The Hand of Confession – Chapter 74

Volume 3: Days of Working at the Manor

Little Rose

Everyone revived

In the end, Lou Jingmo still took off her coat, and also asked for a coat from Golden Retriever outside.

The two women, wrapped in coats, shivered in the night wind as they followed Lou Jingmo back.

The huge castle was empty, and the women in the oil paintings had gone who knows where. Four sets of footsteps echoed in the quiet corridor, with candles alternating in front and behind, sometimes casting eight shadows on the carpet.

On the way back, Lou Jingmo explained: “If it’s Shang Zhou, then the progress of this dungeon isn’t unusual. He’s an elder of one of the four major guilds, I forgot what it’s called, with high intelligence and strong abilities, and he’s all about efficiency. Most dungeons he participates in are cleared within three days, maybe four for tougher ones.”

The female newbie seemed to half-understand.

Shen Maomao asked: “Isn’t he the leader of this [what-was-it-called] guild? Doesn’t that mean their guild has even more god-tier players?”

Lou Jingmo: “…I meant, I forgot the name of this guild.”

Shen Maomao gave an awkward but polite smile: “You get what I mean.”

Lou Jingmo: “I think their guild’s overall strength is ranked first? I can’t remember clearly, they have a lot of veteran players.”

Golden Retriever immediately offered flattery: “I think, no matter how amazing he is, he’s not as amazing as you, Sister Xiaolou!”

Shen Maomao: “…” Damn it! Someone beat me to it!

Outside the courtyard, lights were blazing. A group of crows perched on the fence of the rose garden, their small black eyes reflecting the figures of the people. A gentle breeze blew, rustling the leaves with a peculiar rhythm.

“Achoo!” Shen Maomao sneezed, rubbing her nose a couple of times. “Apart from that big shot, the others haven’t all died, right?” Otherwise, why couldn’t they see anyone else?

“Impossible,” Lou Jingmo said calmly. “Those like He Yongchang and Freckles, even if you died, they wouldn’t die.”

Shen Maomao: “…” That’s too real.

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Lou Jingmo yanked open the door to their room. Large amounts of smoke poured out, causing the three of them to retreat repeatedly.

Golden Retriever nervously asked, “Is there a fire?”

“Cough cough.” Shen Maomao coughed dryly. “This was an accident…”

Lou Jingmo said, “Let’s go to someone else’s room.” They might not be able to come back anyway.

However, this last sentence was too cold-hearted, so she didn’t say it out loud.

The four of them fumbled their way to the door of the three maids’ room. There was a small padlock hanging outside the door. As Lou Jingmo had predicted, they indeed hadn’t been able to come back.

The airtight room made Shen Maomao feel much warmer. She found matches and dry wood from the corner of the room, tore up a few pieces of paper, and lit them in the fire basin. The two scantily clad people huddled around the fire basin to warm themselves.

The newcomer said, “Thank you for being willing to bring me along…”

Shen Maomao said carelessly, “It’s no big deal. Besides, you’re so smart, you probably could have escaped without us.”

Hearing her say this, Lou Jingmo couldn’t help but give the woman an extra look, then pursed her lips without saying anything.

Golden Retriever, who had been pushed to the bed near the door by the women, asked weakly, “What should we do next?”

Lou Jingmo unhurriedly yawned and said, “With a big shot pushing the map, we can just wait for the ready-made results.”

“Then won’t we miss out on all the props?” Shen Maomao asked anxiously.

Lou Jingmo looked confident: “Shang Zhou pushes the map quickly, but will miss side quests because of it. Let’s rest well tonight, and tomorrow we’ll go outside to look for some side quests.”

There were indeed a lot of things that happened throughout the day.

It was already past midnight, and Golden Retriever, who had been anxious and scared all day as an old horse, couldn’t control his eyelids anymore. He fell into a deep sleep as soon as he lay on the bed, even starting to snore lightly.

Shen Maomao was not only mentally exhausted but also cold. She rested her head on the pillow, hugged the blanket tightly, and listening to Golden Retriever’s rhythmic snoring, her consciousness slowly faded away.

Early the next morning, Lou Jingmo woke everyone up.

This was their third day in this side story, all the people in the manor had already died, and the plot had progressed to its final stages.

Shen Maomao and the new girl who called herself Wen Muyan put on spare maid outfits they found in the closet, and walked out the door while yawning.

The servants’ rooms were right next to the main entrance, so as soon as Shen Maomao walked out of the main door of this building, she saw two guards standing at the manor’s gate, holding wooden guns.

She asked Lou Jingmo with a confused face: “Weren’t they all dead?”

Lou Jingmo’s brows also furrowed: “Something’s not right.”

The four of them went to the dining hall according to their daily routine, only to find that not only were the NPCs still around, but the three maids who hadn’t returned last night were also in the kitchen! And they were sitting with two other guards!

At another table far away from them, Dongfang, facing them, waved his hand, gesturing for them to come sit over. And the cold silhouette sitting opposite him, Shen Maomao could recognize without looking closely – it was Freckles.

It seems these two survived yesterday’s strange incident.

