"Your package has arrived."
Maomao collected the parcel from the dormitory's house mother. It was after she'd finished work late and eaten dinner. The woman must have waited around just to hand it over.
The house mother was grinning from ear to ear. When Maomao checked the sender's name, she expected it to be someone familiar—
Gaoshun.
That was the name on it.
(He's definitely got this wrong.)
Using Gaoshun's name, but the intended recipient was always the same—
Jinshi.
No one else.
Bashen—
He could have used Bashen's name instead, but that would surely cause problems if it were discovered, so he must have settled on Gaoshun.
"I wonder what it could be?"
Glancing past the chuckling house mother, Maomao returned to her room. Accompanying the note was a cloth bundle. A faint scent of incense wafted from it.
"As elegant as ever."
She carefully unwrapped the bundle to find a ceramic vessel inside. It was filled with incense.
Maomao brought her face close and sniffed it in short, eager breaths.
(It's based on sandalwood, blended with several other ingredients.)
She could tell it was quality incense, but the combination felt careless and cheap. For something sent by Jinshi, who dealt in nothing but the finest goods, it was remarkably modest.
(Wait—could it be)
He had deliberately lowered the quality because it was for Maomao, hadn't he? She vaguely recalled going on about how the scent of someone's incense could reveal their social standing.
Thinking about it that way, this was incense that was just slightly above what a lady-in-waiting serving as a physician's assistant might reasonably wear.
She wondered why Jinshi had sent her incense in the first place. She had her suspicions.
Maomao then sniffed the sleeve of her own clothes. A faint trace of blood still lingered.
(I thought I'd gotten the smell out properly.)
Recently, under the pretense of running errands, she had been continuing her work butchering livestock. Of course, the organs from the slaughtered animals were used as medicinal ingredients, and the meat was processed as well.
Today, she had heard that a lucky hunter had bagged a bear, and she had been allowed to join in the butchering. Such an opportunity rarely came along, since the animal had to be bled and butchered immediately or the smell would linger—
Liu—
—the court physician was overjoyed.
She changed into work clothes and put on a leather apron. Once the job was done, she would take a bath before heading back to the palace.
(A public bathhouse in town is nice once in a while, too.)
Since the dormitory had no bathtub, she was glad for the chance. As a luxury, for Maomao who had grown up in the pleasure district, baths were something she took almost every day. Even living in the rear palace, she was allowed to bathe once every few days.
As for whether she liked baths or hated them—well, of course she didn't hate them.
The bath fee was covered, and taking a bath in the middle of the day wasn't bad either.
(Oh, right—my hair.)
She didn't have time to dry her hair afterward, so she had washed up without washing it.
Did Jinshi understand what was needed to become a real physician?
(She wasn't sure if he even knew about dissecting corpses.)
He was a man who made oddly thoughtful gestures.
Thinking this, Maomao scooped a spoonful of incense onto a small saucer and gently lit it. She placed a basket over it and draped tomorrow's clothes on top.
(Something like this?)
Just a little bit.
As Maomao was about to change into her nightclothes, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in."
The person who entered was—
Yanyan.
She was holding spring rolls in her hand.
"These are leftovers from tonight's dinner. Would you like some?"
"Yes, please."
There was no way Maomao would refuse Yanyan's cooking. She wasn't particularly hungry right now, but eating them tomorrow morning would be just fine.
Yanyan placed the plate of spring rolls on the table, her sharp eyes fixed on the incense.
"How unusual. Burning incense like this."
"It's for the monthly observance. There's been a bit more bloodshed this time."
It wasn't entirely a lie. It just so happened to be one of those listless days that came a few times a month.
"Ms.
Yao
does it too, so I was just following her example."
As if Yao was the one actually doing it. That was surely Yanyan's job.
"I see."
Maomao had braced for Yanyan to press her on something, but nothing came. Perhaps she had noticed that Maomao had been going out on errands a lot lately.
(She's the type who can pretend not to know, so it should be fine.)
As long as nothing had happened with Yao, Yanyan probably wouldn't dig into the details of Maomao's comings and goings.
Maomao gently draped a cloth over the spring rolls, then finished changing her clothes.
The next day, when she arrived at the medical office, Yao was wearing a sour expression while talking with Physician Liu. Their schedules had been misaligned lately, so they rarely saw each other, but Yao was clearly in a bad mood.
(I hope she doesn't say anything weird.)
Feeling uneasy, Maomao began sorting through the shelves of crude drugs.
"Don't I get any errands to run outside?"
"No, you don't."
Physician Liu said flatly, flipping through the logbook. Nothing relevant to yesterday's duties was written there.
"Maomao. Haven't you been going out on errands quite a lot recently?"
Yao turned the question to Maomao as well.
"I have."
There was no point in trying to weasel out of it.
"Where did you go and what did you do yesterday?"
