The Hand of Confession – Chapter 293

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Huo Dongdong

I want to play games with her…

Xiao Lou: “What is with that expression of yours?”

Ren Yue came to her senses and hurriedly said: “It’s nothing! I was just thinking… who put this thing here.”

“Maybe it ran over by itself.” Xiao Lou put the wooden head back on the cutting board, pulled out the kitchen knife and made a couple of gestures at its face. Seeing that it really had no reaction, she stopped bothering with it.

Ren Yue ran past her, found a large iron basin and cooking oil of a similar configuration, and brought the items back to the living room.

Seeing them return, Boss Huo, who was nestled in the sofa, shot up with a start. His gaze was cast behind her, the expression on his face extremely complicated, as if in suspicion, and also as if in shock.

Ren Yue’s heart skipped a beat; she thought that head had followed them. She whipped her head around and saw Xiao Lou holding a kitchen knife.

Xiao Lou took half a step back, frowning as she asked her: “What are you doing?”

Ren Yue: “……Lou-jie, you standing behind me holding a knife like that gives me a great lack of a sense of security.”

Boss Huo probably showed that kind of expression because he saw this scene and thought Xiao Lou had been possessed by a ghost.

“If I don’t bring it over, am I supposed to leave it for someone else?” After offering this sarcastic remark as an explanation, a “chuan” character¹ formed between Xiao Lou’s brows. Changing the subject, she said, “Don’t call me that.”

Ren Yue was puzzled: “What’s wrong? Why can’t I?”

Xiao Lou stopped talking, merely holding the kitchen knife and staring fixedly at her.

She didn’t know what to say. She clearly hated this woman in front of her; from her looks to her name, there wasn’t a single thing that didn’t disgust her. But she could never truly harden her heart against her. Especially the moment she heard her call herself “Lou-jie”, she would even think that having a girlfriend like this didn’t seem too bad…

See ghost².

Truly see ghost.

Why had she become so contradictory? Why would she develop a good feeling for a person she had only known for a few days and somewhat disliked? Could it be that she had placed a gu³ on her?

In this day and age where ghosts and monsters run rampant, a certain person named Lou began to consider the authenticity of the existence of Miao region gu poison⁴.

Seeing her raising the kitchen knife without speaking, Ren Yue immediately understood: “Let’s put the knife down and talk properly. If you don’t want me to call you that, I won’t. I’ll just call you Xiao Lou like they do, is that okay?”

Although others also called her that, when these two words came from the mouth of the stupid woman before her, it was as if they had been imbued with some special meaning, making her feel uncomfortable all over.

She threw the knife onto the floor, creating a loud “BANG DANG” sound, which startled the two people who were busily working not far away. Da xiongdi asked in a daze: “What happened, what happened?!”

Xiao Lou: “My hand slipped.”

Da xiongdi looked at the knife, then at her, then back at the knife, and accepted this explanation.

Shang Zhou’s gaze, however, shifted back and forth between her and Ren Yue, as if he had already seen through everything, but he didn’t say anything.

Ren Yue lit the small brazier. The five of them, as usual, made their beds on the floor around the brazier in the living room. Xiao Lou tossed that kitchen knife into the fire.

The night watch arrangement was also the same as last night. Ren Yue snuggled into her sleeping bag early, lying on her side on the floor to watch Xiao Lou opposite her.

However, Xiao Lou’s eyes were closed. It was unknown whether she was asleep or simply didn’t want to pay her any mind.

Ren Yue sighed softly and obediently went to sleep.

In the middle of the night, Da xiongdi switched shifts with the two of them. She was woken up by the subtle sounds of their talking and movements, but she didn’t open her eyes or change her position, just lying quietly on the floor, emptying her mind.

Having been suddenly woken up, she found it a little hard to fall back asleep. She could only use this method to try to get back to sleep.

The sound of the small rocking horse came from the bedroom next door again, but the two people on watch didn’t pay it any mind, instead speaking in low voices accompanied by the sound and smell of the burning fire.

Shang Zhou said: “I know what you’re thinking.”

Xiao Lou: “Hehe.”

Shang Zhou: “Angry out of embarrassment?”

“Hehe.”

“I can tell that you are very conflicted internally. But why not think about it from another angle, and simply separate the thing that makes you conflicted into two different individuals? The soul of a thing and its exterior—which one is more important, and which one is the origin, should not require a detailed explanation from me, right?”

Xiao Lou seemed lost in thought.

Shang Zhou continued: “We are in a world where reality and illusion intersect. Reality is not necessarily real, and illusion is not necessarily fake. Lies are more easily believed when mixed with truth. Since you have already sensed the incongruity, why not follow this clue and investigate, peeling the silk from the cocoon⁵? Perhaps in the end, we will all have to rely on your guidance to recognize the true nature of the world.”

Ren Yue, who couldn’t get back to sleep after waking up: “Zzzzzz.”

Xiao Lou sat on her sleeping bag, propping her chin up as she looked at the person opposite her through the flames.

When did she start to doubt the reality of the world?

It was from the very first moment she saw this woman.

She discovered there was a problem with her memory, otherwise she wouldn’t purely dislike a person to such an extent just because of a face.

Besides the dislike, there was also a trace of sourness that even she herself found hard to believe.

