People in Qiao Wanqing’s area generally didn’t enjoy eating spicy food, at least not to the extent where everything was spicy, so she never expected the filling to be hot.

It was a disaster.

No, it was a disaster for the kid.

Koukua cried so hard that he started hiccuping, and he didn’t want his mom to hold him.

He turned and threw himself into his dad’s arms, crying loudly for a while.

It wasn’t until the spiciness subsided that he stopped crying.

Lying in Gu Yanqing’s arms, he sniffled and said, “Mom is bad, really, really bad.”

Qiao Wanqing, labeled as the “big bad guy,” felt exhausted.

She really hadn’t meant to trick him this time.

Gu Yanqing patted his back with a smile, teasing him, “What about dad?”

Koukua hugged his neck tightly, “Good, good dad.”

Qiao Wanqing felt exasperated.

Fine, let’s see if you still come to me to sleep at night!

In the end, Qiao Wanqing prepared some soft, well-cooked rice with vegetables and fed it to Koukua.

The little rascal refused to let her feed him, insisting that his dad do it instead, leaving Qiao Wanqing unsure whether to laugh or get angry.

He really held grudges.

After Koukua finished eating, they drove to a nearby persimmon orchard.

The persimmons there were large and plump, though a bit pricey.

The family of three picked quite a few persimmons, planning to send a box to Gu Jingzhi and his family, another to Yuan Yuan’s family, one to Tang Yueyue, and one to Auntie.

Since ripe persimmons couldn’t be transported, they sent only the unripe ones.

By putting the unripe persimmons in a jar and soaking them in 40-50 degree Celsius water for 24 hours, they became crisp and sweet, without any bitterness.

Qiao Wanqing thought they tasted much better than the red persimmons.

A few days later, the cat tree they bought for the cat arrived.

It was a large, luxurious solid wood cat house with four levels and a height of 1.8 meters.

Qiao Wanqing and Gu Yanqing assembled it together.

Along with the cat tree came a concave cushion that looked particularly comfortable.

Koukou sat on it and refused to get up, insisting it was his, which was quite amusing.

“Baby, why are you fighting with the cat for things?” Qiao Wanqing initially thought he was just playing around, but later, she found out he had taken the cushion back to his room and hidden it in his small cabinet where he kept his favorite things.

It was funny and exasperating.

That small cabinet was off-limits to everyone, including Qiao Wanqing, as Koukou didn’t allow anyone to touch it.

No one knew what he had hidden inside.

“Koukou’s!” he said firmly, clearly wanting to claim the cushion for himself.

“Then what will the cat sleep on?”

Koukou thought for a moment, went to his bed, and took out the shaped pillow he used for his head.

He hated that little pillow and handed it to Qiao Wanqing: “This.”

The whole family was amused by him.

The little boy was so clever.

Grandma Qiao said, “If he likes it, let him have it. I’ll sew a new one for the cat and stuff it with cotton. It won’t be any worse than this one.”

Qiao Wanqing had no intention of taking the cushion back.

Since her son liked it, she wanted to satisfy him first.

She initially thought about buying another one online, but since Grandma Qiao offered to sew one, she let her do it.

Just then, Qiao Wanqing’s QQ notification sounded.

She hadn’t used QQ in ages, but now, with the Taobao business venture, everyone used QQ for communication.

It was more convenient for file sharing and group chats than WeChat.

Messages on QQ were always work-related, making it easier to distinguish them.

She took out her phone and saw a message from the work group: the best-selling Linhe sweet potato chips in their store had received negative reviews.

Qiao Wanqing was stunned and quickly opened Taobao on her phone.

Sure enough, there were two glaring negative reviews, both with pictures.

One said their product was moldy, and the other claimed the packaging was broken, with the sweet potato chips spilling out.

They had only sold a few dozen orders, including fake orders, and there were just two reviews from those fake orders.

Yet, now they had two negative reviews, clearly showing malicious intent.

