Chapter 159 - To Force People
"Young Miss?" Bai Lu worriedly looked at her young miss. Their young miss has been acting weirdly these past few days but that morning, Bai Lu couldn't help but think that she was stranger and more impossible to read.
"Should I fetch a basin of water and towel for young miss to wipe your lips?" The maid asked after seeing Lin Xiaofei wiping her mouth with the back of her hand every other minute.
The maid initially thought that her young miss was bitten by a bug and her lips were itchy because of that and only wanted to help.
But who knew that Lin Xiaofei would send her a glare.
"No need." Lin Xiaofei told the young maid and stopped wiping her lips. But she couldn't stop the urge to do so as well.
She didn't know what made Qu Xing Xu do that. One moment, he was sitting relaxed and was only being a good conversation companion.. But the next moment, he turns into a kiss thief!
Forcing herself to stop her hands from going up to wipe her lips, she turned to the other maid who was standing on the other side of the room, "Su Tang, draw a bath for me."
"Yes, young miss." Su Tang replied to her and went out to do what was ordered to her.
…
After taking a bath and changing into a different dress, Lin Xiaofei walked towards the entrance of the Qu residence. This was her second time to ever step her feet around this place as she stayed mostly inside her courtyard and the garden next to it.
Just like when she first arrived in the Qu residence, men in armors and a sword on their hips were standing on their stations. It looked almost as if they were pillars instead of guards as they looked extremely rough and dangerous. With just one swing of their arms, anyone would be cleaved into two and if someone were to bump against them, they'll probably receive a huge lump on their foreheads.
Up ahead, a carriage was already drawn before the gates. It was a medium in size compared to what Qu Xing Xu rode when he took a visit to the Lin residence and the carriage that the two of them rode when they were on the way to the Qu residence.
The two maids behind her were silently following her as Lin Xiaofei walked to the carriage. A servant quickly brought out a stool for her to step on so she could get in the carriage.
When she lifted the curtain blocking what the carriage looked like from the inside from the prying eyes of the people outside, Lin Xiaofei paused her movements altogether.
She stepped back and looked at the servant helping her with questions in her eyes.
"His lordship couldn't come with the young madam and thought that you might need a companion when going to the Fourth Prince's residence. Thus, invited someone to go with you." The servant explained before bowing his head.
Lin Xiaofei still didn't want to go inside the carriage. She stood frozen on the stool underneath her before a fair hand suddenly shot out from the carriage and she was forcibly pulled inside.
"You sly fox!" A female voice said as Lin Xiaofei was forced to sit down. "We're supposed to be sisters with no secrets between the two of us and yet, here you are hiding after getting the love of your life!"
The woman was no other than Liu Shishi. She is the granddaughter of the Chief Secretariat and Lin Xiaofei's childhood friend. It was said that the two of them treated each other like sisters more than they treat their real sisters.
She was also the main reason why Lin Xiaofei had to suffer from the secondhand embarrassment that she had to experience after Liu Shishi told her that she had an unrequited love for the current Duke. Liu Shishi's words were also caught by Qu Xing Xu who once teased her about it but who knows if he will torment her because of it in the near future.
"How can you do this? Tell me, did you threaten your grandfather to force him to be engaged with you? Did he bribe him?" Liu Shishi shot her with her strings of questions in one breath.
Lin Xiaofei cast a sideways glance towards her before calling out to the driver, "Drive us to the Fourth Prince's residence!"
Without further ado, the driver instantly did as she told him to do. The carriage shook as it moved. Liu Shishi, however, didn't want to let this opportunity to ask her questions to her childhood friend.
"Well, did you?"
Lin Xiaofei looked at her, "Did I what?"
"Threaten him? Bribe the Duke?" Liu Shishi was almost at her wit's end.
When she went to visit the Lin residence to see Lin Xiaofei, Lin Xiaomeng told her that her dear friend was staying at the Duke's residence and was now engaged with him. The wedding was also nearing and no one told her anything.
Lin Xiaofei sighed, "Why is it that the first thing anyone would think of this marriage is that I forced the man to marry me?" The news of her engagement dealt a huge blow to Kael and Shen Mo. And if everyone in the capital were to know of it, they'll probably think the same thing as them.
"Because that's what you would do!" Lin Xiaofei frowned at the accusation. She never forced anyone to marry her but Liu Shishi continued to speak.
"Don't you remember? The first time you forced someone, it was our teacher in the academy. You told him to rewrite all your wrong answers and turn them into correct answers! Another one is that one time you made the heir of the Ling'an marquis to drop down his pants!" Liu Shishi was breathing hard now after she revealed the violent ways of Lin Xiaofei.
Pouting and folding her arms across her chest, Liu Shishi wasn't done, "There are over twenty people you've forced to do something so far. And I was included in that number."
Lin Xiaofei had a hard time to speak after her friend's revelation. When she finally found her voice, she asked softly, "…What did I force you to do?"
Liu Shishi was slightly offended that her friend didn't remember and gladly said, "You forced me to buy you a love manual!"
Lin Xiaofei: "…"