Era: Starting with the struggle to refuse being taken advantage of

Chapter 309: Disguise

At this point, Wang Chengpeng smiled confidently and said:
"The reason why the stolen money can't be brought into the light is mainly because someone will accuse you of fraud."

"But if you do what you promised, she'll be so grateful to you that she wouldn't even bother to sue you."

"I happen to have some connections at the police station, so getting this done will be a piece of cake."

Wang Chun'an is just an insignificant figure; whether he goes to jail or not is irrelevant. After all, the truth hidden behind Zhao Yuju is the most important thing.

As long as the truth behind Zhao Yuju is uncovered, someone in her family will still go to jail, only this time it will be Zhao Yuju herself.

Of course, Wang Chengpeng could choose not to help the two men launder the embezzled funds, but that would likely make it difficult for them to focus on their own work.

After all, Wang Chengpeng couldn't keep an eye on them all the time. With the label of a fraudster, they wouldn't have the mind to help him set up a scam; all they could think about was probably escaping.

Most importantly, this was also a way for Wang Chengpeng to demonstrate his methods, intimidating the two people in front of him and making them dare not refuse to do things for him.

As expected, after Wang Chengpeng casually mentioned that he could release Wang Chun'an, Zhou Delai's face was filled with shock, and his voice trembled as he said:

"Is everything you're saying true? Do you really have that ability?"

His previous trip to the police station wasn't in vain; he had tried to get Wang Chun'an out of trouble.

After all, if they could resolve this matter with a small amount of money, they wouldn't need to run around with the stigma of being fraudsters.

It was precisely because of this that Zhou Delai knew how difficult it would be to rescue Wang Chun'an.

Just moments ago, he had racked his brains but couldn't get the police at the police station to budge an inch.

"Getting someone out of the police station is not an easy task."

"Fortunately, I still have some tricks up my sleeve. Whether it's getting someone out or sending someone in, it's a piece of cake."

Captain Wang tugged at Zhou Delai's sleeve, his eyes filled with apprehension, and said:
"Brother, why don't we just agree?"

"This guy...we can't beat him!"

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Delai nodded and said:
“Fu Lai, you’re right, we are indeed no match for this man.”

Captain Wang was just a disguise for Zhou Fulai; Zhou Fulai was his real name.

Despite the excruciating pain, Zhou Delai pulled Zhou Fulai to his feet. The two brothers bowed to Wang Chengpeng and said:
"Comrade, we have witnessed your methods and are convinced of your abilities. We are willing to do this for you."

"However, you must explain things to us in detail, otherwise I cannot guarantee that we will succeed."

Nodding, Wang Chengpeng said, "Of course, I don't want your failure to alert them and make it impossible for me to get Zhao Yuju to talk."

"Lead the way to your house. I need to have a serious talk with you about this."

After following the two around for a while, Wang Chengpeng finally arrived at an extremely secluded courtyard.

The two of them were doing things that couldn't be brought to light, so naturally the more secretive they were, the better.

As he entered the room, Wang Chengpeng couldn't help but sniff. He smelled a strange odor emanating from the room, with a slightly eerie fragrance.

Looking further inside, Wang Chengpeng soon saw a very large mirror, of extremely high quality, capable of reflecting people clearly.

In front of the mirror was a table resembling a dressing table, covered with bottles and jars, which looked rather strange.

He casually found a seat and sat down. Judging from Wang Chengpeng's relaxed attitude, it was as if he were the owner of the room.

Wang Chengpeng tapped the table lightly, his knuckles making a rhythmic thud, and spoke directly:

"I'm very interested in your camouflage techniques. Could you demonstrate them to me?"

Before the two could refuse, Wang Chengpeng added:
"I recently heard that Director Fan is short of performance targets. I wonder if he thinks highly of those two fraudsters who just swindled a few thousand yuan."

Threat—this was an absolute, blatant threat. Zhou Delai finally understood why Wang Chengpeng insisted on giving them a thousand yuan as a bribe; it turned out he was waiting here to trick them.

Looking at Zhou Delai with a bewildered expression, Zhou Fulai asked in a low voice:
"Brother, what should we do?"

With a bitter smile and a helpless expression, Zhou Delai said, "What else can we do? Of course, we have to do it."

At this point, Zhou Delai's smile turned somewhat bitter, and he said:
"Comrade, we will stay here until we complete the task you assigned us. After that, we will leave immediately."

