Cui Buqu sneezed a few times.
Ever since he woke up today, his coughing hadn't stop, and his handkerchief never left his side.
He felt a little dizzy, perhaps because he had been drenched in rain last night. However, for most of the year he would spend his time like this, so he was long used to it.
The county's magistrate who walked next to him felt a little alarmed, because he only noticed the profound look of sickness on Cui Buqu when he stood close. By the end of May, the season was already moving into Summer, and the ice-cold hand with jade bones reaching out from beneath the mantle was jagged and skinny; it made one worry that it might snap under the lightest touch.
He couldn't help wanting to ask, but Prefecture Magistrate Yuan was a step ahead.
"Why don't we have a doctor see you through? It would not be too late to inquire about the details of the case after that." This tone wasn't one of an official who was simply fulfilling his daily routine, it sounded more like an elder speaking out of concern for his junior.
The county's magistrate couldn't help casting him a few glances.
"It is fine." After Cui Buqu finished speaking he sneezed again, and in his heart, he said: 'It must definitely be that fellow Feng-er badmouthing me behind my back.'
He took out a ceramic bottle from his sleeve and placed the medicine pellet into his mouth, swallowed, and the colour of his face returned to normal. It was so natural it was if he did this on a daily basis.
If Qiao Xian was here, watching him use a medicine that was meant to recuperate one's body to nurse his cold, she would have been so furious she would vomit blood on the spot.
Yet now, there was only Prefecture Magistrate Yuan and the county's magistrate present. Both of them knew nothing about pharmacology. Once they saw that he'd stopped coughing after taking the medicine, they stopped persuading.
Once the three of them arrived at the county's bureau, the assistant county magistrate brought everyone back and kept them temporarily in the prison, waiting for the county's magistrate to begin the trial.
With Cui Buqu and Prefecture Magistrate Yuan present, naturally, the county's magistrate dared not delay them. He immediately allowed his assistant to summon the victim's family.
The victim's family was her husband. They were a well-off family from this county. She was pregnant and had been frequently at unease, and thus she had originally gone seeking Doctor Sun for some antiabortifacient, but who could have guessed that after she drank two bowls, when night came, to her stomach hurt and blood seeped out from beneath her body, leading to a miscarriage and abnormal bleeding from the uterus, causing the death of both mother and child.
The pregnant woman was still perfectly fine at first but died after she drank that medicine. The cause of her death was very easily connected to the prescription of her medicine by everyone. Her husband went to the bureau to file a lawsuit, and thus the county magistrate's assistant brought men to arrest Doctor Sun and the employees of the medical hall.
With the death of his wife and child, rendering what was supposed to be the welcoming of his child to the world into a funeral, of course, her husband's face was filled with sadness. Once he saw Doctor Sun being brought up, he lunged forward immediately, gripping his lapels, "Doctor Sun! Our family trusted you so much all these years, why would you cause us harm!"
Doctor Sun's beard and hair were unruly. In such a difficult situation, he only shook his head as he listened, "Impossible. I have trodden the path of a physician for decades, never once have I given a wrong prescription!"
The husband lamented, "We still kept the medicinal herbs from the container. We even had someone look over it. It was obvious there was some toad venom in it! That toad venom is a toxicant! How can it be given to a pregnant woman?!"
Doctor Sun was shocked, "That is impossible. I have never given pregnant women toad venom! Four qian of fructus aurantii, three qian of magnolia officinalis, three qian of nutgrass, two qian of fructus amomi, two qian of rhizoma atractylodis, two qian of tangerine…"
He recited all everything in the prescription, and finally in the end, "This prescription is divided into three packages. Pregnant women of five months can ingest it. I remember very clearly this, there are no toad venoms in this prescription."
The county magistrate's assistant said, "Three packages. The victim only used one; the leftovers after boiling from the first package and two other packages remained untouched. Does the magistrate wish to survey them?"
The county magistrate said, "Bring them up."
Not long after, someone brought the leftovers from the container and the medicine itself. After extended periods of being treated by doctors, Cui Buqu became quite the doctor himself. Even if he couldn't treat himself, it wasn't difficult for him to tell the medicines apart. Very quickly, he found the toad venom from both the leftovers and the other two packages that haven't been cooked yet.
One by one, Cui Buqu picked the medicine out, "Other than toad venom, there's still hyoscyamus niger. Was this hoping for the patient to have a swifter death?"
Doctor Sun shook his head, "Impossible! Impossible! These are not the prescriptions given by me!"
Cui Buqu asked the county magistrate, "Where are the written prescriptions?"
After the patient visited the doctor, took the medicine home to cook, the written prescriptions should be kept in the medical hall as evidence. These had been the old rules and regulations."
