Friends' pricing.
Keyou
made the documents ten silver coins.
Maomao
would have liked to haggle further, but the senior court physicians paid fifty silver coins for theirs. She held back, thinking she shouldn't be too greedy. There was also the practical matter of wanting to stay on good terms with Keyou for a while longer.
There had been the option of borrowing copies from the senior physicians, but she wanted to verify the contents as quickly as possible, and she also wanted to read the original in Keyou's own hand.
Keyou was particular about money, but he was no miser. He simply used money—an easy-to-understand metric—to gauge how others valued him.
He was a man who spoke in a flippant manner, but his medical knowledge ran deep and he was capable of logical thinking. If you exploited his willingness to compromise by pushing an unfair bargain, there was no telling when he might suddenly cut you off without warning.
Being generous toward someone like Keyou, who had treated her so poorly, didn't make a person kind. It was simply possible because she had so little emotional attachment to others. That was something she wanted to keep firmly in mind.
Maomao nodded with an "mm-hmm" as she pored over Keyou's documents. The senior physicians had finished making their copies, so the originals had come to her. She was reading them in the dormitory dining hall, not her own room—it was brighter there and not as cold. Ten silver coins was a lot of money, so she wanted to save on lamp oil and charcoal for the brazier.
"Maomao, what's that?"
Chousha
peered over her shoulder.
(I'd like to charge a viewing fee, but...)
The junior court ladies earned even less than Maomao. And Chousha had asked her to cook for her more times than anyone, so she decided to let her take a look.
"They're documents related to epidemics. They might prove useful down the road—would you like to look at them together?"
"Are you sure?"
Chousha's face lit up instantly. She was such an earnest girl.
(She's nothing like the girls who end up in the pleasure district.)
The girls who arrived in the pleasure district had all been sold off by that point. They came from poor farming villages, or were daughters of merchants who had fallen on hard times. As a result, Maomao thought, it was only natural that they grew twisted. Some had good characters, but too much common sense only made the work harder to endure.
It wasn't that the girls who became courtesans had bad characters—she was comparing in the sense that Chousha was blessed.
Keyou's handwriting was surprisingly neat and elegant. What's more, foreign script was scrawled in the margins here and there.
(This is exactly why I wanted to read the original.)
She had heard that Keyou's master was a foreigner, so she had expected foreign words to be mixed into his medical terminology.
"Smallpox, huh.
Yū
is going to be all right?"
"There's no use worrying, so let's just do what we can."
"Right. Come to think of it,"
Chōsha seemed a bit exasperated. Trying to change the subject, she started on a different topic.
"
Yao
and
Enen
seem to be doing fine as usual, I'd like to say, but..."
"But?"
"The other day, I had a falling-out with Enen. I thought it was quite unusual."
"A falling-out?"
Maomao could easily guess what the argument had been about.
"Could it have been about a man?"
"Yes. Yao is really hopeless at that sort of thing, isn't she?"
"Oh, you could tell?"
Maomao couldn't help but agree with Chōsha.
"Yes. Yao...
Rahan
— she likes that person called Rahan, doesn't she?"
It was so dead-on that Maomao felt sorry for Yao.
"'Likes' might be putting it strong. Anyway, you even know his name?"
Whether Yao herself yet recognized those feelings as love was unclear.
"Yes. En'en used to let it slip all the time. She'd have this demon-like look on her face. Between that and little bits the other two let slip, I've more or less got the picture. It's audacious, isn't it? Moving into the house of the person you like under some pretext. The arguments were pretty much always about how she ought to move out already."
Maomao nodded in agreement.
"Also, En'en only has eyes for Yao. Whenever someone En'en is actually after shows up, she cuts them down without mercy."
"Mm-hm."
Suddenly Rahan's older brother's face floated to mind. His real name was something like "Kan whatever."
