The Flirtatious Prince and His Savage Concubine

The maid was furious when she heard Lu Lingxi's slander of her young lady. However, she knew she could not gain any advantage by talking to her, so she took a step forward viciously and tried to snatch the book from Lu Lingxi's hand, shouting, "This is my young lady's book anyway, give it back to me."

Lu Lingxi didn't want to fight with the maid in front of so many people, so he quickly took a step back. Chunhong and Liulu still used their bodies to block in the middle. Seeing the maid take a step forward, Liulu pushed her lightly, trying to keep some distance between her and Lu Lingxi.

Unexpectedly, with just this gentle push, the maid fell backwards heavily, bringing down the bookshelf beside her. When the bookshelf fell, a corner of it was blocked by the bookshelf next to it, so it didn't fall down completely. Instead, all the books on the bookshelf slid down and fell on the maid. The scholars in the bookstore were afraid of being affected, so they stopped buying books and ran out of the store.

A book hit the maid, and she screamed and said nonsense: "Oh! Help! The young lady of Zhenguo Marquis's Mansion not only robs people, but also kills people when they don't agree with her. Someone, help me."

Lu Lingxi was confused. What was this person trying to do by suddenly shouting?

Chunhong and Liulu wanted to go forward and cover the maid's mouth, but there was a collapsed bookshelf between them, so they couldn't get through for a while.

Seeing that Lu Lingxi and the other two could not come over for the time being, the maid started shouting again: "What? The young lady of the Zhenguo Marquis's Mansion is jealous of her young lady's talent and beauty, and makes things difficult for her young lady everywhere, but she also imitates her young lady everywhere. She can't even read a few words, but she insists on snatching books from her young lady. When she talked about Lu Lingxi, she mentioned her name, but never mentioned who her young lady is."

By the time Lu Lingxi and the other two had removed the obstacles and wanted to catch the maid, she had already run out and was lost in the crowd of onlookers.

The bookshop clerk followed Lu Lingxi and the other two out, stepped forward hesitantly, and said, "Ms. Lu, look at the losses in this store today..."

The maid kept screaming "Young lady from the Zhenguo Marquis' Mansion", and the bookshop clerk immediately knew that this was Lu Lingxi, the only daughter of General Lu Yi from the Zhenguo Marquis' Mansion.

Lu Lingxi was already unhappy about being picked on for no apparent reason. When he heard the waiter's question, he said impatiently, "You saw it just now. We didn't knock down the bookshelf. Why are you complaining to us? Besides, the books fell down, so we just picked them up. What's the loss?"

The bookshop clerk also works for others. If Miss Lu doesn't compensate for the loss today, he will have to pay for it himself. Thinking of his meager income to support his family, he was really stretched, so he gritted his teeth and said with a smile: "The book did fall and was picked up, but you also saw so many people in the store just now, and they ran away without paying. I wonder how many books will be missing from the account? In addition, it will take at least half a day to restore the bookstore to its original state. I can't explain to the shopkeeper if the loss of half a day is small."

Liu Luben searched the crowd for the maid. Hearing the bookshop clerk still making noises, he said sternly, "If you want to make up for your losses, ask that woman for compensation. She was the one who started the trouble and knocked down the bookshelf. Do you know her?"

The bookshop clerk stammered, "It was because you pushed her that she brought it to the bookshelf."

As for the maid, he recognized her. She was the maid of Su Yun, the daughter of the Prince's tutor. She often came to the bookstore to pick up books. But he didn't dare to say it. After all, the Prince's tutor was a clean civil servant with many civil servant disciples behind him, and was closely related to the bookstore business. General Lu Yi of the Zhenguo Marquis's Mansion was a military commander and had little to do with the bookstore business. Even if the Crown Princess wanted to settle accounts with him in the future, he could still shirk it by saying that he didn't see the maid's appearance clearly today.

Therefore, it is better not to reveal the identity of the maid now. Think about it, it is really a fight between gods, and the mortals will suffer.

Liu Lu heard the clerk's mumbling and said angrily, "Are you blind? I didn't use any force just now. I just pushed her gently to separate her from our lady. She fell backwards by herself. She obviously knocked over the bookshelf on purpose."

Chunhong saw that more and more people were gathering to watch the fun, and knew that if she continued to pester Lu Lingxi, it would be more disadvantageous to her. She should leave here first and then slowly find a way to find the maid.

So he took out a small ingot of silver and gave it to the bookshop clerk, not saying it was to compensate for the bookshop's losses, but just said, "Pick up the few books our young lady was reading just now. Our young lady wants them."

If Chunhong said that it was to compensate the bookstore for its losses today, it would mean that she admitted that it was indeed Lu Lingxi who was causing trouble today, so she only said that the money was to buy the book that Lu Lingxi liked.

This small ingot of silver was more than enough to buy those few dusty and unpopular books. The bookshop clerk knew that the extra money would be equivalent to compensating for the bookshop's losses in the afternoon. He took the silver and said hurriedly, "Okay, okay, I will pack the books that Miss Lu has chosen right away."

After a while, the clerk packed up the pile of books that Lu Lingxi had just flipped through and took them out. The clerk was still very happy. Although there was a big commotion in the bookstore today, the actual loss was not big. Moreover, he also dealt with the books that had been in the bookstore for several years and could not be sold. Maybe the shopkeeper would even praise him.

Feeling happy, the bookshop clerk's attitude also improved a lot, and he respectfully handed the wrapped book to Chunhong.

Chunhong took the book. Lu Lingxi saw that he couldn't find the maidservant and he didn't feel like walking around anymore, so he took Chunhong and Liulu with him and got on the carriage back to the Marquis' Mansion.

On the carriage back home, Liu Lu said angrily, "I don't know what's wrong with this woman today. Chunhong, can you tell where she came from? What is she trying to do by doing this?"

Chunhong shook her head: "I don't know, but she must be coming for Miss. Miss must have offended someone unintentionally."

Lu Lingxi was puzzled and asked, "Who did I offend? I don't leave the house all day, who could I have offended?"

Then someone reacted: "Who did I offend, the King of Qi? Or his concubine Liu Fufeng? Or who did I offend before I lost my memory? But what is the purpose of that person doing this without any context?"

The three of them had no clue at the moment. After all, the one who made such a fuss today was just a maid. If it was a young man, a young lady, an official, or a mistress in Kyoto, as long as she had a certain reputation, Chunhong would be able to figure it out. Who could tell who the maid was unless they were close friends or someone they paid special attention to?

Although they felt uneasy, the three of them really had no other choice but to return home and tell Lu Yi, asking him to help investigate.

Although he didn't know who sent the maid, Lu Lingxi knew her purpose the next day.

Yesterday, just as Lu Lingxi and the other two left Yang's bookstore, rumors spread that the only daughter of General Lu Yi of Zhenguohou Mansion was erratic and domineering, and vicious. Yesterday in the bookstore, she not only robbed the books that others had ordered, but also bullied the minority and beat up an innocent maid. Fortunately, the bookstore clerk was not afraid of power and tried his best to protect the maid, so that she escaped. Lu Lingxi was so angry that he smashed the bookstore.

There is even a legend that if it had not happened in broad daylight and in full view of everyone, the maid might have died.

Because there were so many people watching in front of the bookstore at that time, the rumor spread throughout Kyoto overnight.

Lu Lingxi finally realized that the man's purpose was to ruin her reputation. Although she didn't care much about it, she was still very angry when someone picked on her for no reason. She would definitely find out who this person was and vent her anger when she had the chance.