The Hand of Confession – Chapter 202

Volume 7: Days of Stargazing at the Inn

Going Crazy

After we get down the mountain, we’ll call the police immediately. Farewell.

Golden Retriever shot up from the bed. Shen Maomao smoothly picked up the phone, which had been warmed by his body heat, and asked, “Your phone?”

Golden Retriever pulled his own phone out of his pocket. “Mine’s here!”

The ringtone wouldn’t stop. The caller ID was a string of garbled characters, making it impossible to tell if the caller was a person or a ghost.

Shen Maomao glanced at the top left corner of the phone. Both SIM card slots showed an “×,” indicating either no signal or no SIM cards installed.

Lou Jingmo said, “Answer it.”

Shen Maomao immediately swiped the screen, answered the call, and put it on speakerphone.

A burst of crackling static came through, followed by a woman’s low murmur, like someone talking in their sleep. Her voice was deep, and she spoke very quickly, rattling off a whole bunch of gibberish, but the three of them couldn’t make out a single word.

After muttering for a while without getting a reply, the woman got angry and suddenly started shouting furiously, her mouth going like a machine gun, rat-a-tat-tat, nonstop. She spoke so much that Shen Maomao wondered if her throat would start smoking…

Finally, she let out an angry yell, and with a “beep,” the call disconnected, leaving them with a long busy signal.

Shen Maomao held the phone, completely dumbfounded. “…Her mouth… was it rented or something?” Was she in such a hurry to return it that she had to talk so fast?

Golden Retriever said, puzzled, “It didn’t sound like she was actually talking, more like some meaningless rambling?”

Lou Jingmo nodded. “She wasn’t really speaking. I couldn’t make out any distinct words either.”

Shen Maomao: “So, whose phone is this?”

Everyone’s phones looked the same, so she couldn’t tell whose was whose. She placed her finger on the fingerprint sensor on the back of the phone, wanting to see if her fingerprint could unlock it. With a “click,” the phone’s home screen lit up.

Shen Maomao was stunned. “What the heck?”

Golden Retriever: “Case solved. It’s your phone.”

Shen Maomao also took out her own phone. “So, can each of us unlock everyone else’s phone?”

She locked the phone again, handed it to Golden Retriever for him to try. After Golden Retriever tried it, he gave it to Lou Jingmo. They could indeed all unlock this phone.

[LP: Wait, didn’t they test this before???]

Lou Jingmo toyed with the phone, looking thoughtful. “Maybe… our fingerprints are all the same…”

Shen Maomao: “Maybe this means we’re actually the same person?”

Golden Retriever was speechless. “I don’t think so. I’m a guy, you two are girls. Our anatomies are different.”

Lou Jingmo opened the phone and looked at other things for a bit, then asked Golden Retriever, “Do you remember anything about the person who tied you up?”

Golden Retriever: “Not at all. Everything just went black, and then I somehow ended up lying on the bed.”

Lou Jingmo opened a video in the photo album, turned up the volume, and had them watch it together. “Come, look at this.”

The video showed a boundless grassy field. The camera slowly zoomed in towards the ground, revealing a clearing in the grass, an iron bed in the clearing, and next to it, bottles of disinfectant with their caps off.

The image froze there. A few minutes later, a man pushed aside the tall grass and appeared in the frame. His steps clearly faltered for a moment, then he rushed towards the iron-frame bed as if he’d gone mad. He wildly grabbed a bottle of disinfectant and started pouring it on the ground, laughing strangely and muttering unintelligible words.

All the bottles were emptied. The man clutched the bottle in his hand, then, as if remembering something, threw it forcefully away.

The video ended abruptly. Golden Retriever’s heart pounded wildly, and he plopped down on the ground, cold sweat trickling down his forehead. “That… was me?” The man acting crazily in the video had dazzling golden hair; it was clearly Golden Retriever.

Only then did Shen Maomao remember to look at the bottles on the ground. She squatted down, rummaged around a bit, then picked up a bottle and tilted it. A few drops of a colorless, pungent liquid trickled out. It smelled just like disinfectant.

She then moved closer to Golden Retriever and sniffed him. She smelled the same odor. “It must be you.”

Lou Jingmo rewound the video to a certain point, noted the direction he threw the bottle, and walked over to that spot. Sure enough, she found a crooked bottle on the ground.

Golden Retriever scratched his head. “Why did this happen… Was I possessed by a ghost?!”

Witnessing himself acting so strangely in the video, even someone as carefree as Golden Retriever couldn’t help but feel scared. What’s more, the sounds he made in the video inexplicably matched the voice of the woman who had called them.

Golden Retriever shivered, looked up at the sky, and saw an endless expanse of blue. “And… where did this video come from?”

Shen Maomao pulled and dragged him up from the ground. “Don’t be afraid, we’ll protect you.”

He recovered a bit and squeezed between Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao like a little quail. “Xiao Lou-jie, save me!”

Shen Maomao: “You shouldn’t go off alone anymore. If this happens to you again, I’ll just knock you out.”

Golden Retriever nodded repeatedly. “Okay!!”

Lou Jingmo tossed her own phone to Shen Maomao, tucked the one she’d picked up into her pocket, and led the two of them to search the vicinity for a while longer. However, they still found nothing and had to start heading back.

The tracks they had left were still there. As they walked back, the group didn’t stop searching their surroundings, but they found nothing.

