"What happened, Father? And what's that in your hand?"

At the sight of Mr. Tao storming back home with anger written all over his face, Tao Xiaomei hurried up to him, offering to hold his bag for him.

Mr. Tao declined her offer. Gripping the bad, he huffed, "Close the front gates and go inside. I'll tell you later."

Tao Xiaomei hastily went to shut the front gates and then called Mrs. Tao, Wang Sheng and Stonie into the house. As soon as the whole family were inside the house, Tao Xiaomei closed the doors and they all clustered around Mr. Tao.

Looking at the bag on the table, Wang Sheng walked over and opened it only to find that inside it were clothes, all of which were black. There were also some black cloth masks. Surprised by these things, Wang Sheng asked, "Where did you get these clothes, Father-in-law?"

Mr. Tao smoldered for quite a while before he replied, "That unfilial son of mine gave these to me. I'm not the only one. Every family in this village received a bag of this kind of stuff. Those people said all of us are to change into these clothes and wear the black masks tomorrow. You know what they want us to do? They want us to steal for them! I always knew those people harbor evil intentions and would lead everyone in this village to their doom, but the village head and the others wouldn't listen to me. They even colluded with them and killed all those who tried to flee this village. Those conscienceless bastards!"

Wang Sheng was taken aback. Those people wanted them to put on these black clothes and masks and then transfer their goods out of the village for them? He knew some inside information and was aware that those people of the caravan didn't have any contacts whatsoever in the army of the imperial court, that it was the rebel forces in Jiangzhou that they were in cahoots with! If the villagers charged onto the battlefield clothed in this kind of outfits, they would only end up being killed by the troops of the imperial court before they could explain themselves! This was such a venomous stratagem. Those people were sending the villagers on an apparently suicidal mission!

This was bad. He needed to tell this to the couple of men that had slipped into this village as soon as possible.

Wang Sheng was anxious, but he was the only one knowing about the couple of men's infiltration into this village. It was inconvenient to make contact with them during daytime, so he'd have to wait until night fell.

"Father-in-law, did they mention at what time they'll make their move tomorrow?"

Mr. Tao responded, "They said they'd do it tomorrow afternoon. The weather hasn't been very good lately. Tomorrow's going to be a cloudy day, and there might even be some rain."

Rain? That would make the situation even more troublesome. Those thugs had actually thought of taking advantage of the weather. The army of the imperial court would have a difficult job catching them in a cloudy and rainy day. Those ruffians were such wily old foxes!

"Don't worry, Father-in-law. For the moment we may just stick to our plan. In no circumstances should we join those criminals to work against the army of the imperial court tomorrow."

With a grave look on his face, Mr. Tao inclined his head. "I'll tell the others at dusk. Wang Sheng, are those people you mentioned really going to protect us?"

Wang Sheng replied, "Yeah. I trust them. All we need to do is follow the plan."

On hearing this, Mr. Tao dismissed his misgivings and decided to go out to inform the others at nightfall.

At dusk, Mr. Tao did leave home, but he didn't go far away and just paid a visit to a nearby family, saying that he needed to borrow some soy sauce to sauté food. In the kitchen, he took advantage of the opportunity and had a word with his old bosom buddy, dropping a hint to him.

Meanwhile, Wang Sheng quietly went to a secluded spot in the back yard. On the surface he seemed to be stacking firewood, but actually he was talking with Yao Yi.

Wang Sheng related that Mr. Tao had received a bag of clothes during the day, that the villagers had been required to change into those outfits and use black cloth to cover their faces.

Yao Yi said, "I saw it in another place earlier this day. They don't dare reveal their true identities and could only pose as rebels. The villagers here will be their human shields. Tomorrow, I want you to take all your family and..."

Yao Yi expounded to Wang Sheng his plan for the next afternoon, the latter's face gradually softening as he listened. When Yao Yi had stopped speaking, Wang Sheng said with a serious inclination of the head, "You may rest assured that I'll get it done."

"By the way, tell your wife that tomorrow, in order to make it more convenient to carry out the plan, one of my men will disguise himself as her and join you. Make sure your son stays close to that man. We'll keep him safe," said Yao Yi.

Wang Sheng was delighted. "Okay. I will. Thank you, Captain!"

