The external medical officials apparently visited the rear palace about once every ten days—your father being the principal one. The standard was once a month for high-ranking consorts, and once every three months for the medium and low-ranking consorts.
Gyokuyou
She apparently visited the Empress as well, but Maomao and the other court ladies had not yet been permitted to go. They would observe how things went within the rear palace first before deciding whether to bring them along.
Furthermore, when the Emperor passed through, it was customary for a medical official to conduct a health examination within half a month, whether the patient was a low-ranking consort or a regular court lady. In truth, however, the current Emperor did not seem to be the type to dally with servant girls carelessly. If he went about putting his hands on all sorts of women, someone else's bloodline could end up slipping in somewhere. He was probably trying to avoid that possibility.
(He did say accomplice, though.)
The meaning was, if
Airin
had conducted the riddle-solving and maneuvering on her own in order to draw Maomao and the others in, then it would constitute a violation on Maomao's part for not reporting it to her superiors. That was what he meant.
And so, currently, right next to Maomao sat
Yan Yan.
They had placed two tubs side by side and were diligently scrubbing muslin cloths.
Soapberry
husks had been prepared for them, and thanks to those, the stains on the muslin came off beautifully.
After washing, the muslin had to be boiled. Blood could carry toxins, and one could contract an infection from exposure to or ingestion of another person's blood.
"Isn't washing clothes the work of servant girls?"
"I have never once said that."
It was the court ladies who had said that—the ones who had already been dismissed. She had let a slightly spiteful tone slip into her voice.
"Miss
Yao
?"
Calling her by her given name felt too casual, and adding an honorific felt too stiff, so she had settled on this form of address for the time being, though it didn't quite sit right.
"Miss Yao has gone out to purchase medicine on Doctor
Zhou's
orders."
(Officer Zhou...)
Maomao tilted her head, trying to figure out which medical officer that had been. It was a bad habit of hers—she still hadn't matched the faces to the names. Then again, En'en's explanation hadn't been much help either. In this country, there were only a few dozen surnames, so "Zhou" was about as common as you could get. Toss a pebble and you'd hit one. There must have been three or four medical officers and apprentices by that name.
Maomao wrung out the washcloth she'd finished with. Then she placed En'en's washcloth into her own basin.
"I'll take care of the rest, so go on and handle your other tasks."
But En'en's lips twisted into a faint grimace. Maomao was hardly one to talk—she was perpetually stone-faced herself—but this was unmistakably a forced smile. En'en snatched half the washcloths from Maomao's basin.
"We're in this together, after all."
In other words: Don't try to slip away and leave me holding the bag.
Ever since the baked sweets incident, Yao and En'en had been glued to Maomao's side at all times.
Whether that had worked in her favor or not, Maomao had gradually started talking more with En'en—if not with Yao. En'en had never been openly hostile toward her. She was simply quiet and expressionless, much like Maomao herself. The reason she hadn't spoken up was probably the same as Maomao's—partly because Yao was around.
(Talking was too much trouble.)
She probably had a personality quite similar to Maomao's. Her aloofness and competence were reminiscent of
Suirei,
but she too was somehow hard to get a read on.
"Please don't take Miss Yao's attitude to heart. She was supposed to be admitted as the top-ranked candidate—it's only because you took that spot."
"Top-ranked?"
"Weren't you listening during the briefing? The candidate who scores the best on the exam is supposed to receive a special decorative cord, different from the ones given to the other passers."
"Oh."
Maomao recalled that the cord on hers had been a darker shade. She'd left all matters regarding attire to Gaoshun, and when someone had brought her change of clothes, she'd been too busy being harried by that old woman to pay attention.
(I wasn't listening.)
That was rather negligent of her.
Still, she'd expected to have barely scraped through the exam, so this was a surprise.
"General knowledge was one thing, but I was half-expecting you'd be lucky to score even half marks on the specialized knowledge section."
When it came to general knowledge, that probably meant the history and poetry she'd reluctantly been made to study. She'd worked hard on that—really hard.
