Xie Yue prepared the disguise tools and explained: “Since I must stay behind, it won’t be convenient for Your Highness and the princess consort to disguise yourselves. Without me there, if you try to do it yourselves, you might easily leave flaws. It’s better to simply change your appearance and alter your overall bearing, making it so people can’t imagine it’s you two.”
“We’ll follow your guidance, sir.” Pang Xiao smiled and nodded.
Qin Yining thought for a moment: “Let’s dress Your Highness as a dissolute young master, while I’ll disguise myself as a concubine he’s brought out.”
Pang Xiao was stunned. “Why disguise yourself as a concubine? I won’t allow it.”
Qin Yining didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “It’s not like I’m actually becoming a concubine. Think about what kind of place Danzhou City is. Would a spendthrift young master bring his legitimate wife when going out? Of course, bringing a beautiful concubine out to enjoy the scenery would be most fitting. Such an identity wouldn’t easily arouse suspicion.”
Xie Yue also said: “The princess consort speaks reasonably. If that’s the case, the princess consort should pay attention to her clothing—I’m afraid we must trouble you to dress more garishly.”
In the eyes of those unaware, Qin Yining was still observing mourning for Qin Huaiyuan. She usually wore colors like slate azure, sky azure, and ivory white, rarely wearing bright colors. Little did they know this was all Qin Yining’s deliberate public appearance.
With Xie Yue saying this, Qin Yining felt no difficulty at all—after all, her father was living well now.
“Dressing brightly can also prevent people from suspecting it’s me. After all, those with intentions all know about the Qin family’s situation.”
“The princess consort is wise—that’s exactly what this old man meant. This way, we can dispel most people’s suspicions.”
Pang Xiao was indifferent. He had seen plenty of dissolute young masters and had no difficulty playing the part.
The clothes Xie Yue found for Pang Xiao were all extremely bright and gaudy—either imperial concubine yellow embroidered with large green peonies, or clustered with blue treasure flower patterns.
These fabrics seemed to want precious stones directly embroidered onto the clothes, afraid people wouldn’t know this was a wealthy young master. If worn by an ordinary person, they would be completely overshadowed.
But Pang Xiao had an imposing presence and handsome features—even the gaudy clothes didn’t seem gaudy, and he actually wore them with a certain casual elegance.
Xie Yue smiled: “Your Highness, stand more loosely, don’t keep your back so straight, lower your neck, don’t open your eyes so wide. Can you hunch your back?”
Pang Xiao did as Xie Yue instructed—legs spread, back hunched, eyes looking listless as if lacking energy, with a lazy smile at the corners of his mouth. Restraining his cold, hard temperament, he immediately transformed into a handsome wealthy young master.
Qin Yining covered her mouth and laughed softly at Pang Xiao’s outfit: “I rarely see Your Highness dressed so garishly.”
“Is ‘garishly’ how you describe such a romantic talent as this young master?” Pang Xiao tucked his folding fan behind his collar and swept Qin Yining into his arms: “You little woman are becoming increasingly bold. Could it be that this master spoils you too much and has spoiled you rotten?”
Xie Yue nodded repeatedly: “Yes, yes, exactly like that. Princess consort, please cooperate as well. You’re not the princess consort now, but a beautiful concubine from a pleasure house background who must cling to the young master for any hope in the latter half of your life.”
Qin Yining nodded, thinking of how Cao Yuqing had deliberately played a beautiful concubine before. She immediately softened her body and pressed against Pang Xiao, her lotus-like arms embracing his arm as she looked up coquettishly: “Young master, please calm your anger. This slave dares not.”
Pang Xiao’s heart stirred, immediately feeling weak in the knees and nearly breaking character.
Xie Yue nodded repeatedly: “Good, good. Your Highness and the princess consort act very well. Now you two are the young master of Guangtong Trading House and the young master’s newly acquired beautiful concubine.” He turned to Bingtang and Ji Yun: “You two young ladies must also disguise yourselves. You can’t reveal refined manners—it’s best to be submissive and unnoticeable.”
Birds of a feather flock together—the maids around the princess consort all had the bearing of young ladies raised in wealthy families. Xie Yue wasn’t worried about Qin Yining and Pang Xiao not acting convincingly; he was afraid the people around them would reveal flaws in details. They couldn’t underestimate anyone. The Lu family, like the Qiu family, had been passed down for over a hundred years and could establish such ancestral rules, proving they were not simple characters.
Bingtang and Ji Yun knew this trip was important and went to change into slate azure cotton vests over emerald jackets and long pants, with their hair combed into proper double buns, no makeup, and deliberately darkened their complexions.
The two maids’ beauty immediately diminished considerably.
They then went to serve Qin Yining in changing clothes.
Qin Yining changed into a deep blue cross-collar narrow-sleeved jacket with an imperial concubine colored high-waisted pleated skirt below, draped with a rose-red silk scarf, her hair arranged in a high chignon with a butterfly-winged large hairpin on one side and fashionable flowers on the other.
Qin Yining drew her eyebrow tails slightly upward, used a small red plum blossom forehead decoration between her brows, applied rarely-used bright red lip rouge, and swept light pink rouge across her eye corners. She looked left and right in the mirror.
“Truly, clothes make the person. With this arrangement, I don’t look like a good person at all.” Qin Yining practiced her facial expressions.
Bingtang and Ji Yun had never seen Qin Yining dress this way and were nearly mesmerized.
Bingtang smiled: “To not look like a good person, you still need to have the face for it.”
Qin Yining couldn’t help but laugh and playfully hit her: “Sharp tongue. Be careful, or I’ll send Huzi back when we board the ship.”
