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A fire triggered a major purge of the villa. Tu Lichen led the team to investigate and find any problematic servants in the prince's villa. Qingyan was listed as a key person to be protected due to health reasons, and was kept by Yin's side at all times. The twins were even sent by Yin to be raised by Kangxi and Consort Tong.
"Fourth Brother, we haven't seen the twins for five days! Apart from Sulan and Suzhu, you've taken all the other palace maids away!" Qingyan pouted and complained.
Previously, Yin had said he hoped to give her some practice time, but now all of that has vanished.
Emperor Kangxi believed that this situation was quite serious. Their target was the twins, and if the Qing Dynasty lost the twins, the officials in the south would waver.
So, the people in the south wanted to get rid of the two children through infighting among the princes, but the good news was unexpectedly discovered during the Ban Jin Festival, which inadvertently helped them.
“Little one, those people have been hiding over there for five years. Their intentions are quite malicious, so we must be careful. Try to keep the children with Father and Mother. There are plenty of guards over there.” Yin planned a ten-day vacation to keep the children away from him.
Before leaving, they were to take a number of people with them from the mansion. These people had been living there for several years, and because of this incident, they had to start investigating again.
Qingyan was stunned. Apart from the few people around her, all the remaining maids were placed in a very poor category.
"Sulan and Suzhu accompanied me into the palace. When they first arrived, the nannies ostracized them quite a bit. One of the substitute maids by the Third Princess's side was replaced by one provided by the Imperial Household Department. Luckily, I stood up for myself." Qingyan felt a surge of resentment when she thought about the difficult years when she entered the palace.
Yin sat facing her, and Qingyan directly ordered, "Eru, compile a list of all the personnel in the mansion and the Yuanmingyuan."
Erlu is in charge of communicating with the Sticky Rod Office, so it will definitely be easier for him to handle this matter than for others.
Yin remained silent, holding his teacup as he watched her handle the situation.
In the courtyard, a few restless children were eyeing Jiuzhou Qingyan's study. They all knew that the two masters were inside Jiuzhou Qingyan.
"Fourth Prince, only deal with the people in the south, what about the ones over there?" Kangxi would place one or more spies in the backyard of each prince. Here, the number of spies had been reduced from five to one, which made Yinzhi very satisfied. The continuous reduction of his spies proved that Kangxi was increasingly trusting him.
"I definitely won't clean it up," Yin instructed in a low voice.
A moment later, Erlu arrived with a list of names. He had prepared one in advance and would revise it frequently.
Qingyan opened the document and saw that the list included introductions to family backgrounds and why they were selected to enter the Fourth Prince's residence. Two or three of them were actually related to the Uya clan.
"My goodness, that empress is not to be underestimated. She has been forced to behave herself for so long, yet she still managed to find one or two loyal followers."
"Now you understand, right?" Yin never underestimated Consort De. In many ways, the power of the Imperial Household Department's aristocratic families was even more authoritative than that of their masters.
Yin kept reminding her to be careful, but in the end, she forgot about it. Now, she felt that things were much more serious than she had thought.
"Fourth Brother, you're in charge of cleaning up the outer area. I'll handle the inner courtyard!" Qingyan realized that everyone in the front courtyard was incredibly shrewd.
Yin took away the list of spies from the outer courtyard, and she quietly looked at the list of informants from the inner courtyard.
She was shocked when she saw it: the fourth-rank palace maids in her courtyard, the fourth-rank palace maids around Yiken'e, were all waiting for him to grow up.
"Fourth Brother, I think we need to be extra careful around the twins. The people from the Imperial Household Department have put in a lot of effort. They even have two palace maids hidden around Hutu Lifengsheng Zhalafen. Within a year, Su Zhu directly promoted them from fourth-class palace maids to second-class palace maids. I have to admit, these people are capable!" Qingyan was terrified.
If the fire at Changchun Garden hadn't happened, these people would have remained hidden, and after Hutuli Fengsheng Zhalafen got married, she would definitely have faced discrimination in her husband's family.
"Don't overthink it." Yin stood up. "Let's split up!"
Yin planned to arrest the man together, so the servants would not be able to communicate with each other.
Qingyan felt even more dejected as she watched Yin leave.
"Suzhu, change me into a royal blue palace dress, and the headdress with kingfisher feathers." Qingyan didn't like using bright red palace dresses to punish people. "Sulan, go and summon the people on this list."
Su Zhu quickly helped Qing Yan over and helped her wash up. Su Lan then had the second-class palace maids call everyone over and had a grand chair placed on the stone steps at the door, with warm honey water next to it.
After Qingyan took her seat, dozens of people were kneeling in the courtyard, all looking at her with bewildered expressions.
Su Lan and Su Zhu stood on either side, while several more people from the Criminal Division were summoned to the left side of the courtyard.
After she became pregnant, she also learned some ancient books about punishing servants. If the people in the judicial department were to administer a beating, the person being punished should not be allowed to bleed.
"It's strange, why did I summon you here?" Qingyan spoke slowly, took a sip of honey water from her teacup, and leisurely put it aside.
The old women had a general idea of what was going on. Since the fire, they had been unable to contact their superiors, but things had not gone as planned, and now their master had gathered them here again.
"We servants are unaware." Everyone present hoped that Qingyan would consider the unborn child and not hold their mistakes against them.
"Sulan!" Qingyan rolled up her handkerchief and leisurely looked down.
Su Lan heard her call, opened her mouth, and a clear, melodious voice came from her lips. Her voice was very pleasant, but her words made the people kneeling on the ground feel as if they had fallen into a cold storage.
Some of them had been by the Fourth Master's side for too long and had forgotten some of the bad things they had done. Today, all their sins have been brought to light.
The Wuya clan members were even more uncertain. Consort Tong's poor health was somewhat related to these two people. At that time, they were not in important positions, so they were able to take advantage of the situation.
Qingyan summoned all the servants from the inner courtyard to witness the execution. Some of them stared at Sulan's mouth in disbelief, their mouths slightly agape. How could someone they knew have done so many bad things?
A circle was left empty around the two old women.
"Granny Ye and Granny Wu, you two have served Fourth Prince for many years and have managed to hide yourselves so well. I will give you a choice. As long as there is no bloodshed, you can choose a method of torture."
The two old women lowered their heads, realizing that there was no escaping it this time!
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