The Hand of Confession – Chapter 328

Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China

Come Play

If it’s like this, then I’m not scared.

After the two finished laughing, Golden Retriever started to talk about serious matters: “If I hadn’t heard that boatman say there was also a female He Bo, I would have thought that me being a female clothing big shot¹ this time was a case of trying to be clever only to end up with a blunder². But how can two little girls get married?”

Shen Maomao said darkly, “Who knows if they’re being sent over to be wives or to be food?”

Golden Retriever: “…That brutal?”

Shen Maomao laughed. “Use your brain. I just praised you and you’re already failing again. What era is this? How could they really throw people into the river? Kang Yuanhuai also said that the He Bo’s wedding is just a type of ceremony, not a real attempt to find the He Bo a wife. The main significance of holding the ceremony is to pray for the He Bo’s blessing that the fires of war don’t spread here.”

“I get the logic,” Golden Retriever said sullenly, “but whether it’s a real or fake marriage isn’t something we can control right now, is it??”

Shen Maomao lightly patted the back of his head. “Don’t overthink it. Get ready to go back.”

The two returned to the dining hall. Kang Yuanhuai was still holed up in his room. The players quietly discussed the instance’s plot and Kang Yuanhuai’s identity, chatting for a long time without coming to any conclusion.

There were too few clues. They didn’t even know what the five He Bos looked like, nor were they clear on what kind of role Kang Yuanhuai was playing in this trip to Huai Town.

The sky gradually darkened. Kang Yuanhuai was finally willing to come out of his room and ordered a table of food over the phone.

To no one’s surprise, dinner was another table full of fish.

After eating, he uncharacteristically didn’t ask the players for another meeting, only saying “Rest early” before returning to his room again.

The players looked at each other, at a loss for words for a moment. They had no choice but to follow his instructions and return to their respective rooms to prepare for sleep.

Ming Yue and An Jing hugged each other before entering separate rooms. Si Si also raised her arms and patted Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever on their shoulders, saying, “Good night. I hope I can still see you tomorrow.”

Shen Maomao said, “I’ll borrow your auspicious words³.”

After speaking, she went back to her room and closed the door properly. Following her old routine, she pushed the vanity and the desk over to block it.

After doing all this, she went to stand before the window, looking down at the front door from the second floor.

The voice An Jing and Ming Yue heard last night belonged to a little girl, very likely one of the twins the old man mentioned. But judging from the height, the one who rang the doorbell was clearly an adult.

In other words, at least two ghosts would visit the western-style house at night. One of them killed Gauss, and the other ran off somewhere.

On top of that, there was the black shadow in her room. Golden Retriever and Si Si’s rooms had similar things, so An Jing and Ming Yue’s rooms should have them as well.

Then there were at least seven ghosts in the building currently. This didn’t match the number of He Bos, so the black shadows couldn’t be the He Bos themselves.

Judging from the black shadow’s behavior last night, it took the initiative to turn the mirror over and stood by her bed while she was asleep, yet it didn’t attack her for a long time. Could it be that it just wanted her to see it?

But Shen Maomao had no intention of experimenting with her own life. She had always kept her distance from these kinds of ghosts with hazy consciousness; otherwise, it would only add to her troubles.

After standing for a while, she felt a bit tired, so she drew the curtains and returned to the room.

With a soft ‘click,’ she turned off the desk lamp, got back into bed, and lay with her eyes open, imagining a starry sky on the ceiling.

Time flew by, and it grew darker and darker outside the window. In the dead silence, a small raindrop fell on a leaf, followed by a dense shower of raindrops, scrambling to jump down from the clouds, ‘thump, thump, thump,’ drumming against the window.

Shen Maomao was a little nervous, and rubbing her hands together⁴, she took out her two cards again. Only then did she dare to fall asleep peacefully.

In the middle of the night, she was startled awake by the sound of the doorbell. That person had indeed come again today.

She sat up straight, her eyes wide with vigilance as she scanned her surroundings.

A short while later, the ringing stopped. The swing in the courtyard began to sway, and the sound of a child’s laughter penetrated the walls and entered her ears.

At the same time, the sound of heavy footsteps came from the hallway, as if someone was pacing back and forth.

Shen Maomao held her breath.

She was right. The ghosts were going to make a move on them on the second floor today.

The footsteps paced back and forth. She didn’t need to think to know that the people in the other rooms must be on edge, just like her.

A few minutes later, the footsteps suddenly disappeared. Immediately after, she heard the sound of a desk being moved from her doorway.

It’s here!

Shen Maomao’s eyes were wide open, staring intently at the door.

The door was pushed open a crack, and a wave of damp air rushed onto her face.

A bluish water stain spread in from the hallway through the crack, slowly coalescing into a shape in front of her bed.

Her heart thumped wildly. Her hand gripping the cards tightened and loosened, then tightened again. Her palm was icy cold, covered in a cold sweat.

The water stain looked more and more like a human figure, finally turning into a little girl wearing a tattered red dress. The little girl’s hair was like seaweed, wet and hanging in strands on her head. Her face was deathly pale, but her eye sockets and lips were a dark purple, as if she had been poisoned.

