The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 220: Framing Taohua Dessert

Upon hearing that Housekeeper He was the shopkeeper of Taohua Dessert, Xu Zaohua panicked.

Her hand instinctively rested on her belly.

She couldn’t be sure whether He Chao knew about her borrowing a child or not.

All she could do was act first to either silence He Chao forever or make He Chao lose the trust of her in-laws.

The former she couldn’t achieve, but the latter was easily accomplished.

She devised a plan to lure He Chao into the inner chamber of the eldest young master’s room, slandering He Chao for peeping at him bathing, and nailed He Chao to the pillar of shame.

Even after He Chao lost his reputation and left the Zheng Family, she still didn’t dare to lower her guard and sent people to secretly monitor He Chao.

Despite meticulous planning, He Chao suddenly disappeared from Pingchuan County.

Despite all her calculations, she never anticipated He Chao would get entangled with Widow Tong.

"Nanny, you’d better not go." Xu Zaohua softened her tone to Nanny Cai.

She feared He Chao might have discovered her affair with a servant and disclosed it to Nanny Cai.

He Chao lost trust with her in-laws, but not Nanny Cai, and her mother-in-law trusted Nanny Cai the most.

Nanny Cai always looked down on her, and since the birth of Mr. Zheng, whom Nanny Cai had watched over since he was a baby, she was more pejorative toward Xu Zaohua than even Mrs. Zheng and her mother-in-law. She consistently fanned the flames against Xu Zaohua in front of Mrs. Zheng.

Ever since Mr. Zheng died, Nanny Cai had become even more displeased with Xu Zaohua.

She constantly reminded Mrs. Zheng that it was Xu Zaohua who brought about the demise of Mr. Zheng.

If she weren’t pregnant, she could be bullied by a nanny until she lost her way.

If Nanny Cai knew about her affair with the servant, she might incite the Zheng Family to hang her to accompany Mr. Zheng in death.

"Why can’t I go? What are you afraid of, young mistress?"

Nanny Cai looked at Xu Zaohua with a half-smile, half not.

Nanny Cai didn’t believe for a second Xu Zaohua’s story about He Chao peeping on her bathing.

He Chao wasn’t that kind of person.

Who understands an adversary best but another adversary?

Nanny Cai speculated there was some hidden truth behind all this, but the master and madam were too dazzled by the child in Xu Zaohua’s belly, easily falling for Xu Zaohua’s words and driving He Chao away.

Nanny Cai was naturally pleased with He Chao’s departure but bore no gratitude toward Xu Zaohua for it.

She now wanted to confront He Chao at Taohua Dessert, hoping not only to humiliate him but also to extract some damaging information against Xu Zaohua from his mouth.

Killing two birds with one stone was truly brilliant.

Xu Zaohua felt a bit flustered, forcing a smile: "Nanny, you know the reason Housekeeper He was expelled from the Zheng Family. If this matter gets out, I, being a widow, don’t care about reputation since I’ll spend my life here at the Zheng Family. But it could harm the Zheng Family’s reputation and the reputation of my late husband."

Xu Zaohua regretted inciting Nanny Cai to stir up trouble at Taohua Dessert.

If this really blew up, she wasn’t sure how it would affect Widow Tong, but it could have life-and-death consequences for her.

Nanny Cai didn’t care about Xu Zaohua at all; she felt Xu Zaohua should have perished alongside Mr. Zheng.

A few words about reputation were hardly enough to stop Nanny Cai.

Hence, Nanny Cai twisted her body and headed straight for Taohua Dessert.

"Eh, isn’t that Xu Zaohua’s carriage? And that nanny is from the Zheng Family?"

These past days, Gu Taohua had been at the second store of Taohua Dessert learning from He Chao how to be an excellent shopkeeper. She had just arrived from Qinghe Bay to the town, and upon seeing the conspicuous Zheng Family carriage and Nanny Cai exiting it, a sense of foreboding welled up in her heart.

Xu Zaohua, full of bad intentions, likely aimed to cause trouble for Taohua Dessert and He Chao.

Gu Taohua got off the donkey cart and dashed towards Taohua Dessert.

Unable to stop Nanny Cai, Xu Zaohua was both angry and anxious. Noticing Gu Taohua’s figure, an idea suddenly occurred to her, and she shouted, "Taohua Dessert is a fraud! I had their hazelnut cake and it upset my stomach."

"Ow, ow, my stomach hurts so much."

Xu Zaohua clutched her stomach, crying out in pain.

