Maomao was led to a place that resembled a warehouse. The person who let her out of the cage was not Loulan, but a tall woman.
"You are..."
Maomao studied the figure before her.
A tall woman without a trace of makeup—one Maomao had seen several times within the palace.
The real Shisui—no, to avoid confusion,
Cuiling—
she should probably call her that instead.
Now she understood why she had initially felt a sense of déjà vu about Loulan.
Perhaps it was because they shared the same father, but the sisters had similar builds and a resembling facial structure.
"You'll be staying here for a while. There are various inconveniences, but I think it would be wise not to attempt an escape."
With that, Cuiling opened the window.
Outside was a world of pure white snow, and the window was fitted with iron bars. No wonder it was so cold—Maomao clutched the fur cloak tight around herself.
"As you saw earlier, the mistress of this place has a fierce temperament, so being discovered would not be wise. Even if you tried to escape, you wouldn't even know where you are. Meals will be brought to you properly, so I recommend you stay put."
The indirect way she phrased things was irksome, Maomao thought.
She certainly did not want to encounter that mistress again, and even if she made it outside into that vast expanse of white snow, she would likely get lost and freeze to death in no time.
While thinking it was probably pointless to ask, Maomao looked at Cuiling.
"So what exactly is the point of kidnapping me?"
She didn't expect to receive an answer. She simply found the idea of being left here without explanation strangely disagreeable.
"You are someone with surprisingly more value than you might expect. At least, more than you yourself realize."
Cuiling's words were deliberately vague—open to interpretation either way.
"Wait."
As Cuiling turned to leave, Maomao called after her.
"What is it?"
Cuiling looked as though she had nothing more to say, but Maomao had one matter she simply could not let go.
"What should I do about the toilet?"
"It's connected through that door. There's no need to go outside, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Understood."
Maomao gave a slight bow and hurried off to the toilet at a brisk walk.
She had no idea how long she had been holding it in.
There was no room for embarrassment — this was a dire situation.
As Cuiling had said, she brought meals each time.
They were a little cold, but a complete set with soup and a side dish wasn't bad. The only issue was that there were too many dry foods, giving them something of a travel-rations feel.
The room was being used as a storage space now, but it had probably been a guest room originally. There was a bed, so it wasn't too uncomfortable. The connected toilet was likely a remnant of that.
Maomao sat cross-legged on the bed. Resting her chin on her elbow was poor manners, but there was no one here to scold her for it.
(Now then, what to do?)
She had been warned not to run away, and Maomao was not the type to obediently comply. But she didn't want to put herself in danger either.
The rash on her body hadn't fully healed, and her stamina was still low. If she ventured outside carelessly, she'd surely freeze to death.
Maomao glanced out the window.
A vast expanse of pure white snow stretched out before her.
(Could this be far to the north of the capital?)
The Zi clan's territory was to the north. That much seemed reasonable, but how far from the capital was it?
Even considering the carriage's speed and the time they had traveled, she couldn't imagine it should be snowy like this.
(Thinking about it...)
Maomao ran her finger across the cloth spread on the bed. She recalled a map of the entire country that she had vaguely memorized.
She visualized a semicircle to the north of the capital.
No matter how fast they had pushed the horses, she couldn't believe they had traveled six hundred li (three hundred kilometers) from the capital. Within that range, the only place that would look like this in this season would be the highlands.
(There was definitely a mountain range.)
There should have been mountains to the north. Wasn't that an important location politically as well? She seemed to recall Jinshi muttering to himself while poring over a map.
(If I had known it would come to this, I should have studied properly.)
I feel like one of the exams to become an official court lady included geography questions. But all I ever did was fall asleep the moment I opened the reference books, so there's no way I'd remember any of it.
Wondering what to do, she looked outside once more.
(Hm?)
Snow was falling and visibility was poor, but was that a wall she could see far off in the distance? No, it was more like a fortress wall than a simple wall. She could only see one side of it, but it likely encircled the buildings entirely.
(A fortress — no, something that looks more like a citadel.)
When she thought "citadel," it seemed like it would fall under the jurisdiction of the military. But if the
mistress
of this place was Loulan's mother, then it was probably something different.
There were certainly military garrisons stationed throughout the country, but had there ever been one this close to the capital?
If the country had been building something like this without anyone in the capital knowing about it, no one could blame others for calling it rebellion.
(And not even that far from the capital, at that.)
Was it fair to conclude, then, that Zishu had been trying to bring down the kingdom after all?
