The Hand of Confession – Chapter 283

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Labyrinth

This person is annoying to look at, and her behavior is creepy, but she is indeed capable.

Ren Yu nodded faintly, went into the bathroom to wash up first, and after finishing, turned and went to the kitchen. Her whole body exuded an air of—stay if you like, don’t if you don’t, don’t ask so much of a freebie—like a scumbag man who discards you after use.

Huo Dongdong comfortingly grabbed his hand.

In this cold world, only his son’s small hand still had a bit of warmth.

The kitchen sink was full of bright red, bloody water, so full it was about to overflow. A pile of hair was soaking in the bloody water, all of it floating on the surface at this moment. The red and black looked a bit disgusting.

She tapped the countertop with her index finger, reminding it that it was already daylight and it should go home.

The bloody water churned for a moment, two bubbles bursting with a “gudugudu” sound. A face floated to the surface, made a grimace at Ren Yue, baring its teeth, then drilled into the sewer drain, disappearing along with its bloody water.

Ren Yue cleaned the sink and started to make breakfast.

The few people in the room were discussing the items they needed to purchase next. There was a market to the north, so there was no need to buy everything right now.

The three of them listed the things they thought would be useful. Huo Dongdong, holding a ballpoint pen, drew a square on the last line and wrote a crooked “ben”¹ in the middle.

After the meal was ready, the Da xiongdi helped her set the plates. Ren Yue consciously made way, “You guys eat.”

The Da xiongdi, who was already a bit embarrassed, called out to her, “You go eat. You made all the food. Last night you ate last, today it should be my turn.”

Ren Yue didn’t argue with him—she couldn’t wait to eat at the same table as Xiao Lou. She walked directly into the kitchen, sat down next to Xiao Lou, and served herself a bowl of congee.

Xiao Lou turned her head to glance at her but didn’t say anything.

It couldn’t be helped; eating people’s food makes one’s mouth short².

Although she really disliked her, she had to admit that the food she made was inexplicably to her taste. For the sake of the food, she didn’t mind showing her a slightly better face.

Ren Yue bit her chopsticks, feeling both happy and sad. The mix of flavors within was hard to describe in one sentence³.

After eating, Boss Huo handed her the list. “This is basically everything. See if there’s anything else missing, and add it on.”

Ren Yue gave it a rough glance. These three had deliberated for a long time and written down a pile of food, with a few tools interspersed, like a screwdriver, a lockpick, a flashlight, and some weirdo even wrote a climbing axe…

She was a bit speechless, deeply suspecting that none of these people had any experience camping in the wild. “Who wrote this climbing axe?”

Boss Huo said, “It was Xiao Lou. She said it might be useful if we encounter a place we can’t climb over.”

Ren Yue: “Well written, truly farsighted!”

Boss Huo: “…” That wasn’t what your expression said just now.

Ren Yue was completely without principles. She folded the paper into a small square and stuffed it into her pocket. “Okay, just wait. I’ll go prepare. We’ll also need some camping equipment. We might not be able to find a house and have to camp in the wild.”

While the Da xiongdi was eating and Boss Huo was holding the child, her two eyes looked at Xiao Lou. “There are a lot of things. It would be best if someone could go with me.”

Boss Huo: “…Is that ‘someone’ or ‘Xiao Lou’?”

Ren Yue’s expression didn’t change. “I’m fine with either.”

You’re full of shit, Boss Huo thought. If you were fine with either, I’d put my son here and go with you right now.

But before he could voice his thoughts, Xiao Lou, who was beside him, stood up directly and said, “I’ll go. It just so happens I have some things I want to say to her.”

Boss Huo’s eyes darted left and right, and he immediately nodded in agreement. “Alright then, go early and come back early.”

The two put on their jackets, put on their shoes, and went out. The moment they opened the door, a head popped out from the apartment next to their neighbor’s again and greeted her with a smile, “You have guests?”

If it were any other time, she might have continued to feign civility with him⁴ and see what other tricks he could pull. But with Xiao Lou beside her today, she couldn’t be bothered with him anymore. After all, they didn’t even know each other’s names; they weren’t familiar to that extent at all.

So she just shot him a cold glance and didn’t respond to his words.

The man acted as if he didn’t see it and continued to say to her with a smile, “Can you come find me after you’re done? There’s something I want to tell you.”

Ren Yue turned her head to glance at him and refused, “No.”

Man: “…”

Ren Yue didn’t care what he was thinking. She slammed the door shut with a backhand motion and trotted ahead to lead the way for Xiao Lou.

The two didn’t speak the entire way, silently riding the escalator.

Xiao Lou leaned slightly against the escalator handrail and suddenly spoke, “Stop trying to please me. It’s impossible between us.”

Ren Yue was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted, “Are your standards for making friends very high?”

Xiao Lou sneered, “Whether my standards for making friends are high or not, the premise is whether the other person suits my taste.”

Ren Yue smiled, “Don’t I suit you?”

Xiao Lou swept a glance over her. “You don’t. You’re even disgusting.”

Ren Yue pursed her lips, not feeling discouraged at all, and even tried to be clever, “You might have some misunderstanding about me. I just want to be friends with someone as outstanding as you.”

