The clinic had been shut down—at least for a time. Even if not all were implicated, aiding an escape from the rear palace was a grave offense, and among those who bore responsibility—
Shinryoku—
was a court lady whose crime weighed heaviest of all.
Shinryoku had attempted suicide. She had survived, but was now held prisoner as a criminal.
However, in a rear palace where the medical bureau was of no use, the clinic was an indispensable presence. Though it now operated under the watchful eye of eunuchs, the shutdown had apparently been lifted.
Before all that, though—when Maomao had been snatched away—everything in the clinic had been thoroughly confiscated. And the illustrated compendium she had been perusing was among the seized items.
"This is the one, isn't it?"
Jinshi held out the compendium. He had apparently been granted a day off at last. Outside the apothecary, Gaoshun was no doubt—
Tokuko—
getting tea from.
"Pardon me."
Maomao took the compendium and leafed through its pages. She found a section with an unusual number of annotations. As she slowly opened it, slips of paper covered in writing came tumbling out.
Maomao laid the book open on the floor, angled so Jinshi could see. Then she carefully arranged the fallen slips of paper.
"This must be it."
There were many carefully drawn illustrations of insects. They all looked quite similar, but each was labeled as a migratory locust, so that was what they were.
Some showed the whole insect, while others focused on the legs or wings in dissected detail. The colors had faded somewhat, but the meticulous care put into coloring them was still evident.
Among the illustrations, the insects fell broadly into two groups—or three, if examined more closely. As she read through the compendium's descriptions, Maomao sorted them into categories.
"This appears to be the variety commonly seen."
She pointed to a locust painted in green. It was hard to tell from the full-body illustration, but when she examined the one showing only the dissected wing, it appeared somewhat shorter than the other two.
"And the one expected to increase this year is this. Apparently, it is this variety that causes the plagues."
Jinshi could surely read the compendium's text as well, but she spoke the words aloud on purpose. Verbalizing the information etched it clearly into memory, making it far easier to recall.
She figured Jinshi's silence came from the same reasoning.
The locust painted in brown had longer wings than the green one.
"And it says here that last year's small-scale locust plague was likely caused by this variety."
She picked up the illustration of the locust in the middle.
It was intermediate in shape between the green and brown ones, and its color was a blend of the two.
"So it transforms into this brown locust through successive stages?"
"That appears to be the case."
When certain conditions were met, locusts changed the color of their bodies and the shape of their wings. This process took several generations, and with each stage, their numbers increased.
The compendium noted that it was more likely the increase in numbers that drove the physical changes, rather than the other way around.
In other words, a small-scale locust plague was a harbinger of a larger one to come.
"You're saying there will be a bigger plague this year?"
"Yes, though I cannot say how large the scale will be."
The trouble with locust plagues was that misjudging them meant famine deaths. Do not underestimate these creatures—sometimes they blot out the sky and devour every last grain.
Maomao had grown up in the capital and had never witnessed such a thing, but among the courtesans who had been sold from farming villages to the pleasure district, many had been sold precisely because locust plagues left them with nothing to eat.
And the timing could not be worse.
Word of the destruction of the Shi clan last year had reverberated across the entire nation.
Since ancient times, locust plagues were said to be a trial of the ruler's governance, given the sheer scale of their devastation. For this reason, when a plague struck, many interpreted it as a sign that the ruler's governance was flawed—that Heaven was punishing the Emperor.
If the destruction of the Shi clan and a locust plague in the very next year were to coincide, it would not bode well for the nation.
Now, what both Maomao and Jinshi really wanted to know went beyond that—if the Shi had been studying locust plagues, they must have also investigated methods of prevention.
But...
"..."
There was no mention of any miraculous remedy.
What was listed were measures to be taken before the next plague struck after a small-scale one appeared. All of them amounted to labor-intensive tactics relying on sheer manpower.
The key was to exterminate them while still in the larval stage, and the text described how to produce insecticides deemed effective for that purpose. Perhaps because they would be consumed in large quantities, they appeared to be made from relatively easy-to-obtain materials.
It also recommended lighting bonfires if the locusts reached adulthood. This was an age-old countermeasure—the summer bugs that fly straight into the flames, as the saying goes.
"We didn't really get any useful information, did we?"
"No, but if we had left it unknown and let things run their course, the consequences could have been dire."