She didn’t understand what she was feeling sour about, yet this feeling existed so tangibly.

She had never been a person who trusted others easily, but when it came to this woman, she inexplicably believed that she would absolutely never harm her.

See ghost.

In her normal memory, what kind of existence was she?

A shameless pursuer?

Or a companion who had fought by her side for a long time?

Or perhaps——some other strange role?

The little girl in the inner room started acting up, shaking a bell one moment, knocking on the door the next, busy as could be, looking as if she didn’t plan on letting them get a good night’s sleep.

At the same time, the sound of wood rolling on the floor came from the kitchen, followed by a soft “da” sound, as something stuck to the kitchen’s door panel.

Xiao Lou’s train of thought was interrupted. She irritably tightened her grip on the dagger’s hilt and stood up directly.

Shang Zhou asked her softly: “Where are you going?”

“To make them be quiet.”

Saying this, she walked towards the kitchen, opened the door and went in, then closed the door with a backhand motion.

He would never dare to do something like being alone in a room with it.

Shang Zhou looked at the kitchen door, then at the people sleeping in a circle around him, and sighed, shaking his head.

He was an intelligence-type talent. This kind of thing, directly confronting ghosts, should be left to the person with off-the-charts combat power.

Not long after, Xiao Lou came back carrying a head.

Shang Zhou was stunned for a moment and asked: “That ferocious?”

Xiao Lou shot him a white-eyed glance⁶, placed the head gently in front of him. Shang Zhou took it smoothly, pushed aside its hair to take a look, and only then discovered that this was not a human head, but a puppet that looked very much like one.

And at this moment, the puppet’s face had been stabbed with several holes, from which a pinkish-white, viscous liquid was slowly flowing out, making him feel a bit nauseous.

It just so happened to be time to air out the room. He got up, pulled open the window, and threw the head directly downstairs, where it landed with a muffled thud.

The child in the room seemed to have been frightened by their display and didn’t dare to act up anymore, obediently shrinking in the room without making any more noise.

In the latter half of the night, Ren Yue was personally patted awake by Xiao Lou. For a moment, she thought she had fallen into an illusion again.

Fortunately, Xiao Lou did not show her any amiable expression, only urging her that it was time to get up for the night watch, which allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief on schedule.

After breathing this sigh of relief, a wave of sourness and bitterness surged up her throat, making her feel a little like crying.

The dream was so good.

Xiao Lou had left her a dagger again. This time it wasn’t nailed into the wall, but was passed safely into her palm. After handing over the weapon, she drilled into her sleeping bag, leaving her alone to sit by the fire, staring blankly at the dagger.

A sense of familiarity enveloped her.

The first time she saw Xiao Lou, she felt she liked her. Later, in the process of getting along with her, she felt an increasing sense of familiarity.

Familiar with her weapons, familiar with the way she spoke, familiar with her personality, familiar with her level of patience…

But when she tried to think deeper about why she was so familiar, she felt as if there was a force in the unseen world preventing her from thinking further.

She emptied her mind again, and surprisingly, it seemed she could understand a little bit of Xiao Lou and Shang Zhou’s philosophical dialogue.

What was this force that was stopping her? Why was it doing this?

A cold wind carrying snowflakes blew in from the open window. The sudden chill made her shiver.

The burnt smell in the air had dissipated quite a bit. Perhaps the window could be closed.

She stood up, walked lightly to the window, and pushed it closed on her tiptoes.

Just then, her movement paused. Her eyeballs turned to the left, looking at the shadow reflected on the glass by the firelight.

Judging from the window, not far behind her, there seemed to be a person floating in mid-air.

The flickering flames made the shadow very distorted, making it impossible for her to deduce her distance from it. She dared not hesitate any longer, nor could she be bothered to close the window tightly. She quickly turned her head to look behind her.

But there was no black shadow behind her. Instead, there was a Huo Dongdong wearing a small shirt and cotton pants.

Huo Dongdong was standing very close, only a few steps away from her.

Her back was against the window, and the cold wind blew wantonly against her back, making her feel for a moment that she was in great danger.

“Dongdong?” Her mind went blank. She heard the voice she squeezed out from her throat, “How did you get out?”

She moved her eyeballs, her gaze passing over the child’s head to look at the group of people by the brazier.

Boss Huo was sleeping very soundly, smacking his lips as he slept, as if tasting some peerless delicacy. He hadn’t noticed at all that his son had come out.

The situation of two Huo Dongdongs that she had imagined did not appear. The strange little fellow standing in front of her was Huo Dongdong himself.

“Shh——” Huo Dongdong raised his index finger to his lips. “Don’t scare ‘it’ away.”

Ren Yue’s scalp tingled. “Who?”

Huo Dongdong’s voice was still soft and quiet, just like a thief: “It’s the xiao jiejie⁷ in the room, I want to play games with her…”

The bell on the door jingled lightly, as if in response to Huo Dongdong’s words.

Of course, Ren Yue could not agree: “No, she is very dangerous and will hurt you. If something happens to you, I won’t be able to explain it to your father.”

Huo Dongdong tilted his head to look at her: “She won’t. We are good friends, and good friends are not allowed to hurt each other.”

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