Nanny Cheng broke out in a cold sweat and quickly explained.
"Madam, what are you saying? I heard this from the Second Madam. I heard that the eldest young lady is not only fine, but now she's also the wife of General Bai Shaoqing. She's very much in the limelight."
As she said this, Nanny Cheng changed the subject and got to the point. "The Second Madam has a very bad heart. Now she's scheming to harm the eldest young lady and her husband. She's planning to announce to the world that her husband deceived the emperor back then by pretending that the eldest young lady was dead to escape the jurisdiction of the government."
When something happened to the Ji Mansion back then, it caused quite a stir in Huang City. Everyone thought the Ji Mansion was doomed.
Under such circumstances, Zhao Luoning's fake death and being sent out would indeed be criticized.
Madam Zhao's eyes were cold, but her expression was still as submissive as before.
"Ah, is what you said true? What should we do? The master always listens to her. This..."
Madam Zhao's panic was exactly what Nanny Cheng wanted. She quickly said,
"Madam, now that the Second Madam's natal family has declined, if you find a way to get the master to divorce her, as a discarded woman, no matter how much she stirs things up, not many people will be willing to listen to her."
"But... if she goes around spreading the news, won't it ruin my daughter and son - in - law's reputations?" Madam Zhao looked very troubled.
Nanny Cheng saw that Madam Zhao was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, just standing there with her hands folded.
Until Madam Zhao paced back and forth and softly murmured, "Luojing came to see me happily the other day, saying that he had bought a new mansion and asked me to take a look. If something happens at this critical moment, how much of a blow it will be to him."
Hearing this, Nanny Cheng's eyes lit up.
"Is the Second Young Master buying another new mansion?"
"Yes. The mansion he bought before has been given to his elder brother. He's an adult now. It's not good for him to always live in the temple. He should have a place of his own. If something really happens to his elder sister at this critical moment, I'm afraid Luojing won't have the heart to build his own family business."
Nanny Cheng wasn't a fool. Madam Zhao suddenly brought up the matter of Zhao Luojing buying a mansion at this urgent moment. The meaning was obvious: as long as Nanny Cheng helped her deal with the Second Madam, she would be the head nanny of Zhao Luojing's new mansion.
While Nanny Cheng was still hesitating, Madam Zhao continued, "The nanny from the Xu family and the daughter - in - law of the Zhang family came to see me the other day. It seems..."
Hearing this, Nanny Cheng immediately anxiously stated,
"I know those from the Xu and Zhang families. They're the most useless. Madam, don't take them seriously. I can help you with the Second Madam's matter."
Hearing this, Madam Zhao, like a drifting log finally finding a shore to rely on, asked, "Really? Do you have a way to help me?"
"Madam, you don't know. I have something on the Second Madam."
"Something on her?"
The thing Nanny Cheng had on the Second Madam was somewhat related to Zhao Luoyu.
Back then, Zhao Luoyu had repeatedly defied the Second Madam, and the Second Madam hated her to the core. When the fire broke out in the wood - shed, the door was locked, and the Second Madam claimed that she had escaped through the window.
In fact, it wasn't like that at all.
At first, the fire was still small. After the Second Madam broke free from Zhao Luoyu's entanglement and ran out, she locked the door from the outside.
Later, when the government inquired, the Second Madam said that it was Zhao Luoyu who had locked the door and tried to trap her inside.
By then, the door had burned down to just a wooden frame, and the lock had long fallen off.
But the officers had searched the wood - shed all over and couldn't find the key.
Because this incident had become an unsolved case, although the Second Madam had said that she wouldn't pursue Zhao Luoyu for deliberately setting the fire to harm her in order to enter the mansion back then, due to too many doubts, the government had never closed the case. That unopenable lock had been sealed as evidence by the government.
A year ago, County Magistrate Ye had closed the case of Zhao Luoyu, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to convict her. The evidence had been returned to the Zhao Mansion as it was, and that lock was still in the warehouse, it seemed.
Everyone had forgotten about this, but Nanny Cheng hadn't. Because the key to this lock was currently on Nanny Cheng.
The most fatal thing was that there was a unique mark of the Second Madam's family on this key.
Even the Second Madam herself had forgotten about this.
Nanny Cheng had picked up this key accidentally from the Second Madam's changed clothes when she was just a cleaning maid back then.
Nanny Cheng had secretly tried it, and this key could really open the lock at the fire scene.
When the lock clicked open, Nanny Cheng knew that it was the Second Madam who had laid a hand on a child.
But at that time, how could Nanny Cheng dare to make a fuss?
Although the Second Madam hadn't entered the mansion back then, she was extremely popular. Although she was a concubine, she lived much more comfortably than Madam Zhao, the legal wife.
Nanny Cheng was a person who knew how to adapt to the situation. She originally wanted to use this key to seek credit from the Second Madam. Unexpectedly, there was also Nanny Xu beside the Second Madam.
Nanny Cheng knew that she could never compete with Nanny Xu, so she had buried this matter.
Unexpectedly, it had been buried for so many years.
Fortunately, she hadn't rushed to offer this to the Second Madam back then. Now she still had a bargaining chip.
Nanny Cheng left Madam Zhao's residence full of ambition.
After she left, Madam Zhao put away her panicked look and became calm and natural.
She walked into the Buddhist hall, folded her hands in front of the Buddha statue, and bowed.
However, her mood and expression were no longer as pious as before.
She had worshiped Buddha all her life, but ended up with a husband's estrangement and children's deaths.
Back then, when she heard the news of Zhao Luoning's death, she felt that the sky was falling.
When Luoyu passed away, Luoning was with her, and she managed to get through it.
When Luojing passed away, Luoning held things up, and she still felt there was hope.
But when the news of Luoning's death came, Madam Zhao suddenly found that there was no one around to accompany her.
For the first time in her life, she experienced bone - chilling despair.
Not only because she had no one to rely on.
But also because she suddenly realized that the reason she had been able to live well all these years without fighting for anything wasn't because of the Buddha's protection, but because she had put all the pressure on her daughter.
Her daughter was the Buddha who protected her.
When Zhao Luoning had an accident, she even found it difficult to live on.
It was from that moment that Madam Zhao realized her own selfishness.
She was a mother. She shouldn't be a burden to her daughter, but should be her daughter's protector.
She no longer cared about many things she had scorned to do before, and she would treat with courtesy many people she had scorned to associate with before.
Even the Zhao Mansion, the cage that had made her sad and desperate, she had returned to.
Luoning had dedicated so many years to her.
When Zhao Luoning returned to her side again, Madam Zhao found the motivation to live and hope.
It was time for her, as a mother, to protect her child.