The Hand of Confession – Chapter 366

Volume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror

Medicine

Check It Out¹

The empty corridor echoed with the messy footsteps of four people. Gray gloom pressed in from all sides, stretching the hallway out unnaturally long, as if there were no end in sight at all.

Shen Maomao walked in front, holding Lou Jingmo’s hand. Peng Xiaorui gripped a wooden plank with both hands and walked shoulder to shoulder with Bai Lu behind them, warily surveying their surroundings.

The security guard had vanished who-knew-where. In the darkness, the faint sound of keys drifted over. It sounded as if it came from the ends of the earth, yet also as if it were right behind them, making Bai Lu keep glancing back, afraid something would suddenly pop out.

In a situation like this, a brightly lit environment would actually be more to their advantage. Shen Maomao tried pressing the light switch. Just as she expected, the lights in a horror movie existed purely as decoration and were completely useless.

They wandered around like headless flies for a long time, and in the end even the sound of keys could no longer be heard. It was as if the entire building held only the four of them and was otherwise utterly empty.

Continuing to search would be nothing but wasted effort. Shen Maomao decisively called a halt and said to Bai Lu and Peng Xiaorui, “Forget looking for him, it is a complete waste of time. The security guard came straight up here. There should be some classrooms downstairs he did not have time to lock. Let us go do a round of searching. Since we are already here, how could we possibly go back empty-handed?”

Bai Lu agreed. “Then do we split up?”

Peng Xiaorui said, “Xuejie², do you want efficiency or do you want safety?”

Bai Lu fell silent for a second, then changed her tune. “Let us stay together after all. Many hands make light work.”

They started from their current floor and began searching downward. Although the security guard had not yet had time to patrol these floors, under normal circumstances the last person to leave a classroom after the last period would close the door behind them. So as they went along, there were very few unlocked rooms. Offices in particular were all secured; not a single one was open.

The empty classrooms yielded nothing at all. Shen Maomao had expected as much and was not especially disappointed.

She took out her phone for a glance and saw that it was already ten o’clock. Unknowingly, they had been searching for over an hour.

Beside her, Peng Xiaorui said, “Do you think the office doors would be easy to pry open?”

Shen Maomao did not possess lock-picking skills, so she could only look at Lou Jingmo.

“Why are you looking at me?” Lou Jingmo spread her hands. “This is an anti-theft door. Come, say it with me: anti—theft—door—”

“Enough, shut up, understood.” Shen Maomao cut her off with a blank expression.

Peng Xiaorui looked at them with a squinty smile. “You two have really good chemistry.”

Shen Maomao said, “Do not talk nonsense. We are not close.”

Lou Jingmo gave her a sidelong glance, then quickly withdrew her gaze. Only the left corner of her lips curled up slightly, as if she were hatching some bad idea.

Shen Maomao noticed nothing and said to the other two, “Since none of us can pick locks, let us head back. Maybe we can only start from daytime—”

She had not finished speaking when Lou Jingmo suddenly grabbed her wrist. “Shh—listen.”

The rest of Shen Maomao’s words stuck in her throat. Bai Lu and Peng Xiaorui also stopped at once, pricking up their ears to listen.

Wuu—

Wuu wuu—

It sounded like someone was crying!!!

Cold sweat sprang up all over Shen Maomao’s body, and her heart hammered wildly. In a low voice she said, “Fuck, this is way too creepy.”

It was not as if she had never encountered weepy female ghosts before, but could those bizarre, unrealistic backdrops even compare to a school? Could their sense of immersion compare?

Besides, this was Jiangcheng University. The sense of immersion here was directly supercharged, to the point that all three women—other than Lou Jingmo—felt their legs go a little weak.

Peng Xiaorui said weakly, “The sound…seems to be…coming from…over there.”

“That direction…should be the restroom, right? Do we go?” Bai Lu asked. “Or ignore it?”

The bait was a little too obvious. If they went, there might be danger. If they did not, they might miss an important clue. Restrooms in ghost stories were indeed never content to stay lonely.

Shen Maomao hesitated for two seconds, then said, “Let us go take a look. If you two are not at ease, you can wait for us here.”

Peng Xiaorui looked at Bai Lu. Bai Lu said, “We will stand guard for you at the door…If something feels wrong, we will run away immediately.”

Shen Maomao nodded. “All right.”

The four of them walked forward on light feet. Peng Xiaorui clenched the wooden plank as if she wanted to draw some shred of safety from it. Shen Maomao also took out her dagger, ready to deal with any sudden situation.

The further they walked, the clearer the sobbing became. From a distance, the sound had been broken and intermittent. Only when they drew near did they realize it was because the owner of the voice kept panting. The breaks in the sobs were filled with breathy “ha—ha—ha—” sounds. Just listening to it made them feel as if their own breathing were growing labored.

Very soon they reached the doorway of the women’s restroom. Shen Maomao did not hesitate; she put her hand directly on the door.

Peng Xiaorui stopped her, hesitating. “Are we really going in? I just feel really panicky.”

Shen Maomao said, “It is fine. If there is a ghost, just hit her, like you did just now.”

Peng Xiaorui said, “Just now I was scared stupid. Now that I think about it, my legs are going soft.”

With her other hand, Shen Maomao patted her shoulder. “I believe in you. All that ‘invincible ghost and monster’ talk is nonsense. As long as you find the right method, you can kill them a second time. If worst comes to worst, we can always run. If we are not out in ten minutes, you two run for it.”

Having said that, she did not look at Peng Xiaorui’s reaction but directly pushed open the main door and stepped inside.

