With a clatter, the door opened, and the person who entered the room let out a long breath.
"Welcome back."
Gaoshun slowly bowed his head and studied the young man who looked as though he had been dressed up in fine garments. His shoulders drooped timidly, his face was downcast, and his bangs hung long enough to hide his expression.
Gaoshun closed the door. Outside, there were attendants who had been serving as his substitute aides.
The moment the door clicked shut, the sorry-looking young man snapped his spine straight. When he swept his hair back, refined and striking features were revealed.
He had applied some cosmetics to alter his appearance, but even so, the degree of the transformation was nothing short of astonishing.
There stood the beautiful young man—Jinshi.
No—here, there was no man called Jinshi.
He is an entirely different person who merely resembles him, Gaoshun reminded himself once more.
This was not the building they usually used, but one several grades above it. Only a very select few were allowed inside.
Gaoshun too had entered through a special back entrance. His clothing was not his usual official robe, but something a bit more carefully chosen.
"Will you be taking a bath?"
"Ah, please."
Gaoshun
asked
the master,
who was not in his usual official robes.
Until just a while ago, the master had been in the company of the emperor and several high-ranking officials.
The master, unused to such
garments,
loosened the collar,
and reclined on
the chaise lounge. To the languid master, an elderly lady-in-waiting,
Suiren—
She brought out chilled fruit water.
She had the servants prepare hot water. He was a long-serving man, like Suiren, who had known their master since childhood. Including him, they had fewer people here than could be counted on one hand.
It would take some time to fill the tub.
"I suppose it's an unavoidable problem, isn't it?"
The master wasn't addressing Gaoshun. He was talking to himself, and Gaoshun made no reply.
The downside—of a rear palace that had grown far too large.
The previous era's rear palace had boasted over five thousand court ladies.
Now it didn't even have half that many.
Because they had been reducing the numbers year after year.
Even so, the appropriate number for the rear palace was about half of what it currently held. It could stand to be even smaller. The emperor shared the same sentiment.
A certain girl had been caught up in the purge of court ladies, but that was—
The timing—
—was bad.
Just when—
—Risu—
—was being brought in as a consort, they carried out a replacement of the court ladies.
It was fortunate that this was an era of peace.
Over the past few decades—
—locust plagues—
—and major famines had not occurred. There had been no significant civil wars either, only the occasional harassment from foreign tribes.
The upkeep of this garden of women could, at times, drain the national treasury.
However, at the same time, it also served as an employment measure.
It was ironic that the flower garden was favored as a place for poor farmers to seek seasonal work.
It was the prime minister who argued that further reductions should not be carried out under the pretext of employment.
Prev—
The old man, now in early old age and still in the Empress Dowager's favor, was the very person responsible for bloating the Inner Palace to its absurd size.
He reasoned that if the late Emperor could not produce heirs, then the solution was simply to increase the number of consorts, and so year by year the number of court ladies grew.
The true cause of the infertility was something entirely different, of course — an unspeakable horror that one would not even want to put into words.
In other words, the late Emperor merely had a peculiar preference that prevented him from being interested in
women
of an appropriate age.
Otherwise, would he have so freely gifted away the woman said to be the most beautiful princess in the entire kingdom?
He was also not above giving consorts to his ministers without a second thought.
So when the current Emperor's younger brother was born, everyone suspected the Empress Dowager of infidelity.
After all, there was no way the Emperor would have shown any interest in a consort who had already come of age.
The prime minister who had fattened himself on the sweet fruits of the previous era likely believed the current era still belonged to him.
He had forced his own daughter into the palace through rather aggressive means.
Ada —
Even driving out Consort Ada to make room.
If he were merely fat and complacent, there would still be ways to deal with him — but once someone had reached the level of a shapeshifting tanuki, even engaging with them became difficult.
"We'll have to do something about this."
The master murmured. Gaoshun remained silent at his side.
Whether he wanted to or not, it had to be done. That was the master's job.
When Shuilian arrived with a change of clothes, the master headed for the bathing chamber.
The Emperor was making unreasonable demands as well.
Placing impossible burdens on a youth of only nineteen.
Was that truly necessary?
If it was the path the master had chosen, there was nothing to do but follow.
Once again, Gaoshun reflected.
Gaoshun
Jade Palace
When he arrived, the brusque little lady-in-waiting was out.
"Where did she go?"
When he asked Hongniang, the head lady-in-waiting, she made an indescribable face and pointed toward a building some distance away.