The little girl let out a crisp, ethereal laugh and began to dance happily around her bed. “Hee hee hee hee hee~ Come play~”

Shen Maomao: “…”

Seeing her silence, the little girl danced happily around her bed, singing a strange tune: “It’s so cold in the water…”

“You must be cold too…”

Shen Maomao: “No, I’m not cold at all.”

The little girl’s tape got stuck⁵: “…”

If this was a little ghost, she wasn’t scared.

Shen Maomao considered herself the most experienced at coaxing little ghosts. She looked at the little girl and tried to communicate with her: “You’re here?”

The little girl: “…”

She stopped walking and stood at the head of the bed, staring blankly at her, her face devoid of any expression. “Come and hug me…”

Shen Maomao lifted the covers and patted the side of the bed. “Come on?”

The little girl: “…”

Shen Maomao held onto Feili, extending her hand to show it to her while saying, “See this card? If I want to, I can freeze the entire Ye Lake in an instant. Then you’ll have to stay at the bottom of the lake forever, and it will be a hundred times colder than it is now.”

The little girl’s expression gradually turned fierce, clearly having ideas to kill a person and seize their goods⁶.

Shen Maomao pulled the card back and added, “But as long as you make me happy, I won’t use it, and I can even help you fulfill your wishes as much as possible. Think it over carefully before you decide?”

The little girl was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly blinked and looked at her. “Jiejie, do you want to come play together?”

Shen Maomao neither agreed nor refused, just looking at her with a cold smile. “Don’t think I don’t understand you ghosts’ rules. Trying to pull words out of me⁷? In your dreams.”

The girl: “…”

Shen Maomao gripped the card as if she were gripping her own destiny. She leaned against the headboard and commanded in a cold voice, “Pull your ears and go squat in the corner!”

The little girl let out a sob. “Wu—”

Halfway through the sob, Shen Maomao shook the card. “Not listening?”

The little girl tearfully did as she was told.

Shen Maomao said, “Now, I’ll ask the questions, you answer. If I’m satisfied, you can leave.”

The little girl nodded, choking back sobs.

Shen Maomao: “What’s your name?”

“Wu… My name is Hu Zhaodi⁸.”

The name made Shen Maomao frown. “Are you the older or younger sister?”

Hu Zhaodi said, crying, “The younger sister…”

“Where’s your older sister?”

“My sister is downstairs, wuwuwu…”

“How long have you been dead?”

“I… I don’t remember…”

“You don’t even remember how long you’ve been dead, and you still have the nerve to act pitiful?”

Hu Zhaodi’s gasps grew louder. “I… I’m timid…”

Shen Maomao: “???” You’re a ghost and you’re timid?

But that made sense. If she were brave, she wouldn’t have been so thoroughly bluffed by her.

She skipped the topic of the cause of death and continued to ask, “What’s your sister doing downstairs?”

Hu Zhaodi: “She’s playing with a big sister and looking for a big brother…”

Shen Maomao: “Is the big sister wearing red and holding a white umbrella?”

Hu Zhaodi nodded.

Shen Maomao became thoughtful. It seemed the one who rang the doorbell was a female ghost.

She asked again, “Which big brother are they looking for?”

Hu Zhaodi said, “I don’t know…”

Shen Maomao: “Are there any other ghosts in my room besides you?”

“I don’t know…”

Shen Maomao hated iron for not becoming steel⁹. “What use are you?”

Hu Zhaodi was so scared she jumped and started crying again.

Shen Maomao waved her hand. “Go, go. No tattling, or else… hmph hmph.”

Hu Zhaodi quickly turned into a puddle of water and slipped out through a nearby crack in the window.

Shen Maomao: “…” So they can slip through any crack? Then why did this silly kid come in through the door?

She looked at her room’s door, falling silent for a moment. Then she quietly got out of bed and moved the desk and vanity back to their original positions.

She could have said she could slip through cracks earlier. It made her feel like an idiot, acting as a mover every night.

After finishing everything, she lay back on the bed and breathed a sigh of relief.

Although on the surface she looked steady beyond belief¹⁰ just now, in reality, her heart was panicking in a whole batch¹¹. But thankfully, the child’s intelligence wasn’t high, and she had been fooled.

She held the card, drowsily preparing to sleep. But just a few seconds later, she suddenly heard a woman’s shrill scream from downstairs. It scared her so much she shot up and quickly ran to the window to look down.

The night was vast and dark. There was nothing in the courtyard.

The sound came from downstairs; the one in trouble was probably the adult female ghost. But she felt an inexplicable unease and didn’t dare to rush out. She could only return to bed, curl up under the covers, and wait for dawn with her eyes open.

Early the next morning, while Shen Maomao was still in a daze, she suddenly heard noise from next door.

People were talking, someone was crying, and someone was running in the hallway. It was a chaotic mess.

She woke up with a start, quickly got up, changed her clothes in a flash, and rushed out.

As soon as she opened the door, she saw the backs of Si Si and Golden Retriever blocking her doorway. No, to be precise, they were blocking the left and right sides of the staircase exit, craning their necks to see something.

Shen Maomao walked up beside them and peered down through the gap between their shoulders, only to see a staircase covered in blood, and An Jing sitting in a pool of it, crying while holding something.

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