She had gone so far as to nearly die to set that monocle-wearing man in motion, and yet it still hadn't worked on the guy. Is that what this meant?
Maomao swallowed the saliva that had pooled in her mouth with a gulp.
Just then, a shrill voice rang out from the corridor.
"What now?" Maomao climbed down from the bed and pressed her ear to the door facing the hallway.
"You mustn't play over there, Young Master!"
"Whaaat, it's fine. I haven't explored this part yet."
The owner of the high-pitched voice seemed to be a young boy, and he appeared to be held back by his nursemaid.
(There are children here?)
"What're you doing? The snacks are gonna run out!"
"I know that! Don't go eating my share without permission!"
Moreover, there seemed to be others as well — she could hear more shrill voices a little further away. There were at least five or six of them, probably.
Learning that there were children, Maomao leaned against the wall and let out a long breath.
No matter how citadel-like this fortress might be, and no matter if they tried to hole up inside, the outcome was plain to see.
The current emperor was a relatively merciful ruler. But even he had a line he would not cross. Previously, when there was an attempted assassination of a high-ranking consort, the lady-in-waiting deemed responsible had been hanged. Her relatives were subjected to corporal punishment.
As emperor, to maintain his authority, he had no choice but to take such measures.
If someone were to cause a commotion on this scale, what would happen then?
Every last member of the clan—none of them would survive. It would not matter whether they were children or infants.
Were the children brought here with full knowledge of that?
Maomao let out another breath. She hugged her knees and rested her head on them.
(!?)
She felt something strange against her chest and touched her collar.
(Come to think of it)
A slip of paper emerged from inside her collar. It was something Rouran had tucked into Maomao's clothes.
Maomao unfolded it and tilted her head.
On fine-quality paper,
a trumpet-shaped
flower had been drawn alongside. A pressed flower that had been sealed into the paper during its making—the sort of thing some upper-class people might appreciate.
It looked like a morning glory, but was much larger with paler coloring.
"
A red spider lily?
"
It was a plant used as an ingredient in anesthetics, but it was highly toxic and required careful handling. Ingestion would cause dry mouth and dizziness. In some cases, hallucinations were apparently possible, though she had never seen it go that far.
What was the point of all this? Maomao wondered as she tucked the paper back inside her clothes.
Come to think of it, she had said something strange before the abduction.
It was about bell crickets, which Maomao had not understood at all. But could there be something Rouran wanted to convey through that? Was that why she had been brought to this place?
She had absolutely no idea.
When she did not know something, there was no point dwelling on it—so Maomao turned her attention elsewhere.
She looked at the piled-up cargo in the room.
There were plenty of dishes. Roughly handled, yet all of fine quality. She picked one from a wooden box, wrapped in thin cloth—it was a lacquered piece adorned with mother-of-pearl inlay.
She rummaged around to see if there was anything useful, but found nothing of the sort. Every piece was lacquerwork.
(Was lacquer a specialty product around here?)
Even the tables left about carelessly were lavishly coated in lacquer. The sheen was beautiful. However, anyone who had developed a rash from lacquer would not want to touch it. Lacquer did not cause rashes once it was fully dried, but exposure to raw lacquer would leave you looking like Maomao did now.
Thinking the place was merely being used as a storeroom, she then spotted half-finished vessels and tools.
(Why were these here?)
Had there been craftsmen as well?
In a large fortress, it was only natural to employ seamstresses and blacksmiths. Perhaps various other artisans were on hand too.
There were plenty of other tools and implements, but none that seemed immediately useful for the time being.
She concluded that this place was probably used as a temporary staging area for all sorts of items.
Well, she was stuck with no way to do anything about it for now. She lay down on the cot and pulled a blanket over herself.
(I'll ask later if there's a brazier or something.)
Shivering, she resolved herself to sleep. Even if a brazier was out of the question, she would have liked at least one more jacket.
Someone might have tossed in a quip about whether she even grasped her situation. She herself was exasperated at how thick-skinned she was.
But that was just Maomao for you.
Kidnapped, held captive—and yet, Maomao was still Maomao.
〇●〇
Once inside the rear palace, the atmosphere was noticeably different.
Jinshi was heading toward the Jade Pavilion accompanied by Gaoshun and several other eunuchs.
For several days now, Consort Gyokuyou's condition had been unsteady, and word had come that morning that she had gone into labor.
Luomen, Maomao's adoptive father, appeared to be watching over her constantly, yet the birth was proving slow.
