Chapter 75: He’s anxious, so he impersonates his fiancee.
In an inn in Ping’an County Town, Xihui Dynasty.
Huang Qi sat in front of a bronze mirror. On the table to his right lay a box containing an incredibly realistic human skin mask, and at his feet was a pocket with an exquisite purple skirt. These were all prepared by himself.
That’s right, Huang Qi wanted to impersonate a woman! To be precise, he wanted to impersonate his fiancée! And all of this was due to filial piety.
A month ago, Huang Qi received a letter from his father, sent by someone. The general content was that his grandfather was about to celebrate his seventieth birthday, and the family was preparing to host a banquet, asking him to bring his granddaughter-in-law back to see them. At the end, it was specifically added that if he didn’t have one, he should only enter the house after the guests had left for the night.
“Granddaughter-in-law? No woman, but a man is okay?”
Huang Qi wanted to write back immediately and ask his father. Ever since the terrifying outbreak in this world, there were ghosts and spirits everywhere. Women ran to immortal cultivation sects to survive. In the mortal world, he couldn’t even see a female mosquito. He was an outcast disciple expelled from an immortal sect because his talent was too poor, so how could he find a wife?
Therefore, getting married and having children had become the biggest challenge facing ordinary Xihui men like Huang Qi!
However, there were always exceptions. Huang Qi’s second uncle’s two younger cousins had gotten lucky, finding their sweethearts one after another. This put him, his elder brother who had cultivated immortality, on the spot.
In fact, during his previous few returns home, Huang Qi had endured all sorts of ridicule from friends and relatives. Even his parents were implicated and couldn’t hold their heads up. Perhaps because of this, his father asked him to enter the house at night. This would fulfill his filial duty without incurring ridicule.
“Dad! If I enter the house at night, I can avoid disaster, but what about you?”
Huang Qi immediately sensed something was wrong. He was useless, so how could he let his parents bear the brunt of it? Therefore, for his grandfather’s seventieth birthday, he definitely had to rush back in time.
“Since that’s the case, then this time, I absolutely cannot let those clowns jump out and mock me again.”
Huang Qi secretly made up his mind. After much deliberation, he found a perfect solution: to impersonate his fiancée. Anyway, his parents wanted to see their daughter-in-law, not their son. As for his voice, he could just find an excuse not to speak.
Although the method was good, it was difficult to implement. The hardest hurdle to overcome was the mental barrier. Huang Qi was a pure man in his twenties, so how could he put down his dignity to impersonate a woman? So, until now, he was still sitting in front of the bronze mirror, struggling, and tomorrow was his grandfather’s seventieth birthday.
“If I impersonate a woman, I only lose my male dignity. If I don’t, I lose the dignity of the whole family of three.”
Huang Qi quickly found a reason to convince himself, and then took out the human skin mask from the box beside him. This was the confidence he had to carry out his plan of cross-dressing.
Huang Qi held the human skin mask in front of his eyes and observed it carefully. It was as thin as a cicada’s wing and felt delicate to the touch, comparable to the finest silk. Although he had never touched a girl’s face, he dared to confirm that ordinary women’s skin was definitely not this smooth. He had tried it on once out of curiosity, and it was like a toad turning into a swan.
“I wonder who threw it away?”
Huang Qi sighed. It would probably be unbelievable if he said it, but he found such an exquisite human skin mask by chance. He was truly lucky.
Huang Qi gently placed the human skin mask on his face. Because it had an adhesive effect, glue was not even needed. He just needed to carefully smooth it out.
At this moment, Huang Qi’s hand slipped, and his fingernail scratched his face, opening a small wound. Blood flowed out.
“Oh, my dear mother!”
Huang Qi exclaimed, and then quickly wiped it clean with a tissue. After confirming the wound had stopped bleeding, he put on the mask again. The thin, cicada-wing-like material perfectly adhered to his skin and reshaped his ordinary facial contours. He wondered who it was made by, that it was so magical.
Huang Qi looked into the bronze mirror again. A fair, oval face reappeared in his sight. His skin was like cream, as if solidified milk. His features were exquisitely crafted, not like those born of mortal flesh, but like works of art carved by master craftsmen. Moreover, with every smile and frown, shallow dimples would appear on his cheeks. He was simply too beautiful, and he also had a hint of playful cuteness!
Even more terrifyingly, this was the effect produced even with flaws. After all, the human skin mask could not cover the skin around his face, so there was a color difference upon close inspection.
Huang Qi stared blankly for a long time, finally shifting his gaze. Although he knew that the person in the mirror was not real, his heart couldn’t help but beat faster, because that face was too astonishing. He had never seen such stunning beauty in reality, and even the fairies he had seen in his former sect, the HongHua Sect, were not this beautiful.
“If I really had a girl like this as my fiancée, how great would that be! It would directly bring glory to the ancestors.”
Huang Qi began to enter a fantasy state, which made him even more determined to play his fiancée.
Huang Qi took some women’s rouge and powder from the side and carefully covered the dark skin exposed around the edges of his face. Then he began to trim his eyebrows, followed by applying lipstick and curling his eyelashes. This was the makeup technique he had learned from a shop owner a few days ago at a great expense. Since he was going to impersonate his fiancée, how could he not consider everything?
