Chapter 60: The Art of Disguise
"Ah... this... please trouble Miss Six."
She crossed her hands and moved the two threads back and forth on Jiaoran's face, applying a little powder to make her face more even more wrinkled.
"hiss--"
"Does it hurt a bit?" Chai Xiao said.
How could Jiaoran dare to be so spoiled? Miss Chai Liu was a daughter of a royal family, such a precious little girl. Usually, others took care of her, but now she was actually washing her face for her.
"It's okay, it's okay." It does hurt a little.
She picked up an arrow from the wall and said, "There's nothing here for a girl to play with. Play with this for a while, it will be fine soon."
Jiaoran didn't know why Chai Hui brought her here. Was it just to clean her face? Her face wasn't that dirty, was it?
She was really embarrassed to let a little girl coax her with something, and before she could refuse, Chai Xiao handed the short arrow to her.
Jiaoran had no choice but to hold it in his hand and play with it.
"Thank you..."
"Is it fun outside?" Chai Xiao kept talking and working.
"Outside?"
"Well, Jianghu, is it fun?"
Jiao Ran thought about it and realized that there was nothing fun to do. "It's very dangerous. There are swords and sabers everywhere, and conspiracies and intrigues. Some people...will die in the swords and sabers."
"How wonderful that would be!" Her inquiring eyes shone with an unusual brilliance.
Chai Xiao paused, as if fantasizing about something.
Jiaoran noticed her frustration, which was normal. She was a lady from a noble family, different from young masters like Chai Che and Chai Hui. Even when she traveled, she was accompanied by someone. She was so delicate and noble, how could her parents dare to let her go out alone?
If you think about it carefully, being a lady has its pros and cons. If Jiaoran were allowed to choose, she would still prefer to be a child from an ordinary family, where there wouldn't be so many rules and she could run around as she pleased.
She suddenly felt a word in her hand, and with a thought, she raised her hand and saw that it was indeed that word.
"What kind of arrow is this?" Jiaoran asked.
Chai Xiao said, "Firefly Arrow, this arrow is very short, no one uses it now."
You're lying. It's obvious that Chai Che is using it.
"Firefly arrows are very valuable. There are only so many left. My second brother took some away last time he came. Otherwise, the wall would still be full."
"Can't we fight again?"
Chai Xiao shook her head. "Did you see that word?"
"Um, Hotaru? Was this built by someone named Hotaru?"
"Sh ...
"What's wrong?"
Chai Xiao said, "Don't mention this person."
Jiao Ran was puzzled, "Why?"
When Chai Che mentioned the word "firefly", a rare sadness appeared on his face. She had thought that Chai Che was a person who never showed his emotions, but when the word "firefly" was mentioned, although he said nothing, sadness and regret unconsciously flowed from his eyes.
It was a kind of irreparable despair.
Could something irreparable happen to someone like him?
"Because this person is dead."
"Dead?" Jiaoran felt heavy in his heart.
No wonder Chai Che was so heartbroken.
"She was an arrogant and self-degrading woman, so she died."
Chai Xiao said this, but she was extremely proud when she mentioned the word "arrogant".
If he was such a person, why did Chai Che feel so sorry for him?
"Are they your siblings or elders?"
Chai Xiao sighed, pulled the arrow from her hand, and hung it back on the wall. "Don't mention her. She's been dead for almost fifteen years. I wasn't even born when she died. It was a long time ago. Mom and Dad didn't allow us to mention it. Now the only people in the mansion who still remember her are Mom and Dad and my eldest and second brothers."
"Okay." Jiaoran didn't intend to ask more questions, but he was vaguely curious.
Thinking of something, she added, "In the future, don't mention it in front of other people, especially... Mu Jin."
"What?!" Upon hearing the name, Jiaoran stood up from his chair.
"Don't you know yet? He's back. I thought you came for him." Chai Xiao said.
Jiaoran had never thought he would come back, but why would he come back? Why would his mother—no, why would his mother let him come back?
"No." Jiaoran denied.
How could she have come for him?
"Anyway, don't mention this person in front of him."
"Why is this?" There are so many secrets and taboos in the mansion. Jiaoran felt this way before, and now that he has returned to the Governor's Mansion, he still feels this way. It seems as if the mansion is shrouded in fog.
Chai Xiao hesitated for a moment and then said, "She is Mu Jin's mother, Chai Ying."
Chai Xiao didn't know the truth, but Jiaoran knew more than her. Mu Jin's mother was certainly not the woman named Chai Ying. He was the child of her adoptive mother Zhou Zhi.
The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. Why did my mother send her own child to the Governor's Mansion to be replaced by a cat? Was it just to seek wealth and status?
The Governor's Office has many agencies and is heavily guarded. Zhou Zhi is just a woman from the Jianghu. How could she have gotten in touch with a woman of such noble status as Chai Ying and exchanged her child?
