The Hand of Confession – Chapter 232

Volume 7: Days of Stargazing at the Inn

You’re Full of Sh#t

I’d fall for a pig before I’d ever fall for you!

The graduation ceremony droned on and on. By the time Shen Maomao woke up from a nap on Lou Jingmo’s shoulder, the school administrators were finally announcing the end of the ceremony.

She wiped the drool from her mouth and checked her phone. It was already two o’clock.

Their principal, with his extraordinary gift for public speaking, had single-handedly held the stage for nearly two hours, downing three bottles of water in the process. Still going strong for an old man, truly.

With the ceremony over, everyone returned to their assigned classrooms to turn in their gowns and bid a final farewell to the school. One by one, they walked out with their heads held high, ready to step into society.

Shen Maomao said her goodbyes to a few classmates she was relatively familiar with, then looped her arm through Lou Jingmo’s, ready to leave.

“Wait!” Just as they reached the stairwell, a familiar voice called out from behind her. “Shen Maomao! Wait!”

Shen Maomao wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard, but Ren Yue had already scurried around in front of them, panting, “Maomao…”

“Don’t call me that,” Shen Maomao cut her off, her expression flat. “We’re not that close.”

A wounded look flickered in Ren Yue’s eyes.

In the past, Shen Maomao’s heart would have ached to see it. Now, she just thought the girl was sick in the head.

What on earth gave Ren Yue such confidence? To think that after being betrayed by her time and time again, Shen Maomao would still treat her the same as always?

Do I just have the face of a simp?

Lou Jingmo shot Ren Yue a cool glance, the corner of her mouth curling into a disdainful smile. She then rested a hand on Shen Maomao’s shoulder in a clear display of ownership.

Ren Yue’s expression shifted. “Shen Maomao… can we talk? Just the two of us… There’s something I want to ask you…”

“Sorry, no,” Shen Maomao refused. “I’m worried someone might be waiting to ambush me. What is it you want? We have other things to do, and you’re wasting our time.”

“I didn’t…” The flush on Ren Yue’s face from chasing after them drained away instantly.

She looked aggrieved, her large eyes—which seemed to bulge slightly from her drastic weight loss—stared daggers at Lou Jingmo. The look in them was so intense it was as if she wanted to peel a layer of skin right off her. “Are you two really together?”

Shen Maomao rolled her eyes. “Is that all you wanted to ask? What business is it of yours whether we’re together or not?”

Ren Yue’s eyes reddened, and for some reason, she looked even more wronged than Shen Maomao. “You can’t do this to me…”

Shen Maomao nearly laughed out loud at her moronic statement.

She used to think that girls were only cute if they were delicate, soft, and gentle, but now she was starting to wonder if Ren Yue had some kind of brain disease. Why else would her train of thought be so different from a normal person’s?

The last time they’d met, Ren Yue had worn the expression of someone who had been betrayed, blabbering on and on about how Maomao couldn’t do this to her. It had made Shen Maomao so mad she’d wanted to give her a couple of hard slaps to cool her head.

“Do what to you?” Shen Maomao stared at her, her face impassive. “The fact that you’re still standing here talking to me in one piece is the greatest kindness I can show you. What more do you want? Will you only be happy if I send you to the hospital?”

Ren Yue started crying again, drawing the attention of people nearby. She sobbed, “You can’t be with her, Shen Maomao… You liked me the most… Don’t you like me??”

Lou Jingmo, who had been watching the show this whole time: “???”

Shen Maomao: “You’re full of sh#t! I’d¹ fall for a pig before I’d ever fall for you!” With that, she planted a huge kiss on Lou Jingmo’s cheek, producing an exceptionally loud “Mwah!”

Lou Jingmo: “…?” Wait, something about that sounds wrong.

“Don’t let me see you again,” Shen Maomao threatened, raising a fist. “If I do, the ICU will be your new permanent home.”

Fuming, she grabbed Lou Jingmo’s hand to leave.

But with a tug, she found she couldn’t move her.

Seeing that her little darling wife (?) was done with her tirade, Lou Jingmo immediately switched to wife-protection mode. She pulled Shen Maomao behind her, hiding her from view, and said in a cold voice, “Let’s not beat around the bush. I’ve seen plenty of selfish people like you in the game. If you truly feel sorry for Shen Maomao, then hand over the card you used on her.”

Ren Yue’s face fell. Her expression was a mixture of shock and an “I knew it” sort of understanding. “So you’re a player too! You’re that Xiao Lou, aren’t you?!”

“Cut the crap,” Lou Jingmo said, her face a mask. “Hand over the card.”

Ren Yue composed herself, her expression showing no cracks. “What card? You think I used a card on her? I don’t have any cards. That method was something my master taught me; it has nothing to do with the game… I was just possessed…”

Lou Jingmo’s lips curled into a smile that held no warmth, only a chilling gloom. “You think your acting is that good? Not only do I know you have a card, I also know what card you have. It’s an incredibly rare one. If word got out, what do you think you’d have to face?”

Ren Yue was trembling all over but refused to yield. “You’re being ridiculous. I already said I don’t know anything about a card. As they say, you can never wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.”

Lou Jingmo gave her a half-smile. “Is that so?” she said, her threat now blatant. “Don’t let me see Shen Maomao entering the game with your face again. Otherwise, I have many ways to make sure you stay in the game and never come out.”