"I collected bear bile."
What Maomao was putting away now was the bear bile she had obtained yesterday. She had already picked up the processed product from a hunter.
She thought Liu shot her a brief glare, but he made no move to stop her. He understood there was no issue with speaking about this.
"Bear bile is a precious medicinal ingredient, so I had them show me the processing method as well. I also dissected cattle to check for gallstones. Unfortunately, none have turned up so far."
"Cattle gallstones—"
"—bezoar—"
"—I hear you only find it in one out of a thousand. Is there really any need to go out of your way to look for something you know is virtually nonexistent?"
"Yes. Cattle showing symptoms of cholelithiasis are far more likely to have gallstones. When bezoar hits the market, its price can increase many times over. So when you find a suspicious cow, being present at the dissection isn't strange at all."
Yao's face twisted in frustration. Liu was gazing at the logbook again. It seemed her answer had passed muster.
(I know. I know.)
What Yao really wanted to say.
(Why won't you take me along too?)
That was probably it.
And the one who would give her the answer was Liu.
"If you want to go on field assignments, start by going to the kitchen."
"W-why the kitchen?"
"You've never slaughtered even a single chicken, have you? You think you can just watch a bear get butchered? That's what it comes down to. Maomao's already used to it."
It was rare for Liu to praise her, yet somehow it didn't feel good at all.
"Then what about En'en? She should be better at dressing chickens than Maomao."
"Someone with no drive from the start is just a waste to bring along. You think En'en would leave you behind and go on her own? I have no intention of dragging someone with no ambition along by force. If you think it's unfair that only Maomao gets to go, then make sure you're not the one holding everyone back."
Liu's words were as harsh as ever.
Yao
gripped her skirt
tightly, her face twisted in frustration even as she held back. It was a fact that she had never once held a kitchen knife.
(More importantly—)
What truly scared her was En'en behind her, teeth chattering as she reached for a bottle of disinfectant alcohol. Scary... so scary...
"En'en"
Yao gently put a hand on her to stop her.
Though Yao was usually the one at En'en's mercy, when the moment called for it, she knew exactly how to handle a coddling maid's role.
"I understand. I can learn to handle a kitchen knife soon enough."
"Ho ho. Then we'll start by crushing a live chicken."
"C-crush?"
Indeed, she would have to do at least that much to keep up. There had been apprentice physicians who wept with snot running down their faces when it came to killing a pig for butchering.
If she couldn't handle it with livestock, she'd never manage with a human patient. With no anesthesia whatsoever, a physician might still need to sever a limb.
(If
a battlefield
were to arise, it would be a commonplace sight.)
Without the anatomical charts Father had kept hidden, this was a place where one could see all the human innards one wanted. That a dissection chart could be called forbidden—in a sense, that was proof of how peaceful things still were.
(What had Yao been thinking since then?)
Father,
Luomen
—she must have had all sorts of misgivings about them.
If she took the animal butchering at face value, no matter how well she learned to handle a knife, it would be better not to go through with it.
If Yao was pursuing medicine solely out of defiance toward her uncle, it would be best to put a stop to it right away.
Even though she had damaged her innards from poison testing, Yao was still a young, beautiful, and clever girl. There would be no shortage of suitors.
(No, this would make me exactly like Yao's uncle.)
Yao and En'en despised their uncle, but in a sense, there were aspects that could still lead to happiness.
Li
was a country that, by and large, had far too many customs that made life difficult for women on their own.
Maomao wrote the medicinal herbs she had procured yesterday into her ledger as she placed them on the shelves.
That evening, Yao was already standing in the kitchen. En'en watched with bated breath as Yao handled things with unsteady hands.
"Like this, like this!"
"M-miss."
She was chopping down as if splitting firewood. It looked like she'd cut through not just the meat but the bone as well.
"Oh, that's dangerous. Start with something smaller first."
"It's fine. I'm cutting the meat—the meat!"
En'en was flustered. Maomao thought that if she were calmer, she'd be teaching Yao much better, but this clearly wasn't working.
Maomao pretended not to notice and tried to slip away to her room, but her eyes met squarely with En'en's. En'en fixed Maomao with a fearsome glare while quietly pointing her index finger at something on the table. It was a dish she'd already finished making. And moreover—
Dry-Fried Shrimp.
—that's what it was.
Maomao swallowed hard. Why had she gone and made that first? The steaming hot vapor was steadily escaping. Plump, large shrimp with several kinds of vegetables. It should have been spicy since she used chili paste, but she must have added some fruit juice to give it a smooth, mellow flavor.
How delicious that would be eaten with rice. The springy flesh would burst inside your mouth.
In other words, what En'en was trying to say was—
"If you want to eat, then get to work."
Maomao narrowed her eyes but washed her hands anyway. In the end, she couldn't resist the appeal of shrimp.
