The Hand of Confession – Chapter 295

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

New Teammates

I know who you are

Seeing that they were about to run to the first floor, and no sound of a door opening came from behind them, it was estimated that the father and son pair had no intention of chasing after them at all.

But Xiao Lou did not stop, but instead took three steps and made them two¹ to jump down from the mezzanine, saying to the few people who were dazed below: “Run quickly!”

Da xiongdi moved in response to the sound, directly pulling open the unit door. Boss Huo carried his son on his back and quickly followed. A large group of people ran with a great rush for a long time, only stopping after they could no longer see the shadow of that building.

Huo Dongdong asked, puzzled: “Daddy, what are we running from?”

Boss Huo panted: “Yeah…… what are we running from?”

Xiao Lou, her face not changing color, spoke blind words²: “We encountered another ghost upstairs, got entangled with it for a while, and couldn’t beat it.”

Ren Yue quickly helped her polish it: “It was a hanging ghost³, just hanging on that carpet at the doorway. I don’t know why it didn’t chase after us.”

Shang Zhou fastened the hood of his down jacket, his muffled voice coming from inside his mask: “Perhaps it is a type of earth-bound spirit⁴, it can only wander near the location of its death and cannot leave too far.”

Huo Dongdong rested his head on Boss Huo’s shoulder, it was unknown if he understood or was playing dumb.

Compared to what happened upstairs, Boss Huo, who had confirmed that it was now safe, was more concerned about the journey ahead: “About how far have we walked? How should we proceed next?”

Ren Yue said: “About halfway, but the inside will be more difficult to walk, it might take two days.”

“So fast?” A sentence slipped out of Boss Huo’s mouth.

“Think it’s fast?” Ren Yue lifted her eyelids to glance at him, and said, “That’s easy to solve, we just need to walk slower from now on.”

Boss Huo hurriedly denied: “No, no, I thought we would have to walk for ten days to half a month, I didn’t expect that in just a little over a day, we’ve already finished half of it.”

Ren Yue said: “That’s because we didn’t take any winding paths.”

The most time-consuming thing in the maze was not the ghosts and monsters, but the “ghost hits wall” of interlocking rings.

Of course, Ren Yue herself had not witnessed this thing, she had also heard it from other people.

The formidableness of the maze lies here, it places the wall of the exit in front of you, making you feel that if you just persist a little longer you can reach the end, but no matter how you walk, the distance between the wall and you is still that close, letting you experience what is called despair after hope.

People exploring the maze will have the supplies they carry consumed, and either turn back or starve to death.

And the road without the “ghost hits wall” is actually very short. If it weren’t winter now, Ren Yue felt they could walk even faster.

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When they stopped to rest yesterday, they were not far from the next area. After walking for less than an hour this morning, the few people saw another intersection. The intersection extended out into four small paths in different directions, and what was surprising was——the seasons in these four small paths were actually different.

Ice and snow extended towards the rightmost road, the leftmost road was full of yellow winter jasmine⁵, and in the middle were, in order, a summer of brilliant sunshine and an autumn of golden leaves.

Huo Dongdong’s mouth opened wide in surprise, exclaiming: “Daddy, it’s so beautiful here!”

“It is indeed very beautiful.” Boss Huo looked at Ren Yue, “So which side do we take?”

Ren Yue said: “Either side is the same, I have walked through spring and summer. If you want to race for speed, then take summer, the extra clothes won’t fit in the backpack and can only be left here to lighten the load, but it will return to winter once we get outside, this point is a bit troublesome; if for safety considerations, then I suggest taking winter.”

Because it is winter now, only the solar term⁶ of the winter path is normal.

Boss Huo fell into a dilemma: “I have difficulty choosing……”

Huo Dongdong looked left and looked right, finally patted Boss Huo’s back, and pointed to the winter road: “Daddy, let’s take this side!”

Boss Huo hesitated for a second.

Winter was really too much suffering, in comparison he actually preferred spring and autumn.

But Huo Dongdong also had the ability to see the essence of things, which invisibly made the weight on the balance scale tilt a bit to the right·.

He held his son in front of him and asked: “Why take winter, did you see something?”

Huo Dongdong said: “What winter? Isn’t it all winter?”

Just this one sentence immediately made Boss Huo make a firm decision. Since the essence was the same, then there was no need for him to be so conflicted: “Then let’s take winter!”

Saying that, he was about to walk onto that small path.

Ren Yue quickly grabbed his backpack: “Don’t be anxious! We must enter hand in hand!”

Shang Zhou said with understanding: “There should be some trick⁷ here. If we walk over individually, will we be separated?”

Ren Yue nodded, took off her gloves and rolled a perfectly round snowball, then threw it towards the winter path.

The instant the snowball flew over, a ripple-like trace spread out in mid-air, and the small snowball vanished out of thin air, not following the parabolic trajectory to fall to the ground.

Ren Yue put her gloves back on and extended her right hand to Xiao Lou: “Let’s go.”

Xiao Lou: “……”

Ren Yue shook her wrist, urging: “Hurry up, don’t waste time!”

You can go hold someone else’s hand.

