The Hand of Confession – Chapter 196

Volume 7: Days of Stargazing at the Inn

The Moon

That person is missing!

Shen Maomao glanced at her watch.

The time was exactly eight o’clock.

It was clearly midsummer, yet the sky had darkened exceptionally early; by eight o’clock, it was already pitch black¹. The temperature in the mountains was a bit higher than she had expected; even wearing short sleeves, she didn’t feel cold.

The light from the flashlights attracted some small, phototactic insects, which buzzed wengwengweng as they flew around them. Most of the players were silent; only Xiaobao’s mom and Hong-jie were chatting desultorily.

Before long, a soud of rustling sound came from the left. Xiaobao’s dad, carrying Xiaobao, emerged from the bushes. Xiaobao giggled gege, plucked a red leaf from his father’s head, and happily showed it to the others, “Mama! Papa has a pretty leaf on his head!”

The leaf was shaped like a dancing flame, its color as red as blood. It had some bluish-yellow veins, and when it moved, it gave the illusion that they were gurgling and pulsing.

This was a maple leaf.

Yet it had appeared in such a season.

Looking back at the previous few instances they had experienced, although all had situations that defied real-world logic, none had been this blatant. It was as if the five big words “LOGIC IS FLAWED” were being shoved in their faces.

So, what was the instance trying to express? What did it want to tell the players?

The NPCs didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with finding a thoroughly red maple leaf in the middle of summer. Xiaobao’s mom took Xiaobao, smiled, kissed his forehead, and praised, “Xiaobao is so amazing!”

Shen Maomao withdrew her gaze, opened her water bottle, and took another sip. Beside her, Lou Jingmo seemed to have stepped on something and was vigorously rubbing her shoe on the ground.

After a while longer, a sound also came from the grass on the right. A beam of light shot out, momentarily dazzling everyone’s eyes, then quickly veered to the other side. Qu Jing pushed aside the bushes and shouted breathlessly, “That person is missing!”

Her boyfriend, Xi Tian, quickly went up to her, supported her by her armpits to pull her out of the bushes, and helped pat the leaves and dirt off her clothes. “Don’t panic, speak slowly. How did she disappear?”

The group of players gathered around. Qu Jing took a couple of breaths and said rapidly, “Weren’t we going to the toilet together just now? I finished first, then turned my back to keep watch for her. After a while, I suddenly realized there was no sound behind me. When I turned around, I found only this flashlight on the ground…”

Hong-jie also came over, her expression not very urgent. She said unhurriedly, “The young lady with short hair? What was her name again?”

Her roommate said, “I think it was Ranran².”

“Called Ranran, ah.” Hong-jie said, “There seem to be many large pits dug by hunters around here in the past. Don’t tell me she fell into one.”

The roommate: “Should we go look for her, ba?”

Xiaobao’s mom was the first to object: “It’s pitch black out here, where are we supposed to go looking? What if we accidentally fall into one of those hunter’s pits? And what if there are animal traps or sharpened bamboo stakes at the bottom of those pits…”

Qu Jing said, “There are no hunter’s pits. I searched nearby and called out a couple of times, but found nothing.”

“Then she must have left on her own, ba? Otherwise, how could there be no sound at all?” Hong-jie muttered helplessly, “Ai… How can she cause so much trouble for people…”

Her roommate tried to rally the players, “Let’s go look for her, ba? She disappeared so inexplicably, maybe we’ll be next!”

The somber night, the chaotic chirping of insects. A few birds, startled by her resounding words, flapped their wings and took off from the branches, shaking off leaves. A gentle breeze swept through the treetops, flowed out from the gaps between the tree trunks, and caressed the players’ faces.

A leaf happened to fall on Hong-jie’s neck. The icy touch felt like someone had blown a cold breath on the back of her neck, startling her into a shiver.

“Pei pei pei!” Her expression turned stern, and she spat three times. “What nonsense are you spouting? If you don’t know the situation, don’t talk rubbish. As long as you don’t run around recklessly, you’ll definitely be fine!”

The roommate was rebuffed by her and left speechless. She could only look earnestly at the other players, hoping they would agree with her view and go search for the person with her.

Hong-jie blocked her with her body, her large shadow falling on the roommate’s face. “Stop looking. We’re not professionals. If we can’t find her and end up getting ourselves into trouble too! We’re almost at the summit now. It’s better to go up and find the staff, and ask them if they can call the police.”

Lou Jingmo also didn’t approve of searching for her. The forest was fraught with hidden dangers. This Ranran had disappeared so suddenly; she probably encountered a ghost. After encountering a ghost, the chances of survival were slim³. Searching would be futile and would only be like serving themselves up to the ghosts and monsters.

She glanced at Shen Maomao and was somewhat surprised to find no sign of reluctance or pity on her face. She tilted her head and asked in a low voice, “Why aren’t you advocating for a search?”

Shen Maomao was speechless. “Actually, I’m quite selfish too, okay? It’s pitch black, and I’m scared too…”

So how exactly did Lou Jingmo see her? In Lou Jingmo’s mind, was she the type to be so scared her legs trembled, yet stubbornly insist on going to her death?

