A little maid naturally couldn’t stop Second Miss Li Jiāo.

Or rather, Binglu had quite a bit of cunning. The eldest miss and her miss were natural rivals, so of course, she had to firmly protect her miss. Second Miss was the most precious among all the young ladies in the Li residence; someone even her miss usually had to carefully curry favor with. If she blocked her too aggressively, she would be making an enemy of her miss.

So Li Jiāo barged right in.

When she entered, Qiao Zhao was holding an empty teacup to drink. Hearing the sound, she glanced up toward the door and picked up the teapot to refill her tea.

That leisurely posture suddenly stung Li Jiāo’s eyes.

She had never remembered Li Zhao daring to treat her with such disregard!

Li Jiāo strode over, her phoenix eyes raised high as she looked down from above: “Li Zhao, is this your sense of propriety? When you see me arrive, you just focus on drinking tea?”

Qiao Zhao put down her teacup and smiled openly: “I thought Second Sister was someone who didn’t bother with such proprieties. Turns out you can ignore them yourself but demand others observe them.”

Li Jiāo’s eyes suddenly widened in disbelief as she stared at Qiao Zhao.

Had she heard wrong? Li Zhao dared to speak to her like this?

The eldest Miss Li Jiǎo, who had followed behind, was even more shocked.

How dare she—

Fifth Miss Li Shu kept her head down, desperately trying to make herself invisible.

“Second Sister, please have some tea.” Qiao Zhao personally poured a cup of tea and offered it.

Her expression was calm and her tone composed, but in Li Jiāo’s eyes, it was pure provocation.

When they were young and didn’t know better, these sisters still had occasions to quarrel with her, but as they grew older, such situations had long since disappeared.

Because of this, Li Jiāo was particularly unable to bear it and struck out at that clean, white hand extending toward her.

The teacup was knocked down and landed precisely on Li Jiāo’s toe.

Sharp pain suddenly struck, and Li Jiāo screamed, instinctively jumping on one foot. She stepped on the wet, slippery floor and, with a sliding sound, fell to the ground, sliding to Li Jiǎo’s feet.

Li Jiǎo was dumbstruck.

Li Jiāo was mortified with shame and fury, shouting harshly: “Idiot, why aren’t you helping me up!”

A flash of cold displeasure crossed Li Jiǎo’s eyes as she hurriedly bent down to pull her up.

Li Jiāo’s toe had gone numb with pain, and her palm was cut by porcelain shards, burning with pain.

Her face pale with fury, she glared at Qiao Zhao: “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“It was Second Sister who knocked it down.” Qiao Zhao patiently explained to her.

Li Jiāo became even angrier and raised her hand to slap Qiao Zhao’s face.

Qiao Zhao tilted her head and nimbly dodged. Li Jiāo was thrown off balance, and her hand struck the screen, letting out an “ah” of pain.

Qiao Zhao reached out to steady it, preventing the swaying screen from falling.

Li Jiǎo was startled and hurried to support Li Jiāo: “Second Sister, what’s wrong?”

“It hurts—” Li Jiāo bent over.

In spring, young ladies’ embroidered shoes were light and soft. Li Jiāo was wearing pearl-embroidered shoes with moon-white uppers today. Now the shoe that had been struck by the teacup had a patch of red spreading across its surface.

Li Jiǎo could barely contain the satisfaction that nearly spilled from her eyes. She quickly lowered her gaze and said urgently, “Heavens, Second Sister, your foot is bleeding! Quickly call for a physician!”

She turned her head only to realize no maids had followed, and Li Jiāo and Li Shu had also come without bringing maids.

At this moment, Fifth Miss Li Shu was pale-faced and swaying unsteadily, clearly not someone to rely on. Li Jiǎo shouted at Qiao Zhao: “Third Sister, Second Sister is injured! Quickly have someone fetch a physician!”

In her heart, she thought: If Li Zhao acted foolishly at this moment and didn’t call for a physician, that would be even more interesting.

Unfortunately, Li Jiǎo was soon disappointed. Qiao Zhao calmly instructed Binglu: “Go to Qingsong Hall and tell the old madam that Second Miss has injured her foot. We need someone skilled in bandaging to come handle it, and we also need a sturdy woman to carry her back.”

