Chapter 197 Wang Xifeng Regaining Power
"First, bring in ! Jia Zhong and his men have arrested Zhou Rui, Wang Shanbao, Lin Zhixiao, Wu Xindeng, and Dai Liang. Ping'er, take the booklet and interrogate them together with Jia Zhong's men."
"Molan, watch outside. If anyone dares to cause trouble, have Brother Cong's personal guards beat and kill them!"
Wang Xifeng shouted loudly.
Everyone obeyed the order and then left.
Not long after, Jia Zhong had someone drag Zhou Rui's family members in.
Everyone was a little panicked. After all, the mansion's chief steward Lai Dagang was arrested today, and everyone was in a panic. Now, it was obvious that they had to continue the investigation.
Wang Xifeng stood up and looked at the people in front of her sternly, "On ordinary days, if I, the Second Madam, make any mistakes, you will make fun of me, and if I make a slight mistake, you will blame me! You sit on the mountain and watch the fight between tigers, kill people with borrowed knives, and stir up trouble. You are the real idiots!"
"What a coincidence that today you will also fall into the hands of the Second Mistress!"
"You all know what's going on in the mansion. The Lai family is much more respectable than yours, but at the order of the Marquis, not only Lai Da and Lai Sheng, but even Lai Shangrong, who had escaped from slavery, were beheaded! It's not for any other reason, it's because everyone is corrupt and doing things behind the master's back!"
"Second Madam, I'll give you a chance. If you confess everything, you may still be able to keep your life. If you insist, the Marquis's personal soldiers will be guarding outside to see if you are more powerful than that Rakshasa ghost."
When the people heard this, they were terrified. They only knew that Lai Da had been arrested, but they had no idea that the entire family, young and old, had been chopped to pieces.
"Second Madam, please spare my life. I am the Second Madam's concubine and have always been loyal to my master. How dare I play tricks? Please, for Second Madam's sake, spare me this time." Zhou Rui's wife cried and begged for mercy. Wang Shanbao's wife also cried and wailed. Although Lin Zhixiao's wife was a little frightened, she just lay on the ground and didn't say a word.
"Loyal?" Wang Xifeng sneered, "What a loyal person! Today, Second Madam will see where your loyalty lies!"
"Since they won't tell me, Jia Zhong, take them down and fight them for twenty rounds to see if they will tell me!"
Jia Zhong waved his hand, and immediately a eunuch came forward and pulled several people out. Then, there was a cry of grief outside the door!
"Second sister-in-law, I saw that the name of Lin Zhixiao's family was not on the list, why were they beaten as well?" Xiangyun asked in surprise, "And the two of Lin Zhixiao's family are usually deaf and dumb, and they are second sister-in-law 's people, could they also play tricks?"
Tanchun at the side smiled and said, "Of course he should be beaten at this time, and he should be beaten hard. In fact, he should be beaten harder than others!"
"If there was deception, then the beating was not unjustified. If there was no deception, then the beating was not in vain!"
Seeing that Xiangyun was still confused, Baochai said, "As the saying goes, a hundred times of hard work can turn gold into gold. This beating is inevitable, and the others have been beaten. If Lin Zhixiao's family is not beaten, others will not say that Lin Zhixiao's family is innocent, but will say that the second sister-in-law is biased."
When Xiangyun heard this, she suddenly realized!
After twenty rounds of fighting, several people were pulled back covered in blood.
" Second Madam, stop beating me. I confess, I confess everything!" Wang Shanbao wailed. "I used to take out more money for the expenses of the East Courtyard. Sometimes the Master needed things urgently and there was no time to take out money. So I prepared an extra sum of money to avoid delaying the Master's business."
"I still have four or five hundred taels of silver in my possession. I will take it back in a moment. I did break the rules of the mansion. Please spare my life, Madam. I won't do it again!"
"You've found a good excuse. The eldest master is in the imperial prison right now. Would Second Madam like to send you to the prison so that you can face the eldest master head-on?"
"Mrs. Zhou Rui, what do you say?" Wang Xifeng said to Zhou Rui's wife with a sneer.
Mrs. Zhou Rui shuddered and cried out, "Second Madam, spare me. I did embezzle some of the money left over from the purchases. I will return the money when I get home. I will never do that again."
"Good! Don't cry until you see the coffin!"
"Lin Zhixiao's family!"
The last woman kowtowed to the ground, "I dare not deceive you masters. My family has been greatly favored by the master in the mansion. The master in the family manages the accounts in the front yard, and I obey the second mistress. Even my daughter has been assigned a job in the mansion!"
"Besides, the master and the second mistress are kind and generous, and they often give me gifts! If I calculate, I get at least two hundred taels of silver a year! Since I followed my grandmother from Jinling to the Jia Mansion, I have saved more than a thousand taels of silver in a few years!"
"My husband and I don't have much to spend, and we only have one daughter. Second Madam will help us decide her future marriage. What's the point of having more money? Therefore, I only know to serve my master wholeheartedly and dare not embezzle a single cent! Second Madam and the masters can check it at will. If there is any mistake in what I say, my family of three should be beaten to death!"
After saying this, he kowtowed to Wang Xifeng several times before stopping.
Upon hearing this, Wang Xifeng's face showed some satisfaction. This man was hers, and if anything happened to him, it would be embarrassing for her, but now it was a honor for her.
"You are all such a bunch of people who can't even say a word when you are pricked by a needle. Second Madam will believe your words for now. However, I will naturally ask people to investigate and verify! If this is true, Second Madam will not treat you unfairly. But if you lie even a word, you will be punished twice as much!"
"As for you two, I am not unreasonable. Someone, bring me the book about them!"
"Second Madam, the amount of silver embezzled by Zhou Rui's family is 13,000 taels, and the amount of silver embezzled by Wang Shanbao's family is more than 9,000 taels!" Feng'er said hurriedly.
"You guys did something sinister? Do you really think Second Mistress doesn't know? Or do you think your master can get rid of you after you did something like this?"
"Come here, take him away and detain him. When Lu Feng is done interrogating them, we will deal with them together!"
There were many more servants in the West Mansion than in the East Mansion, more than 400 in total, including dozens of managers. All the men were questioned by Lu Feng or Jia Zhong, and all the women were questioned by Wang Xifeng one by one! When it got dark, Wang Xifeng simply had someone bring some tea and snacks to eat, and then worked all night.
It was not until midnight that all the servants had basically finished the check!
Wang Xifeng discussed with the girls, and then sent someone to ask the old lady for instructions. In the end, it was decided that those who embezzled more than 100 taels would be beaten with twenty lashes and expelled from the mansion, those who were involved in murder cases would be sent to the authorities, and the rest would be punished and kept for the time being.
Even so, more than half of the servants in the mansion were missing.
