Transmigration: The Little Chef Calls The Shots-Chapter 1364 - 196, guarding

Lady Jiang thought about it and quickly agreed, "Yes, yes, you are more thoughtful, daughter. Mother will no longer call that little...ahem, anyway, mother will remember this and will change her ways, don’t worry!"

Chen Leyao sighed silently in her heart. No matter what, she had finally managed to get her younger brother out today.

Because of the price war, Chen Ji’s business had suffered greatly. The Wu family’s fueling the flames made things even worse for Chen Ji. However, when Chen Ruochu appeared safe and sound at Chen Ji Cloth Shop, some of the rumors instantly fell apart.

And somehow, from a certain point in time, the street urchins stopped singing their begging songs and instead spread a nursery rhyme called "The Affairs of Wu’s Family."

This nursery rhyme was particularly catchy; it was as if it depicted a well-praised drama of intrigue within a household. It covered everything from rightful heirs and step-daughters to the Little Concubine’s fights and the oppression from the stepmother. It even described the scandalous affairs of the rightful heir son in vivid detail, as if one had seen them with their own eyes.

People are naturally curious, some even crave for salacious news. This nursery rhyme fully satisfied everyone’s desire for sensation and within three days, it had spread throughout the entire Capital city, even wider than the previous Chen family scandal.

Under the impact of this rhyme, the Chen family and Lady Jiang finally became a thing of the past, and within less than seven days, no one mentioned it anymore.

Meanwhile, right in the eye of the storm, the Wu family found themselves the target of intentional slander as the Wu family of Jiangnan. The content of the nursery rhyme seemed to match the Wu family of Jiangnan exactly. A wife with two sons, a stepmother with a daughter—wasn’t this about Wu Jiangtao’s siblings and Lady Du’s daughter? Plus, the eldest son’s notorious reputation and Wu Jiangtao’s frequent visits to the brothels were well-known; at this point, who could question it?

Not only did the people of the Capital begin to believe the rhyme’s contents were true, but even the Wu family themselves started to believe it.

Lady Du sat stunned in her bedroom, fingers trembling and lips turning pale from blood loss.

"The rightful heir son poisons his half-brother, the stepmother’s womb forever barren." Could it be... Lady Du trembled as she caressed her own abdomen. Could it be that her failure to conceive for so many years was due to her stepsons surreptitiously administering poison?

She broke out in a cold sweat, clothes clinging to her as if she were soaked from water. She looked around her room in a daze, feeling that wherever she looked seemed to shimmer with a toxic glint.

"Mother, mother!" Wu Hanyu suddenly burst through the door, startling Lady Du once again.

But Wu Hanyu seemed oblivious to her mother’s distress, gripping her hand and trembling with urgency, "Mother, is it true what they say? Are you going to send me to the Second Prince Mansion as a serving maid without proper status? Is it true, mother? I don’t want to be a concubine, I don’t want to! Mother, please don’t let big brother send me to the Second Prince Mansion, I’m begging you!"

Lady Du was shaken by her daughter to the point of confusion, but she still made out what was being said. It was not until now that she remembered the part about the stepdaughter in the nursery rhyme. She had forgotten the exact words, but the gist was about her being sent by the wife’s son to some prince as a concubine without a title.

She had been so preoccupied with her own issues that she forgot about her daughter.

If the content of that nursery rhyme was true, then she would never get another chance to be a mother, and Hanyu was her only hope. Lady Du looked at her daughter with a dazed expression but said firmly, "No! Mother will never let anyone sell you off!"

As the stepmother found herself in a difficult situation, the wife was not at ease. Wu Zhengqing was a cunning man, his wrongdoings were not something a greenhorn like Chen Ruochu could uncover, but Wu Jiangtao’s misdeeds were notorious.

Wu Zhengqing snatched the cool water a maid had brought and splashed it mercilessly onto Wu Jiangtao’s face.

A whole basin of cold water poured over the head could wake up even the heaviest of drinkers.

Wu Jiangtao, wiping the water from his mouth and nose, shivered involuntarily even though it was June. He was about to curse loudly when his eyes fell on his younger brother, and the swear words he had almost blurted out were abruptly stifled.

"Sec...Second brother, what are you doing? If you have something to say, just say it. Why are you splashing me with water?"