Nothing in this world ever goes smoothly.
And when human hearts are involved, things don't merely go wrong — they twist, tangle, and descend into chaos.
Maomao couldn't help but wish that people would just think about things more casually, simply, and directly.
Even as she pondered this, she looked upon the tense-faced
Bashen
before her.
The furrow between his brows was perhaps deeper than she had ever seen. It even surpassed his father
Gaoshun's.
In terms of sheer depth, he had set a brand-new record.
Maomao sipped her tea as she studied the grim-faced man.
The refreshments
consisted of
sesame balls
— generously coated with sesame seeds on the outside, filled with sesame paste within. The paste wasn't particularly sweet, perhaps as a consideration for Bashen's tastes, but Maomao found the subtle sweetness rather pleasant.
She took a second one and split it open with her bamboo spoon.
They were in a guest room at Ada's detached palace.
After that commotion, Ada and the others had come to fetch them right away. Risu's head maid had rushed over, expecting to find the consort in a state of terror.
Unfortunately, there was no terrified, pale-faced consort to be found — only a troublesome girl of a certain age, positively bursting with fantastical delusions.
And the person that girl had been staring at was this man.
(Hmm.)
Maomao studied Bashen intently.
She had heard he was the same age as Jinshi, so that would make him twenty. Unlike Jinshi, he actually looked his age.
He stood about five feet seven — roughly a hundred and seventy centimeters. He might be a touch short for a military officer, but there was still room for him to grow.
His face resembled Gaoshun's, which wasn't bad at all, but he was sorely lacking in gravitas. A bit more composure would do him good — instead, an air of immaturity still clung to him.
However, Maomao thought, young people of roughly the same age were probably like this in general. Of course, considering who he served, she knew it wasn't nearly enough.
As a candidate, he wasn't bad.
Being part of the horse clan, he'd been given one character in his name.
And the martial skill she'd witnessed earlier was quite impressive. He'd defeated multiple opponents armed with bladeds while unarmed. That was no simple feat.
For starters, people freeze in fear.
One of the men had told her long ago that simply seeing a blade was enough to trigger the dread of being stabbed, which bred hesitation in one's movements.
But Bashen had pulled it off without showing even a shred of that, which meant he was that skilled.
(Maybe that's why)
he'd been assigned to Jinshi's side.
She'd been wrong all along to think of him as a civil-service type of aide. It seemed his current role兼ped both, but honestly, it didn't suit his personality.
A man like this would be better off tossed into the military.
(Surprisingly,
he might get along
with someone like Li Bai.)
Just as she was thinking this, he looked up with a "Hmm?"
Maomao felt suddenly awkward and looked at the plate of sesame dumplings.
"What is it?"
"Would it be all right if I had one of the sesame dumplings?"
"Help yourself."
There were five dumplings, so Maomao would end up eating one more than him. Honestly, two had already filled her up, but she forced a third into her mouth.
Bashen let out unseemly sighs — "Whew," "Haah" — as he gazed outside.
(What is this atmosphere?)
Maomao wished he'd at least been given someone to talk to. She'd have settled for any one of those noisy little brats at this point.
Just as she was musing on this, Ada finally entered the guest room.
The moment she stepped in, she bowed deeply.
"W-what?!"
Basen hastily raised his head.
Judging by this, Maomao figured that despite being a former high consort, Ada still held considerable authority.
Honestly, she couldn't really tell which of them ranked higher or lower. She could only sense from the general atmosphere that this one seemed more imposing.
"Thank you so much for saving Lady Risu."
"I know that already. P-please raise your head!"
(Ah, I flubbed that.)
Maomao looked at Ada, thinking that this wasn't going to go well.
Ada looked at Maomao and nodded, as if granting her permission to speak, so she opened her mouth.
"Why did you use Lady Risu as bait?"
Maomao asked point-blank.
"Sharp one, aren't you."
Ada smiled with just the corners of her mouth, then slowly sat down in a chair.
Maomao realized her rational mind was screaming at her not to meddle. She considered how she might escape, but in the end her own free will probably wouldn't carry the day.
And so she asked the question.
"Am I going to be all right here?"
At that question, Ada gave a sweet smile, and Maomao's hand was firmly seized.
*Don't run.* That was apparently the message.
Something had been wrong from the very beginning.
Even if she had the Emperor's approval, a high consort was venturing outside the rear palace.
What's more, word had gotten out that she was going into town, and that information had been shared with Maomao, who was supposed to be an outsider.
And in truth, Lady Risu had been attacked in a back alley. Moreover, her escort was only two guards, and at her side there was not Ada, nor even the head attendant maid who usually accompanied her.
If that wasn't abnormal, what else could you call it?
"Lady Risu, as you can see, has her life under threat."
Ada had been about to pour the tea herself, so Maomao snatched the teapot first and poured for her instead. In the Jade Pavilion...
Hongniang
Perhaps because she'd been pushed so hard, she found herself acting on instinct.
"I don't know who it is. But I decided to take drastic measures to put the lady's mind at ease."
"I see—drastic measures, you say."
Hearing a reproachful edge in the response, Maomao reflexively covered her own mouth. No—that wasn't right. The voice hadn't come from Maomao's mouth. It had come from Basen's.
The furrow between his brows had only deepened, setting new records. Two fresh lines had been carved in, so deeply etched they were almost grotesque.
"So you treated a fragile, lovely lady like bait, did you?"
(Fragile...
lovely...
...)
It was true—Lady Risu was fragile. Fragile and adorable at that, so calling her lovely wasn't exactly wrong.
But those words had come from the lips of none other than Basen.
This was the very man who had spent so long pressing Maomao on whether Lady Risu was a woman befitting his master's wife.