"If you want to come during this time, you can come here to find us. My brother and I will definitely teach you everything we know."

"But this art of disguise is a skill passed down through generations. Even those who have practiced with our fathers since childhood dare not claim to have fully mastered it. If you can't learn it, you can't blame us."

Wang Chengpeng nodded, indicating his understanding, and said:

"As long as you have taught seriously, I will not make things difficult for you."

At this point, Wang Chengpeng made another suggestion, saying:
"I just want to see what you've got up to. Don't be shy, just try it on me."

"As for the style of disguise, let's go all out. I want to see what I'll look like in twenty years."

"Don't be shy, go ahead and do whatever you want. I'd like to see just how well you can disguise me."

“If you don’t have real skills, I wouldn’t dare entrust such an important task to you.”

At this point, Wang Chengpeng didn't stand on ceremony and sat down directly in front of the huge mirror.

The frame of his glasses still bore the slogan "Grasp revolution, promote production," and the mirror was slightly yellowed, reflecting his young face.

The Zhou brothers, Zhou Delai and Zhou Fulai, exchanged a glance and ultimately decided to do as Wang Chengpeng asked.

Their fate was already in Wang Chengpeng's hands, and they dared not disobey. They immediately took out several glass bottles printed with "Red Star Chemical Plant" from the dressing table.

“This skill was passed down from my ancestors,” Zhou Delai explained as he prepared the ointment. “My grandfather was a makeup artist for theatrical troupes in the old society, specializing in dressing up the actors.”

Zhou Fulai added, "Later, during the campaign to destroy the Four Olds, this craft almost died out."

"Luckily, my father secretly hid some of the recipe, which is why it has been passed down to us."

"It's just that we two are useless, using such good skills to do such low-level things as fraud, and we were caught by you on our first try."

As they talked, the two began applying a special ointment to Wang Chengpeng's face.

The ointment was made from lard, gypsum powder, and traditional Chinese medicine, and it had a pungent odor.

Zhou Delai carefully traced wrinkles on Wang Chengpeng's face with an old silver spoon. Zhou Fulai, on the other hand, used a brush dipped in special paint to depict the vicissitudes of time.

"Don't move!" Zhou Delai pressed down on Wang Chengpeng's shoulder and whispered, "This ointment needs to dry slowly, otherwise it will crack."

"It's going to get a little exciting later, so don't get excited. We're not trying to hurt you; it's just a normal phenomenon."

"And don't worry about damaging your skin. If something really could damage your skin, we wouldn't dare put it on our faces."

Sure enough, as the ointment was applied, Wang Chengpeng felt a burning pain on his face, as if he had been sunburned.

Seeing Wang Chengpeng's perfect cooperation, Zhou Delai breathed a slight sigh of relief and took out a tin box with "Shanghai Brand" printed on it from the drawer. Inside were a wig and a beard.

"This is made with real hair; it's something those other guys can't compare to," Zhou Delai explained smugly.

"These are all good stuff I got from the barbershop. I picked them out one by one, and that's how I found so many treasures."

As they talked, the two of them used tweezers to stick the wigs one by one onto Wang Chengpeng's head, and then put on two mustaches for him.

"The eyes are key." Zhou Delai took out a bottle of special eye drops. "Put these in, and your eyes will look more mature and weathered."

However, Wang Chengpeng stopped him, saying, "I don't need this."

Although he didn't quite understand Wang Chengpeng's behavior, Zhou Delai nodded and said:

"Since you don't need it, then this disguise ends here. Once the medicinal mud dries, it will be set."

"However, this disguise cannot be used for a long time, as it will damage the skin if used for too long."

"If it's a bit of a hassle, just remove your makeup once a day. That's the best way to minimize the impact on your skin."

"If you want to avoid the hassle, remove your makeup every three days and then rest for a week. This will minimize the impact on your skin."

"In the end, it's because we're not skilled enough, so we can only do simple facial disguises."

"It is said that the legendary art of disguise can completely impersonate another person, but unfortunately we don't have that ability at all."

Ignoring Zhou Delai, Wang Chengpeng stared blankly at himself in the mirror.

At this moment, his face was covered with fine wrinkles, his eyes drooped, and the corners of his mouth turned down slightly, making him look serious and composed.

