Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I brought Old Guo along, hitched up the carriage, and went to find that actor.

Old Guo was incredibly anxious.

“This is a capital offense. Will he really agree to it?”

“What if we’re exposed? What do we do then?”

“If I had known this Yuan Mu had such a powerful background, I wouldn’t have let you kill him.”

I stared quietly at Old Guo and raised my index finger to my lips in a “shh” gesture.

He froze, his eyes darting around nervously.

I held up my palm, and he looked over.

My fingertip traced several characters across my palm, stroke by stroke.

“He-is-not-dead.”

Old Guo’s eyes widened in shock. He bolted upright, slamming his head into the roof of the carriage with a painful “Ouch!” before falling back into his seat.

The driver quickly asked, “What happened?”

Old Guo hurried to reply, “Nothing!”

He stared into my eyes. Seeing the steady light in my gaze, his heart settled, and he stopped rushing to question me.

The carriage stopped on Four Seasons Street in the west of the city. A dark arched gate stood off to one side.

We knocked, and when the door opened, it was Doctor Su.

He looked young, like he was in his early twenties, but in reality, he was already thirty.

Guo Jailer and I entered the gate, letting the driver take the carriage to a wider area to wait.

“I gave him your medicine. Now he looks like he’s truly dead.”

Su Lian was still confused.

“Isn’t that obvious? That feigned death medicine… isn’t it supposed to make people look like they’ve died?”

Guo Jailer understood immediately.

“So you didn’t use poison? You want to fish him out of the prison?”

I lowered my head and bit my lip hard, my voice full of regret as I recalled my actions.

“I don’t know who they were, but they actually came to me to hire an assassin! If I had refused them outright, I wouldn’t know which powerful deity I’d be offending! But as for actually killing someone-I’ve never killed anyone in my life!”

Guo Jailer’s entire body relaxed. He put his hands behind his back and paced several steps.

“It’s good he’s not dead! If he’s alive, things are easier! In three days, we’ll come clean to Huang Prison Officer. If we find a way to stall for three days, we can return a living Yuan Mu to the Elder Princess.”

“The kid isn’t dead? What do you mean, return him to the Elder Princess?”

“That won’t work, Uncle Guo. Right now, by not saying anything, we and the Prison Officer are in the same boat; in fact, it looks like we’re helping him. But once we tell him, this becomes a mess we stirred up. We’ll have offended everyone in the prison, and the Prison Officer will surely sell us out! When that happens, even Doctor Su will have to take a trip to a cell!”

Guo Jailer’s face fell again, looking like an eggplant hit by frost.

“You have a point. We would be offending people.”

“Maybe I should prepare a few more pills,” Doctor Su suggested. “One for each of us, and we can all commit suicide to atone for our crimes. We just need to find someone to collect our bodies…”

“What if they sentence us to death by a thousand cuts even after we’re dead, and then scatter our ashes? What then?”

“Stop thinking of terrible ideas. I’ve already made a plan. We find that actor, pay him a fortune, and have him pose as Yuan Mu!”

I held up three fingers.

“Three days. Just three days! Then we swap the real Yuan Mu back, and everyone will be at peace.”

After three days, those who should be strolling would continue to stroll, those delivering food would continue to deliver food, and those seeing patients would continue to see patients.

And those who should be performing operas would continue to perform.

Guo Jailer and I took Su Lian with us, boarded the carriage, and headed back to the west of the city.

After asking around the opera troupe, we found the actor.

When Chen Xiao first started performing, he had been popular for a month because of his good looks.

But his singing was truly poor. He never became a star, his jobs grew fewer and fewer, and he lived his life in a daze.

Chen Xiao came out from backstage and saw it was me.

“Miss Chao, it’s been years. You still remember me? Am I seeing things?”

He picked up a wet cloth and wiped the makeup from his face, revealing a visage that was nearly identical to Yuan Mu’s.

Brows like distant mountains, eyes like clear lakes.

“He looks just like him,” Guo Jailer murmured.

Doctor Su didn’t know Yuan Mu, so he just stared at him. “Does he really look like him?”

Chen Xiao sized the three of us up. “Is something the matter?”

The carriage stopped by the river.

Guo Jailer and Doctor Su pulled the driver aside to chat a short distance away.

I handed a gold ingot to Chen Xiao.

“I want you to play a person. It will only take three days.”

He weighed the gold in his hand. “So much for just three days? This isn’t a simple matter.”

“The task isn’t hard, but it requires courage.”

I took out the portrait the person who hired me had left behind.

“This man is a prominent figure named Yuan Mu. He comes from an extraordinary family, enjoys heavy imperial favor, and is very close to the Elder Princess. He is currently not in the capital, and this fact must not be discovered, so I am asking you to stall for three days. After three days, we will swap you back.”

When Chen Xiao saw the portrait, he understood why I had sought him out.

“The resemblance is there, but what if I’m discovered?”

I placed the scroll into his hands.

“I will be by your side. If you are discovered, you can push all the blame onto me.”

Without waiting for him to speak, I took out a stack of silver banknotes and slapped them onto the side table next to him.

“If you don’t have the guts, then I’ve misjudged you. Get out of the carriage.”

Chen Xiao gripped the gold and looked at the banknotes, hesitating for a long time.

A shadow flickered as his hand moved suddenly.

Chen Xiao grabbed the banknotes, counted them once, split them into two stacks, and tucked them into his sleeves.

“I might not have much courage for other things, but when it comes to swindling women out of their money, my guts are bigger than the sky!”

This was more money than he could earn in a lifetime.

It was also the entirety of the savings I had accumulated over seven years.

The deal was struck.