The Hand of Confession – Chapter 334

Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China

Scapegoat¹

?????????

The cold, cold ice-rain slapped randomly against her face, the warm, warm tears mixing with the frigid rain…²

Watching this scene, Shen Maomao suddenly missed her wife and really wanted to sing a rendition of “Ice Rain” for them.

But she hadn’t lost her heart and gone mad³ yet, so she just clapped her hands, interrupting the two who were having a reunion after a parting by death. “Shouldn’t you two go treat your wounds first?”

Mingyue wiped the tears and rainwater from her face, holding An Jing’s hand as she looked at her. “Thank you… for specially following her out here…”

Shen Maomao waved her hand. “It’s nothing, I wasn’t any help at all. Let’s go inside and talk, the rain is too heavy.”

Mingyue grunted in agreement, leading An Jing back the way they came.

“Creaak—creaak—”

The swing behind them suddenly started moving on its own again, but none of the three paid it any mind. Mingyue forged ahead, but after just a few steps, her hand suddenly slipped—An Jing’s hand fell from her grasp as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

She thought An Jing had pulled her hand back herself, so she turned and looked at her, confused. “What’s wrong? Why did you stop walking?”

An Jing stared at her fixedly and said, “I can’t get out.”

“How is that possible?!” Mingyue raised her hand and interlocked their fingers, forcefully pulling her forward. But she didn’t get far before a massive resistance emanated from their clasped hands.

At the same time, their hands became exceptionally slick, as if several bottles of lubricant had been poured over them, reducing the friction to nearly zero. It would only take the slightest external force for their grip to be broken.

Mingyue’s eyes reddened. Her hands trembling, she reached for her again, grabbing stubbornly time after time, but no matter how many times she tried, she could not pull her hand out.

An Jing shook her head and placed her hand on the transparent, invisible wall⁴ in the air. She then pressed her face against it and said to Mingyue, “This is probably its side effect… Don’t cry. I ate that ghost’s heart, so I’ll probably be assimilated and become a ghost too. Maybe I won’t even die!”

She pulled a messy pile of things from her clothes and began explaining how to use them, as if reciting her last words. “I don’t need any of these things now. Make sure you take them, and don’t be reluctant to use them. I knew it the moment I saw your corpse—you must have been reluctant to use your items at the start, and by the time you wanted to use them later, it was too late…”

Mingyue collapsed to the ground, burying her head in her knees and sobbing. “Why does it have to be this way? Why is this happening to us… I know I was wrong… I know I was wrong…”

An Jing squatted down with her. She wanted to reach out and pat her head but was blocked by the invisible wall. She could only retract her hand nonchalantly and watch her figure quietly, her eyes filled with tenderness.

Shen Maomao felt a sourness in her heart, but she knew An Jing’s death was certain.

The ghost that came tonight probably wasn’t the two little girls’ older sister, but their biological mother.

Madam Hu had died on this very swing. The fact that she had starved to death here was likely inextricably linked to this invisible wall.

Having eaten her heart, she had to inherit her manner of death. Logically, it made perfect sense.

She glanced at her item bar, her eyes falling on the Simon Peter card inside.

If there was anything that could let An Jing dog it out⁵ for a while longer, it was undoubtedly the Simon Peter card. But Simon Peter had a powerful side effect: anyone who used the card was guaranteed to die in their next instance, and their soul would find no peace after death. Instead, they would become a puppet of the card, awaiting its next master.

She didn’t know if she should give this card to her.

Of course, as tragic as their situation was, she wasn’t running a charity. She couldn’t possibly give her the card for free.

With that in mind, she cleared her throat, rousing the pair from their sorrow. “I have a way to postpone your death by one world, but you will die for certain in the next one. Do you want to use it?”

An Jing was taken aback and immediately said, “Yes!”

Mingyue, however, stood up, wiped away her tears, and asked, “What are your conditions?”

Shen Maomao said, “I do have a condition—I want the Thomas in your hands. And I won’t be giving you this card after it’s used.”

But Mingyue replied, “What Thomas?”

Shen Maomao: “?? The card that resurrected you!”

Mingyue gave a bitter smile. “Where would the two of us get a card? I’ve never even heard of this Thomas you’re talking about.”

Shen Maomao had a face of utter confusion. “If not Thomas, then what was it? What other item has the power of resurrection?”

Mingyue said, “Have you misunderstood something? We have a one-time-use item that can resurrect a teammate. It’s called the Great Resurrection Spell, and its activation condition is extremely bloody…”

Shen Maomao asked, pursuing the question without letting go, “How so?”

“It requires the user to eat the heart of a ghost as a sacrifice,” An Jing said. “That’s why I used other items to boost my combat power.”

That might be why her face looks the way it does.

But Shen Maomao still wasn’t fully convinced.

If there were other items besides Thomas that could bring someone back from the dead, then what was the point of Thomas’s existence?

“Alright, my mistake.” She smiled at the two of them. “But you can still borrow the thing I mentioned. You can take your time to think it over. Maybe you’ll find a way to leave without using the item.”

