The prince only allowed me to have a baby, so the pressure is a bit high!

Chapter 74 The Wet Nurse Arrives

Several people collected together, and soon the small baskets they brought were all filled. Looking at the sky, it was almost the end of the Si hour. Buerhe went to the pavilion and called the remaining three sisters-in-law to stroll along the road together.

Don't forget their main mission today is to stroll around, not to play cards. This is the front lake of Changchun Garden, adjacent to which are not only the Lilac Causeway, but also the Orchid and Peach Blossom Causeways. Together with the front and back lakes of Changchun Garden, they are known as the "Two Lakes and Three Causeways."

Of course, this is not to say that this is necessarily the most beautiful place in Changchun Garden, but these places have open terrain and evenly distributed vegetation, with a majestic and harmonious beauty. Walking along the embankment, you can see the lake in front of you and the green mountains in the distance gradually merging into one, which makes people sigh "the mountains and waters are all green and connected to the sky."

It is not possible to fully appreciate the "two lakes and three embankments" in one day. After they had a general understanding of them, they agreed to visit the other two lake embankments together next time, and then they returned to the garden with their servants and guards.

This time they did not have lunch at Lilac Dike at noon. The sun was getting bigger and bigger, and the weather was getting very hot. Even if they were not exposed to the sun at noon, it was still stuffy outside.

Secondly, the emperor has been in a bad mood recently, and having meals on the lake embankment is time-consuming and laborious. It would be bad if this gave him a reputation of being wasteful and affected his image in the emperor's heart.

No matter what, they are all the mistresses of the house, and they know exactly what they can do, when, and in what circumstances.

At lunch, many people gathered in the main courtyard of Burhe to have lunch together, including the Fourth Lady, the Sixth Princess, the Ninth Princess, and even the twins who were studying in the front courtyard returned to the main courtyard to have lunch together.

The first thing the Fourth Lady did when she saw Jingyi was to give her a thumbs up. She really admired her niece. She didn't expect that the girl was so ambitious at such a young age and went to the Shangshufang to study with the princes.

You should know that the masters in the Shangshufang are all great scholars of the time, and they are naturally prejudiced against women. It can be said that it is their credit that Manchu women are increasingly assimilated into the Han nationality. They say that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent, but they require women to take care of their husbands and children, and memorize "Rules for Women" and "Instructions for Women".

She could already imagine that even if her eldest niece entered the Shangshufang, the pressure she would face would definitely not be less than that of the princes, and she might even be treated more harshly by her masters because of her female identity.

Jingyi didn't care at all, or she had been mentally prepared for it. Although she was young, she had read a lot of books with her brother over the years. At least her thinking was outstanding among her peers and even children under six years old.

As for challenges, she is not afraid. Although she cannot compare with her brother, the gap between them is not too big. Her father once told them that they are the smartest children he has ever seen. Not only are they talented and have good understanding, but they also have the best perseverance.

She didn't believe that with her talent, the masters in the Shangshufang would have the heart to mislead their students. Once the masters began to pay attention to her, the world she could see and experience would not be limited to this small Forbidden City.

In the past two years, their mother and fourth aunt had never betrayed them when they corresponded, so they were extremely envious of their fourth aunt for being able to make a name for herself on the grassland and soar like an eagle.

Therefore, world view and pattern have the greatest influence on a person. Jingyi was only three years old, but she was no longer satisfied with the small inner house. Instead, she yearned for a bigger and broader world. Moreover, she had unconsciously begun to enrich herself and polish herself so that she could go further and fly higher in the future.

After lunch, Buerhe once again reminded everyone to send the cook over to learn. After seeing the guests off, Buerhe was thinking about how to ask the Queen Mother to add a small kitchen for the two princesses.

It's not that it's hard to say, but the other two princesses can't be left behind when adding a small kitchen. However, Buerhe is indeed not familiar with the Eighth Princess and the Tenth Princess. In the past few years since she married into the palace, she has only seen them a few times during the holidays. It can be said that the number of times they have said each other so far can be counted on two hands.

She had originally thought that she could communicate more during this summer trip to the garden and see if she could make more good friends like the Fourth Princess did back then. However, she didn't expect that she would fail soon after entering the garden.

Concubine Min took the two princesses away and has not been seen since. It is not clear whether the emperor knew about this. Anyway, Buerhe thought to himself that he had a clear conscience. It’s not that he didn’t take you to play, but mainly that you didn’t give him the opportunity to play! If the emperor blames him in the future, don’t blame him for complaining to the emperor’s mother.

After Buerhe had thought it over, he went for a lunch break. The empress dowager was in a Zen-like retreat in the mountains. At this time, the empress dowager was also urging the emperor to return to her Qingxi Study.

Kangxi had been staying with the Empress Dowager from last night until this morning. The Empress Dowager had nothing else to say, so she suggested playing mahjong. Kangxi just wanted to rest. The Empress Dowager's place was quiet, with no competition for favors or secret complaints, so he didn't want to leave for a moment.

When he heard the Queen Mother suggest playing mahjong, he also became interested in joining in. However, his IQ was not on the same level as the Queen Mother's. If the Queen Mother was the type of person who was wise but foolish, then the Emperor was the type of person who was knowledgeable about the classics. His mind was as complicated as a hornet's nest.

The Empress Dowager played mahjong with him in silence. The two maids who had been sitting with them all morning began to sweat profusely. Kangxi still didn't have the tact to let the Empress Dowager give in. Or rather, Kangxi did give in, but the Empress Dowager's level was only suitable for a few concubines of the same level. Usually, when the concubines or juniors played with her, they all let her win, and even then, the odds of winning and losing were still 50-50.

