The young lady is delicate and soft, yet she criticizes the powerful minister for bowing and scrapin

Qi Yunli never imagined that she would be able to negotiate and set terms with Wei Jun.

However, both times they negotiated terms, it happened during a period of ambiguous entanglement, and that was the only connection between them.

The next day, Qi Yunli finished getting ready and went to pay her respects to the old lady. After that, she planned to go to Wei Jun's courtyard to teach him to play the zither.

The old lady's courtyard was much livelier than usual today.

A group of girls dressed in red and green surrounded the old lady, who was reclining on a soft couch with a smile on her face.

The atmosphere inside the hall was joyful and cheerful, filled with laughter and chatter. Qi Yunli, who was waiting outside, heard everything clearly and bowed as she waited.

Upon seeing this, the old nanny did not immediately go back to the inner hall to report to the old lady. Instead, she looked at Qi Yunli with a sidelong glance, sized her up and down, and kept her outside the door.

The door was open, so Qi Yunli couldn't go in, but she could hear slightly loud conversations inside.

"Miss, it would be better to inform her later. It's not that I don't want to help you, but the old lady is enjoying her family time."

This old woman has been in the Marquis of Dingyuan's mansion for two or three years, and she must have some skills. Otherwise, in a mansion with such a well-established system for promotion of servants, it would be remarkable that she could be transferred from among the other old women to guard the gate of the old lady's courtyard within two or three years. She must have a keen eye for talent.

The young lady in front of me is the least valued one, someone who can hardly be called a master.

Having worked as a servant for so long, the old woman had accumulated a lot of resentment and wanted to find a place to vent her anger and vent her anger.

The masters of the Marquis's mansion all have tempers. They are spoiled and pampered, and their tempers are built on gold and silver. Even the dogs kept by the young ladies wag their tails and act arrogantly when they see these servants. The dogs only smile at the young ladies.

Even dogs will fawn over the powerful and praise the weak, let alone humans.

The old woman simply wanted to vent her resentment and at the same time warn the young lady in front of her: you are ultimately different from Miss Wei.

She had been standing for some time, and the old woman noticed that her lips were rather pale. After looking her over a couple of times, she went inside to report.

After a while, the laughter and chatter inside subsided, and Wei Ruowei and her sisters came out of the inner hall.

Wei Ruowei winked at her: "Grandmother wants you to come in."

The nanny led Qi Yunli into the inner hall. Before going in, Qi Yunli lowered her head and wiped the lip rouge from her lips with a handkerchief.

She bowed respectfully upon entering, but a slight imbalance in her legs made her appear unsteady.

"Good child, what's wrong?" the old lady asked with concern.

"It's nothing." Qi Yunli coughed lightly, covering her mouth with her handkerchief as she looked down. "I happened to be nearby when Miss Qin fell off her horse, and I was startled by the horse."

The right arm holding the handkerchief trembled slightly as it was raised towards the lips, enduring the pain.

Her sleeves drooped down, revealing a pale yellow ointment wrapped in gauze and coated with medicine, creating a contrast with the fair skin on the back of her hand.

"What's wrong?" The old lady stood up from the soft couch in surprise. "Come here and let me take a look."

Qi Yunli hurriedly rolled up her sleeves, looking like a child who had done something wrong, and looked up at the kind old lady in front of her.

Those eyes held only pure, almost helpless fear, which was heartbreaking to see.

Qi Yunli slowly stepped forward and said, "I'm sorry to have worried Grandmother. It was... it was Miss Qin who was injured when she fell off her horse. The wound has been bandaged. She was standing outside for a while, so she hasn't recovered yet. The wound doesn't hurt."

She was injured while saving Nian'an's fiancée. This child is so honest. With such a great achievement, anyone else would have rushed forward to shout and claim the reward long ago. But she waited so long and bandaged herself up by herself.

If we hadn't stumbled upon it today, who would have known?

Thinking of this, the old lady glanced coldly at the nanny beside her, annoyed that she had made her stand outside for so long.