Ji Yun giggled.
Bingtang blushed furiously and stamped her feet: “Princess consort is too wicked!”
“Ah, you need to watch your forms of address.” Qin Yining held up a finger: “You must remember, Your Highness will be Young Master Wan from now on, and I’m Miss Ning. Understand?”
Pang Xiao had investigated—Guangtong Trading House claimed publicly that the old master’s surname was Wan, and previously Qiu Feijing had also used the surname Wan when conducting business.
“Yes.” Both maids nodded.
After finishing their disguises, Qin Yining went to the outer room for Xie Yue to see.
Xie Yue nodded: “This is very good, princess consort.”
Pang Xiao pulled his fan from behind his collar, snapped it open with a flourish, and excitedly fanned himself while circling Qin Yining, putting on a drooling appearance: “Little woman, marvelous, marvelous!”
“Yes, yes, yes! Your Highness is doing it right!” Xie Yue nodded repeatedly.
Pang Xiao chuckled and resumed his usual demeanor: “The carriage is ready. Let’s board the ship now.”
Qin Yining smiled and nodded.
After bidding farewell to Xie Yue and Xu Weizhi, the group left through the back door of the temporary residence, boarded the carriage, and headed to the dock.
The former capital had originally served as the heart of the Great Yan Dynasty, naturally possessing extensive land and water routes.
When Great Yan fell overnight, combined with continuous natural disasters and human calamities, the docks had gradually fallen into disuse, only beginning to reopen in the past six months.
It was now early morning, with a thin layer of mist over the river surface. Water and sky almost formed a single line. A gorgeous, exquisite double-decked building ship was moored by the river, with many people already moving about on board.
Pang Xiao held Qin Yining’s hand as they stepped onto the gangplank: “Watch your step—step on the planks.”
Qin Yining nodded. Walking to the middle and looking to both sides, she could see the water was quite deep.
“Are you afraid?”
“Not afraid,” Qin Yining smiled. “I can dog paddle.”
Pang Xiao chuckled: “What’s dog paddling? When we have time later, I’ll dive down to catch fish and roast them for you.”
“That sounds wonderful. I haven’t had your cooking in a long time.”
“I’ve been constantly busy, but I actually quite enjoy preparing delicious food. When things are stable in the future, I’ll cook your favorite dishes for you every day.”
“I’m afraid you’d fatten me up into a pig.”
The two chatted and laughed as they boarded the ship. Huzi approached with a grin: “Young master, Miss Ning.”
“Mm. Tell them to set sail.”
Pang Xiao closed his fan and took Qin Yining’s hand: “Let me show you around the ship. I bought this building ship but haven’t used it much.”
Qin Yining smiled: “Since we have such a beautiful ship, we could try going downstream in the future to travel around.”
“Yes, I bought this building ship because I saw it was solidly built, thinking I’d bring you out to play later. You know building ships are still used as warships now. I was able to buy this building ship because when Great Yan was about to fall, those officials were taking advantage to act corruptly—otherwise, it wouldn’t have been possible.”
Qin Yining didn’t understand ships very well and hesitated: “Won’t it be improper for us to use it like this?”
“Nothing improper about it. The Great Yan court was excessively corrupt back then. Those officials were afraid they couldn’t recoup their investments—what wouldn’t they sell if they could make money from it? I’m not the only one with a building ship, and I’m not the only one using it. It’s fine.”
Only then did Qin Yining relax, smiling: “As long as you know what you’re doing.”
Qin Yining and Pang Xiao walked around the entire ship hand in hand, finally returning to sit in the flower hall on the second level.
From the moment they left home, the two had been constantly playing their assigned roles, afraid that some habits might be hard to change and give them away.
Such “putting on airs” was quite interesting. At least Pang Xiao found it very amusing—after all, he was now playing a lustful dissolute young master.
With nothing to do on the ship, he truly enjoyed two days of the debauched life he had dreamed of.
When the building ship approached Danzhou City’s dock, Qin Yining actually felt relieved. Finally, they had reached their destination—otherwise, she really feared she couldn’t take much more.
“Danzhou City’s Bi Qing Lake is most famous. Let’s go buy a pleasure boat shortly. We can move around during the day these days, and at night we can stay on the pleasure boat while enjoying the famous night scenery of Bi Qing Lake’s pleasure boats. As for our building ship, let’s moor it here for now.”
Pang Xiao was in high spirits, truly treating this trip as sightseeing.
Qin Yining smiled and nodded: “I’ll follow your lead. To be a dissolute young master, naturally one must spend money like water. Starting by buying a pleasure boat isn’t bad.”
“Exactly my thoughts.” Pang Xiao smiled and nodded.
Huzi, listening nearby, grinned: “Master, don’t talk about buying pleasure boats like buying sugar figurines. That’s more silver than many people can earn in several lifetimes.”
Pang Xiao laughed heartily: “What’s there to fear? What business doesn’t require investment? There will be returns later. Even if not, we still gained a good time traveling. Your master is happy—do you know how much silver happiness costs per catty?”
Seeing his master seemingly returned to his youth, Huzi couldn’t help but smile and join in: “I don’t know how much silver the young master’s happiness costs per catty, but Miss Ning’s happiness is worth more than a thousand pieces of gold.”
“Exactly right. You little rascal have inherited some of this young master’s romantic spirit.”
Pang Xiao wrapped his arm around Qin Yining’s waist, pulling her into his embrace: “Come, this master will first take you down to see the world and buy some jewelry to whet your appetite.”