The Hand of Confession – Chapter 318

Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China

Water

Cute Girl, Golden Retriever

Although she was very unwilling to believe it, sometimes, the thing you believe the least is often the most likely to be the truth.

No matter how she looked at them, this group of people who had stated their names didn’t seem like Golden Retriever. That only left this last person.

Shen Maomao was a little silent, mainly because she didn’t know what she could possibly say in this situation.

She stared wide-eyed at the girl with braided pigtails, trying to find a trace of Golden Retriever in her face, but unfortunately, she failed.

No matter how she looked, she was a girl!!

Seeing her like this, Kang Yuanhuai paused for a moment, then said, “Miss, don’t be anxious. You can dip your finger in some water and write your name on the table.”

The girl extended a slender index finger and, as instructed, wrote the character “Shi¹” on the tabletop.

Sisi² raised an eyebrow, then looped an arm through the girl’s, smiling. “Then I’ll call you Shishi for now, okay? We’re really fated to meet, our names are so similar.”

Something soft was rubbing against her arm. The girl’s body stiffened, and two rosy clouds appeared on her face, as if she were shy.

Shen Maomao simply couldn’t bear to watch.

Sisi pulled the girl to her side, sitting down intimately with her.

After everyone had been identified, Kang Yuanhuai continued, “For these seven days, we will be touring Huai Town. I will introduce you to some of the local customs and traditions. As for the specific itinerary, I’ll make a plan tonight. You just need to follow me, is that alright?”

The players still had no objections.

Kang Yuanhuai nodded in satisfaction, took out a pocket watch, flipped it open to look, and then said, “In that case, I’ll go get some food. You can look around and sort out the rooms. Men and women are different³, so the ladies will stay on the second floor, while the gentlemen and I will stay on the first floor. No objections, right?”

The group was like a bunch of emotionless nodding machines, accepting all of his arrangements.

So Kang Yuanhuai left with his watch. The nine players remaining in the room were face to face looking at each other, as he hadn’t gone far.

A few seconds later, the sound of a door closing and a lock turning came from outside.

Shen Maomao shot to her feet, frowning at the door. “Is he afraid we’ll run away?” she said softly.

Sisi said, “Probably. It’s good that it’s locked. It saves us from someone always courting death⁴, running outside and seeing something they shouldn’t…”

Another side, Gauss eagerly asked Dahai, “Bro⁵, can you tell me what’s going on now?”

“Come, come, I’ll explain it to you properly.” Dahai beckoned him over and began to recite the same spiel Shen Maomao had heard countless times. Uninterested in hearing it again, she stood up quietly, preparing to investigate the place they would be staying for the next few days.

The others obviously had the same idea. The group dispersed in the dining room. Ah Nan chose to go upstairs, while Ming Yue and An Jing went to the left together. Sisi wanted to pull the girl with the similar name along with her to the right, but was timidly refused with a shake of the head.

She didn’t insist and sashayed off on her own.

Everyone had consciously divided up the areas, leaving only the outside for Shen Maomao.

She raised an eyebrow at the girl and walked out first.

The girl stole a glance at Dahai and Gauss, and after confirming that neither of them was paying attention to her, she hurriedly chased after Shen Maomao.

The rain had stopped at some point, leaving damp patches on the ground. A cool breeze blew, ruffling Shen Maomao’s short hair. The two of them walked to the main gate. She reached out and pushed the door; the sound of a lock rattling came from outside. It was indeed locked tight.

The girl leaned in and whispered, “Rabbit-jie!”

Shen Maomao cracked apart⁶. “Lying trough⁷, shut up!”

Such a cute girl’s face, but the moment she opened her mouth, out came such a coarse male voice. The shock was even greater than if Golden Retriever himself had appeared before her in a dress. She needed to get used to it, or else she was liable to burst out laughing.

Golden Retriever’s decision to pretend to be mute was the right one.

Shen Maomao gave him a thumbs-up.

Golden Retriever pouted aggrievedly, looking as if he were trying to act cute. “I didn’t want it to be like this! I thought if the face I created was female, the voice would be female too. Who knew this would happen?”

Dressing as a woman to get through the game wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment idea. Besides always feeling that women received favorable treatment in games, he was also planning on disguising as a pig to eat the tiger⁸.

To prevent any mishaps, he had even made double preparations—dressing as a woman in reality and creating a female character in the game. He thought this would be foolproof, but who could have known that plans can never keep up with changes. The imagination is very plump, but reality is so fucking bony⁹.

Shen Maomao was speechless. “So you’re planning on not speaking for the entire instance?”

Golden Retriever said helplessly, “I don’t want to, but I’m afraid that the moment I speak, the others will think I’m a pervert.”

Shen Maomao held back a laugh. “Forget the others, even I think you’re a pervert.”

Golden Retriever instantly felt even more like crying.

Shen Maomao said, “Alright, in that case, don’t talk when you’re with me either, just in case someone finds out and suspects you of deliberately faking being mute to deceive people.”

Golden Retriever nodded with teary eyes, raising a hand to his mouth and making a zipping motion to show that from now on, he was a mute.

