Chapter 134 Ten Dead, Eight Crippled
Just as Madam Min Qiao received Wei Jia's letter and rushed back to the capital, the capital was already in turmoil due to the poisoning of Madam Zheng.
The Duke of Jin and his wife searched for doctors and invited imperial physicians, and with great difficulty, they managed to save Lady Zheng's life.
However, Madam Zheng was over fifty years old. Her health was damaged, which not only affected her lifespan, but she also couldn't get out of bed for a while.
According to the imperial physician, the poison that Madam Zheng was afflicted with was unprecedented. It was already a remarkable achievement that the poison was suppressed and Madam Zheng's life was saved.
Completely removing the toxins and restoring Madam Zheng to her original state would be harder than climbing to heaven.
Upon hearing this news, the Duke of Jin immediately went to the government office to file a complaint.
Because the Duke of Jin's mansion only reported the incident to the authorities the next day, after Madam Zheng woke up.
Therefore, when the government officials came to collect evidence, they found nothing.
Even the plate of pastries that caused Madam Zheng's poisoning had disappeared without a trace.
When asked, none of the servants attending to Madam Zheng could say where the remaining pastries had gone. Nor could anyone say who had brought them to Madam Zheng. In any case, the dozen or so maids and servants all insisted that the pastries had been delivered by Lady Wu, the wife of the Marquis of Xuanping, and Lady Yu, the niece-in-law of a collateral relative of the Duke of Jin's family, when they came to visit.
So the officials came to Wu and Yu again.
Wu and Yu would naturally not admit to poisoning Madam Zheng.
Due to insufficient evidence, the officials could not do anything to the two men.
However, with such a major incident, the gossip in the capital could drown the two of them.
So the two of them started blaming each other and shifting the blame.
And so the rumors circulated for several days, and no one could say for sure who had poisoned Madam Zheng.
The investigation by the government authorities has also reached a stalemate.
After the head of the Imperial Medical Academy examined Madam Zheng's pulse and confirmed that the entire Imperial Medical Academy was helpless against the poisoning, the Empress Dowager, who was Madam Zheng's closest friend, finally could not sit still any longer.
On that very day, Wu and Yu were summoned to the palace.
The Empress Dowager did nothing; after the two women knelt and bowed to her, she simply ignored them and made them remain kneeling.
After kneeling for two hours, he casually said, "I forgot," and then dismissed the two men from the palace.
The two women immediately understood that the Empress Dowager was deliberately making things difficult for them because of Lady Zheng's matter.
But what can you do even if you know? You still have to obediently accept it.
Then, on the second day, the third day... for five consecutive days, the Empress Dowager summoned the two men to the palace to kneel for two or three hours before they left.
On the sixth day, the Empress Dowager finally stopped summoning them to the palace, and Princess Jiaoyang left the palace again.
Princess Jiaoyang was not like the Empress Dowager; she followed the rules in everything she did.
On her first day outside the palace, she went to the Duke of Jin's residence to visit Madam Zheng.
Seeing that Madam Zheng's face was pale, her lips were blue, and she was lying weakly on the bed, even struggling to sit up, she immediately became furious.
"Granny Fang, go and summon all the maids and servants who were on duty the day the Grand Madam had her accident. I want to question them myself!"
Seeing Madam Zheng in such a state, Granny Fang also spent her days in tears. Upon hearing Princess Jiaoyang's words, she dared not delay and immediately summoned the sixteen maids and two old women who were on duty that day.
Princess Jiaoyang looked at the eighteen servants kneeling in the courtyard and asked sternly, "Who served the Grand Madam the snacks that day? Where did the rest of the snacks go? Who instructed you behind this?"
Princess Jiaoyang waited only three breaths. Seeing no response, she immediately ordered the preparation of torture instruments. She intended to torture each of them one by one.
Slapping, beating with a board, pinching fingers with a bamboo stick, pricking fingers with bamboo skewers, soaking in boiling water, branding the tongue with a hot iron... the types of punishments are incredibly diverse.
There weren't many; each person would experience a different form of torture. If they were lucky, they would get a slap in the face; if they were unlucky, they would get their tongue branded with a hot iron.
Princess Jiaoyang sat on the veranda, holding a bamboo tube in her hand, inside which were bamboo slips labeled with categories of criminal law.
