The Hand of Confession – Chapter 365

Volume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror

Security Guard

Just this? Just this?

Although the decision had been made, Shen Maomao currently had no clear plan.

All she could think of was hiding in the building until dark, then finding a way to steal the keys from the security guard.

Before setting out, she had sent a message in the group chat. Several people from the neighboring dorm clearly stated they wouldn’t go. Wu Mei and the newcomer didn’t appear; Shen Maomao didn’t know if they didn’t want to go or just hadn’t had time to check their phones. So, she sent another individual message, telling them if they wanted to come, they should sneak into the School of Humanities teaching building before nine o’clock.

After nine, the exterior of the teaching building would be locked. Then, the security guard would sweep through layer by layer, checking the unlocked classrooms and locking the doors from the outside. Therefore, hiding in a classroom and waiting for darkness was not a viable option.

That left only two feasible methods: One was to wait until the last moment and hide in the bathroom—none of the bathrooms in the building were locked, the guard was a man and likely wouldn’t enter the women’s restroom, and the toilets in this college had stalls, making them suitable for hiding people. The other method was to keep an eye on the floor the guard was on, using the distance between the main staircase and the side staircase to wage guerrilla warfare against him.

Both methods had their pros and cons. The group wasted the entire afternoon in an empty classroom, and finally chose the second method—after all, since ancient times, bathrooms in ghost stories have always been very xiemen¹ places. Furthermore, Shen Maomao had played hide-and-seek with Fei Li² before and considered herself relatively experienced, believing she could be the person who gou³ to the very end.

During the tense wait, the sky grew darker and darker. Lights turned on inside the building, while outside the window, it was already pitch black.

At eight-thirty, the final bell rang. Evening self-study completely ended. The corridor filled with the huala-la sounds of movement and conversation as students began to evacuate.

Wu Mei still hadn’t replied. Shen Maomao turned off her phone screen, feeling a slight urge to shake her leg.

However, just as she started the motion, she was kicked—neither too lightly nor too heavily—by Lou Jingmo. She could only suppress this impulse in the bottom of her heart.

Time passed minute by minute. The students outside became fewer and fewer, until finally, the entire building was as quiet as if it had fallen asleep.

Peng Xiaorui was the first unable to bear it. She suddenly stood up and asked softly, “Are we leaving?”

Shen Maomao glanced at the time; it was five minutes to nine.

She nodded. “Let’s go.”

Lou Jingmo and Bai Lu stood up at the same time. Shen Maomao, walking at the very back, turned off the lights. The entire eighth floor instantly went dark. The light from streetlamps cast shadows of the windows onto the corridor, tilting into sharp, jagged angles.

Shen Maomao took the lead toward the east stairwell.

The School of Humanities had an elevator. She guessed the security guard would take the elevator to the top floor, then check downwards floor by floor. The elevator was near the main staircase. They only needed to determine which direction the guard checked first after coming up, then they could adjust based on his position and stay on the eighth floor until he finished checking.

After nine o’clock, the entire college fell into absolute silence.

At nine-o-three, the elevator arrived at the eighth floor, issuing a crisp Ding.

Peng Xiaorui sat on the ground, cautiously poking her head out to look.

Huala—

Huala huala—

The keychain hanging at his waist emitted a series of sounds with his movements. Peng Xiaorui took one look, shrank her head back, and nodded furiously at the others behind her.

They had agreed beforehand: if the guard walked east, Peng Xiaorui would nod; conversely, she would shake her head.

There was another classroom at the other end of the stairs; staying here meant definitely being seen by the guard.

Shen Maomao waved her hand and walked downstairs with extreme caution, trying her best not to make a single sound.

Huala—

Huala huala—

The sound of keys grew closer. The group hid on the seventh floor, holding their breath, waiting for the guard to finish locking the rightmost classroom and walk back.

Not far away, Peng Xiaorui suddenly opened her mouth wide, looking like she was about to sneeze.

Bai Lu’s pupils constricted violently, and she immediately reached out to cover Peng Xiaorui’s mouth.

That sneeze brewed for a long time, but ultimately didn’t come out.

In just a few short seconds, the sound of keys had already arrived above their heads and continued to jingle.

They hid in the dimmest corner, like little mice preparing to steal a fishy treat. The darkness was the best protective color, yet it brought them no sense of security. Because aside from protecting them from discovery, who knew how many dark creatures were breeding in the shadows?

Shen Maomao’s heartbeat accelerated. Her eyes darted left and right, clutching tight to Lou Jingmo’s cuff. She wrinkled her nose, feeling like she smelled some indescribable odor.

What kind of smell was it…

Suddenly, her gaze froze, as if she realized something, and she jerked her head up to look at the floor above.

Why… did that key sound show no intention of stopping?

Peng Xiaorui forcefully broke free from Bai Lu’s restraint and suddenly screamed loudly, “Run! There’s the smell of blood!!!”

Huala—

Huala huala—

A head poked out from the gap in the staircase handrail, baring a mouthful of yellowed teeth, smiling at them with exceptional ferocity.

“Fuck!!!” Shen Maomao shivered from head to toe. Grabbing Lou Jingmo’s hand, she turned and ran downstairs.

The sound of keys became rapid, echoing in their hearts like a life-demanding talisman⁴. The originally kind-looking security guard seemed to have been turned into a bloodthirsty monster by the moonlight, chasing them while emitting laughter that sounded nothing like a human. The teaching building became a battlefield of pursuit; the three staircases—east, central, and west—were their only tools to evade the monster.

