The general's wife is too naughty, she starts to flirt with him

Lingzhi is worthy of being the head maid in charge. She does things not only quickly but also steadily.

Queen Zhou was able to live a leisurely life in the harem, and Lingzhi and Amber played an indispensable role in this.

There is no doubt about their efficiency.

Emperor Chengtian did not know the palace maids, eunuchs, guards and so on, but he had seen those two maids more than once.

Every time I went to the Cining Palace to pay my respects to the Empress Dowager, I would always see these two maids.

When Empress Dowager Shan saw the two maids again, she became a little panicked.

Logically speaking, these two maids should not be in the palace at this moment, so why are they here?

"Empress, you are the master of the harem, so I'll leave this matter to you." Emperor Chengtian glanced at Queen Mother Shan, and then deliberately handed the matter over to Queen Zhou.

Empress Zhou has always been fair and impartial, and from her perspective, it is impossible for her to be lenient to the Queen Mother. It would be best if she came.

Although Queen Zhou didn't want to get involved in these matters, things had already come to the end and she had no way to shirk her responsibilities.

His Majesty the Emperor is right. As long as she is still the Queen, everything that happens in the harem should be under her jurisdiction.

On the surface, she couldn't shirk her responsibility.

The first thing Queen Zhou asked was the two maids who were in charge of delivering the message, "If I remember correctly, one of you is Li and the other is Wu, right? You usually work in the Cining Palace? ! "

How could Empress Zhou not recognize the nanny whose face was familiar to even Emperor Chengtian?

Nanny Li and Nanny Wu were already very nervous when their names were called, and now they bowed their heads even lower. They didn't dare to say a word.

They had already gone through the Ministry of Punishment and had said everything they could. As for what they could not say, they would not dare to reveal a single word even if they died.

Between dying themselves or dying with their whole family, they would still choose.

"Why didn't the Queen answer the question?!" Lingzhi scolded, "Say again to Your Majesty and the Queen what I said in the Ministry of Punishment before."

Lingzhi looked a little cold and distant, but he was still very powerful when he spoke.

"We, we just received money from Mr. Qiu. We helped him pass on a few words. We really don't know anything else!" Nanny Li couldn't help but blurt out.

When Empress Dowager Shan heard this, she finally felt relieved.

These old slaves are quite sensible and know how to speak.

"How much silver was collected and where was it placed? What message was passed on?" Queen Zhou asked dutifully.

"I collected fifty taels of silver in total and hid it all in my pillow." Since she had already spoken, Nanny Li did not delay any further. She just wanted to get it over with.

"Mr. Qiu said that he had been in love with Miss Shan for a long time, and wanted to find a place where no one was around to have a private conversation with her. I thought that this flower viewing banquet was meant to bring Mr. Qiu and Miss Shan together. So I didn't think much about it and found a side hall that was not often visited. I also found a reason to send away the maids who were cleaning and the guards who were watching over them."

When Nanny Li spoke, she kept her eyes on the ground and didn't look at anyone.

Nanny Wu seemed to have accepted her fate at this moment, and continued, "We really only took fifty taels of silver from Mr. Qiu and found a place for him. We really thought he just wanted to talk to Miss Shan in private, and we really didn't expect what happened later."

They were originally going to leave the palace, but were delayed by trivial matters. Unexpectedly, they were caught after being delayed for a while and were sent directly to the Ministry of Punishment.

They had heard about the methods of the Ministry of Punishment. Those people were really cruel.

It was then that they learned that both Miss Shan and Mr. Qiu had gotten into trouble.

These are all noble people. If anything happens to them, these servants will definitely not suffer any good consequences.

"What about you? You didn't receive any benefits?" Queen Zhou looked at the palace maids and guards who were supposed to be sweeping the side hall.

''No! No!''

"I didn't accept any benefits!"

''······''

For a moment, the four people rushed to answer.

They really didn't receive any benefits.

The maid from the Cining Palace came to them to do something, and it wasn't a difficult task, it just required going to another place to free up a side hall.

For things like this, just give an order and you don't have to take any benefits.

They were not people of honor to begin with, which was why they were assigned to a place like the side hall.

People from higher-ups come to them to do things that they can do, so why should they give them benefits?

However, I didn’t expect that such an ordinary and common thing would end up like this.

They are regretting their decision now.

I thought it was just an ordinary favor, but I didn't expect it to cause such a big disaster in the end.

Amber came back with people at this time.

Indeed, silver was found from the pillows of the two maids. Twenty-five taels per person. Just enough to split evenly.

Not only that, a lot of jewelry from the palace was also found in the house where the two maids lived.

It can be seen at first glance that it was made according to the rank of concubines. These two old maids had a full box.

No extra items were found in the rooms of the palace maids and guards.

As for the rooms of the young eunuch and the young palace maid who led the way, they did find some silver and gold bracelets. Not much, about twenty taels of silver.

Now we can’t find them, we’ve only found their things, and there’s no way to prove anything.

As for the people who lived with them, they didn't get anything valuable out of them. It was just ordinary and normal interactions. There was nothing worth exploring.

The scene reached a deadlock for a while.

"After investigating the matter to this point, it is finally clear that what happened today was done by Qiu Jincheng alone. It has nothing to do with other people." The Queen Mother finally found a point to talk. "Qiu Jincheng's crime can be punished by the Emperor himself."

"As for these maids and servants, the Queen can deal with them according to the palace rules. I will never say a word." After saying this, Queen Mother Shan deliberately glanced at Mammy Li and Mammy Wu.

The two maids received Empress Dowager Shan's gaze and lowered their heads resignedly.

"'Empress, I think that the matter today must be severely punished and must not be let off lightly.'"

The Queen Mother wanted to handle the matter according to normal palace rules and cover it up, but that was not possible.

Song Qingci stood up and spoke directly.

"What do you think of a severe punishment, Madam Shan?" Empress Zhou didn't really understand what Song Qing meant by that.

To put it bluntly, these people neglected their duties, and there were old precedents for palace servants who neglected their duties. Forty lashes of the cane was considered the ultimate punishment. Many people actually did not receive forty lashes of the cane.

If someone wanted to, ten strokes of the stick in the palace would be enough to kill him.