The Hand of Confession – Chapter 278

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Night

Ren Yue?

In the darkness, Ren Yue opened her eyes and sat up in bed all at once.

She was like a stranded fish, uncontrollably breathing the decaying air in big mouthfuls.

She seemed to have had a nightmare. In the dream were indistinct spots of light, and also a person calling her name over and over again, making her a little scared, yet she felt she had nowhere to escape.

And as she woke up, those spots of light, those figures, those speaking voices all receded rapidly like a tide. As the tide went out, it swept away all the traces on the sandy beach, leaving her only with the feeling of ceaseless heart palpitations from the dream.

The lights were not on in the room. The sky outside the window was blue-gray, the end of the sky was cut open by a straight golden line, and behind the golden line were yellow and red evening clouds, heralding the night that was about to begin.

Before falling asleep, she forgot to close the door. At this moment, she could see the living room window directly from the bedroom. From the bedroom window, she could still see the magnificent and desolate evening clouds, but from the living room window, she could only see a pitch-black and ice-cold night scene.

The moonlight cast the shadow of the window onto the floor. The shadow of the faded paper-cut on the window and the potted plant on the windowsill were stretched very long, looking like monsters baring their fangs and brandishing their claws. The old refrigerator continuously emitted a “buzz buzz buzz buzz” noise—jarring, yet it inexplicably made one feel at ease.

She twitched her nose and smelled the aroma of cooking from someone’s home, and immediately felt a little hungry.

So she got up, turned on a lamp, leaving no place for the darkness and shadows in the room to hide. A blurry figure was printed on the window.

She raised her hand and drew all the curtains in the room, then took a cold and dry mantou¹ from the refrigerator, went to the kitchen, set up a pot and casually heated it up, and finally swallowed it whole with a bowl of hot water.

The second hand on the clock face ticked “click clack,” singing an ancient ballad along with the refrigerator. She turned on the TV, randomly tuned to a channel, and started watching the weather forecast.

“At six o’clock this afternoon, the Leyuan² Meteorological Station issued a red alert for a cold wave. Due to the influence of cold air from Siberia³, large-scale snowfall will occur from tonight until the day after tomorrow. After the snowfall, the snow depth in some areas will reach five to ten centimeters. We hope the general public will prepare for the extreme and severe weather…”

The announcer’s cheerful voice added a lot of vitality to the empty room. She listened carefully to the last sentence, and only reluctantly turned off the TV when the music of 《Fisherman’s Song at Dusk》 ⁴ began to play.

“It’s going to snow…” A hoarse sigh sounded, as if the owner of the voice hadn’t spoken for a long time.

If it snows, business will be hard to do.

Just as she was thinking this, her cell phone rang abruptly. She was stunned for a moment, pressed accept, and then put the receiver to her ear.

“Hello? Rabbit?” the person on the other end of the phone said, “There’s a job, are you taking it?”

“What’s the background?”

“A man, with a family in tow. I’m not too clear on the specific situation, you’ll have to meet him and talk to him in person.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow evening, six o’clock.”

“Alright, see you at the old place.”

“Then—”

The person on the other side wanted to say something more, but she hung up the phone directly.

She sat idly at the table for a while longer before starting to move again—first turning off the light, then shuffling back to the bedroom step by step, pulling the covers over herself, and lying stiffly on the bed like a corpse.

The heavy darkness enveloped her. The window had clearly been nailed shut, yet the curtain still fluttered, with several pitch-black shadows cast upon it. The shadows rippled like water, as if they were swimming on the curtain.

“Click clack.”

A strange sound came from under her head, like someone scratching the bedboard with their fingernails, one scratch at a time. Her bed was a box-frame type, its base sitting directly on the floor. The middle section contained separated storage compartments, and on top of that was the bedboard she slept on, covered by a thin quilt.

“Click clack.”

The same sound also came from under her feet. Perhaps it was a nest of rats grinding their claws, or perhaps it was something else.

If it were in the past, she might have immediately jumped up from the bed, then gotten out of bed to turn on the light, and then carefully lifted the bedboard to see if there was anything underneath.

But now she was already used to such nights, so her heart remained calm and undisturbed, and she even slowly closed her eyes.

In the darkness, a unique concert was unfolding.

Outside the window was the shrill and piercing sound of the wind; from upstairs came the sound of moving tables and stools; the person next door was “thump thump” knocking on the wall; someone’s family was chopping dumpling filling late at night, making the chopping board bang thunderously.

However, unfortunately, she lived on the top floor, and there were no neighbors next door.

Perhaps it was because she had slept too much in the afternoon, but she didn’t feel very sleepy at this moment. A cold wind seeped in through the thin walls, giving her a bit of a headache.

She opened her eyes and met the gaze of the woman sleeping on her ceiling.

From beginning to end, she could only see the lower half of the woman’s face clearly. She had pale skin, lips as red as a rose, and a mouthful of scarlet sharp teeth, which looked like they could easily bite open the hardest human skull.

The woman gave her a smile, so she returned one to her. The two of them shared this house peacefully, without any disputes ever occurring.

Ren Yue turned over, avoiding the red droplet that dripped onto her bed.

I’ll have to wash the bedsheet again tomorrow. She thought this.

