The Hand of Confession – Chapter 287

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Rest

Death Diva, Singing Online¹

Boss Huo was undoubtedly excited.

He looked at the city before his eyes, as if seeing the other shore of hope, and at the same time seeing hot food and a soft, comfortable bed.

Because his brain was too fatigued, he was even unable to think too much about certain questions—for example, where did the people in front of him go? Wasn’t he standing at the very back? How did he suddenly run to the front again?

But these were no longer important. What was important was that he could soon end this caodan² journey and get a full rest.

The cold wind brushed past his cheeks, but instead it made his brain a muddle. He felt as if he had forgotten some agreement, but upon careful thought, it seemed no one had made an agreement with him.

Thinking this way, his steps became firm. He walked straight towards the lights, his pace getting faster and faster, until he was about to break into a run.

Just then, Huo Dongdong, lying on his back, suddenly reached out and tugged his down jacket’s hood, choking his throat.

He hesitated for a moment, his steps slowed, but did not stop.

“What’s wrong, Dongdong?” he asked, “Are you cold? We’re almost there, just hold on a little longer.”

Huo Dongdong shouted close to his ear, “Dad! If we walk any further, we’re going to fall!”

Boss Huo was stunned, as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head. He was instantly wide awake.

He lowered his head and looked at his feet.

The railing of the winding mountain road had several broken gaps, and he was now standing before one such gap. If he just took two more steps forward, he would fall into the abyss, beyond redemption forever³.

His legs instantly went soft. He staggered back two steps, quickly moving away from the cliff’s edge, cold sweat streaming down.

He turned his head to look behind him. Ren Yue’s group of four had already walked very far, their figures blurring into several hazy black shadows in the heavy snow. It was clear they hadn’t noticed he had fallen behind.

“Son, you just saved the lives of us father and son!” He quickly ran back with his son on his back, asking as he ran, “When did Dad start to fall behind? Why didn’t you tell Dad just now?”

Huo Dongdong said, “I asked you, but you didn’t speak.”

How was it that I didn’t speak, Boss Huo thought, I simply didn’t hear at all!

It seems Ren Yue’s worry was not the man of Qi worrying about the sky falling⁴. After dark, you can’t just enter wherever you see a light.

He ran a few steps through the snow and finally caught up with the main group again.

Xiao Lou seemed to sense something and glanced back.

“What’s wrong?” Ren Yue also turned her head, saw the panting like an ox⁵ Boss Huo, and couldn’t help but ask strangely, “Are you that tired?”

Boss Huo: “I almost got lost just now…”

Ren Yue: “??”

The Da xiongdi in front stopped, “What happened just now?”

Boss Huo explained the matter once, and at the end asked, “Did not a single one of you notice I was gone!”

Ren Yue said, “I was paying attention to your footsteps. The sound was still there, so I didn’t turn my head to look. I didn’t expect you to be bewildered by a ghost.”

Boss Huo complained, “Aren’t you a professional? Have you never encountered a similar situation before?”

Ren Yue’s steps paused for a moment, and a sense of incongruity inexplicably arose in her heart.

That’s right, haven’t I walked this road many times? This kind of common ghostly mischief, have I really never encountered it even once?

Thinking this, her brain immediately automatically applied a patch for her: “I am a professional, but this is the first time I’ve walked the road on a snowy day. In the past, I would have already reached the town by this time, so this kind of situation wouldn’t have occurred.”

Boss Huo said helplessly, “Alright then, can we switch positions? I’m a little scared.”

“It was my lack of consideration.” She and Boss Huo exchanged positions, and she stood at the very end of the group, saying, “Sorry.”

“It’s fine…” Boss Huo didn’t hold it against her, and asked the time again, “About how much longer until we arrive?”

“About ten-plus minutes, just hold on a bit longer.”

Boss Huo took a breath, “Let’s go.”

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Five minutes later, they finally reached the very top of the winding mountain road and saw the small town at the foot of the mountain and the wall behind the town that soared into the clouds.

The small town had towering high-rises and was brightly lit, looking exceptionally bustling.

Boss Huo, who still had a psychological shadow, asked, “This time it shouldn’t be a haunting, right?”

Ren Yue said, “We still have to get closer to see. Right, don’t we have Dongdong? What did Dongdong see?”

Huo Dongdong said, “There is a wall, and below the wall are many big buildings.”

Boss Huo breathed a sigh of relief, “Then it should be no problem.”

“Wait.” Shang Zhou, who hadn’t spoken much on this journey, suddenly called a halt. “If I’m not mistaken, this little friend should be able to see the essence of things, right?”

Xiao Lou gave Shang Zhou a surprised look, not expecting him to have thought of this so quickly.

If Huo Dongdong could only see ghosts, he should have fallen off the cliff with Boss Huo just now. But now the big and small one were standing here perfectly intact. It was clear that Boss Huo still had some reservations regarding Dongdong’s evolution.

Everyone is an adult, and there is naturally a set of rules established by convention for getting along. If Boss Huo didn’t say, they, the working stiffs, would pretend not to know. They just didn’t expect this matter would end up being pointed out by Shang Zhou.

