The Princess Is On Top (GL) - Chapter 2

“Xiao Le, why are you doing strange things again so early in the morning…” Early in the morning, the moment Xiaohuan entered the small back courtyard of the tavern, she saw Xiao Le fiddling with those strange things she had made again.

It had been like this every day for the past month. Xiao Le said this was a kind of martial training method from her hometown, but Xiaohuan had watched for a long time and still could not make any sense of it.

It had been one month since she transmigrated here. Ever since she had been taken in by the Wu grandfather and granddaughter, Xiao Le could be considered temporarily settled at the tavern. But this body’s foundation was truly too poor. Doing odd jobs every day was still manageable, but whenever there were slightly more customers and things became busy, she realized she could not quite keep up. So Xiao Le had made some simple exercise equipment in the tavern’s small back courtyard and trained herself according to how things had been in her previous life. A horizontal bar, a sandbag, and a straw-man wooden target—all very crude. Old Wu had seen it once and only said she was not allowed to delay business. He did not stop Xiao Le from messing around.

The tavern generally did not open in the morning, so Xiao Le trained by herself for several hours every morning, then opened the doors for business in the afternoon. After a month, her body had improved quite a lot compared with before.

“Xiaohuan, why are you here?” After finishing her last pull-up, Xiao Le jumped down from the wooden horizontal bar and walked toward her.

Xiaohuan lifted the basket in her hand. “To bring you food.”

As Xiao Le took the basket, she said, “I told you not to come over recently.”

“I’ll leave in a bit. It’s fine.”

Seeing how little the other girl cared, Xiao Le grew a little annoyed. “Do you not know what kind of person Du Fei is? Have you seen the way he looks at you? He’s been coming to the tavern every day recently…”

The more Xiao Le spoke, the angrier she became. “What if something happens?”

“It probably won’t, right?” Xiaohuan thought for a moment, then still spoke up. When she saw Xiao Le staring at her with wide eyes in disbelief, she quickly explained, “I mean, he helped me before. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would do anything truly wicked.”

“He helped you?” Xiao Le looked suspicious. Over the past few days, because of Xiaohuan, she had asked around properly about this Du Fei. He was a well-known scoundrel in Han County. His father was a merchant, and his family had some money. Since childhood, he had never liked studying, though his fists and feet were fairly skilled. But his reputation in the county was terrible. Whenever he was mentioned, people shook their heads again and again.

“There was one time before, on my way here, I saw a little thug trying to extort money from an old granny. I couldn’t stand it, so I went up and told him off. Then that person tried to hit me. Du Fei happened to see it, so he cursed the man away.” Seeing that Xiao Le still did not quite believe her, she added, “He even told me that young girls shouldn’t stick their necks out in the future, because it was easy to suffer for it. I didn’t know back then that he was the rogue Du Fei everyone talked about. Later, after I found out, I still always felt that he wasn’t quite like what everyone said.”

After hearing this, Xiao Le felt rather surprised. Although she had only arrived here a little over a month ago, from what she had seen in the tavern over the past few days, she found it hard to believe that someone who spent every day mixing with those thugs would stand up for a woman he did not even know.

She shook her head. “Rumors cannot be trusted completely, but there may still be a reason they started. You should still have less contact with him.”

Xiaohuan nodded.

In June, the heat at noon was stifling. The tavern had long since filled up seven or eight tenths of the way. Xiao Le was so busy she could not even catch her breath and did not notice that Du Fei and his group had also come in and taken a table.

“Waiter, we’re ordering!”

“Coming, just a moment!” Xiao Le was busy wiping another table and answered without even lifting her head.

“Boss, you sit in this tavern every day, but I haven’t seen you manage to wait for anyone.”

“In my opinion, why not just directly ask her out?”

“Or maybe ask the waiter…?”

Only when Xiao Le walked closer did she realize that it was Du Fei and those local thugs who were ordering. And the person these people were discussing seemed to be none other than Xiaohuan. Displeasure immediately rose in her heart.

“Hey, stop talking, all of you. She’s a proper girl from a decent family. Don’t let anyone hear you and ruin the girl’s good name.” Du Fei looked somewhat displeased as he scolded his friends.

At least you still have some sense, Xiao Le thought. She glanced at Du Fei, then asked politely, “Honored guests, what would you like to order?”

“There’s no rush about that yet. Waiter, let me ask you something. Does your young lady usually come to the tavern?” The man asked Xiao Le with a teasing smile on his face.

“…Liu Feng!” Du Fei’s face flushed red. After holding it in for a while, all he managed to do was bark the man’s name.

