The tall new girl proved tenacious. Maomao finally had to admit defeat, and agreed to meet her on a day they were both off work. They were from different departments, and there were plenty more of these new court ladies where this girl had come from. It was easier than trying to schedule a break with Yao and En’en.
“I’m Yo. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the new girl said to Chue, who was there just as she’d promised. It was a very helpful introduction, since Maomao still didn’t remember the girl’s name.
Yo was less talkative than Changsha, the other new girl. Maomao tended to be a passive partner in conversations anyway, so silence naturally prevailed between them.
If we weren’t going to say anything, maybe we should have just met in the pleasure district.
Instead they had decided to meet at the dorm and walk—and the entire trip went by in silence. It was quite a ways from the dorm to the pleasure quarter, but Maomao, characteristically, still felt it would be a waste to get a carriage. She came from poverty—it was a hard mindset to change.
I guess I couldn’t ask a young woman to walk around alone in the pleasure quarter.
Maybe she could have had Chue come with them, but instead she would meet them at the Verdigris House. Unlike Maomao, who had been born and raised there, a decent girl wandering around the pleasure district alone was liable to get attacked. Maomao could put up with a little awkwardness.
As they went down the main streets, past the willows swaying by the canal, and finally past the small street stalls, the kinds of people they saw began to change.
Maomao and Yo went through a towering, shimmering gate. Guards standing on either side gave them a sharp look as they passed. Maomao recognized one of them, so she waved to him.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said with a nod. “What, playing procurer now, Xiaomao?” He gave Yo an appraising glance.
“I’m not here to sell anyone!” Maomao replied.
Yo looked intimidated by the exchange. She gave Maomao a doubtful stare, but Maomao really wasn’t going to sell anybody into prostitution. She wished Yo would just relax.
Truthfully, though, an ignorant laywoman passing through the gate to the pleasure district could only be heading in to sell herself.
The air was thick with exotic perfumes and languid sighs. There were prostitutes seeing off customers heading home in the morning, apprentices bringing in the lanterns for the day, and pet birds singing from second-floor windows.
They walked down the district’s main thoroughfare—Maomao like she belonged there, Yo like she was very frightened.
“Try to walk straight ahead and keep your eyes forward,” Maomao said. “If anyone grabs your hand, shout as loud as you can.”
“Y-Yeah... Okay...”
After a bit more walking, they arrived at the Verdigris House.
“Oh! Maomao. Been a while.” Ukyou, the head of the menservants, greeted her. He was a good-natured character who had served the establishment a long time, and helped keep an eye on Sazen and Chou-u. “Interceding for another young lady? I hope she’s less trouble than the last one.”
“I’m not selling her,” Maomao growled again. Yo continued to look worried.
Why should they assume that Maomao was here to sell off any young girl she brought along? The “last one” who had been so much trouble was Zulin’s Sister—who’d indeed been up to no good the last time Maomao had visited. She wondered if the madam’s discipline had had any effect on the girl.
“And how is our troublesome friend doing?” she asked.
“Keeping her nose clean for now. She knows she’s not going to find another brothel that’ll take her in with her sister.”
Evidently, Zulin’s Sister was not such a fool that she couldn’t do the math. The old madam might be a miser, but few places were as well-off as the Verdigris House.
Yo was looking at them uncomfortably, but Maomao still had another question for Ukyou.
“Did they ever find that thief?”
She meant the one who had been Zulin’s Sister’s customer before breaking into Joka’s room.
“Yeah, they found him. An acrobat, spends most of his time earning small change by doing stunts. No way he had enough money to actually patronize the Verdigris House.”
“So what was he doing here?”
“Someone else must have put him up to it. Asked him to break into the brothel and steal something they were after.”
“And the person who commissioned him?”
“Haven’t found them. The acrobat was a lizard’s tail, you might say.” Ukyou held up his hands in defeat.
Anything else would be outside of our jurisdiction.
Well, nothing to be done, then. Maomao came back to the main point. “All right, is Sazen around? I wanted to see him.”
“Hmmm, not yet. This time of day, I think he might be in the field out back.”
“Thanks.”
Yo, still looking intimidated, followed Maomao toward the field. “U-Uh, he looked like he probably outranked you. Was it really okay to talk to him like that?” she asked anxiously. Maomao admitted that she didn’t speak to Ukyou with any unique respect. But she’d been on conversational terms with him for so long, if she started talking deferentially now, he’d only laugh at her. If anything, he would probably try to stop her from making him seem important.
“It’s not really a question of what’s okay. That’s how I was raised. The way I talk in the palace, I do that because it’s for work.”
“For work.”
Since Maomao accepted that she was at a job in the palace, she tended to be careful to speak politely to everyone, whether they were older or younger than she was. It was easier than risking a lapse into uncouth language.
They went around the back of the Verdigris House. In the field near the old shack where Maomao used to live was a man of middling build. “There he is,” Maomao said (politely). Then she called, “Heeeey, Sazen!”
She gave a big wave, and Sazen slowly worked his way upright. He’d been harvesting garlic. In addition to taking the edge off fatigue, it could serve as a vitality enhancer, so it was an essential herb around the pleasure district. Plus, a big, fat bulb of garlic was delicious in cooking.
“What is it? Here to check the inventory?” he called back.
“No—I brought someone who wants to meet you.” Maomao presented him with Yo.
“Me?” Sazen’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t seem to recognize her.
Yo didn’t look any more impressed than he did. “Uh, who is this person?” she asked.
Maomao glowered at her. “A somehow shady-seeming man who’s been an apothecary here for a few years now.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m being insulted?” Sazen said, staring at Maomao.
“That’s not him. I mean a shady-looking man! He’s lanky and has a handsome face, but half of it is covered and you can never quite tell what he’s thinking.”
“Why do I get the feeling I’m being called not handsome?”
Maomao pointedly ignored Sazen’s questions. Instead she stroked her chin and tilted her head. “Sazen... Is you-know-who here?”
“You know, it just so happens he is.”
Maomao looked into the shed.
“Phwooo! Something up? Sazen?” came a sleepy and altogether unguarded voice.
A pretty-boy type with half his face covered emerged from the shed, yawning. He didn’t look like much; his belt wasn’t even tied properly. They could catch glimpses of his loincloth.