Half an hour later, Huang Qi finished. The pretty face in the mirror had no flaws, and its beauty had improved by another level, so beautiful that it was somewhat illusory. If he had to find fault, it was that it was still a bit childish.
“What an exquisite human skin mask. If I were to buy it, it would probably cost a hundred taels of silver. I’m really lucky.”
Huang Qi began to feel fortunate. Perhaps it was because of his obsessive-compulsive disorder, but after looking for a while, he felt increasingly uncomfortable. Although the face in the mirror was beautiful, his body looked too unsightly, his figure was thin, and his clothes were tattered. It was simply a blasphemy to that face.
Huang Qi decided to go all out and took out the skirt and a few items for cross-dressing from his pocket to disguise himself. First, he wrapped two bun-sized yarn balls with gauze and tied them to his chest, then put on the tailor-made purple long skirt, and finally used a scarf to cover the skin color and Adam’s apple on his neck. When he looked in the mirror again, his slightly thin figure really had some feminine delicateness and allure.
“If I impersonate my fiancée and go back like this, my parents will surely be proud of me!”
Huang Qi thought happily. At this moment, he could feel the muscles on his face stiffening from smiling.
Huang Qi looked greedily for a long time. After confirming that there were no flaws, he decided to take off the makeup, as he was going back tomorrow, and it was too early to disguise himself now.
Huang Qi had already reached out his hand but stopped. Because he suddenly realized a problem: although his current appearance had no flaws in his own opinion, it didn’t mean that others couldn’t see them. If there were any flaws he hadn’t noticed and he was recognized after returning, then he would have truly disgraced all his ancestors.
“No, I have to go out for a walk. If it’s not tested, how can I dare to go back like this?”
After thinking for a moment, Huang Qi made a decision, but wearing women’s clothes on the street as a man was another difficult test for his dignity.
“Never mind, there aren’t many people who know me in this county town anyway. Even if I’m recognized, so what? As long as I’m not embarrassed, they will be.”
Huang Qi finally managed to convince himself. Then, he fixed his hair with a freshly bought women’s hairpin and, bracing himself, went out the door. As he walked, the hem of his skirt brushed against his calves. The soft touch was a world apart from the coarse cloth robes of men. This was undoubtedly a novel experience.
“No wonder women’s clothes are sold so expensively. The quality is not on the same level.”
Huang Qi suddenly realized.
Huang Qi walked awkwardly down the stairs. The innkeeper was dozing behind the counter. Seeing him, his eyes suddenly widened, and he forgot to even wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth.
Huang Qi was extremely guilty, afraid that the other party would discover his true identity, so he hurried out of the inn. The street outside was the real test for him.
Although there was a terrifying outbreak, the county town streets were still bustling with traffic. Many people from surrounding villages had moved into the city for safety reasons and were crowded together. However, at a glance, most of them were men, and due to long-term malnutrition, they were all small and thin.
In fact, it wasn’t just the county town; the entire Huang Tian Prefecture was similar. Because the strongest local sect, the HongHua Sect, was not strong enough to protect the local people, most of them couldn’t get enough to eat. It was unlikely they could grow tall.
It was for this reason that Huang Tian Prefecture was contemptuously called a “rat’s nest” by people from other parts of the dynasty.
However, Huang Qi was an exception. Because he had stayed in the immortal sect for a few years, his meals were decent, so he looked half a head taller than most of the men around him. Coupled with his disguise as a beautiful woman, he became even more conspicuous, truly standing out from the crowd. As soon as he walked out of the inn, people nearby stared straight at him, and many fell down on all fours. After all, it was already difficult to see a young woman in the mortal world, let alone one who was tall and beautiful.
Even as a man, Huang Qi felt his face getting hot. So, he lowered his head slightly and left the inn. He didn’t expect that after a walk around the street, the scene was like this everywhere. As the embarrassment lessened, he secretly felt smug. It seemed his disguise was indeed seamless.
“Junior Sister… Junior Sister Hong Ling…”
Huang Qi suddenly heard a call, as melodious as silver bells, seemingly from a young woman calling someone. He followed the sound and was instantly stunned. He saw a sword-wielding woman of twenty-four or twenty-five years old walking towards him.
This woman had a high ponytail, a mature oval face with distinct features, and a faint beauty mark on her delicate nose, giving her an aloof and unapproachable aura. She wore a white, tight-fitting long dress that accentuated her curvaceous figure. Her slender legs revealed graceful curves beneath the skirt. Although her beauty could not match the human skin mask on Huang Qi’s face, she was already one in ten thousand.
Huang Qi was surprised, but not by the woman’s beauty, but because he recognized her. She was Lingyu Fairy from the HongHua Sect, where he had once stayed, and it was the largest immortal sect in Huang Tian Prefecture.
When Huang Qi was in the HongHua Sect, Lingyu Fairy was admired by many male disciples in the sect. He was naturally one of them and had secretly observed her from a distance more than once.
“Who is she calling?”
Huang Qi stared blankly. This was the first time he had seen Lingyu Fairy after being expelled from the sect for several years. Many memories flooded back.
“Junior Sister Hong Ling, what’s wrong? Why didn’t you answer when I called you?”
Lingyu Fairy gradually approached. She was tall, agile, and dignified.