“Hehe.” Her big eyes were full of sincerity, but Xiao Lou didn’t believe a single word she said.

The two were silent towards each other as they bypassed the out-of-order escalator and arrived downstairs.

Just as they reached the building entrance, Ba-ge’s call came in. She answered it casually. The moment it connected, the other side fired off a long string of words like a machine gun, “Rabbit, how was it last night? Did you make any progress with that Xiao Lou? Why didn’t you reply to my messages? Are you really sure you want to pursue her? To be honest, I still suspect you’ve been possessed by a ghost. If you are…”

Ren Yue hung up the phone with a blank expression.

Not two seconds later, the other party called again. She answered it once more. This time, Ba-ge didn’t dare to waste time with nonsense and said directly, “Jiejie, don’t hang up, don’t hang up, it’s serious business! I wanted to ask when you guys are planning to leave. I can give you a ride to the border.”

Ren Yue looked at the time and answered, “Twelve o’clock.”

Ba-ge said, “Twelve o’clock is good! The Yang qi⁵ is at its peak! Then I’ll wait for you downstairs at that time. Are you guys missing anything? Need me to bring anything? If my abilities allowed it, I’d really want to see how you pursue someone. It’s such a pity to miss a once-in-a-century scene like this…”

Ren Yue hung up the phone again. This time, the other party didn’t call back.

She stuffed her phone back into her pocket and turned to introduce the situation here to Xiao Lou. “A little further ahead is the market. We need to buy a lot of things. We can hold off on buying the food on the list for now. The main thing is to buy some practical tools and stuff, like rope, a tent, sleeping bags, lighters, matches, insect repellent…”

Xiao Lou frowned. “What does the labyrinth look like?”

Ren Yue replied, “It might be a bit bigger than you imagine. Its area is very vast. If nothing unexpected happens, it will probably take five days to reach the exit. From the moment you see the surrounding wall, all the buildings behind the wall belong to the labyrinth’s domain. Inside live all sorts of ghosts you’ve never heard of or seen before. They each occupy a territory and will come out to cause trouble even during the day. They are the biggest obstacle in the labyrinth.”

Speaking of a field she was skilled in, she wished she could tell Xiao Lou all the information she knew, like a male peacock in its courtship period.

“Everyone says the labyrinth is very simple, that if you don’t want to walk anymore, you can just turn back. But that’s for people who have already reached the exit. For those who haven’t reached the exit, turning back means having to re-walk the entire path they’ve already taken. Those who didn’t make it to the exit but came back alive from the labyrinth must not have gone very far in.”

“I’ve walked through the labyrinth a few times before. It was clearly the same route, but as I walked, the scenery around me became different from before, and I rarely encountered the ghosts I had met in the past, so every time is a new challenge. One time, everyone except me and my employer perished inside. It was extremely dangerous…”

Ren Yue said a great deal. Xiao Lou listened attentively, and her opinion of her actually changed slightly.

This person is annoying to look at, and her behavior is creepy, but she is indeed capable.

It’s fine as long as I don’t look at her face. Once I look at her face, she’s still so annoying.

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Buying things cost a lot of money, but because Boss Huo was paying, she didn’t feel the pinch at all. She paid whatever they asked, not haggling at all.

The paper and pen Huo Dongdong wanted, she had at home, so she didn’t buy them. The climbing axe Xiao Lou wrote down seemed useless to her, but to win a smile from the beauty, it was worth buying—it wasn’t her money anyway. But unfortunately, the market didn’t sell this item, so it wasn’t bought.

On the way back after buying everything, Xiao Lou suddenly said, “Someone is following us.”

Ren Yue nodded. “There is someone. It’s like this here. If you buy too many things, you’ll get targeted.”

The two stopped in their tracks and turned around to look back together. Six strong and healthy men were following them unhurriedly not far behind. Seeing this, they immediately surrounded them.

One of the men with triangular eyes said, “Little bitches⁶, we meet again…”

Xiao Lou looked at her.

Ren Yue looked at him for a long time but couldn’t remember which green onion⁷ this was, so she asked, “You are?”

No matter who it was, judging from his form of address, he was definitely not on their side.

The man sneered, “You really are a noble person who forgets things easily. Yesterday you took advantage of my inattention to sneak attack me, and today you’ve forgotten me?”

Xiao Lou looked at her again.

Ren Yue thought back for a long time and finally dug this person out from a corner of her memory. “Oh, so it’s you two waste products. You couldn’t win yesterday, so you called for helpers today?”

The man’s face suddenly darkened, and he said angrily, “Stinking bitch, I think you’re tired of living!”

With a “pada” sound, the bag was thrown to the ground. Ren Yue flexed her wrists a couple of times.

Then she straightened her right arm, shielding Xiao Lou behind her, and said, “Step back. Protect yourself.”

Xiao Lou’s expression was complicated. “…”

How strange. This was the first time someone had shielded her behind them.

The man glanced at Xiao Lou, and a lustful expression immediately appeared on his face. “Brothers, this little bitches is mine. The other one is for you guys. After we’re done playing, we can swap and have some fun~”

Ren Yue’s expression turned completely cold.

She didn’t care what they said about her, but fantasizing about and insulting Xiao Lou like this was absolutely unforgivable!

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