Long even before his trip to Xiang City, he had everything planned out, transferring all of his power to Xiang City, and even finding a substitute to act as him in public.
There were many benefits to having a substitute. One, he can avoid the unavoidable assassinations, and two, with the substitute taking his place in public, he was free to do whatever he wanted in the shadows.
But now…
He furrowed his brows, “The substitute looks very similar to me?”
Dong Qi grinned, “If we were to find someone that looks very similar to Your Highness, it wouldn’t be possible within such a short time. But not to worry because Mr. Huang was able to invite Mr. Liu to assist us!
Mr. Liu’s disguising abilities have nearly reached perfection. If we have him here to help, solely speaking, the appearance of the substitute will have at least 90% similarity with Your Highness!”
Since Qin Jue was only fourteen at this time, the substitute just has to wait two years until he doesn’t need a disguise anymore. If anyone becomes suspicious, just say that his appearance changed as he aged.
Hearing this, a complicated expression formed on Qin Jue’s face, “Mr. Liu? I didn’t expect that Mr. Huang was able to convince him to help…”
This Mr. Liu was someone who had inherited a sect and was the Qin Nation’s most famous scholar. His talents are known by people all over the world and his disciples are found everywhere. But because Mr. Liu himself tended to favor living leisurely and without constraints, even when the Empress had asked him many times to enter the palace as the Crown Prince’s mentor, he had refused.
After all this time, they finally got him to accept their invite?
Seeing Qin Jue hesitate, Dong Qi quickly explained, “When Mr. Huang first invited him to help us disguise ourselves, we did not expect him to accept our request at all. But after Mr. Liu looked up the divination forecast, he immediately agreed! And he even said that if Your Highness agreed to it, he is willing to become your ShiFu and mentor you for three years!”
Having heard this, Qin Jue laughed.
Back when he was still a Crown Prince, Mr. Liu didn’t want to teach him. But rather now that he’s decrowned, Mr. Liu finally showed interest in teaching him?
Seeing a smile on his face, Dong Qi became rather excited as well.
“Your Highness, now that we have a substitute and have the assistance of Mr. Liu, it seems that things are looking good for us! Since the substitute has completed his disguise and is ready to replace you at any time, when do you think is the best time for us to make a move?”
Originally, this wasn’t supposed to be an ordeal worth hesitating about. Having the substitute take his place and face the risky situations in place of him was something that he had planned out long ago, but he didn’t think it was going to happen so soon.
Once the two switch places, he can finally shake off all of the surveillance placed on him and control Xiang City from the shadows. This is easily hitting two birds with one stone, who wouldn’t approve of this plan?
Seeing Qin Jue remain silent for a long time, Dong Qi finally sensed something was wrong.
“Your Highness, you’re not thinking… of backing out now, right?”
Qin Jue narrowed his eyes and abruptly looked at him, only to see his face full of bewilderment.
Dong Qi asked carefully, “How could this be? With the substitute replacing you, your safety is perfectly protected, and no matter what you want to do you will never be restrained.
Plus, now we have Mr. Liu, the worldwide famous and wealthy scholar. And now that he has come on his own accord saying he wants to guide you, what is left to hesitate on?”
Qin Jue thought about it and smiled mournfully.
He’s right, what was there for him to hesitate about?
And the only reason he hesitated was that he didn’t want Xie Lin Lang to be good to someone else?
He felt as if he was possessed!
But now wasn’t a time for him to be stubborn. Being switched out from the spotlight was a completely beneficial trade with no losses. This will even benefit Xie Lin Lang as it’ll save her from a lot of inconveniences.
He shouldn’t be hesitating right now.
Dong Qi looked at the time and, estimating that Xie Lin Lang will soon be returning, he quickly finished the conversation with Qin Jue.
“Your Highness, if you have thought it through, there will be a good opportunity to switch places with the substitute tomorrow!”
“What opportunity?”
Dong Qi lowered his voice, “It’s Xiang City’s County Magistrate. Because he doesn’t want Xie GongZi taking over his position, the County Magistrate hired a group of mountain bandits to kill him and the set time is tomorrow!
