"A letter from
Lady Gyokuyou,
the consort?"
"Yes, she asked that it be delivered directly."
"Lady Ada is out at
a tea gathering,
though."
The plump head lady-in-waiting,
Fuumei, looked at Maomao
with a troubled expression.
Maomao opened the offered letter box.
Inside, instead of a letter, there was a small bottle and
a single trumpet-shaped red flower.
A familiar sweet scent wafted from the bottle.
Fuumei seemed to recognize what it was.
Her shoulders twitched slightly.
"I have something I'd like to discuss with you,
Lady Fuumei."
"Very well."
Fuumei maintained her stern expression
as she invited Maomao
into the Pomegranate Palace.
Fuumei's personal room was built in much the same style as Hongniang's room,
but for some reason, luggage was gathered in a corner. It looked as though packing had been completed.
As I thought.
They sat across from each other at the round table in the room she had been invited to. Warm herbal tea was served, accompanied by firm
bread
topped with fruit honey preserve.
"What is going on? The spring cleaning is quite enough."
Her voice was gentle, but probing.
"Yes — when will you be moving out?"
Maomao looked at the luggage placed in the corner of the room.
"You're quite perceptive."
The spring cleaning was merely the official reason.
Along with the New Year's greetings, Ada would have to leave the palace to make way for the new Fourth Consort.
A consort who could not bear children in the rear palace was unnecessary.
That applied even to a consort who had stood at the Emperor's side for many years, and Ada had no strong backing.
The Emperor and
she had been raised together as milk-siblings,
their bond deeper than that of blood relatives — that was what had preserved her position until now.
If only the boy she had borne had survived, Ada could have held her head high with pride.
(Perhaps, for Ada)
She had neither the dignified bearing of a young man nor any feminine scent.
It was as though she had become a eunuch herself.
She disliked speaking based on speculation.
However, if it was something she was certain of, she had no choice but to say it.
"Lady Ada can no longer bear children, can she?"
"..."
Silence meant affirmation.
Fuumei's expression grew stiffer by the moment.
"Something happened during the birth, didn't it?"
"This is not something unrelated—"
The middle-aged head maid narrowed her eyes.
In her place was no gentle, caring woman—
only hostility,
burning deep behind her eyes.
"It is not unrelated. The one present at the birth was my—"
foster father.
"That is why."
Fuumei rose to her feet and stared at Maomao, who revealed the truth without a hint of emotion.
The rear palace was perpetually short-staffed when it came to physicians—just barely short enough for quack doctors to keep clinging to their posts.
With such a specialized position as court physician, there was no need to go out of his way to become a eunuch. That was the sort of clumsy old man he was—he must have been smoothly pressured into it.
"Perhaps the misfortune was that it coincided with the imperial prince's birth. When forced to choose between the two, Consort Ada's delivery was put off until last."
After a difficult labor, the child was born safely—but Consort Ada lost her uterus.
And the child, too, died young.
Just as with the previous poisoned cosmetic incident, there were those who whispered that Consort Ada's child had also perished because of it.
"Don't you feel responsible, Fuumei? You were the one looking after Consort Ada after the birth, when she was in such poor condition."
"You know everything, don't you? The quack's own daughter, and yet you couldn't even save Lady Ada."
"That's right."
Medicine cannot be brushed aside with "it can't be helped." Those were the old man's words.
He was the sort of man who would quietly endure being called a quack without protest.
"That quack had forbidden the use of white lead in cosmetics, hadn't he? A clever woman like you would never have let a baby die because of it."
Maomao opened a small vial from the stationery box. Thick honey glistened and shimmered. She put a red flower from beside it into her mouth.
It tasted of sweet nectar. She pinched the flower and twirled it between her fingers.
"Many flowers contain poison."
"Aconite"
"or"
"lotus rhododendron"
"—like those. Their nectar is toxic as well."
"I know that."
"I figured you would."
"If your family"
"runs a beekeeping business,"
"it wouldn't be strange for you to have that knowledge."
"No one in their right mind would give an infant a poison that causes full-blown symptoms in adults."
"But I didn't know there were poisons that only affect infants, slipped into plain honey."
"Not speculation—certainty."
"Rare as it was, such poisons did exist. Poisons that only took effect in infants with low resistance."
"I never thought the medicine I tested on myself and deemed safe, then gave as a nourishing tonic, would have the completely opposite effect."
"And so, Ada's child drew its last breath."
"The cause of death was left a mystery."
"My father, who was a court physician at the time—"
"Luomen—"
"was expelled from the rear palace for a string of blunders, including the handling of the birth. As corporal punishment, the bone in one of his knees was removed."
"She didn't want it known. Ada."
"That she herself"
"was the reason her lord's"
"only child died."
"That's why—"
Risu
"She had considered doing away with the consort."