They had just arrived and knew nothing about this instance. Perhaps the trigger for death was leaving this path and entering the forest. Blindly searching for someone at this time was completely meaningless.

The reason Ranran’s roommate strongly urged everyone to search together wasn’t because she had developed an emotional bond with Ranran over the past few hours. She just wanted to find out why Ranran had disappeared. But seeing that no one agreed, she immediately gave up the idea⁴ and agreed with Hong-jie’s proposal: “Then forget it. There’s strength in numbers; let’s go up and call for help…”

The group continued upwards. The atmosphere was even more silent compared to when they first set out, but Hong-jie didn’t seem to find the atmosphere strange at all. It was as if she had completely forgotten what had just happened and the missing girl, and she continued to passionately describe the beauty of the aurora to them.

Xiaobao listened with great interest⁵, occasionally chiming in with exaggerated responses, which made Hong-jie beam with delight⁶. Praises poured out of her mouth as if they cost nothing.

Hearing her son being praised so much, Xiaobao’s mom’s expression also gradually softened.

After about another ten minutes, they saw a large expanse of white light.

Xiaobao exclaimed, “Mama! Is that the aurora?!”

Hong-jie laughed out loud, “Aiya, my silly child, that’s artificial light! We’re almost there!”

This time, they really were almost there.

After walking for nearly two hours, they finally saw what the mountaintop looked like—it was a large platform, and as far as the eye could see, there was only one enormous, entirely white building.

Unlike the darkness and desolation of the mountain path, this building had large searchlights on, illuminating the entire mountaintop. The building also had an open-air platform, the most striking feature of which was a huge black astronomical telescope, looking both stunning and imposing.

There were also a few people on the platform, queuing up behind the telescope to observe the starry sky. Xiaobao, down below, was extremely envious and clamored to go up and look through the telescope too.

Hong-jie said, “Alright, we’ve reached our destination! Everyone form two lines. Xiaobao, hold onto your mama. We’re preparing to go in!”

Because of Ranran’s disappearance, her roommate could only reluctantly stand in line with Golden Retriever, moving from the middle of the crowd to a position near the front.

As soon as they got close to the white building, they could clearly see several large, gilt characters on its wall—Heart’s Haven Celestial Research Center.

Shen Maomao: “…” So this is the same company as the inn…

After entering, there was first a large hall. The hall was decorated with wallpaper as fantastical as a starry sky, and the ceiling projected an image of the cosmos, instantly giving people the illusion of being amidst the stars.

Xiaobao was so astonished his mouth hung open. His father lifted him high up to try and grab one of the small planets, but he only caught a handful of air.

The young couple were also stunned by this incomparably beautiful and fantastical sight; the stern faces they had put on due to the unexpected incident in the latter half of the journey also relaxed.

The only strange thing was—there were no staff members here.

Hong-jie turned off her megaphone, glanced at her watch, and then said to them, “It’s now eight-thirty, a little later than we expected, but it’s not a big issue. Next is free activity time. The aurora will probably appear around nine o’clock, so those who want to see it shouldn’t miss out. We’ll gather here at nine-thirty. I’ll go find the staff and go down the mountain with them to look for the person.”

The woman who had been left out (Ranran’s roommate) joined a two-person team. Everyone dispersed on the spot, each going off to search for clues.

Most people chose to go to the observatory. Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever ran very fast, rushing ahead of everyone to climb the stairs to the second floor, and queued up behind two solitary individuals.

Next was Xiaobao, his little legs scrambling quickly, closely followed by Xiaobao’s mom and Xiaobao’s dad.

Then a large crowd of players gathered around. Shen Maomao stood at the very front of the crowd, craning her neck to look back. After waiting for a long time, she finally saw Lou Jingmo’s figure unhurriedly walking over.

However, there was no time to talk to Lou-jie. The person in front looked for two minutes, then consciously moved away, and Shen Maomao was next.

Shen Maomao first observed the telescope. It had two barrels, one large and one small, and many components whose names she didn’t know. She had no idea what they were for, and there was no one beside her to explain. She could only imitate the person before her, sticking her bottom out and leaning over the astronomical telescope, aligning her right eye with the eyepiece to look through.

A white planet with a somewhat strange texture came into view. The planet’s surface had many raised craters, making her instantly recognize and name it in her mind—the Moon.

She didn’t dare to mess with their equipment, so she just stared blankly at the Moon for a long time.

As she watched, a hazy red mist suddenly enveloped the entire lens, veiling the Moon in a blood-colored gauze.

The craters on the Moon’s surface convulsed twice as if in an earthquake, then uniformly spewed out a large amount of red liquid, dyeing the entire Moon red. It looked exceptionally eerie.

This sudden situation gave Shen Maomao quite a fright. She suppressed her fear and continued to watch.

She saw the red liquid accumulate more and more, finally turning the Moon into a red planet. In the very center of the planet, there were some un-erupted craters. Looking closely, they actually formed four letters—

XLGW.

---

---