Setting aside "fragile," wasn't it a bit out of place for him to say "lovely"?
And yet.
"Weren't the guards posted there all newcomers who only joined last year?"
"Oh? You know them?"
Ada grinned, clearly amused.
"They're entirely unsuitable as guards for a consort. And furthermore—"
Basen hesitated for a moment, then pressed on.
"With that many sentries watching from all sides, why didn't they come out sooner? What possible excuse is there for that?"
At Basen's words, Maomao's eyes went wide.
"Oh? So you noticed, did you?"
Ada stroked his chin and nodded. The gesture was somehow reminiscent of the Emperor. All things considered, he'd been married the longest, so perhaps that explained the resemblance.
(So he'd been watching from the shadows, then.)
Maomao hadn't noticed a thing. And those guards and vagrants probably hadn't either.
"For a method of flushing someone out, isn't that rather rough?"
Basen said, his tone clipped and firm.
He was speaking frankly to Ada while still maintaining proper respect.
(Hmm, one point for that.)
Maomao mentally tallied her assessment of Basen. Right now, he was sitting at a lukewarm sixty out of a hundred.
"If things had continued like that, they might have reached for the consort."
Those words made Ada flinch.
Unfortunately, Basen wasn't the type to pick up on every little reaction like that. If the conversation continued as is, Ada would just keep deflecting him.
(Two points deducted.)
As she muttered that in her head, she decided to lend a hand.
When Maomao raised her hand slightly, Ada gave a small nod.
"If I may ask a single question?"
"What is it?"
"Who exactly is targeting Consort Risu?"
That was the crux of the matter.
Honestly, she could understand if Gyokuyou or Consort Rifa were being targeted. But there was no reason to target Consort Risu, who didn't even cross the Emperor's path.
Especially if whispers of an imperial bestowal had already reached that point.
"..."
No, wait.
Could it be that she was the one whose life was being targeted?
Even with a scar left on her cheek, that woman's beauty wouldn't diminish. If anything, she'd opened up an entirely new layer of appeal—the allure of wildness.
As if reading Maomao's thoughts, Ada smiled.
"Haha,
Zuiko
"Because he's popular, you know."
(Rui?)
She tilted her head, wondering who that could be, when Bashin nudged her with his elbow.
"It's about Jinshi."
Ah, right. Maomao clapped her hands together. Come to think of it, that was a pseudonym—honestly, she never even used his real name and hadn't bothered to memorize it.
"He's popular not just in this country, you know."
So saying, Ada produced a folded piece of paper from inside his collar. He unfolded the four creases to reveal a map.
This country,
Li,
sat at the center, with the island nation to the east, tributary states scattered in all directions, and the countries to the north and west mapped out. Going further west would lead to the country where the old man had studied abroad.
"There's a country that's been trying awfully hard to get on good terms with us. And they've sent a proposal to have one of their women become his wife."
"...Then what about Consort Risu?"
"Right. We figured we'd need someone of appropriate standing to turn down the offer. It worked out perfectly."
(...)
What was with this speed?
Maomao tilted her head, wondering what all the talk about the bedding ceremony just a few days ago had even been for.
One might say he'd moved on quickly, but honestly, Maomao couldn't keep up. Maybe it had already been on the table as an option, and what happened afterward was simply the deciding blow.
"So, have you already informed the other party?"
"Not yet. But word has probably already reached their ears."
(A spy?)
It seemed they were deliberately letting information slip.
What a frightening person, Maomao thought.
"But isn't it rather short-sighted to try to kill someone over something like that?"
Maomao agreed—what Bashin said rang true.
Even if Risu were removed, they could certainly find another match. More importantly, it would be one thing if the target were the Emperor or the Crown Prince, but he was the Imperial Brother. If there was enough advantage to go that far, the only explanation was that someone had fallen for Jinshi.
No indeed.
Having seen the real thing would be one thing, but Maomao figured that was unlikely.
"...That's why,"
Ada spoke slowly, in a low voice.
"This proposal comes from Consort Risu."
So.
Consort Risu was a pitiful consort.
She had lost her mother in early childhood, and her father had immediately brought a new wife into the household. The new wife had originally been his concubine, and he already had half-siblings by her.
Originally, both parents were cousins, and the marriage had taken the form of the father marrying into the mother's family—the main branch of the Mao clan.
The family structure was similar to that of the Zi clan, but the difference likely lay in how Risu, the daughter of the legal wife, was treated.
"It seems they find the new wife's daughter more endearing than the legal wife's daughter. And now they've demanded that her older half-sister be admitted to the rear palace as well."
"What! That's—!"
Bashin shot to his feet as if to slam the table.
"Isn't that just too pitiful for the consort?"
(No, no, no.)
Maomao felt she had already covered pretty much everything regarding Consort Risu. Even if the other side had demanded they admit the half-sister to the rear palace, the response should have been something like, "Oh, is that so?"
So why was he getting angry about it at this point?
Maomao sensed an unpleasant premonition—take two.
However, once she noticed it, things would become terribly troublesome, and above all she'd end up getting dragged into it, so she decided to ignore it.
For now, she'd set that matter aside and steer the conversation back.
"Pitiful or not, if you want to say that, you could say the same of the many flowers in the rear palace."
Coming from Ada, herself a former flower, those words carried genuine feeling.
Since Bashin would just keep going in circles if left to his own devices, Maomao decided to join the conversation.
"And how does the matter of the consort acting as this time's decoy connect to everything?"
"Ah, right, that—"
Ada looked somewhat downcast, lowering her gaze.
And then...
"She came out and said that her father might be trying to take her life."
Ada declared this with a bitter, ironic expression.