But Your Highness, you don’t need to worry. Xie GongZi’s servant is a very capable person. He had already secretly contacted the Imperial Envoy sent by the capital and asked for his token of authority. Then, he went to the neighboring city to bring troops over here and is waiting for tomorrow: when the mountain bandits make their move, they will capture them all in one go and capture them as evidence!
On the other hand, we can also disguise as mountain bandits, conceal ourselves ahead of time, and once the two sides begin fighting, we will sneak into the battle, take advantage of the situation, and switch in the substitute!
This way, no one will ever know it even happened.”
This idea was also a suggestion made by Mr. Liu. Rather than waiting until Qin Jue arrived in Xiang City to switch him out, they might as well take advantage of this free opportunity.
He was also very confident in his disguising abilities, believing that even if Xie Lin Lang and Qin Jue had grown up together, it still wouldn’t be possible for her to discover him.
On the other side, Xiao Xi followed the trail of road marks and found Xie Lin Lang while she was hunting for rabbits and told her about County Magistrate Tao’s plan.
With an expressive tone, he said “That person named Tao thought he was so smart, leading the Imperial Envoy to ChangAn Pier, telling him that you mentioned through the letter that you were traveling by the water route to enter the city. Most likely, he’s scared the Imperial Envoy would notice all the commotion going on over the land route!
Good thing I was clever and borrowed the token of authority from the Imperial Envoy and brought over troops from a neighboring city… Just wait for it. Once the fight starts tomorrow, I will bring our men and capture them one by one, and after scaring them for a bit, they will definitely sell out whoever the mastermind behind them is!
When that time comes, let’s see if the County Magistrate Tao will be able to keep hogging the position!”
Hearing his words, Xie Lin Lang opened her eyes in surprise and almost blushed with shame, “Oh my, has my Xiao Xi become a saint? Seeing you become this smart really puts a lot of pressure on this GongZi…”
Having heard this, Xiao Xi rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, but after remembering something, he puffed his face and spoke sulkily.
“That’s right, GongZi, what happened to your treasured Highness? Haven’t you two been together this whole time?”
Xie Lin Lang felt his jealousy almost sour her teeth off. Holding the rabbit with one hand, she put her arm across his shoulder and began walking him back.
“Let’s go, I’ll take you to see him. Tonight, I will do the cooking myself and feed you well. Look how skinny you have gotten!”
As expected, Xiao Xi was easy to please. Hearing her say this, his mood recovered immediately, and he continued, “Then when we get to Xiang City, will GongZi make cakes for me? I have tried making them in the past, but could never replicate that kind of taste.”
Xie Lin Lang continued coaxing him cheerfully, “This time you have truly done a great service! When your GongZi takes over the position, I’ll keep making you cakes until you’re satisfied!”
“Hurray! Thank you GongZi!”
…… (This translation was brought to you by LeafInBloom on Patreon and Sleepy Translations.)
As they spoke and laughed all the way back to the cave, Qin Jue had already returned before them. He had also brought back a bundle of firewood and raised the fire to burn vigorously.
Glancing at the energy in Qin Jue’s body, Xiao Xi could already tell that his aura was different than before.
Hmph, once again, GongZi had given His Highness special treatment. He’s jealous again!
After handling the rabbit meat, she began roasting the meat while examining the map under the fire’s light.
Xiao Xi had said that there would be an ambush from the mountain bandits tomorrow. Even though they had already finished the preparations, she couldn’t use martial arts and neither could Qin Jue. In case tomorrow wasn’t just the mountain bandits, then they would be put in a very passive position.
Thinking as such, Xie Lin Lang took out two cloaks from her bag and handed one to Qin Jue.
“Tomorrow, you and I will both have this on. As we are both similar in height and weight, they won’t be able to tell the difference with the cloak on.”
Qin Jue reached over and took the cloak. Behind the flickering particles of the campfire, his expression became complicated and hard to distinguish.
He asked, “If one day, there were two of the exact copies of me in front of you, will you be able to tell the difference?”