At dusk, Kangxi returned with a large amount of game. Since the princes and Ban Gu's sons all wanted to please the emperor, they naturally yielded to him as much as possible. Kangxi was old and couldn't compare to the younger generation.
After handing over the prey to the servant, he was helped back to his imperial tent to rest by Liang Jiugong. As soon as he entered the tent, he saw a human figure lying on the ground. Kangxi approached and examined her before asking, "What happened to her?"
The person lying on the ground was none other than Jin Die. Her face was deathly pale, and she was coughing up blood. She was curled up on the ground, looking like a kitten or puppy.
Kangxi seemed to be asking the air, but a voice actually answered him: "She sneaked in and looked through the Emperor's memorials and documents, and was kicked unconscious by a servant."
Looking at the unconscious Jin Die on the ground, Liang Jiugong sighed inwardly: "She really courted death. If she had been kicked by one of Kangxi's bodyguards, she would have been half-dead, if not dead."
It turned out that Jin Die couldn't resist the temptation of Mei'er's words, so she actually used the excuse of cleaning to come in and rummage through Kangxi's desk. Because she had been frequently favored by Kangxi recently, the little eunuch guarding the tent entrance didn't dare to stop her.
But she never expected that there were still secret guards in the seemingly empty imperial tent.
"Wake him up!" Kangxi raised his hand, took off his hat, and threw it at Liang Jiugong.
After Kangxi sat down behind the main desk, he casually flipped through the things on his desk before staring at the thin body on the ground with a stern face.
Liang Jiugong immediately went out and called two eunuchs in. They deftly lifted the golden disc from the ground and dragged it out. Watering shouldn't be done here, lest it soil the things in the imperial tent.
"You insolent fools, you've even dared to lay your hands on my desk!" Kangxi said, his eyes blazing with suppressed rage. "What else have you discovered?"
A moment later, two figures appeared out of nowhere and knelt before Kangxi.
"Your Majesty," the guard reported, "this servant discovered that during the severe rice famine in Yangzhou last year, grain prices in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, and other regions skyrocketed. The mastermind behind this was the Ninth Prince! And behind the Ninth Prince was the Eighth Prince. Furthermore, although there was no direct evidence in the cave discovered in Yangzhou, the items ultimately pointed to the Eighth Prince. The former Crown Prince was not involved. The so-called dragon robe and imperial edict were all forgeries."
It turns out that after the Fourth Prince investigated the matter in Yangzhou, Kangxi had been sending secret guards to investigate the Yangzhou case and the soaring grain prices in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hubei during the same period.
Smack! Kangxi slammed his hand heavily on the table.
"Your Majesty, Jin Die has awakened!" came the voice of a young eunuch from outside.
"Bring him in!" Kangxi roared in fury.
The thick curtains were lifted from the outside, and two eunuchs dragged in, their clothes soaked with sweat.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I am innocent!" As soon as Jin Die saw Kangxi, she tried to break free from the control of the two eunuchs, but no matter how she struggled, the two held her tightly.
"Shut up! How dare you not use your servant in front of the Emperor!" Liang Jiugong stepped forward, swung his arm, and slapped Jin Die several times, making her see stars.
As the two eunuchs threw her to the ground, Kangxi's voice came from above Jin Die's head: "Who sent you? If you tell the truth, I might give you a proper burial!"
Jin Die knew it was wrong to secretly look through the Emperor's things, but she never expected it to be this serious.
"Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me! I was used! I did nothing wrong!" Jin Die kowtowed repeatedly on the ground.
"Who took advantage of you!" Kangxi frowned.
“It was Mei’er, yes, it was her. She said that His Majesty has been troubled lately, and she had me sneak in to look through His Majesty’s things. I found out what was making His Majesty unhappy.” Jin Die quickly spilled the beans, telling Mei’er all about it.
"Mei'er?" Kangxi was surprised that the golden butterfly would bite out a Mei'er instead of someone else.
"Yes, she told me to spy on the Emperor. I really don't know anything!" Jin Die was completely terrified by the Emperor's fury. All her dreams of wealth and status, of rising to a higher social standing, were shattered by the harsh reality. It turned out that in Kangxi's eyes, women like them were like powder, easily crushed into dust.
"Did you hear that? Go and bring Mei'er here!" Kangxi said to Liang Jiugong.
When Liang Jiugong led his men to look for Mei'er, they found that Mei'er had already disappeared.
Upon learning that Mei'er had disappeared, Emperor Kangxi immediately ordered his secret guards: "Go and find Mei'er. I want to see her alive or dead!"
Jin Die was thrown outside in shackles, and the palace maids who had shared a tent with her cast disdainful glances at her.
"Look at her, she was just showing off how she climbed into the Emperor's bed, and now she's a plucked hen," two brightly dressed palace maids sneered as they passed by the cage where Jin Die was imprisoned. The two of them had replaced Mei'er and Jin Die and were now serving Emperor Kangxi.
“Let’s go, she’s already dead, why say anything more!” another said.
Jin Die, shackled, lay in the wooden cage like a cat or dog rejected by its owner. She never imagined that she, a favorite of the emperor in the morning, would become a prisoner in the evening.
Mei'er naturally ran away. When she saw Jin Die go to Kangxi's tent and not come out, she knew that things had probably been exposed. So, she decisively chose to escape. She didn't seek Ninth Master's protection, because she knew he couldn't protect her. Servants like her were like weeds on the prairie; the death of a few of them was like the death of a few ants.
Mei'er changed her clothes and disguised herself as a grassland dweller, running westward. She deliberately chose to run in crowded places so she could blend in with the crowd. It must be said that she was indeed very clever; although the guards were highly skilled in martial arts, they couldn't find her immediately.
Emperor Kangxi initially thought that a mere maidservant couldn't possibly have run far, but by evening, she still hadn't been brought back. Even more unexpectedly, the entire night passed without Mei'er being apprehended and reported back.
Just as Kangxi was about to go to sleep with Liang Jiugong serving him, an urgent report suddenly arrived: the Prince Zhi's men were only fifty li away and were coming at full speed.
When Emperor Kangxi heard this report, he immediately sat up in bed. What he had been waiting for for so long had finally come to pass—Galdan's head.
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