The Hand of Confession – Chapter 260

Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage

Bowing in the Ceremony

The bride and groom, sent to the bridal chamber!

“In that case—” Shen Maomao said, “You killed Master Shao?”

Ying Meng smiled, a cold glint flashing in her eyes. “I killed him.”

“Then I have a question—” Shen Maomao weakly raised her hand, asking the question she had wanted to understand all along, “Did you see Master Shao’s soul? Wouldn’t it be a bit awkward when you met?”

Ying Meng: “???”

Lou Jingmo: “…” It’s over, the kid’s gone silly.

“I became a ghost directly after I died. Although my memories from before death are a bit blurry, I’m still generally clear on them.” It was the first time Ying Meng had considered this question. Not only did she not sense Lou Jingmo’s speechlessness, but she actually began to think about it seriously. “Why didn’t Shao Xuanmo become a ghost? Was some necessary condition missing?”

Lou Jingmo asked her, “How did you kill him?”

“Of course, it was—” Ying Meng stopped abruptly, suddenly realizing that she couldn’t seem to remember the situation at all.

“This…” She looked at Lou Jingmo, then at Shen Maomao, and answered truthfully, “I can’t remember anymore.”

Shen Maomao comforted her, “It’s okay, if you can’t remember, don’t think about it for now.”

But Ying Meng was unwilling, saying angrily, “No! How can I forget the matter of killing my enemy with my own hands?! If so, what’s the point of this revenge?!”

Shen Maomao: “Then what do you want to do? Fish his body out of the well and desecrate the corpse?”

Ying Meng: “…”

After thinking for a moment, she sat down again. “What you said makes sense.”

Lou Jingmo spoke again, “Besides this, what else do you know?”

Ying Meng shook her head. “Nothing else. I was married in for several years, but I never paid attention to any secrets within the Shao Manor, otherwise I wouldn’t have… lost my life so senselessly.”

Shen Maomao thought of her singing and immediately said, “Wait! I have a question!”

The human and the ghost both looked at her.

Shen Maomao said, “Do you know about the Shao Manor’s Spirit Water?”

Ying Meng showed a confused expression. “What Spirit Water?”

Shen Maomao briefly explained, “The well water in your son’s courtyard and in the kitchen has a magical effect. It’s said that drinking it allows people to taste the flavor they most want to taste, and people who drink the Spirit Water can’t hear your singing…”

Ying Meng was skeptical. “Is there really such a magical thing in the world?”

Shen Maomao said, “Ghosts exist, so what’s so strange about some Spirit Water that tastes different?”

Ying Meng was once again left speechless by her retort.

Lou Jingmo gave her a subtle glance, thinking to herself that it was a good thing this Ying Meng was a good-natured sort, otherwise Shen Maomao would have probably died eight hundred times by now.

Ying Meng looked at the little girl and said, “This courtyard was later given to her to live in, but the people who came and went never once mentioned that Spirit Water.”

Not believing it, she cleared her throat and sang another passage. Beside her, Lou Jingmo said, “I can hear it now.”

Shen Maomao: “?? “

Ying Meng enthusiastically invited them to go to the well to listen to her sing.

Lou Jingmo glanced at her watch and said, “Forget it, let’s not worry about the song for now. I just remembered, you can leave this place and move around freely, right? Do you want to go see your son?”

Ying Meng stood up at once, as if suddenly enlightened. “How did I not think of that!” As she spoke, she turned to walk out.

Shen Maomao glanced at the little girl and reminded her, “Is it okay to leave her here alone?”

“It’s fine. Besides me, it seems there’s something else looking after her.”

There’s another one? Could it be the little girl’s biological mother?

Ying Meng urgently prompted them, “Where is he living now? Could I trouble you to take me there?”

For some people, the bond of kinship is perhaps the most difficult emotion to let go of. Without Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo’s reminder, she had even forgotten she had a son. But once she remembered, a thread of concern was added, and she could no longer let it go.

Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao stood up with her. “In the southeast corner of the Shao Manor.”

The two people and one ghost left the room and came to the courtyard.

A cold wind blew, making Shen Maomao shiver violently. “It’s so cold… Are those Pima Sha still here?”

Ying Meng asked, “Pima Sha?”

Shen Maomao was also only half-clear on it. “They should be ghosts, right?”

Lou Jingmo shook her head. “Not ghosts, but possibly more troublesome than ghosts…”

As she spoke, she gave Shen Maomao a push. “You, go to the entrance and take a look.”

Shen Maomao: “Why me?”

Lou Jingmo transformed into Lin-meimei¹ in a second. “Because my body is still very weak.”

Shen Maomao: “???” Bullshit, right? You didn’t seem so weak when we were talking!

But since Lou Jingmo was using her frailty as a reason, Shen Maomao felt she should give her some face².

As a result, just as she took one step toward the gate, Ying Meng floated past them like the wind, not even needing to open the gate, passing directly through the wall and disappearing from their sight in the blink of an eye.

“Look at her!”

“You should learn from her!”

Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao looked at each other and said in unison. After speaking, both were stunned for a moment, then they laughed together and quickly chased after Ying Meng.

The air after the rain was very humid. The small path outside, paved with bluestone slabs, was still wet and shiny, reflecting the red light coming from the distance.

There wasn’t a single Pima Sha outside, nor was there any sign of Ying Meng.

Ying Meng must have gone to the southeast corner. They just didn’t know where the Pima Sha had gone.

