A lady-in-waiting attached to a room, and furthermore, the Emperor's
favored consort's
personal maid — that meant elevated treatment.
Until now,
her official rank had been at the very bottom of the pyramid,
but it had climbed to somewhere around the middle. According to the explanation, her salary had jumped considerably as well, though twenty percent of it went back to her family — or rather, the merchant house she had been sold off to.
She was no longer in the cramped octopus-den of a room she'd had before; instead, a room of her own had been granted, small as it was.
Her bedding had been upgraded from nothing but layered straw mats
covered with
a thin sheet
into a proper cot with a frame. The room was barely big enough for two beds, but she was honestly glad that she could get up in the morning without stepping on a colleague's body.
There was one other reason to be glad, but that would become clear soon enough.
In
Consort Gyokuyou's
Emerald Palace,
where she resided,
Maomao
had four other maids assigned alongside her. Since the little princess had begun eating solid food, there was no need to hire a new wet nurse.
Compared to Consort Rifa,
who had more than ten attendants, the number was remarkably small.
Honestly, the maids had shown reluctance when told that someone who had been a lowly room servant would suddenly become their colleague, but there was none of the bullying Maomao had expected.
Rather, she was regarded with looks of sympathy.
(Why?)
She soon understood the reason.
Herbal cuisine
A court banquet lavish with medicinal cuisine lay before her.
Gyokuyou's head handmaiden,
Hongniang,
placed one dish at a time onto small plates and set them before Maomao.
Gyokuyou looked over apologetically, but made no move to stop her.
The three remaining maids gazed at her with pitying eyes.
This was the role of the food taster.
Everyone was on edge because of the Crown Prince.
Rumors had been circulating that the princess's illness might have been caused by poison slipped in from somewhere. The maids, who had never been told the source of the poison, must have been terrified of not knowing what it had been mixed into.
So if a maid had been sent specifically to serve as a poison taster, it would not be unreasonable to view her as a disposable pawn.
Not just Gyokuyou's meals—even the princess's weaning food and the nourishing dishes served during the emperor's visits
nourishing dishes
were included in the poison testing.
Around the time Gyokuyou's pregnancy was discovered, there had apparently been two poisoning attempts. One ended lightly enough, but the other left someone with nerve damage, unable to move their limbs.
The maids who had been performing this poison-tasting duty in fear up until now were surely, honestly, grateful.
Maomao furrowed her brow at the plated dishes. They were ceramic plates.
(If you're that afraid of poison, using silver would be the basic precaution.)
She picked up a piece with her chopsticks and examined the salad ingredients closely.
She sniffed at it.
After placing it on her tongue and confirming there was no numbing sensation, she slowly swallowed.
(Honestly, she's not suited for this poison-tasting business.)
For fast-acting poisons it might be one thing, but for slow-acting ones, having Maomao do the tasting would be meaningless.
Through her self-experiments—gradually building up a tolerance to various poisons—Maomao had probably rendered most of them ineffective on her body by now.
This was not done as part of her apothecary work, but to satisfy her own intellectual curiosity. In a different time and place, it would surely have been called—『
"Mad Scientist."
Or so it was said.
Even the old man who had taught her the apothecary's craft was appalled.
Rather than any change to her body, once she confirmed there was no matching poison in her own knowledge, Gyokuyou's meals at last began.
Next came the bland baby food.
"I believe it would be best to switch the plates to silver ones."
She told her superior Hongniang without any emotion.
As her first-day activity report,
Hongniang
had summoned her to her room. The room was spacious but without lavish decoration, befitting her practical nature.
The beautiful black-haired head maid, approaching thirty, let out a sigh.
"Just as Lord Jinshi said."
With a look of exasperation, she confessed that she had deliberately not used silver utensils.
It was Jinshi's instruction.
He was probably also the one who had ordered her to be made the food taster.
Maomao listened to Hongniang while fighting to keep her already surly expression from darkening further.
"I don't know why you were hiding that knowledge, but it's truly an ability that can serve as both poison and medicine. If you'd mentioned that you could write, you'd have received more pay."
"Because I was making a living playing at being an apothecary. Even though I was abducted and dragged here, knowing that part of my wages is still being sent to those kidnappers—"
my
stomach churns with rage."
Her emotions ran high and her words grew somewhat coarse, but the head maid did not reprimand her.
"So you're saying you'd rather have your own pay cut than let those people have drinking money."
The astute lady-in-waiting seemed to understand Maomao's motivation.
"If I were incompetent, they could replace me easily enough within two years of service."
She had even grasped the parts that didn't need to be understood.
Hongniang picked up the pitcher from the table and placed it in Maomao's hands.
"This is..."
Before Maomao could even finish her question, a jolt of pain shot through her wrist. The pitcher she had been made to hold slipped from her grasp and crashed to the floor. A large crack split the ceramic vessel.
"Oh my, this one was rather expensive. More than a mere maid's salary could cover, I'm afraid. With this, you won't be able to send money home either. Rather, I should be billing you instead."
It seemed Maomao understood what Hongniang was getting at, as a hint of sardonic amusement flickered across her otherwise blank expression.
"I'm very sorry. Please deduct the amount from my monthly remittance. If there isn't enough, I can cover the rest from my own funds as well."
"Yes, I'll take care of the paperwork with the Head Palace Lady. Oh, and one more thing."
Hongniang set the fallen pitcher back on the table and drew a wooden tablet from a drawer. Her brush glided swiftly across it.
"This is a breakdown of the additional compensation for your position as poison taster. Hazard pay, you might call it. Let me know if anything catches your eye."
The amount was roughly equal to Maomao's current salary. Without any commission deducted, it was a net gain for Maomao.
(All thanks to knowing how to handle candy.)
Maomao gave a deep bow and left the room.