At that moment, Cheng Xiran was attracted by a little girl huddled in the corner, munching on peanuts. She looked quite young, with two hair buns and thread ball hairpins, extremely cute.
"Who's that?" Cheng Xiran whispered, which also saved Cheng Zhiyue from an awkward situation.
Xiao Qi was drawn by the sound, looked over, and said, "She's Chu Liyin, the younger sister of the Chu family."
Chu Liyin? Before, in order to collect news for Anecdotes in the Capital, Cheng Xiran had specifically looked into the interesting stories in the capital and had heard of this Chu Liyin.
Her father was a general who defended the country and died on the battlefield. Her mother fell ill because of this and passed away within three months, leaving behind two daughters. The elder daughter was only eight years old at that time, and the younger one, Chu Liyin, was only four.
The former emperor took pity on the two daughters and entrusted them to the Empress Dowager to raise. The Empress Dowager treated them very well. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he took a fancy to Chu Liqiao and made her a concubine on the second day after his enthronement. This incident had caused quite a stir in the capital.
Cheng Xiran had thought about writing this story into Anecdotes in the Capital, but considering it involved the emperor, she needed to think more carefully, so she put it on hold.
And Chu Liyin had always been raised in a villa outside the capital. Why had she returned to the capital?
Today, they had come ostensibly to enjoy the flowers, but actually to find out who had written Anecdotes in the Capital and whether it was really Cheng Xiran. After learning that it was her, those noble ladies lost interest in them. Each of them was showing off how expensive their clothes were.
Cheng Zhiyue couldn't get a word in and sat there anxiously. Suddenly, she noticed the bracelet on the princess's wrist and quickly leaned over to compliment, "Your Highness, this bracelet is really beautiful. I suppose it must be a gift from the emperor, right?"
Princess Ziyun replied indifferently, "Yes."
Xiao Qi, who had been talking to other noble ladies, came over. Pretending to be familiar, she took Cheng Zhiyue's hand and said, "Your bracelet also looks very precious. It must have cost a lot of silver. But why does this style look so familiar?"
The noble ladies' gazes were all drawn over.
Cheng Zhiyue blushed slightly and withdrew her hand. But Xiao Qi didn't want to let her off. She grabbed her hand again and took a closer look, saying, "Isn't this the same bracelet that Cui'er is wearing?"
After saying that, Xiao Qi waved and called Cui'er in. After comparing the bracelets, they were indeed exactly the same. "They're really the same bracelets," someone said.
Hearing this, everyone burst into laughter. "They're really the same! No wonder she's the maid of the princess. Even the bracelets she wears are so precious."
In a hurry, Cheng Zhiyue withdrew her hand. The tears she had held back welled up and she ran out with her skirt in hand.
Seeing this, Cheng Xiran glanced at Xiao Qi with a probing look in her eyes. It was probably not a coincidence that the bracelets were the same. She had seen Cheng Zhiyue wearing that bracelet a few days ago. It was likely that Xiao Qi had deliberately found a matching pair of bracelets to humiliate Cheng Zhiyue.
She had thought the target would be herself, but unexpectedly, it was all aimed at Cheng Zhiyue.
"I was just joking. Why did she run away?" Xiao Qi covered her lips and laughed lightly. "Miss Cheng, your younger sister is really not good at taking a joke."
"I'm sure you know better than anyone else whether it's a joke or not." Cheng Xiran didn't want to waste any more words on her and walked out.
The noble ladies in the pavilion were stunned by her words. One of them said, "Miss Cheng, we were just having some fun. What do you mean by that? How could Sister Xiao deliberately make things difficult for her?"
"What do I mean? It means exactly what you heard. Don't tell me those gold and silver jewelry have clogged your brains so much that you can't even understand simple words?" Cheng Xiran walked out without looking back.