Chapter 446: Crafty Disappearance Act
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“Young Master, what are your plans?”
“I will pretend to be you, and then I will be ‘accidentally’ captured by the Jin State’s soldiers on the street. After I am captured, you will wait for the right time to exit the border pass.” Zhou Qing’s appearance had already been exposed. She could no longer work as a spy and could only return to the Chu State as soon as possible.
When Zhou Qing heard that Su Ying was going to be captured in her place, she objected. “How can I let Young Master take the risk?”
However, Su Ying said, “I’ll think of a way to escape. You don’t have to worry about this aspect. Wait for me at the courier station outside the borders of the Chu State after you exit the border pass. I’ll meet up with you as soon as possible.” After saying that, she pushed the bundle on the table to Zhou Qing.
“Put on this mask before you leave. I will look for you according to the appearance of this mask when the time is ripe.
Zhou Qing was still worried about Su Ying’s safety. It had to be said that after spending the past few days together, she had imperceptibly developed a deeper trust in this Young Master. If anything happened to him because of her, she would feel bad. After all, the person the Jin soldiers wanted to arrest was her.
Su Ying had already made up her mind. No matter what Zhou Qing said, Su Ying wouldn’t budge, so Zhou Qing could only do as she was told.
“How’s the investigation on the deputy manager going?
Zhou Qing took out a stack of letters. “I found these letters in the secret compartment of the deputy manager’s room. From the contents of the letter, I can tell that he is probably working for a certain faction in the Chu State.
Su Ying opened the letters and read them one by one. The contents of the letters were very brief, and they mostly pertained to instructing the deputy manager to send back news of the situation here in a timely manner. There was no information in the letters that exposed the other party’s identity.
Su Ying put the letters away securely. “I’ll keep these letters for now. When I return to the Chu State, I will hand them to the Emperor.”
“Alright.”
Rays of golden light heralded the arrival of dawn, and the sky turned bright.
Su Ying changed into Zhou Qing’s dress and left the courtyard.
Zhou Qing was still worried about Su Ying, so after Su Ying left, she hung around outside the government office in the border city. The border city was under the jurisdiction of the City Guardian, and the first thing the soldiers would do when they caught someone was to bring him to the prison in the City Guardian’s Office.
On the third day of waiting, Zhou Qing finally saw the soldiers escorting “her” into the City Guardian’s Office.
As Zhou Qing watched Su Ying being brought into the City Guardian’s Office, her heart was held in fearful suspense.
On the second day after Su Ying was arrested, the border gates were opened, and the commoners who had been waiting at the border gates for a long time hurriedly lined up to exit the border pass.
When it was Zhou Qing’s turn, she took out the border pass clearance documents that she had prepared earlier. The officers did not suspect anything and allowed her to leave after checking.
The moment she stepped out of the border pass of the Jin State, Zhou Qing turned around and glanced at the gate before urging her horse to speed off.
The border of the Jin state was neither close nor far from the border of the Chu State. Zhou Qing followed Su Ying’s instructions and hurried out of the city. Even though she rode her horse speedily, she only arrived at the border pass of the Chu State a few days later.
There was a courier station outside the border pass. Zhou Qing showed her official badge and checked in to wait for Su Ying’s arrival.
Initially, she thought that it would take quite a few days, but to her surprise, Su Ying arrived on the third day after she arrived at the courier station.
Zhou Qing stood on the second-floor corridor of the courier station and watched Su Ying walk in with pleasant surprise, but her expression did not reveal any change. After ascertaining which guest room Su Ying was staying in, she turned around and returned to her room.
It wasn’t until late into the night that she quietly came to Su Ying’s door and knocked on it.
A moment later, Su Ying’s icy voice rang out from inside the room.
Zhou Qing pushed the door open and walked in. The moment she closed the door, she could no longer hold back her smile. “Young Master, how did you get here so quickly? I hope you are not injured?”
Su Ying was sitting on a chair and munching on some dried meat. When she heard Zhou Qing’s query, she took a breather to answer, “I’m fine.
“It’s good that you’re fine.” Zhou Qing was genuinely happy, much happier than if she herself had successfully escaped from the Jin State.
Su Ying was indeed fine. After she was captured by the Jin State’s soldiers, she pretended to be sick with the help of some drugs. Before the military defense formation map was found, the Jin State’s soldiers could not let her die, so they found a doctor to treat her.
While Su Ying was in a “coma,” she overheard the officials’ conversation and confirmed that the border pass had been opened. That same night, she disappeared from the City Guardian’s Office in the border city. The process was relatively smooth. As long as she left quickly enough, those people would never be able to catch her.
“After daybreak, we will go through the border pass.
“Alright.”
After confirming that Su Ying was fine, Zhou Qing returned to her room. Su Ying also lay down on the bed. Perhaps it was because she was about to return to the Chu State, but she actually had insomnia.
She gazed at the bed’s canopy top which had been washed until it turned white and let out a deep breath. The longing that had been suppressed in the depths of her heart gushed out in the dead of the night.
She learned from Zhou Qing’s comrade that Xiao Jin had been sending people to look for her during this period when she disappeared. He was actually adamant that Su Ying was not dead.
Su Ying slowly closed her eyes, and Xiao Jin’s outline gradually became clear in her mind. The conditions at the point when she fell from the dam were extremely dangerous. If she hadn’t escaped into her interspatial store in time, she would have died without a doubt.
Could it be that the heavens felt pity for her for fighting in the apocalypse for so many years, so they sent her to this place and bestowed her with such a big stroke of luck?
Su Ying fell asleep amidst these complicated thoughts. When she opened her eyes again, the sky outside was already bright.
When they woke up in the morning, Su Ying had already changed back into her male attire, while Zhou Qing was dressed as a servant girl. The two of them left through the back door of the courier station, and the minor official at the front desk did not notice the change in the two of them.
The courier station was very close to the gate of the border pass. When they arrived, there were already many people waiting outside the gate. They were all queuing up to enter the border pass.
Su Ying waited outside the border pass, but her eyes were looking in the direction of the northern wilderness.
She still remembered that the last time she came through the border pass was when she was exiled to the northern wilderness. In the blink of an eye, so much time had passed.
She hadn’t received any news from the other side during her time here, so she didn’t know what was going on in Sky Alpha City now.
“Show your clearance documents.” As she remained in deep thought, Su Ying had already reached her turn at the border pass. She didn’t have any pass clearance documents, but she took out a token of the Imperial Guards. Xiao Jin had given her this token when she left the capital, saying that with this token, she could travel freely and unobstructed in the Chu State.
The border guard looked at the token with a strange expression in his eyes. After leading Su Ying to the side, he found the deputy general of the garrison. A low-ranking soldier like him had no chance to see such a token, but the dragon motif on the token told him that this token was definitely not as simple as it looked.
The deputy general took Su Ying’s token and examined it. After confirming that it was real, he didn’t ask any further questions. Only the Emperor’s trusted aides could obtain this token, and the things that the Emperor had ordered his trusted aides to do couldn’t be easily revealed to outsiders.
As she looked at the gold token in Su Ying’s hand, Zhou Qing was completely convinced of Su Ying’s identity.
Su Ying rode on the horse and breathed in the air of the Chu State, and her mood was uplifted by a lot.
Zhou Qing rode her horse and caught up to Su Ying. She was very curious. Su Ying had come to look for the Empress, but now that they had already gone through the border pass, there was still no sign of the Empress.
She really wanted to ask where the Empress was..