Whether due to habit or numbness, this time Nanny Ji didn’t faint. Her face merely changed color as she shouted, “Quick, stop them—”
Aman pursed her lips and said, “Don’t bother, Nanny. The Princess Consort’s carriage has already gone far.”
Fearing the elderly Nanny Ji might become ill from anxiety, Aqiao added, “That’s right, Nanny Ji. Even if you send someone to stop her, it’s useless. Once our mistress has decided on something, no one can change her mind…”
Nanny Ji rolled her eyes and said, “Who said anything about stopping the Princess Consort? I meant to stop the person reporting to Chief Historian Xiang!”
The Chief Historian was a rigid character, the type who would rather die than yield.
She had just gone to look for the Chief Historian but couldn’t find him, as he had gone home. So she sent someone to report to him at his house, hoping that the unyielding Chief Historian might persuade the Princess Consort to change her mind.
But she never imagined that in the short time she was away, the Princess Consort would have already left!
Seeing this, it was clear that the Princess Consort couldn’t be stopped now. If the Chief Historian learned about the Princess Consort sneaking out, what if that old fellow crashed to his death at the gate of Prince Yan’s mansion?
Nanny Ji was so anxious she broke out in a cold sweat. “Hurry up!”
“Oh.” Aqiao and Aman finally came to their senses, suddenly becoming flustered.
By this time, the carriage had already left the city.
Jiang Si looked at the large dog squeezed into the carriage with a helpless expression. “Erniu, go back quickly. It’s not convenient to take you on this trip.”
Erniu glanced at Jiang Si and didn’t move an inch.
Jiang Si reached out to pat Erniu’s head.
On this southern journey, she would have been glad to have Erniu’s company, but it wasn’t possible to bring him along.
She could use the excuse of secluding herself to read scriptures and pray to avoid seeing people, but what if the Emperor wanted to see Erniu?
During her absence from the Prince’s mansion, the fewer changes there, the less likely it would be to attract attention.
“Erniu, with both Ajin and me away from home, if you come along too, who will take care of Ahuan?”
The large dog, who had its muzzle pressed against the carriage floor in a clear posture of refusing to leave, lifted its head at these words and twitched its ears.
“The wet nurses are all new. Without Erniu watching over them, what if they slack off and let Ahuan go hungry? Or what if they don’t change Ahuan’s diapers?”
Erniu’s ears twitched again.
Elder Hua, sitting in the carriage, was secretly amazed.
This large dog seemed very human-like as if it could understand human speech.
Surely she was overthinking it. It was normal for dogs to be attached to their owners, which was why it followed the Princess Consort of Prince Yan. How could it possibly understand human speech?
As the carriage moved further and further from the city gate, Jiang Si saw that Erniu was beginning to waver. She steeled her heart and said, “Erniu, I’ll be gone for a long time before I return. If you come with me, when we get back, Ahuan surely won’t recognize you anymore—”
Erniu suddenly stood up, gave his mistress a reluctant look, wagged his tail, and jumped out of the carriage.
Fine, fine, it would be better to stay with the young master and wait for the mistress to return.
Jiang Si lifted the carriage curtain and peeked out. She saw the large dog sitting alone in the middle of the road, staring forlornly in the direction the carriage was leaving.
She steeled her heart and lowered the curtain, letting the carriage creak along for quite a while before quietly lifting a corner of the curtain to look back again.
Erniu was chasing after the carriage. Noticing his mistress peeking at him, he immediately started barking.
In that instant, Jiang Si almost called out to stop the carriage, but Erniu turned around and ran away.
After an unknown amount of time, Elder Hua coughed, and Jiang Si finally lowered the curtain corner and came back to her senses.
“The dog raised by the Princess Consort is very human-like,” Elder Hua said sincerely.
Jiang Si nodded slightly, showing no desire to converse with Elder Hua.
She had many questions she wanted to ask, but not now, having just left her daughter and Erniu.
Elder Hua spoke again: “I’d like to give the Princess Consort a new disguise.”
Jiang Si looked at her.
Elder Hua explained, “Although the Princess Consort’s demeanor as a maid is natural and experienced, you’ll still attract attention once you enter our tribe.”
“How does Elder Hua plan to disguise me?”
“Why don’t you wait and see, Princess Consort.”
“Very well, then I’ll trouble Elder Hua,” Jiang Si agreed readily.
She never did anything unnecessary. Since she had already agreed to Elder Hua’s request, getting the job done quickly was the right thing to do. Everything else was just a side issue.
Jiang Si closed her eyes, allowing Elder Hua to apply various substances to her face. After an unknown amount of time, she heard Elder Hua’s voice: “Princess Consort, you can open your eyes now.”
Jiang Si slowly opened her eyes. Before she was a mirror, but the person in the mirror wasn’t her.
She looked at Elder Hua in surprise.
Elder Hua smiled and said, “Princess Consort, please bear with this for now. From now on, call me Hua Wa.”
It turned out that Elder Hua had disguised Jiang Si to look like her young granddaughter.
Elder Hua’s granddaughter was about two years younger than Jiang Si, but they had similar builds. Now, wearing the face of Elder Hua’s granddaughter, Jiang Si thought it was almost indistinguishable from the real thing.
Jiang Si stared at the face in the mirror silently for a moment, unable to help but marvel at Elder Hua’s extremely high level of skill in the art of disguise.
The Wumiao tribe’s disguise techniques were somewhat special, able to truly change a person’s facial features through certain manipulation techniques and drugs.
Jiang Si had dabbled in this disguise technique in her previous life when she was with the Wumiao, but she wasn’t proficient in it. In the Grand Elder’s words, she lacked talent in this area.
Elder Hua was a master of disguise.
Jiang Si stared at the old woman close to her, and a sudden thought flashed through her mind: Since the person before her was proficient in the art of disguise, how could she be sure this was Elder Hua?
This thought flashed by, sending a chill down Jiang Si’s spine, but then she curved her lips slightly.
She had just frightened herself.
In the small shop on West Market Street, she had contact with Elder Hua, and the scent on the person before her was the same as that old woman’s, so she could be sure it was Elder Hua.
Seeing Jiang Si’s silence, Elder Hua spoke, “Don’t worry, Princess Consort. The disguise is very easy to remove. You’ll just have to bear with it for a while. Only by disguising yourself as my granddaughter can you return to the tribe unnoticed.”
Jiang Si knew that the Wumiao people were very wary of unfamiliar faces.
“Then I’ll have to trouble Hua Wa to take care of me,” Jiang Si smiled at Elder Hua.
For some reason, after witnessing Elder Hua’s exquisite disguise skills, she felt inexplicably uneasy.
This uneasiness was hard to explain. If she had to, perhaps it could only be attributed to intuition.
This intuition made Jiang Si’s heart feel a bit heavier.
Elder Hua’s gaze towards Jiang Si became loving: “Ahua, you’re almost a sixteen-year-old young lady now. When you return to the tribe, you need to be more quiet and well-behaved, not as lively as before.”
Speaking to this point, Elder Hua smiled: “Fortunately, Ahua has been in Great Zhou for quite some time and has grown distant from her old friends. As long as the Princess Consort speaks little once we reach Wumiao, no one will notice anything amiss.”
“I will remember Hua Wa’s words,” Jiang Si seemed to have no difficulty playing the role of Ahua, calling her Hua Wa very naturally.
Elder Hua breathed a sigh of relief, showing a relaxed smile.
The Princess Consort of Prince Yan had a real talent for disguise. It seemed there was no need to worry about her exposing herself while impersonating the Holy Maiden.
At this moment, Jiang Si asked, seemingly casually, “Where is the real Ahua?”