“This rain is pretty heavy, so I’ll be heading back first.” With that, she turned and walked away. Behind her, An Jing and Mingyue watched her enter the Western-style house before looking at each other.

Shen Maomao yawned.

Tomorrow was the fifth day of the game, and she had a rather bad feeling—the method to leave this game was probably related to Kang Yuanhuai.

But whether she had to kill him, or help him kill someone else, she couldn’t be sure yet.

She returned to her room, changed out of her soaking clothes, dried her dripping hair, and then lay back down on the bed.

The wound on her leg, having been soaked in rainwater, throbbed with pain. But with only two days left in the instance, she didn’t have the extra energy to deal with it—and perhaps there was no need to.

The night was deep. A breeze blew across her face. She was growing drowsy when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway.

The wind had blown her door open a crack at some point. She thought it was Mingyue returning, but instead, she saw a black shadow flash past, accompanied by a mumbling sound.

She listened closely. The person was repeating one thing over and over—

“Water…”

“Water…”

She shot up with a start, slipped on her shoes, and gave chase.

That voice was clearly Golden Retriever’s!

“What the hell…” she complained as she ran. “Are they trying to keep people from sleeping?!”

Golden Retriever was moving quickly. By the time she reached the top of the stairs, he had already exited through the main door.

The rain was still falling. He tilted his head back, opened his mouth wide, and desperately gulped down the rainwater. His feet never stopped, and he continued toward the courtyard gate in this bizarre posture.

In the flower garden, Mingyue and An Jing sat together on the swing, coldly watching Golden Retriever’s figure disappear.

Then Shen Maomao appeared. An Jing called out to her, “Stop chasing. He’s about to become the scapegoat.”

All the more reason to chase him!

Not only did Shen Maomao’s steps not falter, but they quickened.

One after the other, they left the courtyard. Golden Retriever’s back was always in front of her, but she found that no matter how hard she chased, she couldn’t catch up to him.

Ye Lake was just ahead. She feared that if she couldn’t stop him now, she’d have to fish him out of the water later.

After a moment’s thought, she pulled an item from her item bag that Lou Jingmo had custom-made for her. She brought the item to her lips, sank her Qi into her Dantian⁶, brewed it for two seconds, and immediately let loose: “You, come back quickly!!!! I can’t bear it all alone!! You, come back quickly!!!”⁷

The sound waves materialized, rippling outwards from her like waves in a pond.

Golden Retriever, being the closest, bore the brunt of it and was blasted to his knees; Ye Lake suddenly churned with waves as fish leaped from the water, flopped a few times, and then turned belly-up; the glass on the lake-facing side of the distant house filled with cracks but stubbornly refused to shatter; downstairs, Mingyue and An Jing were knocked off the swing and stared at each other, their faces a mask of bewilderment.

Seeing the would-be scapegoat fly out of its grasp, a massive, pitch-black hand suddenly shot out of the river, snatching swiftly for Golden Retriever.

Shen Maomao sprinted over with the speed of a hundred-meter dash, yanking Golden Retriever back just before the black hand could reach him. Then, dragging him by one foot, she turned and ran back toward the house.

Another clap of thunder boomed. The lake water churned violently, bubbling as if it were boiling.

Shen Maomao immediately used an item to increase her strength. The once incredibly heavy Golden Retriever instantly became as light as a feather. She lifted him up to reduce friction and ran for her life back toward the house.

Just as she reached the doorway, the item’s effect was about to end. She threw Golden Retriever through the entrance like a basketball, then leaped forward herself, sprawling through the door.

Mingyue, who was guarding the entrance, quickly shut and bolted the doors. With a thud, the giant hand slammed against the doors and disintegrated. The two doors caved inward, leaving a thin crack between them. Droplets of water seeped through, mixing with the rainwater on the floor, becoming indistinguishable.

Shen Maomao let out a sigh of relief. She sat up to calm her wildly beating heart, then climbed to her feet and thanked Mingyue.

Mingyue smiled at her. “No need to be polite. If that thing had gotten in, we all might have been in danger.”

Shen Maomao inexplicably felt that there were words within her words⁸, but she pretended not to notice and turned to find Golden Retriever.

Mingyue followed behind her and asked, “The one singing just now… was that you?”

“Of course not!” Shen Maomao had some face to save.

The corner of Mingyue’s mouth twitched, it was unclear whether she believed her or not.

Shen Maomao ignored her. She grabbed Golden Retriever’s two small pigtails, lifted his head, and then fell silent for two seconds.

Half of Golden Retriever’s fair, pinchable face was now covered in scratches, the wounds embedded with sand and dirt. He looked utterly miserable.

But saving his life was more important than anything. Shen Maomao felt not a shred of guilt.

She dragged Golden Retriever under the rain shelter by the door, squatted in front of him, and patted his uninjured cheek. “Hey? Hey?! Wake up!”

Golden Retriever’s eyes were tightly shut. His eyelashes trembled twice, shaking off the raindrops, and then he opened his eyes, which were brimming with moisture—it was actually quite a beautiful sight.

But the next second, he spoke: “Ngh—wha… what happened? I’m still alive?”

Standing behind them, Mingyue: “????”

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