Be it in the ancient or modern era, most people liked to gossip and join the crowd.
Therefore, almost everyone in the crowd agreed to go to the city with them.
Especially those who had bought the medicine, they also asked Shi Qingluo to help them with the prescription.
They were prepared to bring it to the city and ask other doctors to see if there were any problems with the prescription.
Then, more than a dozen people pulled Doctor Shi and his disciple and walked to the city together.
Along the way, all the passer-by saw Doctor Shi being tied up and dragged along by a little girl. They could not help but come up to ask curiously.
Shi Qingluo then spread the word about what Doctor Shi had done.
The people in the town could not believe that Doctor Shi was so evil to deliberately harm people.
It took about forty minutes to walk from the town to the city, so many people could not help but follow along to join in the fun.
On the way to the city, they met more who asked them again.
Without Shi Qingluo repeating it, the people who followed them told them everything.
So, the team going to the city continued to expand.
By the time they reached the city, there were already more than forty people following them.
When they arrived in front of the yamen, the yamen guard saw a little girl dragging two bound people with a large group of people following behind her.
He was stunned.
One of the yamen guards walked forward and asked, “What are all of you doing?”
Shi Qingluo replied, “We are here to report to the officials.”
“This is the physician from our town. He intentionally gave my husband some conflicting medicine to eat and almost caused my husband’s death.”
After she finished speaking, she took out the letter written by Xiao Hanzheng last night from her backpack. “This is the letter written by my husband, Elementary Scholar Xiao. I’ll have to trouble you to hand it over to the magistrate.”
When the bailiff heard that she was a family member of a scholar, he paid more attention to her.
He took the report and said, “Wait a moment.”
In the main hall of the office, a young, grim man was wearing a grade seven official’s uniform.
He was flipping through the documents of Nanxi county in recent years.
The yamen guards handed over the writ. “Sir, there’s a little woman outside who wants to lodge a report to the officials. This is the writ written by her husband, Elementary Scholar Xiao.”
Mo Qingling took it and looked at it. “Bring her here.”
“Yes, Sir!” The yamen guard respectfully retreated.
Then, he brought Shi Qingluo and the rest into the hall.
Shi Qingluo was a little puzzled when she saw the cold-looking young man sitting at the head of the table. Didn’t they say that the magistrate was an old man around fifty years old?
“Greetings, Magistrate.” Shi Qingluo didn’t kneel down and just bowed.
Mo Qingling was surprised when he saw a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl tying up two men and bringing them to the hall.
He asked, “Is Shi Langzhong, the person you tied up the one you want to sue?”
Shi Qingluo nodded. “Yes, initially they resisted and didn’t want to follow us. I was afraid that they would run away, so I tied them up and brought them here.
“This would save the magistrate some efforts to send someone to capture them again too.”
Mo Qingling was surprised.
This was the first time he had seen someone report to the officials like this.
He asked again, “I’ve already seen the report. You said that Doctor Shi intentionally poisoned your husband with medicine. Do you have any evidence?”
Shi Qingluo handed over the old medicinal remnants in the basket, the medicine that had not been brewed the last time, the medicine prescribed this time, and all the prescriptions to the bailiff.
“This is the evidence.”
Mo Qingling took a look at the prescription.
Then, he ordered someone to go to the back of his office and call the manor doctor at his courtyard over.
Once he heard that the manor doctor was coming, Doctor Shi’s expression changed again.
Shi Qingluo judged that this young county magistrate didn’t come from a simple background.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have a manor doctor dedicated to him.
Very soon, an old man followed the bailiff in.
Mo Qingling pointed at the medicinal dregs and prescriptions on the table.
“Come and take a look at this prescription, the medicinal remnants, and the newly purchased medicine. See if they match up and if there are any problems with the prescription.”
The magistrate’s doctor replied respectfully, “Yes.”
He walked over and very quickly picked up the prescription.