Boss Huo also realized he had let it slip earlier. His expression changed. He first looked left and right at the reactions of the Da xiongdi, Xiao Lou, and Ren Yue. Seeing their expressions were as usual, he then asked in return, “What does it matter whether he is or isn’t?”

Rounding up and down⁶, it’s a non-denial.

Shang Zhou said, “I just wanted to confirm something.”

As he spoke, he walked closer to Huo Dongdong, looked at the city under the wall from his perspective, and asked, “Little friend, take a look, is anyone turning on the lights down there?”

Xiao Lou whipped her head around to look at him.

Ren Yue’s heart also skipped a beat, and her gaze towards the small town gained a layer of inquiry.

Under everyone’s gaze, the child tilted his head and said softly, “No.”

As if the dust had settled, Ren Yue heard the sound of Boss Huo sucking in a cold breath.

They turned their heads to look at the town.

In the town, high-rises stood in great numbers. The lights shining from the windows were arranged in neat squares, faintly having the scale of before the apocalypse.

It was different from the situation from Huo Dongdong’s mouth, and also completely different from the scene in her memory. The trajectory of events seemed to have been wrong from the very beginning. The bewilderment in the snow, the abnormality of the town, everything was so unfamiliar, making her unable to help but doubt herself—is she a professional or not???

While she was still doubting herself over here, over there Boss Huo had already cast a pleading gaze upon her again. “This kind of situation—”

He was only halfway through his sentence when he got the answer from Ren Yue’s face. “It seems you don’t know either. What should we do?”

Ren Yue only thought for two seconds, “Don’t enter the small town, we’ll go directly to the labyrinth.”

The small town guarded one entrance to the labyrinth, but that didn’t mean there weren’t other entrances nearby.

It’s just that compared to the small town with a main road, the paths to other entrances still needed to be explored by them.

Boss Huo’s tears were about to fall. “About how much longer do we have to walk? I don’t think I can make it…”

Ren Yue said, “We just need to go around the side. We’ll take the side.”

Huo Dongdong on his back said, “Then is Jiejie still going to sing?”

Ren Yue: “…” I can, but it’s not necessary anymore, is it.

For the sake of everyone’s ears present, she said, “Since we’ve decided not to enter the town, then there’s no need to sing.”

Boss Huo, who had a psychological shadow, said, “Why don’t you sing anyway? It can also give me some courage.”

Ren Yue: “Are you serious?”

Boss Huo: “Couldn’t be more serious.”

Shang Zhou had a curious look on his face, “Are you going to sing?”

Xiao Lou also looked up at her with considerable interest, which instantly firmed her resolve. “Then I’ll sing?”

“Sing!”

“Let’s go, we’ll go, na!” Ren Yue started howling at the top of her lungs. “Let’s go, we’ll go, ya! Let’s go, we’ll go, ya!”

Three times in a row, the same sentence, different tunes, triple the blow.

The expressions of the people around all cracked.

Boss Huo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, “So you weren’t being modest at all…”

Ren Yue’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Xiao Lou, “How did it feel?”

Xiao Lou, perhaps stunned by how bad it was, stood there for a long time without reacting. After hearing her question, she was even stunned for a moment, then frowned and said, “Your singing voice… is quite suitable for countering the spiritual pollution of ghosts.”

As long as you are more terrifying than the difficulty, you can successfully overcome the difficulty.

Ren Yue said proudly, “I will continue to work hard!”

Xiao Lou: “…” Who the fuck praised you?!

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After appreciating the Death Diva’s soul-singing, the group descended from the winding mountain road and arrived at the main entrance of the small town.

In their eyes, the town was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers⁷, people coming and going in an endless stream, bustling with extraordinary excitement; but in Huo Dongdong’s eyes, the town’s streets were clearly empty.

Something seemed to have happened in the town, causing the people inside to die all at the same time, without even leaving a single person to pass the news to the center of Paradise.

If an Evolutionary like Huo Dongdong didn’t exist, they would probably have already plunged headfirst into the town and then coexisted with these townspeople who had already turned into ghosts, without any awareness.

At the entrance, there were a few other travel-worn⁸ pedestrians like them. They looked flawless, making it impossible to tell if they were here to challenge the labyrinth or were an illusion of the town.

The five of them did not alert them, bypassed the town’s fence, and entered the wall from the side.

The interior of the labyrinth was not much different from the outside. Its area was very large, including all the buildings surrounding Lost Paradise. One had to walk a long time on a road to see a wall.

But thankfully—for some reason, the ground here had no accumulated snow, which promptly made Boss Huo breathe a sigh of relief.

On both sides of the road were some collapsed buildings, as well as some empty and old abandoned buildings. Ren Yue fixed her eyes on these few buildings. “We’ve been walking for half a day. It’s not convenient to travel after dark. Everyone, let’s find a building to rest in.”

Boss Huo was the first to agree, but at the same time, he had many concerns in his heart. “If we encounter something in the building, will it be inconvenient to escape?”

Ren Yue said, “We’ll just be on the first floor. If something happens, we can even jump out the window. Trust me, it will be more dangerous outside than inside.”

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