As usual, the three of them got black bread and hot water. Wen Muyan, who had been a tutor for two days, was clearly not used to such simple and rough food, but didn’t say much, just quietly carried her plate and sat around the two men.

As soon as they sat down, Freckles widened his eyes in surprise, looking at Shen Maomao in disbelief and said: “You actually didn’t die?!”

Shen Maomao didn’t even lift her eyelids: “Same to you.”

Dongfang didn’t ask about Wen Muyan’s situation, and went straight to the plot: “We never had a chance to enter the castle. Not long after we sent you in, suddenly a wind blew out from the castle.”

“Wind?”

Dongfang nodded: “Whoever it touched died… to be precise, whoever it touched turned to ash.”

“That wind attacked indiscriminately, whether players or NPCs, anyone touched would instantly turn into a pile of ashes… How can humans see the trajectory of wind? We could only judge its location based on the death situations of nearby NPCs, and fled back to the dormitory in a mess.”

“Yesterday, almost everyone outside except me and Freckles died, but…” He looked around, not finishing his sentence, but everyone present understood what he meant.

——But today everyone came back to life again.

After Dongfang shared his experience, Shen Maomao naturally couldn’t be stingy with sharing their experience with the group. She briefly described what they had gone through, then said: “Did the people inside the house come back to life too? Do we need to go back to our positions?”

The two men looked at each other, neither speaking first.

Shen Maomao and Wen Muyan instinctively looked at Lou Jingmo, waiting for the god’s answer.

Golden Retriever… Golden Retriever felt like he had been abandoned by the organization.

Lou Jingmo slowly dipped the black bread into the hot water, then said: “At least two more people are alive, but they haven’t joined us.”

One of these two must be Shang Zhou, who could the other one be?

Lou Jingmo didn’t elaborate.

Originally, they planned to go outside to do side quests after eating, but since they weren’t sure if the NPCs inside the castle had come back to life, they decided to check the castle first.

Lou Jingmo and Golden Retriever weren’t qualified to enter the castle, but just to probe if there were people inside, they didn’t need to all go in.

Dongfang and Wen Muyan voluntarily took on this task, walking towards the castle’s main gate, while Lou Jingmo and the others went to the rose garden to wait for them to return.

The roses in the garden were still swaying in the wind. Shen Maomao looked at them, feeling that something was off about these roses, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on where this oddness came from. Seeing her serious expression, Lou Jingmo couldn’t help but follow her gaze to look at the garden as well.

A pro player is indeed a pro player. Lou Jingmo immediately understood what Shen Maomao couldn’t figure out after a long time. However, Shen Maomao’s perception was already very sharp for a newbie like her.

“Haven’t figured it out yet?” she said.

Shen Maomao’s features scrunched up: “These roses… have they grown a bit taller?”

Lou Jingmo gave her an approving look: “Yes.” It wasn’t just a bit taller, they had shot up a lot. Yesterday they only reached her calves, but today they had grown above her knees.

Golden Retriever still didn’t dare to approach the rose garden, only daring to look from afar. However, it was precisely because of this different angle that he saw something Lou Jingmo and Shen Maomao couldn’t see: “Sister Lou, Sister Rabbit! The ground of this flower field seems to be bulging a bit…”

After all, he had personally rolled on it, so he had more say than anyone else.

Lou Jingmo immediately crouched down to look, and soon stood up again with a frown. She went to a nearby tree and picked up a wooden shovel, handing it to Golden Retriever: “Go, dig and see.”

Golden Retriever: “QAQ Why is it always me doing the digging? I’m scared!”

Shen Maomao pushed him from behind: “Go on, little Golden, sisters will protect you.”

Golden Retriever took out a small life-saving prop from the prop bar and held it tightly, feeling super safe. He picked up the shovel and started digging shakily.

Freckles was standing not far from them, unable to blend into the group of three. Looking at their playful figures, he said dryly: “You guys seem to get along well…”

Shen Maomao sighed: “You’re thinking too much. Actually, we just have a good relationship on the surface, commonly known as plastic sisterhood (meaning superficial friendship).”

Golden Retriever shouted while digging: “Nima (a mild curse word), who’s sisters with you guys?”

Shen Maomao shrugged: “See, he’s even cursing at me.”

This behavior of obvious bickering but subtle showing off made the veins on Freckles’ temple throb. He couldn’t control himself and gave Shen Maomao a big eye roll, then automatically moved outside the garden, out of sight, out of mind.

Shen Maomao didn’t care about his thoughts, and even felt relieved when he left.

Freckles seemed normal, but Shen Maomao always felt that he had a bloody aura that others didn’t have, just like… a desperate fugitive who had killed before. Even though Freckles later appeared very ordinary, this feeling didn’t diminish at all.

She stared blankly at the roses, lost in thought. Golden Retriever’s self-talk could be heard: “Why are the roses so well-behaved today?”

Indeed, since Golden Retriever started digging in the dirt, the roses haven’t even shaken their heads.

But why did she feel like there weren’t as many flowers around Golden Retriever just now?

She looked up and found that almost all the rose “flowers” had gathered around Golden Retriever, and the other side of the flower field was left with only green shrubs!

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