Cowardly Stepmother Dressed As the Hero

Cao Mi waited for a while, and when no one in the hall was willing to take the initiative to admit it, he sighed.

She called, "Xia Lin, don't you have anything to explain?"

When Xia Lin heard the words, he came out and knelt down in front of Cao Mi, "I don't know what the princess said?"

She seemed a little nervous, and her words trembled a little, but she still kept her head down.

Cao Mi said: "In the early morning, someone saw you and Chen Kang having a private meeting in the west wing. Before you left, you gave him something..."

She frowned and said, "Chen Kang's money is all given to him by you, right?"

Xia Lin shuddered, "Slave, slave..."

"I said it." Cao Mi pressed step by step, "As long as you take the initiative to admit it, I will take it lightly."

As soon as she said these words, Xia Lin seemed to have finally made up her mind.

She bowed to Cao Mi and said, "Princess Hui, Chen Kang's money was indeed given by slaves!"

When Cao Mi heard this, she was a little surprised for a while—she didn't expect Xia Lin to be so easy and frank.

But Xia Lin's next sentence broke her fantasy directly.

Xia Lin added in a trembling voice, "However, slaves have always been threatened by him!"

"Threats?" Cao Mi was amused, "You mean, he threatened you to give him money? However, you are a little maid, although there are a lot of monthly cases, but it is not easy to spend dozens of taels of silver. Bar?"

Xia Lin took a deep breath and explained from the beginning: "Princess Concubine Rong Qi. Before the slave maid sold her body to the palace, there was a man at home who had a marriage contract. But then the family was poor and had to sell her daughter to survive. The slave maid thought that she would be with that person in her life. There was no fate, so I stopped thinking. But I didn't expect that three years ago, the man made a fortune, accumulated some wealth, and found a slave.

"It's been a long time since we met again, but the servant couldn't hold back... so I met with him in private a few times.

"Later, the private meeting between the slave and the person was broken by Chen Kang, and the slave was dazed at the time. In order to cover up her mistake, she was threatened by him and gave him some silver taels at regular intervals.

"Part of the silver taels are the monthly bills of slaves, but most of them are given by my fiancé."

When she talked about the emotional part, she wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, like a simple woman who was greatly wronged.

But Cao Mi frowned more and more tightly.

In fact, she really didn't catch Xia Lin's evidence.

Maybe it's because Xia Lin's account book is too good. So far, no one under Cao Mi has been able to find out anything unusual from the account book she handled. As early as when Xia Lin left to supervise the embroidery workshop, Cao Mi sent someone to search her house secretly, but also did not find any clues.

But various signs and Cao Mi's own intuition told her that Xia Lin was inseparable from the original shop whose profits had been declining year after year, and her relationship with Chen Kang was by no means as simple as she said. In the whole incident, she was by no means an innocent woman who was threatened.

Just now, she asked people to take the initiative to confess her guilt, but in fact she wanted to defraud Xia Lin. But I didn't expect that Xia Lin's rank was much higher than Chen Kang's, and she was not fooled at all.

If Cao Mi can't come up with other key evidence, then Xia Lin can justify this time!

Cao Mi thought for a while, then turned to look at Chen Kang.

She asked, "Chen Kang, is what Xia Lin said true?"

Chen Kang, who already knew that his life was in danger, seemed to have lost all his anger. He opened his mouth when he heard Cao Mi's words, but he didn't make any sound after all.

That appearance, actually tacitly acquiesced to Xia Lin's words.

Cao Mi was silent for a while, and seeing that the situation froze, he secretly reminded himself that he must not act too hastily, so as not to get confused.

She took a deep breath and instructed: "In this case, take Chen Kang and Xia Lin down and imprison them separately, and then interrogate them in detail later."

Beisi saluted and took orders, and quickly took the two away.

At this time, everyone in the hall seemed to have reacted, and they were gathering in twos and threes to discuss in a low voice.

Cao Mi listened attentively for a moment, and found that most of the people had already believed Xia Lin's words, and at this time they were pitying Xia Lin's experience.

I have to say, Xia Lin's story is well made.

As the maid of the palace, it was only a small mistake for her to meet her relatives outside the palace in private. Later, she was threatened by Chen Kang to give him money, and even put herself in the position of a victim.

And this kind of experience is precisely what can arouse the sympathy of servants who are also not free.

Thinking of this, Cao Mi coughed lightly and turned everyone's attention to himself.

She said solemnly: "I will investigate Xia Lin's matter. If she is guilty, I will not let her go, and if she is innocent, I will not blame her. But now that Chen Kang's crime has been determined, as long as she is seriously tortured , can always ask something useful."

Speaking of this, she paused for a while, "Everyone, remember, what I said before is still valid, and those who take the initiative to confess their guilt will be punished lightly. Those who can provide relevant evidence will be charged less. Think about it yourself."

Everyone in the hall did not dare to do it again, and they all saluted and left one after another.

After everyone had left, Cao Mi couldn't maintain his scheming appearance any longer, and rubbed his forehead with his hand.

She was actually a little anxious - now that people have caught it, and the snake is also startled, if this time, if Xia Lin can't be defeated in one fell swoop, but instead let her get away, it will be even more difficult to investigate later.

Seeing that she had a headache, Dong Li stepped forward carefully to persuade her, "Don't worry, Princess, Bei Si has brought people to Xia Lin's house to search again, maybe there will be news soon."

