Chapter 120 – Escaping From the Marriage (2)
Old Zhong kneeled on the floor and kowtowed to express his gratitude. However, inside his heart he silently prayed, “Miss, take care of yourself! This old servant had done everything that could be done already. As for the management of the Marquis Jingyuan’s Mansion, this old servant will do his best. We will await your safe return…”
……
Ning Xuemo disguised herself as a beggar, crouching in a corner, watching everyone on the main street frantically searching for her. She almost wanted to curse, but had no strength to do so.
Is this what they called hundred plans overturned by one mistake; in other words, even the toughest egg shells have cracked? Right now, all those idioms applied to her!
At first, she had meticulously planned everything. It could be said that she concocted a flawless scheme.
First, she exchanged all of the gifts into silver notes, and carried some on her while giving the rest to Old Zhong to maintain the mansion while she was away.
In order not to involve everyone, she did not divulge her escape plan to anyone else, except to Old Zhong. Although Old Zhong disapproved, he still blindly followed Ning Xuemo’s instructions before she enacted her plan.
After the pair of master and servant finished discussing, she used the excuse of becoming the Emperor’s consort to gather everyone in the main hall. After everyone congregated, Old Zhong secretly released the fatal poison in the air, poisoning everyone in the hall. This led to the current situation, misleading people into thinking that a powerful group of experts was to blame.
Originally, everything transpired smoothly as planned; she even predicted the old Emperor’s reaction down to the minute details…
As long as she could escape out of the city without a hitch, then finding a place or a cave in the mountain to hide for several days, everything should be fine. After that period, she would return home and continue with her free and unfettered daily lifestyle.
However, she did not expect that at that moment when everyone was poisoned, she would also accidentally inhale a bit of poison…
Her original body was almost completely immune to all kinds of poison, because she had handled poison on a regular basis. That is why she forgot that this small body carried no immunity against poison and unexpectedly was extremely sensitive to the poison employed earlier.
Although she ate the antidote beforehand, she still had symptoms of dizziness and blurred vision. With difficulty, she successfully changed her appearance into that of a little beggar and used her strong will to push herself to run out of the mansion through the backdoor. After she accomplished that feat, the toxicity of the poison flared up, unwittingly causing her to faint right on the spot…
Only when night fell was she able to regain her consciousness and noticed a group of people searching for her on the streets, causing chaos everywhere.
It was known that every city had their dark side. On the streets, there were many beggars and numerous slept or camped in the small alleys and on the roadsides.
Therefore, no one paid attention to her sleeping on the street to the point that the two search groups on their horses actually passed by her without even giving her a glance…
Ning Xuemo stealthily went to the city gates. The gates were tightly guarded. No matter if it was a boy or a girl, every child around the age of 10 was stopped, interrogated, and carefully checked. Not only did they verify their appearance using a portrait, they even made hunting dogs verify their scent…
She could not deny that the way the imperial family handled their affairs was actually highly efficient. In such a short time, they were able to set up a contingency plan. The entrance of the city was completely filled of her portraits that looked like oil paintings 70% resembling her and painted with above average techniques.
Ning Xuemo’s disguise techniques were not at all considered miraculous or legendary. If she used a human mask, she only needs to apply it on her face, put some makeup to hide the flaws, and would be able to altered her features.
Depending on lighting and if no one carefully looked at her, it was possible to deceive people.
However, right now, she had no such mask. Using a mask made from real human skin like with Tu Yidao disgusted her and was out of the question.
Therefore, currently, her techniques for disguising herself are barely adequate. Her face looked only slightly darker and a bit dirty. Her eyes seemed a little bit smaller, and her mouth was drawn a bit larger… Her overall appearance was still similar, not much different…
