The Hand of Confession – Chapter 297

Volume 9: The Days Can’t Be Lived Anymore

Soul Leaving the Body?¹

What the fuck… is this thing?!

Right now, Ren Yue did not trust Huo Dongdong very much, but this was also the first time she had encountered such a situation, leaving her rather with six gods and no master².

Xiao Lou said: “Let’s move them outside first, it will be more convenient for us to watch them.”

Ren Yue nodded: “Alright.”

They chose to move Shang Zhou first, one lifting his head and the other his feet, and dragged him out of the room. As for Boss Huo——the delicate and weak boss was responsible for taking his son to watch Da xiongdi, and remained in the room to wait for their return.

The reason they moved Shang Zhou first, aside from him being lighter and easier to move, was that they also wanted to use him as an experiment to see what consequences moving them would have.

Carrying the unconscious Shang Zhou, who was dead to the world³, all the way back to the living room, they passed by Heng Chuan, who was also sleeping dead to the world. The two of them placed him on the rocking chair that Boss Huo had previously laid on. Seeing that he had no major issues, they called Boss Huo over and then went to lift Da xiongdi.

Da xiongdi was quite a bit heavier. Even though these two women were stronger than average, lifting a robust man who was nearly 1.9 meters tall was still very strenuous.

After finally managing to move him to another lounge chair, the three conscious people looked at the three unconscious people on the ground and fell into deep thought.

Huo Dongdong was drawing on the coffee table that his dad had wiped down, looking up at the troubled adults from time to time.

After a long silence, Boss Huo said: “That newcomer, Heng Chuan, could he be in the same situation as Pengfei and Shang Zhou?”

Ren Yue said: “It doesn’t seem like it, mainly because his snores haven’t stopped yet.”

Boss Huo said with a worried face⁴: “What on earth is going on… What can we do?”

Ren Yue extended a hand to Xiao Lou: “Shall we go into the room together to have a look? Maybe we’ll find out what’s wrong with them.”

Waiting passively was clearly not the most appropriate method. Rather than holding onto the psychology of getting by on luck⁵, hoping the problem wouldn’t find them, it was better to take the initiative to advance in the face of difficulties⁶ and hold the initiative in their own hands——of course, this way one would die with more dignity.

Xiao Lou looked at that hand, her eyes lowered, it was unknown what she was thinking.

Ren Yue thought she was considering whether or not to go court death, so she didn’t rush her and waited quietly.

After several rounds of thoughts passed through her mind, Xiao Lou raised her arm and grabbed her hand.

This was a very proactive way of grabbing. She used her own palm to grasp Ren Yue’s four fingers, excluding the thumb. This way, only she could choose whether or not to let go, and Ren Yue would become very passive.

However, Ren Yue didn’t care about such small details. What she cared about was——she had again and again and again and again succeeded in holding hands with Xiao Lou!

Which school should their child go to in the future?

What a sweet worry.

Boss Huo’s voice shattered her sweet fantasy: “Um… if something happens to both of you, then what about me?”

Xiao Lou said: “Then wait for us to wake up.”

“What if… I’m saying, what if you don’t wake up?”

Xiao Lou hooked up one corner of her mouth: “There is no what if.”

Ren Yue looked at her with sparkling eyes, simply so struck by her handsomeness that she couldn’t close her legs⁷.

Boss Huo had a mournful look on his face⁸: “How could this situation suddenly happen? If you all fall asleep, what will Dongdong and I do?”

Ren Yue: “You’re not about to cry, are you?”

Boss Huo: “…It won’t go that far, but you two must come back alive.”

Ren Yue put her hands behind her back and gave him an OK sign, then was led by Xiao Lou into that room.

This time was different from the last time. The moment they stepped over the threshold, they clearly felt a sense of stagnation, as if they had passed through a layer of transparent plastic film. The film stretched infinitely taut, and then with a bang, it burst open, revealing a brand new world.

The two people squatting in the corner of the wall waved at them, one of them said: “Hi~ you guys came too.”

Ren Yue hadn’t seen that there were actually people in the corner and was startled: “Lying in a trough⁹, what is that thing??!”

“It’s us.” That person stood up and moved under the moonlight.

Ren Yue took a fixed look; these two people were precisely Shang Zhou and Da xiongdi, who had clearly been moved to the living room by them, unconscious.

After greeting them, Shang Zhou walked over from the window and said: “We should have had our souls leave our bodies.” He pointed to the bed and continued: “We were just like you. As soon as we came in, we inexplicably became like this. Our bodies instantly lay flat on the bed, our souls left our bodies, unable to leave this room, unable to be seen by living people, and unable to communicate with them.”

Da xiongdi nodded furiously at the side.

Xiao Lou looked over and discovered herself and Ren Yue lying side by side on the bed.

Ren Yue ran to the side of the bed, took a look, then another look, and then another look.

“Although it’s a bit inappropriate to say this at this time, your expression is really lewd,” Shang Zhou complained.

A crossroads popped out on Xiao Lou’s forehead. She grabbed Ren Yue by the scruff of her neck and said through gritted teeth: “Can you focus on something useful?”

Ren Yue: “Okay.”

Shang Zhou quickly recounted what he and Da xiongdi had done: “We can touch the things in this room, but it seems that when we touch them, it can’t be projected into reality. The first time you came in, Pengfei and I were frantically shaking the cabinet, but you didn’t hear it.”

