The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 223: Heaven-Sent Little Menace

"My son doesn’t owe gambling debts, and I didn’t steal money."

Nanny Cai kept defending herself under the aggressive questioning of the young man.

The young man wasn’t interested in Nanny Cai’s explanations and waved the money bag, saying, "Stealing my silver wasn’t enough, and now you’ve come to falsely accuse our shop, trying to get some silver back for your unambitious son."

"Nanny, let me tell you, you should just give up on your son. A gambling dog isn’t worthy of making you a thief or letting you pull a stunt like this."

The young man wasn’t satisfied with just mocking Nanny Cai; he also shouted towards Xu Zaohua in the carriage, "Young Madam Zheng, you letting your nanny do this—does she know some secret of yours? When I rode on your carriage, didn’t you tell the nanny that you loaned out the maid’s monthly salary at interest and didn’t get it back, and now you need to fill the hole? Your way of filling the gap is quite unique."

Young Madam Zheng needed silver to fill the hole, and Nanny Zheng needed silver to pay off her son’s gambling debt.

The mistress and servant hit it off, scheming against Taohua Dessert.

They attempted to extort silver from Taohua Dessert through deceit.

But things got exposed.

The onlookers connected the dots and concluded that Nanny Cai and Xu Zaohua were framing Taohua Dessert.

Furthermore, the young man had a face that screamed justice, so the onlookers naturally sided with him.

Xu Zaohua was fuming inside the carriage.

Where did this random person come from?

Unlike Nanny Cai, Xu Zaohua didn’t believe that the young man was standing up for Widow Tong and Gu Taohua.

She keenly observed Gu Taohua’s expression and noted that Gu Taohua clearly didn’t recognize him.

She suspected that Nanny Cai had offended someone, and this person was taking it out on Nanny Cai, inadvertently implicating her.

"Seeing as you’re women and children, I won’t fuss about it," the young man said. "If you were men, I’d knock your brains out. As for the silver you stole, hold onto it for now. I’ll come to get it from Zheng Junren in Pingchuan County later."

The young man smiled brilliantly at Nanny Cai, who detected the threat in his words.

The young man shook the money bag around, showing it off clearly to the onlookers.

Finally, Gu Taohua got a good look at the young man’s face.

This person had a face as handsome as Jingzhe’s, though Jingzhe had a more scholarly air, while this man exuded a more heroic spirit.

Gu Taohua was entranced.

The young man performed another clever maneuver for the onlookers.

"A thief doesn’t just steal from one person—not even a needle on the ground is spared. Fellow townsfolk, check your money bags and pockets. Perhaps this nanny saw the long line at Taohua Dessert and took the opportunity to cause trouble, trying to both pull a stunt on Taohua Dessert and snatch everyone’s money bags."

The crowd was in an uproar, instinctively checking their money bags and pockets.

One lady actually said, "I lost five hundred wen."

The lady, often tempted by the desserts, had secretly spent five hundred wen at Taohua Dessert—cumulative spending that she blamed on the situation when asked, insisting that Nanny Cai stole her money.

No matter how Nanny Cai tried to defend herself, the lady staunchly claimed Cai stole her money.

Even the onlookers demanded Nanny Cai repay the money.

Nanny Cai was furious to the point of choking.

She had been wrongfully called a thief.

If they were in Pingchuan County, invoking the Zheng family’s name might have afforded some fear, but in Yan Guan Town, the Zheng family’s name held no weight.

Unable to argue her point, Nanny Cai retreated to the carriage, disgraced by the crowd’s watchful eyes.

Emotionally charged onlookers and die-hard customers of Taohua Dessert even encircled Xu Zaohua’s carriage, causing Cai to nearly not make it back aboard.

Gu Taohua, mindful of Xu Zaohua’s pregnancy, knew that any incident at Taohua Dessert could escalate, and the Zhengs surely wouldn’t back down.

As Tong Huaqiong would say, when the Gu Family was impoverished, they could portray themselves as having nothing to lose. Now that they had a shop and fields, they should avoid unnecessary conflict and escalation.

Moreover, the public relations crisis for Taohua Dessert had been mitigated, so there was no need to further entangle with Xu Zaohua or Nanny Cai.

Thus, Xu Zaohua put her hands on her hips and dispersed the crowd.

The Zheng’s carriage was finally able to leave Yan Guan Town.

The crowd gradually dispersed, and the Taohua Dessert branch was lively with customers again.

Gu Taohua breathed a sigh of relief.

She was about to enter the shop when she caught a glimpse of the young man behind all the drama with her peripheral vision.

The young man met Gu Taohua’s gaze; she thought he was hinting for payment.

After all, he was the star of the show, quashing Taohua Dessert’s crisis in its cradle. His passionate performance indeed deserved compensation.

But they couldn’t just hand over the money brazenly on the street.

"Follow me into the shop to settle the bill," Gu Taohua said, lowering her voice, "But I’ll go in first. You sneak in, pretending to buy some pastries, and find me inside when no one’s paying attention."

With that, Gu Taohua walked into the shop, leaving the young man standing there looking stunned.

"Settle the bill?"

What does that mean?

The young man wondered what this plump girl was up to.

Typically, Su Chengmin couldn’t be bothered, he’d just leave once his task was done, but this time, he couldn’t resist heading into the shop.

Mainly, the freshly baked pastries were too tempting to ignore.

Snagging a box of pastries wouldn’t be a loss.

"...So, tell me, was it my second brother who hired you for this act? You played the part well. How much did he offer you?"

Gu Taohua invited Su Chengmin into her account room, served him a cup of hot tea, and asked.

Fortunately, Su Chengmin hadn’t taken a sip yet; otherwise, he might have spat it out.

So, this plump girl thought of him as a plant.

He, a man referred to as the "heaven-sent little demon," who would dare hire him as a plant?

Then again, perhaps his reputation as a "heaven-sent little demon" wouldn’t intimidate anyone in Yan Guan Town.

Even the "heaven-sent little demon" had almost been killed; if not for this plump girl who had alerted an assassin by beating up a scholar in an alley, he wouldn’t have escaped unscathed.

When he returned to Yan Guan Town today, passing by the Zheng’s carriage, overhearing Nanny Cai and Xu Zaohua trying to make trouble for Taohua Dessert, and seeing Gu Taohua appear, he realized it was her family’s shop.

So, he took the chance to repay the favor.

"Tell me, how much did my brother offer you?" Gu Taohua said, cracking her knuckles. "You better not lie to me, or I won’t let you off just because you did a good job."

Su Chengmin’s lips twitched.

Since this chubby girl talked about prices, he would talk.

Money was money, after all.

Su Chengmin held up five fingers and said, "Five taels."

Gu Taohua said, "He couldn’t possibly be that generous. I’d say three taels at most."

Despite how much more handsome this person might be than her brother, she wouldn’t compromise.

Straight-faced and pulse steady, Su Chengmin remarked, "I put in so much effort and nearly knocked that nanny unconscious. Isn’t it worth five taels? Without me, could your Taohua Dessert have resumed normal business?"

Gu Taohua bit her lip and handed five taels of silver to Su Chengmin.

"And two packages of pastries." Su Chengmin said while pocketing the silver.

Gu Taohua instructed the clerk to wrap four packages of pastries for him as her personal token of thanks.

Su Chengmin pocketed the silver and carried the pastries out of Taohua Dessert’s front door, vanishing from Gu Taohua’s sight in an instant.

Her eyelid twitched; something seemed amiss.