Abandoned Woman Busy Farming

Chapter 1486: Chapter 1587: Human and Physical Evidence_1

At that moment, footsteps approached from outside, followed by the sound of salutations to the Empress Dowager and the Empress. Bai Ruozhu recognized them as the people from the Department of Precautionary Punishment.

To not disturb Consort Lv, who had just awoken, the interrogation was moved to the Main Hall, where Consort Lv’s personal maidservant was asked to recount the events.

”Two days ago, Her Highness summoned Chief Doctor Bai to treat her stomach ailment. When Her Highness’s abdominal pain flared up, Chief Doctor Bai administered acupuncture to alleviate the pain, then prescribed some formulas and a diet plan. Afterward, Beauty Xu came over, and Chief Doctor Bai taught both Her Highness and Beauty Xu a set of yoga techniques. For the following two days, Her Highness took her medication on time and ate meals according to the diet plan, and indeed, her abdominal pain lessened. However, for some unknown reason, she suddenly suffered from abdominal pain and vomiting today,” the maidservant reported objectively, without any exaggeration.

”Reporting to the Empress Dowager and the Empress, Chief Doctor Bai’s prescription was indeed inappropriate. Luo-rong root is suitable for those with trapped stomach Qi and not fitting for Consort Lv’s current condition. Initially, the effects of Luo-rong root aren’t noticeable, but now that three days have passed, problems have emerged,” Mao Xingcai said with a bow.

Wei Pengbo also hastily added, ”Both the witness and evidence are present: Chief Doctor Bai’s medical skills are lacking, and she nearly cost Consort Lv’s life. Such a person is unfit to be in charge of the Female Physicians Institution.”

At this juncture, the eunuch Jiu Sheng had arranged returned, presenting his notes and stating, ”As everyone knows, I have taken Chief Doctor Bai as my teacher. Whether she was teaching other female doctors or seeing patients, I would always take notes on the side for better learning, and this document contains the formulas and diet plan I recorded on that day. It doesn’t include the Luo-rong root at all.”

The Empress Dowager and others reviewed the document and indeed, it lacked the words ”Five mace of Luo-rong root.”

Bai Ruozhu bowed to the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and the officers from the Department of Precautionary Punishment, saying, ”How could I make such a basic mistake with something as well-known as Luo-rong root? And if the officer claims that I prescribed the wrong formula, then I must say someone intended to harm Consort Lv by tampering with the prescription. Otherwise, how could Jiu Sheng have copied the prescription and yet the five words are missing? It’s much easier to add words on paper than to erase them.”

”Jiu Sheng is your disciple, maybe you conspired with him from the start and instructed him to omit those five words in order to absolve yourself,” Wei Pengbo, caught off guard by Jiu Sheng’s copied version, quickly came up with a rebuttal.

”By your logic, are you suggesting that I planned everything from the beginning and intentionally used Luo-rong root to harm her? I bear no grudge against her, so why would I want to harm her? Everyone knows that I am responsible for treating her stomach ailment; why would I use such an obvious method to harm her and what could I possibly gain from it? Besides, haven’t you bet with me that if I couldn’t improve Consort Lv’s stomach ailment, I would voluntarily resign from my position as the Chief Doctor? If it was my intention to harm her, wouldn’t I be harming myself too?”

Bai Ruozhu shook her head with a smile, ”Your argument is full of holes; your logic is too poor.”

Nobody understood what ”logic” meant, but at that moment, no one ventured to ask.

Panic flickered in Wei Pengbo’s eyes, but he quickly argued forcefully, ”You were afraid that you wouldn’t win the bet, so you simply harmed Consort Lv, then found an excuse to claim innocence, thereby avoiding the punishment for losing the bet.”

Bai Ruozhu’s smile grew deeper, ”Vice-Chief, your imagination is a bit too rich. According to what you’re saying, I only needed to privately ask Consort Lv to claim she was feeling much better by the agreed time, and I would win the bet. Why would I take such a risk? I think that since I taught Consort Lv yoga techniques, she would probably grant such a small request, right?”

