Chapter 5 Looking Different

"Ow ow ow ow ow!" Li Tian wailed in pain.

"Yelling about it will not make the pain go away, young master Tian," mentioned the man patiently cleaning the ailed patient's wounds.

"But it DAMN sure makes me feel better!" he growled resentfully.

Press.

"AAAARRGHH!!!" he howled in pain. "W-why did you do that Dr. Kai??"

"You're too loud. It's annoying me," the Dr. Kai in question grunted, his eyes clearly focused on fluidly fixing up every inch of the young master's body. This wasn't the first time he had to take care of the young master and it certainly wasn't the last.

Li Tian stared at him dumbfounded. Normally, his bad temper would have pushed him to lash out, but unfortunately, the man before him had a standing exceedingly higher than his own in the family, not to mention his wounded body was in the doctor's mercy.

Dr. Kai finished up the final bandage and tied it 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢 tight.

Li Tian winced but kept his mouth shut. He didn't want to take his chances with all the scary tools still just within arms reach from the doctor.

"Alright, you're all done." Dr. Kai stood up to adjust his equipment and take off his gloves. "No rough movements for the next couple of weeks and it should heal up just fine. If you don't want any scarring, you'd be good to make sure of it too."

The pain was quelled a significant amount, surprisingly. As expected of the Li family doctor. If he couldn't relieve him of the pain then he could only rely on his mother as the best painkiller. The reasoning being that the commanding woman placed so much pressure on you, your entire mental capacity was utterly taxed and focused on trying to not crumble down in ruin instead.

Li Tian stood up slowly as he checked all the bandages covering his body. It didn't look 𝘵𝘰𝘰 bad. But then he caught his reflection in the mirror beside him and took it back. He had two blackened eyes and a slightly broken nose. He had dislocated his jaw as well but it was promptly fixed in to place earlier. It was a wonder how he kept all his teeth.

He clenched his fists in anger. The scene last night made him furious every time he thought about it. He'd have to make them pay one way or another, or he would never get any peace of mind.

"Thinking of revenge are you?" Dr. Kai's deep voice cut through his thoughts.

Li Tian jumped and immediately unclenched his hands. "Umm... no..."

"Uhuh." The doctor rolled his eyes. No would believe such a blatant lie. "I think you should work on your acting skills first if you plan on keeping your identity a secret".

"Y-you know about that?"

Dr. Kai raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I?"

Of course. There were no secrets from Dr. Kairyuu Sveen. He'd seen everything there was to see going on in the family and worked out through them along the way. In the end, he was the doctor and had the obligation to know every single thing to better handle his patients. He wasn't a Li, but his rank preceded even the elders.

"T-that's true..." Li Tian was debating whether to leave but maybe he could ask the doctor a few things. "How do you think I should go about it, Dr. Kai?"

"Well that's a surprise," Dr. Kai walked towards the small office and motioned for Li Tian to follow him. He gestured to the seat in front of his office desk. "Sit."

He sat down comfortably in his own chair and the young man followed suit.

"You have to go undercover as a normal school boy, am I correct?" Dr. Kai asked from behind the desk with legs crossed.

"Yeah."

"I don't see how that's possible."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the youngster glared. "You don't think I can do it?"

The older man eyed him from top to bottom. "Acting skills aside, you are one of the most recognizable people in all of Huaxia, your face, body, and especially that hair of yours." He flicked his wrists towards the chocolate brown locks. "What are you planning on doing with it, shave it off? Doubtful. Wear a wig? Plausible, but what if the wind is too strong, or it somehow got stuck and was pulled off? If you can't even find a good way to disguise yourself physically then there is already no point in trying."

His words struck Li Tian's mind like lightning. He never actually stopped to think about that. He excelled in every subject when it came to studies, but when it came down to common sense, he was a special snowflake.

"Now if you 𝘥𝘰 manage to disguise yourself well, kudos to you. Nonetheless, ensuing will be either your voice or personality that will get you caught," Dr. Kai theorized calmly.

"What's wrong with my voice or personality?"

"Hahahaha! Very funny. You're a singer, young master Tian," the man's laugh was sarcastic, as if a child told him a joke and he had to act like it was the most amusing thing he had ever heard. "The whole 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 knows what you sound like. You have a very distinct and recognizable deep voice. And even if you used a voice changer, I highly doubt your careless personality will get you that far anyway. Not unless you do do something about it. After all, you seem to 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 like getting into trouble."

"Well, fine!" Li Tian stood up in anger. "I didn't need to hear this shit from you anyway!" he fumed and stormed in the door's direction.

"Proving my point exactly."