The county magistrate's assistant had always handled affairs appropriately. He has already ordered someone to store all the prescriptions that were found, so he said, "They're all here!"
He took out the prescriptions. Cui Buqu asked nothing, he allowed them to be brought to Doctor Sun first.
The county magistrate's assistant spoke to Doctor Sun, "I have crosschecked all the previous prescriptions that you have written. Judging by the parchment, they definitely belonged to Baoning Hall. The handwriting is also similar to yours. What else do you have to say?"
Doctor Sun took one of the prescriptions into his hand, took a look, before divulging a look of disbelief, "This prescription …"
The county magistrate's assistant studied the change of his expression before he resumed questioning, "Did you want to say that these do not belong to you?"
"That's not right, let me think…" Sun Jiming murmured, and suddenly, he gave a snap, "This prescription is wrong! This prescription was originally meant for Maiden Lu. Everything else matches, except the toad venom!"
The county magistrate's assistant ordered someone to bring up an employee. The other was around seventeen to eighteen of age, carrying on him a smart and intelligent look, only that he looked a little nervous at the moment, his gaze couldn't help looking around.
"Tell everyone everything that you know. Honestly." The county magistrate's assistant said.
"Alright, alright!" The employee bowed and said, "Yesterday early morning the mistress had a stomach ache again, so she allowed someone to send word, to invite Doctor Sun over to take a look and give a prescription as usual, before allowing me to bring the medicine over once it's assembled. The mistress' maidservant waited outside the gate to receive the medicine."
The 'mistress' he mentioned was the wife of Cui San, Maiden Lu.
Cui San was the most useless one among all four sons of Cui Yong. He was an idle bummer who had never succeeded once in his life, but in these years of being held under house arrest in Boling, his father and brothers kept an eye on every move he made. It could be said that it would be impossible for him to commit grave wrongs, yet when it came to academics or martial arts, he was not made for that field. To avoid him completely wasting his life away, Cui Yong allowed him to manage Baoning Hall, a business under the name of the Cui family. Any gains or losses that came from it was his own responsibility. It wasn't necessary for him to split the gains for his father. It was considered giving it to Cui San completely, it was also for the sake of giving him something to do.
In reality, with a famed doctor like Doctor Sun to serve as a mainstay in the hall, along with the employees and manager, there was no need for the boss to do much at all. It could be said that the so-called boss could just sweep his hands together and live a life of leisure.
Once Doctor Sun listened up to his point, he continued, "That's right. Although hyoscyamus niger contains toxic, it is taken orally in little amounts, and along with other medicines, it can slow down stomach diseases and regulate the stomach. However, using toad venom along with it would be incorrect. The toad venom was not written by me!"
The employee gave a shocked look, "Doctor Sun, when you wrote that prescription, I was just standing right beside you. I watched you write every single one of them. How could you not remember it yourself?"
Doctor Sun rejected it flatly, "I would never recall it wrongly. Surely it must be you! In fact, that prescription was meant for Maiden Lu, how can it reach Maiden Chen in the first place?"
The county magistrate's assistant raised his jaw, gesturing towards the employee, "Continue speaking."
The employee said, "Maiden Chen also came around the same time. Her prescription was also written by you. Very quickly, the medicine was assembled and when I was carrying them as I left, I ran into a servant of the Chen family. Both medicines had three packages in total, and the paper used to wrap them was also similar. I think it was that time I didn't take a closer look, so the medicine that was originally meant for Maiden Chen was mixed up!"
This way, everything was clear.
Doctor Sun consulted two patients and wrote two different prescriptions. The employee mistakenly ran into someone and mixed up the medicines. Maiden Lu who should originally be poisoned to death escaped by fate, yet it costed the life of the innocent Maiden Chen and her unborn child.
The county magistrate asked, "Doctor Sun, what else do you have to say?"
Doctor Sun took a look at the prescription before his eyes and laughed bitterly, "For decades I trade the path of a doctor, and I have never once written a prescription wrongly, nor misused a single type of herb. This toad venom was definitely not from my hands."
The county magistrate sighed, "You have passed the age of seventy. Your eyesights have dimmed. You have mistakenly written a prescription and misused a type of herb. This is not completely implausible. Even if you refuse to admit it, the evidence is all present. You cannot escape from being sentenced for manslaughter. Spoken by the laws of Sui, it is one of the six categories of murder. The sentence would be one degree lighter compared to intentional murder. However, on behalf of the people you have saved in the past years, I will beg for mercy on your behalf and lay out the causes. In the end, it would be decided by the Ministry of Justice. Do you admit guilt?"