”Consort Lv isn’t the kind of person who would fabricate evidence for you,” Wei Pengbo said, his panic increasing as compared to before, sensing even Mao Xingcai’s gaze filled with a touch of suspicion.

”Just these past few days, Consort Lü had been getting better, and I was obviously about to win. Why would I make an unnecessary move and harm her?” Bai Ruozhu didn’t wait for Mao Xingcai to answer, and pointing at the medical formulas, she said, ”Since this is called evidence, I must also declare it proof to clear my name of injustice.”

The Empress Dowager quickly looked at the formulas, truly fearing that Bai Ruozhu had a point.

She knew that previously, someone had tampered with Bai Ruozhu’s elder brother’s examination papers, and later the Emperor found that the ink in two places was different, which helped Bai Zepei to regain justice. Could it be that Bai Ruozhu was going to use the same method? But Bai Ruozhu should have used the supplies provided by the Palace, wouldn’t she? The Palace supplies were mostly distributed uniformly, so the five characters added later were very likely written in the same ink as the rest.

As the Empress Dowager was worrying, a look of helplessness flashed across Bai Ruozhu’s face. She had encountered a similar situation before when the Du Family altered a contract. She had ultimately proven that the handwriting wasn’t hers, and today’s situation was eerily similar.

”I ask the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and all the officers to look closely. I have a bad habit when I write, the ’cao tou’ (grass radical) is always connected, and the horizontal strokes are one continuous stroke. However, the ’cao tou’ in the middle of ’luo rong gen’ (落蓉根) is broken,” Bai Ruozhu pointed out on the formulas.

This is the problem with being accustomed to writing simplified characters; even when she intentionally tries to write traditional characters, many of the habits of simplified characters are hard to change. For example, ’cao tou’ and ’jin zi pang’ (the gold radical) often have some differences.

”If you intended to harm someone, you would certainly deny it to the death. It must have been you who deliberately wrote differently from your usual style, to use this as an excuse,” Wei Pengbo accused, twisting the logic.

”Why is Vice Director Wei so agitated? Even Director Mao isn’t as flustered as you. With my medical skills, is it not easy for me to cure Consort Lü who was just in critical condition? Do I need to fear that I cannot win the wager? Since you always find crooked justifications, let’s wait for the officer from the Department of Precautionary Punishment to thoroughly investigate. After all, the person who did this will not escape,” Bai Ruozhu retorted, glaring fiercely at Wei Pengbo.

At that moment, one of Consort Lü’s maidservants suddenly spoke up, ”I’ve remembered something!”

Her sudden declaration made everyone turn to look at her. She blushed as she said, ”When Bai officer had finished writing the formulas and diet plan, it was handed to me. I immediately sent people to gather the medicine. I read the diet plan most carefully and remember its content clearly. As for the formulas, I don’t understand them and only glanced over them. I remember that when Bai officer finished the formulas, there was a tiny dot at the end. The dot was really small, probably an accidental touch from the tip of Bai officer’s pen.”

Bai Ruozhu inwardly cheered; that small dot wasn’t an accidental touch, but rather her fondness for writing full stops, which naturally resulted in a light tap at the end.

Hao Mu picked up the formulas and carefully examined them, then smilingly said to the Empress Dowager, ”Now we have both personal testimony and physical evidence for Bai officer. Indeed, there is no black dot behind ’luo rong gen,’ whereas there is a small dot at the end of the previous line.”

The Empress Dowager asked for the formulas to be shown to her, and after inspecting them, she passed them to the Empress. In the end, everyone confirmed that Bai Ruozhu had been framed.

Wei Pengbo was not willing to give up and wanted to argue that the maidservant was surely bribed by Bai Ruozhu, but he quickly realized he had acted too rashly. Speaking further would certainly arouse suspicion.