The further they walked, the shorter the bushes became, and finally, they could see the small path leading up the mountain. The three of them emerged from the bushes one after another and happened to run into the young couple coming down the mountain.

Qu Jing greeted them with a smile. “You’re guests at the inn too, right? I remember you, golden-haired kid.”

Their performance when they went up the mountain together yesterday wasn’t particularly outstanding, but Golden Retriever was the only one among them with bright golden hair, so it wasn’t surprising he was remembered.

As soon as she saw her, Shen Maomao’s eyes lit up, and she desperately tugged on Lou Jingmo’s sleeve.

The person who knew where Ranran disappeared had arrived!

Lou Jingmo understood and patted Golden Retriever on the back from behind.

Golden Retriever said, “We’re looking for Ranran.”

Qu Jing was a little surprised. “Didn’t Hong-jie say she went home?”

Golden Retriever was at a loss for words.

Shen Maomao, who was beside him, quickly chimed in, spouting nonsense with her eyes closed, “We’re friends with her. She didn’t even tell us she was leaving, and she didn’t take her luggage. I suspect Hong-jie lied to reassure us… Anyway, we need to see her alive, or her body if she’s dead.”

How would she know if Ranran’s luggage was still there? In any case, winning Qu Jing over was the most important thing right now.

Qu Jing’s expression also turned serious. “She didn’t even take her clothes? Then something is indeed wrong. But it was too dark last night, I don’t quite remember the exact location.”

Shen Maomao immediately said, “It’s okay. While waiting for people, I was scuffing the dirt on the ground for fun. If you look carefully now, you can still find the marks.”

Qu Jing looked at her boyfriend. “Then should we help look?”

Xi Tian nodded in agreement.

The group searched along the path and found the tracks Lou Jingmo had left. Qu Jing stood by the roadside, recalling. After closing her eyes for a moment, she opened them again and said, a little uncertainly, “It should be… here, right?”

The group entered in single file at the spot she indicated. After fumbling their way forward for a while, they actually found some footprints that didn’t belong to Shen Maomao’s group of three.

Qu Jing clapped her hands. “This is it! No doubt about it!!”

It seemed the three of them had been looking in the wrong direction before.

She hurried over to a tree in a few quick strides and said, “I was standing right here waiting for her before!”

The five of them began searching the nearby area. Golden Retriever stuck close to Lou Jingmo, afraid he might suddenly lose control of himself again.

They hadn’t been searching for long when Qu Jing suddenly shouted, “There are tracks here!”

The other four gathered around and saw a large patch of twisted and broken bushes, and a large area of crushed flowers.

These bushes had small thorns. The thorns were translucent, almost transparent, and entirely blood-red, looking as if a large basin of fresh blood had been splashed on them.

The crushed grass behind them formed a long, S-shaped trail, twisting forward for some distance before stopping abruptly. It looked like a snake writhing its way forward, only to be discovered by a hunter halfway and snatched away with a stab of a pitchfork.

Qu Jing asked, puzzled, “This trail… how was it made?”

Lou Jingmo suddenly said with a serious expression, “I suspect there’s a murderer here.”

Shen Maomao: “??”

Xi Tian’s expression changed, and he protectively put his arm around his girlfriend. “What do you mean?”

Lou Jingmo said without batting an eye, “Look at these thorns. That’s actually blood on them.”

Qu Jing struggled free from her boyfriend’s hold and reached out to touch one of the small thorns. She didn’t feel any moisture, but instead, a reddish-brown powder came off on her finger. Her face changed instantly. “It really is blood…”

Xi Tian became even more nervous. After all, Ranran had disappeared right under Qu Jing’s nose. It could be said that his girlfriend had almost been the one to disappear. Of course, he was worried about his girlfriend, so he immediately took out his phone to call the police, only to find he had no signal. “Damn, what kind of godforsaken place is this?!”

Qu Jing said, “Don’t panic. We’ll call the police as soon as we get back.”

Lou Jingmo said, “Be careful. I suspect the murderer has an accomplice mixed in among us. It’s best you don’t tell anyone else about this, to avoid bringing trouble upon yourselves¹.”

Qu Jing said, “Okay, we’ll call the police when we get back. You guys be careful too.”

The two groups walked back together. After returning to the inn and accompanying Golden Retriever to change his clothes, they went downstairs, just in time for lunch.

Hong-jie also came downstairs and leisurely began to enjoy her meal.

Qu Jing and Xi Tian went back to their room. In less than half an hour, they came down with their luggage and told the front desk they wanted to check out.

The front desk staff didn’t try to persuade them to stay at all, had housekeeping check the room, and then refunded the remainder of their deposit.

Before leaving, they made a point of finding Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo’s table. Qu Jing, with a serious expression, whispered to them, “You guys should leave quickly too. There’s something wrong with this place. Suddenly today, there’s no signal at all. There’s definitely a problem…”

The NPCs could leave, but the players had nowhere to go. They could only wait for death at the inn.

Shen Maomao swallowed the food in her mouth and said, “We can’t leave. We need to find out the cause of Ranran’s death. You guys go ahead.”

The two didn’t try to persuade them further. Xi Tian added, “After we get down the mountain, we’ll call the police immediately. Farewell.”

After saying that, the two of them hastily walked out of the inn and headed down the mountain.

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