Chapter 265 Don't Kill Him
Xiao Linzi and the maid behind him were guilty of being thieves. When they saw who was coming, they were scared and turned pale.
Their legs went soft and they fell to their knees. "Queen, spare my life! Queen, spare my life!"
Shen Chaoyan looked down at the two people trembling on the ground and raised her eyebrows. "I didn't know that going out to stroll around to digest food was a capital crime?"
After she reminded them, the maids and eunuchs thought about it and reacted.
Yes, the queen only asked them about their luggage and didn't know that they stole the property of Shoukang Palace.
Xiao Linzi was the first to calm down, "Your Majesty, I left Shoukang Palace after the Empress Dowager went to pray and came here to hang out. I was absent from my post without permission. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"
Shen Chaoyan looked at Xiao Linzi, who was terrified, and decided to give him a chance, "Apart from this incident, did you make any other mistakes while the Empress Dowager was away from the palace?"
Xiao Linzi didn't know that Shen Chaoyan was testing him, and he and the palace maids beside him denied it in unison, "No!"
"Really?"
"Yes! I would never dare to deceive the Empress!"
Shen Chaoyan saw that he was unwilling to tell the truth, so he looked at Xiao Fuzi and gave him a look.
Xiao Fuzi took advantage of Xiao Linzi's unpreparedness and snatched his bag from his arms.
When Xiao Linzi saw his bag being snatched, his face changed immediately. He stretched out his hand and tried to snatch his bag back, "That's mine!"
Unfortunately, before his hand touched Xiao Fuzi, Xiao Luzi and Xiao Shouzi grabbed him on each side.
"Your Majesty, please look!"
Xiao Fuzi opened the bag and saw several gold hairpins, a pair of jade bracelets, a pair of glass cups, and two clothes made of floating brocade falling out of the bag.
Shen Chaoyan didn't expect that Xiao Linzi and the other two were not only brave, but also greedy. They actually stole several things from the Empress Dowager's palace at once.
These things can be easily sold for 1,800 taels in a pawnshop outside.
"How dare you!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down! Your Majesty, please forgive me! It's her! Cui Liu's parents are seriously ill and need a lot of money. I want to help her, but I can't get the money for the medicine. I really have no other choice. That's why I took some things that the Queen Mother doesn't need and wanted to pawn them to give Cui Liu some money to deal with the emergency!"
Xiao Linzi's mind was very quick. He pushed all the problems onto Cui Liu, hoping to impress Shen Chaoyan with his filial piety.
Unfortunately, the lies he told couldn't fool Shen Chaoyan, let alone two five-year-old children.
"Mother! He lied! Cui Liu's parents are not sick, they died a long time ago! Cui Liu is an orphan, and was sold to the palace at the age of seven!"
Sikong Nian reacted quickly and found Cui Liu's character profile in her heavenly book, and understood Cui Liu's personal situation clearly on the spot.
Cui Liu didn't expect that even a five-year-old princess knew her life experience.
Then, how could the Queen not know that Xiao Linzi was making up a story?
So, Cui Liu was the first to kowtow and admit her fault, "Your Majesty! I was bewildered for a moment and took the jewelry from the Empress Dowager's room to sell in order to get some money! I know I was wrong! Please be lenient with me, Your Majesty! Please have mercy! Spare my life!"
Seeing that Cui Liu had already begged for mercy from the Empress, Xiao Linzi knew that it was useless for him to say anything more, so he kowtowed with her, "Please have mercy, Your Majesty! Spare us! Please have mercy, Your Majesty!"
Shen Chaoyan was unmoved and said in a cold voice, "Not only did the two of you steal the property from the Empress Dowager's palace and sell it, you also tried to deceive me. If I let you go today, and others follow suit in the future, won't they empty the entire palace? "
Having said this, she glanced at Xiao Fuzi and ordered, "Xiao Fuzi, you pass on my order. From today on, check the harem thoroughly. I want to know if there are any other places in the palace where valuables have been lost besides Shoukang Palace! If there are any, the thieves must be caught and they must hand over everything they stole!"
Sikong Chen Hearing this, she couldn't help but say, "Mother, they have already transported all the stolen things out of the palace to sell for money! They are not in the palace at all!"
Shen Chaoyan said in a deep voice, "If the things are gone, the thieves will pay with their lives!"
The palace is so big and there are so many treasures. If theft is not severely punished, more people will be greedy and follow suit.
This time, since she has caught the person, she must not only recover the stolen things as much as possible, but also kill the chicken to scare the monkey!
When Xiao Linzi and Cui Liu heard this, the remaining blood color on their faces faded away.
It's over!
It's really over this time!
As the queen, Shen Chaoyan is not so strict in managing the affairs of the harem.
Now this group of palace maids and eunuchs dared to steal things blatantly in the Empress Dowager's palace. If they are tolerated any longer, their appetite will only get bigger and bigger.
"Xiao Fuzi, take these two people away, first find out how many things were lost in Shoukang Palace, and then see how much you can get them to confess. Don't kill them before the things are recovered."
"Yes!"
Shen Chaoyan didn't look at the two people crying on the ground, and left with his son and daughter.
Although Sikong Yan was usually busy with government affairs, what happened in Shoukang Palace soon reached his ears.
The man waved his hand and ordered a thorough check of every palace, and compared all the things with the books when they were put into the warehouse, one by one.
You don't know until you check, and you'll be shocked when you check.
In addition to the Empress Dowager's Shoukang Palace, jewelry and ornaments were also lost in the palaces of other concubines.
These concubines did not leave the palace at the beginning, but chose to stay in the palace to retire.
They are now more low-key than each other, and their lives are very simple.
When they first entered the palace, most of the things awarded by the emperor were locked in the warehouse.
This time the emperor checked and found out that there were many jewelry and ornaments that they had not worn yet, but they were all missing.
And in the entire palace, adding up all the items, there were nearly 500 items missing!
They were all valuable high-end goods.
Because Shen Chaoyan discovered the clues and investigated in time, more than 100 items were recovered.
The remaining more than 300 items could not be found.
If all these things were converted into silver, it would be a considerable sum.
They couldn't be found in the palace, so it was obviously sold out by someone with ulterior motives.
However, it would be impossible for Xiao Linzi and Cui Liu to carry away so many things by climbing through the dog hole alone.
The only explanation is that in addition to the young palace maids and eunuchs, there might also be guards walking around in the palace involved.
Sikong Yan sent Ye Hanqin to investigate the matter. With Xiao Linzi and Cui Liu as clues, Ye Hanqin quickly caught the thief.
This thief was not just one person, but a group of people.
In addition to a dozen palace maids and eunuchs, several guards guarding the palace gate were also arrested.
They used their positions to help these palace maids and eunuchs transport the things in the palace. After selling them, they quietly divided the money according to the proportion.
This time, not only a batch of lost precious jewelry was recovered, but also more than 100,000 taels of silver were recovered from all the people involved in the case.
After the theft was over, Sikong Yan immediately came to Fengqi Palace.
"Yan'er, I'm so sorry for you this time, otherwise I don't know how much the palace would have lost!"
Shen Chaoyan said with a smile, "The hero this time is not me, but Chen'er and Nian Nian who first discovered that there was something wrong with the dog hole in Shoukang Palace!"