Chapter 409: Chapter 409

"Master Wu, stop putting on airs. I want to see if this boy is right or wrong. If you don't prove it, how can I teach this boy a lesson?" Zhuque Leiting said from the side.

After hearing Xuanwu Lingxiao's words, Master Wu was already planning to take a look. With Zhuque Leiting actually wanting to teach Xiaoyao a lesson, he felt even better about it. So let's see—time to teach this boy a lesson.

"Where's the dress?" Master Wu asked.

"It's on me. Take a look," Xuanwu Lingxiao said.

Master Wu walked to Xuanwu Lingxiao's side, slowly circling around, carefully examining the dress she was wearing. At first, he was quite pleased, wanting to see how Xiaoyao would die. But later, his brow furrowed more and more, as if he had discovered something.

"Strange, very strange!!" After completing one circle, Master Wu muttered to himself, then continued circling as if trying to verify something.

"Master Wu, what's the matter?" Seeing Master Wu's expression, the shopkeeper began to get nervous because she knew there might be trouble.

This was quite obvious—Master Wu must have seen something wrong, which indicated that this dress might really have problems. In front of so many people, this was almost equivalent to ruining the shop's reputation.

The shopkeeper was now somewhat regretful. If she had known this would happen, never mind one tael of silver—she would have been willing to give it away for free. The value of business reputation couldn't be measured with money.

"This dress looks like it was made by me, but it's not my work. Although the technique is very similar and shows decent skill, it's not mine, and it's also not as good as mine. That's right, this little brother is correct—this Hundred Flowers Needlework indeed has some failures, though very subtle," Master Wu said while examining the dress. His form of address for Xiaoyao directly jumped several levels, becoming "little brother."

This was because he saw that although the Hundred Flowers Needlework had failed, it was very subtle. Without considerable eyesight, one couldn't see it. At the same time, one had to understand Hundred Flowers Needlework. Anyone who could do this was definitely not simple.

It's over, it's really over this time! The shopkeeper now almost regretted it to death. She hadn't expected things to develop this way. Now someone had publicly exposed that her shop was selling failed works, and they were imitations of Master Wu's work. This would definitely ruin much of the shop's reputation.

Although she could still root out the culprit and recover the lost business reputation, there would definitely be some losses. This was enough to compensate for several normally-priced dresses. Calculating it this way, as she said before, it would have been better to give it away for free.

What she didn't understand was how something that she, who looked at these clothes every day and should at least have some eye for quality even if not a tailoring master, couldn't distinguish, had been spotted by a servant. What had this servant done before?

"Master Wu, what's going on? Did you remember wrong? Did you make this when you were drunk?" the shopkeeper asked. This Master Wu had another habit—drinking alcohol.

"Impossible. When I'm drunk, I can barely hold a needle, much less make something this good," Master Wu said. "Although this can't compare to mine, it's still a fine piece. It would be acceptable to sell here, just the price should be a bit lower."

"Then it might be one of your apprentices..." the shopkeeper continued guessing, but before she could finish, she was interrupted.

"Enough. You can investigate the cause yourselves. This dress can be sold for one tael of silver, right?" Xiaoyao didn't want to listen to them finding reasons—this had nothing to do with them.

"Yes, consider this dress a gift from us—no money needed!" the shopkeeper immediately said. At this point, how could she care about one or two taels of silver, although even one or two taels was quite a lot of money for ordinary people.

"How can we not pay? We came out to buy things, so of course we should pay. We can't accept free gifts!" Xiaoyao said very seriously, then reached out to get money.

"One wen and two-and-a-half cents?" The shopkeeper stared blankly at the money in her hand. This also counted as payment? You spoke so righteously just now—I thought you'd give one tael of silver.

"Pfft..." Xuanwu Lingxiao laughed, and Zhuque Leiting couldn't help laughing too.

"What? This is my food money for a whole day. Don't be ungrateful," Xiaoyao said, showing a trace of heartache on his face.

You're heartbroken over this?

"Fine, seeing how heartbroken you look, I won't take this money!" The shopkeeper was about to return the money to Xiaoyao. What was one wen?

"Don't! I'm still young and can skip a few meals. You can't!" Xiaoyao replied.

Are you saying I'm not young anymore? The shopkeeper's anger flared—she really wanted to hit someone.

"I have a question I want to ask you. Why didn't you use this flaw to bargain directly when you saw the dress had problems, instead of making it look like highway robbery!" This point really puzzled the shopkeeper. If she didn't ask, she felt she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

"I was saving face for you. Your dress has problems, and with so many people watching, it would damage your reputation. I was originally doing this for your own good, sacrificing my own image. But you didn't cherish it yourself. Sigh..." Xiaoyao shook his head and sighed.

"..." The shopkeeper fell silent. Could the other party really be so kind-hearted? Had she been ungrateful and ruined things?