“Yes!” Binglu felt today was too thrilling. She responded and ran off quickly.

Heaven protect her miss from being devoured by the old madam of the East Residence—that County Lady doted on Second Miss the most.

A’Zhu said nothing, taking a broom and dustpan to clean up. Li Jiāo shouted harshly: “Don’t clean it up! Leave it exactly as it is!”

She glared at Qiao Zhao with hatred: “You want to destroy the evidence?”

A’Zhu stopped her movements and looked toward Qiao Zhao.

Qiao Zhao nodded lightly at A’Zhu: “Leave it for now.”

A’Zhu felt worried and couldn’t help but glance at Qiao Zhao again. Seeing her calm expression, her heart inexplicably settled somewhat, and she silently retreated to one side.

In Qingsong Hall, Second Madam Liu was complaining to Old Madam Deng: “Old Madam, wasn’t I right? After Third Girl returned, when our residence showed no attitude, the Changchun Earl’s residence immediately came to break off the engagement. Sigh, with Third Girl causing such trouble, what will become of the other young ladies in the future?”

Old Madam Deng’s eyebrows twitched.

Well, speaking of it, the only good thing about Third Girl’s return was this.

The engagement was broken off wonderfully! The eldest girl was about to marry into that family, and thinking of her pure and innocent granddaughter having to marry such a little beast, she had lost sleep for so many nights!

Now it was good—the engagement was broken off, and they didn’t have to worry about the Guchang Earl’s residence having opinions. It was perfect.

Old Madam Deng thought happily and reached for a fruit from the plate, taking a bite.

The old lady had good teeth—with a crisp crunch, nearly half the fruit was bitten off.

Liu endured it, twitching the corners of her mouth, then gritted her teeth and simply began to cry: “Old Madam, this daughter-in-law still has two unmarried daughters. If you don’t explain today, this daughter-in-law will—”

“What will the younger sister-in-law do?” Lady He walked in, paid her respects to Old Madam Deng, and directly confronted Liu. “I knew it—if I arrived a step late, younger sister-in-law would trample my daughter into the mud! Could it be that your daughters are daughters, but mine was brought by the wind? Or given away free when buying rouge and powder on the street?”

After this outburst, she turned to Old Madam Deng and began crying: “Wuu wuu wuu, Old Madam, you must seek justice for this daughter-in-law! Where is there an aunt who relentlessly persecutes her niece to death? Isn’t our family supposed to be a scholarly household? Such unscrupulous behavior—I’ve opened my eyes today—”

“Lady He!” Liu’s temper flared instantly.

Who spoke so bluntly and unpleasantly? The daughter of a nouveau riche family was indeed vulgar!

“Wuu wuu wuu, mother-in-law, listen to how impolitely younger sister-in-law addresses me. Though I’m a second wife, I was still brought back in eight sedan chairs through proper matchmaking by her elder brother—”

Old Madam Deng glanced at Liu.

Liu was so angry she nearly rolled her eyes, constantly telling herself: Don’t stoop to the level of a nouveau riche daughter, be refined, be proper!

“Elder sister-in-law.” She said with forced patience.

Lady He immediately stopped crying and responded loudly: “Yes!”

Old Madam Deng picked up the fruit and took another bite.

She wasn’t angry—if she really cared about such things, she would have died of anger from these two daughters-in-law long ago!

At this moment, head maid Qing Jun led Binglu in. Binglu fell to her knees with a thud: “Old Madam, Second Miss has injured her foot.”

At these words, Old Madam Deng’s eyelids immediately twitched.

Liu saw it was Binglu and the corners of her mouth immediately turned up: “Oh my, isn’t this Binglu from Third Miss’s side? Is Second Miss at Third Miss’s place? How could her foot be injured when everything was fine?”

Lady He jumped up: “Old Madam, this daughter-in-law will go take a look first!”

Old Madam Deng stood up and instructed the women standing by: “Nanny Rong, take Nanny Gui to Yahe Courtyard. Qing Jun, go to the East Residence and inform the County Lady.”

After Old Madam Deng finished giving instructions, a large group of people marched toward Qiao Zhao’s residence.