“Forget it, Du Fei. Ah Feng is only asking what you want to ask. A graceful lady is what a gentleman pursues. What’s there to be embarrassed about?” The man who spoke looked six or seven parts similar to Liu Feng. At a glance, anyone could tell the two were brothers.

“Can all of you even be counted as gentlemen? How laughable…” At the neighboring table, a young master in fine clothes heard Liu Yu’s words and immediately could not help mocking them. In an instant, the whole room burst into laughter.

Han County was a small place. Everyone was constantly running into one another, so naturally, they all recognized each other.

Smack!

Liu Feng was the first who could not hold back. He slammed the table and shot to his feet, angrily saying, “Zhang Qiao, don’t go too far! You’re only relying on the fact that your father is the county magistrate of Han County!”

Zhang Qiao’s face was full of disdain. “So what if I bully you? Are you Feng-Yu brothers worthy of the word ‘gentleman,’ or is this rogue Du Fei worthy of those two characters?”

“Old Wu, these ruffians are lusting after your precious granddaughter. Are you going to do something about it or not?” There were even busybodies who feared the world was not chaotic enough, shouting toward the counter at the tops of their lungs.

“Fine. My brother and I aren’t worthy of being gentlemen? Then let me see just how much weight a gentleman like you carries!” Liu Yu, who had been sitting the whole time without saying a word, grabbed a handful of chopsticks from the table and lunged at Zhang Qiao. When Liu Feng saw that his own older brother had already made a move, he rolled up his sleeves and joined in. Zhang Qiao’s companions saw Zhang Qiao being pinned down and beaten by the Liu brothers and were just about to step forward to help, only to be knocked down by Du Fei in a couple of moves.

“Pah. You young masters look all proper and human enough, but when it comes to fighting, you really are useless.”

Du Fei spat onto the ground.

When the Liu brothers had suddenly attacked, Xiao Le had been standing nearby and was startled. At this moment, seeing Zhang Qiao being pinned down and beaten until he was crying for his father and mother, she knew that if she went up carelessly to break it up, she would probably be beaten along with him. These two brothers’ father was a highly respected local gentleman, so who knew how he had managed to raise two little tyrants?

“That’s about enough. His father is still an official, after all. If you really beat him badly, you’ll be in trouble.”

Du Fei opened his mouth to stop them. The two brothers thought about it and realized that was true, so they spared the pitiful Zhang Qiao.

“What are you doing, huh?” Old Wu could also be considered someone as sharp as an old fox. The moment things stopped over here, he appeared.

“What are you doing!?” He pointed at Du Fei’s nose, then looked toward Zhang Qiao on the floor. “Oh my heavens, isn’t this the county magistrate’s young master? How did he end up like this?”

Seeing this, Xiao Le rolled her eyes. This old man had practically turned into a spirit from age and cunning.

Zhang Qiao knew he had lost all face and only stuck his neck out stubbornly without saying a word. His companions saw this and hurriedly helped him up, preparing to leave.

“Young Master Zhang isn’t thinking of skipping out on the bill, is he?” The old man chose this exact moment to add another question.

“Gentleman Zhang, if you break things, you have to pay for them. Acting like this isn’t the conduct of a gentleman. Did you not bring money? Do you need us brothers to lend you some?” Liu Feng mocked him while taking out some silver.

“Give! Him! Money!” Zhang Qiao glared hatefully at Liu Feng and forced out the two words through gritted teeth. Hearing this, his companion quickly took silver from his robe and handed it to Old Wu, then hurriedly left with Zhang Qiao.

Looking at their miserable retreat, Liu Feng felt secretly delighted, his face almost splitting into a grin.

“Bring that here!” Du Fei snatched the silver from Liu Feng’s hand and offered it to Wu Qi with an apologetic expression. “Shopkeeper Wu, I’m really sorry. These two friends of mine don’t know how to behave and have caused you trouble. Please take this money.”

“Hey!” Liu Feng called out in dissatisfaction.

Liu Yu could not stand it either. “Du Fei, you really are such a bootlicker. He isn’t even your father-in-law. Do you really need to rush up and hand him money like that? How come I’ve never seen you be this polite to anyone else?”

Du Fei’s face reddened, and he glared at him.

When Old Wu heard this, his entire old face nearly wrinkled together. He weighed the money pouch in his hand, then said impatiently, “Enough. Hurry up and leave. Today counts as my bad luck. Don’t come back after this. Xiao Le, hurry and see the guests out. We’re closing for the day!”