"Yao's not great at this either. Even if she moved into the other person's estate to get close to them, is he really the type where love would sprout? Normally you'd just find it noisy and annoying. Well, Yao comes from a good family, has money, and looks good too, so from the outside the unrelated men are probably envious. But for the person on the receiving end, it's got to be unbearable."
(No wait, she's refreshingly honest—take that back.)
She could objectively view her senior's shortcomings and say it bluntly to her face. As expected of someone who passed the examination, she was sharp.
"Did you tell her that to her face?"
"Obviously not."
Chōsha shook her head vigorously.
"But for both their sakes, she needs to properly convey her feelings and get rejected decisively, or else let the crush fade—that's the only way this ends. It'd be fastest if a third party intervened, but Yao's stubborn, so that's hard."
Maomao agreed.
"En'en would never tell Yao directly, and even if she did, she'd probably get brushed off. They can barely even argue, just circling around the topic of moving out."
In reality, they probably weren't even arguing. En'en seemed to be nothing but regretful toward Yao.
"There is one other possible path to a resolution, but the chances are the lowest."
"Oh. You mean them actually falling for each other?"
"Yes."
No way, no way—Maomao shook her head.
"But Mr. Rahan might give in eventually, you know?"
"With a sister-in-law as terrifying as En'en in the picture?"
"That's scary."
As they talked like this, the dining hall had grown nearly empty. The dormitory landlady was shooting them looks that silently pleaded for them to get out already.
"Well, shall we head to bed soon?"
"Yes."
Maomao rose from her seat, gathering the documents under her arm.
That was when she noticed a distinctive set of footsteps drawing near.
"Helloooo."
That unmistakable way of ending her sentences—
Suzume
was the only one it could be.
"This is hardly the hour for greetings. The sun has already set."
Maomao sensed the awkward atmosphere.
"Chou-sha, please go back to bed. You have an early morning tomorrow as well."
"My apologies."
Though curious, Chou-sha headed back to her room.
"So what's this about today? Are we going to observe
Lord Bashan
again? There's nothing to spy on at this hour, is there? And more importantly, I doubt Lord Bashan is the sort who could skillfully lure a woman out in the dead of night."
"Well, if my brother-in-law were the sort who could smoothly sneak in for a nighttime visit or a dawn tryst, you wouldn't have to work so hard, Suzume. Could you take me to the Rokuyoukan once more for practice?"
"Absolutely not. If he goes wild and wrecks the building, that tough old matron will beat me senseless."
Not to mention the damages she'd demand—there's no telling how much.
"What a shame. Today's not about brother-in-law, actually. There's been a bit of a problem, and I'd like you to come see the Lord of the Moon tonight."
"May I ask what sort of problem it is?"
Jinshi
had been summoning Maomao less and less frequently lately. He could no longer use her injury as an excuse, and his work was undoubtedly busy. But the main reason was probably that he himself wanted to draw a clear line.
So she had surmised that if he was calling for her despite all that, there must be a correspondingly important reason.
There were no other court ladies in the dining hall. Even the dormitory's housekeeper seemed to have read the room and excused herself.
Suzume leaned close to Maomao's ear.
"A cursed jar was found beneath the eaves of a certain official's house."
"Oh my, what a nostalgic topic."
It was a story she'd heard all the time during her days in the rear palace.
"Yes. And a certain official's daughter has been growing weaker by the day, and they're at their wit's end."
The matter had reached Jinshi's ears. From the way Suzume put it, the official in question must hold a rather high position.
"You want me to break the curse?"
"Yes. Just as Maomao said."
"Do you actually believe in curses?"
"Hehehe. It's all a matter of perspective. There may be no such thing as curses to you, Maomao, but there are certainly events that others can only describe as curses."
Maomao had to concede that was a fair point.
"Is there a possibility of poison?"
Suzume simply kept grinning.
"Would you come and take a look?"
"I suppose I have no choice."
Maomao said this, though her expression betrayed that she was anything but displeased.
She recognized it as one of her own faults, but it was simply a part of her nature that Maomao couldn't change.