The Hand of Confession – Chapter 333

Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China

Duoma¹

Resurrection Card

Okay, the content of her nightmares for the next few days was now booked.

She was very familiar with the remaining half of the face; it was precisely An Jing’s appearance.

What was going on with An Jing? Where was the skin on her face? Had it been peeled off by a ghost? Should she go in and help? Could she protect herself?

Countless questions floated through Shen Maomao’s mind. She was no longer the dazed green-head² she once was, who only knew how to charge straight ahead. Moreover, the person who had always been there to block the wind and shield from the rain³ was no longer behind her…

Shen Maomao gripped her dagger tightly, as if she were holding Lou Jingmo’s hand.

What should she do at a time like this?

Lou-jie… if you were here… what would you do?

Separated by a single door, another strange noise came from inside, along with heavy gasps for breath, mixed with a scream from an unidentifiable source. Outside, Shen Maomao clutched her chest and resolutely placed her hand on the door.

She was capable of this.

Even if she couldn’t help, she could at least protect herself…

She shoved the door open. Just as she was about to step inside, a puddle of bright red liquid shot out from between her feet.

The next second, the half-faced An Jing pushed her aside, holding a talisman⁴ as she gave chase.

Shen Maomao’s shoulder slammed into the door with a dull thud. Watching the figures of one person and one ghost recede into the distance, she thought to herself that she might have been a bit too naive just now. Judging by this girl’s ferocity, it seemed she didn’t need her help at all.

But since she was already out, she followed in the direction they had gone, wanting to see where the two had ended up. Who would have known that just as she reached the top of the stairs, she would see two pairs of red eyes at the bottom.

Her footsteps halted.

Those two pairs of eyes stared intently at her. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning split the sky, its flash illuminating the situation inside the house completely. She got a clear look at the two people below; they were two sisters, standing shoulder to shoulder.

The lightning was immediately followed by thunder. The two identical little girls opened their mouths at the same time, revealing identical sharp teeth and letting out piercing, shrill laughter.

“Hehe~”

“Hehe~”

Even the pitch of their laughter was the same.

In their combined form, the two sisters seemed far more dangerous than they were individually. Shen Maomao’s intuition screamed danger, and she immediately turned to go back.

Just as she turned her head, another flash of lightning came, and she clearly saw the two of them flash from the bottom of the stairs to the door of her room.

Their intentions were hostile.

She gave up on running, crossing her arms and meeting their gazes from a distance. After this wave of thunder subsided, she asked, “What do you want?”

The two little girls laughed. “Take a guess~ Between the two of us, who is the older sister? And who is the younger sister?”

Left and right audio channels, a perfect combination, the demonic sound pierced the ears⁵.

Shen Maomao frowned, covering her ears as she answered, “The stupid one is the younger sister, the smart one is the older sister!”

The little girl on the left shouted in anger, “You’re the stupid one!”

Older Sister: “…”

Shen Maomao: “I wasn’t wrong, was I?”

Younger Sister: “…I…”

Shen Maomao thought that if she were the older sister, she would have definitely kicked her down the stairs.

She looked at the two sisters and asked, “The question has been answered. Can I go back to my room and sleep now? You ghosts can’t just kill people randomly, can you?”

The younger sister said anxiously, “N-No! Didn’t you promise to help us fulfill our wish?”

Shen Maomao spread her hands. “I only said I could listen to what wishes you have, I never said I’d help you fulfill them. I haven’t even fulfilled my own wishes, where would I get such great ability?”

The older sister looked at her with those bright red eyes and said, “As long as you kill that man, we will stop coming to find you…”

Shen Maomao cleaned out her ear. “Which man is ‘that man’? There are three other men here, who knows which one you’re talking about?”

The older sister’s lips curled, revealing glowing red fangs. “If you can’t tell them apart, then just kill them all.”

Shen Maomao was speechless. “Do you think I’m chopping Chinese cabbage⁶? Is killing someone that easy?”

The younger sister shrieked, “You’re so terrifying! You can definitely do it!”

Compared to the older sister, Shen Maomao wasn’t afraid of this younger one at all. Hearing this, she narrowed her eyes, stared intently at the little girl on the left, and squeezed a deadpan “Hm?” from her throat.

The younger sister shrank back and slowly lowered her head.

Shen Maomao took out her dagger, holding the hilt and leisurely spinning the blade. “Is the one you want to kill Kang Yuanhuai? Or should his surname be Hu? Hu Yuanhuai?”

The older sister said, “It’s Hu Qinghuai⁷.”

Shen Maomao lowered her eyelids, looking down at the floor so they couldn’t see her expression.

Their guess was correct. Kang Yuanhuai was the child the Hu family had sent abroad twenty-three years ago.

Now, more than twenty years later, he had returned, perhaps to get revenge on his older sister.

But judging by little Hu Zhaodi’s intelligence… she felt that there was still something fishy about the matter.

The two sisters waited for a long time without a response from her and couldn’t help but grow anxious. “Does it really take this long to think about?! It’s just killing one person!”