Scratching his head, Jinshi pulled a large map from inside his robe. It covered the territory from the central part of the country through Shihoku Province and on to the western regions, and it was dotted with numerous red circles in vermillion ink. Incidentally, the central region was known as Kaō Province—though what would become of Shihoku Province's official name going forward was anyone's guess.
"These are the locations of the villages that filed damage reports. Does anything stand out to you from this?"
"Well, when you put it that way..."
Locust plagues were said to occur most often across vast plains, and indeed, every affected village was situated near open flatland.
"Is it because locusts breed more easily in the plains?"
"That's likely it. But this region hasn't seen a locust plague in decades."
Jinshi circled a section of the map with his finger. It was around the direct holdings of the Shi clan in the north—a prosperous agricultural region that bordered forests and mountainous terrain.
For some reason, he was tapping his finger irritably at the forested area on the map.
"You'd think the birds in the nearby forest would eat the insects..."
"About that."
Shihoku Province had once been rich in timber, but its surroundings had apparently been reduced to barren hills. Under the Empress's reign, reckless logging had been strictly prohibited throughout the country.
After the Empress's passing, the no-good lot of the Shi clan had apparently been logging without informing the central government.
The timber smuggled out of the province was quietly sold to foreign nations, while the portion distributed domestically was marked up in price so as not to arouse suspicion.
The reckless deforestation had apparently ravaged the region's natural landscape.
"...Could it be that the locust plague appeared because the birds disappeared from all that?"
"That's entirely possible."
For some reason, Maomao felt a pang of sadness welling up.
The reason Jinshi was so deeply affected might have been that he had placed some hope in Shihoku Province's forest resources. He had likely figured that even if crops failed, the money from selling timber could be used to purchase food from afar—but that entire foundation had just crumbled.
(Wait a moment.)
If that was the case, then perhaps there was a reason the Empress had imposed restrictions on logging after all. But that was something to think about later.
Maomao stared intently at the reference book. She read the entry on insecticide several times, then stood up.
She pulled a volume from the room's bookshelf, flipped through it briskly, and showed it to Jinshi.
"With this compound alone, the medicine will fall far short of what's needed. The effectiveness may be reduced, but I'll prepare other formulations as well."
Then, there was one more thing she could think of.
"Would it work to simply burn the areas where the larvae have appeared?"
"Hmm. That depends on the location. Burning them out is certainly the quickest way to deal with it, but..."
Then, what else could be considered...
"A hunting ban on sparrows, perhaps?"
Sparrows were treated as pest birds, but their role in eating insects was also significant. Before the grain heads formed, the damage should still be relatively limited. Still, those who made their living from them would likely voice objections.
Even trying every last one of these measures, it was unclear how much the damage could be reduced. Above all, there might be nothing to it at all, but that in itself would be fortunate, so there was no issue.
Crushing negative possibilities one by one — that is
governance
the work of those who rule. Even if they never received proper recognition for it.
"A hunting ban on sparrows, huh? Implementing that out of the blue would probably get some serious pushback."
Sparrow dishes lined the stalls of the city's markets as well. They were everywhere, making them a relatively common ingredient.
"If only there were a suitable replacement..."
"Why not simply elevate locust dishes into official court cuisine?"
Maomao blurted it out as though it were a stroke of genius. If they did that, locusts would become an ingredient officially supplied to the court, more people would try to catch them, and once the Emperor started eating them, the officials would follow suit out of a desire to imitate.
However...
Jinshi had frozen in place.
The man who normally radiated vivid color looked gray.
(This guy...)
She thought about pulling out the remaining simmered locusts right then and there.
Just when she thought he was finally moving, Jinshi looked upward, gently pressed a finger between his brows, and let out a groaning sound. He appeared to be struggling internally. The result:
"...Could we perhaps keep that as a last resort?"
"It's not a problem as long as they don't multiply."
Maomao said this, but she felt a little disappointed.
All she could say was that Jinshi had become more motivated than before, giving off an air that something needed to be done.
He apparently hated eating them that much.
(...)
Maomao let a faint smile cross her face.
Seeing this, Jinshi stiffened up again.
"Um, Lord Jinshi."
"Wh-what is it?"
He stammered a little as he replied.
"Why don't you have a meal before you go?"
Maomao offered the suggestion politely.