The Hand of Confession – Chapter 249

Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage

The Bridal Chamber

This place is… the bridal chamber

This was truly a case of getting a pillow just as you’re getting sleepy¹—it was the perfect time.

Shen Maomao agreed readily and cheerfully, “Alright, Miss Bi Chun! Is it just the two of us cleaning?”

Bi Chun said, “In a little while, some people will be here to deliver the decorations for the bridal chamber. You two, keep your eyes open and know what to do. Understand?”

Shen Maomao nodded repeatedly. “Understood, understood.”

With that, she looked at the broom in the courtyard, walked over to pick it up, and added, “Then we’ll start working now. You can go attend to your business?”

Bi Chun nodded in satisfaction and sauntered gracefully out of the courtyard.

The moment she left, Shen Maomao’s hand went slack, and she dropped the broom on the ground. The first thing she did was get away from that strange well to find Lou Jingmo. “Lou-jie, did you find anything?”

Lou Jingmo said, “What those two snacks said this morning was true.”

Shen Maomao didn’t react for a moment. “Snacks?”

Lou Jingmo: “You know, Milk Tea and Potato Chip.”

Shen Maomao tried to recall for a long time before finally giving up. “Which part of what they said?”

Lou Jingmo: “That they didn’t fall asleep willingly.”

Shen Maomao blinked. “What do you mean?”

“Because I fell asleep too,” Lou Jingmo said. “After four o’clock, I suddenly became very drowsy and lost consciousness. The next time I opened my eyes was because of Milk Tea’s scream. Zhai Yiqiao seems to have merged with the plot; she’s become a plot point that triggers different scenarios based on our choices…”

“Then why didn’t you tell Su Han just now?”

Lou Jingmo said, “No need. I don’t have the leisure to explain things to them. That Su Han is even more of a blockhead than you are.”

Shen Maomao: “…” It was true. Su Han’s personality was very similar to hers, but with more courage and less finesse. Overall, they were both the brash type.

But that wasn’t what she wanted to ask. It was about the well!

“Wait a minute… I wanted to ask—” she quickly steered the conversation back on track, “—did you discover anything here?”

“Yes,” Lou Jingmo replied. “The thing in the well seems to be very afraid of this Bi Chun.”

Shen Maomao was also suddenly reminded of the situation from just now. She had been in a daze, and the female ghost had been wailing “woo woo.” The moment Bi Chun spoke, the ghost’s crying stopped, and she, too, had instantly sobered up. “That does seem to be the case. Judging by how practiced she was at disposing of the body, this probably isn’t the first time she’s done something like this.”

“Wrong,” Lou Jingmo countered. “If we follow your line of thought, someone she murdered should have turned into a vengeful spirit and tried every means to get revenge on her, not become frightened just by hearing her voice.”

Shen Maomao proposed a possibility, “Perhaps they were tortured by Bi Chun before they died, and that fear was etched into their very souls?”

“We’ll see,” Lou Jingmo neither agreed with nor denied her point. She just turned and walked towards the rooms in the courtyard, saying as she went, “Let’s go. Don’t go near that well for now. It’s seriously bad news.”

Shen Maomao quickened her pace to catch up. “So, are we going to check out the rooms?”

Lou Jingmo: “It’d be a waste not to.”

What a “waste not to.”

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, the two of them, armed with small rags, turned the few rooms in the courtyard upside down. They reaped a number of silver bank notes and several land and property deeds, but they couldn’t find any useful clues.

As the sky gradually brightened, other noises came from outside. It seemed the servants sent out for procurement had returned.

Inside the room, the two stuffed the things they had rummaged through back into their original places, then took their rags and started wiping the tables and windowsills, putting on an act of “I love to work, working makes me happy.”

A short while later, a large group of people swarmed in from outside, led by none other than Steward Shao, the very man who had brought them into the Shao Manor.

Steward Shao hadn’t expected anyone to be in the room. He was taken aback for a moment upon seeing them. “Who told you to come here?”

Shen Maomao stopped her work and answered, “Replying to Steward Shao, it was Miss Bi Chun who told us to come here to work.”

Steward Shao stroked his beard, glanced out the window, and then muttered under his breath, “What is she up to again?”

The two of them kept their eyes on their noses, their noses on their mouths, and their mouths on their hearts², pretending not to have heard his muttering.

Steward Shao thought to himself for a moment, then looked up at them again. “Besides you two, is there anyone else?”

Shen Maomao didn’t know if she should answer this question and could only turn to Lou Jingmo for help on the spot.

Lou Jingmo shifted her gaze from Shen Maomao, lowered her eyes, and replied, “No one else. It’s just the two of us.”

There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with that answer. There were indeed only two living people. The other one was dead, and might even turn into a ghost later.

Steward Shao nodded and waved them out. “You two go outside. We’ll let it be for today, but from now on, you are not to enter this room again. This place is… the bridal chamber. The bride hasn’t even entered yet, how can we let little maids like you get the first dibs?”

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo exchanged a glance and walked out together, rags in hand. As she was about to exit the main gate, she looked back and saw Steward Shao starting to direct the other servants to change the bedding to red quilts, likely preparing for the wedding night tomorrow.

The two left the courtyard and pretended to sweep the grounds outside.

