The Hand of Confession – Chapter 257

Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage

Wedding

Guess who the bride is?

To be honest, letting Lou Jingmo run out like this in the middle of the night to find clues, Shen Maomao was a hundred percent uneasy in her heart. If anything happened to her, she on her side could start preparing for the farewell to the remains in advance.

So after careful consideration, she finally spoke up: “You don’t go, I’ll go.”

Lou Jingmo: “Can you do it?”

Shen Maomao used her own words back at her: “A woman can’t say she can’t.”¹

Lou Jingmo: “I don’t think you can. There might be an important plot point tonight, I’m afraid you’ll miss it.”

Shen Maomao: “I’m afraid something will happen to you.”

A smile touched Lou Jingmo’s eyes: “Afraid something will happen to me, or afraid something will happen to yourself?”

Shen Maomao said seriously: “I don’t want you to lose me so early, that would be letting you off too easily.”

Lou Jingmo smiled and extended her right hand to her: “Together?”

Shen Maomao’s eyes lit up, and she quickly placed her hand in hers: “Let’s go!”

“Hey…” Su Han said speechlessly, “Are you two filming 《Blue Life and Death Love》 ²?”

Shen Maomao said, embarrassed: “That… the Little Young Master is in your hands.”

Su Han recalled the days of being ridden like a horse by this little fatty: “Uh… I’ll do my best.” To not beat the child.

Shen Maomao buttoned up her clothes, looking past her at Potato Chip lying on the bed. Potato Chip was still in the same position, lying there motionless, not making any more sounds, as if not the least bit curious about what they were about to do.

Be—careful—of—Potato Chip——

Shen Maomao pointed at the person lying on the bed, gesturing wildly to Su Han with her hands and feet.

Su Han was stunned for a moment, her eyes glancing back, but she quickly restrained her movement, then nodded at Shen Maomao, while saying aloud: “Then you two be careful, see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll borrow your auspicious words³.”

The two pushed open the main door and squeezed out one after the other.

Su Han sat on the edge of the bed, watching their figures disappear from the window, and let out a deep breath: “Sigh… when will these kinds of days ever end?”

The words had just fallen when Potato Chip on the bed suddenly said: “They’re finally gone… I didn’t dare tell you before, I personally saw them get dragged into the well by the female ghost…”

…

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo, who had gone out, had no idea that Potato Chip had begun to secretly sow discord. The world outside was very dark, so dark that you wouldn’t even sense a person standing five meters away.

The rain was still falling, a continuous sheet of sound like crackling fire. The raindrops hit so hard it was difficult to open one’s eyes, and their clothes were quickly soaked through. Even so, the sound of the suona still penetrated the curtain of rain, clearly reaching their ears.

This tune was very festive, but in such an environment and at such a time, it sounded bizarre no matter how one heard it.

The two braved the rain and walked to the main gate, where Lou Jingmo, who was in the lead, reached out and pulled the gate open.

In an instant, it was as if they had passed from the outer world to the inner world.

The sound of the suona grew louder, ringing right next to their ears. The bright red lanterns from the evening had completely disappeared, replaced by white lanterns that looked as if their color had been washed out by the rain, casting a deathly pale light onto the ground.

Shen Maomao finally understood why Su Han felt she was being watched by the lanterns—because the double happiness characters on these white lanterns were composed of a dense pattern of eyes.

The brushstrokes of these eyes were minimal, two thin, curved lines like parentheses lying on their side were the eyes, and a dot of black ink in the middle was the pupil, exactly as the little fatty had described.

The moment the two of them came out, the eyeballs in those eyes turned in unison to look at them, making Shen Maomao shiver and involuntarily take two steps back.

Lou Jingmo also wiped the rain from her face and said loudly: “Speaking of which, we should thank the little fatty.”

Yes, if it weren’t for him, they would never have been idle enough to open the door in the middle of the night to look outside, and would definitely have missed tonight’s important plot.

Shen Maomao placed her arm on her forehead to block the rain, asking: “Where are we going?!”

Lou Jingmo: “Be careful! Let’s go check out the area near the Eldest Young Master’s courtyard!”

“Okay!”

They set off as soon as they spoke, running quickly through the night, their feet making a trail of splashes on the ground with a pat-pat sound.

As they ran, they discovered that apart from the servants’ courtyard, which was lit, not a single room outside was bright, as if no one lived there at all.

Relying on their memory of the location, the two soon found their way to the vicinity of the Eldest Young Master’s courtyard.

The courtyard gate was tightly locked. The two white lanterns on the gate were like two of the most loyal security cameras, looking left for a moment, then right for a moment, seemingly preparing to record all suspicious personnel in the vicinity.

Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo hid far away behind a tree, not daring to advance rashly.

The sound of the rain was too loud. Lou Jingmo moved closer to her ear and said softly: “These two lanterns are different from the ones outside.”

Shen Maomao felt a little ticklish, but she resisted the urge to move her head away, only twitching her ear a little uncomfortably.

She herself didn’t realize it, but Lou Jingmo saw it all.

That small ear was pink from the cold rain, and that thin layer looked very… cough. Lou Jingmo’s heart grew warm, and she momentarily forgot everything she wanted to say.

After not getting a response for a long while, Shen Maomao turned her head to look at her strangely: “Why? Go on?”

Lou Jingmo pressed her lips together, viciously scorning the lewd junk⁴ in her head.

