The Hand of Confession – Chapter 41

Volume 2: The Days of Playing with Monkeys in the Village

Contract

You just died once

The remaining half-point wasn’t enough to do anything with. Lou Jingmo gave it a kick with her foot, and its body completely separated from the cliff face, causing the six monkeys to fall to the ground with a loud crash.

Lou Jingmo hung herself on the cliff face. A white light appeared before her eyes, seemingly about to exit the dream.

She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief and called out “Shen Maomao.”

There was no response from the cliff, possibly because she had already returned to reality before her. So she let herself be enveloped by the warm white light. When she opened her eyes again, she was back at Zhang Jianshe’s house.

Warm sunlight poured in from the window. Today was the fifth day of this game, and they needed to go to the village chief’s house for a meeting.

Despite sleeping for a night, she felt her waist aching, her back sore, and her legs cramping, not at all like someone who had rested.

Beside her, Shen Maomao was curled up in the blanket, eyes tightly closed, still not awake.

Lou Jingmo reached out to push her, wanting to wake her up to prepare for the meeting. Unexpectedly, as soon as her hand touched Shen Maomao’s body, a burning sensation came from the back of her neck.

She suddenly widened her eyes, flipped Shen Maomao over, making her lie face down on the bed, revealing a tattoo on the back of her neck that even she didn’t know about.

— Rather than saying it was a tattoo etched on the skin, it was more like a birthmark that had always been growing within the skin.

The pattern was cyan, circular, with a hexagram in the center. The six points of the hexagram had intricate patterns that seemed to have no discernible regularity.

At this moment, a streak of red flowing light flashed quickly across the pattern, then swiftly disappeared.

Lou Jingmo touched the back of her own neck with one hand, and placed the other hand on Shen Maomao’s neck, both feeling somewhat too hot to handle.

They had identical patterns on their necks, which was the contract between them, only visible in the game world.

After the flowing light disappeared, the high temperature subsided, and Shen Maomao, lying face down on the bed, opened her eyes.

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Something wasn’t quite right.

As soon as she opened her eyes, Shen Maomao felt a strange sensation on the back of her neck.

Her hair stood on end, feeling both flustered and scared, yet she didn’t dare to move, fearing it might provoke murderous intent in the person behind her.

That hand wandered on her neck, as if tracing some pattern, both itchy and strange, making her involuntarily shudder.

“Awake?” Lou Jingmo’s voice reached her ears. She quickly flipped over and saw Lou Jingmo naturally withdrawing her right hand.

It was a false alarm.

Shen Maomao lifted the blanket and crawled up, finding her recent behavior a bit odd, and asked, “Sister Lou, were you just thinking about how to strangle me?”

Lou Jingmo: “Why would I strangle you???”

Shen Maomao: “I’m just joking, Sister Lou. What were you doing just now?”

Lou Jingmo’s eyes were deep and serious: “You just died once.”

Shen Maomao was confused: “??? Aren’t I alive and well?!”

Lou Jingmo said: “Do you remember the contract? After signing it, it can save your life once. The contract just took effect.”

Shen Maomao was completely bewildered: “I just died?? How did I die??”

Just as Lou Jingmo was about to say something, Aunt Zhang’s loud voice came from downstairs: “Girls! Get up quickly and eat! You need to go to the village chief’s house for a meeting today!”

So she told Shen Maomao to remain calm, and they’d discuss this matter later.

The two got dressed and washed up. Before going downstairs, they specifically checked the two rooms next door; Wei Yu and Wang Xiaoming still hadn’t returned.

In the courtyard, Zhang’s family of seven sat together. Zhang Jianshe’s father wasn’t feeling well today and didn’t come out to eat. Nine sets of tableware were placed on the dining table. The Zhang family didn’t ask where the other man and woman had gone, but rather consciously saved their tableware.

They had barely eaten a few bites when Zhang Aiguo urged: “You should hurry to the meeting. The village chief said it’s better to go early. You can eat when you come back, it’s the same.”

The more anxious he was, the less hurried Shen Maomao became: “I had nightmares all night, I’m so hungry. I can’t move without eating something…”

Lou Jingmo also sat steadily on the stool, unmoved even by thunder.

The two ate unhurriedly, while Zhang Aiguo’s eyes turned red with anxiety, almost wanting to rush over and eat for them. It was his wife who pulled him back, shaking her head slightly, and led him into the house to whisper.

After finishing their meal, there was nothing else to delay their departure. The two could only pat their bottoms and leave the Zhang family, walking on the small paths in the village.

Every household in the village had their doors tightly shut, and the people who used to stroll aimlessly on the roads were nowhere to be seen. Not far away, there were two figures whose clothes looked like those of players, but it wasn’t clear who they were.

Still some distance from the village chief’s house, Lou Jingmo took the initiative to ask, “Do you remember what happened in the dream?”

“I do.”

“So how did you die?”

Shen Maomao scratched her head: “I didn’t feel anything… Was it you, you who had an accident while fighting with that thing, and I died once in your place, then the prop saved my dog’s life?”

Lou Jingmo looked at her with eyes that seemed to say ‘you idiot’: “If you had died in my place, the prop wouldn’t have worked.”

Shen Maomao thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped her hands: “I think I understand now! Didn’t I get into a fight with those monkeys? Because I couldn’t feel pain, I didn’t notice where I was injured. After I threw all the monkeys down to attract fire, I felt the sky spinning and the earth turning, a bit like when entering the game, so I thought I was about to exit the dream.”

