The Hand of Confession – Chapter 79

Volume 3: Days of Working at the Manor

Escape

Kris shyly lowered her head

Night fell.

A thick fog had settled around the castle at some unknown time. Through the dense mist, flickering red lights could be faintly seen outside, as if a great fire had been lit.

The endless darkness enveloped the entire world. The guests who had turned to ashes yesterday appeared once again in the grand hall, dancing mechanically.

In the afternoon, Shen Maomao encountered herself—or rather, Ren Yue who was wearing her body? She was chased frantically for miles by her duplicate, and only managed to escape with Lou Jingmo’s help. Now she felt chills just thinking about Ren Yue’s face—she seriously suspected that after returning to reality, she would have a reflexive urge to run away whenever she saw Ren Yue’s face.

The three of them had regrouped with the still-living Freckles, Dongfang, and newcomer Wen Muyan. These three had been carefully hiding throughout the castle, and when they met up, they were completely disheveled, clearly having gone through numerous dangerous situations.

By now, Wen Muyan had completely lost contact with the deity Shang Zhou, and could only temporarily form a small team with Dongfang and Freckles, following them around the castle in confusion.

The castle was vast, but its interior was covered in oil paintings. The ladies in the paintings were even more aggressive than yesterday, eagerly waiting to kill the guests. In places with light, shadows writhed menacingly, searching everywhere for fresh shadows to consume and strengthen themselves.

The six people huddled on the fourth floor of the castle.

This fourth floor was actually the clock tower atop the building.

The clock tower had no paintings inside, no light, and consequently no shadows. Its entrance had no door, so only a small beam of light shone through the doorway, unable to reach them hiding in the darkness. Occasionally shadows would pass by in front of them, but failed to notice the group chatting in the darkness.

The 9 o’clock bell rang punctually, deafeningly loud.

The out-of-tune violin sound was stretched endlessly, like someone sawing table legs with an electric saw, causing everyone to cover their ears involuntarily.

As the long bell toll ended, Golden Retriever still had the mood to tease Shen Maomao: “Sister Rabbit, you know what? This is exactly how you sound when you sing.”

Unable to see where he was to kick him, Shen Maomao could only angrily retort: “Get lost!”

The atmosphere immediately lightened considerably.

Freckles said irritably: “If there’s a next time, don’t ever match me with this Shang Zhou. What’s wrong with finding clues step by step? Why push the plot forward like this? Damn, I’ve never been through such a frustrating instance.”

Lou Jingmo said coolly: “You can go down and join Shang Zhou.”

Freckles: “You must have a lot of enemies, right?”

Shen Maomao became unhappy: “What’s your problem? Just because someone talks back to you once, they must have lots of enemies? I feel like you’ve got plenty of enemies yourself.”

Freckles laughed: “Yeah, I do have quite a few enemies.” He was very frank about it.

Just as Shen Maomao wanted to retort a couple more times, suddenly a piercing white light penetrated through the ceiling and walls, shooting towards a distant point.

All six people immediately stood up.

Lou Jingmo said: “The exit has opened.”

Dongfang added: “Seems to be diagonally below us.”

Shen Maomao felt around in the darkness for Lou Jingmo’s hand and asked: “Should we go?”

Lou Jingmo gripped her hand back: “Let’s go.”

As soon as the words were spoken, she unhesitatingly led the way forward, being the first to leave the protection of the shadows.

“Don’t worry about anything else, just run,” she said to Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever.

Golden Retriever almost cried with emotion: “Sister Lou, I’m touched that you still remember I exist.”

Shen Maomao laughed while running: “Don’t be silly, you’re our sponsor!”

A swarm of shadows, like dogs catching the scent of blood, frantically surrounded them. Their conversation didn’t slow down their escape speed—all six people moved incredibly fast, passing by burning candles one after another as they rushed downstairs.

The shadows let out angry howls; delicate jade-like hands reached out from the oil paintings on the walls; the air filled with a rotting smell; wind carrying ashes passed by them, and Wen Muyan let out a scream: “My hand!”

They saw that her hand that the wind had just passed through had turned into granular powder, disappearing cleanly at the wrist, leaving only an eerily bloodless cut.

Freckles gritted his teeth: “Split up and run!” After saying this, he ran in another direction at the fork in the road.

Dongfang also said “Sorry” before turning away from the main group.

Although this diverted some of the shadows, endless dark figures still emerged from the shadows on both sides. Just as they were about to be caught up to, Lou Jingmo suddenly threw three small knives, accurately extinguishing three nearby candlesticks, immediately darkening their surroundings.

Then, she turned to face the approaching shadows, curled her lip in disdain, and with a twist of her wrist, forcefully threw another three knives.

With three swift “swoosh” sounds, half the corridor went dark.

Everyone was then given a knife, and under Lou Jingmo’s direction, they slashed all the surrounding paintings, finally getting some time to catch their breath.

Shen Maomao angrily kicked the wall and fumed: “Damn, they all acted so proper while chatting earlier, but when disaster strikes, they just use us as bait and flee?”

The more people there are, the bigger the target and the easier it is to attract monsters. Freckles and Dongfang knew the three of them were close and wouldn’t separate, so they directly left the team, making their own survival more likely.

