The Hand of Confession – Chapter 373

Volume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror

Right Hand

Left Hand, Right Hand

“Who are you calling a keyboard warrior¹?” one of the egg spirits² demanded, reaching out to shove her.

Shen Maomao was no weak, helpless Zhan Xin, and she wouldn’t let anyone push her around. Before the hand could even reach her, Shen Maomao had it in a vice grip, stopping it from moving another inch. “Was I talking to you? What’s your hurry? Why are you so quick to take a numbered seat?³ Guilty conscience?”

The egg spirit yelped in pain. “LET GO!! LET GO!”

Shen Maomao flung the girl’s hand aside. The egg spirit immediately stumbled back a couple of steps, clutching her wrist as the other egg spirits closed ranks around her. Hiding behind the crowd, she nursed her wrist and snapped, “Who the hell are you? Are you nuts? Why are you sticking your nose in other people’s business?”

The girl’s voice was particularly shrill with pain. Shen Maomao casually dug a pinky into her ear and looked at her over the crowd. “Hey, classmate. Don’t you think you’re being a little loud? It’s a public disturbance.”

The girl retorted resentfully, “What department are you in? What’s your class? You live on the Pacific Ocean⁴ or something? Why is your reach so wide?”

Another girl with short, dyed-blonde hair chimed in. “There are only two of you, and you dare to interfere with us? You’d best weigh yourselves and see how many jin and liang⁵ you’re worth before trying to play the hero.”

Shen Maomao didn’t waste any more words on them. She pulled out a dagger. “You’ve got the numbers, sure. But do you have weapons?”

Under the sunlight, the blade of the dagger reflected the featureless faces of the crowd. But even without seeing their expressions, she could see them shrink back.

The blonde stammered, “You… who do you think you’re scaring with that knife? You wouldn’t actually dare to use it!”

Shen Maomao glanced at the dagger, ignoring the strange feeling of dissonance in her heart. She took a step forward. “Want to bet?” With that, she raised the dagger as if to strike.

“AHHH—!!”

The egg spirits let out a collective shriek and scattered, running for their lives. In seconds, they had vanished—all except for the blonde, who had been tripped and was still scrambling to get up.

A smirk played on Shen Maomao’s lips as she advanced on the girl, one step at a time.

The girl kicked at the ground, trying to scoot backward. Two wet streaks appeared on her smooth, blank face. “You… stay away! If you come any closer, I’ll scream for help…”

Shen Maomao gave a menacing laugh. “Who are you going to call? Look around. Is there anyone left?”

The girl burst into tears. “She’s just a thief! Why are you helping her?”

Shen Maomao paused. “What did she steal from you?”

“She used my makeup without asking! And she stole a necklace from my roommate! We caught her red-handed!”

Shen Maomao was taken aback. “Oh, uh…”

Seeing her hesitate, the girl shot a panicked glance at the nearby stairwell, then scrambled to her feet and ran screaming down the stairs, setting off a new wave of commotion below.

Shen Maomao sheathed her dagger—strangely, once the dagger was put away, that feeling of dissonance vanished as well. She walked over to Zhan Xin. “You okay?”

“Thank you.” Zhan Xin bent down to pick up the hat that had fallen on the ground. She gave it a quick dusting off before putting it back on her head. Only then did she turn to Shen Maomao. “How do you have a knife?”

Shen Maomao told a lie with her eyes wide open⁶. “I’m into cosplay. It’s a prop.”

Zhan Xin didn’t comment, only glancing down the stairs again. “Should we leave? They’re definitely going to get more people.”

Not wanting any more trouble, Shen Maomao immediately agreed. “Let’s go. Want to find a place to eat?”

This time, Zhan Xin didn’t refuse. She led them to a Hunan restaurant⁷ with very few customers and got them a small private room.

After they ordered, the waiter, who had facial features, left, helpfully closing the door behind him.

Only then did Zhan Xin seem to relax. She took off her hat and mask, leaned back against her chair, and said, “You shouldn’t have saved me.”

Shen Maomao asked, “Was what she said true?”

“…” Zhan Xin was silent for a long time.

So long, in fact, that Shen Maomao thought she was trying to cook up an excuse.

But in the end, she admitted it frankly. “It’s true.” She paused, then added, “You saved a thief.”

Shen Maomao said, “If I hadn’t stepped in, what would have happened next?”

Zhan Xin pressed her pale, bloodless lips together. “They would have dragged me into the girls’ bathroom, stripped my clothes, cursed at me, hit me, kicked me, shoved my head into the sink… and then they would have locked me in there until the old security guard let me out…”

So that’s why we ran into her in the girls’ bathroom last night. They must have chased the guard away.

Shen Maomao snapped back to the present, propping her chin on her hand and giving Zhan Xin a smile. “So, I saved a life. The identity of the person attached to that life doesn’t really matter to me. To see the weak being bullied and immediately draw a blade to help⁸—that’s just a common human sentiment in our country. You don’t need to dwell on it.”

Zhan Xin smiled faintly, and her eyes seemed to glisten with tears. “If only back then…”

“What did you say?” Her voice was too quiet, and Shen Maomao hadn’t caught the last part. She asked her to repeat it.