She wasn’t even afraid of such a scene, so what was the thing in her dream? Why did it make her so terrified?

Holding such doubts, she finally fell asleep again, and seemed to have repeated the same dream.

“Rabbit…”

Someone was calling her nickname, but the voice was too ethereal for her to distinguish if it was male or female.

Then there were towering flames, blooming blood, and… endless despair.

She once again sat up from the bed all at once, cold sweat sliding down her cheeks.

The glaring sunlight shone on her body, yet it did not bring her any warmth.

The sky was already bright, but she was as tired as if she hadn’t slept all night—or perhaps she had been running in her dream for the entire night.

Although she had not opened the curtains, this was not important. The first thing she saw was the snow outside.

Pure white snowflakes fell gracefully from the sky. The entire world was gray and misty. A thick layer of snow had accumulated on the ground and rooftops, and the official snow removal trucks on the road were humming.

She rubbed her forehead and took the bedsheet, which was stained with a patch of red, to the bathroom.

A few red letters were printed on the mirror. She didn’t look closely and wiped it off directly with the bedsheet.

The sink was filled with water, and the marks on the mirror disappeared without a trace.

She stared blankly at the clean mirror, raised her right hand, and traced the gorgeous facial features of the person in the mirror inch by inch.

For some reason, she always felt that the person inside was very strange, yet also very familiar.

The person in the mirror tilted their head, their gaze falling behind her.

She did not turn around. Instead, she tied up her hair and continued to stare at the mirror while brushing her teeth and washing her face. After cleaning herself up, she lowered her head, picked up the laundry detergent, soaked the bedsheet in the water, and then said good morning to the person in the mirror.

This morning was actually not that wonderful.

The food in the refrigerator had run out, which meant she had to go out to buy some.

She didn’t want to go downstairs because she was the number one lazybones, and also because she didn’t have any particularly thick clothes.

This city rarely welcomed winter, but rarely did not mean never. The weather forecast had given a reminder two days ago. It was just that she was too lazy to go out.

She went to look in the wardrobe, picked out the two thickest coats from inside, wrapped herself in three inner layers and three outer layers, and then went out with money and keys.

Snow from the sky well⁵ had entered half the corridor. When the wind blew, the salt-like snowflakes danced, making her feel a bit cold.

The doors of the neighbors to the left and right were still tightly closed, who knows where they had fled to. The door diagonally opposite suddenly opened, and a head poked out to look at her, saying with a smile: “Congratulations, you’ve survived another day.”

Ren Yue curled the corner of her mouth, which counted as a response to him.

That person said again: “What are you going to do? The snow is so heavy, you’re wearing just those clothes, aren’t you cold?”

Ren Yue answered succinctly: “Buying some necessities.”

The man said: “I have an unused down jacket⁶ here, how about I give it to you to wear?” As he spoke, he reached out and handed over a mian’ao⁷.

Ren Yue took it and said a faint thank you.

The man’s face turned red with a “shua” sound: “No… no need to be so polite, you go on with your business!” After speaking, he shyly closed the door. The wind from the closing door stirred up a small flurry of snowflakes.

Ren Yue, carrying the down jacket, queued up and took the escalator downstairs.

There were always many people by the escalators, because an elevator is an enclosed space and cannot give people a sense of security. Fewer and fewer people took the elevator; everyone would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator. Later, the officials simply shut down the elevators, leaving only the escalators and the emergency escape stairs.

After walking out of the building corridor, a strong gust of wind instantly chilled her to the bone.

She braved the wind and threw this abnormally heavy down jacket into the trash can, then “crunch crunch” stepped on the accumulated snow and went to the market.

There were many people in the market. Sellers of clothes, food, tools, and weapons had everything one could wish for.

She first went to buy herself a brand-new down jacket. In front of the shop owner, she checked it several times to confirm there were no problems before paying, then turned to buy some food and supplies.

Perhaps because she bought too many things, making people think she was some big shot, she was stopped by two young and strong men on her way back.

One of the men put his arm around her shoulder, while the other, with a cheeky smile, snatched the food from her hand and carried it himself.

The one with his arm around her said: “Meizi⁸, are you out shopping all by yourself?”

Ren Yue let him walk with his arm around her and gave a faint ‘en’ of acknowledgment.

“So pretty, your family is okay with you coming out by yourself?” As he spoke, he reached out to touch her face.

Ren Yue dodged it with a turn of her head, her tone flat: “I just washed my face.”

She was just stating a fact, but the man reacted as if his sore spot had been poked, and flames of anger ignited in his eyes: “stinking bitch, you refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit⁹?”

“You two.” Ren Yue’s eyelids drooped as she looked ahead, her face wearing a not-fully-awake expression, but the motion of her leg lifting was clean and sharp.

The two men’s vision blurred, a sharp pain came from their abdomens, and in an instant, the world spun. Before they could figure out the situation, they had landed in the snowdrift one after another, only able to clutch their stomachs and let out mournful groaning.

Ren Yue picked up the plastic bags from the ground, looked at them faintly, and said: “Thank you for escorting me, I’m home.”

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The author has something to say:

Little friend, do you have many question marks?¹⁰

If you wish to know what happens next, please listen to the next chapter’s decomposition¹¹

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