The Hand of Confession – Chapter 48

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

Triple Rhetorical Questions

What’s it to me? How would I know? What are you good for?

“Sister Lou, give me a hand!” Shen Maomao reached out to Lou Jingmo. “My leg’s gone numb!”

Lou Jingmo: “…”

Using her strength, Shen Maomao got up from the ground, took off her incredibly ugly coat, crumpled it up, and tossed it aside. Then she patted the dust off her pants.

“What about them?” she asked.

Lou Jingmo: “They can’t be woken up.”

“I was just woken up by the sound of your footsteps!” As soon as she said this, she contradicted herself, her right hand touching the back of her neck. “No… I think I was woken up by this burning sensation…”

Lou Jingmo said: “It was the contract that woke you, not external forces.”

Shen Maomao stepped over a person lying at her feet and stood in the center of the cave, looking around at the people sprawled on the ground. Just as she was about to say something, she heard Lou Jingmo coolly remark: “Do you want to stay and keep them company?”

“No, no.” She quickly linked arms with Lou Jingmo and asked, “Goddess, have you found the exit?”

Lou Jingmo shook her head: “No.”

It wasn’t that she hadn’t found it; there simply was no exit in the cave.

The mysterious monkey cave was actually just a very ordinary small cave. After entering from the outside, there was a short tunnel, followed by a small platform of limited size. The platform extended a short distance inward, and then came to an end.

However, it did have some unusual aspects – for example, as soon as people entered the small platform of the monkey cave, they would fall into an illusory state due to some unknown factors, making it difficult to escape.

“Could there be some kind of mechanism?” Shen Maomao thought she just hadn’t found it, so she pressed herself against the rock wall, randomly pressing around. After feeling a large area, she still couldn’t find where the supposed mechanism was.

Lou Jingmo admired her particularly perky bottom for a moment as she leaned against the wall, before speaking: “Perhaps we’ve been misled.” (LP: perky? lmao)

Shen Maomao turned back: “Hm?”

“In our dream, we saw white light here and a group of monkeys eating human corpses, so we assumed that the monkey cave was the exit.”

Shen Maomao seemed to half-understand: “So? Where’s the real exit?”

Lou Jingmo: “How would I know?”

Here we go again, the goddess’s triple rhetorical questions: What’s it to me? How would I know? What are you good for?

Shen Maomao checked the time on her DSLR camera, which showed 8:52. There were less than four hours left until the seventh day. She frantically messed up her hair: “What should we do? We don’t have much time left!”

“Sitting in one place will never lead us to the exit.” After saying this, Lou Jingmo lifted her foot to walk out.

Shen Maomao hurried to follow, but then seemed to remember something and called out: “Sister Lou, wait a moment! I’m going to take a photo!”

Lou Jingmo didn’t answer but stopped in her tracks.

Shen Maomao raised her DSLR camera, turned on the flash, and took a picture of the cave.

Every time she took a photo, it required high energy, so this time she prepared herself mentally before bringing up the image.

The cave was still the cave, but not all the people in it were human.

Several monkeys were mixed in with the crowd. Based on their positions, Shen Maomao confirmed that their appearances in reality were all human, and they were wearing the ceremonial flowery clothes.

“Damn.” She handed the camera to Lou Jingmo. “Goddess, look at this!”

Lou Jingmo lowered her head and carefully examined the photo. Suddenly, she said, “I think I know where the exit might be…”

Shen Maomao’s eyes lit up: “Where!”

Lou Jingmo didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she took another photo of a smooth, flat rock wall inside the cave, then handed the camera back to her: “Take a look.”

The rock wall in reality was empty, but in the photo, a picture appeared on it. It was a large umbrella-shaped tree, with not only branches and leaves but also many small red dots. When zooming in on the image, it became clear that these weren’t just dots, but the eyes of monkeys.

Besides leaves and monkeys, there were many small figures with distinct features on the tree.

She found many familiar faces, including Zhang Jianshe’s father and grandson, Liu Zhuangshi’s wife, the old lady they had talked to before, a bunch of village children… and even all the deceased players.

So this is where all the missing people were…

This tree…

Shen Maomao said with certainty: “It’s the locust tree at the village entrance!”

Lou Jingmo: “Let’s go!”

“Wait a moment!” In an instant, many images flashed through Shen Maomao’s mind. She grabbed Lou Jingmo’s wrist and quickly said, “What about Ye Tingnan and Shao Mei?!”

The villagers were data, she could ignore them, but Shao Mei and Ye Tingnan were two living, breathing lives!

The outside was full of mist. Without Lou Jingmo leading the way, even if these two could wake up, they wouldn’t be able to leave the back mountain.

“Troublesome…” She said this, but still quickly walked to the side of the two poor souls and started to remove their clothes. “I’m not sure if they can wake up, but if not, we must leave immediately.”

Shen Maomao nodded repeatedly: “I understand!”

From the earlier photo, these two hadn’t turned into monkeys yet, so there was still a chance to save them!

As for Yun Shengjin… both of them consciously ignored him.

