The Hand of Confession – Chapter 242

Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage

Man-Eating

Someone else’s power will never provide the same sense of security as one’s own hard work.

Su Han had a serious addiction to alcohol.

For certain reasons, she was particularly obsessed with the taste of wine, to the point where she couldn’t walk away if she smelled its aroma. But she would restrain herself, and few people around her knew she was a wine aficionado.

Just now, she had only wanted to taste the well water, but ended up as if bewitched by it, drinking so much of it despite knowing full well there was a problem with the water.

This left her somewhat terrified, afraid that she would explode and die in the next second.

Shen Maomao patted her shoulder to comfort her. “Since you’ve already drunk it, it’s no use regretting it now. Why not look on the bright side? At the very least, you can be a ghost who died with a full stomach, drinking your favorite beverage to your heart’s content!”

Su Han: “…” She wasn’t comforted at all.

Lou Jingmo got straight to the point: “What you should be worried about now is whether this bewitchment will happen again by the well.”

If Su Han decided to court death¹ and jump into the well then, they wouldn’t have the spare time to stop her.

Shen Maomao thought of a physical method to break the illusory bewitchment, rubbing her hands together, eager to give it a try. “How about this: if you suddenly lose control and try to jump in the well, and I’m next to you, I’ll just give you two slaps to wake you up. How does that sound?”

Lou Jingmo’s mouth twitched slightly. What kind of strange hobby has Shen Maomao awakened??

While the three of them were talking, Potato Chips and Milk Tea started collecting the bowls, silently gathering the other three’s as well.

When Shen Maomao saw this, her face instantly grew hot, and she hurried to grab the bowls from them. “Give them to me… I can do it!”

Potato Chips said magnanimously, “It’s fine, you guys keep discussing your strategy. If the two of us run into this problem, just slap us hard. Don’t stop until you’ve slapped us awake.”

After she spoke, Milk Tea, who was beside her, also gave Shen Maomao a shy smile, then carried the bowls with Potato Chips to wash them.

Shen Maomao scratched her head, watching their backs. “How should I put this… Those two are pretty good at handling things.”

Su Han said with emotion, “I was like that too when I had just entered the game. Always trying my best to please other players, hoping that by bootlicking², in the end, I’d have everything I could wish for… But someone else’s power will never provide the same sense of security as one’s own hard work.”

After all, not everyone in the game is a good person.

Lou Jingmo glanced at Shen Maomao. “Listen to what she’s saying.”

Shen Maomao winced as if she’d been personally called out³. “Well… I think… unless I leave you, I’ll never be able to grow up. However—leaving you, that’s obviously impossible.” Her words became smoother towards the end. When she said “impossible,” she even spread her hands, looking extremely punchable.

Lou Jingmo withdrew her gaze, her heart also feeling a little complicated.

She hoped to be able to shelter Shen Maomao under her wing forever, yet she also wanted her to have the ability to be independent, lest one day, she was no longer there…

Thinking of this, Lou Jingmo couldn’t help but sigh.

She had to find a way to release Jacob. Her game was coming up soon, and its difficulty was so high that she would have trouble just looking after herself. Taking Shen Maomao in with her would absolutely be a case of nine deaths and one life⁴.

The short break passed quickly. The kitchen staff not only had to wash vegetables and dishes but were also responsible for cultivating the vegetables in the plot behind the kitchen.

Each of them was given a small shovel and, led by other servants, went to the backyard to pull weeds.

Two young servant girls explained to them in detail what were vegetables and what were weeds. The five of them copied the gourd to draw a ladle⁵, sweating away in the field for the entire morning, feeling as if their very souls had been sublimated.

But fortunately, they didn’t encounter anything else bizarre that morning. As the sun rose higher and higher, the creepy feeling of being watched that had made Su Han’s hair stand on end also completely vanished, making her steps much lighter.

The Shao Manor usually only had two meals a day, one around seven in the morning and one around three in the afternoon. Therefore, the kitchen would generally get busy again after one o’clock to prepare the more sumptuous evening meal.

The five of them finally had some time to rest and could go around to scout for information.

Lou Jingmo naturally moved with Shen Maomao. Milk Tea and Potato Chips also began discussing a route to find clues. Only Su Han, a lone emperor and solitary man⁶, was left. She knocked her head in frustration. “Next time, I have to find a teammate to enter the game with… Who would have thought that acting alone in this instance would be so dangerous…” And the remaining four teammates who can communicate normally just happen to be two pairs, this is so f#cking bullsh#t.

“It’s fine,” Shen Maomao continued to comfort her. “Don’t be scared. If it really comes to it, just don’t run around randomly.”

Su Han obviously didn’t want to entrust her fate to others. She looked at Shen Maomao and suggested, “How about you, Rabbit, stay and guard the base, while Xiao Lou and I go out to explore?”

Shen Maomao pulled back her hand, her expression blank. “In your dreams!”

Laozi⁷ was kind enough to comfort you, and you ended up hitting on my wife?? This is truly a case of if this can be tolerated, what cannot?!⁸

Su Han had a look of utter confusion.

Lou Jingmo smiled and put an arm around Shen Maomao’s shoulders, leading her away.

Potato Chips patted her shoulder. “They seem to be a couple.”

Su Han was confused. “Can’t a team temporarily switch teammates? It’s obviously safer to stay behind…”⁹

Potato Chips sighed and shook her head. …

The Shao Manor was truly big, not fake big.

Between its front and back gates, there were pools, buildings, rockeries, and a bamboo forest. The aura of the nouveau riche¹⁰ assaulted the senses.

