The Hand of Confession – Chapter 374

Volume 11: The Days of Traversing Through the Mirror

Meeting

Domineering Maomao’s Substitute Lover

Shen Maomao and the fake Lou Jingmo had nowhere to go, so they could only find a classroom in the academic building to wait for dark.

She had brought a charger when she came, so she took this opportunity to charge her phone. She also @mentioned¹ all members in the group chat, asking where everyone was, but didn’t receive any replies. She didn’t know if the messages hadn’t gone through or if they had gone through but the others couldn’t receive them.

The waiting time was a bit boring, making her very curious about this imposter, so she couldn’t help but start chatting with her.

They chatted about some nutrient-free² topics. The fake Lou Jingmo answered all her questions with a stream-like flow³, without hesitating at all.

She was just too alike.

From appearance and clothing to behavior, everything was exactly the same; even the tone of voice didn’t have much difference. She wasn’t Sun Dasheng⁴ and didn’t have the ability of Fiery Golden Eyes⁵. If she hadn’t repeatedly confirmed that the creature in the mirror had its left and right completely reversed compared to her, she wouldn’t dare assert that this Lou Jingmo was a fake.

The midday hours passed in the process of going hungry.

Before afternoon classes started, a group of Egg Spirits⁶ came to the classroom they were in. The two had to make room for them and took the elevator down to the first floor.

Shen Maomao remembered that one of the two elevators would malfunction from time to time. She already had trouble remembering left from right, and after being confused by the mirror, she couldn’t remember at all now. So, she secretly decided that unless absolutely necessary, she would absolutely not take the elevator, to avoid breaking⁷ in this place.

The guard room was still empty, so she simply led the imposter to sit on the bench in front of the academic building to wait. Fortunately, it wasn’t cold right now, just that the willow catkins were a bit annoying.

A large crowd of faceless people passed in front of them. Soon the class bell rang, and outside the building finally quieted down, leaving only the two of them.

The imposter reached out a hand to pull her. Shen Maomao felt a bit awkward, so she pretended to be innocent and ran off to chase willow catkins, like a carefree little fool.

The imposter sneered, “Stupid to death.”

Shen Maomao’s eyes grew hot, and tears were about to fall.

Where the hell did Lou Jingmo die off to?!!

Thinking this, she suddenly saw a familiar figure stumbling over, waving at them while running.

The person coming was precisely Peng Xiaorui.

Shen Maomao’s gaze went past her, looking behind her. She discovered two figures following far behind Peng Xiaorui, looking like they were chasing her, or perhaps being lured over by her.

She immediately gripped her dagger tightly, becoming alert, and stared dead at this Peng Xiaorui.

As if seeing her suspicion, Peng immediately reached out to touch the back of her own head and extended her blood-stained finger in front of her: “Look, look!!! I’m real!!”

Shen Maomao said, “What’s going on? Who’s behind you?”

Peng Xiaorui: “It’s you and Hai Dongqing!!”

Shen Maomao: “What?!”

Peng Xiaorui explained at a rapid speed: “It’s another pair of you guys! I thought they were you, so I went up to acknowledge you, but I accidentally let slip our agreement. They immediately guessed that the ones I met before weren’t them and threatened me to come find you!”

Shen Maomao was speechless: “So you actually came?”

Peng Xiaorui was also helpless: “I just came to try my luck, who knew you guys were actually here? That Hai Dongqing up there must be fake! She’s fucking vicious! She threatened me with a knife, you know!”

“Alright, alright, I got it, kneel and withdraw⁸.” Shen Maomao pushed her aside, her eyes lighting up as she wanted to go meet them, but her wrist was grabbed by the imposter.

“Maomao.” The imposter looked at her fixedly.

Shen Maomao looked back and actually saw sadness in her eyes.

She instantly felt full of guilt, feeling like a scum woman⁹. Now that the real owner was back, she was abandoning the substitute who was bitterly in love with her; it simply couldn’t be scummier.

But her White Moonlight¹⁰ was already about to walk in front of her…

She turned her head back again, looking at Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao not far away.

Even though there was still a short distance, she could clearly see Lou Jingmo’s brows and eyes, cold as ice and snow, and the dagger in her hand spinning into an afterimage.

So capable of posturing¹¹, it must be Lou Jingmo, no mistake!

She looked at the imposter and said, “I’m sorry, you’re very good, but I deserve better.” After saying that, she mercilessly shook off the imposter’s hand and sprinted toward the real Lou Jingmo.

The two groups finally came together; at first glance, they looked like two pairs of twin sisters.

Shen Maomao looked fervently at Lou Jingmo: “Qingqing!”

Lou Jingmo glanced at her, and immediately a pair of hands rested on her arm.

Shen Maomao’s smile gradually disappeared as she looked at the other Shen Maomao who was the turtledove occupying the magpie’s nest¹².

The fake Shen said, “I’m sorry, but in matters of feelings, there has always been a first come, first arrival rule.”

Shen Maomao finally experienced the feeling of being angered to the point of vomiting blood by herself, and couldn’t help but doubt life a little: “Fuck, am I this annoying?!”

Lou Jingmo couldn’t hold back a laugh. She peeled off the fake Shen’s hand, looked at Shen Maomao, and said, “As long as you know. Why don’t you hurry up and roll¹³ over here?”