The safety of his wife and son was what concerned Wang Sheng the most. Now that his wife wouldn't have to go to the battlefield and his son would be under protection, he found this plan perfect.

Though overjoyed, Wang Sheng didn't forget to mention to Yao Yi that it might rain the next day.

Yao Yi, who had made an educated guess about the next day's weather already, replied, "I know. All you need to do tomorrow is follow the plan."

Relieved, Wang Sheng put the firewood in place and then hastened back to the front yard. Late that night, he woke up Tao Xiaomei and told her everything.

Tao Xiaomei was shocked, but she'd always known part of the reason why this time around they'd come back to this village, so she soon collected herself.

"What am I supposed to do, darling? Can't I take Stonie with me?"

Wang Sheng answered, "They'll secretly get you out of this village and take you to Xiaofeng Village, where you'll be waiting for us. Stonie can't go with you. If he does, those people will notice and become suspicious."

In her anxiety, Tao Xiaomei asked Wang Sheng to beg Yao Yi and the others to let her son go with her.

"Pull yourself together, Xiaomei. Stonie's sudden disappearance would rouse those people's suspicions. In that case, not only me but also your parents will be killed."

Wang Sheng's words cooled Tao Xiaomei off. It was a long moment before she, fighting back her tears, said, "I see. I'll wait for you in Xiaofeng Village. When will that man come here to impersonate me?"

"Now," replied Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng had just finished speaking when the door of the bedroom slightly moved.

Tao Xiaomei was taken aback. Wang Sheng put a finger to his lips. "Sh."

Then he hissed, "Who is it?"

"It's me," said Yao Yi's voice.

Wang Sheng heaved a sigh of relief and told Tao Xiaomei to relax, saying that the one outside was their helper.

Yao Yi walked inside and up to them, acknowledged Tao Xiaomei with a slight inclination of the head and then said to Wang Sheng, "We may get started if you're ready."

Wang Sheng said, "We're ready. What do we have to do?"

Yao Yi said to them, "Wait a moment."

Soon another two men entered, quickly covered all windows in the room with thick black fabric, and then did the same thing to the door. After checking that no light could leak out, they lighted the oil lamp in the room.

Yao Yi said to Tao Xiaomei, "Please come here and take a seat. And, what I'm going to do might strike you as a little offensive."

Troubled and uneasy, Tao Xiaomei sat beside the table. Yao Yi put on a pair of thin black gloves made of a kind of special material, walked up to Tao Xiaomei, reached out a hand to hold her head steady, and then felt her parietal bone, cheekbones, temporal bones, nasal bone, maxilla and jawbone with his other hand. Having got the information he needed about her face, he took his hands off her.

Yao Yi and the other two men were all in disguise. Their features had been altered, but what with the poise in their eyes, Tao Xiaomei and Wang Sheng didn't dare speak. Tao Xiaomei was quite nervous when Yao Yi checked her face. When Yao Yi had taken his hands off her, she gave a gasp of relief.

"Sorry. In order to impersonate you, I need to get detailed information about the contours of your face," said Yao Yi.

Tao Xiaomei and Wang Sheng saw Yao Yi call a young man up to him, have him sit down in the brightest spot and then open a chest he'd carried into the room.

Wang Sheng and Tao Xiaomei exchanged apprehensive glances, having no idea what Yao Yi was going to do.

The guard sitting beside the oil lamp was about Tao Xiaomei's height. He was sitting there quietly, waiting for Yao Yi to disguise him.

When Yao Yi started to disguise the guard, Wang Sheng and Tao Xiaomei were both thunderstruck. Firstly, they'd never seen this kind of disguise skills before; secondly, this guard was a man, and Tao Xiaomei was a woman.

"Captain, are–are you sure this will work? My wife's a woman, and thi–this gentleman here is a man. They'll see through it," said Wang Sheng, a look of surprise and incredulity on his face.

"Relax. Nobody's going to see through it," replied Yao Yi calmly.

Wang Sheng and Tao Xiaomei were both fretful, but neither of them dared move. Yao Yi kept working on the guard's face, occasionally glancing at Tao Xiaomei to confirm something, but most of the time he was quite confident.

After about two hours, the guard's face and hairstyle looked exactly the same as Tao Xiaomei's.

Tao Xiaomei clapped her hands to her mouth, staring fixedly at the guard's face, fearing that she might dissolve into scream.

