The Dali Temple court was surprisingly quiet at this time.
Due to the fact that there were quite a lot of intermissions like this in the past two days, there were already small officials who served tea to several of the people present.
After about two cups of tea, the eunuch who was sent back to the palace by Fushun came back, along with a person who looked like a palace servant.
He leaned on Fushun's side and whispered a few words. Fushun's face was frowning and his brows were squinting, which made Mrs. Xiao feel nervous.
After that, the eunuch stepped aside.
Dali Siqing said, "Eunuch Fu, I don't know—"
Fushun stood up and gave the three adults in the first place a hand-in-hand salute, with an embarrassed look behind him, and said, "Hehe, our family has misunderstood the holy will, Your Majesty said, since it is said to give one to the imperial concubine and the concubine. Innocent, it is necessary to investigate thoroughly."
After he finished speaking, he turned his head to look at Mrs. Xiao, just to meet the shocked expression on Mrs. Xiao's face. He smiled brightly, and then said to the first office: "This is the personal palace servant of the noble concubine. The lady was inconvenient to come, so she ordered the palace staff around her to temporarily replace it. The noble concubine has already reported all the incidents of the year. For her, she can use witnesses or confrontations later."
Dali Siqing raised his hands in a bow and said, "The noble concubine is wise."
Seeing His Majesty behave like this and the Concubine's actions like this, his heart has been put down, and he turned his head and exchanged a tacit relaxed look with the few people beside him.
On the contrary, Mrs. Xiao finally showed her first panicked expression after arriving at Dali Temple.
Fushun gave Mrs. Xiao a vicious smile, "That's it, then Mrs. Xiao should avoid it."
Dali Siqing nodded and said yes, ordered someone to invite Mrs. Xiao down, and moved a screen over at Fushun's suggestion to hide the palace servant.
The next step is to continue the questioning. The first person to come is naturally Tian Shi, the source of the whirlpool.
Tian has been imprisoned at Dali Temple for several days, although he was not imprisoned in a prison cell, but lived in an ordinary room. But I don't know what's going on outside, and another person is locked up alone, naturally suffering from psychological torture. When he came up to court, it was obvious that he was more haggard than he described yesterday.
Dali Siqing started a routine questioning, and Mr. Tian repeated the words one after another according to the previous words, and there was a record of things in a hurry to write down a book, which would then be recorded or submitted to His Majesty for reference.
When Dali Siqing asked a deeper question with an embarrassed look on his face, Tian was unable to calm down, and a trace of panic appeared on his pale face.
Although this emotion was quickly concealed, she was below, and she didn't know that her subtle emotions had been caught in the eyes of the first three adults.
The three of them suddenly felt at ease, and for the first time since the three divisions' joint trial, their mood was completely relaxed.
Tian Shi is naturally not a fool, of course she knows what it means. To put it bluntly, she knew very well whether Concubine Yuan Gui had done anything wrong. And what it is like outside, she is very clear.
The genius of specious rumors like this lies in their plausibility and confusion. If no one is held accountable, then it is not shit but shit. But if someone pursues it, it will not stand up to scrutiny.
Tian Shi was in a state of confusion, and in the panic, she chose a speech that was very beneficial to herself, saying that the following people did this, and the people who handled it were also the servants. She just listened to the reports of the servants and gave orders. The details are not detailed. too clear.
It's not that she didn't think about what she said. Five years is not a short time after all, and the batch of servants in the mansion came and went almost every time. She deliberately said that this matter was done by a person named Qu's mother beside her, and Qu's mother was her confidant. She knew the ins and outs of the whole thing, and naturally knew how to deal with it now.
Dali Si Qing nodded, and ordered someone to bring Qu's mother up.
Mother Qu was brought up.
Her treatment was no better than that of the Tian family, and she was imprisoned with all the servants. But after all, she has been Tian's confidant for decades, and she knows the ins and outs very well. Naturally, she thinks of it together with Tian. She didn't do anything else in the past few days, but unified the caliber with the mother-in-law who handled the matter back then.
What caliber to unify? Naturally, the three maids who were sold back then all did discordant things.
After five years of these people, there are not many left, that is, Rong's mother and Xiu'e are still there. There are others who also know about it, but they are just chasing the wind and hearing about it, but they are not there.
After coming up, she first looked at Tian Shi, and she knew what to do when she saw Tian Shi's eyes.
Sure enough, Qu's mother killed her in one bite, and all three of the three maidservants climbed onto the fourth young master's bed. According to the rules of the mansion, he should have been killed, but the wife was kind-hearted and ordered to sell to Beijing.
Seeing that Qu's mother said exactly what she thought, Tian Shi was relieved, and covered her face with her sleeves and cried with a very aggrieved look.
Mama Tian lived up to her reputation as a confidant, and cried together with Mrs. Tian, saying that Madam had always been a kindhearted man, otherwise if she was beaten to death, she would not be the concubine she is today. He also rebuked the noble concubine for being ungrateful and forgot her old kindness as soon as she was in the ascendant.
The whole hall was filled with the cries of two women. The Dali Temple Minister, the Minister of Punishment, and the Zuodu Censor, who were sitting at the top, had the urge to hide their faces, but Fushun showed disdain and ridicule.
At this time, a person came out from behind a screen on the side of the hall, his face full of anger and disdain.
It is the spring grass beside the flowers.
Chuncao first greeted several people in the hall one by one, and then scolded Tian for being untrue and slandering Tian's mother, and said sharply: "This lady and this mother, you have thought about it, make sure that it is really what you are. said?"
Tian Shi had seen Chuncao and knew that she was the concubine's personal palace servant.
