Questioning
The servants knelt back and forth for two hours, their bodies, legs and feet were already numb and their vision was dizzy, but they dared not move unless their master called them.
"Go and fetch the steward from the kitchen. It's because Dalangjun ate too much glutinous rice snacks that his stomach is blocked. But he needs snacks to eat. Where do these snacks come from? You need to ask our good steward from the kitchen."
Seeing Li Qingping sitting next to her and speaking in a cold voice, Concubine Li gave Chunyu a look, and she immediately took people to the kitchen to fetch the person.
"Tell me, how do you good servants serve the young master? The food he eats every day is fixed, so how could he eat extra snacks? Why didn't you come to report to the doctor if the young master had a poor appetite? Are you not paying attention or are you hiding it? What are your intentions? If you really don't want to serve, there are plenty of good places waiting for you!" Li Qingping signaled Concubine Li to make the decision. Concubine Li looked around and became angry at the end of what she said. She slammed the teacup heavily on the small table.
"Concubine, calm down! We, the servants, have absolutely no second thoughts about our eldest master!"
Concubine Li sneered, obviously not believing what these dogs said. She was simply afraid of her future.
Concubine Li first asked about the eldest son's two wet nurses. Regardless of blood relationship, a wet nurse is the closest person to a child of this age. Children in the palace were breastfed until they were five or six years old. Although children in the royal palace began eating solids at around one year old, wet nurses still had to stay with them until they were four or five years old.
The two nurses replied tremblingly, "Concubine, Madam, please understand. Even if we had a hundred guts, we wouldn't dare give our eldest son more glutinous rice!"
Yun Su stood silently aside, but she was very sharp. She noticed that the wealthy wet nurse named Lin rolled her eyes guiltily, and immediately became wary.
The wet nurses said that since the eldest son was able to eat solid foods, his appetite had improved, and he drank less milk each day. Before Madam Wan accompanied the emperor on his journey to the Great Wall, the wet nurses had long since stopped accompanying the eldest son constantly, only serving him closely during feedings. As the eldest son was gradually weaning, they didn't find it surprising that he drank less milk, and never thought it was due to a poor appetite.
"Who usually serves the eldest son personally?"
Li Qingping and Concubine Li were both surprised when they heard this. Although Madam Wan loved her eldest son, she didn't seem like the type to take care of a child herself.
The nurse explained that Madam Wan was served by several shifts. Early in the morning, Madam Ma and Qingbi took care of her; after noon, Madam Qian and Qingwan took over; at night, Madam Chen and Qingying took over; and after midnight, Madam Ma and Qingying took over again.
"Is that true?" Li Qingping asked, looking at the people kneeling below.
Those below would not dare to hide this, and Madam Wan has been doing this for some time, so she would definitely be able to find out if she wanted to.
Li Qingping and Concubine Li did not say much about Madam Wan's ruling methods, and only asked the three maids and three servants mentioned to come forward to answer.
But after much questioning, they could not find out the reason. All six of them said that when they served him, the young master had never used anything unusual, and it was impossible for him to use anything unusual. Although there would occasionally be one or two glutinous rice snacks when they brought back meals, they never dared to give the young master too much, for fear of the child getting food stagnation.
"Then tell me that Mr. Dalang has been eating less these days. Why don't you come and report it?"
Ma Ma and the others stammered, "It's summer now, and I thought that the young master was suffering from the heat and didn't want to eat..."
"You slaves, you think you're right?! Do you think it's a big deal until the young master can't eat anything? Kuxia, kuxia, I see you slaves don't take your job seriously! Let me tell you, if anything happens to the young master, every one of you will lose your head!"
After having a child, Concubine Li could no longer bear these words. She suddenly "exploded" and threw the teacup out fiercely. The fragments and hot tea splashed everywhere, making Ma Ma and others in the front tremble all over.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Coincidentally, Chunyu came back with the people from the kitchen, and Li Qingping asked them to kneel down as well.
Concubine Li was still trying to calm down, so Li Qingping asked, "Who usually takes care of Dalangjun's food?"
A short, stout cook stepped forward and saluted. His name was Wu Pinggui, and he worked two separate kitchens in the kitchen, responsible for Madam Wan's meals. As the eldest son grew older, thanks to Madam Wan's trust, he was responsible for his meals.