But corresponding to its large area was the Shao Manor’s emptiness.

Not empty in terms of its architecture, but empty in terms of human presence¹¹. In such a large residence, the number of people visible to the naked eye was pitifully small. There were few servants left, and the masters were nowhere to be seen. Most of the buildings were uninhabited, which was why it seemed exceptionally empty.

Because she suspected there might be a problem with the lanterns, Shen Maomao paid extra attention to the red lanterns along the way.

During the day, the lanterns were all unlit. From a distance, their appearance was no different from ordinary lanterns. But no one knew what was truly inside, wrapped in red paper.

The two of them wandered about aimlessly, occasionally asking passing servants for gossip, and managed to clarify some of the Shao Manor’s background and relationships.

The deceased Old Master Shao had no other siblings, so the vast Shao Manor had only this one line of masters. He had one official wife and one concubine. The concubine gave birth to the shu¹² eldest son, the First Young Master, and afterward, the official wife, the Furen¹³, gave birth to the di¹⁴ eldest son, the Second Young Master.

In the following years, the official wife gave birth to the di Eldest Young Miss, the concubine gave birth to the shu Second Young Miss and Third Young Miss, and then the official wife gave birth to the Third Young Master. Five years later, Old Master Shao passed away. The First Young Master was twenty-one, the Second Young Master was twenty, the Eldest Young Miss was eighteen, the Second Young Miss was fourteen, the Third Young Miss was ten, and the Third Young Master was five.

Now, the Eldest Young Miss is already married and no longer lives in the manor. The Shao family’s business was handed over to the di eldest son, the Second Young Master, to manage. As for the First Young Master, he is said to be nothing but a straw-bag¹⁵ who only knows how to eat, drink, and be merry.

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo huddled behind the rockery, discussing the plot in low voices. “So, Old Master Shao passed away half a year ago, the three-year mourning period isn’t even over, yet the First Young Master is getting married, and the manor is even hanging up lanterns and colored banners¹⁶ to celebrate. Aren’t they afraid of people gossiping behind their backs?”

Lou Jingmo said, “It is indeed illogical. So I imagine the Shao family isn’t doing this willingly, but rather because they have no other choice.”

Shen Maomao: “I think there’s something wrong with the history of how the Shao family got rich, but I don’t know the first thing about how to do business in ancient times… I have no idea where to find evidence either.”

Lou Jingmo: “What a coincidence, I don’t either.”

Shen Maomao shot her a look.

Lou Jingmo smiled. “Let’s go back and find Su Han and Milk Tea. That Milk Tea, there’s something about her…”

Shen Maomao: “??”

The two stood up. Shen Maomao patted down her skirt and was just about to walk out when she suddenly heard a clamor of hurried footsteps approaching from a distance.

Along with the footsteps came the “mmph, mmph” struggling sounds of a girl.

Shen Maomao pulled Lou Jingmo down beside her into a squat, while she herself poked her head out from behind the rockery to watch them.

She didn’t recognize the men. She couldn’t see the woman’s face clearly, but she could see she was wearing a servant girl’s uniform.

Two men silently carried the poor little servant girl forward, while two other men followed beside them. The four of them quickly disappeared from their sight.

Shen Maomao hitched up her skirt and, in a few quick moves¹⁷, climbed to the top of the rockery, looking down from her high vantage point to see where the four men were taking the person.

Behind the rockery was a small bamboo forest. Spring was the season when bamboo grew well; the stalks shot up high, and the leaves were layered densely, making it somewhat hard for her to see clearly.

But even so, she still saw it clearly—there was also a well in the bamboo forest.

And the destination of these men seemed to be that very well.

Shen Maomao scrambled down from the rockery and whispered, “Lou-jie, it looks like they’re going to throw that servant girl inside!!”

Lou Jingmo gave her a look with an unreadable expression. “You didn’t recognize who that was?”

Shen Maomao: “Huh?!”

Lou Jingmo: “It’s Zhai Yiqiao.”

Shen Maomao’s eyes shot wide open with a shua.

It seems Zhai Yiqiao’s dream of harem scheming¹⁸ has been shattered.

Lou Jingmo asked her, “Want to save her?”

Shen Maomao shook her head repeatedly. “Can’t save her…”

She had been through too many instances and seen too many dead people; she didn’t have that much sympathy left.

Saving someone from the hands of four burly men would be simple for them, but the hardest part was how to avoid being held responsible after the rescue. Silencing all four of them was not realistic.

Besides, Zhai Yiqiao as a person…

Shen Maomao didn’t have a very good impression of her.

For her to meet such an end, one could only say she deserved more than death.

With a gurgle, something fell into the water. The sound of the splash traveled a great distance.

The four strong men who had been carrying the person scurried away in a flash, their faces deathly pale as they rushed out of the bamboo forest. Only then did their pace slow down as they walked right past the rockery and left.

“Crunch…”

“Crunch…”

“Crack…”

“Crack…”

A series of teeth-grinding chewing sounds drifted out from the bamboo forest. A shiver ran through Shen Maomao from head to toe, and she couldn’t help but grab Lou Jingmo’s hand. “…Should we… run?”

“Go, quickly!” Lou Jingmo’s face darkened. She grabbed Shen Maomao’s hand in a reverse grip and pulled her along as they dashed out from behind the rockery.

The two of them ran for a long distance. The chewing sounds behind them finally grew fainter, and then a creepy, soft laugh was carried to their ears by the breeze, after which the chewing sounds disappeared completely.

The laughter sounded like it came from a woman.

Shen Maomao broke out in goosebumps and said, panting, “This thing in the well… it eats people!”

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