His originally dark hair now had streaks of white, which looked like silver ink lines spreading on rice paper, revealing a unique sense of vicissitude amidst the heavy ink.

Looking at himself in this state, Wang Chengpeng was reminded of his past life, when he was sick in bed and no one cared about him.

His right hand unconsciously clenched into a fist. At that moment, Wang Chengpeng thought about many things.

There are the tragic stories of his parents, sister, and brothers from his past life; the framing of him and his family by the Liu and Wang families from his past life; and Zhou Xia, who ultimately reaped the rewards...

In the end, everything turned into a long sigh, and Wang Chengpeng finally changed everything with his own abilities.

The person standing behind Wang Chengpeng had no idea what Wang Chengpeng was thinking in that instant. Through the mirror, he saw Wang Chengpeng's eyes, which were full of vicissitudes, as if he had seen through the joys and sorrows of the world.

Zhou Delai then understood why Wang Chengpeng said he didn't need the special eye drops. With that look in his eyes, if he hadn't seen Wang Chengpeng's young appearance in person, he probably would have thought that the person sitting in front of him was a middle-aged man.

Zhou Delai touched his chin, but he was not entirely satisfied. He felt that there was something out of place about Wang Chengpeng.

After thinking for a moment, he found a dark blue Zhongshan suit and handed it to Wang Chengpeng, saying, "Wearing this will make you look even more like him."

Donning a Zhongshan suit and wearing a Mao Zedong badge on his chest, Wang Chengpeng looked every bit the successful middle-aged cadre, exuding a powerful aura.

Seeing this, Zhou Fulai clapped his hands and praised, "It's just like it, it really is like it."

"If we had your acting skills, life would be much easier."

Turning his gaze away, Wang Chengpeng seemed to transform back into that energetic young man, smiling as he said:
"I've seen your skills, and I also have some lesser-known abilities that I'd like to share with you."

"Do you have a pen and paper?"

Zhou Fulai didn't understand why Wang Chengpeng needed paper and pen, but he quickly brought them over anyway.

Under the watchful eyes of the two men, Wang Chengpeng continued writing, his pen moving rapidly across the paper, and soon two rough outlines appeared.

The two people watching Wang Chengpeng's painting had strange expressions. Why was Wang Chengpeng painting them instead of other people?

Wang Chengpeng's painting skills are undeniably superb; he quickly sketched two lifelike portraits.

However, that's not the main point. After all, Zhou Delai and Zhou Fulai can disguise themselves, so appearance is not important to them.

What truly sent chills down their spines were the dense annotations Wang Chengpeng had made next to their portraits.
The labels on their body measurements were so precise, it was as if they had been measured with a ruler.

Their camouflage skills haven't reached the point where they can even disguise their body shape. If we had such precise data, although catching them would be a bit more difficult, it wouldn't be completely impossible.

Taking a deep breath, Zhou Delai forced a smile and said:
"Comrade, what are you doing?"

"We two brothers have no intention of betraying you, and we will definitely help you complete this task honestly."

Nodding in satisfaction, Wang Chengpeng continued, "I'm also very interested in the proportions and materials of these medicinal muds. While we wait for them to dry, tell me the secrets behind them."

Faced with such a formidable opponent as Wang Chengpeng, Zhou Delai dared not hold back any longer and revealed the secret recipe bit by bit, silently reciting it to himself as he spoke:

“Father, Mother, your unfilial son sold the family secret recipe just like that.”

"But don't blame me. It's not that I didn't try my best to protect the secret formula, but the enemy is just too terrifying."

"This cunning, this shrewdness, I just can't outsmart them!"

With Wang Chengpeng's photographic memory, he quickly memorized the secret recipe perfectly.

Based on the corroborating scenes from when he prepared the medicinal mud, Wang Chengpeng was basically able to confirm the authenticity of the secret recipe.

As for his previous makeup techniques, he didn't pay too much attention to them.

This kind of thing can be learned quickly. The most important thing is to be able to sketch the face of a stranger in your mind and then draw it out in the same way. This requires a certain level of artistic skill and social experience.

In other words, in just a short time, Wang Chengpeng had emptied their pockets, completely turning their once-proud disguise skills into Wang's possessions.

Unfortunately, the two were unaware of their own ignorance, and even complained in their hearts, wondering what use Wang Chengpeng was in his eagerness to get the secret formula, since he hadn't yet learned the most crucial disguise skills.

(End of this chapter)