"Your Highness, your subordinate has found something!"
Hearing Fuxing's report, Song Yihuan looked up and saw Fuxing striding towards Ji Lingchuan. The guards behind him were carrying a lot of things, some in wooden boxes and some in cloth bags. It seemed that they had returned with a full load.
Seeing that the guards had really found something, the servants kneeling on the ground looked even more panicked, and the atmosphere in the room returned to its previous solemnity.
Ji Lingchuan put down the teacup in his hand. His gaze swept over the servants kneeling on the ground, who didn't even dare to breathe loudly, and finally landed on Fuxing. "Tell me in detail what you've found," he said.
Fuxing clasped his fists and replied, "Your subordinate searched Granny Zhao's room first as per your Highness's instructions."
Hearing her name mentioned, Granny Zhao trembled involuntarily.
"However, there were no suspicious items in Granny Zhao's room. So your subordinate took the men to the next room and searched them one by one. Finally, we found these things in Baizhi's room—"
Fuxing pointed with his hand, and the guards stepped forward and presented the things in their hands to Ji Lingchuan.
The wooden box contained several exquisitely designed hairpins inlaid with jewels, as well as earrings, silver bracelets, jade bracelets and other items.
The white cloth bag was filled with a lot of silver ingots, each engraved with the mark of the Marquis's Mansion.
"It's impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Song Nanxin opened her eyes slightly and suddenly stood up. Her face was full of disbelief. "How could Baizhi do such a thing? It can't be her!"
When Baizhi learned that those things had been found in her room, her face changed drastically. She knelt on the ground, crying and kowtowing to plead her innocence.
"I'm wronged, my lady! I've served the Princess since I was a child and have always been loyal to her. How could I do such a thing to betray my master? Please, your Highness, investigate thoroughly!"
Song Yihuan looked down at Baizhi who was pleading her innocence, her eyes cold.
But Ji Lingchuan ignored the cries of Song Nanxin and Baizhi. He had the jewelry and silver ingots that had been found brought forward and carefully examined them.
Taking out a hairpin with tassels, Ji Lingchuan asked Song Nanxin, "Princess, have you ever seen this piece of jewelry?"
Song Nanxin didn't believe at first that Baizhi would steal her things. But when she saw the hairpin, she blurted out involuntarily, "This hairpin was given to me by my grandmother!"
As soon as she said this, her face changed instantly, and Baizhi's cries for innocence stopped abruptly.
Song Nanxin took the wooden box with a solemn face and rummaged through it. She murmured to herself, "I bought this in Duobaozhai a year ago, and this bracelet was given to me by my mother on my fifteenth birthday..."
She looked up at Baizhi, her face full of anger, and there was no trace of the former master - servant affection.
"Baizhi, you actually stole my jewelry behind my back and hid them in your own room! How dare you!"
Baizhi never expected things to turn out like this. She knelt on the ground and kowtowed vigorously to Song Nanxin, crying, "Miss, I've always been loyal to you. How could I do such a thing? Someone must have framed me. Miss, I didn't do it!"
Song Nanxin threw the jewelry in her hand in front of Baizhi, her voice extremely shrill. "If you didn't do it, what are these things they found in your room?!"
She then picked up the bag of silver ingots. Opening it, she saw that all the silver ingots inside had the mark of the Marquis's Mansion. By weight, there were at least fifty taels.
Baizhi was just a maid. Her monthly allowance was only fifty guan. Even if Song Nanxin rewarded her from time to time, it wouldn't be much. Where did she get so much silver?
"And this silver. Where did you, a maid, get so much money? Baizhi, Baizhi, I never thought you would do such a sneaky thing. I really trusted you in vain!"
"Miss, I'm wronged!" Baizhi cried with tears all over her face. There was even blood on her forehead from kowtowing.
Ji Lingchuan watched all this coldly from the side and said in a cold voice,
"The truth has been found out. Baizhi stole the Princess's private belongings and silver for her own use, framed Miss Song, the fourth daughter of the Ding'an Marquis's Mansion, and deliberately sowed discord to damage the sisterly relationship between the Princess and Miss Song. Now that the evidence is conclusive, she should be severely punished."
Ji Lingchuan looked at Song Nanxin. "Princess, make a decision."
Song Nanxin clenched her fists tightly and closed her eyes.
When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Baizhi with a cold tone. "Whether according to the rules of the Marquis's Mansion or the rules of the Ningqin Prince's Mansion, a dirty - handed maid like you must not be kept. But for the sake of your years of service by my side, I'll spare your life."
"Come here, drag this maid out, beat her twenty big boards, and throw her into the utility yard to be a laundress!"
At Song Nanxin's order, several strong servants stepped forward, grabbed Baizhi's arms and were about to drag her out. Baizhi looked at Song Nanxin in shock and was about to call for help when Ji Lingchuan said calmly,
"Gag her mouth."
Baizhi's mouth was gagged with a rag, and soon she was dragged out. The Yixiang Pavilion returned to its usual calm.
The stolen goods found in Baizhi's room were right in front of them. Song Nanxin turned her back to Ji Lingchuan and suppressed sobs. Her temples throbbed with anger, and she felt a suffocating qi in her chest. The qi made her extremely irritable, and she felt an impulse to vent.
A warm and soft hand landed on her fist. Song Nanxin looked up at the person beside her. Song Yihuan was looking at her with a worried face. "Sister, are you okay? You look very pale."
Song Nanxin let out a sigh of turbid air, held Song Yihuan's hand back, and said, "Yihuan, I'm sorry. It's my fault that I didn't manage the servants well, which allowed that bitch Baizhi to take advantage of the situation and frame you. You've been wronged."
Song Yihuan smiled indifferently. "It doesn't matter. It's okay for me to be wronged a little. As long as sister finds out the truth."
The two comforted each other, looking like a pair of sisters deeply in love.
Ji Lingchuan's gaze lightly swept over Song Yihuan's face. He stood up and said, "Now that the inner traitor has been found out, the Princess should pay more attention to managing the people around you in the future. Don't let such things happen again. You must be tired after a busy day. Have a good rest."
After saying that, he strode out of the Yixiang Pavilion.
Song Yihuan stayed by Song Nanxin's side and called in other servants to help Song Nanxin clean up the messy room.
For some reason, after Baizhi was found out, Song Nanxin felt restless and irritable. Her temples throbbed painfully, as if someone was stabbing something into her head.
When she went to the feast at the Duke of Jiang's Mansion, she was still looking glamorous. But now she looked much dimmer, with a tired face all over.
This made the sensitive Song Yihuan detect a faint sense of strangeness.