For now, Maomao took out a knife one size smaller than the one Yao was holding. Then she placed a single carrot on the cutting board.
"Yao, please cut this first."
"A carrot? But I want to cut the meat."
"The Doctor might say you can't even cut a
carrot,
though."
A carrot—meaning a medicinal ginseng root.
"...Fine."
"Then please switch to this knife. Knives have different cutting styles depending on their type. The one you're holding now is for chopping through bone—it's not suited for cutting soft meat or vegetables. It would be fine for practicing cutting off a patient's arm, though."
"..."
Yao bit her lip as she switched knives. En'en looked relieved.
Given how studious Yao was, she surely had knowledge of the principle that food and medicine share the same origins. But she probably wouldn't know the different types of kitchen knives.
"You're holding the knife wrong. Hold it like this. And when you add the carrot, do it like this."
She directed as she moved Yao's hands one at a time.
"Once you've got the carrot secured so it won't move... don't chop down — slide the blade in gently. En'en keeps her knives in good shape, so the edge is nice and sharp. You don't need to use much force. When cutting away infected skin or flesh, too much force will sever healthy blood vessels too."
Yao sliced the end of the carrot off with a thud.
"Now slice it into rounds, the thickness should be..."
"...about five millimeters..."
"...or so."
Thud, thud, thud. Once she got the hang of it, she could do it just fine. She might look like a grown woman, but she was really only sixteen years old.
"Done!"
She had finished cutting all the carrot.
"Now, this one."
Maomao took out a daikon radish.
"I'm done with vegetables."
"All you've done is slice rounds, haven't you? We won't start cutting meat until you can peel daikon skin cleanly."
If you asked which was harder, peeling would be, but she wanted to get Yao accustomed to vegetables first. Once Yao could properly butcher meat, it would be troublesome if she went charging off to Dr. Liu's place. No — before that, she'd have to learn to debone a chicken.
Yao looked displeased but obediently picked up the daikon.
"Don't try to peel the whole thing at once. Cut it into manageable pieces first."
"I know that much."
While Yao was peeling the daikon, Maomao eyed the carrot, wondering what to do with it.
"Maomao."
En'en indicated the pork Yao had pounded flat and the dried shiitake mushrooms. The shiitake were a luxury item, so Maomao deliberately chose not to ask how she'd obtained them.
As for what else was around, there were the seasonings and such.
( Sweet and Sour Pork
Go make it)
Maomao happened to have the potato starch she'd made earlier. Coating the meat in it and deep-frying it in oil might work nicely.
Even while worrying that the shrimp would get cold, Yan Yan kept a careful watch to make sure Yao didn't hurt herself. With no other choice, Maomao decided to make it.
"Maomao."
This time, Yao spoke to her.
"I'm not giving up on the path of a court physician."
"Women can't become court physicians."
Maomao never told lies, no matter what.
"But you've been taught all the things needed to become a court physician, haven't you?"
"..."
She couldn't answer. If she wouldn't lie, silence was all that remained.
"I've been thinking about all sorts of things since then.
About the books I found at Rakan's
house."
It was a name she didn't want to hear, but pulling a face wouldn't help, so she listened quietly.
"I can't accept it as a philosophy, but I understand that it's something necessary for anyone involved in medicine. And for practicing knowledge of the human body's structure, you'd start with livestock first, right?"
A perceptive child was, at the same time, a troublesome one. If she had never known, or pretended not to know, she could probably have chosen a much more peaceful path.
If even Maomao thought so, then Yan Yan surely felt it even more. She must want Yao to be happy.
But if Yao was going to learn the same things as a court physician, then peaceful happiness would be far from her path.
"...Yao. Being a doctor is a job that sometimes means cutting people open. If you're told a pregnant mother and her child are both in danger, and you choose to prioritize the child, you may have to cut open the mother's womb. You might have to amputate a patient's limbs without any anesthesia while they beg you not to. You might have to push protruding intestines back inside and stitch the belly skin shut."
"I know that."
"If you take on such a bloody profession, you may never find someone to spend your life with. Blood is seen as unclean — people will shun you. Unless someone is quite the oddball, they won't come near you."
"If a man is so spineless that he'd be frightened of a little blood, then I don't want him. Right, Yan Yan?"
"M-My Lady!"
Yan Yan, who usually went to such lengths to keep men away from Yao, had a complicated look on her face.
"Oh, it snapped. Is peeling daikon actually difficult?"
"It is, yes."
"Yan Yan is making peony flowers out of it for decoration."
"I think Yan Yan is just exceptionally skilled."
Maomao answered honestly, then stir-fried the meat coated in potato starch, tossing it in plenty of oil as though she were deep-frying it.
Yao pursed her lips at the hopelessly shredded daikon but pressed on with undaunted determination.
It would be some time yet before she could eat shrimp.