Volume 4: Days of Making Mischief at School
Mother Shen
Cold Lips
In reality, if Shen Maomao encountered a situation where an unfamiliar umbrella fell out upon opening the door, she would definitely close the door immediately and run downstairs to call the police.
But Mother Shen didn’t think anything suspicious of it, naturally rationalizing the situation, and took the umbrella while inviting the two children inside.
Things in the game couldn’t be judged by normal logic, so some matters couldn’t be thought about with conventional thinking.
For instance, in reality, most mothers would never kill their beloved children, but this rule might not fully apply in the game.
So the currently pleasant-looking Mother Shen could very well be what they called a “cleaner”, one of the supernatural beings, and the real culprit who might plunge a knife into Shen Maomao’s heart at any moment.
Mother Shen took out two pairs of slippers: “Ren Yue, go watch TV with Maomao, Auntie will wash some fruit for you.”
Ren Yue’s legs were still weak, so she let Shen Maomao change shoes first.
Once Mother Shen’s figure disappeared into the kitchen, she finally let out a sigh of relief, slumped down on the floor, and asked Shen Maomao while crying: “What should we do, Maomao… I’m so scared…”
Shen Maomao’s expression turned grave as she quickly went to pull her up, whispering: “Get up first, she’ll be out soon, don’t let her notice anything unusual!”
Ren Yue wiped her tears, got up, changed her shoes, and sat down with her on the sofa.
Soon after, Mother Shen came out carrying a plate of cut fruit, placed it on the tea table, and called out to Ren Yue: “Ren Yue, come have some fruit! Auntie will go make dinner for you—”
As she looked up, she noticed Ren Yue’s red eyes and asked: “Why were you crying?”
Ren Yue hesitantly replied: “Auntie, I accidentally bumped into the tea table…”
“You silly child.” Mother Shen grabbed the edge of the tea table and pulled it forcefully outward, creating a harsh sound of glass scraping against ceramic tiles. “Why weren’t you more careful!”
Ren Yue was about to cry again: “Sorry, Auntie…”
Mother Shen replied puzzledly: “Why are you apologizing to me? Where did you bump yourself? Let Auntie massage it for you.”
Ren Yue quickly waved her hands: “No need, Auntie, you go ahead with your work. We’ll go do our homework.”
“No need to hurry, eat some fruit first.” Mother Shen pierced an apple piece with a toothpick and brought it to Ren Yue’s mouth. “Here, try this apple, it tastes very good.”
Ren Yue was shaking like a sieve [trembling intensely], and Shen Maomao couldn’t bear to watch anymore. She pushed Mother Shen playfully: “Oh Mama, just leave us alone, we’ll play by ourselves. Go make dinner quickly!”
Mother Shen was obediently pushed into the kitchen. Shen Maomao closed the kitchen door, pulled Ren Yue back to her room, closed that door too, and secured it with two locks.
Ren Yue was somewhat breaking down: “Why… why was I dragged into the game…”
Shen Maomao tentatively said: “I heard from others that only people who have done too many bad things in reality would be pulled into the 《Confession Game》.”
Ren Yue said confusedly: “But I…” She stopped halfway through, as if remembering something, and didn’t continue.
“But what?” Shen Maomao pressed.
Ren Yue’s eyes were red: “But I really haven’t…”
“Don’t worry about why you entered the game. The fact is we’re here now. We shouldn’t think about the reason we came in, but rather how to get out.”
After much persuasion, Ren Yue finally calmed down a bit.
Dark clouds rolled outside the window. Shen Maomao turned on the light, and the two followed their assigned roles [referring to their characters in the game], dutifully lying on the windowsill to do homework. The aroma of cooking wafted in from the kitchen, but neither child was in the mood to appreciate Mother Shen’s culinary skills.
Halfway through their homework, it suddenly started raining outside, and Shen Maomao quickly got up to close the window.
When she reached the window, she noticed something wrong with the rain—it was only raining on their building, with the rain’s boundary clinging to the window while the ground just centimeters away remained dry.
She stretched her small arm out the window, trying to extend it as far as possible. After this simple test, except for a small wet streak near her shoulder, all other parts extended outside had no trace of water.
This was truly supernatural.
Surprisingly, there were even passersby below fearlessly taking photos with this downpour as a memento.
Shen Maomao took one glance, briefly looked at the unchanged billboard, then smoothly closed the window and drew the curtains in one fluid motion.
Ren Yue didn’t dare look outside, sitting on the bed watching Shen Maomao jumping around like a monkey, and finally asked: “What’s wrong?”
Shen Maomao calmly said: “Nothing, don’t look. Let’s just eat well—it might be our last meal [duàntóu fàn, traditional last meal before execution but could also be the internet slang referring to when fans sense their favorite ship is about to have a BE, and this represents the last bit of sweet content fans can enjoy about the pairing.].”
Ren Yue: “QAQ this is way too real.”
Today Father Shen didn’t come home, and Mother Shen invited the two children to sleep with her.
Although Shen Maomao’s children’s bed was not small, it was a bit tight for two children. Mother Shen’s invitation suited her needs, so she agreed without hesitation.