What he didn't say was, with the age Doctor Sun is at, even if he wasn't sentenced to death and was instead flogged and banished, it would be enough to claim his life.
Doctor Sun shook his head, "I did not write a wrong prescription, I will not admit guilt."
At this moment, constables rushed in from the outside.
"Sir, Cui San Lang's wife, Maiden Lu, begs for an audience. She said that it's heavily significant to the case."
Once the county magistrate cast a glance at Cui Buqu and Prefecture Magistrate Yuan, verifying that they showed no objections, he said, "Let her in."
Not long later, a woman in a red dress walked into the hall and bowed.
"Greetings to everyone present."
County magistrate, "Rise. What case do you wish to report? Make haste."
Maiden Lu said, "Please call forth my husband. This matter needs to have him questioned directly."
Cui Buqu spoke plainly, "Then send for Cui San."
One he spoke, Maiden Lu's gaze unwittingly fell upon him.
Regarding Cui Buqu's background, although it had struck Cui Yong and the rest like lightning from the sky, he had forbidden it to be spread. Even Ninth Lady Cui was kept in the dark. All the members of the Cui family only knew that Cui Buqu was the imposing Commander of the Zuoyue Bureau who arrested Cui Da Lang, yet they were oblivious to the fact that he was the child of Maiden Yu that was humiliated and degraded by the Cui family many years ago.
Although Maiden Yu was not willingly raped by Cui San, her name was still tainted, so after her death, Cui Yong did not allow her entry to the ancestral cemetery. Many from the younger generations of the Cui family also bullied Cui Jie when they were young, however, they were ignorant to Cui Jie's background, and as they grew into adulthood, these trivial matters were gradually forgotten within their memory. Many of them had thought that Cui Er died young and that he was never married.
To Maiden Lu, she never forgot the humiliation given to her by Maiden Yu and her son. During that night, when Cui San returned from Cui Yong's, she noticed that he looked unusually disturbed, and after ceaseless questioning from her, Cui San finally spilled out everything that transpired. Thus, Maiden Lu not only knew that Cui Jie was still alive, but that he had also returned with a wholly different identity wrought anew.
The county magistrate realized that she kept her gaze fixated on Cui Buqu, and wondered why a woman from such a respectable family like the Fanyang Lu clan would behave so inappropriately. He coughed twice, "Maiden Lu, this is the court, and both of them are high-ranking officials. One is forbidden to stare when they are not being questioned."
Maiden Lu, "My apologies, sir, Lord Cui looked a little familiar, so I stared for a while."
Cui Buqu lowered his head to hold the jade ornament that hung by his waist as if he heard nothing of what she said.
Maiden Lu felt a little strange in her heart. She couldn't tell whether she felt lucky, or disappointed.
In the middle of their conversation, Cui San was finally brought here.
When he saw Maiden Lu also present, he was stunned, and then when he saw Cui Buqu, the colour of his face changed.
The county magistrate urged Maiden Lu, "Now, you can speak."
Maiden Lu adjusted her dress, "Bear witness, my Lords, as Doctor Sun had said: he has tread the path of a doctor for decades, how would he issue a wrong prescription that took someone's life? The truth is that it was not manslaughter, but intentional! Originally, Doctor Sun didn't intend to kill just anyone, for that person was me; it was only because his employee had an accident and took the wrong medicine that I could escape from the gates of Hell!"
Her words shocked everyone.
The county magistrate cast a glance at Prefecture Magistrate Yuan and Cui Buqu, yet the latter two did not meet his gaze, so he could only retreat and turn towards Maiden Lu, he said, "Do not raise an alarm. To claim a false accusation will earn you time in prison!"
Maiden Lu, "It is not a false accusation. I have evidence!"
County magistrate, "Speak."
Maiden Lu, "My husband had a mistress hidden outside, and I have always known this. Only because the family's harmony is the basis of success and happiness, I turned a blind eye to it. That mistress is the child of a respectable family, thus she was promised by my husband that if I died, he would take her as his new wife, proudly marrying into the Cui family aboveboard."
When Cui San heard of it, he jumped and said, "Nonsense! There is no such thing!"
Maiden Lu laughed coldly, "When you said these words to her, both of you were beneath the grape stand doing a lover's talk. Under broad daylight, even you both don't fear that it was offensive to decent morals, yet you could never have guessed that these words were heard by the maidservants, before reaching to my ears?"
Cui San was shocked, "Yu Song was spying for you?!"