The QQ group was buzzing with discussions.

“Can we file a complaint? Will Taobao handle it?”

“I’ve already reported it, but these reviews don’t seem to qualify as malicious, so they probably can’t be deleted…”

“What’s going on? Is someone trying to sabotage us? A competitor maybe?”

“We haven’t even started selling yet, so where would the competitors come from?”

“Could it be…?”

“Red Sister?!”

With this deduction, everyone fell silent.

They hadn’t offended anyone, and selling just a few orders a day wouldn’t affect the big sellers.

Those big sellers wouldn’t bother with them.

So, there was only one possibility left to bother them.

Chen Yu, who had a bit of a quick temper, was immediately furious.

They had thought that once everyone went their separate ways, they wouldn’t interfere with each other.

Who knew this Hongjie would come back to stir up trouble.

Stirring up trouble was one thing, but using the most annoying methods was another.

In order to boost their sales, they had enlisted many people to help fake orders.

Doing this on Taobao was troublesome and disgusting; if they weren’t careful, they could easily get caught.

They paid others 20 to 30 yuan per fake order.

Although the government subsidized some funds, they still had to get goods, deliver them, and handle turnovers, leaving hardly any money to fake orders.

Therefore, they had to ask everyone they knew to fake orders.

After being put through all this, everyone wanted to fight back.

“What’s wrong?”

Gu Yanqing saw her glaring at her phone with an angry face and couldn’t help but laugh.

He rarely saw Qiao Wanqing angry, but he always found her pouting face adorable, just like her mother’s.

“We’re being maliciously given negative reviews.”

Gu Yanqing hit the nail on the head: “Is it related to the last incident?”

“I’m not sure. Right now, I’m thinking about how to find out the identity of the other party. Checking the IP address showed they’re not from our city.”

“If small sellers like you are being maliciously targeted, it’s probably someone familiar, likely hiring malicious reviewers.”

Qiao Wanqing knew it was likely someone familiar with them causing trouble.

She shrugged and said, “But they can’t provide evidence. Sister Hong will deny it to the end, and there’s nothing we can do.”

It was truly frustrating.

Gu Yanqing placed his hand suggestively on her waist and said, “If you… I’ll help you.”

“Get lost,” Qiao Wanqing retorted, unsure of what he was implying but certain it wasn’t anything good.

Gu Yanqing was just teasing her. He then said seriously, “This isn’t too hard to handle. I can find someone to help you.”

“No need for now,” Qiao Wanqing replied. “We’ll try the usual methods first. If they don’t work, then we’ll ask for your help.”

She didn’t want to rely on Gu Yanqing every time something went wrong.

Gu Yanqing didn’t press her further.

He quietly listened as the group discussed solutions in their voice chat, shaking his head occasionally.

These young folks sure had a lot of energy.

In the end, they decided to inform Mr. Zheng, the event organizer, about the situation and see how he could help.

They only expressed their suspicions without accusing anyone directly to avoid wrongfully blaming someone.

As for the negative reviews, they would try to communicate with the reviewers to see if they could get them to voluntarily delete the comments.

…

That evening, after her bath, Qiao Wanqing saw Koukou playing with building blocks with Gu Yanqing.

She noticed Koukou’s small cabinet where he hid his things and was extremely curious about what treasures he kept inside.

So she took advantage of Kouko being completely absorbed in building blocks with Gu Yanqing, not paying attention to her, quietly opened his exclusive little cabinet to see what exactly was inside.

Kouko hadn’t yet organized it; his favorite things were just stuffed in haphazardly.

The most conspicuous item was the cushion he had just put in there.

Qiao Wanqing took it out, revealing a jumble of things underneath.

There was a broken Weeble Wobble, which Gu Yanqing had bought for him when he came over during the Chinese New Year.

It was Koukou’s favorite toy.

Back then, she and Gu Yanqing weren’t together yet, and Kouko didn’t see his dad frequently like he does now.