The consort's delivery had not yet been made public, but judging from the mood around the Jade Pavilion, everyone had probably sensed it. Before the Jade Pavilion, ladies-in-waiting hovered here and there, pretending not to linger.
The moment they noticed Jinshi, their faces flushed red and they hurried back to their duties.
Jinshi looked slightly haggard.
Hongniang
He was welcomed and led inside. In the corridor, a large
washtub
and a kettle set atop a brazier had been prepared, ready for whenever the birth might come.
"How is her condition?"
Jinshi asked, doing his best to remain calm.
The maids merely clouded with worry, but an elderly man who had come from the depths of the room provided the explanation.
"At present, the contractions have subsided. It is still unclear when the birth will occur."
"And her overall condition?"
"The consort shows no signs of exhaustion and remains composed."
"For the time being" — meaning that nothing could be guaranteed from here on.
Down the hall, there was another man in physician's robes, thin and scraggly-bearded. He was nominally a court physician serving the inner palace, but even here he seemed to be in the way, and the maids treated him with open disdain. He was hanging his head in dejection when Luomen whispered something to him, whereupon the man straightened up and strutted out of the palace.
When Jinshi gave Luomen a puzzled look, Luomen — ever perceptive — politely explained.
"I couldn't very well leave my adopted daughter unattended, so I asked him to run an errand on my behalf. I hope that was acceptable?"
"There's no issue."
Maomao, he had heard, had been resting at the clinic in the inner palace ever since. She had broken out in a rash all over her body and had been bedridden for several days — though how she was doing now, he couldn't say.
The man called Luomen was, true to his name, a member of the Lu clan. He had once committed some transgression in the inner palace and received corporal punishment, which was why he walked with a slight limp.
What exactly the transgression had been, Jinshi hadn't been able to determine in detail, but the man didn't seem the type. Still, hearing that he had earned the Empress Regnant's fury was enough to roughly imagine what had happened, so he didn't press further.
As a precaution, Jinshi had relayed the matter to the Emperor as well, and the Emperor had shown no sign of objection.
If anything, he had seemed to find it favorable — though that might have been Jinshi's imagination.
In any case, he was undoubtedly far more dependable than the physician from before.
Jinshi had come to check on the situation, but given his position, it wouldn't be appropriate to see the consort in labor, so he waited in the receiving room. One of the usually lively maids brought him tea, but her eyes looked a bit dim.
Perhaps his very presence here might be adding to their workload.
Unable to tell when Gyokuyou's labor would begin, he stared outside with a deeply uncomfortable feeling, when the physician from before came trudging back, shoulders slumped.
The physician went to Luomen like a child who had failed at an errand.
With nothing else to do, Jinshi turned his ear to their conversation.
According to what he heard, the physician had been turned away at the door of the clinic.
Since it was originally a place where even the unofficial use of medicine was barely tolerated, they apparently weren't too fond of court physicians.
"That's strange. When I went, they let me in without any trouble."
"Perhaps I'm the problem."
The physician muttered, his sparse beard drooping even further.
"Hmm," Jinshi said, rising from his seat.
"In that case, I'll go and see for myself."
At Jinshi's offer, the physician's beard bristled upward in surprise. Luomen tilted his head.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Yes. After all, we bear some responsibility for how things turned out."
It was something he had been meaning to look into anyway.
There was no point in Jinshi staying here, and if anything came up, Gaoshun would handle it.
And so, Jinshi decided to head to the clinic.
When Jinshi arrived at the clinic with the bearded physician and two eunuchs in tow, a middle-aged lady-in-waiting came out to greet them.
"I'd like to see a girl named Maomao."
When Jinshi said this, the lady-in-waiting furrowed her brow with a troubled expression.
"That girl seems to be feeling rather unwell and doesn't want to see anyone."
It was a somewhat roundabout way of putting it.
Jinshi raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Then what is her condition at the moment?"
The lady-in-waiting once again made a vague, evasive expression.
"Actually, I haven't been the one looking after her—"
Shinryoku
"—a lady-in-waiting by that name has been attending to her. The girl seems to be quite shy and doesn't even want to show her face to us."
"Oh?"
Jinshi Visits the Clinic
However, he had just heard a story that made him tilt his head in confusion.
Maomao certainly had a tendency to avoid people, but she didn't seem to have such a sensitive side.
If such a side did exist, he wanted to see it for himself.
With that in mind, Jinshi stepped into the clinic. The middle-aged lady-in-waiting looked as if she wanted to say something, but she couldn't oppose Jinshi and only panicked.
"Which room is it?"
