“Master, I was extremely anxious when my cousin Ruan Zhenggang was ill. I searched everywhere for famous doctors to treat him. How could I possibly poison my own cousin to death?”
"How do you know that Ruan Zhenggang was poisoned to death? When Ruan Zhenggang was brought here, his whole body was black, and he was already deeply poisoned. You hired someone to treat Ruan Zhenggang's illness. How do you explain that?"
Ruan Jin panicked. He hadn't expected the officials to have figured this out, and he quickly tried to explain.
“Master, my cousin has fallen ill. I have been searching everywhere for famous doctors to treat him. The medicine my cousin is taking is all prescribed by famous doctors.”
"Are you sure you've hired some famous doctors? What are their names? Tell me their names so I can see if they're really famous doctors."
"This," Ruan Jin was stunned. He hadn't expected Magistrate Gao to ask him to name a famous doctor, which stumped him.
"These famous doctors were invited by some friends; I really don't know their names," Ruan Jin continued to argue.
"You've invited several renowned doctors to treat Ruan Zhenggang, surely you can't be completely unable to name even one of them?" Magistrate Gao sneered.
Most famous doctors of this dynasty are well-known, and that's why Ruan Jincai dared not speak carelessly.
"Ruan Jin, I won't bother with your circle anymore. I've found all the famous doctors you invited to treat Ruan Zhenggang. Would you like to see them?"
Ruan Jin was shocked. It seemed that the fake doctor he had hired for Ruan Zhenggang had already been taken into custody by the government. No wonder he hadn't seen these people in the past few days; it meant that the government had been keeping an eye on him for a long time.
"Bring the witnesses."
Soon, yamen runners brought three or four people to the main hall. As soon as these people saw the county magistrate, they immediately knelt down. Ruan Jin was shocked to see these people.
Magistrate Gao looked at the people who had been brought in and asked, "Tell me about your situation and what you do."
"Reporting to the master, I am Li Ergou. I usually do fortune telling and face reading to earn a living. I am not a miracle doctor at all. Ruan Jin asked me to treat Manager Ruan. Ruan Jin provided the prescription. I just need to make some random gestures."
When Ruan Jin approached me, he gave me five taels of silver, saying he would give me another five taels after the matter was settled.
"Sir, I am a fortune teller. Because I am eloquent, Ruan Jin found me. In fact, I am not a miracle doctor at all, nor do I know any medical skills."
"Sir, I'm here to do feng shui for people..."
After everyone had finished speaking, Magistrate Gao asked Ruan Jin, "These are all fake famous doctors you invited. Now I ask you, if you really wanted to treat Ruan Zhenggang, you couldn't even find a doctor if you couldn't find a famous one, could you?"
"Master, spare me! I was just confused for a moment." Ruan Jin collapsed to the ground.
“I can tell you’re not confused. The medicine you gave Ruan Zhenggang contained methamphetamine. This is evidence that you wanted to kill Ruan Zhenggang. What else do you have to say?”
"Master, I..." Ruan Jin tried to argue, but was interrupted by Magistrate Gao.
“Ruan Jin, I’ll ask you again, was the accident that caused Ruan Jingui’s carriage to be caused by you?”
Magistrate Gao's words startled Ruan Jin again. He had done this perfectly and no one would know. Magistrate Gao must be bluffing. He must not be fooled.
"Sir, no, Ruan Jingui was involved in a car accident. How could it be related to me? Please investigate thoroughly, sir."
"I know you won't admit it, but I'll show you something first, maybe it will remind you of something."
After Magistrate Gao finished speaking, he took out two darts and showed them to Ruan Jin.
"Ruan Jin, look carefully. These are two darts. One hit the horse's rump, which was the main cause of this car accident."
Another dart was provided by a man named Wang Ling, who was from Wild Wolf Village. A few days ago, Wild Wolf Village was wiped out by Prefect Shen, and Wang Ling was also arrested by the authorities.
Wang Ling said he knows you and that you have business dealings. Now tell me, what kind of business dealings do you have?
As soon as Magistrate Gao finished speaking, Ruan Jin collapsed to the ground. He hadn't expected that the authorities had already arrested Wang Ling. Wang Ling must have confessed, and there was no point in him persisting any longer.
So Ruan Jin began by recounting how he had persecuted Ruan Jingui in order to seize Ruan Zhenggang's property and assets.
He originally intended for Ruan Jingui to die in a car accident, but unexpectedly the carriage went out of control and killed three innocent passersby, resulting in Ruan Jingui being imprisoned.
But this is for the best. With such a serious car accident, Ruan Jingui will never be able to recover.
Next, he began to plot against Ruan Zhenggang. After his son's accident, Ruan Zhenggang did indeed fall ill, which gave Ruan Jin an opportunity to gradually drive Ruan Zhenggang to the brink of death.
At this point, he finally turned his evil clutches on Ruan Fang. Fortunately, she was quick-witted and managed to escape from the Ma residence, which led to a series of bizarre events.
After Ruan Jin finished speaking, Magistrate Gao asked him to sign and put his fingerprint on the document. Only after all this was done did Magistrate Gao invite Ruan Zhenggang and his family out from behind the screen.
Upon seeing Ruan Zhenggang, Ruan Jin screamed in fright, exclaiming that there was a ghost. Enraged, Ruan Zhenggang stepped forward and kicked Ruan Jin several times.
Upon seeing that Ruan Jin had been brought to justice, Ruan Zhenggang and his family immediately knelt down to thank Magistrate Gao for his mercy.
At this point, Magistrate Gao handed Ruan Zhenggang the documents for the transfer of Ruan family property and assets, drafted by Ruan Jin.
"This is a document drafted by Ruan Jin, and it already bears his signature and seal. It is evidence of his treacherous intentions. I hope you will keep this document safe and learn from it."
"Ruan Jin failed this time, all thanks to your daughter, Ruan Fang. She not only saved herself, but also your whole family."
"Thank you for your guidance, Magistrate. We will keep this in mind and will not make the same mistake again."
After listening to Ruan Zhenggang's account, Zhao Xian fell into deep thought. The reason why these things happened to the Ruan family was that Ruan Zhenggang trusted Ruan Jin too much and had no precautions against him, which gave Ruan Jin an opportunity to take advantage of the situation and almost caused the Ruan family to suffer a catastrophic disaster.
"This must be Ruan Jingui, the eldest son of Manager Ruan. In this incident, Young Master Ruan suffered an undeserved misfortune," Zhao Xian said.
"This is my son, Ruan Jingui. I originally wanted him to study the classics diligently and take the imperial examination in the future."
But he hated studying. After ten years of hard work, he was still a complete novice. Only a year ago did he put down his books and start learning how to do business.
Ruan Fang, on the other hand, is a natural scholar. She loves reading classical texts and is also very skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. But she is a woman. If she were a man, she would surely have entered officialdom and brought honor to our Ruan family.”
After Ruan Zhenggang finished speaking, Ruan Jingui felt very embarrassed. He had studied hard for ten years and had done his best. He had found it very difficult to make any progress on the path of the imperial examination.
However, ten years of hard study did not come without any reward. He had no problem helping his father with business matters. What he needed to do now was to help his father make the family business successful.
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