wasn’t surprising that a scumbag like Shen Wenwu, who beat his father and cursed his mother, would be pulled into the game. Judging from their relationship, his level might have been quite high, which was why Fang Tian was so devotedly fawning over him and why he could obtain a card.
Shen Maomao: “So what card does that ungrateful wretch10 Ren Yue actually have?”
Lou Jingmo had disliked Ren Yue from the start, let alone now that she had developed feelings for Shen Maomao. Hearing Shen Maomao say this, a thought of snatching the card arose in her mind, but she didn’t want to resort to that unless absolutely necessary.
She returned the card to Shen Maomao, unwilling to hear the name of this friend who was once very close to her from Shen Maomao’s lips, so she changed the subject, “You keep the card.”
Shen Maomao’s attention was immediately diverted. “Why give it to me?”
Lou Jingmo: “You brought the card back, what do you mean why give it to you?”
Shen Maomao: “You don’t have this card either, do you?”
Lou Jingmo indeed didn’t have it, but she didn’t care about this one card; she could find one herself later anyway. “I don’t need it.”
Shen Maomao: “I don’t need it either.”
A card that people outside would scramble for had become a burden to be pushed back and forth between the two of them, enough to make countless people’s eyes pop out.
After a bit of back-and-forth, Shen Maomao suddenly burst out laughing, feeling that the two of them were being incredibly pretentious. “Simon Peter is such a disrespected card, ahahahahaha…”
Lou Jingmo laughed along with her. “Just take it if I tell you to, cut the crap!”
Shen Maomao said faintly, “You’re so bossy, oh…”
Lou Jingmo: “…”
In the end, Shen Maomao put the card away. She was hungry and sleepy and had no extra energy to argue with Lou Jingmo.
There were leftovers in the kitchen from what the old folks had eaten in the morning. Lou Jingmo told her to lie down while she went to the kitchen to heat up food for her.
Shen Maomao lay on the bed, covered with her little quilt, Simon Peter in one hand, Fei Li in the other, and Lou Jingmo in the kitchen making food for her. She instantly felt like a winner in life.
Then her advisor sent her a message, telling her to revise her thesis from scratch.
Shen Maomao: “…” Life is so hard.
Before long, Lou Jingmo called her to eat. The two of them sat around the dining table and had a harmonious dinner. Then they put the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher, and then they all snuggled up on Shen Maomao’s small bed to catch up on sleep.
When Mother Shen and Father Shen returned, the house was as quiet as if no one was there. Mother Shen put down the groceries, tiptoed to Shen Maomao’s room door, pressed down the handle, and peeked inside. She saw two girls sleeping soundly, foot to foot.
She gently closed the door again, made a “shh” gesture to Father Shen behind her, and whispered, “They’re asleep…”
Father Shen nodded to show he understood. “Let them sleep. We’ll start cooking, try to have food ready for them when they wake up!”
The two of them walked into the kitchen, their voices gradually fading. Lying on the bed, Lou Jingmo opened her eyes, glanced at the door, then at Shen Maomao, and sighed silently.
✨ Unlock Early Access to Chapters! ✨
Choose your perfect membership at bamboopandatl.net:
📚 Full Access ($4.99)
• Advanced chapters of ALL ongoing novels
• Access to complete finished novels
• Ad-free reading experience
📖 Single Novel Access ($1.49)
• Advanced chapters of ONE specific novel
• Ad-free reading for chosen novel
PayPal is the only current payment option!