As for the specialized knowledge section, that was Maomao's forte. No other examinee could have come close to her scores. That made sense.
"Miss Yao said she got a perfect score on the general knowledge section, so she probably lost to you on the specialized knowledge."
"So that's how it is?"
Maomao felt a twinge of regret, thinking she might have been better off slacking off on her studies after all. In any case, once that cunning old woman had been bribed, there was no escaping the exam prep.
"I was working as a pharmacist, you see."
"Yes, I more or less gathered that. But the thing about Lady Yao is, she still finds it frustrating."
Can't blame her for that. Maomao didn't particularly mind that kind of personality—it was far better than being servile. But the problem was, she didn't know how those around her would react to that attitude. Among the passing court ladies, Yao had the highest-ranking family, so the others had no choice but to follow her lead.
"She's not a bad person, so please, just put up with her for now."
In contrast, En'en was remarkably composed. Maomao hadn't asked her age, but she was probably around the same age as Maomao. She'd overheard that Yao, despite looking more mature, was three years younger than Maomao.
(Sixteen—can't help that.)
She might get angry if told she was still just a child.
Still, one question lingered.
This court lady named En'en was clearly Yao's attendant, but she seemed quite sharp. More importantly, she understood at least some of the Western language that even Yao couldn't remember.
"May I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Wouldn't you have placed first even without me?"
At Maomao's question, En'en put on that doll-like smile once more. She moved to stand before the stove and placed the straining cloth into the pot.
"That is
absolutely
not the case."
(No way in hell.)
Cheating to boost one's scores was a problem, but deliberately answering questions incorrectly when you knew the right answers wasn't cheating.
So that was what had happened.
(A capable woman, but in a different way from Cuiling.)
Rather than Cuiling, she reminds me of Jinshi's wet nurse and lady-in-waiting—
Suirei.
Polite in manner, but not someone you could let your guard down around.
In a word, what was she like?
She was unreadable.
Other than being watched by the two court ladies, these ten days were unremarkable for Maomao.
The only bother was having her letters censored every time one arrived. Fortunately, there were no direct letters from Jinshi. Most came under Gaoshun's name. Not that it mattered, but Maoshan seemed to have already returned to duty. Given how badly he'd been injured, his recovery was nothing short of abnormal.
(Was something about his body structure different?)
Before long, she found herself wanting to compare his healing rate to others'. He seemed sturdy enough that a bit of rough handling shouldn't be a problem. He'd probably refuse, though, so maybe she should run it by Gaoshun first.
Reports from the apothecary came through Sazen—things were going well. The only grievance was that Keyou was occasionally a nuisance. That was something she'd just have to endure.
Occasionally, tucked into the letters, there were drawings of a cat—
"Maomao,"
—but what they actually depicted was
"Chouu."
They had even carefully pressed a red paw print in place of a seal. The smudges and scratch marks suggested the cat had been forced to cooperate.
Yao had been scrutinizing the cat drawings under the pretense of "censorship." She looked her fill, then returned them to Maomao with a wistful expression. En'en had mentioned wanting a cat drawing, so Maomao would probably hand them over to Yao.
Yao and the others seemed to think "the white girl" was simply a code name. En'en appeared somewhat uneasy about it, but since Yao wasn't concerned, she didn't seem inclined to dig any deeper.
(The white girl, huh…)
Nine times out of ten, Maomao had assumed this referred to Bai Nyannyan, but there was a chance it could be someone else entirely.
One thing that nagged at her was the painter she had helped with food poisoning some time ago. In his home, there had been a painting of a beautiful woman with white skin and red eyes—a woman he claimed to have encountered long ago, in lands to the west.
If Airin, who hailed from Saou, was talking about that same woman…
No—Airin was deliberately presenting this as a puzzle. Maomao shook her head. It had to be about Bai Nyannyan after all.
And yet, she remained hung up on the white woman the painter had encountered.
(There had to be some connection.)
She would find the answer the following day, when she reunited with Airin.