Shen Maomao smiled like a flower, sprinted over to link arms with Lou Jingmo’s other arm, and said to the fake Shen with her eyebrows raised and exhaling¹⁴: “I’m sorry, but in matters of feelings, there has never been any first come, first arrival rule.”

The imposter revealed a wronged expression, looking at Lou Jingmo with puppy eyes: “Lou-jie…”

Shen Maomao blocked in front of Lou Jingmo: “What are you looking at? This one is mine, yours is over there.”

The two imposters exchanged a glance, as if reaching an agreement in an instant, and attacked them in unison. Their targets were very clear: the fake Lou attacked Lou Jingmo, and the fake Shen entangled her, obviously planning to mix together to confuse the audience.

Shen Maomao didn’t cower in the slightest. She wasn’t proving whether she was real or fake; she was defending her love! The moment she thought about the imposter pretending to be her and selling obedience¹⁵ in front of Lou Jingmo, her anger surged uncontrollably. Her strikes became extremely vicious and merciless.

Peng Xiaorui held her small wooden board, like a confused child: “Holy crap, who do I help here?”

Then she saw one of the Shen Maomaos shout at her: “Just take care of yourself!”

So she silently sat on a nearby chair, watching with relish, only missing two plates of sunflower seeds to crack.

Shen Maomao could feel that this imposter was slightly worse than her, but not by much. Moreover, the imposter likely had her memories and knew all her weaknesses, so she struggled in the fight, but she didn’t fall to a disadvantage either.

On the other side, Lou Jingmo’s battle was much cooler than theirs. The two of them were so fast that only afterimages remained, forcefully creating a blur of sword light and shadows with their daggers, the ding ding dang dang clashing sounds ringing incessantly.

Peng Xiaorui watched for a while and felt her eyes blurring, feeling like they had jumped into a Wuxia¹⁶ or Xianxia¹⁷ world, so she hurriedly stared at Shen Maomao to return to reality.

Not long after, Shen Maomao rode on the fake Shen’s neck and plunged the dagger into her eye socket.

The imposter let out a wail, and a dark, cotton-like substance surged out of her eye, looking like willow catkins that had fallen into sewage.

This sound caused the movements of the two on the other side to stagnate. They stopped simultaneously, daggers pressed against each other, and turned their heads collectively. Two pairs of identical eyes looked over, and after seeing the black willow catkins on the fallen person, they withdrew their gazes together and started fighting again.

Shen Maomao pulled the dagger out of the corpse. The corpse quickly turned into a large ball of willow catkins, blown apart and drifted away by the wind.

She walked to Peng Xiaorui’s side, thinking: It seems Peng Xiaorui didn’t lie; there is no blood in the imposter’s body.

Peng Xiaorui gave her a thumbs up: “Jiemei¹⁸, I didn’t expect that you look frail, but your skills are so agile. Are you a sports specialty student?”

Shen Maomao was silent for a second: “Some… something like that.”

Peng Xiaorui said again, “Did you notice? Just now, both Hai Dongqings breathed a sigh of relief after seeing you were okay. The one impersonating you was really tragic; no one cared about her. You and Hai Dongqing must be very much in love, right?”

Shen Maomao said smugly, “Of course.”

Peng Xiaorui: “So can you tell which one of them is real now?”

Shen Maomao: “…” These two were like they were fucking copy-pasted, and their movements were fast to the point of blurring. What kind of eyes would she need to distinguish the difference?

Peng Xiaorui still asked, “Which one is the real Hai Dongqing? Tell me?”

Shen Maomao: “Just watch, don’t ask useless questions.”

Peng Xiaorui felt a bit wronged.

This is so important! How is it useless?

The two sat on the side waiting for a long time. They didn’t wait until the battle between the real and fake Lou Jingmo ended, but instead waited until the bell for the end of class rang.

Seeing students coming out of the academic building, the fight in the sky finally entered its final stage—a figure fell from mid-air, followed immediately by three daggers shoo shoo shoo piercing through her body and drilling into the ground. Only then did she smash heavily onto the ground, making no sound other than a muffled thud.

Shen Maomao stood up nervously and rushed over to see who had won.

Lou Jingmo landed behind her and said indifferently, “What? Heartbroken?”

Shen Maomao had already seen clearly who was on the ground, so she hurriedly turned back and flashed a fawning smile at Lou Jingmo: “How could that be? I discovered she was a fake at first glance.”

As she spoke, she glanced at the hand Lou Jingmo was using to hold the dagger. She pondered in her heart for a long time, raised her own hand to test it out, and finally confirmed that this Lou Jingmo was the real one. So she threw herself into her embrace and wailed, “Wuwuwuwu! I missed you so much!”

Lou Jingmo hugged her back, her right hand covering the back of her head and gently stroking down along her hair: “Make the gesture¹⁹ and that’s enough, don’t wipe your snot on my clothes.”

Angered, Shen Maomao pounded her hard twice.

The students getting out of class passed by them, all turning their egg-faces to watch the commotion. Several had walked a long way off but were still constantly looking back.

They didn’t have eyes, so one couldn’t tell if this action was gawking or observing. In any case, Peng Xiaorui was creeped out by the staring and decided to be the bad guy who uses the club to beat the mandarin ducks²⁰, reminding them: “Should we… maybe find a place with no people to chat? You guys don’t want to be gawked at here, right?”

Shen Maomao lifted her head from Lou Jingmo’s embrace and wiped her tears: “Then let’s go into the academic building? They’re out of class now, so we can find another empty classroom and tell each other what happened.”

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