Every time he saw this Weeble Wobble, he would be especially happy, probably because he knew his dad had given it to him.

Seeing the toy was like seeing his dad.

Now, even though it was broken, he still hid it away.

She always thought Kouko was just a naive and sweet kid who played and slept, not thinking much.

She never expected he had his own little thoughts.

Besides the Weeble Wobble, there were many other things: the flower crown she had made for him, now dried and stuck at the bottom of the cabinet; a few goose feathers, a small gift given to him by Yuan Yuan, filled with many memories that Kouko loved.

Some things he probably couldn’t even remember where they came from or why they were placed here.

Qiao Wanqing couldn’t help but smile like an indulgent aunt as she imagined Kouko’s tiny body squatting down, stuffing these things in here, softening her heart.

But the next moment, her smile froze.

She saw a small angel baby gold pendant!

“Yanqing, come take a look. Is this real gold?” Qiao Wanqing handed him the gold pendant.

Their family had never bought such a thing.

If it was real gold, where did Kouko get it from?

Gu Yanqing took it, examined it, and weighed it in his hand. “It should be real. It’s quite heavy.”

Qiao Wanqing called Kouko over, who was playing with building blocks on his own, and squatted down to embrace him, showing him the gold pendant. “Darling, who gave you this thing?”

As soon as Kouko saw the pendant, he eagerly wanted to play with it.

Qiao Wanqing evaded his reaching hand. “First, tell Mommy where it came from.”

Kouko, who usually seemed to have a good memory, tilted his head, looking puzzled.

Qiao Wanqing: “…”

“Quickly think and tell Mommy, be a good boy.”

“Found it… found it,” Kouko thought for a while and replied.

“Where did you find it?”

Kouko thought again, then walked to the front door and said, “Found it here, found it here.”

“… “

Clearly, Kouko’s answer was fake.

If he had found a pendant at their doorstep, the owner would have been frantic looking for it.

How could there have been no commotion?

Knowing that sometimes Kouko would make up things he couldn’t remember or mix memories from different events, his answer wasn’t reliable.

Qiao Wanqing was getting anxious. “Could it be that Kouko went to someone’s house, saw this pendant, liked it, and brought it back?”

“Even if someone we know wanted to give Kouko this, they definitely wouldn’t do it secretly. They would make sure we knew about it. Otherwise, given how young and careless Kouko is, he might play with it for a while and then casually toss it away. Later on, he wouldn’t even remember where he threw it.”

Gu Yanqing said, “It’s unlikely. If someone lost such a heavy pendant at home, they would have panicked long ago. There would definitely have been some commotion.”

That makes sense.

“Don’t worry for now. Let’s carefully think about who has visited us in the past six months and could have potentially given this. We should ask those most likely to have done so.”

Six months ago, Kouko could barely walk, let alone hide things.

After asking around, they found out that the person who gave it was Madam Gu.

Madam Gu saw her grandson for the first time and was overjoyed.

However, she still harbored some resentment towards Qiao Wanqing, so she didn’t want to show the pendant to her openly.

Instead, she secretly gave it to her grandson, instructing him to hide it carefully and not lose it.

The grandson happily hid it back in his little cabinet.

Qiao Wanqing’s reaction: “…”

Was there anyone more unreliable than this future mother-in-law?

She was really scared.

If the grandson actually took it out and liked it at someone else’s house, then Qiao Wanqing would have a headache teaching him the importance of not taking things without permission.

But when the Kouko saw his own special cabinet had been opened by his mother, he instantly felt unhappy.

He felt that his private space had been invaded, which made him especially unhappy.

He and Gu Yanqing shared a strong sense of possessiveness, particularly about their private space.

“Daddy, don’t sleep with mommy,” Koukou said, hugging his little pillow from the bed and pulling Gu Yanqing’s hand, trying to drag him outside. “Go, go.”

Qiao Wanqing and Gu Yanqing: “…”