Chapter 66: Ultimately Caught by Them (1)
Qi Huang looked at the Yamen, then turned to look at the five beautiful Immortals beside her who were smiling “evilly”. She gradually began to sweat profusely. “No! I can’t control Chief Clerk Yuan, but I can control these few Immortals. They are obedient to me. If I can find a way to send them away, won’t I have time to run away?” Qi Huang’s mind suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
Qi Huang dared not delay any longer, so she bit the bullet and said to the five cheap Senior Sisters, “Sisters, actually, when I came out this time, Master asked me to bring you a mission. There’s a haunting in the neighboring Fengming County and he wants you to investigate.”
“Ah? Then we’re leaving, who will guard here?” Shen Yuan immediately became anxious. She really wished she could tear that imposter to pieces right now.
“I’ll guard! Don’t worry, I will definitely catch that imposter.” Qi Huang promised to catch herself.
“Aren’t you coming with us?” Yun Fei asked, puzzled.
“If I go, there will be no one here to monitor.” Qi Huang stated with reason.
“Alright then, be careful yourself.”
“Yes, I don’t know if that imposter is powerful. If she’s very strong, don’t try to be brave!”
“How about this, when you find her, just follow her quietly and don’t make a move until we get back.”
…
The Senior Sisters cautioned carefully. Of course, they trusted their “Junior Sister” completely, except for Yun Fei. A hint of doubt appeared on her pretty face.
“You all be careful too!”
Qi Huang looked at her cheap Senior Sisters. For some reason, she felt a sense of guilt. The reason was very simple: after dreaming for so long, the dreamscape was becoming more and more real. Subconsciously, she had already treated these Immortals as her Senior Sisters.
“Junior Sister, this is the twenty taels of silver I owe you. I finally have a chance to repay it this time.” Just then, Ruan Lingyu suddenly walked up and handed over twenty taels of silver from her pocket.
Qi Huang’s rosy lips twitched slightly, as if she had a stroke.
“If you want to laugh, then laugh! But you must take these twenty taels. Although I returned it twice before, it wasn’t given to you.” Ruan Lingyu clearly misunderstood, and thus declared defiantly.
Qi Huang naturally did not want to laugh, but instead, her guilt increased tenfold.
“Sister Lingyu, to be honest, will giving me another twenty taels make you bankrupt?” Qi Huang cautiously tested. If the other party was a rich woman, she might accept it temporarily to maintain secrecy and return it later. If the other party was on the verge of bankruptcy, then no matter what, she couldn’t accept it.
“Pfft!” The other Senior Sisters immediately burst into laughter, attracting the attention of passersby.
“Hehe… Junior Sister… she borrowed these twenty taels from us.”
“Yes, if she had money, she wouldn’t have borrowed it from you.”
“Hahaha… I’m dying of laughter, I’ve never seen such a silly Senior Sister!”
…
The other Immortals couldn’t hold back anymore.
“You… didn’t you all agree to keep it a secret?” Ruan Lingyu was annoyed and her pretty face turned red.
“Forget it, Sister! Give it to me when you have it in the future!” Qi Huang felt a little heartbroken, thinking that she was a terrible person, a living Immortal she had ruined.
“Should I return the forty taels of silver to her?” Qi Huang suddenly had such an impulse, but after thinking about it, she still gave up, because she didn’t have a suitable reason, and forcing it would arouse suspicion.
Ruan Lingyu naturally was unwilling, and after a stalemate for a while, she reluctantly gave up when she could no longer be a patron of giving money. Thus, the five Immortals left, looking back repeatedly, their faces filled with reluctance.
“Haha, they will be gone for at least several days. I finally have time to run away.” Qi Huang was very excited, so she put on her veil and headed towards the South Gate. She planned to send her father back before running away. Her identity had been completely exposed, and she could no longer stay in Huatian Village.
…
A moment later, Chief Clerk Yuan crept out of the county office and stood by the roadside, looking around.
“Strange, where did those Immortals go?” After looking for a long time, Chief Clerk Yuan could not find the person he was looking for.
“These women, they disappeared at a crucial moment!” Chief Clerk Yuan complained somewhat irritably, then chuckled self-deprecatingly, “Forget it, what business is it of mine!”