During the late emperor's era, Consort Risu had grown attached to Consort Ada, who was the elder bride.
It was said that Consort Ada, in turn, had been fond of Consort Risu.
A young girl separated from her parents, and a woman unable to bear children of her own. A sort of codependency had developed between them.
But one day, suddenly, Consort Risu was rejected by Consort Ada. No matter how many times she came to visit, Fuumei would drive her away.
Before long, the late emperor passed away, and Consort Risu took holy orders.
"Consort Risu told you that there was poison in the honey, didn't she?"
If Consort Risu had kept visiting, she might have mentioned that matter.
The clever Consort Ada might have picked up on something from those words.
That was precisely what she had wanted to avoid.
The daughter who had taken holy orders and was thought never to return appeared once again in the rear palace.
As a fellow senior consort.
In a position to drive Consort Ada out.
And yet, brazen as ever, that girl tried to come see Consort Ada, as though seeking a mother.
That sheltered, socially oblivious girl.
That was why she had considered doing away with her.
The gentle, diligent head lady-in-waiting was no longer there; in her place stood a woman who cast nothing but cold glances.
"What is it that you want?"
"I don't need any such thing."
She felt a tingling at the back of her neck.
On the shelf behind her
sat the bread—
just cut with
the kitchen knife.
It was there.
Within arm's reach if Fuumei extended her hand.
"Anything is fine."
"You yourself know perfectly well that doing so would be meaningless, don't you, Lady Fuumei?"
That she had been poring over the documents these past few days
Jinshi
must have already been informed about.
She probably couldn't keep secrets from that eunuch who administered the rear palace.
Princess Fuyou—
she didn't think she could pull off the same kind of deception.
Nor should she try.
If Jinshi heard what Maomao had to say, he would seize Fuumei.
And execution would be unavoidable.
The truth of sixteen years ago would also come to light.
But even so, Maomao vanishing here would amount to the same thing.
Sooner or later, it would be discovered.
The clever head attendant could not have failed to realize that.
There was only one thing Maomao could do.
It wasn't about hoping for leniency, nor about commenting on Lady Ada's fate.
It was simply merging the two motives into one.
It was simply continuing to conceal that motive from Lady Ada.
"The outcome won't change. If that is acceptable—"
Please accept my proposal, she said.
(I'm exhausted.)
Maomao
The Jade Palace
When she returned to her room, she collapsed onto the hard bed.
Her clothes were sticky with sweat. Nervous perspiration was the worst—it left you clammy and reeked terribly. She wanted to take a bath.
She decided to at least change. When she slipped off her outer robe, she found cloth wrapped from her chest to her abdomen—multiple layers of oiled paper, secured in place.
"Good thing I didn't need it."
(Because getting stabbed would hurt.)
Maomao peeled off the oiled paper and slipped into a fresh change of clothes.
○●○
"So, Fuumei turned herself in."
"That's good news."
The surly maid said it flatly, without any particular feeling.
Jinshi
leaned his elbows
on the desk.
Gaoshun
looked as though he wanted to say something, but she ignored him. He was probably going to call her manners improper.
"Do you know anything about it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I heard you had Gaoshun gathering up books all over the place."
"Yes. It turned out to be for nothing."
She said it so matter-of-factly one might think she was being dismissive.
As always, she looked at him as if he were something she'd scraped off the bottom of her shoe. Beyond rude—it was almost refreshing.
"The motive was, as you said, to maintain her position as the Fourth Consort."
"I see."
She looked at him with absolutely no interest.
"I regret to inform you, but it has been decided that Ada will be demoted from senior consort. She is to leave the inner palace and reside in the southern villa from now on."
"Is that because of the current incident?"
Maomao asked back.
It seemed the cat had finally deigned to show some interest.
"No, it was decided from the start. The Emperor's decision."
Rather than sending her back to her family, keeping her confined in the villa — could it be from long years of affection?
Maomao rarely showed interest like this, so he couldn't help but feel a bit carried away.
He stood up and took a step closer, but she seemed to stiffen and took half a step back.
As if to say "that's what you get," Gaoshun gave him a look of exasperation.
Was she still holding a grudge over that trivial
prank
from the other day?
Having her be so wary was troublesome for Jinshi as well. He settled back into his chair.
The small court lady bowed her head and was about to leave the room when she suddenly stopped.
A branch of red,
trumpet-shaped
flowers was on display.
"A moment ago,
Hongniang
was arranging them."
"Yes. They're blooming out of season."
Maomao plucked the flower and placed the stem in her mouth.
Jinshi tilted his head. He slowly drew closer and imitated Maomao.
"It's sweet."
"It's poison, you know."
She burst out laughing and clamped a hand over her mouth, just as Gaoshun came over with a water pitcher.
"It won't kill you, so you're fine," he said.
The strange girl licking her lips wore a faintly sweet smile.