The one who knocked on the apothecary's door carrying several illustrated reference books was Gaoshun's son—
Maosen.
—so it was.
Maomao offered the perpetually sullen young man a flattened cushion and poured him tea.
"Lord Jinshi is busy."
In other words, he apparently meant that Jinshi had no time to come here.
Still using Jinshi's eunuch name was partly a way of maintaining an alias, but more than anything, it was because he could not speak his real name aloud. A name of such exalted stature should not be uttered lightly before common folk.
With a guest other than the usual handsome man and his attendant, the courtesans of the Rokushoukan were all agog with interest. The especially shrewd madam could be seen pretending not to notice while mentally calculating away.
Unlike when Jinshi visited, the apothecary's door had been left wide open, so the whole scene was on full display.
"He did mention it."
Maosen produced several thick books from a cloth bundle. A familiar reference volume emerged from among them.
Among the volumes lined up—birds, fish, insects, plants—she took the insect reference.
What Maomao was mainly interested in were the ones that could serve as medicinal ingredients. She had devoured the plant reference volumes, but had only leafed through the insect ones.
(Was it in here?)
However, she had heard—
Sazen
—had been researching locusts. It had to be there.
But she couldn't find it. No matter how many times she looked through them, it wasn't there. In the end, even Maosen started leafing through the pages.
"...It's not there?"
"No, it isn't."
"He said it was there, didn't he?"
Even if she was told that, it simply wasn't there.
What was this? Had Sazen deceived her?
No, even if that man had done something like that—
Advantage
None.
"Could someone have taken it while it was in storage?"
"Who would be interested in something like that?"
"Well, some people like what they like."
But that seemed unlikely as well. If someone was going to steal something at that location, there were far more obviously valuable items to take.
As she mused over this, she noticed a shadow drawing near from the direction of the apothecary.
Swaying gracefully like a willow, the voluptuous figure who had drawn near was—
Byakuren,
the Young Lady.
(......)
Maomao grimaced. Behind Byakuren, she could see the shrewd older woman making no effort to stop her. It seemed Bansen's appraisal had long since been completed.
Young Lady Byakuren was a most delightful courtesan. The eldest at Rokushōkan, her beauty had not dimmed in the slightest, and she still captivated many a gentleman. The military officer dubbed a mongrel—
Ri Haku—
was a prime example.
She was also said to be the finest dancer in the capital.
She was kind to the young courtesans and their kamuro, a wonderful big sister figure, but...
Even someone like her had her flaws.
Byakuren, who had appeared so gracefully, stepped up behind Bansen. Then, with her neatly manicured fingertips, she lightly slid them along his cheek.
"?!?"
Bansen, startled, inadvertently sprang upward while still seated. It might be hard to picture, but he managed the nimble feat of leaping straight up from a sitting position.
"Young Lady—"
"Oh, I'm sorry. There was some dust on your shoulder."
A lie. An absolute lie.
What reason was there to touch his cheek?
Her graceful movements, every single one steeped in femininity.
Her eyes seemed to smile with gentle warmth, but Maomao saw them for what they really were—the eyes of a predator closing in on its prey.
For the past few days, the young lady had been on tea time, meaning she had no clients. That wasn't because she was undesirable; a high-ranking courtesan who took on clients every day would actually be considered rather unseemly.
In other words, how should one put it.
This courtesan seemed none too pleased with the arrangement.
She was sexually frustrated, in a word.
"Wh-what are you doing!?"
"Oh my, it still hasn't come off. Hold still—I'll get it for you, so stay put."
Mashin backed away through the narrow apothecary, with Hakuryou in pursuit.
To keep things from getting knocked over, Maomao placed the mortar and pestle on the shelf before Mashin could reach them. She set the teacups and sweets on a tray and held it in her hands.
(The first time around,
she'll provide
personal service.)
Not that there was any chance of that—Mashin's face was somewhere between red and blue, impossible to read. If Rihaku were to show up now, things would certainly get interesting. Maomao slipped on her shoes and popped one of the sweets she'd secured into her mouth. Serving sweets a grade below what she put out for Jinshi—that was the hallmark of a shrewd madam. Still, they were perfectly decent quality, and the senbei with its faint scent of shrimp suited Maomao's taste just fine.
(Well now, those are the first of the season.)