The security guard was old, and his legs and feet were not nimble. Even if he had mutated, he wasn’t as fast as these young people.

The four women ran downstairs quickly, circling with him between the staircases, finally throwing him off by a certain distance.

The sound of keys came from far away, approaching them unhurriedly, like an elegant cat nonchalantly teasing a mouse that thought it had escaped the tiger’s mouth.

The group squatted in an empty classroom, panting hechi hechi. Peng Xiaorui whispered, “What do we do… the original plan is all messed up.”

Shen Maomao whispered back, “But this also proves there is a problem here.”

Bai Lu said, “He is only one person. Should we split up and run?”

Peng Xiaorui was the first to refuse. “Don’t… in ghost movies, those who split up never have a good ending… We have four people, why don’t we beat him up together?”

Bai Lu revealed an expression of disbelief. “Are you crazy? He is a ghost!”

Peng Xiaorui: “Think about it from another angle, maybe he’s just a human acting weirdly?”

Shen Maomao felt this method was feasible.

Just hitting a ghost; it wasn’t like she hadn’t done it before.

She rolled up her sleeves and even began looking around for a handy weapon.

Daggers were useful, but too short. Without knowing the enemy’s abilities, a longer weapon was better.

Lou Jingmo was already accustomed to this kind of operation and started looking for weapons with Shen Maomao.

Only Bai Lu looked like her worldview had exploded, muttering, “How is that possible? Can you even hit a ghost? It can’t be done…”

Bai Lu looked mature and steady, but her acceptance of new things was actually worse than the high schooler Peng Xiaorui.

The desks and chairs in this classroom were connected. Shen Maomao walked a circle quietly and discovered two wooden chairs used for replacements.

The bell sound grew closer. Transmitted along with the bell was a faint, drifting smell of blood, hooking people into a state of near-nausea.

The classroom had two doors, one front and one back. Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo stood at the front door with a chair, while Bai Lu and Peng Xiaorui stood at the back door.

The bell sound reached the doorway. Shen Maomao and Peng Xiaorui almost simultaneously raised their chairs, ready to smash them down at any moment.

Zhi-ga…

The old wooden door was pulled open, but there was no one outside.

Alarm bells rang wildly in Shen Maomao’s heart. She gripped the stool, looking left and right, her body pulled taut like a bow ready to snap.

At the back door, Bai Lu also asked in confusion, “Why is no one there?”

Huala—

Suddenly, the sound of keys came from diagonally above them.

Shen Maomao snapped her head up, looking toward the window at the very top of the wall that connected to the corridor.

She saw the security guard practically lying flat behind that pane of glass, his head and right shoulder pressed tightly together. From his mouth spilled a long, triangular tongue, licking the window until it was covered in saliva.

His eyes had turned a bizarre grey-white, the pupils merely thin vertical lines in the center, like some kind of cold-blooded animal, devoid of any emotional color.

Shen Maomao exerted force in her arms, raised her hand, and smashed the chair over.

The sound of shattering glass rang out. Keys jingled chaotically, startling Peng Xiaorui and Bai Lu.

“What happened?!” Before her voice could fade, a black shadow suddenly appeared before Peng Xiaorui’s eyes, accompanied by a nose-assaulting stench of blood.

She let out a scream, swung the stool, and smashed it down, shouting as she smashed, exerting force as she shouted: “What is this thing ahhh!! Go die go die go die!!!!”

Bai Lu tactfully retreated a distance to prevent becoming collateral damage.

Lou Jingmo was silent for two seconds, then said with slight shock, “Look at her… does she look like the old you?”

Shen Maomao was not humble in the slightest. “What blind nonsense are you saying? I’m still like this now.”

Lou Jingmo smacked the back of her head directly. “Why aren’t you hurrying to help? What are you dazing out for?”

Shen Maomao covered the back of her head with one hand and lifted the stool leg with the other, charging straight over. “Make way, make way! Make some room for me!!”

Peng Xiaorui calmed down, retreating two steps with the bloodstained stool, clearing the doorway while panting heavily with rough breaths.

On the ground, only a leg smashed out of shape remained; the security guard’s body, however, was nowhere to be found.

“Ran away?” Shen Maomao put down the stool and squatted to observe carefully.

There was an indistinct black drag mark on the floor, extending a long distance into the corridor.

Lou Jingmo said, “Severing the tail to survive.”

Bai Lu still had a dazed look on her face. “He just ran away like that? Just this? Just this?”

Peng Xiaorui: “What do we do now?”

Shen Maomao patted Bai Lu’s shoulder with pity. “The keys are still with him. Let’s go down and look first. Either we find the keys, or we have to find him.”

“Wait a moment.” Peng Xiaorui called out to the three preparing to walk out.

She raised the wooden stool high and hurled it forcefully at the distant blackboard. With a loud Bang, the stool split into four or five pieces. She pulled out a plank of wood with nails in it from the wreckage, then said, “Let’s go.”

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The author has something to say:

I really can’t do it this time, there are still seven days until the exam. These past few days I’ve been organizing review questions and doing the videos required for credit courses. My whole person is already kidney-deficient⁵. Taking a half-month leave, I’ll be back after the exams. I have to memorize questions 5555⁶

I came over to check yesterday and found that 1000 collections were missing. My heart did a gedeng (thump/skipped a beat) at the time. Later I found out that bookmarks used to count as collections, and now they changed it back 5555. My 10,000 collections are gone just less than a month after reaching them QWQ.

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