Chapter 1242: Disguise

Not only were they going to abandon their horses, but they were also going to change or throw away everything on them. The only thing they could not lose was Little Treasure’s Crown Prince’s seal.

Qi Haoran and Mu Yangling had both taught Little Bear how to disguise himself. Since they didn’t know what it was that the assassin was using to track them down, they could only change out of everything that was possible.

When they heard that they had to change everything, the guards couldn’t help but swallow their saliva and ask, “Prince, do we have to change our clothes too? Then what would we wear?”

“Since there’s an earth temple here, there ought to be a village. When the rain stops tomorrow, go and look for it. We’ll buy some clothes from the villagers.”

The guards expressed that while it was not a problem for them to wear rough clothes, was it really okay for the Crown Prince and Prince Rong to suffer like this?

There was indeed a small village not far from the earth temple.

However, they didn’t have any extra clothes to sell to Little Bear and the others. The village leader said warily and uneasily, “Although our situation is slightly better than before, each of us only has one additional set of clothes to change into. We don’t have any extra new clothes to sell to you.”

Little Treasure looked at Little Bear regretfully. Little Bear waved his hand and said heroically, “So that means you have a set of clothes to change into, right? Sell that set to us. We’ll pay.”

As he spoke, he took out a small silver tael from his pouch.

The village chief’s eyes widened when he saw the small silver tael. He asked in a daze, “Our clothes are all patched up. They’re not worth much…”

Little Bear said with a bitter expression, “I know. That actually works in our favor since we’re trying to avoid being hunted down by others. If we don’t change our clothes soon, they’ll catch up to us.”

The village chief and the villagers were on guard, but they could not help but ask curiously, “Young Master, who did you provoke to be hunted down?”

Little Bear sighed and made up a tragic story of suffering mistreatment after having a stepmother. The stepmother wanted to fight for the family assets for her youngest son and could not tolerate the eldest son and second son.

Little Treasure chimed in from the side, adding details to make the story even more vivid and moving. At the end of the story, the two of them said with tears in their eyes, “We were going to the south to rely on our uncle and get him to seek justice for us. Who knew that our stepmother would actually send people to hunt us down? Fortunately, the big brothers of the escort company helped us. Otherwise, the two of us would have died without a burial place. However, they also suffered many injuries. We had no choice but to disguise ourselves before continuing on our way. But because this place is so remote, we can’t find anything to disguise our appearances at all.”

The guards listened to their story in a daze. After a while, they reacted and nodded repeatedly. “That’s right, that’s right. Sirs, please take pity on our young masters and sell us your clothes.”

Before the village chief could say anything, the aunties behind who were so touched by the story pushed the men away and said to everyone, “Isn’t it just a few tattered pieces of clothing? We’ll sell them to you! No, we’ll give them to you. These clothes aren’t worth much. Just take them.”

The men opened their mouths and wanted to object. Even if the clothes weren’t worth much, they were still their clothes. Each of them only had two sets, so what would they change into after giving them away for free?

The women glared back. In the past, the entire family only had one set of clothes to change into. Since everyone had an extra set now, they’d manage just fine.

But how could Little Bear and Little Treasure take their things for free?

They forcefully stuffed the money into everyone’s hands and said, “I can’t take your things for nothing. Anyway, my stepfather has plenty of money so this money is nothing to him. If you refuse it, it’ll just benefit my stepmother…”

As soon as Little Bear said this, everyone immediately took the silver coins. Instead of letting a wicked woman have the silver, it was better for them to take it themselves.

As soon as they accepted it, the villagers were embarrassed. They held the piece of silver and said, “This, such a big piece of silver must be worth two to three taels. That lousy set of clothes isn’t worth so much. Just give me a few dozen copper coins.”

The village chief spat, “Two or three taels? This is worth five taels. Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t know, lest you embarrass yourself!”

The villagers used copper coins when they shopped at the market and rarely got to see silver. Therefore, they really did not know that this silver coin was worth five taels. They returned it one after another and said, “This is too much.”

The village chief also said, “Just give me the smallest silver coin for all the clothes. There’s no need for everyone to take one coin each.”

“There’s a need, there’s a need.” Little Bear said with a grin, “Aren’t we going to pretend to be villagers when we enter the city? Therefore, we still need a lot of other items, such as your chickens, ducks, and vegetables. If anyone has a woven basket, we also want that…”

The villagers: “…”

In the end, everyone changed their clothes and replaced their hair ribbons with the ribbons provided by the villagers. Then, they used something to cover their faces, necks, and limbs. Little Bear was slightly satisfied when he saw how drastically different everyone looked.

He looked at the shoes under everyone’s feet and then at the village chief’s thrice-patched shoes and the straw shoes on the other villagers’ feet. Little Bear said decisively, “Let’s change our shoes too.”

Everyone: “…”

Looking at the items that were being exchanged, the villagers asked, “Young Masters, why don’t you give these to us? Since you don’t want them, we can exchange them for some money.”

With a smile, Little Bear said, “If you want money, we can give it to you. However, we can’t give you these things.”

Since they couldn’t keep their money anyway, they might as well distribute it to these villagers. After buying two carriages of goods, there wasn’t much left.

At the thought of this, Little Bear’s heart ached for their two carriages of fur and herbs. How much money could those goods be exchanged for if they were transported back to Jiangnan?

Little Treasure went to Little Bear’s side and asked, “We can’t even keep the silver?”

“No, but I think they’d be happy to trade their copper coins for our silver.”

Exchanging 100 copper coins for one tael of silver? The villagers would never have dreamed that such a good deal would happen to them.

Everyone kept asking the village chief to confirm the authenticity of the silver. It was only after repeatedly confirming that it was real silver that everyone dared to exchange all their copper coins for the silver.

Little Bear asked the village chief and his grandson to carry everything they’d changed out of into the forest and burn them. After confirming that they had all been burned to ashes, they left.

As for the horses, they had long been abandoned in the forest. The reins had been untied, allowing them to live freely. If these horses were still around after they found the garrison, they would still have the fate to meet again.

Little Bear and Little Treasure each picked a few chickens and a basket of eggs before setting off. The others were either carrying chickens and ducks, vegetables, or carrying baskets. Anyone who saw them would think that they were a group of vendors heading to the market.

The group of people gradually dispersed and walked forward in groups of twos and threes, with Little Treasure and Little Bear still walking in the middle. When they saw the official road from afar, everyone could not help but start to worry.

Last time, they were stopped at this place when they were moving onto the official road. Because the other party had a large number of people, they had no choice but to escape to the byway…

In front of them was a farmer driving a donkey cart. The cart was filled with young ladies, young wives, and old women from the countryside who were going to the market. When it entered the official road, the cart even jolted a little. No one stopped them even after they traveled far away.

The three guards walking in the first row lowered their eyes and kept moving onto the official road. This time, no one stopped them. Everyone’s hearts were raised. Only when no abnormalities happened when everyone successfully moved onto the official road did everyone feel relieved.