…
Qi Huang arrived outside the South Gate and waited anxiously. Soon, she saw her father coming out. Huang Kai, who had gone from hell to heaven, had his facial muscles stiffened with laughter. He greeted everyone he met, regardless of whether he knew them. Seeing that her father was not injured, only his mental state was uncertain, Qi Huang’s heavy heart finally felt at ease.
“Daughter-in-law! Where have you been for the past ten days? Do you know how worried we were? We thought something had happened to you!” Huang Kairong shouted loudly as soon as he saw his daughter-in-law, as if he wanted to issue an imperial decree to announce to the world that his daughter-in-law had been found after being lost.
“Dad! I went home to get my Tooth Token.” Qi Huang answered half-truthfully.
“What? You really went home? How could you be so brave?” Huang Kairong was full of lingering fear, then he looked up and down at his “daughter-in-law,” as if afraid she had lost a single hair, and said, “You are a weak woman. If you were going back, you should have told us. At least let me protect you.”
“Weak woman?” Qi Huang felt very uncomfortable hearing her father call her that, but thinking that she had already become a woman, she simply gave up and lied, “Dad, don’t worry, I went back with an acquaintance.”
“Alas! Our family is so fortunate to find a daughter-in-law like you. We should really thank those feng shui masters for choosing such a good location for our ancestral grave! If you hadn’t arrived in time, I would have had to go to the battlefield for my son.” Huang Kairong clasped his hands towards the heavens. Speaking of his son, he asked doubtfully, “By the way, where is Huang Qi? Didn’t he come with you?”
“He and my father have already returned home, but there are still some trivial matters to attend to. He will come in a few days.” Qi Huang continued to lie. She was so adept at lying now that it was as if she was weaving stories without a second thought.
“That’s good! That’s good!” Huang Kairong finally felt completely relieved.
Qi Huang dared not delay any longer, so she urged her father to return to Huatian Village.
…
On the other side, the five Immortals left the North Gate and walked and walked, getting further and further away from Ping’an County.
“Is this haunting in Fengming County real?” Miao Xiang asked weakly.
“Who knows? Even our strongest Eldest Senior Sister only has a cultivation level of Body Refining third layer, and we don’t have Cat’s Eye Tears, so we can’t see ghosts at all. What are we supposed to investigate? I don’t know why Master gave us such a mission either!” Shen Yuan also expressed helplessness.
“Master probably wants to temper us,” Ruan Lingyu speculated.
“Master might assign such a mission, but what puzzles me the most is Junior Sister’s attitude.” Yun Fei, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke.
“What attitude?” Shen Yuan asked subconsciously.
“Think about it yourselves. We no longer have Cat’s Eye Tears. If we really encounter ghosts on this trip, it will be extremely dangerous. Doesn’t Junior Sister know this? Why is she indifferent and still waiting for that imposter there!” Yun Fei expressed what she couldn’t understand.
“Hearing you say that, it really is strange. In the past, when we went on missions, if we didn’t have Cat’s Eye Tears, she would definitely follow and help. Why is she acting so out of character this time? Is catching an imposter more important to her than our lives?” Ruan Lingyu mused.
“Impossible, Junior Sister is afraid of us getting the scent of Golden Life Flower on us, so she usually forbids us from getting close to her like she’s guarding against thieves, which shows how important we are in her heart.” Miao Xiang immediately retorted excitedly.
“It seems everyone agrees with me, so there’s only one possibility now!” Yun Fei stopped speaking at this point, her eyes full of worry.
“You mean the Junior Sister we met just now was… a fake?” Ruan Lingyu immediately…
“That’s impossible, we all saw her feet just now. Although I don’t know if they smell good, they were indeed small, and exactly the same size as Junior Sister’s. Didn’t they say that imposter was a big-footed woman?” Miao Xiang was somewhat incredulous.
“If it were before, I definitely wouldn’t suspect anything, but now it proves that the imposter’s disguise skills are truly superb, and it’s not necessarily impossible to change the size of her feet.” Yun Fei speculated.
“It’s not hard to tell if she’s real or fake. Let’s go back immediately and find Chief Clerk Yuan. Didn’t she just come out of the county office? If she’s fake, then she must have used the Tooth Token to register inside.” Ruan Lingyu proposed decisively.
The Senior Sisters thought it made sense, so they rode their horses at full speed and hurried back to the county town.