Shen Maomao said seriously, “This isn’t a question of whether to kill someone or not. This is a question of whether my soul remains pure. Unless you can prove to me that Kang… Hu Qinghuai is not a good person, I cannot kill him.”

The two sisters exchanged a glance. The older one said, “We have no way to prove it, but the fact that we’ve become like this is absolutely related to him.”

Shen Maomao’s heart skipped a beat. “Hu Qinghuai wasn’t even born when your sister died, right? How did he harm you? And weren’t you killed by your sister?”

The older sister laughed disdainfully. “I don’t know where you heard that from, but how can you be sure your information is correct?”

“And how can you be sure that your own words are true?” Shen Maomao retorted.

The air was silent for a long time. Clearly, the two sisters couldn’t guarantee it.

The two exchanged another look, then glared at her in unison before melting into a puddle of red and blue liquid and slipping away through the cracks in the floor.

Shen Maomao stood in place for two seconds. After confirming that the two little ones had indeed left, she sprang into action, dashing down the stairs with a series of whooshes.

For eyes that had already adjusted to the darkness, the stairs weren’t that difficult to navigate, not to mention the occasional flashes of lightning that lit the way for her. The sound of rain and wind blew in through the open door. Relying on her momentary impression, she charged all the way to the main entrance. Rain instantly soaked her hair and clothes. She looked out and saw a woman in the flowerbed outside the door, kneeling on the ground with a knife, endlessly repeating a chopping motion.

Shen Maomao’s heart pounded wildly. She had no idea what the situation was—should she run?

RUMBLE—

In the flash of lightning, she saw the person’s bloody, mangled face—the winner was An Jing.

But this didn’t relax her, because An Jing’s current state seemed a little off.

In the moonlight, An Jing straightened her back rigidly. Half of her face was a bloody mess, and the other half was also covered in bloodstains that were being washed away by the rain, making her look more like a monster than a monster. Her hand fumbled for something under her leg, then slowly rose, palm up, revealing a beating heart…

Shen Maomao took a step back.

Yet An Jing didn’t even glance at her. She simply brought the heart to her lips and took a bite.

Blood practically spurted out. Shen Maomao felt a wave of nausea and was about to dodge, but she discovered the blood didn’t spray very far. Instead, it was as if it had hit a transparent barrier, sliding slowly down through the air before being blurred by the raindrops.

An Jing held the ghost’s heart in both hands, buried her face in her palms, and in three downs, five divided by two⁸, ate it. Then, she stood up, a glowing rectangular card suddenly in her hand.

Shen Maomao’s eyes widened. This time, she couldn’t be bothered with fear and quickly hurried forward, finally stopping behind the barrier of blood to observe An Jing’s actions up close.

The card’s light flared, so bright it was hard for her to keep her eyes open. She tilted her head slightly to avoid the glare, only turning back once the light had dimmed a little.

When she turned back, the person in front of her had become two.

A strange woman had appeared next to An Jing.

She was wearing a floral-print nightgown, her long black hair floating behind her. Her entire body was free of any bloodstains, forming a stark contrast with the wretched, blood-soaked An Jing.

Shen Maomao had a premonition—this woman was probably Mingyue herself, without a “pinched face.”⁹

She had guessed correctly. An Jing had used a card! And it was very likely the Duoma that Yun Shengjin had been desperately searching for!

An Jing almost wept from extreme joy. She wiped at the blood on her face, as if afraid of scaring the newly resurrected Mingyue, and turned her back to scrub at her face haphazardly with her hands.

Shen Maomao thought of her wounds, and seeing her rough movements, couldn’t help but feel a sympathetic pain in her own face.

Mingyue opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Shen Maomao directly in front of her. “You…?”

An Jing, who was behind and to the side of her, turned her head eerily and looked at her coldly.

Shen Maomao quickly waved her hands. “No, no, no, no, don’t look at me, look behind you! I just came to help, but it feels like I’m not needed anymore…”

As soon as Mingyue turned around, she saw An Jing, who didn’t dare to face her directly.

As intelligent as she was, she understood everything in an instant. “You used that?!”

“I… I had no choice…” An Jing’s voice trembled. “I had no way to save you…”

“Turn around…”

“I’m afraid I’ll scare you.”

“Turn around!” Mingyue said sternly.

Like a robot in disrepair from age¹⁰, An Jing turned around slowly and stiffly, revealing that face which could only be described as terrifying.

She kept her head down, afraid to see an expression of fear on the other person’s face.

The next second, she was pulled fiercely into an embrace.

She was at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet¹¹, raising her hands high as if afraid the blood on them would stain the other person’s clothes. This embrace was too warm; it pacified her heart that had been constantly screaming for destruction and ruin, and finally, she slowly wrapped her arms around the person holding her tightly.

The cold rain beat mercilessly on everyone, but the patch falling on her shoulder carried a trace of searing warmth.

It’s just the rain, isn’t it?

But why would the rain be warm…

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