“Do you know the Third Miss of the Li residence?”

“She dared to injure this young master—I’d recognize her even if she turned to ash!”

“But you don’t recognize me.”

“Who are you?” Jia Shu focused all his attention on Qiao Zhao, and suddenly his eyes lit up. “Oh, another little lady?”

Qiao Zhao’s gaze remained calm: “I’ll ask once more—have you truly never seen me? Don’t know me?”

Jia Shu grew impatient and reached out to push Qiao Zhao: “What kind of nobody are you? Why should I know you?”

A small stool flew over the crowd toward Jia Shu.

“Young master, watch out!” A servant quickly pushed Jia Shu aside.

The small stool crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.

A shout came from the crowd: “Which bastard threw my stool?”

Yang Houcheng, who had quietly pulled Chi Can to another spot, wiped cold sweat: “Shixi, don’t just throw stools at the slightest disagreement!”

“Who told him to have such a foul mouth?” Chi Can sneered.

“We could’ve thrown something else, like a money pouch or something—just teach him a lesson. If we hurt someone, that would be even more troublesome.” Yang Houcheng finished speaking and laughed, nudging Chi Can with his elbow. “Hehe, Shixi, you were just scaring him, right? I saw the stool land quite far from him.”

Young Master Chi’s face was black as a pot bottom as he gritted his teeth: “I missed!”

He didn’t want to talk to this barbarian!

Having had a stool thrown at him, Jia Shu finally realized the situation seemed wrong.

He turned his head with difficulty to scan left and right.

Countless pairs of eyes stared at him in unison.

Jia Shu’s instinctive reaction was to quickly lower his head, then sigh in relief.

Good, good—he was wearing clothes.

During his wildest times at the brothels, he’d had such nightmares: waking up to find himself stripped naked and thrown onto the street in broad daylight!

“Shu’er, are you better?” Lady Changchun had somehow awakened and hugged Jia Shu tightly.

Jia Shu was dazed: “Mother, what’s going on? How, how did I get here?”

“Shu’er, don’t you remember? You were injured at Bichun Tower—your parents brought you here to seek justice.”

“Oh.” Jia Shu rubbed his temples, squinted to read the characters on the West Residence’s gate plaque, and flew into a rage. “Mother, the one who injured your son was that little slut, Third Miss Li!”

“Who’s the little slut calling names?” Binglu planted her hands on her hips and glared at Jia Shu.

Qiao Zhao patted Binglu soothingly and asked Jia Shu, “Did I injure you?”

Jia Shu was annoyed. Thinking of the stool thrown earlier, he cleaned up his language a bit: “Are you sick? Didn’t I say I don’t know you!”

“It wasn’t me who injured you?”

“You wouldn’t dare! The one who injured me was Third Miss Li—move aside, don’t block me from settling accounts with her!”

“But I am Third Miss Li.” Miss Qiao said calmly.

“What?” Jia Shu was dumbfounded.

Qiao Zhao openly called out to the crowd of onlookers: “Neighbors and fellow townspeople, Young Master Jia seems not to have heard clearly.”

Perhaps infected by Qiao Zhao’s relaxed tone, the onlookers burst into laughter, and after laughing, called out in unison: “She is Third Miss Li!”

Yang Houcheng, squeezed in the crowd, clicked his tongue: “Good heavens, Miss Li is truly remarkable. Is she a young lady?”

Wouldn’t most young ladies, encountering such a situation, be overcome with shame and hide away, crying? How did things take this turn once Miss Li took action?

He almost couldn’t help joining in the shouting just now—what to do about this inexplicable surge of excitement?

Chi Can’s gaze never left Qiao Zhao as he chuckled softly: “She’s exactly that kind of young lady.”

The little cabbage he’d picked up was indeed different from the rest.

In the end, it was mainly because he had good taste.

Jia Shu was completely stunned, pointing at Qiao Zhao: “You, are you Third Miss Li?”

“Yes.”

“You, you’re lying!”

Qiao Zhao curved her lips in a smile and asked the onlookers again: “Neighbors and townspeople, please tell him—am I Third Miss Li?”

The young woman in men’s clothing was so pleasing to the eye, her every gesture graceful and unrestrained, making people’s hearts inexplicably heat up as they shouted in unison: “Yes!”

Behind the crowd, Shao Mingyuan quietly watched Qiao Zhao.

The men’s clothing on her seemed somewhat large—wide robes and long sleeves—yet she wore them with a different kind of elegance.

This young woman was confident and resolute from the heart, never to be troubled by worldly opinions, Shao Mingyuan thought.

“Now you know—I am Third Miss Li. But you don’t know me, right?”

“Right.” Jia Shu nodded, unconsciously following Miss Qiao’s line of reasoning.

“So the person who injured you wasn’t me, right?”

“Uh, right…” Jia Shu hesitated, thinking it made sense.

“Therefore, the person who injured you wasn’t Third Miss Li, but someone else.” Qiao Zhao concluded.

“But that little… that person said she was Third Miss Li.”

Qiao Zhao pursed her lips in a smile: “If she said she was a fairy from heaven, would you believe that too? Doesn’t Young Master Jia know there’s something in this world called ‘lying’?”

Jia Shu suddenly understood: “You mean someone impersonated you?”

“Exactly.” Qiao Zhao turned her head, smiling at Earl Changchun and his wife. “Now you two know I was innocently implicated, right?”

Earl Changchun remained silent.

“Then please fulfill your promise, my lord. When apologizing, you must state clearly that someone found me disagreeable and deliberately framed me.”

“Third Miss Li, the gongs and drums business should be forgotten—” Lady Changchun was somewhat reluctant.

This was simply too absurd.

Even if the Li family wasn’t ashamed, she still felt ashamed.

Moreover, that damned culprit could have implicated anyone but chose to implicate Third Miss Li—this still showed Third Miss Li herself had problems.

Of course, since her son had just been cured, Lady Changchun forcibly swallowed these words.

Qiao Zhao’s face darkened slightly: “Is Madam going back on her word?”

Under the gaze of countless eyes, with numerous stares falling on her face, Lady Changchun felt her face burn. Her lips opened and closed—how could she speak words of backing out?

She couldn’t help but curse Qiao Zhao silently: This little hussy had calculated all this beforehand, deliberately making a scene in public to force them to comply.

She completely forgot that she had brought her son to make trouble right outside the Li residence’s gate.

Qiao Zhao sighed softly: “Actually, it’s quite difficult for a person to go from normal to foolish, and naturally even more difficult to go from foolish to normal. Don’t you think so, my lord?”

Earl Changchun’s heart shook: “Rest assured, Third Miss Li. What we said naturally counts. I’ll immediately instruct the steward to prepare gongs and drums and circle the capital once to apologize to you.”

“My lord is indeed reasonable. However, my parents and elders have all been frightened by today’s events—”

Earl Changchun cursed silently, turned, and bowed deeply to Old Madam Deng and others: “We’re sorry. We didn’t investigate clearly and wrongly accused your residence’s Third Miss. Fortunately, Third Miss’s acupuncture skills are divine, allowing my son to recover his sanity and preventing a grave mistake.”

Old Madam Deng felt the stale breath that had been circling in her chest finally released. With a stern face, she said, “It’s good that the misunderstanding has been cleared up.”