Twitch. Li Tian's hand abruptly stopped itself from turning the doorknob. He 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 didn't want to stay here any longer, but leaving would be bruising his ego severely. The doctor was definitely wrong. There was no way he was careless. His personality is perfectly fine! He will prove it to him!

"Fine." He turned around.

Dr. Kai smiled lightly and motioned back to the seat. "Come, let me properly explain to you how to go about it."

.....

"Uuurgh... Is this really necessary?" Li Tian moaned. He pinched the gooey substance between his fingers in disgust and lamented the hard days to come. Literally.

"You heard the man, hats and wigs are useless. This is the only way," Meilin fixed the last strand of hair in place before wiping her sticky hands down on the towel by the table. "There. It should harden within minutes."

He examined himself in the mirror and the vast amount of hair gel needed to keep his hair manageable. It did make his whole vibe appear different, even if it was just a little bit.

Meilin placed her hand under her chin to appraise her work. It wasn't half bad. "You'll have to start learning how to do this yourself later. No one will be there to help you with it in the North."

"Tsk. I know."

"Now about your attire..." she eyed him. "Normal teenage boys aren't as fit as you-"

"You mean as good-looking?" he cut her off.

His narcissism made her roll her eyes. "Nor are they as narcissistic as you are, Tian. You don't have to rub it into people's faces or you'll get onto their bad side. You don't want to be getting into trouble that soon."

Li Tian furrowed his eyebrows. "Fine. They'll think it when they see me anyway."

"No, they won't."

"Huh? Why?" he looked at her confusedly. She was rummaging through a pile of clothes, flinging the unwanted ones aside.

"Cuz they won't even notice it," she grinned evilly as she pulled out an oversized plaid shirt and a pair of baggy trousers.

"No," he slammed. "Not. Happening."

"Ya ain't got a choice do ya now, Xiao Tian," she cackled, walking towards him intimidatingly with the clothes in tow. "Or should I call Auntie over to help."

His face paled hearing his mother being brought up. "O-okay. I'll put it on."

He took the clothes from her hands and gloomily entered the other room to change. It shouldn't have taken long but even after a while, he still didn't come out.

"It's not possible for it to take 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 long to change into a set of clothes, Tian," she called out to the room. "Get your butt out here."

Creeeaaaak. Slowly, a foot popped out, then a leg, the body, and finally, a mopy head.

The figure that came out had his head hung as low as he possibly could, with shoulders slumped and arms drooped, appearing as gloomy as if he had just held a party, but not a single person he invited had shown up. Miserable indeed. The oversized shirt hung onto his body incredibly loosely, like a bag of skin on nothing but bones, while the trousers did even less to make up for it. It made him look like he had tree trunks for legs. He lifted his head up and plastered on his face was the outright goofiest pout she had ever thought imaginable. It was a killer.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Meilin burst out laughing, slapping her thighs repeatedly at the outrageous view. She even felt a tear threaten to fall from the hilarity. "Oh my god, Tian! Hahahahahaha! I almost couldn't recognize you!"

His face turned a deep shade of red. He couldn't handle such humiliation.

"Great! Are we done now??" he exclaimed in unwillingness.

"W-wait... Haha..hah..." struggling to cutback her laughs, she signaled for him to come closer. "I said 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵."

Reluctant as he was, he still complied with his cousin manager and came forward.

"Heheh. Your face is still very recognizable, Li Xiao Tian," she patted his face lightly, making him frown all the more unhappily. It didn't bother her in the slightest. She grabbed a bag he never noticed and took something that looked like a spectacle case out.

"Glasses?? You think glasses will do 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to disguise my face?"

"These aren't just normal glasses. Besides, Superman hid his identity plenty with just those glasses he had." She took a rather large looking pair of glasses and slid them on his face. "There! Perfect!"

He gawked at her skeptically. "Superman is a fucking comic book!"

"Just look in the mirror, four eyes."

Li Tian groaned but briskly placed himself in front of the mirror to observe his new look. Seeing himself, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrow in surprise.

He really did look... different.

The glasses were abnormally larger than normal and were made in a way that blurred his face behind it. It did fairly obstruct his vision but not enough to be an inconvenience. With it covering half of his face, it genuinely did succeed in masking his true appearance. After ogling the look a few moments longer, he realized that if his hair hadn't been gelled the way it was, even with the glasses and baggy clothes, he might not have been able to pull it off. His hair really was the biggest part of his image.

He curiously poked the top of his head only to feel rock hard solidness. They weren't kidding with the gel. Well, at least no one would know it was him.

"So this is it, huh," he muttered.

"Yep."

"We done now?"

"Nope."

He turned to his cousin incredulously. "What?"

She answered him with a smirk and a few words. "We still have to do a test run."

.....