“Ah… nothing.” Zhan Xin wiped away a tear, unwilling to continue. She changed the subject to the reason she stole. “I don’t know when I developed this problem. The first time I remember stealing something was in elementary school. I snuck a butterfly-shaped hair clip from a two-yuan store, right under the security camera. From then on, once it started, it couldn’t be stopped⁹…”

Zhan Xin’s family wasn’t poor; on the contrary, they were reasonably well-off. But her parents were extremely strict. They forbade her from doing this and that, and they rarely gave her any pocket money.

They didn’t approve of her playing with students who had worse grades than her, or being friends with a girl from a single-parent family. They didn’t approve of her liking “meaningless” things—like the crudely made butterfly clip from the two-yuan store… like the friend who had encouraged her to steal it in the first place.

As she had secretly stuffed the item into her sleeve under the watchful eye of the camera, she had broken out in a cold sweat, her breathing becoming heavy and panicked.

Her friend, who was also stealing, had been startled and quickly came over to tell her not to be so obvious. But Zhan Xin’s face had flushed bright red, and her gasps for air became even more exaggerated.

In the end, the shop owner thought she was having an asthma attack. After failing to find her parents and fearing she might collapse in the store, he carried her outside and left her on a public bench—along with the butterfly clip still hidden in her sleeve.

Just then, the waiter knocked on the door to bring their food. Pulled from her memories, Zhan Xin waited for him to leave before continuing. “Back then, the more my parents forbade me from doing something, the more I wanted to do it… Maybe it was because I wanted to defy them, but I gradually lost control. The things I stole became more and more expensive, and this ‘asthma’ problem of mine got worse and worse…”

She pulled out a pair of chopsticks and held them in her hands. “I didn’t dare tell my family I had a stealing problem, and I didn’t dare see a doctor. I thought I’d be able to control it after I started college, but… I failed.”

Shen Maomao listened, chin in hand. “So you were caught stealing from your roommate?”

Zhan Xin said, “I wasn’t caught when I took it… I was trying to put her necklace back when they caught me.”

“So what’s your plan now? Just keep dragging this out?”

Zhan Xin avoided the question, changing the subject. “Enough of my depressing stories… The food here is pretty good, you should try some.”

Shen Maomao was about to say, “We’re not hungry,” when she heard a snap. It was the sound of Lou Jingmo breaking apart a pair of disposable chopsticks.

Seeing Shen Maomao looking at her, Lou Jingmo whispered, “Just for show.”

Zhan Xin noticed them whispering and asked, “What’s wrong? Is something not right?”

Shen Maomao still hadn’t picked up her chopsticks. “No, it’s just that I ate something right before this, so I’m pretty full.”

“Oh, is that so? That’s a shame.” After that, Zhan Xin paid them no more mind and began to eat by herself.

Meanwhile, Lou Jingmo had already picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks, but just as she’d said, she didn’t eat it, merely placing it in her bowl.

Shen Maomao stared blankly at Zhan Xin’s hands. After a moment, she furtively glanced at Lou Jingmo’s hands. She looked back and forth between them a few times, then her gaze fell on the chopsticks in front of her. On instinct, she picked them up with her right hand.

Then her eyes flew wide open. She had finally realized something that made her scalp tingle—the hand she was using to hold her chopsticks was the exact opposite of the one Lou Jingmo and Zhan Xin were using!

But she felt like she was using her right hand! And in her eyes, Zhan Xin and Lou Jingmo were using their right hands, too!

Shen Maomao put down her chopsticks, finally understanding where that strange feeling of dissonance had come from earlier.

What her brain perceived as her right hand was, in this world, actually her left hand. That was why it had felt so wrong when she saw Peng Xiaorui holding her weapon, and when she herself had held the dagger.

So Peng Xiaorui was real, and Lou Jingmo is the fake!

But why is this fake Lou Jingmo following them? If she wanted to kill them, why didn’t she do it last night? What is she planning? And where is the real Lou Jingmo?

She gnawed on her chopstick, her mind a complete mess.

A little while later, Zhan Xin finished her meal. She set down her chopsticks and glanced at the two nearly untouched plates. “Anyway, thank you again…”

Shen Maomao decided to put the Lou Jingmo problem aside for now and asked, “Where are you heading next?”

Zhan Xin replied, “I have to go back to the dorm… I still haven’t finished the homework for this morning’s class.”

Shen Maomao didn’t press her to stay. “Alright then. If you need anything, just give me a voice call. I’ve got nothing but time.”

Zhan Xin gave her a shy smile, put on her mask and hat, and went out to pay the bill. Then they parted ways at the door.

Shen Maomao watched her retreating figure, then deliberately decided to test the fake Lou Jingmo beside her. “Do you think her story is credible?”

“Lou Jingmo” said, “Fifty-fifty.”

“How so?”

“If it were true kleptomania, there would be no requirement for the value of the stolen items. That kind of psychological disorder is uncontrollable; once the impulse strikes, anything can be a target. But she just said that the things she stole became more and more expensive. That clearly indicates it’s deliberate and controllable.”

Listening to the logical, well-reasoned analysis, Shen Maomao’s thoughts couldn’t help but wander again. That’s my Lou-jie for you. Even her reflection from the mirror is this brilliant!

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The author has something to say:

I’m the #1 person to miss the rankings application deadline¹⁰ because of procrastination!

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