Lin Ruyan was stunned. Her beautiful phoenix eyes were fixed firmly on Li Cuntian, as if demanding an explanation.
Li Cuntian made no attempt to hide his intentions, cutting straight to the point: "The Princess is out of danger for the moment. However, I have ascertained that the jade piece the Princess vomited up came from you! Either you intentionally gave her that jade, hoping to kill the Princess, or you offered it up without paying attention, causing her to swallow it. Either way, it is an act of criminal negligence! I am going to arrest you right now and hand you over to the Prince of Zhendnan for judgment!"
Lin Ruyan’s temper flared instantly. She was not a woman to be trifled with, and she replied coldly, "Magistrate Li, I came to this banquet to network with the nobility; why would I ever want to harm the Princess? This jade piece originally belonged to my bracelet. An hour ago, I asked your butler to help me look for it, but he claimed he was too busy and failed to find it. Now that it has appeared in the Princess's mouth, how can it be my fault? Furthermore, did I stuff this jade into the Princess’s mouth myself? What does this have to do with me?"
Li Cuntian, unable to handle being questioned this way, sneered and turned his gaze toward Xiao Chen. "If you refuse to confess, I will tell the Prince of Zhendnan that Xiao Chen openly insulted the Princess! Everyone knows Xiao Chen is a fool; if he did something like this, it must have been under someone’s instruction. When the time comes, not a single one of you in the Lin Family will escape with your lives!"
Seeing Lin Ruyan’s face turn pale, her expression one of stifled rage, Li Cuntian felt even more emboldened. He flicked his sleeves and sneered, "Whether you sacrifice yourself or drag the whole Lin Family down with you—that is for you to decide!"
Lin Ruyan’s face was ashen. She finally saw it clearly: Li Cuntian was not looking for the culprit; he was looking for a scapegoat. That was the only way he could distance himself and bear the brunt of the Prince of Zhendnan’s fury. And she was the best candidate. After all, the Prince of Zhendnan was no fool; if they pushed Xiao Chen out, he would see through the ruse of a scapegoat at a single glance.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Xiao Chen couldn't help but click his tongue. These educated men really were shameless when they wanted to be! Especially thick-skinned!
"Magistrate Li, you are so eager to shirk responsibility. Are you so certain you can heal the Princess?" Xiao Chen asked, arching an eyebrow.
"You fool, what could you possibly know!" Li Cuntian didn't take Xiao Chen’s words to heart at all. Who would ever take anything a fool said seriously? Li Cuntian didn't even deign to waste his breath on him. He stared at Lin Ruyan’s beautiful face and sneered, "Miss Lin, the choice is yours!"
"I... I will go with you..."
Lin Ruyan had just managed to steel her resolve when a commotion interrupted her.
"This is bad!" Inside the room, several servants were scrambling in a panic. A maid rushed out, frantic. "Magistrate, it’s bad! The Princess... the Princess has stopped breathing again!"
"What!" Li Cuntian was horrified and hurried into the room.
Everything fell into chaos. In the courtyard, only Xiao Chen and his wife, Lin Ruyan, remained.
Sweating profusely, Lin Ruyan grabbed Xiao Chen and began to walk away briskly. "Right now, we must go home immediately. I can at least see my parents one last time," she said, feigning composure. "That way, the Lin Family can be prepared!"
Xiao Chen, however, pulled back on her delicate hand and said calmly, "Don’t worry, nothing will happen. You will be fine, the Lin Family will be fine, and most importantly, we will be fine. In my opinion, we should sit down and rest a while, have some tea, and enjoy the scenery."
Xiao Chen smiled and actually found a gazebo, sat down on a stone stool, and began to drink tea leisurely.
"You have truly lost your mind!" Lin Ruyan was shocked for a moment, then scoffed at herself. "I forgot, you were always a fool; it’s no surprise you would say such crazy things. I shouldn't have listened to you!"
"There’s no point in being anxious now. Trust me, in a little while, this Li Cuntian will personally come to invite me back," Xiao Chen said with a faint smile.
"I don't know where you get this confidence!" Lin Ruyan felt she had gone mad too, to have lingered so long with a lunatic! Even if his mind had truly recovered, just listening to these words, anyone would think he was just bragging. Yet, Xiao Chen’s posture was remarkably relaxed and steady. It didn't seem like he was faking it. As someone who had been in business for generations and traveled far and wide, Lin Ruyan still had a bit of a knack for reading people. But this matter, at first glance, was truly unreliable.
Xiao Chen did not know that his beautiful wife was thinking so much. He rubbed the side of the white porcelain cup and fell into deep thought. Just an hour ago, he had been a world-renowned physician in the 22nd century. But when he woke up, he had possessed the body of a fool with the same name!
According to his memories, the original fool had died from hitting his head on the corner of a table. And the culprit was Li Cuntian’s son, Li Bikuan! Li Bikuan had a secret crush on Lin Ruyan and was jealous of the original owner. During this banquet, Li Bikuan wanted to mess with the original owner, so he tricked him into coming here to scare him. He hadn't expected the original owner to be so timid that upon seeing a corpse, he lost his footing and slammed his head directly onto the corner of the table.
When he opened his eyes, he was Xiao Chen, the master physician. Upon waking, he had seen Chai Keqing, who was not yet dead, and out of a professional instinct to save lives, he had subconsciously taken action. The events that followed had unfolded one by one.
Xiao Chen slowly sorted out the situation. The original owner came from a modest background; his parents were wandering physicians. If it hadn't been for Lin Ruyan’s father insisting that the elder Xiao couple had done him a great favor, and forcing Xiao Chen to marry into the Lin Family as a son-in-law, there was no way this fool could have married a wealthy beauty!
Even Xiao Chen found this very strange. Just because of a favor, he would let his precious daughter marry a fool and gamble away her entire life? Moreover, in his memory, Lin Ruyan’s mother looked down on the original owner, but Lin Ruyan’s father was always responsive to him, even acting with a sense of reverence. All of this felt so eerie... it even made Xiao Chen sniff out some unknown secrets.
...
The Prince of Zhendnan, dressed in military uniform, strode in with long, quick steps, followed by an old man with white hair and beard. Reaching the room, he kicked the wooden door open with a loud "bang." His leopard-like eyes scanned the room and finally settled on the bed. Then, his gaze slowly shifted to Li Cuntian, who stood to the side, radiating a murderous aura.
This scorching stare made Li Cuntian break into a cold sweat. He looked at the unconscious Chai Keqing on the bed, then at the doctor who stood by helplessly, and felt his heart go cold.
Li Cuntian stepped forward, just about to speak, when he saw the Prince of Zhendnan lift his chin. The old man behind him stepped forward slowly and began to take the Princess’s pulse. The old man checked for a long time, his expression grave, and finally sighed.
"Report to the Prince: the Princess’s pulse is extremely dangerous; she is on the brink of death. I am afraid this old man is powerless..."
"What!" The Prince of Zhendnan’s expression shifted. "Even you, Master, cannot save my Qing’er?"
The old man was not rushed, only shaking his head gently. "Prince, do not panic. This old man has one more method we can attempt. The reason the Princess has survived until now is because someone performed emergency treatment on her not long ago. As long as we can find this person, perhaps the Princess still has a chance to live!"