Lou Jingmo reminded her, “Be careful, I have a bad feeling.”

Shen Maomao immediately became serious.

If even Lou-jie felt uneasy, she definitely had to be even more careful.

The two walked hand in hand through the boundless night, both shivering from the cold.

Shen Maomao said in a small voice, “So you’re cold too.”

Lou Jingmo: “Nonsense, I’m not a furnace.”

Shen Maomao: “I keep feeling that something is strange.”

“You’re only just feeling it?”

Shen Maomao’s eyes widened. “So what’s strange?”

Lou Jingmo said, “At the very beginning, she asked if we wanted to use the same method to become rich, but later she kept her mouth shut and only said she didn’t know anything. And there’s one thing I’m sure of, she doesn’t care about her child as much as she lets on.”

Shen Maomao was thoughtful. “Now that you mention it, that does seem to be the case. I clearly told her before that the Eldest Young Master was going to be taken for a ghost marriage, but she had no reaction at all. It wasn’t until you brought it up that she rushed over in a hurry…”

Lou Jingmo nodded. “In short, just don’t trust her too much.”

Shen Maomao let out a big yawn. “Okay, I’ll remember that.”

After walking a few more steps, the two once again heard the mournful music played by the suona, it seemed the wedding was still in progress.

When they were still a short distance from the Eldest Young Master’s courtyard, Shen Maomao’s sharp eyes spotted the figures of Pima Sha swaying back and forth. At first glance, they looked like a group of phantoms wandering under a white light.

Shen Maomao said, “Should we go in?”

Lou Jingmo shook her head. “Are you worthy?”

Shen Maomao: “…” She was not worthy.

Lou Jingmo added, “I can’t use any props for a short period of time. Do you have an invisibility item from Golden Retriever on you? Go in and take a look?”

Shen Maomao quickly rummaged through her item bag. “I have one, but will you be okay here by yourself?”

Lou Jingmo: “You should worry about yourself.”

Shen Maomao glared at her, fiercely grabbed her by the collar, pulled her close, and then planted a firm kiss on those two soft lips, full of domineering aura. “Wait for your man to return!”

Lou Jingmo gave her a kick on the butt from behind, sending her stumbling forward, almost falling flat on her face.

Shen Maomao recalled the fear of being kicked into an instance before and immediately, meekly, used the prop and headed towards the Eldest Young Master’s courtyard.

The item couldn’t make her invisible, it could only block the ghosts’ sight and hearing of her.

The courtyard gate was open, but a crowd of Pima Sha in mourning clothes was gathered at the entrance, like guests spectating this absurd wedding.

They were packed too tightly, and Shen Maomao wasn’t sure what the consequences of touching them would be, so she planned to climb over by stepping on the stone lion³.

She carefully avoided the two Pima Sha near the stone lion, climbing onto the top of the wall bit by bit. The first thing she did was give Lou Jingmo, who was watching her from outside, an “OK” sign, and only then did she look into the courtyard.

The courtyard was practically a sea of white—Pima Sha were everywhere, one squeezing against another, one stacked on top of another. And in the very center of these Pima Sha, sedan bearers in red clothes were pressing down on the heads of a pair of newlyweds, forcibly helping them finish bowing to heaven and earth.

The suona players’ cheeks were puffed up high, blowing the suonas with all their might. They swayed their bodies as they played, the range of their swaying exceptionally large, like a line of comical roly-poly toys.

The Eldest Young Master Shao was trembling all over, shaking as if he had stepped on a live wire.

In contrast, Milk Tea beside him was very calm, not needing much pressing from the sedan bearers to lower her head on her own.

Shen Maomao scanned the area and found Ying Meng in this chaotic procession of demons.

She was squeezed among the Pima Sha from a distance, coldly watching her son bow in ceremony with a freshly-made female ghost, not making any move. Instead, she kept looking towards the entrance from time to time, as if she was waiting for something…

Shen Maomao’s heart skipped a beat.

Could she be… waiting for the two of them? Waiting for them to do what? Does she want to put on an act for them to see?

Why would Ying Meng lie to them? What information did they miss? What does Ying Meng want to use them for?

Just as she felt a chill run down her spine from these thoughts, an elderly figure opened the door to the room, took two steps forward leaning on a cane, and announced in a hoarse voice, “The ceremony is complete! The bride and groom, sent to the bridal chamber!”

This person was none other than Steward Shao!

Shen Maomao quickly ducked down, praying that Steward Shao’s eyesight was poor and he wouldn’t see her.

As his voice fell, the four sedan bearers immediately lifted the Eldest Young Master and Milk Tea, holding them up high horizontally, as if they were holding two slabs of pork.

The sound of the suona became festive again, yet it was even more piercing than the mournful music from before, making one’s scalp tingle.

The ten people in red clothes, surrounded by the numerous white Pima Sha, began to walk out of the courtyard.

Shen Maomao frowned.

It’s said they’re being sent to the bridal chamber, so why are they walking out the gate? Could the bridal chamber not be here?

She remained firmly perched on the wall, first glancing at Ying Meng who was bypassing the house and heading towards the backyard, then turning her head to look in the direction the Pima Sha were leaving. Suddenly, her heart lurched in shock, and she recklessly jumped straight down from the wall.

Judging by the direction they were heading, they were bound to pass by the place where Lou Jingmo was hiding!!

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The author has something to say:

I forgot to update because of online classes!!

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