Chapter 661: Murder and Silencing
The virtuous concubine's face turned pale and blue, and she was filled with anger at Tang Ning's impoliteness, but she could not say anything more. She could only say angrily: "No matter how you explain, the prince died because of Qian Qiyue's injuries. The imperial physician can also testify to this..."
"That may not be the case."
Tang Ning didn't bother to pay attention to Concubine Xian. She just lowered her eyes to look at Cai'an and continued to ask, "Miss Cai'an, can you tell me why you are so warm-hearted only to Concubine Xian?"
Cai'an's face turned pale, and he subconsciously wanted to look at Nanny Ran, but his eyes dropped as soon as he raised them.
She clutched her sleeves, her mind racing. After a while, she suddenly knelt down and kowtowed to the Queen Mother.
"This servant is guilty, and I beg the Queen Mother to punish me."
The Queen Mother's expression remained unchanged: "What punishment do you want from me?"
Cai An fell to the ground and said, "Before, something happened to the Cui family, and the virtuous concubine fell out of favor. Seeing that Your Majesty had not visited Cuiwei Palace for a long time, the virtuous concubine wanted to follow the Empress Dowager's path to regain the emperor's favor."
"Yun'er has sent silver here several times on behalf of the Concubine Xian. I accepted it out of greed. Today, I should have been guarding the front hall, but I had a guilty conscience and wanted to use the excuse of getting charcoal cakes to talk to Yun'er about the Concubine Xian. That's why I accidentally discovered what the Crown Prince and Miss Qian were doing."
The virtuous concubine was immediately shocked: "What nonsense are you talking about? When did I ever send money to Shoukang Palace?!"
"I dare not lie. Yun'er gave it to me."
"Yun'er?!" Concubine Xian was stunned.
Yun'er's face turned pale. When everyone was staring at her, she wanted to refute that she didn't do it. But when she met Cai'an's gaze, she trembled all over. She didn't dare to look at the wrathful eyes of Concubine Xian. She fell to the ground and trembled:
"I, your servant, did send some silver, but Her Majesty the Concubine is not aware of this."
"After the Cui family incident, I saw that the Empress had fallen from favor and was extremely anxious. Furthermore, the Empress Dowager disliked the Cui family because of Madam Xuan's incident that day. I was afraid that the Empress would be implicated, so I sent the rewards I had saved from her to Shoukang Palace, hoping that Sister Cai'an would speak well of my Empress in front of the Empress Dowager."
"Really?" Tang Ning raised her lips: "How much silver did you give her?"
"one……"
Cai An was about to speak when Tang Ning interrupted her: "I didn't ask you."
She looked at Yun'er and said, "If you want to bribe the maids around the Queen Mother, you can't just use eight or ten taels. With so much money going through your hands, you can't say you forgot."
"Of course I didn't forget!"
Yun'er subconsciously denied it, and was guided by Tang Ning's words. She remembered that Cai'an had just said "one", and blurted out: "This servant gave Sister Cai'an one thousand taels."
Cai'an's face turned pale instantly.
Sure enough, Tang Ning laughed:
"The Cuiwei Palace is truly wealthy. A mere maid could easily come up with a thousand taels of silver. It seems the Concubine Xian is very generous."
Originally, because Yun'er had sought a way for her to regain favor, Concubine Xian had not been too angry even when she went to see the people in Shoukang Palace in private, but now her expression was extremely ugly.
She was indeed generous and did not treat her subordinates harshly, but the reward she gave was at most three or five taels of silver each time, and her confidants only received ten or eight taels.
Yun'er was not a servant she brought from the Cui family. She followed her after she entered the palace. It was impossible for her to come up with such a large amount of silver based on the rewards she received in just two or three years.
Tang Ning smiled faintly, "The palace probably doesn't give out silver notes directly as rewards. How can you afford to collect a thousand taels with small change? Moreover, most of the maids in the palace sleep together, and there are eunuchs guarding the outer rooms. How did you hide this large sum of money from others and give it to Cai An?"
