"Then you'll give me back my skirt...?" What a twisted sense of humor.
Gu Siyan said, "It's just a necessary disguise. The more prominent something is, the less likely it is to arouse suspicion."
Qi Qi wasn't unfamiliar with wearing women's clothing, but asked, "Then why is this pink?"
Gu Siyan said in a typical male voice, "It looks good."
Qi Qi had nothing to say. She picked up the skirt, turned around, and went into the inner room. She came out a short while later.
The people chatting outside suddenly gasped. Gu Siyan fell silent, and everyone else fell silent too. The Zhenbei Army was full of bachelors who rarely even saw a girl, let alone talked to her…
Qi Qi rolled his eyes and stood in front of the only mirror used for disguise outside the house. He turned around and looked at himself, raised his arms and legs, and confirmed that the thing actually fit him perfectly. He couldn't help but feel a little depressed. 1.6 meters tall, damn it, 1.6 meters! Even his godfather Defu is at least 1.63 meters tall! Why are the genes of the Qi family getting shorter and shorter?
Brother Beard said, "You..."
Qi Qi: "What's wrong, Sixth Brother? By the way, do you have a hairpin?"
Qi Qi touched the long braid he had just braided behind his head. Don't ask him why he braided his hair; he had too much hair, and it wouldn't look good to wear a eunuch's hat if he didn't braid it.
Gu Siyan pondered, "Wait a moment."
He left the living room, leaving behind several silent and tense burly men. Qi Qi found a stool, straddled it, and sat down casually. However, the skirt was fitted at the waist; it wasn't noticeable when standing or walking, but it felt very tight when sitting and bending over. So he straightened his posture and looked up to see the men still staring at him strangely, their eyes filled with disbelief and a hint of relief. It was hard for Qi Qi not to wonder what they were thinking.
"Don't look at me like that, I'm a real man."
"..."
A short while later, Gu Siyan came over with a wooden hairpin in his hand. It was actually carved with a dagger and had a rather plain and unadorned ugliness.
"I forgot to prepare a hairpin, so please make do with this for now."
Qi Qi took the braid, curled it up, and secured it with a wooden hairpin. Then, looking in the mirror, she styled two flowing bangs to cover her ears, which had no piercings. She then grinned at the mirror, revealing eight small white teeth: "Wow."
Silly and simple-minded.
She smiled again, her charming smile instantly radiating, like a beautiful little peach blossom: "Beautiful, not bad."
Gu Siyan noticed that he seemed quite familiar with it: "..."
"Alright, General, everyone's done. First, let me ask you this: what role am I playing for you? Daughter? Maid? Daughter-in-law? No, you're so old, you don't have a daughter-in-law as young as me. Surely I can't be a concubine?"
Gu Siyan: "The legal wife is in charge of managing the household affairs, and the daughter... no businessman would bring his daughter out to do business."
Qi Qi: "Staying at home all day? Getting married is so boring."
Everyone: "..."
Once on the carriage, Qi Qi did some cramming and pretended to be the new concubine of Boss Gu, who was there to conduct an on-site inspection of the grain business in Sifang City.
"No, sir. Whose favorite concubine wears a wooden hairpin? I should have made me a maid's outfit."
Gu Siyan saw him take out the matching pink handkerchief to cover his face, his round face disappeared, leaving only a pair of shimmering peach blossom eyes: "I'll buy you jewelry once we enter the city."
Qi Qi: "That works too."
Why are you covering your face?
Qi Qi: "It's not that I'm too good-looking, I'm afraid I'll cause you trouble."
Of course, it's because my neck hurts from constantly looking down.
Gu Siyan took another look and indeed noticed something different. The little eunuch was quite handsome, with fair and soft skin. Remembering his time with the Ninth Prince, he leaned back and relaxed on the cushion, tentatively asking, "How have you been feeling these days in the Zhenbei Army?"
Qi Qi: "Why did you suddenly ask that?"
Gu Siyan remained calm: "Oh? Can't I ask?"
Qi Qi explained, "No, I should have asked that seven days ago."
Seeing his subtle expression, Qi Qi said seriously, "Not bad, pretty good."
Gu Siyan: "Really? I heard that the Ninth Prince treats his servants well. You've lived over there for a long time, and now you're eating dry biscuits with a bunch of roughnecks like us every day, and you think it's pretty good?"
Qi Qi: "Okay, actually it's not very good."
Gu Siyan's eyes flashed: "That's unfair to you... Do you still want to go back?"
Qi Qi: "I don't want to think about it anymore. Although I'm doing well there, I'm actually not confident at all. I don't plan to spend my whole life there. I've wanted to leave for a long time."
Seeing that he was speaking seriously, Gu Siyan's expression had just softened when he heard him say earnestly, "Actually, I've always had a wish, and I've been thinking about it as a goal since I was a child."
"What?"
Qi Qi said, "I'll return home in glory, take the money back to my hometown, find a good place to retire, get married, raise a dog, grow flowers and plants, go fishing and stuff like that."
Gu Siyan: "Get married???"
Qi Qi: "Of course, I'm a man!"
Gu Siyan: "Alright, whatever makes you happy."
...
Entering the city required paying a fee of one hundred coins per person, an exorbitant price. Surprisingly, no one came to look at the travel permit or anything like that, which was something Qi Qi hadn't expected. Sifang City wasn't small, was it?
Upon further inquiry, it was discovered that this group of rebels were genuine grassroots people, peasants from the village. After a few years as mountain bandits, they gathered the surrounding villages and stormed in. In those days, there weren't many literate people, especially among this group. The number of literate people could be counted on one hand. They didn't care about travel permits; they would release people if they had money.
Upon entering the city, Qi Qi's impression of it worsened considerably, simply because there were ten times fewer people on the main road than in the capital. The street stalls and shops were almost deserted, and the pedestrians looked rather grim. Every now and then, a group of people with arrogant expressions walked by, looking down on others with their noses in the air. The guide said that this was the Wu Family Army.
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