Liu Yiyi originally intended to go find Li Wanming.
Most of the guests at the Li family's banquet were Li Rusong's colleagues.
She had no interest in officialdom matters, so she went to the back of the house to play on her own.
However, later she heard that the Princess of Chengping had arrived and brought back the eldest and second eldest daughters of the Li family. Overjoyed, she rushed to take a look.
Since the Li family returned to the capital, Liu Yiyi hadn't seen the two elder sisters. She was eager to know how they were doing.
But when she got to the pond, she saw an exquisite fishing rod and a small jar of fish food on the winding corridor by the shore. On a sudden whim, she wanted to catch a couple of fish to play with Li Wanming.
She fished for a while, but no fish took the bait. Instead, she had to replenish the fish food seven or eight times.
Liu Yiyi was an impatient person and didn't have the patience for such leisurely entertainment. Since she didn't see any fish, she got irritated.
She flung the fishing rod away. She wasn't going to fish anymore!
But then she heard an "ouch" from behind. Turning around, she saw Sun Miaoqing and an unfamiliar young woman.
It turned out that she had used too much strength. The fishing hook had caught on the woman's skirt and torn the elaborate embroidery of begonia flowers on it.
Liu Yiyi quickly apologized, "I'm so sorry. I didn't know there was someone behind me..."
But Sun Miaoqing immediately started scolding, "Are you blind? Can't you see there are people here?"
She had just accompanied Guo Xinyue to pay respects to the Princess of Chengping in the front, but the princess had ignored them.
Guo Xinyue was displeased and took out her anger on Sun Miaoqing.
"You've been living in the Li family for so long, but you still haven't found out the Li family's secrets. Well, after all, you're a distant relative... They won't tell a stranger any private matters."
These words were like needles, stabbing right into Sun Miaoqing's heart.
Her greatest support was Li Rusong, but he was also the source of her greatest embarrassment.
In the end, Li Rusong was just the son of her grandmother's elder sister, a distant cousin-uncle.
She and He Shi were living in the Li family. Nicely put, they were "guests"; less nicely, they were moochers!
With such an ambiguous status, she had endured countless looks of disdain and gossips, but He Shi seemed completely oblivious!
Every day, He Shi only thought about how to please Mrs. Li and didn't care about her feelings at all.
He Shi said that as long as Sun Bingwen's adoption was successful, she would have a lifetime of support, her value would soar, and she could pick any talented young man in the capital... But who knew when Sun Bingwen would be adopted?
Was she supposed to stay unmarried until then?
Sun Miaoqing was anxious but helpless. She could only be more careful to please Guo Xinyue.
After hearing Guo Xinyue's sarcastic remarks, her face flushed red, but she didn't dare to say a word.
There were too many people in the yard, and neither of them was qualified to enter the main hall. So they came back to the pond, planning to do something to kill time.
Who would have thought that just as they got here, Liu Yiyi had splashed them with water and torn Guo Xinyue's dress.
"Can you talk properly?" Liu Yiyi got angry when she heard Sun Miaoqing's words. "Who has eyes in the back of their head? Show me one if you have!"
She hadn't met Sun Miaoqing many times, but she disliked this cousin very much.
Sun Miaoqing was just a freeloader in the Li family, but she acted like a proper young lady and always caused trouble.
"You ruined Sister Guo's dress and you still think you're right?"
Sun Miaoqing was in a fit of anger and wasn't going to let it go.
Liu Yiyi scoffed, "It's just a purple silk dress embroidered with flowers in the Suzhou style. What's so great about it?"
She leaned over slightly to check the torn silk thread on Guo Xinyue's dress. "But the embroidery on this dress is really complicated. Suzhou embroidery is delicate and the silk thread is so thin... It can't be mended. I'll compensate you with a new one."
Sun Miaoqing snorted, "Do you know how much this dress costs? Can you afford it?"
She had met Liu Yiyi twice and knew that the Liu family was in business, but she didn't know what kind of business they were in or how big their business was.
Anyway, they were just unpromising merchants, not worth her extra attention.
Liu Yiyi smiled, "Coincidentally, I do know! Because my family sold one. It's only about a hundred taels of silver..."
She took out the gold hairpin from her hair and said to Guo Xinyue, "I don't have that much money with me today. I'll use this hairpin as collateral first. You can come to Liu Ji Silk Shop to get the rest of the money later."
Guo Xinyue didn't take it. She just stared at Liu Yiyi coldly.
She had carefully chosen this dress today, specifically to meet Pei Yanqi by chance.
Who knew that she didn't see Pei Yanqi, but her dress was ruined by a girl from a silk shop!
She was already in a bad mood. Now, with anger rising in her heart, her mockery became even more obvious.
"General Li really makes friends without discrimination. He brings all kinds of riffraff into his house... If you didn't know better, you'd think the Li family was a shelter."
"What did you say?"
Liu Yiyi's eyebrows shot up.
Sun Miaoqing said proudly, "Don't you understand? I'm saying you're a piece of trash! A merchant's daughter also dares to come to the Li family..."
Liu Yiyi threw the gold hairpin on the ground, stepped forward, grabbed Sun Miaoqing's hair, and yanked hard. "Who do you think you are? How dare you talk to me like that!"
...
When Li Wanming came to the pond, she saw the two girls wrestling.
One was pulling the other's hair, and the other was pinching the other's arm. They were locked in a fierce struggle.
Huh?
Sun Miaoqing was really going too far. In her own home, she still dared to bully her friend?
Did she think Li Wanming was easy to deal with?
Without a word, Li Wanming joined the fight. She grabbed Sun Miaoqing's arm and bit down hard!
Sun Miaoqing let out a pig-like scream...
When everyone rushed over, they saw the three girls fighting. Each of them had disheveled hair and a messy dress.
Li Rusong's head was about to explode...
What was going on today?
Why did all these things happen at once?
He roared, "Let go!"
The three girls were finally pulled apart. They glared at each other angrily.
Yuan Jinqiu asked with a straight face, "What's going on?"
Guo Xinyue's tears fell first. She pointed at Liu Yiyi and said, "That girl ruined my dress and insulted us. When Sister Sun argued with her, she just started hitting people..."
"You're lying!"
Liu Yiyi was so angry that her teeth were grinding. "You were the one who called me riffraff first..."
Guo Xinyue said with a sobbing voice, "Didn't you ruin my dress? Didn't you start the fight first? What did I say wrong?"
She was trembling all over and kept hiding behind Mrs. Guo, as if she was really scared. This was in sharp contrast to Liu Yiyi's fierce appearance.
Everyone couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her and were more inclined to believe her words.
Liu Yiyi was even angrier. "You were the one who insulted me first..."
Mrs. Guo said, "You're being too unreasonable, girl. Just because someone said something unpleasant, do you have to start hitting people? A few words of argument between girls, how could it come to this?"
She spoke very cleverly.
With just a few words, she turned Guo and Sun's deliberate provocation and humiliation into "a few words of argument between girls".
Through this sleight of hand, it seemed that Liu Yiyi was narrow-minded and rude.