"Don't call her Miss Qin anymore, it's too formal. You should call her Sister Xue like Ruowei and the others." The old lady's wrinkled hands clasped her smooth, delicate hands together, her palms covering hers.

"Your sister Xue is here today too. She's in the front yard. Nian'an will go and keep her company later. Why don't you go over and talk to them to cheer them up?"

Qi Yunli said happily, "Sister Xue is lively and interesting. She will definitely have a great time when she comes to our mansion."

When Qi Yunli left, the nanny who accompanied her was replaced by another one.

The old nanny held the ointment that the old lady had specially bestowed upon her, and followed closely beside Qi Yunli.

"Thank you for seeing me off, Granny. I'll go back to change my dressing and apply medicine to my wound before heading to the front yard," Qi Yunli said with a nod and a smile.

The other party returned a smile, but it wasn't genuine. This young lady had somehow managed to incite the old lady to fly into a rage against a nanny who had never made a mistake in the household, with just a few words.

After returning to the courtyard, Qi Yunli sat down to rest, rubbing her right arm to endure the slight pain.

"Why are you going to such lengths, young lady? The old lady loves you dearly. If that nanny is bullying you, you should just tell the old lady directly that it's inconvenient. She's the one who agreed to let you call her grandmother," Tingyue said indignantly.

She could tolerate being bullied herself, but she couldn't stand seeing her master being bullied.

Qi Yunli's lips slowly regained their color. She reapplied her lip rouge, and in the bronze mirror, she smiled faintly, saying indifferently:

"It's just that I haven't touched her interests. If I were to complain to the old lady privately or act coquettishly in private, I would be seen as pushing my luck."

Her kind expression was also because I was well-behaved and sensible, and could bring a good reputation to the Marquis's mansion. Besides, the injury was indeed because of Qin Xue, and the old lady certainly wanted the Duke of Qi to know.

The old lady knew that even if it wasn't for this incident, something else would have come to the old lady's attention later, so she simply found a pretext to punish her.

Tingyue felt there were too many twists and turns involved. The young lady was already living under someone else's roof in the mansion, having to be mindful of the Second Madam and the Heir Apparent's moods, and also dealing with other masters. Each master had their own temperament, and the young lady had to consider all of that.

After the dressing was changed, Qi Yunli, supported by Tingyue, went to the front hall.

With Wei Ruolan gone, the front hall was much quieter, without any arguing or bickering, but it was still quite lively.

I thought that Wei Ruowei, as the older sister, would be the one to receive Qin Xue with proper etiquette, but unexpectedly, Wei Ruochun was more enthusiastic than Wei Ruowei.

Wei Ruochun took out a box of rouge from Yanyun Pavilion, a rouge shop favored by noble ladies in the capital. She took out a new box of rouge, which had just been released, and applied it to her hand.

"Sister Xue, look, this rouge really suits your skin tone. You can try it on here. If you like it, I can go shopping with you later?"

Qi Yunli watched from afar at the door. Wei Ruowei didn't seem to have the slightest thought of competing for Qin Xue's favor. She just kept drinking tea, sitting and watching the two of them chat, without saying a word, and smiling along with them.

"Ruochun, you're so kind." Qin Xue smiled sweetly, but her mind wasn't on the matter. "This rouge is excellent. I was hoping that when Brother Jun comes back, he can go out with me to buy some!"

"The servant just reported that my older brother has returned and is on his way here!" Wei Ruochun was overjoyed to hear that Qin Xue had remembered her name so quickly.

"Brother Jun is already tired from going to and from court. Why don't we take our time and walk over to his courtyard? We can also tell him about the beautiful scenery of this mansion. Everyone says that the flowers in the Dingyuan Marquis's mansion are in full bloom in spring. Now that it's summer, I wonder if we can still see the spring colors?" Qin Xue asked.

Wei Ruochun nodded vigorously: "Come on, I'll lead the way! I'll go with you. Big brother will be so happy to see you!"

Wei Ruowei tried to stop them, but it was too late. Wei Ruochun took their arm and headed towards Jingchen Courtyard.