This is from a time when there were people who got drunk on gyokuro.
"I've found that your skills are beyond what I imagined."
Jinshi
said to Maomao in an exasperated voice.
"I didn't expect things to go this far, either."
She was half-stunned by the devastation before her eyes.
"Yeah... you're right about that."
His usual needlessly radiant smile was nowhere to be found.
He simply wore an expression of complete exhaustion.
"How did it come to this?"
To answer that, we must go back several hours.
What was delivered
was the cacao—
not in seed form, but ground into a powder.
As for the other
ingredients Maomao
had requested, they were all
carried into the Emerald Palace's
kitchen.
The three maids had been watching with idle curiosity,
but when Hongniang
scolded them, they each returned to their posts.
Milk,
cream.
Sugar, honey, dried fruits steeped in distilled spirits, and scented herb oils. They were all nutrient-rich luxury goods that also served as restorative tonics.
Maomao had, just once,
tasted cocoa.
It was ground powder kneaded with sugar and pressed into a solid. The courtesan who'd
given it to her called it
"chocolate."
It was only a piece the size of a fingertip, but eating it made her feel as though she'd downed a cup of strong distilled liquor. Her mood inexplicably brightened.
A lecherous patron had given it to a popular courtesan as a rare sweet to win her favor. Unfortunately, when the courtesan saw Maomao's unusual reaction, she flew into a rage, and Maomao ended up banned from the establishment by the madam.
After that, she had managed to obtain a few seeds on occasion, but she never used them as medicine.
No customers at the pleasure district's apothecary would have asked for such a luxury item.
What remained in her memory of
"chocolate"
was that it had been solidified with fat. Maomao, who remembered the scents and tastes of medicines and poisons perfectly, also possessed vivid memories of food ingredients.
It was still the hot season, and she
doubted she could get it to solidify well with cheese,
so she decided to coat the fruit in the mixture instead. Ice would have been ideal, but that was clearly out of the question, so she didn't include it among the ingredients.
In its place, she prepared a large unglazed clay water jug, filled about halfway with water. The evaporating water would keep the interior several degrees cooler than the outside — just barely cold enough for the fat to solidify.
Maomao stirred the mixture and scooped some up with a
spoon.
She put it in her mouth.
Through her tongue, she could feel the bitterness, the sweetness, and other mood-elevating ingredients.
Compared to the past, Maomao had grown more resistant to both alcohol and poison, so she didn't feel as uplifted as before, but the effect still felt quite potent.
(Maybe she should have made them a bit smaller.)
She cut the fruit in half again and submerged the pieces in the brown liquid.
Then she set them on a dish and tucked them into the jar, arranged so they floated in the open space within.
Cover it with a lid,
wrap it in straw matting,
and hide it away—all that was left was to wait for it to set.
Jinshi
would come to pick it up in the evening, and it should be set by then.
(There's a little left over.)
The brown liquid was still remaining. The ingredients were very high-end and nutritious. Even though it was supposed to be an aphrodisiac, it didn't really work all that well on Maomao, so she decided to eat it later.
She cut the bread
into cubes and soaked them in the liquid. This way, there shouldn't be any need to chill them.
She put the lid on and placed it on a shelf.
She gathered the leftover ingredients and put them in her room, then headed to the outdoor water basin to do the washing up.
At that moment, the pieces she had cut
and set aside
should have been carried into her room as well, but they had slipped her mind. Perhaps the taste-testing had put her in too high spirits.
Well, what's done is done.
After that,
Hongniang
asked her to run errands, and while she'd gone to pick some medicinal herbs growing outside, the incident had occurred.
As she was happily carrying a laundry basket full of herbs, she was met by Hongniang with a deathly pale face, and a worried
Gyokuyou
the consort was waiting.
Gaoshun
was there as well, which meant Jinshi had likely come too.
When she saw Hongniang holding her forehead and pointing toward the kitchen, Maomao thrust the basket into Gaoshun's hands and headed to the scene.
Jinshi looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.
Three maids lay sleeping, curled up together in a warm embrace. Their tops had come undone and their skirts were hiked up to their calves. Every last one of them had flushed cheeks and blissful expressions on their faces.
Thoughts like "before" or "after" flitted through her mind, but she pushed them away.
Or rather, she didn't want to think about it.
Well, they were all women, so presumably the worst hadn't happened. Probably.
On the table sat brown bread rolls.
Three were missing from the bunch.
After Maomao, Hongniang, and Gaoshun each carried the maids to their respective rooms, exhaustion hit them all at once.
In the sitting room, Gyokuyou and Jinshi were gazing at...
...the chocolate bread...
...with great curiosity.
"Is this that supposed aphrodisiac?"
"No, it's this over here."
Maomao held out the fruit-wrapped pellets. About thirty grains, each roughly the size of a thumbnail, were neatly lined up.
"Then what's this stuff?"
"My midnight snack."
She seemed to have misspoken, because everyone around her visibly recoiled. Even Gaoshun and Hongniang were looking at her like she was some kind of oddity.
"When you're used to alcohol and stimulants, the effects aren't all that strong."
She had once soaked the venomous snakes from her experiments in liquor and drunk them, so Maomao was...
...a hardened drinker...
...of sorts.
In Maomao's classification, alcohol counted as a type of medicine.
Jinshi picked up one of the bread rolls and examined it intently.
"Then there shouldn't be any problem if I eat one, right?"
"Please don't!!"
Hongniang's and Gaoshun's voices overlapped. It felt like the first time Maomao had ever heard Gaoshun speak.
Jinshi set the pastry back on the plate, saying he was only joking.
Certainly, it would be irreverent to bring up aphrodisiacs in front of the emperor's favored consort, but more than that — if the heavenly beauty of the goddess were ever to approach with flushed cheeks, anyone's reason might well snap.
"Perhaps you could make some for His Majesty next time. To ward off ennui."
"I think it would be about three times as potent as the usual tonic."
"Three times..."
Whether it lasts longer, she wonders — Maomao pretended not to hear Gyokuyou's whispered aside. Even for her, that sounded like it might be going too far.
She transferred the aphrodisiac into a lidded container and handed it to Jinshi.
"It's quite strong, so one pill at a time is the recommended dose. If you take too much, the blood will rush and you'll probably get a nosebleed. Also, please only use it when you're alone with the person you have your heart set on."
Once the instructions were finished, Jinshi rose to his feet.
Gaoshun and Hongniang left the room to prepare for departure.
Gyokuyou gave a bow and departed with the princess, who was sleeping in her basket.
When Maomao moved to clear away the pastry plate, a sweet scent drifted from behind her.
"Thank you for making something beyond what I expected."
A voice as sweet as honey reached her ears.
Her hair was lifted, and something cool touched the back of her neck.
When she turned around, Jinshi was already leaving the room, waving one hand.
"I see."
When she looked down at the plate, one pastry was missing.
She already had a suspect in mind.
"As long as there's no victim, I suppose."
Maomao murmured, as though it were someone else's problem.
The night was still long.