Su Qingluan knew from the beginning that one of her main tasks this time was to give Mu Xingzhi, a "sickly person", a reason to leave Huaxi Village smoothly and with a purpose, and then go to Xunyang County near Jingzhou City, and suddenly "disappear" without arousing anyone's suspicion.

After all, wherever she went, even if it was a small county town, the closer she got to the capital, Su Qingluan found that the identity checks became more tense.

Even recently, even after entering the city, there are irregular patrols and inspections by officers and soldiers. Although we have not actually entered the capital, we can still feel that a storm is about to come.

But in fact, her mission is not yet completely completed. After all, before everything is settled, whether the identity of "Mu Xingzhi" can be completely abandoned is still another matter. Moreover, it would be much more convenient for Song Bo to act secretly as the "steward of Mu Xingzhi" than to return to being the "confidant of His Royal Highness the Seventh Prince."

However, if Mu Xingzhi continued to act as "Mu Xingzhi", even if he changed his appearance through disguise, Su Qingluan believed that those "old friends" who were very familiar with him would definitely become suspicious.

After all, while disguise can change one's appearance, there are many things about a person that cannot be changed. For example, one's voice—even if it's possible to temporarily change the voice, unless the vocal cords are damaged, the timbre cannot be permanently altered.

Another issue was his body shape. While Mu Xingzhi could control his appearance by changing his weight, he couldn't change his height. Furthermore, scars, moles, and other similar marks on his body couldn't be removed unless something unexpected happened.

There is no laser mole removal technology in this era. If you deliberately hurt yourself and leave scars in order to cover up the marks, although the marks can be removed, it will obviously arouse more suspicion.

What's more, even on the face, there is one feature that is absolutely impossible to change - the human eyes.

There were no cosmetic contact lenses back then, so pupil color and shape couldn't be changed. This also included the eyelid contours. Because cosmetic surgery wasn't as advanced as it used to be, eye features were what they were naturally, and had to remain that way.

Even the most basic way of changing it is impossible to cover it up - unless Mu Xingzhi sets himself as a "cripple" and then makes himself a "blind man".

Putting aside whether this is feasible or not, just the fact that his walking ability and vision are restricted will greatly reduce the range of "Mu Xingzhi's" activities, and the usable value of this identity will also be greatly reduced.

Therefore, it would be best for "Mu Xingzhi" to reduce the frequency of his appearances. Then, the state of disappearance of "no one seen alive, no body seen dead" would be the most ideal and least likely to arouse suspicion.

In this way, it would be natural for Su Qingluan, as a "family member", to stay in the capital to wait for news of her husband because of her reluctance in her heart. Most importantly, Song Bo, as the steward of Muxing, could also stay and continue to take care of Mrs. Su Qingluan.

Of course, Su Qingluan herself understood that the more people who belonged to Mu Xingzhi who stayed by her side, the higher her "mission completion" would be. So, while crying, she said to her uncle, "Uncle, you are ill in bed, and Qingluan really can't bother you. But when I think about my husband, I don't know whether he is alive or dead. I have had Yaoyao accompany me all the way, and now Yaoyao has to stay too. I feel so sad..."

After that, there was another burst of thunder without rain.

The old uncle was obviously more alert than anyone else present. When Su Qingluan said this, he immediately understood what she meant and sighed deeply: "I am an old man with no future. My sons are all grown up and have started families. I am worried about having only this one daughter. If she could follow you to the city, I could find a good family..."

However, Yaoguang's acting skills were obviously not very good. Su Qingluan was just "adding scenes on the spot", and the uncle was also "improvising". Yaoguang did not follow the train of thought and was a little dazed.

Fortunately, Su Qingluan was right next to her. She took Yaoguang's hand and asked from the side, "Yaoyao, how about going to the capital with your cousin's wife to wait for your cousin's letter?"

On the surface, the question was asked in a soft voice, but under her wide sleeves, Su Qingluan pinched Yaoguang's fingers with a little force.

Yaoguang was just not good at acting, but she was not a fool. After being reminded of this, she reacted and refused at first, but under the strong arrangement of her "father", she "had to" reluctantly decide to follow Su Qingluan to the capital.

Originally, Su Qingluan thought that Yaoguang was her uncle's only daughter after all. Would it cause gossip among those who didn't know the truth if she left her old father and cousin-in-law behind to go to the capital to inquire about her cousin's whereabouts?

After all, Su Qingluan gradually realized that the real "drama bones" in Xunyang County could probably be counted on one hand, and the rest were really ignorant people - just like the villagers in Huaxi Village.

This is actually quite reasonable. Although there is strength in numbers, in this situation, too many people actually increase the variables and the possibility of leaks.

Later, Su Qingluan discovered that in Xunyang County, everyone seemed to tacitly agree that the family property would be inherited by the sons, and supporting the elderly was also the responsibility of the sons and daughters-in-law. Apart from receiving the dowry, the daughters were like "water spilled out."

Although Su Qingluan herself did not agree with this pattern, she had to admit that it was indeed a common phenomenon in this era. Even Yang and Su Guangfu could not help but tell her when Su Qingluan got married: "Don't worry about your family, you still have your brother."

After all, in this era, this is the "natural" thing.

Su Qingluan had no intention of changing this secular concept, but objectively, this did reduce a lot of resistance for her to bring Yaoguang to the capital.

The two "carriage bosses" had completed their work when they successfully sent Su Qingluan and her group to Xunyang County. Since the carriage was "rented", they naturally had to return it to the original owner and let them drive back along the same route. Of course, if they took on other tasks on the road, it would be natural. However, from an outsider's perspective, this group of people had nothing to do with Su Qingluan and her group.

So Su Qingluan's current configuration is Song Bo, Yaoguang and her threesome.

However, because Su Qingluan had a well-known identity as the owner of "Su Ji", she was not alone in the capital, so she decided to visit the "Su Ji" branch in Jingzhou after arriving in the capital.

In fact, although the appointment document of the manager of the capital branch was also signed by Su Qingluan herself, she had never met the manager himself - because the current manager had just taken office less than a year ago, and the one she appointed at the beginning resigned due to illness.

Because of this, Su Qingluan wanted to take advantage of the fact that the other party didn't know her yet and create an information gap to see what the service in the store was like. Maybe there would be a surprise?

As it turned out, surprises were impossible, but there were quite a few shocks.