Chapter 29: It’s over, she caught me.
Huang Qi’s eyes went black. He suddenly realized he had been too careless before. One’s identity is not something you can just make up; if you go to the authorities, you need to provide proof.
“Sir, my wife is not an unregistered person! ‘She’ just didn’t bring her tooth token.”
Huang Kairong, seeing the situation was not good, quickly tried to explain.
“Then have ‘her’ bring the tooth token first,” replied Chief Clerk Yuan, unmoved.
“Sir, you heard that too, ‘she’ is from the Prefecture Capital, hundreds of miles away. How could a young girl possibly manage that?” Li Fen cried, unable to bear it.
“That’s your problem,” Chief Clerk Yuan’s tone became slightly impatient.
“Sir, can’t you be a little accommodating?” Huang Qi pleaded, clinging to a sliver of hope.
“Sigh!” Chief Clerk Yuan let out a long sigh and explained earnestly, “To tell you the truth, the imperial court strictly controls marriage registration nowadays because it’s related to military service. It’s already quite accommodating that you, the groom, are present. Now that the bride can’t even produce her tooth token, how can I be more accommodating? If I bend the rules and they investigate, who will accommodate me?”
Huang Kairong and his wife exchanged glances, their faces filled with helplessness. Since he had stated it so clearly, they couldn’t force the issue. They could only look at their “daughter-in-law” inquiringly.
Huang Qi also began to panic. As an unregistered person with a forged identity, where could he find a tooth token?
“Forge one?” Huang Qi’s first thought was this, but he immediately abandoned it. Although tooth tokens were just inexpensive iron plates, they had Dao patterns etched by the Immortal Alliance to assist the court. Ordinary people couldn’t forge them at all.
“How about stealing one?” Huang Qi thought again, but the problem was that each tooth token had a picture of its owner, so a stolen one would be useless.
“Daughter-in-law, didn’t you say your family would send someone to pick you up soon? That should be enough time, right?” Li Fen asked tentatively from the side.
“But the problem is, I don’t know when they’ll come? What if it’s after the end of the month?” Huang Qi replied perfunctorily. In fact, this was just a lie he told to stay.
“Daughter-in-law, if it doesn’t work out, I’ll accompany you home to get the tooth token,” Huang Kairong gritted his teeth, as it concerned his son’s life.
“No, it’s hundreds of miles to the Prefecture Capital, too dangerous,” Huang Qi refused without thinking. “Qi Huang” was just a forged identity, where could he possibly have a home? Even if he did, he couldn’t let his father risk his life with him.
“But the problem is, there are only half a month left until the end of the month. If your family doesn’t come to pick you up, what will happen to my son?” Li Fen began to panic and became completely flustered.
“Let me think,” Huang Qi walked aside, wracking his brain.
“According to Chief Clerk Yuan’s words, this time I definitely can’t fool them, so I must get a tooth token. But these things have identity verification, they can’t be forged, and they can’t be stolen. What should I do now?” Huang Qi began to pace.
“Right! How could I forget this?” A moment later, a flash of inspiration struck Huang Qi. Before, he had been mistaken for Hong Ling by Ruan Lingyu, which meant the human skin mask on his face was indeed very similar to Hong Ling’s.
“So, if I get Hong Ling’s tooth token, I should be able to get by, right?” Huang Qi began to assess the feasibility of this plan, his expression gradually becoming determined, because he really couldn’t think of any other way.
“Putting aside whether I have the ability, I don’t even know Hong Ling’s specific information, like her home address. Where could I get her tooth token?” Huang Qi was troubled again. He had visited Hong Ling’s home in his dreams, but dreams were just dreams, and they couldn’t be taken seriously. Moreover, he didn’t know the specific address of that home. He wouldn’t be so naive as to go find it.
“In reality, let alone a home, the existence of my cheap parents, Cheng Yuan and Jiang Liniang, is probably questionable,” Huang Qi scoffed inwardly.
Huang Qi couldn’t think of a solution, so he prepared to call his parents to leave the Yamen for now. However, before that, he still had to find that magistrate. Their family of three had suffered a great loss for no reason today, and they couldn’t just let it go.
Huang Qi found Magistrate Luo alone and began to demand compensation for emotional distress. After some haggling, Magistrate Luo grudgingly compensated them with five taels of silver. Huang Qi handed the silver to his parents before leading them out of the County Office.
Outside the County Office, the family of three wore solemn expressions, all contemplating countermeasures.
Huang Qi was lost in thought when a sweet scent drifted to him with the wind. He looked up curiously and saw a petite young girl very close by. He quickly stopped, almost running into her. Standing firm, Huang Qi looked closely and saw that the girl was exceptionally cute, with pigtails and a rosy little face like a peach. Although petite, her proportions were perfect. In the backdrop of her pink lolita dress, she looked like a little princess.
“What a cute girl!” Huang Qi exclaimed inwardly, but for some reason, the girl gave him a familiar feeling, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
“Take off your veil!” The girl put her hands on her hips, revealing her small fangs, and tried hard to put on a fierce expression, but she couldn’t be fierce at all.
That’s right, this girl was Miao Xiang, who had been secretly watching outside the Yamen for a long time. Huang Qi’s eyelids twitched, and a premonition arose instinctively.
“Daughter-in-law! Do you know this little girl? What a cute girl!” Li Fen asked in surprise.
“Daughter… Daughter-in-law?” Miao Xiang was taken aback by the address. She wondered if her second senior sister hadn’t said that the person was most likely a man? Why was this aunt calling her that? Could she be an accomplice?
Huang Qi indeed found the girl somewhat familiar, so he recalled carefully. Soon, a miniature double-tailed loli appeared in his mind.
“Senior Sister Miao Xiang?” Huang Qi blurted out, as the girl before him was exactly the enlarged version of Miao Xiang from his dream.
“Damn it!” Hearing his own voice, Huang Qi’s blood pressure soared, and he almost fainted from anger. How could things from dreams be taken seriously? He might look very similar to Hong Ling, but his voice was definitely different. Wasn’t he completely exposed by speaking?
“No, since it’s a dream, then she might not necessarily be Miao Xiang Immortal from the HongHua Sect, right? What am I afraid of!” Huang Qi immediately reacted, his taut nerves relaxing, his brain almost unable to keep up.
Miao Xiang’s eyes widened too. The voice of this “imposter” was exactly the same as Junior Sister’s. How could a man have such a beautiful voice? Could it really be Junior Sister herself?
“Jun… Junior Sister?” Miao Xiang also called out reflexively.
“Wh-what?” Huang Qi was completely stunned, not understanding what was happening before him at all.
“You… aren’t you in seclusion? Why are you here?” Miao Xiang asked, her expression uncertain. She had come to catch the imposter but unexpectedly encountered the real Junior Sister. This was impossible.
“She didn’t deny it, which means she is indeed Miao Xiang Immortal from the HongHua Sect. Then is what I dreamed in my dreams actually true?” Huang Qi realized this, and his eyelids twitched violently with fear. He knew he was just a rookie at the second level of the Juling Realm. If he were exposed by her, he would have nowhere to be buried.
Driven by a strong survival instinct, Huang Qi’s brain worked at lightning speed: “No, since she called me Junior Sister, it means my voice is now the same as Hong Ling’s. If that’s the case, perhaps there’s still a glimmer of hope if I don’t reveal myself.”