He reached out and scumbled through the medicinal remnants and the new bag of medicine.
After he was done, his face darkened. “Reporting to my lord, the person who wrote this prescription has bad intentions. He’s trying to kill someone.
“The previous prescription will cause a person’s high fever to recede repeatedly. After falling into a coma, if you continue drinking this medicine, you won’t be able to wake up.
“The latter prescription looks like a tonic on the surface, but they are two conflicting medicines.
“After drinking it, your body will become weaker and weaker. I reckon you’ll be lying in bed for the rest of your life.”
Mo Qingling knocked on the table. “Is it possible that you’ve made a mistake?”
The doctor replied truthfully, “It’s impossible according to the prescription. Furthermore, it is just once, it may have been an accident. If there’s a problem with all of them, then it can’t be an accident.”
Mo Qingling nodded. “That’s what I thought too.”
Shi Qingluo pointed at the new bag of medicine that was opened. “Doctor Shi even said that bag of medicine was ginseng.”
The magistrate’s doctor was stunned for a moment before he picked it up to take a closer look and sniff at it.
“This isn’t ginseng, but a kind of wild medicine. Not only can it not replenish the body, it can even cause dizziness.”
Shi Qingluo took the opportunity to say, “Sir, not only do I want to sue Doctor Shi for intentionally murdering my husband, I also want to sue him for selling counterfeit medicine to harm others.”
Those who were his patients and had been buying medicine at Doctor Shi’s medicine hall were all flustered after hearing his words.
A middle-aged man asked, “Sir, can we ask this old mister to help us take a look and see if there are any problems with the medicine we bought just now?”
Mo Qingling nodded. “You may!”
The magistrate’s doctor started to look at the prescription and medicine for the dozen or so people who had followed Shi Qingluo.
After looking at it, he said, “There are more than half of the people who have no problems with the medicine, but the dosage of the medicine is not very accurate. It obviously drags out the recovery time.
“For example, those who can recover after taking three doses of medicine will need to take five or six doses.”
The doctor paused for a moment and said, “Another half of his patients’ medicine had some problems. It’s either altered or the medicine is just not right.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the people who followed along became anxious.
“No wonder every time I went to look for Doctor Shi to get medicine, it would take a long time to recover. It turns out that he deliberately dragged the recovery time.”
“I have a relative who went to him to get some medicine, but he died of illness within a few days. I suspect that he did it on purpose, or that there were fake medicines in there.”
“The medicine from the Shi family’s medicine hall is cheaper than the medicine in the city. It turns out that the trick is the counterfeit medicine.”
“Doctor Shi’s heart is simply black to have the conscience to earn this kind of money.”
Everyone could not help but curse one after another.
Doctor Shi’s face was pale as he sat weakly on the ground. He was doomed.
Mo Qingling asked the bailiff to remove the cloth from Doctor Shi’s mouth. “Doctor Shi, now that the witnesses and evidence are conclusive, what else do you have to say?”
Doctor Shi shook his head. “I have nothing to add.”
The evidence was in front of him.
Even if he did not wish to admit it, he had to.
In fact, he might even be tortured for not admitting.
Shi Qingluo said, “Sir, my husband doesn’t have any enmity with Doctor Shi. Logically speaking, he has no reason to harm my husband, so I suspect that there is someone behind him.”
Mo Qingling looked at Doctor Shi. “Speak, did someone instruct you to do it?”
He also suspected that there was someone behind it.
Even if this little woman didn’t say anything, he would still ask.
Doctor Shi swallowed his saliva.
He thought for a moment and said, “It was indeed someone who instructed me to do it, but I don’t know that person.
“Half a month ago, he suddenly appeared in the middle of the night and gave me a hundred taels of silver.
“He asked me to tamper with the medicine I gave to Elementary Scholar Xiao.
“He also promised to give me another two hundred taels of silver after everything was done.
“I only know that he was a masked man, but I have never seen his true appearance before.”