Shen Maomao said, “You should go back. I’ll check out the courtyard by myself.”

Golden Retriever also knew it was improper to reject Sisi’s friendly gesture one moment and then run off with someone else the next. So he waved to her and ran back into the house with tiny, mincing steps—he was quite skilled at walking in the little high heels.

Shen Maomao shook her head with a smile and began to wander around the courtyard.

The courtyard wasn’t large. After entering the gate, there was a stone slab path flanked by two flowerbeds. In the left flowerbed, there was a swing set. Because it had just rained, the ground in the flowerbeds was very muddy, so Shen Maomao didn’t go in. Instead, she walked around the small building toward the back of the yard.

Behind the building was a small patch of farmland, where some plants she couldn’t name were growing. A clothes-drying rack made of wood was set up between the furrows, and on it hung the same red and yellow cloths she had seen on the outer wall.

She couldn’t help but think of the two colors of umbrellas.

She had made a point of observing earlier. There were nine of them in total: five people had red umbrellas and four had yellow ones. The color of the umbrellas was identical to the cloth in front of her, making it difficult not to read into it.

These two colors definitely represented some information she didn’t yet know, but the game had just begun, so there was no need to rush.

She walked back, her mind wandering as she thought about everything she had encountered since entering the instance.

Her first impression of this place was that there was a lot of water. A small river flowed past the door of every house, and all sorts of small boats were moored on its surface. People traveled by boat instead of by carriage, like an oriental Venice.

“Maybe this instance will have something to do with water, don’t you think, Lou…” Shen Maomao reflexively looked behind her, then froze and gave a self-deprecating smile.

Really…

She really wasn’t used to Lou Jingmo suddenly not being there. She hadn’t felt it much when she first entered the game, but the moment she was alone, the feeling of missing her surged up uncontrollably.

But it was alright. Seven days would pass for her here, but for Lou Jingmo, it should be over in the blink of an eye.

She composed herself and strolled back from the backyard. By then, the others in the house had more or less finished their explorations and had returned to divide up the rooms.

Ah Nan, who had gone upstairs, said, “There are exactly five rooms upstairs. Each room has a double bed, a large wardrobe, a dressing table, and a small desk. But the rooms don’t have locks; the doors can only be pushed shut and open with a push.”

No locks was far too stimulating.

Sisi said, “There are three bedrooms on the right, also without locks. The innermost room is locked, I don’t know what’s inside.”

Ming Yue said, “The left side also has three bedrooms. The innermost one is a storage room, filled with a bunch of miscellaneous junk.”

Shen Maomao said, “I went outside to look. The door is locked from the outside. The front yard doesn’t seem to have anything special. The backyard has some red and yellow cloths hanging up, which I suspect are related to the umbrellas.”

Everyone’s gaze involuntarily fell on the gap by the door—where nine wet oil-paper umbrellas were standing, now arranged in an alternating red and yellow sequence.

Sisi frowned. “Who was the last one to put their umbrella away?”

Gauss weakly raised his hand. “It was me… but they weren’t like this when I put mine down…”

From the time they entered the house to when Kang Yuanhuai left, no one had paid special attention to the umbrellas. But there had always been people in the room, and there was nothing obstructing the view of the umbrellas. If someone had moved them, someone would have seen it.

Yet the fact was that the umbrellas had changed their arrangement without anyone noticing.

Gauss’s face turned pale, and he swallowed hard. “This is for real, huh…”

The others, however, were rather expressionless. After all, compared to what might happen later, this was just pediatrics¹⁰ and not worth making a fuss over.

Sisi said, “Then shall we go upstairs and pick rooms?”

The players nodded in agreement. The women went up the spiral staircases on either side of the dining room, their high heels clattering on the wooden steps.

After going upstairs, Ming Yue said, “An Jing and I are together, so we can just share one room.”

“Shouldn’t we ask Kang Yuanhuai before deciding?” Shen Maomao kindly reminded her.

Ming Yue nodded. “True. Then let’s divide them normally first, and we can talk about sleeping arrangements later.”

Shen Maomao said honestly, “You all pick first. I have trouble making decisions.”

Golden Retriever stood beside her and nodded along.

The other three women didn’t stand on ceremony with them and immediately claimed the three middle rooms.

Shen Maomao then chose the one on the far left. Next to her, in order, were An Jing, Ming Yue, and Sisi. Golden Retriever chose the one on the far right.

They all pushed open their doors and took a look inside. After confirming there were no problems, they prepared to go downstairs.

Sisi called out to Golden Retriever from behind, “Shishi-meimei, if it’s okay, would you like to sleep with me?”

Golden Retriever shook his head frantically, waving his hands as he did, his face flushing bright red.

Sisi was a little disappointed but didn’t press the issue, only teasing, “What? Is jiejie some kind of floods and fierce beasts¹¹ to make you this afraid?”

Golden Retriever couldn’t speak, so he could only shake his head like a pellet drum¹². Regardless of whether she could understand, he began gesturing wildly.

Sisi then turned to comfort her. “What are you so anxious about? Jiejie was just joking with you. Look at your little face, all red. So cute~”

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