To sum up, the Empress Dowager lost miserably the whole morning and didn't win a single round. The old lady was also stubborn and would never admit defeat unless she won. She played another round after another. If the two maids were not good enough, she would replace them with Naren and Liang Jiugong. In this way, before lunch, the Empress Dowager and Kangxi played mahjong for a whole hour without starting a single round.

When the servants informed her that lunch was ready, the empress dowager finally broke down. She stopped eating and playing, and pointed to the door to drive the emperor away.

Kangxi also knew that his behavior throughout the morning was a bit of bullying the old lady. At first, he thought it was fun and could clear his mind, and later he just wanted to let her go, but the old lady didn't accept it!

If the Queen Mother knew what Kangxi was thinking, she would definitely "Pooh" him in front of him. Later, she became more and more angry and didn't know what she was doing, let alone analyze the game rationally.

In other words, the last string in her head was still tense, knowing that he was the current emperor, otherwise she would definitely let the emperor "get out". However, after this incident, the empress dowager also made up her mind never to play games with Kangxi again. That guy was not a good person, and he just wanted to make fun of her, an old lady.

After returning from Chanyi Mountain Retreat, Kangxi started thinking about how to deal with the wet nurse after dinner. This matter cannot be delayed. The longer it is delayed, the worse it will be for the situation of the seventh brother. It is better to give the order as soon as possible.

He didn't want to take a nap at this moment, but asked Liang Jiugong to go back to the palace to convey the order. He thought he should see his wet nurse again, otherwise he was afraid that he would be unwilling in the future.

Wei Zhu came in to serve in his master's place. Seeing the emperor's solemn expression, he dared not speak. Just as he was thinking about this and that, the emperor spoke: "Has the person who investigated the wet nurse returned?"

Wei Zhu didn't dare to keep the emperor waiting, and immediately replied: "Your Majesty, I have returned this morning and am waiting in the outer hall. Do you want to see me now?"

Kangxi nodded, and Wei Zhu hurried off to fetch someone. The commander of the Imperial Guards arrived quickly, followed by the spy sent yesterday to investigate the wet nurse.

"Long live the Emperor, long live the Emperor."

Kangxi: "Get up and tell me what happened? Where did all my things go?"

Commander: "Your Majesty, Xiao Ding has already investigated last night and found out that only a portion of those items were shipped back to the Hala family. The rest were distributed to various places. Because the distribution was too large and detailed, we haven't been able to fully count them at the moment. As for the Hala family, because Lady Guaerjia's son, Hala Shangu, gambled away a large sum and couldn't pay it back, he took the risk of stealing palace products and selling them on the black market. Our servants have already detained Hala Shangu. He only explained the whereabouts of the gold. As for the ginseng, there is no news at the moment. Do you need to torture him?"

Kangxi didn't hesitate at all. "Fight! I want to find out where those things went. As long as I can find out, I will not care about life or death."

He had no feelings for Hala Shangu. If he had followed the path he had arranged, perhaps he would have become his confidant like Cao Yin. But he didn't. He chose to escape, and even his wet nurse, who was devoted to him, was betrayed by him. Now he still wanted to hide, hoping that he would be spared? Impossible!

Not only him, but also the wet nurse, he was not going to indulge this time, and he even sent a team to Jiangnan secretly yesterday, where the Cao family was located. He was now beginning to doubt the Cao family's loyalty to him, or whether they had started to do something behind his back.

They were his own spies stationed in Jiangnan. If there were any problems with the Cao family, he would have to rearrange his plans.

In the afternoon, before the arrival of the wet nurse Guwalgiya, the first person to come before Kangxi was the confession of Hala Shangu. As expected, the theft from the private treasury had been going on for several years, but it started with a small cup and a small piece of gold, and gradually evolved into the open and aboveboard transportation of boxes.

The entire Qianqing Palace, not only the servants but also the guards, were bribed, so these things were only able to be shipped out under the watchful eyes of Emperor Kangxi in recent years. It can be said that if it were not for Madam Li's mistake that prevented the shipment of these goods from being sent out in time, this matter would never have been uncovered before the death of the Guarjia family.

It was also because of the greed of that group of people that they insisted on having the latest jewelry among the tribute from Jiangnan this time, and also wanted the night pearls. Otherwise, this batch of goods would not have ended up in Changchun Garden and been discovered by the emperor.

After being tortured severely, Halashangu confessed that he knew about a black market and the several baoyi families he cooperated with, but he could not reveal anything else.

At this moment, Wei Zhu came in and reported that Guaerjia had arrived. Kangxi waved his hand and asked the guards to leave, and he met Guaerjia alone.

The door creaked open and Guaerjia walked in quietly with a look of panic on her face. Although she didn't know what had happened, Liang Jiugong's subconscious avoidance when she asked him along the way still made her feel a chill in her heart.

This had never happened before. Before, no matter what he asked, even if it was asking how many times the emperor got up at night, Liang Jiugong did not dare to hide it. And the only thing that could make Liang Jiugong take such an attitude was the emperor's order.

She thought about all the things she had done behind Kangxi's back over the years, filtering them one by one. Could it be that she had been discovered when she had previously revealed the emperor's preferences to Depin? After all, Depin had fallen out of favor, so it was still possible that the emperor would find out. Or was it that she had been discovered when she had helped Depin spike Chengpin's pregnancy-preserving medicine?

That's also not right. If that were the case, the emperor would have been furious when he changed the jade butterfly some time ago.

What was that? At this moment, she had not thought at all about her misappropriation of Kangxi's private treasury. She had long regarded Kangxi's private treasury as her own property. What was wrong with taking some of her own things and selling them?