After saying this, she blinked her eyes pitifully and looked at Lou Jingmo: “So I actually died from excessive blood loss due to severe injuries?”

Lou Jingmo was somewhat silent, not knowing what to say.

Shen Maomao fake-cried: “Ying ying ying, so scary QAQ, Big Sister Lou protect me!”

Lou Jingmo expressionlessly pushed her face away: “You could handle six mutated monkeys, why are you acting like a little pitiful one with me?”

Shen Maomao, acting weak and fragile: “What’s scary about monkeys? I’ve learned judo… But I’m afraid of ghosts QAQ.”

Lou Jingmo really hadn’t noticed this ability of Shen Maomao’s, and said in surprise: “What are you afraid of? Just beat them up??”

It was better not to mention this point; once mentioned, she became very angry.

Shen Maomao said in despair: “You can’t hit ghosts!!”

It was too real, she shed real tears.

The two people walking in front of them stopped when they heard their voices, as if waiting for them to catch up.

Shen Maomao recognized these two as Ye Tingnan and Shao Mei; the boy called Wang Sheng wasn’t there.

Ye Tingnan’s face was gloomy, and Shao Mei’s eyes were red-rimmed. Both looked completely haggard.

When the four gathered, Ye Tingnan said in a low voice: “Wang Sheng and Shan Xiao died in the dream…”

Shen Maomao widened her eyes: “You all had dreams too?”

Shao Mei nodded, her nose tingling, and crying so hard she couldn’t speak: “I thought only we had dreams… Those monsters were so scary…”

She wept uncontrollably. Ye Tingnan comfortingly patted her shoulder and said: “Last night, the four of us entered the same dream. In the dream, the ‘Ling Yuan’ in Ling Yuan Village actually refers to the characters for ‘ling yi’ (灵异, supernatural) and ‘yuan hou’ (猿猴, ape or monkey, generally primate)…”

It turned out that Shan Xiao hadn’t died before, but had been acting alone to search for Wu Menghan, vowing to see the person if alive, or the corpse if dead.

Last night, the four entered the dream together, appearing directly at the village entrance. They were first startled by the red moon in the sky, then discovered Wu Menghan, who had been missing for several days, looking unharmed under the locust tree at the village entrance.

The other three didn’t dare approach, but Shan Xiao, seeing his beloved girl, having his long-cherished wish fulfilled, walked over without hesitation. He was then swallowed by a group of blurry black shadows.

The remaining three were scared stiff until Shao Mei’s scream reminded them to flee.

Perhaps because they already had enough food, only a small portion of the black shadows gave chase. They ran desperately along the small path they had come from.

The small path outside the village was long and narrow, becoming increasingly narrow as they ran. Eventually, towering mountains rose on both sides, soaring into the clouds, allowing only one person to pass at a time.

The two boys protected Shao Mei in the middle, with Ye Tingnan leading the way and Wang Sheng bringing up the rear. After running for an unknown duration, Shao Mei looked back and was shocked to find that Wang Sheng and the black shadows had all vanished without a trace.

She called out Ye Tingnan’s name, leaning against the mountain wall to stop, her heart pounding wildly, ears ringing.

Before them lay a goat intestine-like narrow path that seemed endless, above them a canyon that blocked out the sky. Only a sliver of blood-red moonlight shone through the thread of sky above, bewitchingly beautiful yet ice-cold.

The two didn’t dare to move forward, spending a terrified night trapped in the crevice. When they woke up early the next morning, they discovered that Wang Sheng and Shan Xiao had already stopped breathing.

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After finishing their account, they had arrived near the village chief’s house. Shao Mei composed herself, wiping her tears with a tissue.

The village chief’s house was bright and tidy, with a red cloth-covered deity statue placed in the center of the courtyard, though there were no offerings before it.

Yun Shengji had arrived before them, also looking grim, with no one by his side. The big brother who had returned from the back mountain was nowhere to be seen.

Last night’s dream had resulted in heavy casualties.

The village chief’s reception room was clean and bright, with a row of traditional armchairs made of hongmu red wood. The five of them took their seats one after another, and the village chief’s son served them tea before leaving the room.

The old man, holding a walking stick, slowly sat in the main seat. After coughing twice, he began: “You must be quite curious about our village’s sacrificial rituals, right?”

Shen Maomao: “Not curious, not curious at all.”

Village Chief: “…”

Lou Jingmo gave her a punch, and Shen Maomao immediately shut up.

Yun Shengji said: “Village Chief, you can speak frankly.”

The village chief smiled: “In that case, I’ll speak frankly. I’d like to invite you all to participate in the sacrificial ritual, take some photos to bring out, and promote our local customs and traditions…”

When they first arrived, they weren’t allowed to participate in the ritual for fear of disturbing the spirits. Now, they’re being asked to photograph the ritual. Even if there were no ghosts, no one would believe it.

Yun Shengji, having survived several worlds, was no fool. As soon as the village chief finished speaking, he raised a question: “We’re not believers. Aren’t you afraid that the Monkey God will be angered by this?”

The village chief laughed: “Actually, everyone knows that worshipping gods is just a form of spiritual sustenance. You’re all from outside, so you should understand better than me what feudal superstition is, right? I’ve discussed with the villagers, and we want to use this opportunity to promote our ritual, attract tourists to participate, and boost what’s it called… I think it’s the tertiary industry? We aim to develop the village’s tertiary industry through the ritual, making the village more prosperous…”

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