"…The room on the left at the very back."
At the end of the hallway that smelled of alcohol, he opened the door on the left. The plain white room had only two beds.
He approached the bed that looked like someone was sleeping.
"…Hey."
There was no response; not a single movement.
Jinshi placed his hand on the blanket.
He tugged hard, and inside was a futon rolled into the shape of a person.
"…"
"…The young lady has escaped, hasn't she?"
The physician murmured the most obvious thing without thinking. Being close to Maomao, he understood her actions well.
However, Jinshi thought that this time, it wasn't the case.
Something was visible under the bed.
He crouched down and picked it up. It was a vibrant feather from an exotic bird, one that Jinshi recognized.
"What are you doing?"
A middle-aged woman's voice came from behind.
"Shinryoku!"
The middle-aged lady-in-waiting said. Jinshi looked at her, wondering if she was Shinryoku.
"Why isn't the girl who should be here, here?"
Shinryoku tilted her head at Jinshi's question.
「She's probably run off somewhere again. She should be staying put to rest.»
The physician nodded, stroking his beard in agreement.
「I see.」
Jinshi slowly approached the lady-in-waiting. He gazed steadily into her dark eyes.
「I'm glad to hear she's doing well. Will she be coming back soon?」
The lady-in-waiting blinked once, her lips curving into a smile.
「I think she'll return eventually, but I can't say when. She has such a willful temperament.」
She blinked again and glanced briefly out the window.
「Is that so? She must be putting you all through quite a bit of trouble.」
With that, Jinshi took Shinryoku's hand. He felt her pulse leap wildly.
He stared at her intently, watching for her reaction. A glance behind him revealed the middle-aged lady-in-waiting and the physician both flushed bright red and squirming.
The eunuchs who had accompanied him seemed equally ill at ease.
Even so, Jinshi smiled and leaned close to whisper in Shinryoku's ear.
「So,
the Loulan Consort—
where did you first meet her?」
Shinryoku's pupils dilated for an instant. Then her pulse surged.
The inner palace was rife with lies.
Jinshi had acquired some skill at weeding them out.
The method he had originally used to track down Maomao was much the same.
He lacked the monstrous talent of someone like Luomen, who could assess a person's abilities at a single glance. All Jinshi could do was observe someone carefully and determine whether they were lying or telling the truth.
He had no extraordinary abilities of his own. Still, he had no choice but to soldier on using whatever gifts he did possess.
Shinryoku stared back at Jinshi, eyes wide.
「…It brought back an old memory.」
Shinryoku gazed at Jinshi with a vacant expression.
"Ah, to be called by name in such a gentle voice, I was given a sweet treat from a foreign land."
Tears spilled from her dark green eyes in great, swelling drops.
"Everyone seems to have forgotten what that person looked like in their youth. I heard that in their later years, they were barely recognizable. But look closely — don't you see the resemblance? The voice, the silhouette, those sugar-sweet gestures."
Shinryoku turned to a middle-aged court lady and spoke.
The middle-aged court lady, who moments ago had been flushed red, went completely pale at those words. She recoiled half a step with a sharp gasp, her eyes fixed on Jinshi as though she were looking at something terrifying.
It was the reaction of someone who had suddenly recalled the object of her dread.
Jinshi reached out to ask what had happened. But the court lady covered her face and collapsed to the ground in a crouch.
"That person still won't let us go free."
It happened in the next instant. Blood dribbled from Shinryoku's mouth.
Her tongue was caught between her front teeth, and she was trying to bite it off.
"!?"
Jinshi thrust his hand into Shinryoku's mouth. He tore a strip from his sleeve and stuffed it between her teeth.
A great commotion erupted behind him — the bearded physician had apparently stumbled and fallen in a panic. The eunuchs in attendance hurried over to Jinshi, unsure of what to do, and tied Shinryoku's arms and legs to keep her from thrashing.
The middle-aged court lady was in a state of bewilderment, letting out strange cries, which drew the other court ladies rushing in to see what was going on. They stood frozen, overwhelmed by the unexpected calamity.
"Someone — she's bitten her tongue! Is there anyone who can treat this?!"
A eunuch bawled out the words in Jinshi's place.
The distraught court lady was soothed by the others who had come running.
Only the physician remained, flailing about aimlessly while his beard quivered.
Jinshi handed Shinryoku over to a court lady who had offered to help.
Her mouth packed full of cloth, Shinryoku fixed her dark eyes on Jinshi and stared.
As if asking — why won't you set us free?