“That’s enough!”
Kangxi interrupted the tender scene between father and son, feeling quite helpless.
Privately, he didn't want to let Qingfu go easily, but he had to admit one thing: even if Qingfu knew all the details of the opium business, even if he was the mastermind, he couldn't order Qingfu to be beheaded.
The Tong family has already lost Longkodo. If Qingfu is also gone, Tong Guowei’s health will probably collapse in no time.
Kangxi pondered for a moment, and finally made the decision.
"How about this, considering your good attitude in admitting your mistake, you can go outside and receive thirty lashes, and let this matter go. If it happens again, I won't take your life, but I'm afraid it will be difficult to keep your official uniform."
Thirty boards...
Tong Guowei was still not satisfied.
Thirty strokes of the cane were enough for Qingfu to recover from his injuries at home for half a year, but Kangxi had already said so. If he continued to pester Kangxi and made him annoyed, Qingfu's future would probably come to an end.
Tong Guowei thanked Emperor Kangxi with great gratitude.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy!"
Qingfu's facial features wrinkled together, and it was obvious that he was not very willing to do so. However, seeing that all the fathers in the family had expressed their gratitude, he followed suit and bowed to express his gratitude.
Liang Jiugong pointed at a young eunuch and led the father and son out of the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The executioners were already in place outside. Seeing this, Qingfu's face wrinkled even more.
After the thirty strokes of the board, Qingfu's buttocks were covered in blood. The young eunuch kindly sent Qingfu and Tong Guowei to the carriage.
Looking at Qingfu lying in the carriage, unable to scream in pain, Tong Guowei sighed deeply.
Kangxi said that the matter was over, but was it really over?
If it really happened, they should have just fined him a few months' salary as a symbolic punishment, and Qingfu should not have been made to suffer such a great crime.
If Qingfu were Longkodo, he probably wouldn't even be fined.
Thinking of Longkodo, Tong Guowei felt more and more depressed.
He had so many sons, but Kangxi only favored Longkodo as his younger brother, but Longkodo was silenced by Kangxi.
How ironic.
In the Palace of Heavenly Purity, after the noise outside had died down, Kangxi stood up and walked out of the hall. He looked up at the sky which had already darkened and asked,
"Have you found out the relationship between your adopted son and the Tong family?"
"It's cleared up."
Thinking of the news delivered to him by the secret guard, Liang Jiugong looked a little embarrassed.
"What's going on?"
"It was not Concubine Tong who bribed him in the beginning, but Longkodo."
"Longkodo..."
Kangxi narrowed his eyes, and his teeth felt a little sore.
He had thought of Longkodo several times today.
"Longkodo bribed Liang Jinzhong, probably to get information about me."
"……yes."
This time, Kangxi was silent for a long time, until a gust of cold wind blew by, then he sneered,
"It seems that his death was not unjust!"
No one likes being spied on, and Kangxi is even worse.
Anyone in the harem who inquired about his whereabouts was considered a serious crime, but Longkodo had even set his sights on the people around him. It was a pity that he had placed high hopes on Longkodo in the past!
"Besides Concubine Tong, does Liang Jinzhong have any contact with anyone outside?"
Before Longkodo's death, there were not so many troubles in the palace. After Longkodo's death, these troubles came one after another, and he couldn't help but think about it.
"Our people haven't found any contact between him and the Tong family. We've also checked the eunuchs and servants around him. Most of them are like him, trying to take shortcuts to climb up the social ladder. Not many of them are greedy for money."
Liang Jinzhong was not very greedy for money. Everything that his subordinates handed over to him eventually fell into Liang Jiugong's hands. What he wanted from the beginning to the end was only the position under Liang Jiugong.
However, Kangxi had given him a chance, but he did not seize it.
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