She'd had a vague sense of it, but now she was certain. Nodding to herself, she leaned against the wall, picked up another rice cracker, and washed it down with tea.
The eunuchs watched with envy, but she couldn't very well eat in front of the shrewd madam. With no other choice, she stopped herself from reaching for another and left the rest.
"Ugh! Fine, I'm leaving. I've delivered what I came to deliver, at least!"
With his sash half-undone and trailing behind him, Mashin stormed out of the apothecary.
"Aww."
Hakuryou sank into her seat, looking quite bereft.
"And it was the first of the season, too..."
Sure enough, they really were the first of the season.
If not for this sort of thing, she'd truly be a good big sister—but Maomao felt she was getting worse year by year.
"If he'd just fall for her once, it would be heaven, wouldn't it..."
The capable old woman spoke, looking vexed.
(No, that's not going to work, is it?)
Maomao thought she needed to have Li Bai start saving up money quickly so he could buy her freedom.
Sazen was outside doing cleaning.
So long as his arm strength still fell short of what was required of a male servant, he'd be stuck doing grunt work. That was the way
Ukyō—
—the head of the male servants—operated. If Sazen was satisfied with that, he was no use as a male servant and would be dismissed eventually. But if he resented it and tried to learn other skills, they'd properly guide him along.
The way Sazen stood there holding a broom, humming a tune, he looked like nothing so much as someone headed for dismissal.
"Hey."
"Hmm?"
Dressed in shabby clothes and with his beard shaved off, Sazen looked somewhat younger.
"The books have arrived."
So saying, Maomao showed him the books Basen had brought over earlier. She thumped down the cloth-wrapped bundle.
"These aren't what you said they'd be."
Between what Sazen already had and these, the total came to fourteen volumes. But not a single one contained anything about locusts. When Maomao had been in that research room, there had been fourteen volumes, so the count should have been right.
"No way—that can't be."
Sazen tore off the cloth wrapping and checked inside.
He narrowed his eyes and stared hard.
"Hey, this isn't all of them."
"That was everything in that room."
Even Maomao wouldn't miscount something like that.
"No, this book—"
Sazen held up one of the insect books. There were two volumes of insect illustrations, neither of which contained any mention of locusts. They were numbered "One" and "Two."
"There are supposed to be three volumes of insect illustrations."
"...What?"
That meant it was never in that room to begin with. Or at the very least, someone had already taken it out by the time Maomao arrived.
"Ugh, who would do that? Someone who'd actually take something like that."
"Wasn't it you?"
"No, not that. It was definitely there when the old man was still around."
Speaking of the old man — that would be the physician who had been expelled from the rear palace. Maomao had heard he was conducting research into immortality.
"Maybe they stuffed it into the old man's coffin?"
"Why would anyone do that?"
"That's the custom back in my hometown."
No, she had no interest in Sazen's hometown.
However, she was interested in the old man Sazen had mentioned.
"Come to think of it, how did he die?"
Old age, perhaps. If he were still alive, he'd be about the same age as her father, so it wouldn't be unusual.
"Well, here's the thing. Apparently it was a failed experiment."
"A failed experiment?"
"When you're trying to make something like an elixir of immortality, you've gotta run experiments, right?"
(That means...)
There was something Maomao had been wondering about.
Zhao Yu.
Specifically, about the resurrection medicine she had used on the children, including Zhao Yu.
Zhao Yu had been left with residual numbness in his body, but then again, a medicine capable of bringing someone back from the dead was never going to work perfectly from the start. The only way forward was to conduct repeated experiments and build up successful cases — that was what Maomao believed.
So, what had those experiments been tested on?
Animals, perhaps? Though really, they would have needed to test on other humans.
"Hey, what's wrong? Ugh!"
Sazen's face had gone rigid. Maomao wondered why, but she understood immediately.
The corners of her own mouth were twisted upward in an unusually wide grin.
She was grinning broadly.
"So, where did you dispose of the bodies?"
"No idea. That sort of thing was always handled by that person."
"That person?"
Sazen scratched his head.
"Would you know the name Suirei? She used to be Grandpa's assistant."
"Alright!"
Maomao instinctively slapped Sazen hard on the back.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"Got it. Don't skip the cleaning."
Maomao rewrapped the book in the cloth bundle, then hurried back to the apothecary to prepare her letter.