Mercury has long been passed down as a miraculous elixir of immortality, owing to its wondrous properties.
Its source is a red mineral used in both pigments and medicine. Heat it, condense the vapor, and mercury is produced.
The ancients believed that this stone, reminiscent of blood, would transform into vapor and become flowing silver — and through that, grant eternal life.
But not only the ancients — even now, there are no few who regard it as something mystical.
Without knowledge, anyone shown such a bewildering transformation of form would likely be taken in entirely. The methods of producing medicine are often kept secret by those who handle them. When such secrets are the source of profit, that is only natural.
Had Maomao not been taught by her adoptive father, she too might have gone so far as to drink mercury in the name of experimentation.
The
White
Lady
— with her disappearance, it became possible to piece together at least some of what the other party had been trying to do.
At the very least, it was clear they had wanted to cause a stir throughout the capital. The wealthy merchants reported to have died of food poisoning had likely ingested mercury, imitating the White Lady. Mercury's toxicity changes depending on its form. If someone drinks it right before your eyes like that, you'd naturally assume it was harmless.
(Was it meant to cause a stir in the world?)
There are people like that. But there are plenty of sickos who take pleasure in watching others panic. Some wield their blades for no reason other than wanting to cut someone down, while others disguise poison dumplings as alms to feed to beggars.
But their targets were a poor choice. Going out of their way to spread rumors of a celestial maiden and target wealthy merchants and high officials — resulting in fatalities.
(What was the goal? And besides...)
The fact that they had been practicing elixir refinement — or rather, something closer to alchemy — was also troubling. They had also put on a show involving paper from the East, so one could simply write them off as wandering folk.
Alchemy is a Western discipline. And there was something about that which lingered in Maomao's mind.
It bothered her, but dwelling on it wasn't Maomao's job. The aftermath of the clan affair, countermeasures for the locust plague — things were sure to be hectic, but it was best to leave those matters to Jinshi and the others.
Still, dying of overwork would benefit no one.
Whether he was truly his brother or not, the Emperor certainly worked him to the bone. If it was his duty, then so be it, but it was almost as though...
(Almost as though he were grooming a successor...)
At that point, she abandoned the thought.
At present, the Crown Prince was the son born to Gyokuyou — or rather, the Empress. Moreover, Rifa had also given birth to a son.
The Emperor was only in his mid-thirties, still a vigorous and robust man. Barring any unforeseen events, he should remain in good health until the Crown Prince came of age.
I tried not to think unpleasant thoughts. Considering a change of pace, I thought about doing some cleaning and opened the door to the apothecary.
There, I spotted a drab-looking man tottering along. It was a familiar, chubby little man.
When the man noticed Maomao, he waved his large hand. On his back was a big cloth bundle, and in his hand he carried a basket.
"Missy!"
The one waving so vigorously was the quack doctor who was supposed to be in the rear palace.
(What is he doing here?)
While harboring that question, Maomao opened the entrance to the apothecary.
"My goodness, I thought the address Luomen gave me was wrong."
The quack let out a big puff of breath and wiped away his sweat. With all the fat on his body, even a light jog in winter was apparently enough to make him overheated.
Maomao deliberately served him cold tea, which he downed in one gulp.
"By the way, why are you here? ...Oh, never mind, it's fine."
Poor thing — he'd finally been fired, hadn't he. He wasn't a bad person, but he was practically stealing his wages, so it couldn't be helped.
As a former eunuch, finding new work would be tough. She was thinking she'd try to be as sympathetic as she could—
"Missy, you're not getting the wrong idea, are you?"
The quack stared at her with half-lidded eyes.
"No, don't mind me. Please, don't be embarrassed to say whatever you need to say."
"No, that's not what I—"
While they were going back and forth like this, there was a rustling sound of something moving.
Wondering what it was, Maomao saw the basket the quack doctor had brought begin to shift. And then—
"Meow."
A high-pitched cry rang out.
"...Is that a cat?"
"Yep, a cat."
"Why, of all things?"
The quack pulled a cat out of the basket. It was a young calico, and it held up its pink paw pads in a triumphant pose for Maomao to see.
"You can't keep cats in the rear palace."
"So you got kicked out because of that."
"No, that's not what I'm saying at all."
The quack pouted and shook his head. The calico cat mimicked his movements, kicking its hind legs in the air.
The quack placed the cat back into the basket and tossed in some dried fish as a treat.
"See, the thing is, I was finally allowed to go home for a visit."
"Oh my, a homecoming at last?"
"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you, miss?"
Well, this wasn't getting us anywhere, so I decided to hold my tongue for the time being.
It seemed the quack had been given a short vacation now that Luomen had returned to the court. Luomen wouldn't be working in the rear palace, but he was expected to remain there while the quack was away. The rule was that a doctor always had to be present at the medical bureau, and since no other doctors were stationed in the rear palace, the quack had never once had a day off.
Maomao was kind enough not to add something blunt like, "So you've basically been lounging around every day, haven't you?"
As for this cat—
"See, right after I left the court—"
He had run into some children who wanted someone to take the cat. They were nicely dressed and seemed to be an older sister and younger brother, and they'd apparently been secretly keeping the kitten without their parents' knowledge.
But a servant had found out, and it seemed the kitten would be taken far away and abandoned if things stayed as they were. So they'd been searching for someone who would properly care for it.