Wu Pinggui's face turned pale when he heard the reason for bringing them here. He knelt before his two masters with weak legs and said in a trembling voice, "Concubine Li and Madam Li, please understand that the food I feed my eldest son is always set in stone. I would never ask him to use more glutinous rice!"
Li Qingping narrowed his eyes, seemingly unconvinced. "How do you prove it?"
"I have proof! Madam, I have proof!" Wu Pinggui said hurriedly, "I have a habit of writing down the amount of ingredients I bring back every day, how much I use, and how much is left. I don't need to take more than I need the next day. I can use this to prove that I never made extra glutinous rice snacks!"
Li Qingping knew that the kitchen had a fixed daily allowance. For example, Qian Guang from her courtyard had to go to the main kitchen to get ingredients. In addition to the allowances for her and the eldest girl, any additional allowances would require money.
"Then go get it." Li Qingping ordered Fu'an, the young eunuch he needed.
When Wu Pinggui's account book was delivered, Li Qingping quickly scanned it, and Concubine Li, after catching her breath, also looked at it. The two sisters looked and saw that there was indeed not much glutinous rice used, and in some days, it had not even been used. This showed that Wu Pinggui's food for the eldest son was indeed in accordance with the rules.
Li Qingping frowned. Where did the eldest son get the food that was difficult to digest?
"Why do we have to send the food to the eldest son after it's ready?"
What kind of rules could there be? Although Wu Pinggui was confused, he still told everything as usual. It was nothing more than that he would pack the food boxes according to the time after he finished cooking, and then wait for the eunuch who served the eldest son to come and bring the food.
That means the food boxes would not pass through other people's hands when they were in the kitchen. Li Qingping asked again, "Who is responsible for delivering the food?"
There were two young eunuchs who were in charge of delivering the meals, one was Xiao Dezi and the other was Xiao Xizi, each of them was in charge for half a month. During this half month, Xiao Xizi was in charge of delivering the meals.
However, the two young eunuchs would bring the food boxes back and hand them directly to the maids and servant girls, so there was no way they could tamper with the boxes. It was also impossible for them to take the glutinous rice snacks at will.
So they came back to the point where Ma and the others insisted that there was nothing wrong with the meal.
Li Qingping understood at this time that the people in the dark were not so stupid as to tamper with the meals in public.
It was either these or those. Li Qingping glanced at the people kneeling below him and felt a headache. But as his sharp eyes swept over, everyone's heads couldn't help but droop a little further to the ground.
Li Qingping really wanted to wake up He Yan and ask him: "Good boy, where did you eat?" However, He Yan was probably not very clear-headed and didn't have the energy to pay attention to what he should and shouldn't eat.
At this time, Nanny Shangguan came out from the inner room, bowed, and said, "My two masters, I found some sugar crumbs in the room."
Isn't this a perfect opportunity? I was just worried about having no reason to pry open the mouths of my subordinates.
Li Qingping asked, "Where did you find it? How could there be sugar in Dalangjun's house?"
Normally, the kitchen would make some candies for the masters, especially the children, but they would never serve white sugar directly on the table.
Nanny Shangguan: "To answer Madam, it is by the tea stove."
Yun Su saw Nanny Lin's fingers curled up against the ground. Something was amiss. She whispered something in Li Qingping's ear.
"Where's the sugar?"
A steward from the kitchen who had been dragged along hastily said, "The kitchen usually prepares milk cakes for the wet nurses. I heard everyone in the palace does this. After using them, the milk becomes sweeter, which the young master likes even more. Some wet nurses also like to dip them in sugar to remove the fishy smell. The two wet nurses who serve the eldest son both like to use sugar."
Concubine Li asked again, "Who is responsible for the nurse's food?"
The kitchen manager said without hesitation, "Normally it's Zhang Linbao, but he sprained his ankle these past two days and is on leave to recuperate."
Li Qingping sent someone to pass on the message, and Zhang Linbao soon limped over, bringing with him the meal list for the wet nurses he was in charge of during those days.
Every day, the wet nurses would provide a plate of milk cakes, each about the length of a thumb and the width of two fingers, square and neat. A plate contained eight pieces, which wasn't too few. After all, these cakes are known to cause irritation, and eating too much would cause bloating in adults as well as children.