Wang Sheng was also dumbstruck. He had once heard that some people in Jianghu had divine disguise skills, but he'd always believed that it was a wild exaggeration. It'd never crossed his mind that one day he'd be able to see it with his own eyes.

"It's not finished yet."

Yao Yi began to work on the Adam's apple of the guard. When he'd finished, the guard was nothing short of Tao Xiaomei's doppelganger. The guard was slimmer than Tao Xiaomei, his neck considerably thinner than hers, but after Yao Yi disguised him, their necks appeared the same.

"Now bring me a set of clothes of yours, the kind you wear at ordinary times," Yao Yi said to Tao Xiaomei.

Bobbing her head, Tao Xiaomei immediately rose to her feet and went to the wardrobe, tense and excited, unable to believe what she'd just seen. Her hands were still shaking as she rifled through her clothes.

The guard changed into Tao Xiaomei's clothes and then stuffed something into his bosom. After that, he and Tao Xiaomei looked as though they were cut from the same cloth.

"Done. My man will stay here impersonating Tao Xiaomei. Tomorrow he'll go to the battlefield with you. Now come with us, Tao Xiaomei. Do not make any sound on the way out. I'll hit your Dumbness Acupoint, just in case, but don't worry, I'll undo it when we're out of this village," said Yao Yi.

Having seen what Yao Yi could do with his superb disguise skills, Tao Xiaomei and Wang Sheng now had absolute and complete trust in Yao Yi, so they agreed without a second thought.

"Promise me you'll keep our son and my parents safe, darling," Tao Xiaomei said to Wang Sheng at the moment of parting.

Wang Sheng held her hands. "I promise they'll stay alive as long as I still draw breath."

"Let's go. I have to return to this village before daybreak after getting you out," urged Yao Yi.

Tao Xiaomei appeared reluctant. Wang Sheng clenched his teeth and walked her out of the room. And then Yao Yi struck her Dumbness Acupoint and took her away.

The fake Tao Xiaomei said to Wang Sheng, "There's still some time before dawn and you may catch up on your sleep, but first I need you to tell me all the details about your wife's dealings with your other family members."

His voice was also the same as Tao Xiaomei's, which startled Wang Sheng, who for an instant mistakenly believed that his wife was still in the room. Cold sweat breaking out over his back due to the shock, he tremulously filled the guard in on Tao Xiaomei's usual manner and her attitude towards Stonie, Mr. and Mrs. Tao down to the smallest detail.

Wang Sheng's mouth was almost dry from the long talk. When lying back onto his bed, he still felt that what was happening was somewhat unreal, so he stole a glance at the guard impersonating Tao Xiaomei, bewilderedly wondering if he was in a dream.

"What's the matter?" asked the guard, who was resting his mind with his eyes closed. He knew that Wang Sheng was looking at him, though he didn't open his eyes.

The man's voice made Wang Sheng jump, jerking him out of his trance. "Nothing, nothing. You may continue."

Wang Sheng hastily shut his eyes, not daring to let his mind wander again.

The next day, after daybreak, Wang Sheng and the guard walked out of the bedroom and started doing household chores as usual, pretending nothing had happened. Mr. and Mrs. Tao and their grandson, Stonie, all didn't notice anything out of the ordinary about 'Tao Xiaomei'. Secretly relieved, Wang Sheng was once again awed by the miraculousness of the disguise skills and also astonished that the guard could actually speak in a female voice.

As noon drew near, the atmosphere in the house grew increasingly stressed and subdued. Wang Sheng drummed it into Stonie that he was to stay close to 'Tao Xiaomei' at all times, that on no account should he lag behind. His words made Stonie quite nervous and even faintly scared.

The guard drew the boy over and consoled him, "There's no need to be nervous. Just stay close to me."

Stonie looked up at the guard, finding the tone of 'his mother' somewhat strange, but there seemed to be some kind of power contained in those words, which struck him as reassuring. The boy nodded vigorously.

Wang Sheng also cautioned Mr. and Mrs. Tao about what they needed to do. The old couple also repeatedly promised they wouldn't forget.

In comparison with the stressed and subdued mood in the Tao family, the atmosphere outside was one of excitement and expectation. A lot of people were anticipating the arrival of that moment.