Come to think of it, anyone working at the court would be reasonably well-off. The children had probably been avoiding the stern-looking civil officials and burly military officers, so when a laid-back old man with a big drooping mustache showed up, they must have figured they'd struck gold.
The quack was a soft touch, both inside and out.
"I feel bad for those kids, but I can't exactly bring a cat into the rear palace. So I thought I'd take it to my hometown. My little sister used to love cats, you know."
He seemed in high spirits about visiting his family home for the first time in over a decade. If I recalled correctly, the quack's family was in the papermaking business and supplied their goods to the court as well. A cat might serve nicely as a mouser to keep the rats from gnawing on the paper.
"I see."
But it would be a long journey. I was wondering whether the cat would really follow along quietly, when—
The lid of the basket popped open and the cat leaped out.
"Ahh."
"Maomao—"
"!"
"What's that! That name!"
"No, the kids gave it that name."
The cat with the truly wretched name slipped through the gap in the apothecary's door and
made for the entrance
of the Verdigris House.
Maomao and the herbalist hastily pulled on their shoes and gave chase after the cat.
They wove through drowsy women fresh from their morning baths, ducked between the legs of servants tidying bedding, and their destination turned out to be the dining hall.
"Hm?"
Shoveling rice into his mouth at a table was
Zhao Yu.
Beside him, the silent young girl,
Zi Lin,
was slurping porridge.
"What's this guy?"
Still chewing on his chopsticks, Zhao Yu peered down at the calico cat. Zi Lin was also blinking her round eyes at the cat.
The cat had planted its front paws flat on Zhao Yu's foot.
"Could this be it?"
Zhao Yu pinched up a piece of fish with his chopsticks. It was just a bluefish grilled over charcoal, but even without seasoning it had a salty taste.
"Meow!"
The cat swatted the fish right out of Zhao Yu's hand.
"Hey!"
The fish dropped pitifully onto the earthen floor, and the cat immediately began gobbling it up.
"Maomao, no! You mustn't do that!"
The herbalist came running up, out of breath.
"What the hell—this cat! Who are you, old man?"
And also... something like that.
"Maomao? What kind of name is that?"
Zhao Yu grinned as he looked at Maomao with amusement. Zilin was also stifling laughter that barely qualified as a sound.
Maomao scowled and grabbed the calico cat. The cat had a fish clamped firmly in its jaws and showed no intention of letting go.
Zhao Yu looked at the fish with regret but watched the cat with fascination. He poked its pink, flushed paw pads, making them squish in and out, and his eyes lit up with each "Oh!"
What Maomao wanted was to hand the cat back to the quack doctor right away and have him deliver it to his family home. But the fact that the quack doctor had come here meant there must be some reason.
For the time being, she told them not to let the cat escape and left it in Zhao Yu's care. She had at least warned one of the men, so they probably wouldn't do anything too terrible.
When she returned to the apothecary and asked what the real topic of conversation was, the quack doctor began speaking while fiddling with his beard.
"You know my family makes paper, right?"
"Yes."
"Actually, the reason I'm going back this time is because something's been bothering me about that."
Before, when the paper quality had deteriorated, the quack doctor's sister had sent a letter.
A letter.
That had supposedly been resolved already, but perhaps a new problem had surfaced.
"What does the letter say?"
"No, she just told me to come back in person."
Hmm, hmm. I see, Maomao nodded.
"So, I was hoping you might come along with me, miss..."
The quack doctor had surely written something high-handed in the letter he sent back to his sister before. This eunuch had a small ego but a tendency to try to show off his better side when he could.
In other words, he didn't seem confident that he could come up with the right answer after hearing her out.
"..."
Maomao felt bad for the quack doctor, but she didn't owe him that much. She had no reason to take time off from work just to accompany him.
Seeing Maomao's indifferent reaction, the quack doctor grabbed onto her with watery eyes.
"M-Miss, please, I'm begging you. It's not that far. It's less than half a day by carriage from here."
Even so, she would have to close the apothecary for at least three days. On top of that, she wanted to plow the fields in preparation for spring.
But there was someone who wouldn't tolerate such a reason above all else.
"Oh my, now that's a problem."
Leaning against the wall as if they'd planned it together, there stood the dried fish—no, rather, the savvy old woman.
"That girl is, technically, running an apothecary here. There aren't any doctors to speak of around these parts, so if she slips away without proper notice, there could be real trouble if something comes up."
The old woman said this while chewing on dried sardines she'd produced from somewhere.
"Don't say things like that."
Even as a quack doctor, he probably wanted to maintain his dignity as an older brother.
"You can't expect me to just let that go, dearie."
Even as she said this, she kept glancing over.
(Ah.)
She understood the old woman's intentions. She had probably been eavesdropping on their conversation from the start. On top of that, she must have noticed that Maomao had recently been getting high-quality medicinal wrapping paper for free.
"Oh, Granny, come to think of it—didn't you say you wanted to redo the wallpaper recently?"
"Now that you mention it, I suppose I did say something like that."
The old woman chewed on her dried sardines while deliberately looking away.
"And didn't you also say you couldn't find good paper for the letters you send to your regulars?"
"Did I say that?"
With that, Maomao and the old woman both glanced over at the quack doctor.
"Our paper is top quality. Whether you want wallpaper or letter paper, it can do anything."
The quack doctor said, clenching his fists tight.
"I'll let you send as much as you want."
Maomao didn't miss the way the old woman turned away with a smirk at those words.
She truly was a miser to the bone.