After all, better a friend’s death than one’s own.

Only Wen Muyan silently followed them the whole way without falling behind. Holding her wrist with her remaining hand, she asked in a trembling voice: “Excuse me, will my hand recover?”

Golden Retriever said: “Don’t worry, injuries sustained in the game will return to normal in reality.”

She finally breathed a sigh of relief, leaned her back against the wall, and slid down to the floor: “I thought… thank goodness… thank goodness…”

That most perplexing demonic wind seemed to have followed Freckles. While Freckles thought leaving the main group would make survival easier, he probably didn’t expect such bad luck.

Shen Maomao asked Wen Muyan: “Aren’t you going to run off by yourself?”

Wen Muyan just smiled bitterly: “To be honest, I was also thinking about following their example and just running away, but I don’t understand anything about this place, and they don’t seem like the type to kindly guide me. That Freckles might even throw me out as a sacrifice…”

“In the end, I thought it better to stay with you all. I know you’re not that type of people.”

Shen Maomao raised an eyebrow: “We won’t push you out as a shield, but we won’t help you either. You’ll have to rely on yourself, understand?”

Wen Muyan nodded: “I understand.”

The four of them rested briefly in the hallway before desperately running downstairs, encountering many hastily assembled creatures along the way.

After struggling down to the second floor, even Lou Jingmo felt exhausted, let alone the little birds (referring to inexperienced newcomers).

The white light of the exit hadn’t disappeared, both guiding the players and attracting the ghosts. Just as they reached the second floor, they encountered Shen Maomao’s acquaintance—Fourth Lady Kris.

Kris appeared normal, frantically holding up her dress and taking small steps as she ran from the end of the hallway, softly calling for help: “Please save me! There are terrifying monsters behind me!”

Even while fleeing, her every movement followed proper etiquette, exuding nobility.

But no matter how similar she looked, she was just a girl the Baron had brought back from the orphanage, the type who would be the first to be sacrificed in dangerous situations.

Wen Muyan’s face turned paper-white, her lips trembling, showing an expression of wanting to speak but not daring to.

However, before she could say anything, Shen Maomao had already noticed—there was nothing but emptiness under this lady’s dress, no legs existed.

Since there was a newcomer present, she maintained a composed face, showing no signs of fear except for her chattering teeth.

Kris had already spotted her, and her eyes immediately lit up: “It’s you! I remember you!”

Oh crap!

Faced with this situation, Shen Maomao could only step forward, feigning enthusiasm: “Fourth Lady! Something terrible has happened in the castle, it’s suddenly become so frightening! Are you alright? Why aren’t there any guards with you?”

Kris’s blue eyes filled with tears: “He abandoned me and ran away…”

Shen Maomao glanced at Lou Jingmo from the corner of her eye.

Lou Jingmo winked at her.

So she shook her arm, overcame her fear, and grabbed the Fourth Lady’s still-warm wrist: “Don’t be afraid. There are monsters behind us too. Quick, run with us, I’ll protect you!”

“Mm!” Kris gratefully held her hand, “You’re so kind…”

Lou Jingmo glanced at their clasped hands, then quickly looked away.

Shen Maomao wanted to perform an “electric shock” scene (pretending to be shocked by touching something), but held back.

Strangely enough, during their conversation, no other ghosts came to cause trouble, not even shadows appeared, let alone the terrible monsters Kris mentioned.

—Probably because the mini-boss was already beside them? However, no one pointed this out; they weren’t fools and naturally understood the difference between facing one enemy versus a group.

Shen Maomao walked stiffly beside Kris, watching her from the corner of her eye, not daring to turn her head.

The three of them continued downward, encountering almost no danger. Kris looked at Shen Maomao like she was a great hero: “You’re amazing! The monsters don’t dare chase us anymore!”

Shen Maomao thought “surely you know why the monsters aren’t chasing us,” but could only say: “They must not want to harm someone as beautiful as Fourth Lady~”

Golden Retriever nearby squinted, making a very disgusted expression, using his eyes to convey: Are you throwing away all your dignity just to survive?

Kris smiled like a flower, her face full of sweetness, but said: “How many girls have you said such things to?”

Shen Maomao felt something was off, but still continued with the slimy flattery: “Of course I’ve only said it to you! Who else in this castle could be more beautiful than you?”

Kris shyly lowered her head, while Lou Jingmo and Wen Muyan beside them both wore strange expressions.

Shen Maomao felt even more wrong!

Why did she feel like she had become some playboy who toyed with girls’ feelings?! Heaven knows! She was a girl too!

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The author has something to say:

Previously! Chapter 71 was about the locked gates, Chapter 74 was about Shang Zhou pushing the plot forward causing a bug.

Other protagonists: We must get this card!

Sister Lou: Why bother? It’s too much trouble.

Other protagonists: We can’t let others get ahead of us!

Sister Lou: What’s the rush? Just wait for him to finish pushing the plot forward, then go. Does it matter who opens the exit?

—Sister Lou is such a laid-back girl.

Countdown to leaving the instance—3 (probably)

Next instance preview: Non-mainstream school ghost stories? (maybe?)

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