Jiaoran quickly figured out that either the woman named Chai Ying was not pregnant at all and needed a son to cover up her pregnancy, or Zhou Zhi pretended that they were both pregnant and found ways to give birth to a child earlier than her, plotting to get close to the woman and replace her child.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she completely ignored the pain in her face and kept playing with the short arrows in her hands. These short arrows were unsharpened and the tip of the arrows had some streaks.
If Mu Jin was Zhou Zhi's child, then who was she? The child of a bandit who had traveled thousands of miles to Huiying Inn on a rainy night?
These were like scattered beads, and she felt that there must be a thread somewhere she couldn't see. Once she strung these beads together, the truth of the whole thing would be clearly revealed before her.
First of all, she was chosen because Huiyingmen was not short of manpower, and her ability to manage the organization was just superficial.
Besides, three years ago, Mu Jin and Fenghuang Chu led her to the secret room and let her bleed. Then they took away the box. Her blood was also a part of the secret room mechanism, like a key.
How could Mu Jin know so much? He knew exactly how to avoid the blind spots in the secret room. If that's the case, then Mu Jin also knew that her blood could activate certain mechanisms.
What about Phoenix Chick? What role did he play in this?
Jiaoran felt that he was getting closer to the truth, but he just couldn't connect the clues.
The only thing that is certain is that she was definitely not chosen by chance, but was already on the chessboard.
Countless hands are vying to play this game.
Is she the pawn of Phoenix Young or the pawn of A Niang?
What about Mu Jin? Is he also a chess piece? Or is he the one playing the chess?
If he was also a pawn, then she shouldn't have put all the blame on him for the crime she had committed against her.
If he was a chess player, then… she would have to make him pay the same price.
While she was daydreaming, Chai Xiao had already helped her up and asked her to look carefully in the mirror.
"How about it?"
Jiaoran's eyes widened. Is this still her? The woman in the mirror didn't look like her anymore. Her features were softer and more timid, yet perfectly coordinated, as if such a person really existed in the world.
Chai Xiao pressed a square brick on the wall, and a delicate drawer appeared in front of Jiaoran.
Placed in the crystal drawer were five or six...human faces.
Jiao Ran was startled. "What... is this?"
"Disguise, this is the first step in changing a person's facial features."
Jiaoran was so absorbed in thinking about other things that she didn't even notice that she had already chosen one to cover her face.
This face merged with hers, making it impossible to tell the real one from the fake one.
"If you don't like this one, choose another one." Chai Xiao said.
"No, I like it very much." Jiaoran was too lazy to choose another one. She didn't mind which face to use.
What shocked her most was how Chai Xiao, a girl from a noble family, could master such tricks as disguise.
"Who taught you that?"
Chai Xiao pointed at the short arrow on the wall, and Jiaoran understood, "It's her again."
What kind of woman is she that she knows so many unconventional things?
Chai Xiao said to herself, "Of course she didn't teach me personally, but the Chai family's disguise technique came from her."
Jiaoran raised the short arrow to her eyes and found that the arrowhead was glowing purple. She thought she was seeing things and was about to rub her eyes to look again when Chai Xiao called out to her, "Oh, Miss Jiaoran, no, my disguise skills are not as good as my second brother's. If you rub them, the disguise will be ruined."
Jiao Ran asked, "Is this mask made of... human skin?"
Chai Xiao couldn't help but laugh, "Yes, it's just been peeled off. Do you think it's still warm?"
Jiaoran got goosebumps all over his body. "Really?"
Chai Xiao laughed so hard that her stomach hurt. How could she trust others so easily? "What do you think the Governor's Mansion is? Although I am a lady from the Governor's Mansion, I am not a daring killer who dares to peel off people's skin."
Jiaoran felt relieved and said, "Why are you trying to scare me?"
Chai Xiao put his arm around her shoulders, feeling that she was particularly approachable. "My second brother likes to use fish skin, and I mostly use pig skin, so it's a bit rougher."
Jiaoran thought she was being modest. "Is this still rough? Even if my mother stood in front of me, she wouldn't recognize who I am."
"Is your mother also here to rest?" Chai Xiao asked.
Jiaoran didn't say anything. Seeing that she didn't really want to talk about her mother, Chai Xiao changed the subject, "What were you looking at when you stared at that short arrow just now?"
"Purple hexagonal head."
Chai Xiao praised him, "You have excellent eyesight. Many people can't even tell the purple paint on this arrow with their eyes alone, because it is an extremely rare purple dye."
Jiao Ran was puzzled. "Purple dye is rare to begin with, and even less so for use in weapons. Using one of these short arrows every time is one less, isn't that a huge waste?"
Chai Xiao said, "I don't know why, but I heard from my eldest brother that when Mu Jin's mother was still alive, she loved the color purple."
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