A few days later, an ivory pipe arrived at Maomao's place along with a letter.
The sender was—
Li Bai.
He should have just done this from the beginning.
In the end, the reason Li Bai had gone out of his way to visit Maomao in person must have been because he wanted to talk to someone about—
Lingli.
Normally, bringing up the topic of buying a courtesan's freedom would just get you talked out of it—told to give up. But Maomao knew how the pleasure quarters worked, so that was probably why he wanted to discuss it with her.
Still, though...
Maomao squinted as she examined the ivory pipe. It was fine craftsmanship—at least worth a tael of silver.
What did he mean by "I don't need it"?
Maomao set the pipe on the table and continued reading the letter.
When she read what was written there, Maomao's eyebrow twitched upward.
"Are any of the contents here poisonous?"
it read.
He could have told me that sooner.
Why would he put off something this important until the very end? Maomao thought.
Her mouth had twisted into such an indecent smirk that even she herself found it strange, but that was simply Maomao's nature, so there was no helping it. She traced a finger over the bold, rough handwriting and narrowed her eyes.
That evening, a visitor came to the Emerald Palace. This time it was an illustrious gentleman with a magnificent beard—the Emperor himself.
The ladies-in-waiting hurried to make preparations, doing their best not to raise their heads—
the bedchamber—
had to be readied. They lit the Emperor's preferred incense and prepared late-night refreshments said to fortify his energy. Of course, that was merely the surface purpose; in truth, the main thing was for him to spend time with his only daughter, Princess Lingli.
Lady Gyokuyou did not care for flashy things, but since her place of origin was a hub of trade, many of the furnishings in her chambers were from foreign countries.
The long chairs—
were one such example. But the incense burner, too, differed somewhat from the shape Maomao was familiar with.
Consort Gyokuyou was the type to pay attention to things others couldn't see—she was particular about details like the lining of garments and incense.
Whether to ease the Emperor's fatigue, she burned incense with calming properties. On that point, Gyokuyou never relaxed her vigilance, always burning the specific blend she had selected herself.
Yinghua
and the others were disappointed that their purchased incense oils couldn't be put to use. They had at least tried to exclude anything harmful to the body, but in today's case, it simply seemed that the fragrance didn't mesh with the incense being used.
Since it had grown quite warm, the late-night meal consisted of refreshing seafood and seaweed dressed in citrus vinegar, along with eight-treasure porridge studded with jujubes and beans. This noble lady was truly health-conscious despite appearances.
Maomao ate the vinegar-dressed dish served on a silver plate, as always. Silver corrodes from acidity, so she had to eat quickly. Since this defeated the purpose, she decided she would ask for a regular plate from now on.
She picked up seafood and seaweed with her chopsticks and put them in her mouth. Speaking of seaweed, it reminded her of the incident from the other day. The official's younger brother who had been named the culprit had died in prison.
An incident where they couldn't even tell whether it was mere food poisoning or deliberate poisoning.
Suddenly, something clicked in Maomao's mind.
"Ah."
She had let the sound escape without thinking.
The Emperor, Gyokuyou, and Hongniang looked at Maomao.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
Hongniang's voice came out strained in response to Maomao's exclamation.
Remembering that she was in the middle of tasting for poison, Maomao thought, *Oh no.*
"No, it's nothing."
Maomao shook her head.
"O-oh. Well, if it's nothing, that's fine."
Hongniang stared fixedly at Maomao as she spoke.
The Emperor wore an unreadable expression while Lingli the princess tugged at his beard, and Gyokuyou watched Maomao with sparkling eyes.
*There is nothing interesting here, I assure you.*
She mustn't find amusement in this—it involved someone's death.
With that thought, Maomao set down her chopsticks.
"I heard the culprit in the incident from the other day has been identified."
Jinshi said this in the chamber of the rear palace's chief court official.
As usual, the chief court official had been dismissed, leaving only Jinshi, Maomao, and Gaoshun in the room. Perhaps because Jinshi frequented it so often, a long chair and a long table had been prepared in this spacious but unadorned room, and in the center of the table sat a basket filled with fruit sweets.
The incident from the other day referred to the man who had died after attempting to poison an official. After the spring garden party, he had eaten a meal that was served to him and died. Whether it was poison or simply food poisoning still hadn't been clarified.
"I can't say that far."
Maomao had handed a note to Jinshi, stating she had something to say about the incident from the other day. But just that much had led to this great leap in assumptions, which was troublesome.
"All I know is how he was made to select the poisoned ingredient."