With that, she grabbed the still-baffled Shen Maomao and walked past Ren Yue, heading down the stairs and out of the academic building.

This time, Ren Yue didn’t dare to stop them.

Outside, the sun was brilliant. Many people were hurrying toward the school gate, clutching two certificate booklets. Shen Maomao touched the school emblem on the cover of her own, a wave of complex emotions washing over her.

The person she was four years ago, just stepping onto campus, would never have imagined her future would turn out like this.

She hadn’t taken the grad school entrance exam, hadn’t found a job, and her life was constantly in danger. What a failure.

If she kept drifting along like this, even if she managed to escape the game, she’d probably just have to go back home and inherit the family restaurant.

Thinking about it that way, the pressure seemed to lift…

It was getting late, and neither of them had eaten lunch. Lou Jingmo took her to the hot pot restaurant where they used to meet, and they properly enjoyed the luxury of eating hot pot with the AC blasting in the middle of summer.

During the meal, Shen Maomao asked her, “Lou-jie, do you want the card Ren Yue has?”

“It’s alright. I don’t have a Judas.” Lou Jingmo dropped a piece of duck blood curd into the pot for her. Worried she’d have trouble finding it, she kept her chopsticks on it, placing it in Maomao’s bowl the moment it was cooked.

Shen Maomao obediently ate the duck blood, then put down her chopsticks and made a throat-slitting gesture. “Should we just… do her in?”

As she said it, a tiny speck of duck blood clung to her lips, making her look disturbingly like a ruthless, psychopathic killer.

Lou Jingmo was speechless. “I’ve discovered you’re a pretty ruthless person. A while back, you didn’t even believe me when I told you Ren Yue was bad news. Look how much time has passed, and now you’re already thinking about killing her?”

“The evidence is irrefutable, isn’t it?” Shen Maomao said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “What am I supposed to do, keep her around for New Year’s?”

Lou Jingmo chuckled and picked up another slice of meat for her. “What are you thinking? This is a society ruled by law. You pay for murder with your life.”

Shen Maomao grunted and chomped on her food, mumbling indistinctly, “I get annoyed just seeing her now. A perfect, scheming white lotus. I must have been blind back when I was nice to her, my 2.0 titanium-alloy dog eyes² must have malfunctioned.” Her words devolved into a series of muffled curses.

The more Lou Jingmo listened, the more pleased she became. She stopped eating herself and focused solely on cooking food for Maomao.

Judging by Ren Yue’s performance, she must have found out something—for instance, that the activation condition for the Judas card was perhaps even more complex than her own Jacob.

Let me make a bold guess, she thought. Does the target have to be genuinely in love with the cardholder for it to work? She had always suspected that Shen Maomao had feelings for Ren Yue without realizing it. But looking at Shen Maomao now, it was clear that regardless of her past feelings, Ren Yue was out of the picture for good, with absolutely no chance of a comeback.

The meal left them both in high spirits. Shen Maomao felt no lingering attachment to Jiangcheng. After wiping her mouth, she bought two tickets home, planning to continue her life as a salted fish³.

After boarding the train, Shen Maomao took a moment to check her phone, only to find several missed calls and a flood of messages from her mother on WeChat.

Shang Shan Ruo Shui⁴: Shen Maomao, have you grown a backbone? You didn’t even mention your graduation to me? If your advisor hadn’t posted ‘wishing the children a bright future’ in the group chat, I wouldn’t have even known you graduated??

Shang Shan Ruo Shui: What is wrong with you? Why don’t you answer my calls? Is that phone of yours even worth having? Why have a phone if you don’t turn the sound on? You might as well just smash it!

Shang Shan Ruo Shui: [Angry] [Angry] What’s the situation with your job? Why haven’t you told your family? Where are you living now? Are you ever coming home again? Did your wings get so strong that you don’t need your mom to look after you anymore?!

Every question mark and exclamation point transformed in her mind into her mother’s furious eyebrows and a raised leather belt.

She hadn’t known how to explain things before, so she’d just told her mom she’d found an internship to stop her from worrying. Then she’d gotten so preoccupied with the game that she hadn’t checked WeChat much, so of course she hadn’t mentioned a major event like graduation—she herself had only remembered because Lou Jingmo reminded her.

Seeing her dear mother fuming, she quickly replied: I was just so busy I forgot! Please, calm down!

Xiao Bai Two: I’m on the train right now…

But before that message could send, a call came through.

Shen Maomao scrambled to answer. The sound of her mother’s roar nearly shattered the phone’s earpiece, earning her several glances from Lou Jingmo. She quickly lowered the volume, finally making out what her mom was shouting—

“What is that phone for?! Don’t you know how to turn the ringer on? Why is it always so hard to reach you? The way you are, you wouldn’t even know where you lost your phone if you lost it!”

Shen Maomao quickly cut her off. “I was at my graduation ceremony! The dean was giving a speech, and my phone rings? Would that be appropriate? Would that be reasonable?”

Her mom let out a long sigh, then roared again, “So where are you messing around now? What job are you doing? Is Xiao Lou with you? Why are you so determined to make me worry? I swear, you’re going to be the death of me!”

Once her mom started lecturing, she couldn’t be stopped. Shen Maomao tried several times to get a word in but failed. Finally, in a huff, she shoved the phone at Lou Jingmo. “Fine, I can’t explain it. You do it!”

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