She looked at the people in the courtyard with a sinister gaze, moved her finger from side to side, and finally pointed at one of the two old women, saying, "You're the first one."
The old woman trembled, a look of terror on her face. The others breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Princess Jiaoyang, having chosen her chosen person, began shaking the bamboo tube in her hand again, saying, "Let me see how lucky you are."
Everyone held their breath, quietly awaiting the result.
Soon, a bamboo skewer fell from the bamboo tube to the ground.
A palace maid nearby quickly bent down, picked up the bamboo stick, and respectfully handed it to Princess Jiaoyang.
Princess Jiaoyang took the bamboo skewer, glanced at it, and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh my, you're really lucky!"
Upon hearing this, the old woman's expression relaxed.
The next moment, Princess Jiaoyang said, "It's boiling water for soaking hands!"
Upon hearing this, everyone trembled.
The old woman trembled violently, repeatedly kowtowing and begging for mercy: "Princess, spare me! Princess, spare me! It has nothing to do with this old servant! This old servant really knows nothing!"
Princess Jiaoyang ignored her pleas for mercy and ordered her men to drag the old woman to the side next to the iron pot placed on the fire.
The fire was blazing, and the water in the iron pot was bubbling and steaming.
The old woman was held on either side of her, her hands were pulled and placed on the water's surface, waiting for Princess Jiaoyang's command.
"I'll ask one last time, who poisoned the Grand Madam?"
Still no one responded.
"very good."
Princess Jiaoyang's patience has run out.
With a single glance, the old woman's hands were forcefully pressed into the pot of boiling water.
The old woman's cries of pain echoed throughout the entire Duke of Jin's mansion.
A moment later, Princess Jiaoyang raised her hand, and the old woman was released.
However, the old woman's hands were already scalded, and she had fainted.
Princess Jiaoyang had the old woman dragged aside and then looked at the remaining people.
"Next, let me see who I pick."
Upon seeing the first old woman's miserable state, everyone turned pale with fright, fearing that they would be next.
Princess Jiaoyang waved her finger back and forth in the crowd. Just as it was about to stop on a little maid, the little maid trembled and quietly reached out to push the little maid next to her, causing her to stumble.
Caught off guard, the young maidservant lunged forward, face down, straight out of the crowd.
Princess Jiaoyang pointed at the little maid and said, "Since you've come out on your own, you're next."
The maidservant who was pushed out stared wide-eyed in horror, looking at the person who had pushed her in disbelief.
The person who pushed her lowered their head, as if they were innocent.
Princess Jiaoyang started shaking the bamboo tube again, and with a "plop," the bamboo stick fell to the ground.
Everyone's hearts were in their throats.
Princess Jiaoyang looked at the contents of the bamboo stick and said with a smile, "You're lucky, you'll get a slap in the face."
As they were speaking, someone took a bamboo stick and struck her in the mouth.
After twenty strokes of the cane, the little girl's mouth and face were swollen high.
But compared to that old woman before, she was incredibly lucky.
Princess Jiaoyang smiled and said to the little maid, "You decide who to choose next."
Then, unsurprisingly, the maid pointed her finger at the person who had just pushed her.
"Then it's you."
Princess Jiaoyang glanced at the little maid who had pushed the person, and began to shake the bamboo tube.
The little maid's eyes were filled with terror. Before Princess Jiaoyang could shake out the bamboo stick, the little maid had already scrambled to her feet and tried to run away.
However, he was caught and brought back before he could run two steps.
At this moment, the bamboo skewers were also shaken out.
Princess Jiaoyang played with the bamboo stick inscribed with "slap in the mouth," and smiled slightly, "Hmm, it's 'swallowing a branding iron'."
The maidservant suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground, the foul-smelling liquid spreading from beneath her.
It's unclear whether the maids and servants were all wrongly accused, or if the malicious perpetrators were simply too principled. Even after witnessing people's hands being scalded and their tongues being burned off, no one confessed.
So, one round of punishments after another was imposed until everyone had undergone all the punishments, and only then did Princess Jiaoyang stop, satisfied.
In the end, of the sixteen maids and two old women, ten died, eight were maimed, and none survived.
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