Ren Yue kept tugging at her pants from behind.
Whatever her reasons, she had already agreed, and it was too late for regrets now.
The two children were cleaned up and tossed into bed, while Mother Shen went to the bathroom to wash up and shower.
Ren Yue asked in confusion: “Maomao! Your mom is just like my dad, there must be something wrong with them! Why do you still want to sleep with her? Aren’t you scared?!”
Shen Maomao replied frankly: “Of course I’m scared.”
This was something she learned from Lou Jingmo: in the game instance, don’t let fear prevent you from taking action, because the mountain will never come to you—you must go to the mountain [meaning: you must face challenges head-on].
“Ren Yue,” Shen Maomao said with rare seriousness, “everyone pulled into the game must continue playing. I can’t accompany you forever; you need to grow up on your own, find clues through your own efforts, and complete the game.”
“I can’t do it, Maomao…” Ren Yue’s eyes welled up with hot tears as she took a shaky breath, “I’m really scared… I’ve been afraid of ghosts since I was little…”
Shen Maomao sighed: “I can protect you temporarily, but not forever.”
Ren Yue said desperately: “Am I going to be trapped in this game forever?”
Shen Maomao didn’t know how difficult it was to collect all twelve cards, but she had heard Lou Jingmo mention that since the game began running, no one had successfully escaped.
The so-called “meet the game creator after collecting twelve cards” was less of a way to escape the game and more of a small bait given to players by the game.
As long as this bait existed, this glimmer of hope, game players wouldn’t completely lose hope, and would desperately continue playing, willingly accepting the punishments set by the creator.
Rather than calling it hope, it was more like a sweet trap set by the game creator, the kind that would make players willingly jump right in.
But what Ren Yue needed now wasn’t discouragement, but comfort.
So Shen Maomao said with full determination: “Don’t worry, once we collect all twelve cards, we can leave this place completely!”
Ren Yue forced a slight smile but didn’t speak.
Soon Mother Shen came out drying her hair. She looked at the two children huddled in the blanket with only their heads showing, and smiled as she kissed their smooth foreheads.
Her lips were unnaturally cold, like a block of ice melting on their foreheads, giving them a strange, eerie, wet and sticky sensation.
Ren Yue silently pulled her head under the blanket too.
Mother Shen laughed: “Why so shy, Yueyue?”
An embarrassed laugh came from under the blanket.
Mother Shen gently patted her two precious ones, turned off the light, and lifted the blanket to slip in.
In that instant, it was as if someone had stuffed a large ice cube fresh from the freezer into their bed, immediately dispersing all the warmth.
Shen Maomao turned over, facing Ren Yue and leaving her back to Mother Shen.
The cold air wrapped around her like silk threads, making her shiver uncontrollably—half from the cold, half from fear.
Ren Yue seemed to be asleep, her body completely still. But Shen Maomao could sense her irregular breathing and knew she wasn’t truly sleeping.
The next moment, Ren Yue turned to face her and opened her eyes.
Mother Shen hadn’t drawn the curtains, and the dim streetlight shone in from outside, making their vision somewhat blurry.
Their gazes met in the air, neither speaking, neither closing their eyes.
After a few seconds of eye contact, Ren Yue was the first to look away; Shen Maomao also lowered her eyelids, and they ceased all communication.
In these brief seconds, it felt as if something had changed, yet also as if nothing had changed at all.
“Plop—”
A cold raindrop fell on Shen Maomao’s face. She smacked her lips, casually wiped her face, turned over, and continued sleeping.
“Plop—”
Then came the second drop, the third drop, the fourth and fifth drops…
It started raining heavily inside the room.
Shen Maomao was already in a sleepy daze, completely unaware of the abnormal situation, and even started snoring softly.
Ren Yue: “…”
By the time Shen Maomao fully woke up, the sun is already shining on her buttocks [meaning: it was late morning].
The sound of stir-frying came from the kitchen, while Ren Yue was sleeping soundly in bed.
Shen Maomao reached out to shake Ren Yue awake: “We actually survived? What happened last night?! Why weren’t there any ghosts?!”
Ren Yue had large dark circles under her eyes. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and said in despair: “Sister… you slept so peacefully last night, while I spent the entire night making eye contact with the man holding an umbrella on your ceiling. I only got a brief sleep when dawn broke.”
Shen Maomao reflexively looked at the ceiling, and indeed found a damp mark there, proving that Ren Yue wasn’t lying.
Ren Yue said: “I don’t know why he didn’t make a move last night. What does he want?! Why can’t he just get it over with?! What’s the point of scaring people like this?!”
Shen Maomao quickly covered her increasingly loud mouth: “Shh—lower your voice! Don’t let anyone hear!”
Ren Yue immediately lowered her voice, using her eyes to signal Shen Maomao to remove her hand.
Just then, Mother Shen pushed open the door, calling the two children to quickly get dressed and eat breakfast. They hurriedly complied, getting properly dressed and sitting at the dining table.
LP: Maomao’s survival instincts are nonexistent without Lou Jingmo
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