"Well." Cao Mi responded.

"The slave maid sees that it's almost time, do you want to go directly to Jingmingyuan?" Dongli asked again with concern.

Cao Mi suddenly thought of something, raised his head and asked Dong Li, "Are there crying over An'er and Ran'er?"

As early as the early morning, after Chen Kang's incident was exposed, she asked someone to bring out Chen Kang's blood relative, the nursing mother of the two children, Chen Shi.

The two children were close to the nursing mother, and Cao Mi had been busy investigating all day, and didn't know the situation on the children's side.

Dong Li considered it for a while, and said, "When he took away Chen's family, he only said that it was the princess's order, and the two young masters did not cry. But they should not know that Chen's family can't go back..."

"Yeah." Cao Mi nodded, "I'll tell them both about this matter, let's go and go to Jingming Courtyard."

Dong Li nodded and went straight to prepare.

Cao Mi was in a bad mood. When he came to Jingmingyuan, it was already dusk, and the meals had already been served. The three children stayed on the couch to wait for her, and when they saw her coming, they called out "mother" together.

Cao Mi felt that he was in a better mood.

These days, she was thinking about Xia Lin's affairs, but she didn't have much time to accompany her children. But when she came to eat every day, seeing the cute appearance of the three children always gave her some new courage.

These three "debts" that she thought her original body left behind eventually became her concern.

Soon, King Qi You of Bei'an also arrived, and everyone gathered for a meal.

After dinner, Cao Mi went to the couch to talk with her three children. When the atmosphere was just right, she suddenly asked the twins, "Can An'er and Ran'er take care of themselves after the nursing mother left for a day?"

The two bear children were stunned.

The third child didn't notice anything wrong, so he hurriedly asked for credit and said, "Of course! I've been good all day!"

Qi An frowned and said directly: "A maid said that the wet nurse will not come back."

Hearing his words, Qi Rancai suddenly widened his eyes and repeated after realizing, "Won't you come back?"

Cao Mi didn't intend to deceive them, so he nodded, "Yes. I have some other arrangements for Mrs. Chen. From today onwards, she may no longer be able to take care of you."

Qi Ran finally realized what she meant by her words, her mouth flattened, and she was about to cry, "Nursing mother, wow, I want a nursing mother..."

On the contrary, Qi An, who was the first to realize that something was wrong, sighed, nodded to indicate that he knew, and then turned around and played with the "golden hoop stick" on the couch.

Cao Mi found out that his youngest son Qi Ran was a pure-hearted person and a very affectionate person. The second child, Qi An, is very smart, but he is naturally rebellious and indifferent.

She put the crying Qi Ran aside and poked Qi Rui in the face instead.

The four-year-old child is just at the time of development. After Qi Rui regained his appetite, after this period of time, he has already been fed by Cao Mi to gain a little weight.

At least the baby fat on his face, inherited from his father, has resurfaced.

Qi You shook his head, avoiding Cao Mi's teasing, and then looked at her suspiciously.

Cao Mi asked him in a low voice, "Rui'er, how would you react if your mother dealt with people in your hospital?"

Qi Rui tilted her head and asked, "Did she make a mistake?"

Cao Mi thought for a while, and said simply: "No, she didn't make a big mistake herself, she was just implicated in the discussion. But my mother watched her personality and feared that she would take revenge for ignorance in the future, so she decided to do so. Send her away early."

Qi Rui asked again, "How does the mother plan to settle her in the future?"

Cao Mi smiled, "She has been doing her duty very well over the years. I am going to arrange her to a village in the suburbs so that she can spend her old age in peace."

She has always felt that the Chen family is not bad, and that she has done her best to take care of her two children in the past few years, so Cao Mi is not going to embarrass her, but has made plans for her seriously.

After listening to her words, Qi Rui nodded, "I think everything my mother did is reasonable."

"Huh?" Cao Mi raised his eyebrows, knowing that there must be more to him.

"But..." Qi Rui couldn't hold on under her eyes, and said again: "If it's someone in my hospital, I hope I can find out what's going on, and then make my own decision."

The four-year-old is trying to declare his autonomy to Cao Mi.

Cao Mi rubbed the top of his hair and said with a smile, "Okay, my mother wrote it down. But I hope nothing like this happens in Rui'er Courtyard."

Qi An next to him heard their conversation, put down the "golden hoop stick" and came over, "I want to make it myself!"

Cao Mi glanced at him, and asked skillfully, "Then do you think, should we send her to Anyang Villa in the west of the city, or to the embroidery workshop in the city?"

She didn't want to discourage her children from thinking, but she knew that many things couldn't be explained to them. During this period of time, Cao Mi has been able to use similar methods flexibly, not only to meet his own needs, but also to reserve a certain "decision power" for the children.

Sure enough, Qi An picked one at random and went back to play by himself.

On the other side, Qi Ran, who was tired of crying, stopped. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he hesitated to stop crying and burrowed into Cao Mi's arms.

Cao Mi hugged him and promised, "Mother will find another nanny for you, and then go and pick it out for yourself, okay?"

Qi Ran choked, rubbing the snot and tears on his face onto Cao Mi's clothes, holding his head still. After a long while, he finally said "Okay" in a crying voice.

The author has something to say: thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: Gu Linmiao 5 bottles;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!