"I don't know anything like that."
That was the answer from Maomao, who neither belittled
herself
nor took things too far.
Maomao
replied.
She knew what kind of illness it was, and she had seen patients with it before.
The conclusion she could draw was this:
"It is not an illness that can be cured with medicine."
It was a malady of the mind.
When a courtesan at the brothel fell ill with this disease, the old man and the others
hadn't prescribed a single thing.
Because it was not something medicine could cure.
"So if medicine won't work—"
he had asked, then what would?
"My specialty is medicine."
She had meant it as a definitive statement, but when she glanced to the side, the face of the celestial being was there, filled with worry.
(Don't make eye contact.)
As though handling a wild animal, she averted her gaze from the young man. She tried to look away, but couldn't. He kept circling around to face her.
He was quite clingy. Annoyingly so.
"...I'll do my best."
She answered with a terribly displeased look on her face.
The one who came to fetch her in the middle of the night was—
a eunuch.
It
was
Gaoshun.
His taciturn, expressionless demeanor might seem hard to approach, but Maomao actually felt a sense of kinship with it.
(He doesn't really seem like a eunuch.)
Eunuchs had their yang energy physically removed, so they often became more feminine.
Their body hair thinned out, their personalities mellowed, and instead of sexual desire, their appetite grew and they gained weight easily.
The most obvious example was the quack doctor.
As for Gaoshun, his body hair wasn't particularly thick,
but he was sharp
and dashing enough that if he weren't stationed in the rear palace, he'd be mistaken for a military officer.
(Why did he choose this path?)
She knew well enough that it was something she shouldn't ask, even out of curiosity. She silently shook her head.
A lantern
in one hand, Gaoshun led the way.
The moon was only half full, but with no clouds, it was bright enough.
The inner palace, which she'd only ever seen during the day, looked like an entirely different place.
Occasionally there were rustling sounds, and something
like gasping
could be heard from behind the trees, but she decided to ignore it.
Well, the only proper man in the palace was the Emperor, so it was only natural that romantic relationships there would be somewhat distorted.
"Maomao."
Gaoshun spoke up.
"There's no need for honorifics. Your rank is higher than mine, Gaoshun."
"Then—
Little Cat
"
(All of a sudden
"little"
is how you address me?)
While thinking that this old geezer was surprisingly nonchalant about things, Maomao
nod-
-ded.
"
Jinshi
-sama, could you please stop looking at him as though he were some kind of caterpillar?"
(So he really did notice after all.)
Lately, her facial muscles had been reacting so blatantly that even her iron mask couldn't fully conceal it, apparently.
She didn't think her head was going to be chopped off anytime soon, but she ought to exercise some restraint. To the important people up above, she herself was the insect.
"Today as well, the moment I went home, I was told, 'She looked at me as though I were a slug.'"
(That's fair—I did think he was slimy, sticky, and disgusting.)
That he reported every little detail was its own kind of clinginess.
"He was smiling at me with glistening eyes while shuddering.
'Delight'—
so that's what that word means."
Vocabulary guaranteed to produce nothing but
misunderstandings—
and he had delivered it with the most earnest expression.
If anything, she was plummeting from insect down to filth.
"...I'll be more careful from now on."
"Yes, anyone without immunity might very well
faint
at the very first sight, so the cleanup is quite the ordeal."
A deep sigh carried the weight of her weariness.
While she regaled him with this thoroughly exhausting tale, they arrived at the eastern gate.
The wall stood roughly four times Maomao's height. Beyond it lay a deep moat, and a bridge was lowered for transporting food and supplies, or on the rare occasion that maids were rotated in and out.
Escape from the rear palace meant capital punishment.
Guards were perpetually stationed at the gate. Two eunuchs on the inside, two military officers on the outside. The gate was double-layered, with guard posts on both the inner and outer sides.
Neither lowering nor raising the drawbridge could be done by manpower alone, so two oxen were kept for the purpose.
Maomao felt an urge to slip away and search the pine grove spreading nearby, but with Gaoshun watching her like a hawk, there was no chance of that, so she sat down in the garden pavilion.
Against the backdrop of a crescent moon, it appeared.
A white feminine figure dancing through the air.
Clad in long trailing robes and fins, she alighted atop the wall with dancer-like steps.
The robes swayed, and the fins rippled like living things. Long black hair, illuminated against the darkness, brought her pale silhouette into sharp relief.
It was a beauty
that seemed too extraordinary to be real.
A phantom scene, as though one had wandered into a land of myth.
"Moonlit Lotus"
The phrase drifted unbidden through her mind.
Gaoshun's expression flickered with surprise for an instant before he murmured under his breath.
"You have good instincts."
The woman's name was
Fuyou
—a mid-ranking consort.
She was a noble lady to be bestowed as a reward for meritorious service next month.