Um……?
Li Qingping narrowed his eyes instantly and asked the two nurses, "If this is your food, how could it appear in the eldest son's room?"
Servants who didn't need to serve directly would wait in the small tea room, awaiting orders, returning to the servants' quarters only when they needed to rest. The small tea room was where servants rested, ate, and drank, and the same was true for the wet nurses; they would never eat in the master's room. Even if summoned unexpectedly, they would clean themselves up before serving, and would never enter the room with a handful of sugar crumbs.
Li Qingping whispered, "Did you let Dalangjun eat the milk cake?"
The two wet nurses turned pale instantly. Wet nurse Zhao was fine, but Wet nurse Lin was trembling all over.
Concubine Li also noticed something was wrong and asked coldly, "Lin, why are you shaking?"
"Slave, slave..."
Nanny Lin was sweating profusely. Concubine Li clearly didn't have the patience and said, "If that's the case, then take her away and pry open her mouth."
"I only fed the young master one or two pieces a few days ago, but I didn't feed him every day!" Nanny Lin panicked and said quickly, "Nanny Zhao can prove that I have eaten all the milk cakes these days!"
Nanny Zhao didn't dare lie: "Yes, both of us servants finished eating the milk cake."
"So what's going on with the sugar in the house now?"
Nanny Lin was now feeling extremely guilty and wanted to show off her merits to save her life. She kowtowed several times and said, "Yu'er, who serves tea in the house, has a foster brother in the kitchen. He can get sugar and some excess milk cakes!"
A little girl kneeling at the edge of the crowd clenched her hands and was brought before her master in a wooden manner.
"My dear master, if you want to eat, how can I refuse you? I am just trying to satisfy you." The fish repeated like a puppet without a soul.
Concubine Li was furious and wanted to give Yu'er fifty lashes of the cane and also ordered people to arrest her adopted brother.
But Chunhui came back with a pale face: "Master, that man hanged himself."
The nanny who was escorting Yu'er to the beating noticed something was wrong halfway through. She felt under his nose and found he was dead. When she came back, her body was icy cold. "Master, Yu'er took poison beforehand and is dead."
Concubine Li was stunned and just held Li Qingping's hand tightly.
Li Qingping was trembling with anger. If those two hadn't died so soon, she could have still lied to herself about the servants bullying their master. But now, it was a stark reminder to everyone: Yes, this was premeditated! And it was an unacceptable provocation. The backyard was under the jurisdiction of the main courtyard, and everyone from concubines to servants was under the supervision of the princess. The servants around Prince Xuan's eldest son had attempted to murder their master. That person was challenging Princess Xuan's authority over the backyard!
Someone is trying to harm Prince Xuan's eldest son! This is definitely no small matter! Who is it?
Li Qingping's palm was painfully pricked by the nails, but in her current situation she had no time to care about such trivial matters.
Concubine Li was so frightened that she almost had a miscarriage. Li Qingping asked Chunhui and Chunyu to take her back to ask the imperial physician, while he stayed here to clean up the mess.
First, the dozens of people who served the eldest son were all beaten with sticks and sent back. Since they couldn't serve him well, they didn't need to serve him anymore. Li Qingping and Shangguan Ma Ma selected a few wet nurses, maids, and palace maids, and planned to send the eldest son to Li Qingping's courtyard for a while. Now, three children were squeezed into Li Qingping's small courtyard.
After returning to the courtyard, Li Qingping immediately wrote a letter to Prince Xuan and Princess Xuan, briefly explaining what happened today, and asked the chief secretary of the palace to send it out urgently.
I beg you, Your Highness, and Your Highness, to be well. I'm here to check your pulse. Your Highness is feeling unwell. I've consulted the Imperial Physician and the Court Physician, and they're all fine. But there's something strange going on... All the servants around your Highness have been given twenty lashes and sent back, and all the daring and treacherous ones have committed suicide out of fear of punishment...
Several horses were broken due to over-running, but the letter was delivered to Prince Xuan in one day.
After reading it, Prince Xuan and Princess Xuan were furious and sent a message back to the capital ordering Li Qingping to find out the whole story.
For a time, Prince Xuan's mansion was shrouded in a tense atmosphere.
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