Lou Jingmo started stripping Ye Tingnan, so Shen Maomao followed suit with Shao Mei.

They removed their flowery coats, but they still didn’t wake up.

Shen Maomao gave her a puzzled look.

With a “slap,” Lou Jingmo backhanded Ye Tingnan, immediately leaving five red fingerprints on his left cheek.

Shen Maomao: “…Whoa, is this okay?”

Another “slap,” this time symmetrical.

Lou Jingmo slapped with both hands, saying as she did so: “If you can’t bring yourself to do it, I’ll handle it.”

“I think I can manage.” Shen Maomao cracked her knuckles, lifted Shao Mei’s head, and looked pitifully at her delicate features. “I’m doing this to save you, hehe.”

Lou Jingmo: “…Can you not laugh so lewdly?”

“Hehe.” Shen Maomao started slapping, calling out to Shao Mei as she did—

“Mei!”

“Slap!”

“Wake up quickly!”

“Slap!”

It even had a certain rhythm to it.

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Ye Tingnan thought he was going to die in this cave.

He didn’t know where everyone else had gone; only he was left in the cave. At first, he hadn’t noticed, but later he realized he had become separated from the main group.

Upon realizing this, he immediately turned to retrace his steps, only to see a monkey that had been following him for who knows how long…

The torch went out instantly, and he ran forward desperately. After running a short distance, he was suddenly pounced on from behind by the monkey.

Sharp pain shot through his calf as the monkey tore a piece of flesh from his thigh, blood gushing out.

He cried out in pain, crawling forward in desperation, only to be pulled back and bitten again. The pain left him covered in cold sweat, with no strength left to struggle.

No one can endure the agony of having their flesh bitten off bit by bit; the feeling was no different from being slowly sliced to death. Several times he felt he would pass out from the pain, but tragically found himself remaining conscious.

From the calf, to the thigh, to the waist.

Blood flowed like a river, yet he still hadn’t died.

After who knows how long, in his dazed state, he suddenly felt a pain on his face. It wasn’t the biting kind of pain, but rather as if someone had slapped him…

The lower part should have hurt more… but the pain on his face transmitted more clearly into his mind, jolting his spirit and even making him feel the existence of his lower body that should have long been eaten!

He opened his eyes wide in the darkness, desperately wanting to feel that pain again…

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Lou Jingmo naturally wouldn’t disappoint him, slapping him one after another until her own palm began to feel a burning sensation before stopping.

Ye Tingnan slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurry, with a familiar voice echoing in his ears—

“Stop sleeping!”

“Slap!”

He understood now why his face hurt so much…

Lou Jingmo rubbed her wrist: “It worked!”

Seeing her success, Shen Maomao’s slight feeling of guilt immediately vanished, and she slapped Shao Mei with even more force, giving her loving slaps.

The crisp sound made Ye Tingnan’s face reflexively ache as well.

He touched his hot, swollen cheeks, remained silent for a few seconds, then hesitantly thanked Lou Jingmo: “…Thank you, Senior Lou?”

Lou Jingmo felt like laughing but held it back. She kept a straight face, putting on a businesslike expression, and accepted his thanks: “You’re welcome.”

After that, both fell silent.

Not long after Ye Tingnan woke up, Shao Mei also woke up with a whimper.

Shen Maomao wasn’t a sadist; seeing her awake, she stopped her abusive actions, nonchalantly put her down, stood up, and returned to Lou Jingmo’s side.

Ye Tingnan also got up and went to support Shao Mei: “Shao Mei? How are you?”

Shao Mei slowly came to, and burst into tears with a “Waa”: “Waa QWQ I’m so scared! My face hurts so much! Did I get bitten? Am I going to turn into a monkey? Wuwuwuwuwu…”

Shen Maomao’s mouth twitched upwards uncontrollably as she winked and made faces at Lou Jingmo.

Lou Jingmo also had trouble controlling herself and could only take the lead in walking out, leaving behind an emotionless sentence: “Since you’re awake, let’s go quickly. We don’t have much time.”

Shen Maomao hurried to follow.

The two poor souls ignored their face pain. Ye Tingnan helped Shao Mei up, stepped over the people on the ground, and quickly walked towards the cave entrance.

Shen Maomao bent down to pick up a long-extinguished torch and asked, “There’s no fire. Sis Lou, can you manage?”

“Didn’t we not have fire last time either?” The implication being, “Didn’t I still lead you out?”

Ye Tingnan weakly said, “I… I have matches!”

That made things even easier.

The four gathered around, using half a box of matches before successfully lighting the torch. The warmth of the flame dispelled the cold, the light dispelled the darkness, and the path beneath their feet became clearer.

Lou Jingmo held the torch in her hand, walking resolutely at the front. Shen Maomao linked arms with her other hand, walking side by side with her.

Soon they reached the cave entrance, where white mist poured in from outside, automatically dispersing upon contact with the torch.

The four walked out of the cave together. Just as they took their first step out, an urgent voice came from behind—

“Wait a moment!”

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