Seeing Yun'er opening her mouth to speak, Tang Ning sneered:
"Are you trying to tell me that you found someone to exchange the banknotes for?"
"The eunuch was able to enter and exit the palace freely, carry so much small change without being noticed, and exchange the banknotes for you. He must be of high status. What's his name? Where is he on duty? When did he exchange the banknotes for you?"
Yun'er's face turned pale and her lips began to tremble.
Tang Ning looked at Cai An, and that look made Cai An shudder:
"She gave you so much silver, and she bribed you secretly without the master's knowledge. I'm sure you wouldn't dare to use it lightly. Commander Yu, why don't you take your men to search Miss Cai'an's residence and see if you can find this dirty silver?"
Yu Yanfeng nodded and said, "That's easy. As long as the Empress Dowager gives the order, I will go."
"Don't!!"
Cai'an screamed in surprise, and seeing the empress dowager's gloomy face, she said hurriedly, "I have already sent the silver out of the palace..."
"Who gave it to you, and to whom?"
Tang Ning said coldly, "Every palace maid and eunuch who leaves the palace is recorded. If you have any relatives or friends outside the palace, they are all on the list. The ones who can make you give so much silver are probably your closest relatives. Do you want to have them brought back to the palace for interrogation one by one?"
The color drained from Cai'an's face.
Seeing her expression, Concubine Zhao Gui knew there was nothing she didn't understand. She immediately shouted angrily, "You slave! Even at this point, you still don't tell the truth. Who ordered you to murder the Crown Prince and the Qian family's daughters?!"
"I didn't, I didn't murder the Crown Prince, I'm innocent..."
"Are you wronged?"
Concubine Zhao shouted angrily, "If you are truly innocent, why do you keep lying? You and Yun'er clearly planned to go to the annex. Even the eunuch you mentioned meeting was probably a lie. If you didn't know what would happen in the annex, how could you have dared to cause such a commotion?"
Everyone in the hall was looking at the two palace maids lying on the ground.
The Queen Mother saw that the situation was not right and cried out in anger: "Cai'an, you are so bold! How dare you deceive me?"
Nanny Ran was also furious: "The Queen Mother trusted you so much, and you dared to murder the Crown Prince? Do you know that murdering the royal family is a serious crime punishable by the death of nine generations of the family?!"
There was no trace of blood on Cai'an's face, and the words "kill all nine clans" made her eyes waver.
She looked at the aggressive Tang Ning and suddenly cried, "This slave is really wronged. This slave only accepted money from the virtuous concubine and did not know about the prince's affairs. Everything today is an accident."
"Princess Xiangning has wronged me to exonerate Miss Qian. I am willing to die to prove my guilt. And Yun'er, you've caused me so much trouble!!"
Cai'an suddenly pulled out her hairpin and stabbed it towards Yun'er's neck. Yun'er was caught off guard and blood splattered.
"Protect the Queen Mother!"
“Stop her!!”
Tang Ning and Nanny Ran's voices rang out almost at the same time.
When Yu Yanfeng stepped forward to capture Cai'an, he saw Liu Tong'en approaching first. He drew his sword as if to protect the empress dowager, but just blocked Yu Yanfeng's hand that was about to grab Cai'an. Cai'an turned around with determination and bumped into Liu Tong'en's sword.
"Your servant, I am wronged..."
Bang.
Cai'an fell to the ground with his eyes wide open.
"ah--"
Princess Huan screamed in shock, and everyone else turned pale.
When Tang Ning looked at Liu Tong'en with anger, Liu Tong'en knelt on the ground without changing his expression.
"I only wanted to stop this woman, fearing she would take the risk and hurt the Queen Mother. I didn't expect her to be so stubborn. I was unable to retract my knife in time. I beg the Queen Mother to forgive me."
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