"Is it really like that?"

"Of course! I definitely wasn't planning to use this to extort a hundred or eighty taels from you later! Sigh, what a failure. All that white silver..."

"Pfft..." Xuanwu Lingxiao laughed again, thinking to herself that she must take Xiaoyao out more often—he was too entertaining.

"Xuanwu Lingxiao, your servant is really shameless!!" Zhuque Leiting's evaluation of Xiaoyao was reduced to just "shameless." Who knew how the Xuanwu family had trained him? However, as servants went, he seemed quite excellent.

"Miss Lingxiao, can we go now?" Xiaoyao directly ignored Zhuque Leiting and spoke to Xuanwu Lingxiao.

"Let's go. There's nothing more here anyway," Xuanwu Lingxiao was also quite casual, leaving when she said she would. Whether Zhuque Leiting wanted to continue shopping for clothes was her own business.

"You two, I've caught you! How dare you trick me!!"

Before Xiaoyao and the others could exit, they were blocked at the door. However, this wasn't Phoenix Feather Silk Workshop seeking revenge regardless of consequences, but someone they had shaken off who had reappeared.

This person was Shang Lingjian!!

"Base young master, Miss Lingxiao was just bullied inside, and we were about to get reinforcements," Xiaoyao said with a panicked expression, as if being chased.

"What?! Someone bullied Lingxiao? Tell me, I'll go teach them a lesson right now!" Shang Lingjian immediately shouted loudly.

"..." Xuanwu Lingxiao looked at Xiaoyao, not knowing what he was planning.

"She's inside—a woman, twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing a white dress, hair in a tilted bun, surname Bai, given name Hu, like the butterfly hu!" Xiaoyao said.

Xuanwu Lingxiao now understood what Xiaoyao was doing. He wanted Shang Lingjian to cause trouble for Baihu Yingqiong, which would not only trouble Baihu Yingqiong but also get rid of the troublesome Shang Lingjian.

"Good! You watch from the side and see how I teach someone a lesson," Shang Lingjian walked inside. "Tell that stinking woman surnamed Baihu to get out here!"

"Mm! We'll be watching..." Xiaoyao peered inside, seeing Baihu Yingqiong's face change color. "Miss Lingxiao, let's go. It's dangerous here."

"Mm!" Xuanwu Lingxiao smiled and took the lead in leaving.

"You're really bad..." Zhuque Leiting said to Xiaoyao with a smile as she walked beside him. She had followed them out afterward. With Baihu Yingqiong inside, she found it boring and would rather drag Xuanwu Lingxiao into a fight.

When she came out, she saw Xiaoyao tricking Shang Lingjian into charging into Baihu Yingqiong's line of fire.

But it didn't matter. Baihu Yingqiong shouldn't actually hurt Shang Lingjian—well, she wouldn't endanger his life. Getting hurt in other ways was no big deal.

"Ah, Baihu Yingqiong? This, this is a misunderstanding!"

"Ha!" Baihu Yingqiong gave a great shout!

Fierce Tiger Climbing Mountain!!

"Ah! Xiaoyao, I'm going to kill you!"

Shang Lingjian was sent flying. Although he wasn't seriously injured, he was still hurt quite badly. Being hit by Baihu Yingqiong's White Tiger Fist technique, not getting injured would be impossible.

At this moment, he already understood that he had been played by Xiaoyao again. Most sadly, Lingxiao hadn't seen his desperate appearance—this punch was taken for nothing.

If he could win, he wouldn't have been sent flying. This Baihu Yingqiong was more terrifying than both Xuanwu Lingxiao and Zhuque Leiting, with considerably higher strength. This was natural since she was quite a bit older than them.

This was also why Zhuque Leiting sought out Xuanwu Lingxiao instead of Baihu Yingqiong. Challenging her was basically asking for abuse. However, she wasn't afraid of Baihu Yingqiong either—she at least had the ability to protect herself, at most getting somewhat injured!

But Shang Lingjian couldn't even beat Xuanwu Lingxiao and the others, let alone Baihu Yingqiong!

Actually, if Shang Lingjian hadn't been hot-headed, he would have realized that anyone who could bully Xuanwu Lingxiao was definitely not someone he could provoke. But he only thought about showing off in front of Xuanwu Lingxiao and ended up becoming the grandson instead.

Now that he had taken this hit from Baihu Yingqiong, he had sobered up. No matter how foolish he was, he understood that he had been tricked by Xiaoyao once again. His fury toward Xiaoyao could be imagined.

At the same time, what he found even more infuriating was that he had been shaken off again. Even if he wanted to find Xiaoyao to settle accounts, he had to be able to find him. Most importantly, he still couldn't follow Lingxiao! Dıscover more novels at NoveI★Fire.net

Forget it. Heaven, I won't seek revenge on him anymore. Please let me follow Lingxiao...