This sentence was right on the tip of her tongue, but she pursed her somewhat chapped lips, and seemingly unwillingly passed her hand over.

Ren Yue gripped that hand tightly, and continued to urge the people behind: “One holding onto another, prepare to enter.”

Everyone stood in a row. Boss Huo placed Huo Dongdong on the ground to hold his hand, his other hand grabbing Xiao Lou’s wrist, followed by Shang Zhou and Da xiongdi.

Then, led by Ren Yue, the first one stepped into the small path, pulling the long string of people behind her through the invisible barrier in the air, one after another passing through the transparent barrier in mid-air.

Just as Shang Zhou also followed and went in, Da xiongdi, who was responsible for bringing up the rear⁸, was just preparing to lift his foot when he suddenly felt a hand grab his wrist.

His heart leaped, and he whipped his head around, seeing a man looking at him with a smile.

With both hands being held, his movements were restricted. In his haste, he could only lift his leg to kick, but it was dodged by that person turning sideways.

The next second, a huge pulling force came from his hand. Unprepared, he stumbled and fell in, incidentally also pulling the man behind him in.

The small path was suddenly full of teammates sitting on the ground. Huo Dongdong stood beside Boss Huo, tilting his head to size them up.

Boss Huo said: “What’s the situation? Who is this?”

From the inside, the situation outside could not be seen clearly. Shang Zhou was halfway in when he suddenly found he couldn’t pull Da xiongdi. Thinking something had happened on his end, he quickly called for the few who had already crossed to help, and this was the result.

Da xiongdi quickly got up, and with both hands free, it took him two seconds to pin that man in the snow, and only then did he explain to Boss Huo: “I don’t know, he suddenly rushed over just now.”

“Wait a minute! Please let me explain!”

That person was wearing a black down jacket and a hat that looked full of a young girl’s heart. At this moment, half his face was buried in the snow, and the moment he opened his mouth he got a mouthful of snow.

Xiao Lou said: “It’s that person from yesterday.”

“So it’s him.” Boss Huo recalled who this person was. After getting up, he held Huo Dongdong’s hand and said to Da xiongdi, “You can let him go first, let us hear what his purpose is.”

Da xiongdi let go as told. That person climbed up from the ground, first using his sleeve to wipe the snow from his face, and only then did he say: “I just want to walk with you all.”

Ren Yue gave a “hehe” laugh.

The man said: “You all are really lucky. Our small team encountered the boss as soon as we came in, now we’re completely wiped out, only I am left. Luckily I met you all.”

The way he said this, it was as if the situation of diverting the floodwaters eastward⁹ yesterday had never happened at all.

Ren Yue said: “Why should we perform charity?”

Moreover, if this charity was not done well, they might even be bitten back.

The man said: “You don’t need to be responsible for my safety, you just have to let me follow. You all rested well last night, right? I was lost inside all night, and only managed to catch up before you left.”

Boss Huo glanced at Shang Zhou.

This one was also picked up halfway. In comparison, he seemed to have become particularly trustworthy.

He looked around. The few people on his side had no intention of expressing an opinion; everyone was waiting for him, the one with decision-making paralysis, to make a decision.

Fortunately, this question was not that difficult to answer. He agreed to let Shang Zhou follow, one, because he valued his thinking ability, and two, this person was still considered neutral to him, unlike the current one, who was a big red name¹⁰.

Thinking of this, he opened his mouth and said: “No, we refuse.”

The man put on a lost and wronged expression: “Not even just following? I am only one person, but you have so many people. What are you still afraid of?”

Boss Huo was completely immune to the method of provoking a general¹¹: “That’s right, we are afraid of you.”

“……” The man was silent for a second, then continued to say, “Our purpose is the same. You want to walk out of the maze, I also want to walk out of the maze. Since we have the same purpose, you don’t need to worry at all about what I might do.”

“But in fact——” Boss Huo said, “Our team composition is already very perfect, there’s no need to take in an uncertain factor like you.”

The man smiled: “No, your team is not yet perfect enough.”

Boss Huo looked at him quietly, wanting to know what other reason he could come up with.

The man said: “The things that happened in the southern residential area, don’t you want to know the reason?”

Boss Huo’s eyes widened, his gaze like a torch¹² as he looked over.

The man revealed a smile of one whose will is set on certain victory¹³: “I know who you are.” Saying that, he looked at Huo Dongdong: “And I also know his ability.”

Boss Huo threw his arm around Huo Dongdong, moved him behind himself, completely blocking him with his body, the expression on his face becoming stern: “Where did you find that out from?”

The man said: “You don’t need to concern yourself with that. It’s getting late, shall we set off early to get out early? What do you think?”

Boss Huo thought with a grim face. On the other side, Ren Yue quietly asked Xiao Lou: “What’s Boss Huo’s background?”

Xiao Lou was silent for a second, then answered in a low voice: “I don’t know.”

Ren Yue: “So mysterious?”

Xiao Lou nodded: “Just that mysterious.”

In the time it took to say two sentences, Boss Huo had already made a decision: “If what you said is true, then you can stay, but if you lie to me, you should also think clearly about the consequences.”

The man’s lips curved up: “Deal.”

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