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They definitely get along.
Maomao didn’t really need Lihaku for anything, but he’d come with them anyway. Actually, it was helpful: She might have had trouble wrangling Basen on her own.
“Ujun probably couldn’t say anything under the circumstances,” Lihaku said. “If he’s not careful, a bunch of hot-blooded soldiers will turn him into a punching bag. The weak learn that sometimes you have to toady to get by.”
“You’re standing up for that coward?” Basen asked, glaring at Lihaku. Well, his glare was more of a pout at this point; he wasn’t really angry.
“You know Master Ujun, Master Lihaku?” Maomao asked.
“He does technically serve under me. He got stuck here even though he was originally in the civil service. I mean, after his family fell.”
“No wonder he looks so feeble.” Ujun wasn’t a bean sprout, exactly, but seemed more suited to holding a brush than a sword.
“Right? Toss a guy like that in with the soldiers, and he’s going to be in trouble. Worst-case scenario, he gets so cornered that he kills himself. They say that’s why they assigned him to me—even if it does mean more for me to deal with.”
Lihaku was good at looking after people; he would take the minimum of care for his men.
“His name’s Ujun, so he has that U character, but he hasn’t actually been acknowledged as a member of the main house of the U family. His dad was an adopted son and just went way too far. He brought a concubine into the main house and tormented his daughter who belonged to the main bloodline so badly that she had to abandon the world. And on top of that, he brought down the family name. No way they can let his concubine’s son inherit.”
“You know quite a lot about this.”
The head of the U clan referred to Ujun only as Jun.
“Got to know at least a little something about your subordinates. His dad, Uryuu—when his father-in-law retired early because he was sick, Uryuu took it as an opportunity to just do whatever he wanted, I guess. Even if Ujun didn’t do anything wrong, he was destined to be a lightning rod.”
Unlike Maomao, Lihaku was very put-together. He was physically strong and had a decent head on his shoulders. Leave out the fact that he was lavishing his money on a courtesan and he was nearly perfect—but for her sister Pairin’s sake, Maomao hoped he wouldn’t give up his brothel habit.
“Sounds like the head of the U clan, Lady Lishu’s grandfather, has adopted a boy from one of his relatives and is raising him. Tough job for an old body, but I guess he doesn’t think he can trust his son-in-law another inch.”
“I guess not.” Maomao nodded, impressed by Lihaku’s range of information.
“You know about that?” Lihaku asked.
“I saw him at the meeting of the named recently. A boy, less than ten years old, right?”
“Yeah, that’s him. At his age, I guess they’re not planning to marry him off to Lady Lishu.”
You can never say never...
The Ma clan was an example of that. Gaoshun and his wife Taomei were six years apart, and Taomei was the older. The leader of the U had said, however, that he had no such intentions. Basen’s face had gone from red to pale and now resumed its normal color.
“Y’know, I think he feels so bad about his granddaughter being so poorly treated for so long that the only thing he really wants right now is to make her happy,” said Lihaku. “I heard he was trying to find a decent family to match her with.”
That’s something else I know about.
Lihaku was licking the salt from the crackers off his fingers. Maomao only wished she had brought more of them.
Lihaku turned to Basen. “You know anything about this, buddy?”
“Wh-Who, me? No! Not a thing.”
“Oh, really?”
Basen was a terrible liar. Cornered by Lihaku, he fretted, then groaned, then started to squirm.
Looks like this could go on for a while.
Maomao wrote as she listened. She phrased her report carefully, mostly drawing on Basen’s account.
“I have to admit, I’m surprised, Master Lihaku. I always thought you would look down on weaklings.”
“I can’t speak for the U clan, but I can’t help but feel for the guy.”
“How can you say that?!” Basen burst out. “He did nothing but disrespect his half-sister, a full member of his family’s bloodline, until she had no choice but to retire to a convent, and even now he lets people speak ill of her without batting an eye! I should have given him a knuckle sandwich to remember me by too!”
“Okay, okay,” Maomao said without quite meaning to. “Ujun may be a bit evasive, but he didn’t do anything himself.”
“That’s the worst kind of man!”
By keeping things ambiguous, he gave his conversation partner the widest scope for interpretation. That way, even if someone got it into their head to cause a problem, Ujun would be a distant cause at best, not at fault and not in trouble.
“He’s just keeping his own hands clean,” Basen said.
“Hmm. I guess you’re right,” said Lihaku. As Ujun’s superior, Lihaku effectively found himself defending the young man, but he still had his qualms. “Maybe I’ll remind him not to try to play too many sides at once.”
“Good point. Though it might be his only way to get by.” It was a tough balance to strike, Maomao reflected.
Basen still didn’t look pleased. “You’re saying he has to do it to get by?”
“Ninety-nine point nine percent of people aren’t as strong as you, Master Basen. Give Lady Lishu any weapon you like; could she fend off a stray dog? Or do you think she should stand her ground no matter how weak she is, even if she might get injured or killed?”
“Urgh... But that guy is supposed to be a man!”
“Ujun is much more like Lady Lishu than he is like Lady Taomei—who, I remind you, is a woman. They share half their ‘ingredients,’ as it were.”
“Don’t go talking about ingredients, little lady,” Lihaku said grimly. Then he said, “Anyway, Ujun may not look like much, but he’s stronger than you’d think. He’s real good at not making enemies.”
“That’s true,” said Maomao.
“Weak folk have their own way of getting along.”
“You mean by ‘not making enemies’?” Basen asked.
Lihaku made a triangle with his fingers. “You’re half right, half wrong. It’s about making the other person think they can’t be your enemy. The little lady here does it all the time.”
“I do not do that.”
“There she goes again!” Lihaku pounded Maomao on the back. She quickly lifted her brush off the page lest her characters run every which way.
“He’s like Maomao? All the more reason we should be careful of him, then,” Basen said earnestly.
What do you mean by that?
Maomao was incensed but continued to write. Perhaps she should have stayed focused on one or the other: She found she’d miswritten a word.