An suddenly collapsed, and no one in the harem reacted quickly.
Especially the penalty for an accident is so severe.
She was demoted from a first-rank concubine to the lowest-rank ninth-rank concubine, which was a huge leap.
What is even more surprising is that even when Concubine Ming went to Jingqian Palace to plead for An, the emperor did not reduce the punishment.
This inevitably makes people think of other things.
Although no one knew exactly what happened, they guessed that An must have done more than just the safflower incident, otherwise, considering the emperor's favor towards her, he would not have punished her so harshly.
But as to what it was, no one dared to investigate further. After all, the emperor refused to tell anyone, so it must be some secret.
In the end, An was knocked unconscious, stuffed into a carriage and sent back to the palace.
However, the eldest prince was frightened by his mother and became ill. He had a high fever and could not move, so he had to be kept with the queen for the time being.
As An returned to the palace, a secret letter was quietly delivered to Concubine Yao of Ci'an Palace.
Two days later, Bai Shuang, the senior palace maid who served An Cainu, hanged herself.
They told others that he died because he could not bear the humiliation.
It is said that after An was demoted, her temperament changed drastically and she would beat and scold the servants at every turn. Bai Shuang could not stand it and had no choice but to commit suicide.
This news reached Lingxi Garden. After hearing it, Ning Chen's expression remained calm.
It seems that forcing a servant to death is something that the An family is indeed capable of doing.
Wutong Palace.
The queen had just returned from the side hall and went to see the eldest prince.
"I see that without the protection of his mother, this child may not grow up. He is as skinny as a cat."
"An is asking for trouble. She didn't take good care of the child after she got it, and she still expected the emperor's favor to continue. Once a person becomes too jealous and loses his or her mind, he or she will lose everything." Nanny Ding said.
The queen sat down, took the teacup handed to her and took a sip.
"Madam, are you reminding me?"
Ding smiled and bowed.
"Your Highness is intelligent and you are the Empress. It is good to be favored, but the Emperor's favor is just the icing on the cake for you. Just sit firmly on the throne and everything will be fine. Those who are jealous are all concubines."
"I understand what Mammy said, but he is my husband after all. How can I... How can I not care at all?"
Looking at the pair of auspicious bracelets with dragon and phoenix patterns on her hands, the queen's eyes slightly reddened.
This pair of bracelets was put on her by Ning Chen himself during their wedding, and she has been wearing them ever since and has never taken them off.
Nanny Ding felt distressed and sighed, then squatted down to comfort her.
"My queen, whose wife doesn't live like this? At least our emperor is a wise ruler. Although he favors his concubine, he also respects you the most."
"The Emperor has always been considerate of friendship, both with me and others. Even though An was demoted for doing something like that, the Emperor still protected her from being bullied by others. He apparently confined her, but if he didn't do that, the women in the harem would tear An apart."
The sentence "no one is allowed to visit" saved the An family from so much trouble.
The queen took a deep breath and wiped her eyes.
"Forget it, let's not talk about this. After all, there is no more favored Consort Wende now. Madam, go make me a bowl of ice cream. Your cooking skills have always been the best."
"Okay, I'll do it right away. Your Majesty, just take a rest." Nanny Ding also forced a smile, stood up and walked out.
When he got outside, he let out a long sigh, shook his head, and went to the kitchenette.
Without a favorite concubine in the harem, everyone became more peaceful for a while, but the previous dynasty was turned upside down.
The commander of the imperial guards, Lu Qingyun, was ordered by the emperor to thoroughly investigate the Feng family's corruption case and presented the evidence to the court. The evidence was conclusive that Chen Xianwen, the legitimate son of Duke Yingguo, had accepted bribes and he should be beheaded according to the law.
Only when things got to this point did the Duke of England realize how much his son had embezzled.
When the Feng family got into trouble, he blamed his eldest son, but the amount Chen Xianwen said was only one-third of the amount he embezzled, so the Duke of England was not too nervous.
He invited the Wu family to have a drink that day just to test the waters, and he didn't do anything else. If he knew his son had embezzled so much, he would definitely find a way to properly resolve the issue.
Unexpectedly, the eldest son was afraid of being scolded by him, so he did not tell the truth. However, he thought he could handle it, so he concealed it, which eventually led to the current situation.
The only way now is to find someone to take the blame in order to save his son's life.
Corruption can be saved, but poisoning a witness in an attempt to conceal the truth is unforgivable.
Therefore, the Feng family could not have been killed by Chen Xianwen.
Finally, the Duke of England had to push the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple to take the blame, saying that he had also accepted benefits from the Feng family and was afraid of being discovered, so he secretly committed this murder.
Chen Xianwen was just bewildered. He took the money but did not spend a penny.
As to whether it was true that not a penny was spent or the British public found a way to collect the money, others were too lazy to investigate.
In the court, Duke Yingguo knelt on the ground and cried bitterly. He was so cruel that he beat his son with fifty sticks with his own hands, and had people carry him to the outside of Jingqian Palace to apologize to Ning Chen.
He even fainted while kneeling under the scorching sun.
Seeing that he had done almost enough, Ning Chen went with the flow and issued an order to pardon Chen Xianwen from the death penalty, but he could not escape the punishment of life.
Chen Xianwen's idle fourth-rank position was naturally stripped away, and he was directly demoted to a commoner. He was no longer the Prince of England and could not inherit the title.
The Duke of England had only one legitimate son, and this imperial decree had ended his hopes for the main wife.
The successor to the title must be chosen from among the illegitimate sons.
Of course, Ning Chen didn’t care about these. The biggest benefit he gained this time was that the control of the Dali Temple fell back into his hands.
The Dali Temple in Nanqi belonged to the Ministry of Justice, which was responsible for investigating and judging cases. Controlling the Dali Temple basically meant controlling the Ministry of Justice.
This time the position of Dali Temple Chief Justice became vacant, and Ning Chen originally wanted to let Yi Xiuyuan's brother Wu Yiping take it.
But there were too many voices of opposition in the court.
Firstly, Wu Yiping was young, and secondly, as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, he caused the witness to die in prison, which almost cut off the clues, so he failed to accomplish any meritorious service.
For this reason, Ning Chen had no choice but to give up, and finally decided on an old minister who had been neutral for many years, Li Xiuqi.
At this point, the Feng family’s corruption case was closed.
But another problem arises.
The Chu family is the only imperial merchant now, and there is a tendency for them to dominate.
Ye Jun did not dare to be vague and immediately wrote a letter to his maternal grandfather's house, warning him not to act rashly, to perform his duties conscientiously, to be loyal to the emperor, and to learn from the Feng family's experience.
He also stated in the letter that the emperor still trusted the Chu family, and asked my grandparents to rest assured and not to be too cautious and suspicious, which would hurt the trust between the monarch and his subjects.
The Chu family outside felt relieved after receiving the news.
The Chu family is not really that ambitious. They would be happy to expand their family business, but as for becoming rich enough to rival a country or having overwhelming power, that is something they would never think of.
With the Feng family in the lead, the already honest Chu family became even more cautious and didn't dare to be disloyal in the slightest.
And Ning Chen has indeed asked people to secretly monitor the Chu family's every move these days.
I found that this family was indeed loyal and reliable, and I felt more satisfied.