The Hand of Confession – Chapter 70

Volume 3: Days of Working at the Manor

Attend the Dance Party

There are great gods here

(In Chinese internet slang, “大神” or “great gods” refers to people who are extremely skilled or talented in a particular field, often used in gaming or online communities to describe someone with exceptional abilities.)

Golden Retriever  quickly scanned through his huge collection of items and found a debuff removal card. He kept chanting “Use” in his mind. A flash of golden light swept by, and he felt an irresistible pulling sensation, as if he were tied to a volcano car spinning 720° at 200 miles per hour, or stuffed into the spin cycle of a washing machine.

When the dizziness passed, he threw up with a loud “Wah!”

“Ew!” Shen Maomao moved away with disgust, “You’re awake?”

Ignoring the strange taste in his mouth, Golden Retriever jumped off the back of the carriage: “I’m awake? I’m awake?!”

His little golden hair waved in the wind, just like his excited heart.

Shen Maomao pushed the old horse, now back to normal, into the stable and shut the gate behind him: “Yeah, you’re awake, stop bouncing around, and think about whether you’ll be punished tomorrow.”

Golden Retriever looked at the distant starry sky, tears falling from his eyes: “I thought spending money in the game would make me stronger, so I could do whatever I wanted. But what happened? Why are things like this to me?”

Shen Maomao: “You just didn’t spend enough.”

Golden Retriever: “This lousy game ruined my life!!”

Lou Jingmo interrupted their antics: “Let’s go, it’s time to attend the ball.”

After saying that, she walked out first, with two bodyguards quickly following. Shen Maomao asked, “We can go to the ball too? But we don’t have invitations!”

“To be precise—” Lou Jingmo added, “we’re sneaking in.”

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Carriages at the gate came and went, over and over again.

After more than an hour, the manor’s gate slowly closed, and the guards withdrew from outside, taking positions outside the castle. Butler Liason tidied himself up, glanced with a slight smirk at the bushes on his left, and walked into the castle, surrounded by servants.

The clock tower chimed nine times, marking nine o’clock at night, and the ball officially began.

Shen Maomao shrank back further, wishing she could become a green leaf (a metaphor often used in literature to describe blending into the background). Once Liason was far enough away, she dared to swat away the mosquito fearlessly sucking her blood, scratching at the fresh swollen bump.

They had been hiding here for as long as Liason wandered nearby. It left them in a dilemma of whether to leave or not. Shen Maomao crouched so long her legs went numb, and moving them brought a grimace of pain.

Golden Retriever crawled out from the bushes where Liason had looked earlier, with two leaves stuck on his head. He wasn’t concerned about his appearance at the moment, and frantically asked, “Oh no! He was looking at me! We made eye contact!! Am I going to die?”

Lou Jingmo crawled out too: “If he wanted to kill you, he would have done it already.”

Golden Retriever thought about it and realized it was true. He closed his eyes to “look” at his inventory, feeling reassured.

“Sister Lou…” Shen Maomao, still in the bushes, said weakly, “Can you give me a hand? My legs are numb…”

Lou Jingmo: “…”

Shen Maomao guessed she was probably thinking something like “useless things” about herself.

At this time, the courtyard was almost empty. All the NPCs and a few players were gathered in the castle’s first-floor banquet hall, where the ball was being held.

Speaking of which, everything that happened to Golden Retriever wasn’t all bad. Otherwise, they would have been assigned jobs step by step and stuck in the castle unable to leave.

Lou Jingmo walked to the front door, looked at it, and said, “He locked the door.” Her tone showed no surprise, as if she had already guessed that Butler Liason would do such a thing.

Shen Maomao hobbled along on her left side: “What’s he trying to do? Wipe out all the nobles?”

“Who knows,” Lou Jingmo said calmly, “and it seems like there’s something wrong with this dungeon’s progress…”

Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever turned their heads together, their four eyes fixed on her, filled with a desire to know more.

Under such intense stares, Lou Jingmo paused for a second before continuing: “The progress is too fast. The butler even locked the castle door, presumably to prevent anyone attending the banquet from leaving. But how does a butler have so much power? This must be something the baron ordered.”

“Today is the second day of the game, and we’ve already experienced so many plot points, not to mention others’ stories…” She took a breath and continued, “We don’t even have time to search for clues; we’re just passively following the storyline. If the whole dungeon can be compared to a progress bar, then it’s already at least halfway through.”

The two somewhat newbies looked confused, and Lou Jingmo didn’t want to waste more time, so she said straightforwardly, “There’s a great god in this dungeon.”

Shen Maomao widened her eyes in surprise: “There’s another big shot besides you?”

She only had a vague idea about Lou Jingmo’s identity, knowing only that she was very strong and could easily handle various situations in the dungeon with tagalongs. She didn’t understand the significance behind the name “Xiaolou.”

Golden Retriever knew a bit more than she did; he had extra pocket money, so he could spend some to find out that “Xiaolou” was the only one in the entire game who could stand on equal footing with entire organizations.