Creak—

The door closed on its own. Peng Xiaorui quickly jammed her foot in the way to keep it from swinging shut completely.

Inside the door were the sinks, with a row of mirrors above them. But the light was too dim for her to see herself in the mirror.

The mirrors in this instance were seriously sinister.

Thinking of this, she did not dare look any farther ahead. She turned aside and spoke softly to Bai Lu. “Xuejie…do you think—”

She swallowed. “Xuejie, what are you doing?”

Bai Lu was facing forward, neatening her hair. “Looking in the mirror. My head can be cut off, but my hairstyle cannot be messed up. It is not like I have anything better to do.”

Peng Xiaorui’s voice trembled a little. “But…was there a mirror there just now…?”

…

The restroom did not smell bad. Instead, it was filled with a faint lemon fragrance. After entering, there was first the sink area. One had to turn right and pass through a doorway before reaching the stalls. As soon as the two of them walked in, the sound-activated light came on. The sobbing to the right, however, cut off abruptly.

The sudden brightness made their eyes uncomfortable. Shen Maomao raised her arm to shield her eyes and adjusted for a moment before saying, “This light is looking down on ghost-jiejie. It refused to turn on while she was crying. That is just disrespectful.”

Lou Jingmo shot her a rather speechless look.

Whether anyone responded to her or not, Shen Maomao kept doing her one-woman standup at the doorway. “Are you there, ghost-jiejie? Are you there? Are you there? Do you have some unfulfilled wish? Do you need us to help you? If you need something, you have to say so. If you do not speak, how are we supposed to know what you need, right? All that fighting and killing is so boring. Giving me a jump scare does not do you any good either, right? Right? Right? Why do we not all sit down and have a nice talk, exchange some feelings—does that not sound good? Furthermore, every grievance has its head and every debt its owner. If someone has wronged you, you absolutely must tell me. I will definitely help you teach them a vicious lesson and beat them until they are crying and calling you mom. Are you not very tempted by that?”

Whether the female ghost was tempted or not, Lou Jingmo could not say, but she really was getting annoyed by Shen Maomao’s babbling. She took a step forward, rested her arm on Shen Maomao’s shoulder by virtue of her height, and dragged her along. “Save your saliva. In a bit, do your best and try to drown her with it.”

Shen Maomao said, “Ptui!”

Lou Jingmo said, “Go on, find the ghost. See which stall she is hiding in now.”

“Do we even need to look?” Shen Maomao walked straight toward the very back. “I know the routines of ghost movies like the back of my hand. The female ghost is definitely in the very last stall, either on the left or on the right.” As she spoke, she put her hand on the door of the stall on the left and gave it a hard push. The door seemed to catch on something at the threshold and indeed did not open.

Shen Maomao curled her fingers and knocked twice on the door. “Hello? Were you the one crying just now? Why are you crying? Did you forget to bring toilet paper when you came to poop?”

Lou Jingmo thought, Good. Truly worthy of being Shen Maomao.

There was no movement inside the stall for a long time.

With Lou Jingmo behind her, Shen Maomao did not feel the least bit cowed and kept asking, “Do you need any help? Can I help you? Anyonghaseyo? Daijoubu desu ka?”³

Lou Jingmo said in an eerie tone, “Who knew you had mastered multiple foreign languages.”

Shen Maomao smiled modestly. “So-so, ranked third in the world.”

The female ghost in the restroom finally could not hold back anymore and spoke. “I lost my medicine…can you help me find it?”

Shen Maomao asked, “What kind of medicine? Where did you drop it?”

The female ghost did not answer. She only repeated, “My medicine…my medicine…”

Shen Maomao said, “Medicine, medicine, check it out?”

The female ghost fell silent. Her breathing turned extremely rapid.

Shen Maomao apologized for her quick tongue. “Sorry, it just slipped out. Why do you not come out and talk first? The air in the restroom might not be that great…”

The ghost’s breathing stopped abruptly. Then she started scratching at the door with her fingernails.

Shen Maomao wanted to say more, but Lou Jingmo, afraid she would blurt out something truly outrageous, raised her hand and pinched Shen Maomao’s lips shut, then turned her head to bite them once before saying, “Dear, shut your mouth. I still want to live a bit longer.”

Shen Maomao thought, All right. No problem.

She knocked on the door again and said seriously, “Helping people—ghosts—is our joy. If we do not find it, you are not allowed to throw a tantrum, all right? Let us make this clear in advance. If you go back on your word, you will be scattered soul and shattered spirit, ashes dispersed, never to be reborn, all right? If there is no objection, we will take it as your agreement. Do not blame me for talking too much. None of us wants to see the story of the farmer and the snake play out.”

There was no more movement from inside the stall.

The two of them backed out of the restroom, planning to fetch Peng Xiaorui and Bai Lu to go search for the medicine. Who would have thought that, when they came out, the outside would be completely empty.

Shen Maomao checked the time and asked uncertainly, “Did they leave? It should not be ten minutes yet, right?”

Lou Jingmo swept her gaze around once and said, “Maybe. Let us find the medicine first and see where they went along the way.”

---

The author has something to say:

Finished my exams!!!!!!!!

Belated blessings—wishing all gaokao⁴ students triumph on the golden rankings⁵!!!

As for double updates—for the past half month, I have been working hard to stockpile chapters. I will try to see if I can do a full month of double updates next month (in fact, I was still typing this chapter at twelve-thirty last night)!!! Love you all!!!

Red envelopes for the first hundred commenters on this chapter!!

---

---