Lou Jingmo said, “He paused when he said, ‘This place is.’ What is this place? Does the bridal chamber have another purpose?”

Shen Maomao pretended to be a feelingless sweeping machine. “I dunno, and I daren’t ask.”

Lou Jingmo added, “The wedding is tomorrow. I wonder what will happen.”

Shen Maomao thought for a moment and said bluntly, “I think someone’s going to die.”

Lou Jingmo: “For real.”

Right now, there were five women left on their side, and five men as well. Who knew how many would be left after tonight.

Just as the two were pondering the plot, the courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open. A familiar figure stepped over the threshold and walked towards them.

It was Young Master Shao!

Shen Maomao lowered her head, staring intently at the cracks in the ground.

She wouldn’t believe for a second that he had nothing to do with Zhai Yiqiao’s death. Besides, she’d had that encounter on the wall³ with him yesterday, which made her feel a bit intimidated now, afraid that he would target her.

Lou Jingmo also feigned a casual step forward, shielding Shen Maomao with her body.

But as fate would have it, Young Master Shao, who had been heading back to his room, paused and turned to look at Shen Maomao. “Which courtyard are you from, little maid?”

Without looking up, Shen Maomao said meekly, “Replying to the Young Master, I’m new here. Miss Bi Chun assigned me to work here.”

“New, you say? Then how do you know I’m the Young Master?” Young Master Shao opened his folding fan with a shua and waved it pretentiously in front of his chest a few times, probably thinking he looked incredibly dashing and debonair.

But his face was a little too pale, countless shades whiter than when he was with Zhai Yiqiao before. He looked as if some little vixen had sucked him dry of his spirit and hollowed out his body.

Shen Maomao kept her head down. “Miss Baozhu pointed you out to us from a distance, saying you were the Young Master…”

The Young Master pushed Lou Jingmo aside, snapped his fan shut, and used it to lift Shen Maomao’s chin. He said in a ghostly tone, “I’ve seen you before. On that wall.” As he spoke, his salty pig trotter⁴ was about to touch her face.

Shen Maomao glanced sideways. The adjacent Lou Jingmo had already taken out her knife.

She quickly dodged the claw with a bashful look and said coyly, “That day, it was Baozhu’s paper kite that got stuck on a branch. I was helping her get it.”

Young Master Shao tried to continue his greasy harassment. “Did you do that to deliberately attract this Young Master’s attention?”

That line was so cringey. Shen Maomao’s mind automatically played the classic line, “Woman, you’ve successfully captured my attention.” Beside her, Lou Jingmo’s hand, which was holding the knife, began to tremble slightly…

An idea struck Shen Maomao. She brought up Bi Chun directly, forced out two tears, and said, “Young Master, please don’t be like this… Miss Bi Chun said that if anyone dares to seduce you, she’ll throw them into the well!”

At the mention of the well, the Young Master’s expression changed in an instant.

He glanced uneasily at the path leading to the back courtyard, then snorted coldly. His entire demeanor shifted from greasy to gloomy. He said, “That Bi Chun…” and left the sentence hanging.

Then he waved his hand at Shen Maomao impatiently. “Alright, get back to what you were doing. Don’t be an eyesore in front of this Young Master!” After speaking, he strode towards the room, meeting Steward Shao who was walking towards him, and they went inside together.

Shen Maomao straightened her back, wiped away her tears, and turned to grasp Lou Jingmo’s free hand. “Lou-jie, calm your anger!”

Lou Jingmo snorted coldly.

Shen Maomao hugged her tightly. “You can kill him, but there’s no need, Lou-jie!” She was genuinely terrified that Lou Jingmo would kill an important NPC in a fit of rage and prevent them from getting out…

Lou Jingmo seemed to see her anxiety and explained, “It’s fine. Important NPCs just turn into vengeful ghosts to seek revenge after they die, but they still have all their necessary functions.”

Shen Maomao: “…This is clearly a low-difficulty level, do you have to play it on nightmare mode? Aren’t you afraid of failing spectacularly?”

Lou Jingmo thought about it and agreed. Besides, that pig trotter hadn’t even touched Shen Maomao, so she could spare his life for now.

Not long after, the sun had fully risen. Steward Shao dismissed the servants, telling them to go eat. Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo were among them.

The two didn’t linger and went straight to the kitchen. Only then did they begin to discuss the matter of the Young Master and Bi Chun.

Shen Maomao had only mentioned Bi Chun to find an excuse to reject the Young Master’s greasy advances, but she hadn’t expected it to be so effective.

This Bi Chun seemed to be quite formidable. Not only was the female ghost afraid of her, but even the manor’s Young Master seemed wary of this little head maid. What was so special about her?

The two talked as they walked all the way to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the servants were sitting in a circle. Shen Maomao didn’t see the other three women, but she did see Jiang You and Yun Shengjin from the male players’ group.

Yun Shengjin and Jiang You were also sitting apart, a clear sign that they weren’t on the same team.

Shen Maomao pretended not to see them and pulled Lou Jingmo along to eat seriously, planning to go back and investigate the well in the Young Master’s courtyard after they finished.

But just as they stepped out of the kitchen, a voice called out from behind them, “Xiao Lou! Wait a second!”

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