This was Chue, nattering away while Maomao rewrapped her bandages. She’d started showing up at the medical office near the training grounds in tandem with Maomao’s reassignment there. The physicians left Chue’s treatment to Maomao, a fellow woman—either because they didn’t want to be examining a married woman too closely, or because Chue could be such a talker when alone with whoever was treating her.
“Not that the Empress Dowager’s faction was going to stand by and watch. So long as Master Lakan was here, the neutral faction acted as a check, and there were no major issues. But! While Master Lakan was away, that delicate balance was upset,” she drawled.
“Ah. Yes. I see.” Maomao lifted Chue’s right arm, palpated it, and so on. Chue could only move her fingers at what could best be described as a tremble.
“And it was no easier for Master Lakan’s camp. It’s terrible—some of them actually changed allegiance to the Empress Dowager’s or the Empress’s factions!”
“About that,” Maomao said, massaging Chue’s arm. “I can’t get over those names. The Empress Dowager’s faction and the Empress’s faction.”
“You’ve met both of those august ladies, haven’t you, Miss Maomao?”
“Yes. And I don’t think either of them is the kind to go out of her way to attack someone, is she? This makes it seem like Empress Gyokuyou and the Empress Dowager are somehow having a fight, and that feels odd.”
The Empress Dowager had freed slaves and built the clinic in the rear palace to create a place for palace ladies with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, the Empress, Gyokuyou, was not the type to sit quietly by if someone picked a fight with her, but she wasn’t specifically bellicose.
“There’s no avoiding it—the families are getting involved,” Chue drawled. “The Empress Dowager’s family can be quite avaricious, you know. You can probably guess that much from the fact that they sent her into the rear palace as a little girl.”
“Yikes...” Maomao worked the pressure points of Chue’s hand, wondering even as she did so if needle treatments were actually effective. Beside her she kept some notes, where she recorded observations about how Chue’s mobility had changed since last time. “So the Empress’s faction is really Master Gyokuen’s faction?” she asked.
“Weeelll, yes, pretty much, but it’s attracted lots of people from the provinces. It always seems to be the folks with central connections who get promoted, so the provincials have hitched their wagon to Master Gyokuen, who’s a meritocrat.”
“But at his age, isn’t the question of inheritance pretty pressing?”
His age had been his excuse for not returning to the western capital upon the death of his eldest son Gyoku-ou, but Maomao had heard it was also because he was laboring to establish a base in the central region.
“Yes, which is why the Empress Dowager’s faction is currently taking aim at exactly that.”
“They’re making a move against the Empress’s faction?” Maomao tilted her head. “It’s not the newcomers, the Empress’s faction, who are making a move against the Empress Dowager’s faction?”
She recalled what the leader of the U clan had said about the new faction not liking him very much.
“No indeed. You know the saying, ‘The nail that sticks up will get pounded down’? Well, the Empress’s faction is the nail. But it’s not so easy to say in this case. Tell me, what do you think about Wang Fang, the guy who was killed in Master Lakan’s office?”
“I think it looks like there’s more to that story.”
“Yep! All three of the court women who conspired to kill him were connected to the Shin clan.”
Lahan said something similar.
She hadn’t gotten him to elaborate on that remark yet, but Chue seemed likely to be more forthcoming.
“You’re suggesting that because Wang Fang belonged to the Empress’s faction, the Empress Dowager’s people killed him and made it look like a crime of passion?” Maomao asked.
“That’s certainly possible—or it might just have been a run-of-the-mill murder.”
“What was Wang Fang looking for?”
“Ooooh, what shall I do here? Okay, I’ll tell you—just because!” Chue whispered in Maomao’s ear: “Wang Fang was supposedly searching for a Shin family heirloom that was said to have disappeared.”
Maomao was careful not to let the shock show on her face.
“Each of the three women had relatives who were friends with the former leader of the Shin clan. Wang Fang was asking around about exactly what shape this heirloom took.”
“An heirloom...” Maomao still thought this could also be connected to Joka’s jade tablet.
Was he looking for an Imperial relative who isn’t on the family tree?
No; if Wang Fang belonged to the Empress’s faction, he didn’t need to finagle himself a convenient royal. Something didn’t make sense here. Maomao let go of Chue’s hand, feeling as if she only had more questions than before.
“Ohhh! My poor wound aches!” Chue said and rubbed her hand demonstratively, evidently angling for more massage.
“We have to call it here for today. I have other work to do,” Maomao said.
“You’re no fun.”
When Maomao left the room, she found a tall court lady holding a basket.
Okay. I’m pretty sure that’s...
It was the newcomer with the short name. She was dressed rather thoroughly, perhaps to avoid showing any skin.
“I got the herbs you asked for,” she said.
“Great.”
The basket was full of them. This young lady—as well as the other newcomer, Changsha—was being put to a great deal of work by various departments while they were still new.
“Could you hang on for a second?” Maomao asked, checking the contents of the basket against her notes about what she had ordered. “Let’s see... Rhubarb root, spatterdock, cinnamon...” All of which could contribute to treating bruises. “That’s everything. No problems.”
Maomao took the basket and was going to put the herbs in the medicine cabinet immediately, but the new girl showed no sign of leaving.
“Miss Maomao, Miss Maomao! She’s looking at you like she wants to say something!” Chue—who had also not left—said, nudging her.
“Is there anything else you need?” Maomao asked.
“I heard from Yao and En’en that you run an apothecary shop in the city, Maomao,” the new girl said with utmost gravity.
“I do...”
“Then, is there any chance you know about this man—another apothecary? I think he’s been running an apothecary shop or serving as a doctor in the capital the past several years.”
“A man who became an apothecary? I know a few of those.”
Her own pupil was among them.
“Y-You do?!”
“Uh-huh. His name is Sazen, and he works at an apothecary shop in the pleasure district.”
“Sazen... Pleasure district... Do you think it could be a false name? Does he look, you know, like he has a story?!”
Maomao paused. The girl was acting a little funny. Maybe Maomao had been wrong to give Sazen’s name so easily.
Come to think of it, he did escape from the confusion of the Shi clan affair.
It could be bad news if it was discovered that he’d been involved in that. He was a decent guy, and anyway, she’d worked hard on him. She didn’t want to have to find yet another new apothecary.
Another question: Why did this girl want to find a man serving as an apothecary?
“I’m begging you! Let me meet this Sazen person!” The new girl grabbed Maomao’s collar and shook vigorously.
“Er... But...”
“If you won’t tell me where he is, I’ll find him myself! You said he was in the pleasure district!”
Definitely shouldn’t have said that.
There weren’t that many apothecaries in the pleasure district. The new girl would find Sazen without much trouble.
“Miss Maomao, Miss Maomao, why don’t you just take her there?”
“Miss Chue, Miss Chue, I don’t think this is any of your business.”
“Hoo hoo hoo! Miss Chue will go with you. She’s got time to kill now that she’s been let go from her old job.” Chue chortled merrily.
Maomao groaned and wondered what to do. The new girl still hadn’t let go of her.