After lunch, when every member of the Tao family's nerves were on edge, someone knocked on their door. It was a man who came to check whether or not they'd changed. He also told them to get ready to go to the village square to assemble at a moment's notice.

Mr. and Mrs. Tao were walking in front, Wang Sheng and the guard following in their wake, taking Stonie with them. As they exited the courtyard, they found that all the other villagers were also headed in the direction of the square.

The square was sited in the midmost of the village, in front of the village head's residence.

Most villagers had already arrived, the village head standing at the front. Members of the caravan were also present, all clothed in skintight black outfits, eyeing the villagers ferociously. Everybody on the square was dressed in black. The large black crowd struck people as some kind of bad omen.

"Is everybody here now?" asked the village head aloud. "Next you're to help our honored guest transport his goods to the checkpoint. If we get the job done, our honored guest will give us everything he promised us, and we'll never have to worry about the sale of our pottery or food or money again. This is a godsend for Taowang Village. You must accomplish the task!"

"Yes!" Many of the villagers were fanatical supporters of the village head, but there were also some who, like the Tao family, agreed to help because they didn't have a choice.

Wang Sheng's eyes swept across the village head's face and then rested on the so-called 'honored guest' standing before the village head. He knew that that man was the very person his boss was looking for. The man's bushy beard obscured more than half of his face, making it impossible for others to get a clear view of his features. He seemed to be... much stronger than his father-in-law had said he was. Even the man's eyes, which his father-in-law had described as "mild", appeared quite fierce at this moment. Wang Sheng couldn't help but feel worried, unsure whether he'd got the wrong person.

He nervously asked the guard impersonating Tao Xiaomei, "Sir, do you think it's possible that we got the wrong person?"

Got the wrong person? The guard asked Wang Sheng what he meant and the latter explained to him. Then the guard said, "He's wearing disguise."

Light suddenly dawned on Wang Sheng. "Just like you?"

The guard replied with a slight nod, "Don't look at me again, and don't speak unless you have to. Be careful not to rouse their suspicions."

Wang Sheng hastened to shut his mouth, not daring to utter another word.

The villagers finished assembling. Almost the whole village were present. Young children who were unable to keep pace with the adults were staying, but all those over ten years old were going.

"All right. Now follow the instructions. Go there to carry the goods."

...

Outside the village.

"Childe Ling, they're making their move."

Ling Zhang said with a head bob, "Tell everybody to get ready."

"Yes, Childe Ling."

Meanwhile, there was an escalation in the activities of the rebel soldiers stationed near the checkpoint in Jiangzhou. The army of the imperial court, under orders from the General Zhongwu (AKA the General of Loyalty and Valor), had mobilized, poised to attack.

It was now afternoon and the sky began to darken, threatening rain.

Finally, some movements broke the semblance of quiet of Taowang Village. Distantly, Ling Zhang and the others could see a group of masked villagers in black walking out of the entrance of the village, who were carrying bags on their backs or shoulders or pushing wheelbarrows laden with goods.

"Hidden among those goods is gold. We've confirmed it."

Yao Yi had returned from inside Taowang Village after he found solid proof that concealed amid those goods were indeed the gold ingots which they'd always conjectured Shan Congyi would transport to Jiangzhou.

The look in Ling Zhang's eyes went cold. Staring at those musclemen from the Wan Kingdom who were going out with the villagers, he said, "Good. Now that they've come, we're not letting them return."

...

Those were not common goods at all and were all very heavy, and all the villagers were having a tough time transferring them, but anybody lagging behind would be dressed down and whipped by the musclemen. Worse still, their fellow-villagers would hurl abuse at them too.

"These bastards." Mr. Tao muttered a curse. "How could they do this to their fellow-villagers? Their conscience must've been eaten by dogs."

Seeing some people were being insulted by their fellow-villagers, Mr. Tao was consumed with anger and intended to stick up for them.

Wang Sheng hurriedly seized his arm to stop him. "Calm down, Father-in-law. We can't afford to get ourselves into any trouble at this point in time."

Those musclemen were keeping close watch on them. If Mr. Tao walked up to and confronted those who were insulting their fellow-villagers, it wouldn't make any difference and would only serve to attract those musclemen's attention. If things came to that, it would be very difficult for them to carry out their plan.