"Is that true? That is..."
"Yes."
(Probably.)
If she used such vague language, her father would get angry, Maomao thought. Her foster father, a former court physician, hated vague testimony.
Therefore, as Maomao, she wanted to hold certainty, which was why she was meeting Jinshi like this. She had deliberately changed locations because she knew that if she spoke about such things in the Jade Palace, Consort Gyokuyou would overhear.
"He did say he didn't know what ingredients were used, but you know what the other prisoners ate, right?"
"That much, at least."
Instead of Jinshi, Gaoshun began writing down on paper what he had given to the prisoners.
Maomao nodded, seeing that. *As I thought.*
(Might be...)
Maomao pressed the note in her bosom. It was the letter she had received from Li Bai yesterday. The same thing written there was also written on what Gaoshun had drafted.
Probably, Li Bai also found the same incident suspicious. Even though he was a military man, it was a strange coincidence that he could sniff out the same thing like this, Maomao thought.
That was precisely why Maomao had noticed it too.
"One of these contains poison?"
Jinshi sat in his chair and looked at the paper.
Soup.
Next to the vinegar dish, meat skewers, and grilled fish, there seemed to be nothing unusual.
Maomao took a pen and drew wavy lines over some of the listed dishes.
They were all items prepared as appetizers.
"No, quite the opposite. It's the ones without any poison."
Maomao set down her pen and tapped the lines she'd drawn with wavy strokes, one after another after another.
"What order are meals distributed to the prisoners?"
"Generally, they start from the front of the cells and work their way back. A meal is offered and each prisoner picks what they want. The closer to the front, the lighter the crime, so those prisoners get to choose."
Gaoshun answered. Perhaps it was from his time in the military — Maomao thought he knew quite a lot about this.
"Then which cell was the dead man in?"
"Until he received his formal sentencing, he was in a forward position."
At that point, Jinshi and Gaoshun both stiffened.
"So you're saying... he was allowed to choose? The poisoned dishes."
"Yes."
"How?"
In response to Jinshi's question, Maomao once again showed the dishes she had displayed earlier. They were unremarkable appetizers, but they all shared one thing in common.
"They're all dishes that can be made with seaweed."
The dead man probably didn't have a favorable impression of seaweed. He would have associated it with deadly poison.
Would there really be a need for him to deliberately pick it?
Prepare several types of appetizers. All of them would be seaweed-based dishes, with only one dish made without seaweed.
After that, all she had to do was prepare one set for each prisoner and hand them to the guards.
Li Bai's letter had listed not only the dish names but also rough ingredients. By connecting the dishes from Li Bai's letter with the incident from the other day, she had come up with this method.
And if that were the case, there was one more thing she could deduce.
That was—
"If the person knew about seaweed poison, they might be able to do it. This is purely hypothetical, though."
Maomao had been wondering about something. How had the man learned about the poison in seaweed?
Maomao had learned all sorts of things from her father, who could only be described as extraordinary, so she knew it as general knowledge. Had the man learned it from someone too?
If she was curious, then yes, she was curious.
If it was documented somewhere, she would very much like to see it.
But if he had been taught by someone, that raised all sorts of red flags — and right now, that possibility seemed overwhelmingly likely.
(Well, well.)
Maomao looked at the two troubled eunuchs.
It concerned her, but from here on out, it wasn't her job. If anything, she was reflecting on how she had stuck her nose in too much.
While she was mulling it over, Maomao found her hand reaching toward the fruit display in front of her. When rare tropical fruits were sitting right there, it was only natural for one's hand to reach out.
Not dried.
Lychees.
Now, weren't those truly rare? Just as she was about to sneak a single one, she locked eyes with Jinshi.
Maomao froze mid-reach, but her hand had already advanced to the edge of the basket.
Jinshi picked up the fruit basket and held it out before her—lychees and all, a branch heavy with fruit.
"You did well. This is your reward."
Jinshi placed a lychee into Maomao's palm with a most refined smile.
"Thank you very much."
Maomao offered her thanks sincerely.
Half as a snack, half to dry out for medicine—that was already what she was thinking.
"I'll be counting on you next time, too."
With those parting words, the beautiful eunuch gracefully left the room.
(Somehow, it just doesn't sit right.)
Maomao peeled the skin with her fingertips and brought the plump white fruit to her mouth. It was indeed much better fresh than dried, she thought, licking her wet fingertips.
(Still, that other side is better.)
Maomao thought that the slightly unguarded, childish expression he occasionally showed was the more natural look after all.