0p0 Chapter 190: Public interrogation and identification of the imperial concubine
Chapter 190: Public interrogation and identification of the imperial concubine
Caiguo and Fangzi were brought in.
Among them, Caiguo was limping. She had been unlucky some time ago. When she went to the toilet at night, she was accidentally scared by a mouse, stepped on empty air and fell. The fall was quite severe and her right foot was fractured. After that, she could no longer serve others and was moved to the utility room.
The emperor looked at the two of them with a gaze as sharp as a knife.
"Tell me who ordered you two to kill Concubine Xian. If you tell me, I will spare only one of you and leave your body intact."
When these cold and murderous words were spoken, Fanghua and the others could not help but change color.
Seeing this scene, Concubine Nianhulu clenched her palms tightly in her sleeves, her heart was in turmoil, fearing that the two men would confess.
Fangzi was usually a quiet person. She had never expected that she would be seen sneaking into the empress's bedroom that day. The incident happened suddenly. She could not find any reason to refute when she heard the emperor's words, so she could only cry out for injustice:
"Your Majesty, I am innocent. How could I possibly harm Your Majesty? I was framed!"
Caiguo also kowtowed and cried out for justice:
"Your Majesty, I know nothing. I just saw that Xixi's nest was dirty that day. I knew that Your Majesty loved Xixi very much, so I didn't dare to slack off on Xixi's affairs. After I found out, I hurried to report it to Sister Qing'er. I know nothing!"
Listening to the two people's sophistry and injustice, Kangxi did not believe a word and directly ordered coldly:
"Drag him away and beat him severely."
Two guards immediately came in from outside the door and dragged Caiguo and the other person away. Soon the sound of beating with a stick could be heard, and the room became as quiet as a cold pond.
After a while, Caiguo and the other person were dragged in again, but their faces were pale and terrified, and their clothes on their buttocks were stained with bright red blood.
After this interrogation, Fangzi, one of the two, finally spoke.
"I beg you, I beg you, it's Caiguo, it's Caiguo. The day before that day, Caiguo gave me 100 taels of silver, a jade hairpin, and an incense burner lid, and said that when the queen went out the next day, she would hold Qing'er for a while, and let me change the incense burner lid in the queen's bedroom during that time. I obeyed her in everything! It was all her orders!"
"I buried the hundred pieces of silver and the jade hairpin under the osmanthus tree in the back hall. The other servants really didn't know about it!"
Fangzi confessed that she was instructed by Caiguo, but how could Caiguo, a palace maid, harm Concubine Xian for no reason? Not to mention that musk was difficult for concubines in the palace, let alone a palace maid.
However, even at this point, Caiguo still refuses to admit it and continues to cry out for injustice.
Kangxi said in a solemn tone:
"Liang Jiugong."
Liang Jiugong immediately sent someone to the back hall, and soon a guard came in holding a bag covered in dirt, which indeed contained one hundred taels of silver and a jade hairpin.
With the evidence here, Caiguo finally had no way to argue, but she still failed to reveal the mastermind behind the scenes.
On the field, Imperial Concubine Nianhulu first breathed a sigh of relief, but soon became nervous again, fearing that Caiguo would not be able to resist and call her out later.
She glanced at Nanny Qin beside her seemingly unintentionally, and Nanny Qin immediately glanced at Cai Guo covertly.
Hongying, who was standing by, had long known that Caiguo and Fangzi had betrayed the Empress. The Empress had kept the two of them until now for the sake of her plan. Now, seeing that the evidence was conclusive and Caiguo still refused to reveal the person behind the scenes, she was so angry that her teeth were itching.
"Caiguo, I didn't expect you to be so treacherous as to instigate Fangzi to murder the queen. The queen is usually so kind and generous to us, and you have really lost your conscience. Now that you have honestly revealed the mastermind behind this, you have repaid the queen's kindness."
However, Caiguo still did not reveal the person behind the scenes.
Kangxi no longer wasted time.
"Take him out and beat him up."
Caiguo's eyes darkened when she heard that and she made a decision in that instant. Kangxi saw that something was wrong, but it was too late to stop her.
The next moment, Cai Guo, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly jumped up and slammed into the pillar beside her without waiting for the guards to take her away.
Bang.
No one expected Caiguo to suddenly hang herself. Everyone screamed in fear as they saw the bright red blood blurring Caiguo's forehead and dripping down her cheeks. She slipped from the pillar and fell to the ground.
Liang Jiugong's expression changed, but he reacted very quickly and stepped forward to personally remove Fang Zi's chin. One person had already hanged himself, and if the remaining one hanged himself again, the clue would be cut off.
Kangxi looked at Caiguo's body with a grim gaze, and the air pressure around him became lower and lower.
"Very good, what a loyal dog slave, he would rather hang himself than give out the person behind the scenes."
He sneered:
"In that case, come on, drag him out and feed him to the dogs, and kill all three of our clans."
As they listened to the emperor's cold orders and watched Caiguo's body being dragged away by the guards to be fed to the dogs, the concubines' hearts trembled.
The emperor has always been gentle and in recent years he has implemented benevolent policies and treated people with leniency. They were really scared when they suddenly heard such a cruel order from the emperor.
Concubine Nianhulu was also sweating all over, but then she breathed a sigh of relief. Caiguo was dead, and Fangzi alone could not identify her.
Sure enough, Fangzi was terrified when she saw Caiguo's end, but she really didn't know who was the mastermind behind the scenes. She contacted Caiguo alone and could only beg for mercy desperately.
Listening to the wailing echoing in the house, Kangxi's face darkened and he shouted coldly with his thin lips:
"Shut up."
Liang Jiugong reacted very quickly when he heard this. Empress Xian had not woken up yet. If she was disturbed by Fangzi... His eyes immediately became fierce and he ordered someone to quickly cover Fangzi's mouth.
The house fell silent. The clues were gone with Caiguo's suicide, and there were no clues from Fangzi for the time being.
Kangxi looked around at the concubines present. Whoever was behind the scenes was among them. Did he think that he would have nothing to worry about as long as Caiguo was dead?
His eyes were cold:
"Liang Jiugong, order someone to check who Caiguo is close to, who she has been in contact with recently, and where her family is."
"Yes, I obey your command." Liang Jiugong ordered people to go down and investigate.
At this time, Kangxi's gaze stopped on Fanghua who was kneeling on the ground.
When Liang Jiugong came back and saw the emperor's expression, he immediately reported:
"Your Majesty, regarding Fanghua, according to my investigation, Fanghua wanted to climb into bed, but although she was ambitious, she was not brave enough, so she had not taken any action until recently when someone in Changchun Garden spread the rumor that Empress Xian had fallen out of favor. Her mind became active again, but she was still hesitant. The reason why she made up her mind to take action today was because someone deliberately instigated her."
As he spoke, he waved his hand and had three servants dragged in. They were the three people who had been gossiping outside the rockery before, the little eunuch Xiaoyinzi who was pounding the broom handle, the round-faced palace maid, and the skinny monkey.
When they came in, they had some blood on their bodies, obviously having been tortured. Behind them was a young eunuch who was dressed better than the three menial eunuchs. He was an ordinary eunuch named Xiao Xinzi.
Xiao Xinzi had obviously been tortured before, and he confessed as soon as he came in.
"It was Imperial Concubine Niu Hulu who ordered me to instigate Fang Hua to climb into bed with him. I was just following orders. Please spare my life, Your Majesty!"
Everyone looked at Concubine Niuhulu at once, and she was stunned.
She was the one who ordered someone to do the Musk thing, but instigating Fanghua to get into bed had nothing to do with her!
She was wronged!