Ren Yue nodded: “We really didn’t hear it.”

The four people sat in a circle and began to ponder life.

Shang Zhou said: “I don’t understand why we are trapped here. Is it that they don’t want to harm us, or that they can’t harm us? Or is there some other reason?”

Xiao Lou said: “The most important thing now is to find a way to figure out who the ghost’s target is. Is it the four of us, or is it Mr. Huo and Huo Dongdong outside the door.”

Da xiongdi scratched his head: “It’s us, right? Look at that father and son, they’re completely fine.”

The four of them turned their heads together, looking through the open door at the father and son outside.

Those two had lit a fire basin, and even set up a stand to boil water. Then they took out two boxes of instant noodles and a bag of compressed biscuits from their backpacks, eating with great relish, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Ren Yue took a deep breath of air: “They’re eating so fragrantly.” It was a pity she couldn’t even smell it.

Xiao Lou gave her a white-eyed glance, said nothing, and began to think about how to wake themselves up.

Putting other things aside, their bodies were left here unattended. If the soul-out-of-body time was very long, they would definitely catch a cold when they woke up, no doubt about it.

Da xiongdi looked at the father and son in the living room, thought for a long time, and then said: “Why can’t Dongdong see us?”

Shang Zhou was taken aback, and said as if waking from a dream¹⁰: “I actually forgot about this point…”

“Huo Dongdong has had a problem from the beginning.” Ren Yue briefly recounted the events of last night and yesterday morning, and concluded at the end, “If he really didn’t see us, then it’s very likely we are not having an out-of-body experience, but are in a dream state; but if he saw us and pretended not to, then he’s the one who wants to mess with us.”

“You came before me—” Xiao Lou asked Da xiongdi, “Do you know the background of this father and son?”

Da xiongdi said: “I only know that they came from the south and want to get out of the maze. I don’t know anything else.”

Ren Yue asked: “Which area do you all live in?”

Xiao Lou: “I’m in the central part.”

Da xiongdi: “I’m a bit south of the central part, very far from the southernmost maze.”

Xiao Lou said in surprise: “I thought you had accompanied him all the way here!”

Da xiongdi shook his head: “When I met them, they also looked travel-worn…”

Shang Zhou said: “In that case, how did the two of them walk all the way from the south?”

With Boss Huo’s physical strength, could he really have walked all the way here?

Or could it be——Boss Huo was hiding his clumsiness?

But what was there to hide from a few employees like them?

In an instant, all kinds of conspiracies flashed through Ren Yue’s mind.

Things like pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger¹¹ to trick them into going out for a dog-eat-dog¹² situation, or that these two people were actually ghosts in disguise carrying out entrapment¹³…

However, these speculations were not very reliable. If Boss Huo’s level of uselessness was an act, then he was really going all out. They could consider giving him a Golden Chrysanthemum Award¹⁴ or something.

Shang Zhou said: “What happened in the south? Why didn’t he leave from the south, and instead took a detour to the north?”

Xiao Lou shook her head: “Not too clear, but the three people in the house definitely know.”

Indeed, these three seemed to all come from the south, and their mysterious appearance didn’t make them look like good people.

Everyone was silent for a while. Not planning to sit and wait for death, they dispersed to continue a carpet-style search¹⁵ in the room, trying to find any information they might have missed.

“I don’t know how long we will be trapped here…” Da xiongdi looked at the window. No matter how close he got, his reflection would not appear on the window.

He had only spoken half his sentence when the window glass suddenly shattered all over the floor with a crack. The glass shards glittered, reflecting the moonlight, looking somewhat dangerous.

Da xiongdi was stunned for a moment, then said blankly: “The glass… was shattered by my handsomeness?”

Ren Yue could not help but laugh. Just as she was about to tease him a bit, she suddenly had a hair-raising¹⁶ feeling, like having a basin of ice water poured over her head on a Three-Nines Day¹⁷, a chill spreading through her whole body¹⁸, her entire scalp about to explode.

She roared: “Stop looking! Come back!”

Da xiongdi quickly retreated, but it was already too late. A pitch-black bird’s claw with only three toes reached in from the broken window, grabbed Da xiongdi’s shoulder, and began to drag him out the window.

Shang Zhou, who was closest to him, reacted immediately and grabbed his other hand: “Quick! Grab the window frame!!”

Ren Yue and Xiao Lou also hurried over to help.

There were still some sharp shards on the edge of the window frame, but at this moment Da xiongdi couldn’t be bothered with that. He used the arm that was being held to exert force, desperately clutching the not-so-sturdy window frame. Glass shards pierced his palm, and the bird claw’s talons pierced his shoulder, causing him to tremble all over in pain.

Xiao Lou reached into her pocket, trying to find her dagger, but came up empty: “Damn it… no weapons!”

The bird outside lowered its head. Under its feathers was a human-like face, with well-defined features, a nose, and eyes, but appearing on the face of such a thing was truly somewhat horrifying.

Ren Yue gritted her teeth and pulled the person inward: “What the fuck… is… this… thing?!”

The bird-person outside shook its wings, and the feathers on its wings turned into sharp arrows, piercing the air and flying towards them with a swish swish swish swish.

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