《Confession Game》 has been running for an unknown number of years, and there are dozens of organizations in the game, which players jokingly call “guilds”. There are four large guilds, ten medium ones, and the rest are small guilds, including those just starting with four or five members—Yun Shengjin is the leader of one small guild.

There are many pro-level players, but they have all been absorbed by various guilds, except for Xiaolou, who rejected countless olive branches from guilds and only worked with employers, never collaborating with anyone else.

Even so, no one dared to really understand her. It’s said she’s one of the oldest players, having completed countless dungeons, with items as numerous as cow hairs, and players wanting to cling to her for support just as numerous. Yet, she only does straightforward business, exchanging money for services, where you pay and she power-levels your character.

Thinking of this, Golden Retriever couldn’t even consider who the pro recognized by Lou Jingmo might be. He enviously glanced at the lucky yet unaware Shen Maomao, silently lamenting the unfairness of fate.

Sigh, getting close to a pro really has a first-come, first-served order.

Lou Jingmo had no idea what was going through Golden Retriever’s mind and modestly said, “I’m not really a pro; didn’t you see I don’t know much about the storyline yet?”

Mainly, she hadn’t expected that person to push the progress so quickly, so she wasn’t too focused during the initial exploration, allowing someone else to seize the advantage and leaving her in a passive position.

But having the storyline pushed forward is a good thing; she’s just lazy about solving puzzles, and now she can relax and enjoy the results.

Number one sycophant Shen Maomao immediately flattered her: “Sister Lou, being overly modest is just pride in disguise. You are absolutely the number one in my heart; no one can compare!”

The way she fawned made even Golden Retriever want to roll his eyes, let alone Lou Jingmo.

Lou Jingmo kicked Shen Maomao on the butt again, saying with a straight face, “Instead of wasting time flattering, why don’t you use your little brain to think about how to sneak in and observe the storyline’s progress?”

Shen Maomao held her butt and frowned: “What’s with you? Got addicted to kicking? I compliment you a bit, and you start getting all worked up?”

Lou Jingmo kicked her again: “You’ve got a lot of padding back there, easy to kick.”

Golden Retriever quietly covered his ears: “Can you guys be a bit more mindful? There’s a guy here, you know.”

Shen Maomao quickly shifted the blame: “Kick him! Golden Retriever’s got plenty of padding too!”

Golden Retriever: “What does this have to do with me?”

After saying that, he couldn’t help but laugh himself—it really was about his “butt.” (a play on words in popular culture, as “屁” can refer to both “fart” and “butt” in Chinese, leading to a humorous pun)

Earlier, Golden Retriever thought that when you’re down on your luck, even drinking cold water can make you choke, but now it seems like things have turned for the better, and misfortune has turned into good luck.

Initially, they thought sneaking in would be difficult, given the tight security outside. But after Lou Jingmo led them around the castle for half a circle, they ran into Freckles and Dongfang, who were patrolling as a team.

These two somehow ended up together and just happened to be patrolling near the small door where Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao had originally snuck in.

Everything fell into place perfectly: timing, location, and people.

Freckles was still the same, looking at people with a tilted gaze; Dongfang, on the other hand, appeared gentle and, after hearing their purpose, immediately offered to cover for them without hesitation.

“Wait a minute!” Freckles wasn’t happy about doing work for free. “You just talk a bit and expect us to cover for you?”

Shen Maomao didn’t want to waste time with him and simply gave him an okay gesture: “If we make it out alive, we’ll share info with you, okay?” This one line shut Freckles up completely.

Freckles’ mouth twitched, and he couldn’t say anything else. He and Dongfang had to split up to block the other guards for them.

The three of them quickly slipped through the small door and entered the warehouse where Shen Maomao and Lou Jingmo had gone before.

It was still pitch black inside, with an overpowering smell of decay that was even worse than the odors they had smelled outside the manor.

Shen Maomao had a series of bad thoughts in her mind: “Could this room be filled with dead bodies??”

Lou Jingmo’s nostrils flared as she sniffed the air and said, “It’s corpses, but not human ones.”

“Is it from those animals this morning…”

Before she could finish, Golden Retriever suddenly let out a short scream and then immediately shut his mouth.

Shen Maomao quickly asked, “Little Golden Retriever? Are you okay?”

Golden Retriever’s voice, almost in tears, came from the side: “I think I… stepped on something sticky… is it a corpse?”

“Congratulations.” Shen Maomao said coldly, “You stepped on poo.”

Golden Retriever: “…” Thinking about it like this, why does stepping on a corpse suddenly seem better?

Lou Jingmo, who had adjusted to the darkness, stepped over the sticky, indistinguishable number of rat corpses on the ground—or calling it rat meat might be more fitting—and reached the door.

A streak of golden candlelight shone through the narrow crack in the door, casting light on Lou Jingmo’s delicate features. She cautiously observed for a moment and, confirming that no one would likely pass by soon, quietly opened the large door…

The music that sounded distorted from inside suddenly grew louder, with deep cello tones and light piano notes, accompanied by people’s whispering.

Beneath the surface of prosperity and harmony, conspiracy and plague were simultaneously brewing, spreading through the air…

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