Granny Cui's legs went weak and she knelt down before Ji Fengyao: "Your Highness, spare me! This old servant knows her mistake!"
Ji Fengyao's eyes remained icy: "Your daughter is mentally challenged, your son is seriously ill, and your daughter-in-law is greedy; so you secretly took my dowry without my knowledge. Considering your life's hardships, I only gave you a warning and didn't punish you. I thought that now that you've resolved your family's difficulties, you should stop. I treated you coldly, and given your seniority serving in the inner quarters, you should have learned your lesson. Now it seems I was wrong; I forgot that leniency only breeds evil, and people's greed will only grow stronger."
Hearing her detailed explanation, the last glimmer of hope in Cui's heart vanished: "So the Princess Consort knew back then?"
“If you had even a shred of empathy, you wouldn’t have made such a foolish mistake. It’s true that I come from a bandit background, but who says that bandits are necessarily unintelligent? Those dowry items were personally selected for me by my mother, piece by piece. Do you think I wouldn’t know what I was doing?” Ji Fengyao said with hatred in her voice.
"It was this old servant who was blinded by greed. This old servant has wronged the Princess's kindness and love. This old servant is sorry to the Princess." Granny Cui was shocked and frightened. She slapped herself repeatedly and begged for forgiveness with tears streaming down her face: "Since the Princess knows, please forgive this old servant this time, considering that my family still needs someone to take care of us!"
"So you'll let you out and then sell the princess's secret for a good price?" Lin Shuang retorted coldly, looking down at her.
"Granny Cui, when we first entered the courtyard, you taught us to be loyal to our master. How come you yourself have become the one who deceives and betrays our master?" Bai Lu said angrily. "No wonder when we went to Tongyou, everyone else brought their own nannies, but our princess insisted on leaving you to look after the courtyard. It turns out you were a bad person all along!"
"This old servant was wrong, this old servant truly knows he was wrong. From now on, this old servant will be deaf and mute. I only beg Your Highness to spare this old servant one more time. This old servant saw nothing and knew nothing today," Granny Cui cried and kowtowed repeatedly on the ground, and soon her forehead was cut and bleeding.
Ji Fengyao pulled out a silver needle that gleamed with a cold light from her hair, and spoke slowly and coldly: "From the moment you saw what happened today, you should have understood that those present are either my trusted confidants who share my glory or dangers that must be eradicated; you should have known who I am from the moment I entered the palace."
"This old servant did not betray any major secrets of Your Highness, it was all just trivial matters..."
"How dare you say that, you filthy old hag!" Xi Que couldn't stand this kind of traitor who betrayed his own people. She rushed over and slapped Cui Mama hard across the face, making her fall to the ground. "That's because our young lady was on guard and didn't let you find any serious leverage against her; if our young lady hadn't been on guard, wouldn't she have been sold out by you long ago!"
Having said that, Xique stepped on Cui Mama's chest and turned around angrily, saying, "Miss, leave this old hag to me. According to the rules of our Vulture Stronghold, traitors must be killed!"
Ji Fengyao: "..."
The grumpy little magpie is back online.
She originally intended to do as Granny Cui suggested and make Granny Cui deaf and mute;
But since Xique had said those words in front of everyone, she couldn't refuse Xique's request.
Furthermore, managing subordinates requires a combination of kindness and strictness;
If they can let go of someone like Granny Cui so easily, Lin Shuang and Bai Lu might develop other ideas.
Human nature and the human heart are the things in this world that are most vulnerable to testing and gambling.
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