Since she couldn’t stop Nanny Cai from confronting He Chao, she might as well muddy the water.

Let Gu Taohua and Nanny Cai tangle with each other, and surely He Chao inside would be too embarrassed to come out and face Nanny Cai.

This way, she’d be safe.

Xu Zaohua’s shouting drew everyone’s attention.

Xu Zaohua, originally afraid her surrogacy would be exposed by Manager He, was already so tense her face turned pale, and with her holding her slightly protruding belly, it was hard for anyone to doubt she was acting.

Nanny Cai didn’t even have a decent pretext to cause trouble for Taohua Dessert.

Now she had the excuse of Xu Zaohua getting a stomach ache from their dessert.

After all, who saw them buy hazelnut cake?

Would customers trust the clerk’s testimony one hundred percent?

If Taohua Dessert got embroiled in a stomach ache scandal over their hazelnut cake, firstly, the business would suffer and Widow Tong would be hit, so it’s like avenging the Zheng Family’s lady and the deceased young master. Secondly, it could drive He Chao out of Yan Guan Town.

Now that He Chao was tangled with Widow Tong, Nanny Cai was convinced it was He Chao who orchestrated the break-off between Widow Tong’s granddaughter and Mr. Zheng.

She couldn’t help recalling He Chao advising the young master that having a little girl get married to ward off misfortune was nonsense leading to extinction.

Widow Tong’s visit to call off the marriage must have been incited by He Chao.

Now the young master was gone, and He Chao was partly to blame.

Perhaps if Manager Tong’s granddaughter had gone through with the marriage, the young master might still be alive.

Nanny Cai arrived at Taohua Dessert’s entrance and said to the queuing crowd, "My young mistress ate this shop’s hazelnut cake and got a stomach ache."

Gu Taohua had rushed to Nanny Cai’s side by now.

She really wanted to knock Nanny Cai down.

But she couldn’t; she was now the second-in-command of Taohua Dessert, and to the people, Nanny Cai was a customer of the shop.

She couldn’t be rough with the customer.

"Madam, may I ask when you bought the hazelnut cake from our shop?"

Gu Taohua remembered what Tong Huaqiong taught her, not to panic when problems arose and to face them head-on.

The more you evade, the more you lose customer trust.

As long as there’s nothing wrong with Taohua Dessert’s quality, they need not fear customer doubt.

At this time, a clerk from the shop, hearing the commotion outside, beckoned Gu Taohua from the door.

Gu Taohua understood; Xu Zaohua never bought any hazelnut cake.

This was pure slander.

Since it was slander, she had a way to handle it.

Nanny Cai, unfazed, said, "Just this morning; let your shopkeeper He Chao come out and speak."

Gu Taohua felt a headache, thinking Nanny Cai wasn’t playing by the rules and was clearly here to find trouble with Manager He.

She definitely couldn’t let Manager He come out; what if this nanny brought up the fictional story of He Chao peeping at Xu Zaohua bathing, and then He Chao wouldn’t have the face to stay in Yan Guan Town.

Gu Taohua suppressed her anger and said, "Madam, I am the second in charge of Taohua Dessert; you can speak to me. Here’s the thing, there’s good tea in the shop, we can talk there."

Nanny Cai put her hands on her hips and said, "Even if you’re second in charge, I won’t talk to a young girl like you. Let your shopkeeper come out. You want to take me inside to talk? Who knows if you intend to shut me up."

She then looked around at the queue, addressing the customers, "This shop made my young mistress sick, yet you dare queue up here. The shopkeeper is probably blinded by money, who knows what inferior ingredients they put in the hazelnut cake."

Most of the queuing customers were locals from Yan Guan Town and nearby areas.

Most of them didn’t believe Nanny Cai’s words; after all, since its inception as a roadside stall, Taohua Dessert had never had any quality issues.

After opening the shop, Tong Huaqiong further enforced the pursuit of quality among everyone.

Tong Huaqiong often emphasized that food is essential to people and what goes into the mouth must especially be clean and sanitary.

But no shop could guarantee a perpetual lack of issues. The key was in how to solve them and how to calm things down when they occurred.

Gu Taohua had received extensive training from Tong Huaqiong on strategies for addressing many kinds of issues, but deliberate defamation was tough to counteract.

If even one person believed Taohua Dessert’s quality had issues, word could spread, snowballing into suspicion among more and more people.

Falsehoods could become truth in public perception.

Especially when it comes to food, people were more inclined to believe rumors had some basis in fact.