She did not expect that the imperial concubine would send the palace servants beside her to hear the trial. Your concubine is finally in a hurry, it's useless to be anxious, the three adults are watching here, even if you are a concubine, you can't coerce me. What did you do earlier, listen to my advice earlier, there are so many things!
"Of course this lady is sure that what she said is true!"
Tian's mother followed and howled, "Even if you are the concubine's confidant, this palace servant, you can't threaten us in court, we are all telling the truth. Back then, the madam spared the imperial concubine's life, but I didn't expect that now the imperial concubine is now On the contrary, kindness will be revenge for…”
Fushun cleared his throat and said, "Three adults, don't you think this old lady is deliberately trying to confuse the public? We are asking about the old story of the empress. It doesn't matter who forgives who, who will retaliate."
The three adults nodded, and they also thought that these two were too funny, especially this old lady who looked like a servant girl, in addition to echoing Tian's words, she kept saying things with the concubine ungrateful. Not to mention whether the imperial concubine's move was considered ungrateful, the two of them knew why.
It is nothing more than wanting to confuse the public, and by the way, press the imperial concubine with words, or tell others to listen, only to make it clear that if something happens this time, it must be the imperial concubine deliberately taking revenge.
Although the women in the back house don't have enough perspective on the overall situation, they have a lot of hearts. There are deliberately buried traps in every sentence, and sometimes they are more difficult to deal with than men.
"Mother Qu, don't talk about irrelevant things, or this official will ask you to go down."
Qu's mother's pouting was actually all her strength. When Fushun opened her mouth, she was so frightened that she trembled. Seeing that Dali Siqing had also spoken, she hurriedly fell on the ground and stopped making a sound.
Chuncao snorted coldly and said disdainfully: "I don't know who is ungrateful. Since the first time you entered the palace and coerced, the empress ignored you and gave you one chance after another. This time you are courting death yourself, don't blame her!"
After speaking, Chuncao reported the names of several people, saying that these people all knew the empress, and the adults can call them one by one to ask questions.
Dali Siqing brought the list of servants of the Jinyang Marquis mansion one by one, and brought up the people who are still alive.
The people who came up were all the maids and old women, in fact, including the old mother Rong and Xiu E, who was no longer a maid.
The behavior of these people is normal. Others who were not present at the time said something they heard. As for Rong's mother and Xiu'e, they came from the same caliber.
The confession at this time was completely unfavorable to Concubine Yuan Gui, and the brows of the three adults above frowned again.
Chuncao remained calm and didn't say a word. Just when Mr. Tian was relaxing, she reported another person's name, which made Mr. Tian finally unable to hold back his surprise.
Mother Qu felt bad in her heart, but Mrs. Wang was not locked up with her, she was only supposed to be locked up elsewhere.
At this moment, the two of them could only hope that Madam Wang was just as old and confused as she was when she sent someone to talk. But for some unknown reason, there was a trace of uncontrollable panic in Tian Shi's heart, as if something bad was about to happen.
"My lord, this person and the empress have never been close at the beginning. According to the empress, she was suddenly promoted back then, and many people excluded her. Only this old old woman took good care of her. When the empress was sold back then , this grandmother Wang also visited her at night, helped her find out about the sale, and gave the empress a few taels of silver and two small cakes for her to use for self-defense."
The Dali Temple minister nodded, and ordered someone to bring Mrs. Wang.
Soon, the old lady Wang was brought up.
In order to avoid it, Chuncao went behind the screen again.
"This old woman, do you remember a little girl named Xiaohua five years ago?"
Madam Wang glanced blankly at several high-ranking officials in the hall, thought for a while, and said, "Go back to my lord, the old lady has some impressions."
Mrs. Tian screamed, "Mr. Wang, you can talk after you think about it."
Madam Wang was frightened by Tian's scream, and fell to her knees with a plop, shivering with fright.
"Sister Tian, please pay attention to your words, or this official will invite you down." After Dali Si Qing finished speaking, he turned to Mrs. Wang, "Don't be afraid of this mother-in-law, there are several adults sitting here, as long as you say To be honest, no one dares to make things difficult for you."
Madam Wang glanced at Mrs Tian with a lingering fear, and said to the Dali Si Qing, "Sir, are you telling the truth?"
"Of course it's true."
Madam Wang nodded, made a memory, and said slowly.
After listening to what Mrs. Wang said, the truth of the matter finally came to light.
In the description of the old lady Wang, the girl named Xiaohua is a very honest and low-key little girl. Because she is young and has a high position, many people exclude her, and several big girls also use her as a little girl. But she is neither humble nor arrogant, she works diligently, never provokes right or wrong, and does not approach her master.
But at that time, the four young masters were not in a good relationship with each other, and when Tian was going to choose a room for his son, several big maids fought together, as if it was a cockfight. The girl named Xiaohua was helpless, so she could only pretend to be silly and hide in the small kitchen every day, but she had no choice but to make a big fuss. Qiao's family failed. In order to appease her daughter-in-law's grievances, Tian sold all the others. The innocent little flower girl who was implicated.
After saying all that was said, Madam Wang opened her turbid old eyes and asked blankly, "Sir, what are you asking about that girl Xiaohua? But do you know where she is now? Before she was sold, the old lady still went to see her. Passed her, secretly stuffed some food and money with her... The slaves who were sold were suffering very much, and I don't know how she is now..."
Saying that, Madam Wang took out her veil and wiped away her old tears.
Dali Siqing was embarrassed, but of course she would not tell Madam Wang that the little girl you said was not bitter at all, she fell into the nest of blessings, and now she is a noble concubine.
He put on an official tone and let the woman lead the lady down.
Tian Shi was already limp and fell to the ground, including Tian's mother.