"This is utter nonsense!" Cynthia Wu trembled with anger. "Our spices are sourced properly—how could there possibly be powdered children's bones in them!"
The merchant shivered and said, "I-I only heard about it, I'm not from around here, so I really don't know much. But now no one is buying, and I just want to play it safe, so I don't dare to buy either... Our business is small, these spices are expensive—if there really is a problem, we can't afford to lose money! Sorry, boss, madam."
"It's fine. We're grateful you told us the truth," Mark Hunter kept his promise and asked the manager to refund the twenty percent deposit to the out-of-town merchant.
After the merchant left, Cynthia Wu was still furious. "Which scoundrel spread such a vicious rumor? I was wondering why no one was buying our spices—it turns out people are saying there's bone powder in them! Who would dare use something like that for cooking? No wonder our business tanked—it's all because of this rumor!"
Mark Hunter comforted Cynthia Wu while saying, "Cynthia, the merchant said no one dares mention the rumor openly—it's just spreading by word of mouth. I bet Lily doesn't know yet. We need to tell her right away. This can't be baseless; someone must be doing it on purpose. Let's go talk to Lily."
The couple didn't care that it was late—they hurried to the Prince of Qin's Manor that very night.
Lily had been about to go to bed, but when she heard Mark Hunter and Cynthia Wu had come late at night, she knew it must be important and got up quickly.
"Lily! Someone's spreading rumors to ruin us!" Cynthia Wu blurted out the merchant's story, furious as she repeated every word for Lily.
Lily listened, stunned. "Powdered children's bones mixed into the spices? So that's why no one's buying!"
"Exactly!" Cynthia Wu fumed. "Whoever made up such an outrageous rumor has ruined our spice sales!"
Lily frowned and sighed. "So that's why business at Eight Treasures Bistro and the Evans Hot Pot Restaurant suddenly plummeted—it's all because of this rumor..."
Mark Hunter shuddered, suddenly struck by a chilling thought. "That's right! The rumor even says that those children snatched away by monsters have their flesh stripped off and sent to restaurants to be cooked into dishes! Could it be that the restaurants mentioned in those rumors are Evans Bistro and Evans Hot Pot Restaurant?"
"It must be!" Lily Evans gritted her teeth. "How utterly vile—spreading such a poisonous rumor just to ruin my business! This rumor is truly malicious! Back when I gave birth to Charlie, the whole blood transfusion incident stirred up a storm, and for a while, the capital was buzzing that I was some sort of blood-sucking demon. I finally managed to calm things down, and now another, even nastier rumor has started, dragging my businesses into the mud and causing me disastrous losses. This is just too much!"
After Lily finished, Cynthia Wu suddenly shivered, as if recalling something, and turned to Lily. "Lily, maybe these monster rumors aren't just idle gossip! I remember a few days ago, when the sun was shining, I was sitting at the shop entrance holding Little Chou-Chou, letting him soak up the sun. A few village aunties walked by, saw me with the child, and warned me to keep a close eye on him, lest monsters come at night and snatch him away to eat. I didn't pay much attention at the time—thought they were just telling old countryside ghost stories to scare kids. But maybe, in the villages, people really do believe that monsters steal children?"