At such a serious and tense moment! What on earth is she thinking! Is she worthy of ShenMaomao who trusts her so much?!*

——Perhaps it is precisely because they are in such a tense moment that these hidden and fiery little tentacles have sprouted in her heart…

Although her mind was already running wild⁵, Lou Jingmo was as steady as an old dog⁶, with no extra expression on her face, only her voice was a little deeper: “Take a guess?”

Shen Maomao: “Are you nuts? What time is it to be keeping me in suspense?”

Lou Jingmo: “…” Now she was truly steady. Lou Jingmo’s heart was as calm as water.

“Although the eyes on the lanterns outside also turn left and right, they do so by following our movements,” she explained. “But the eyes here can turn randomly when no one is around, which is clearly a problem.”

After she finished speaking, they switched positions. It was now Shen Maomao’s turn to press her lips to her ear, her warm breath spraying onto the sensitive auricle: “Then we can’t have come here for nothing!”

Lou Jingmo: “We can… cough, we can go to the main gate to have a look, maybe we’ll see the bride.”

Shen Maomao said faintly: “Lou Jingmo, why is your voice hoarse?”

Lou Jingmo inexplicably felt the guilt of being caught red-handed after doing something bad: “I’m a little thirsty.”

Shen Maomao: “Want to drink some rainwater to quench your thirst?”

Lou Jingmo slapped the back of her head: “Gotten capable, have you? You dare to tease me now?”

Shen Maomao shot her a glare, her eyes holding a hint of coquettish anger, but even more shyness.

Lou Jingmo smiled and took her hand: “Not scared now?”

Shen Maomao: “I want to be scared too, but the conditions don’t really allow for it.”

The two whispered intimately in the heavy rain for a while, then, hand in hand, they carefully moved towards the main gate.

The closer they got to the gate, the louder the suona became, until they reached the gate and saw the open doors, and the man in a wedding robe standing at the entrance.

Shen Maomao immediately crouched down behind a water vat, simultaneously pulling Lou Jingmo down with her hand.

Lou Jingmo said: “It’s the Eldest Young Master.”

Shen Maomao said in surprise: “So the wedding is starting now??”

The so-called wedding, it turned out, didn’t refer to the morning of the third day at all, but the early morning of the third day!

Who gets married in the middle of the night!

Shen Maomao poked her head out from the side of the water vat, secretly peeking at the empty space in front of the Eldest Young Master.

At some unknown time, a wedding procession had appeared out of thin air on the road in front of the Shao Manor.

At the very front of the procession were four men in large red coats. Each held a suona and was currently puffing out their cheeks, blowing with all their might.

Their faces were as white as paper, yet their cheeks were smeared with two round blobs of red, making them look like four lifeless paper effigies⁷.

Behind the four men was the bridal sedan chair⁸. The four chair-bearers had the exact same red-cheeked faces as the four in front, and were currently staring expressionlessly at the person at the gate.

The wedding procession was just this short, a total of only nine people including the bride.

Separated by the threshold of the Shao Manor, one group inside and one outside, the two parties stood in the rain, quietly facing off against each other.

Shen Maomao didn’t know why, but she also started to feel nervous.

In the dead of night, in this unnoticed little corner, they were secretly spying on the secrets buried deep within the Shao Manor…

Lou Jingmo glanced at her watch and said: “Ten seconds until twelve-thirty…”

The words had just fallen when the tune of the suona over there changed abruptly, instantly shifting from joyous music to a funeral dirge⁹. And the wedding procession, which had been stalled at the entrance, finally began to move slowly again.

The four men in front walked forward while playing the suona. As they reached the gate, Shen Maomao clearly heard two lion roars.

In the next second, the two stone lions¹⁰ at the gate exploded, and shattered stone shot out to both sides, viciously smashing into the Eldest Young Master’s body.

The stones made dull thuds as they hit his body. The Eldest Young Master was as if rooted to the spot at the gate, not moving at all throughout the entire process.

All the shattered stone hit the Eldest Young Master, yet passed right through the bodies of the entire wedding procession, which was extremely unfair to him.

Listening to it set Shen Maomao’s teeth on edge¹¹, and she desperately wanted to know what kind of expression the Eldest Young Master had right now.

After the stone lions shattered, the wedding procession walked step by step, resolutely, into the courtyard of the Shao Manor.

Lou Jingmo said faintly: “He’s trembling.”

Shen Maomao once again poked her little head out from behind the water vat, staring intently at the Eldest Young Master’s back.

He was indeed trembling, it was unclear if it was because the wind was too cold and the rain too heavy, or because of something else…

The wedding procession walked up to the Eldest Young Master. The Eldest Young Master, as if being controlled by someone, turned around, his steps stiff and mechanical as he walked to the very front of the procession, looking as if he were leading the way for them.

The two finally got a clear look at his face.

That deathly pale complexion and those purplish lips made him look no different from the people in the wedding procession, aside from the red cheeks.

Lou Jingmo said: “Guess who the bride is?”

Shen Maomao replied in a small voice: “How could I guess that?”

Lou Jingmo’s eyes didn’t leave the gate as she said: “Look quickly!”

Shen Maomao turned her head for a look. The wind blew up the curtain of the bridal sedan chair, revealing the bride inside with her eyes tightly closed.

She abruptly pulled back her gaze, her heart thumping wildly.

That face in the sedan chair… was actually Milk Tea’s.

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