Maiden Lu snorted coldly and did not pay him any attention. She continued, "Three days ago that mistress of his sent a trusted servant to seek out Doctor Sun. What was said was unknown, but I only know that when that mistress' trusted servant went, they brought a bag of silver ingots with them, and when they returned, their hands were empty. Recalling it today, it is definitely because Doctor Sun has accepted their bribe, so he issued those medicine to attempt murder!"
"That's nothing but nonsense!" Sun Jiming's beard was quivering, emotions refuting, "All my life, I bear clear conscience when I look at the sky, and I bear no guilt when I look at the ground. How would I do such a thing?!"
Maiden Lu, "If sir refuses to believe me, you may send someone to search Doctor Sun's house, perhaps you can still find that bag of silver ingots."
When she spoke, there was a perpetual feeling of someone's gaze on herself; it was razor-sharp like a knife, a knife that cuts into skin and flesh, peeking at what's inside.
Maiden Lu couldn't help raising her head and met Cui Buqu's gaze.
It was unknown why, when that ice-cold gaze looked at her, she felt three points of emptiness.
As if that deep in her memory, there was also a pair of eyes like that; indistinguishable whether they were happy or angry, chaotic or tranquil.
As that pair of eyes gave rise to fury within her, words spilt themselves from her lips, "You can also send for the mistress to be brought forward, and all will be clear when asked. Her looks even resemble an old friend, perhaps Lord Cui can recall who it is!"
Regarding the last sentence, perhaps everyone was confused when they heard of it, but this wouldn't be the case for Cui Buqu and Prefecture Magistrate Yuan.
Prefecture Magistrate Yuan's look had finally grown sullen, "Everything that was needed to ask has been asked. Show Maiden Lu the way out. A clamorous woman makes one feels vexed!"
Yet Cui Buqu said, "There is no need. Let her remain, perhaps she can witness herself the comeuppance that comes to a murderer."
The corners of Maiden Lu's lips were originally angular, for she had a well thought out plan, but hearing these words, for some reason without cause, she felt an inauspicious feeling.
However, thankfully, it was as if the Heavens were on her side, the people who were sent to search Doctor Sun's house returned very quickly.
With them, they had also brought Cui San's mistress.
The other's looks were not overly bright like Maiden Lu, but she was still a delicate beauty like weak willows in the wind. Her brows were charming yet shy, and no matter how one looked at her, she looked familiar.
Prefecture Magistrate Yuan suddenly recalled that those eyes, brows, and mouth looked vaguely like Yu Mo from many years ago.
He swiftly glared at Cui San, fury rising within him.
Maiden Lu laughed in silence, her back straightening.
For Cui San to have a mistress that looked a little bit like Cui Buqu's birth mother, who was he humiliating now?
Naturally, it was Cui Buqu.
For Cui Buqu to see that face, the first feeling he felt, of course, wasn't to recall the memory of his mother, but he should be in a furious state similar to Prefecture Magistrate Yuan.
So, that Cui San's whore is done for.
However, in the next moment, Maiden Lu could no longer feel pleased with herself.
Because there was no anger on Cui Buqu's face.
Not only was he not angry, but his plain-looking gaze also swept past the mistress before falling back upon Maiden Lu.
Maiden Lu felt a bit panicked. Could it be that this method of 'murdering someone with a burrowed knife' wasn't working?
Author's note:
This case is more important. It is not only a medical case, but it will also bring out the mastermind at the back. Tomorrow, Feng-er will come out and conquer the scene as usual.
A small theatre unrelated to the main plotline
Cui Buqu sneezed: It's definitely Feng-er badmouthing me behind my back.
Cui Buqu sneezed again and laughed coldly: It seems like Feng-er really put his effort in creating stories about me.
On the other hand, Feng Xiao was writing furiously. He wrote:
Cui Buqu, original name Cui Jie, aged twenty-nine.
Virtues: His hands are arguably beautiful, his face reluctantly pleasant to the eye.
Shortcomings: Poisonous tongue, poisonous tongue, poisonous tongue. Even when he is about to die, he still refuses to consult a doctor. Often gives cold laughs. Liking pitting people. Refuses to be taken advantage of. Taking revenge even for the smallest grievances…
At great length, he wrote practically a hundred shortcomings. Feng Xiao looked and looked at it again, and still felt dissatisfied, yet in the end, he sighed a breath and added another word under 'virtues'—
Cute.
Antiabortifacient: It's any substance that prevents miscarriage.
Sir: Raws used '明府', an address for an official of higher rank. It's simplied to 'Sir'.
Toad venom: Traditional Chinese medicine called Chan Su used to cure cancer.
Qian: Unit of measurement in China that roughly equals 0.2 grams.
Had a well thought out plan: 胸有成竹 means having a well thought out plan and was confident of its success.