Smoke was visible — a fire must have been going.
Wondering what was happening, Gaoshun headed toward it, but—
Jinshi was not in today, and he had come only to deliver a message. Yet a lady-in-waiting clutching a weeding sickle was watching him.
Perhaps he could do it later? Gaoshun's mind jumped to unnecessary cleverness. Once, when he had asked a eunuch to do some weeding, the windows had apparently been tampered with afterward. If they trusted that he wouldn't pull something like that, should he feel flattered?
Promising to do it later, Gaoshun headed toward the smoke.
In the kitchen building, the little lady-in-waiting — the source of the smoke — was locked in a staring match with a pot.
The interior was thick with steam and the fragrance of flowers.
"What are you doing?"
"Gaoshun."
Expressionless
Maomao's
forehead had a thin sheen of sweat on it.
On the stove,
extending from the pot was a peculiar
tube
from which liquid dripped in a steady trickle.
This seemed to be the source of the scent.
"I'm making rosewater."
Ah, so that was what made it smell so nice.
Come to think of it, after the garden party,
rosewater...
—the potted plants she had transplanted into the rear palace.
She must have used those petals.
Even so, this girl does the most eccentric things.
And what makes it worse is that she doesn't even realize it.
She diligently sniffed the liquid dripping from the tube, furrowing her brow as if to say "is that all?" It seemed even this fragrant result wasn't enough to satisfy her.
Among the several batches already made, there were also dyes prepared for coloring, separate from the fragrances.
"Lady Gyokuyou was kind enough to allow this."
"Lady Hongniang's permission was the harder one to get. Besides, we have to clean up properly afterward. The smell on our bodies needs to be washed off completely, too."
Concentrated plant essential oils were fine in small amounts, but using too much was apparently bad for pregnant women.
That was why she had gone to the trouble of renting out a separate location for this.
Ah, that made sense—it would be easier to deal with the hardworking head maid than with a consort who indulged every whim.
But did this girl even realize that getting permission in the first place was an extraordinarily generous concession?
She was the type who, once focused on something, lost all awareness of her surroundings.
And yet she was perfectly composed in everything else.
Maomao poured the rosewater into a small bottle and handed it to Gaoshun.
The concentrated fragrance spread through his nasal passages.
"Wild roses actually have a stronger scent, though."
Maomao made a slightly dissatisfied face.
Her pursuit of perfection was very much the temperament of a researcher.
Another large pot was set over a second stove.
Similarly, a ceramic tube extended from it, and clear liquid was dripping down.
The smell was different from roses. It was the kind of scent that made your head spin.
"That one is for collecting distilled spirits."
Ah, so that was why it seemed like you could get drunk just from smelling it.
Even so, everything she did seemed to overstep the territory of a pharmacist.
If he said it aloud, he would certainly earn her displeasure, but Maomao really did share a lot in common with that military strategist. Eccentrics' blood runs eccentric.
Maomao collected the liquid that had gathered in the vessels and tidied up with practiced efficiency.
When Gaoshun helped out, she told him, "As always, you're so diligent."
It seemed that having an older wife had conditioned him so that his body moved before his mind in situations like this. The fact that he didn't mind being asked to pull weeds or scrub windows was probably for the same reason. Married to a fearsome wife, he got an earful every time he came home.
Suddenly, an indelicate thought crossed Gaoshun's mind.
Well, Maomao probably wouldn't make a fuss even if he brought it up, so he decided to ask.
"Maomao,
have you
ever thought about getting married?"
She was eighteen by traditional count, already well into the latter half of marriageable age.
It was precisely the rear palace's unusual environment that made it easy to forget, but she was already at the age when parents would start pressuring her.
"I'm interested in having children, but I haven't thought about getting married."
What a remarkably skip-a-step answer.
If that was the case, did she want children?
"But I don't have any certainty that I'd develop an interest in children, so I can't exactly just go around getting a seed from someone."
Did that mean she was interested in the act of giving birth itself?
It was truly a headache.
"Please don't go actually doing it."
"I won't do anything until I can take responsibility. Besides, my body is a lump of poison, so I'd have to start with detoxification first."
No, even if she just gave birth as-is—no, that wouldn't do, Maomao mused about pointless things.
Would she do it someday? Before talking about love or romance, it was practically the same as an experiment.
The question was whether he could manage to steer her in that direction before then.
As he lowered the flame under the stove, Gaoshun scratched the back of his neck.
He had gone and gotten attached to something troublesome.