Maomao headed back to the dormitory, her first day of work at the clinic over.
“Hullo, Miss Maomao!”
“Hullo, Miss Chue.”
Maomao understood why Chue was there, and when the other woman beckoned, Maomao followed her. As she expected, a carriage was waiting, and she was to get on.
“Who’s summoning me today?” she asked. It was presumably either Jinshi or Ah-Duo.
“The Moon Prince today,” Chue drawled. “Also, there’s someone already in there, so have fun!”
“Someone already in there?”
A pair of eyes goggled out at Maomao from the carriage window.
“Hullo, Niangniang!”
(No reply from Maomao.)
It was Tianyu.
She could think of only one reason Jinshi might call for her and Tianyu.
Is this about Kada’s Book?! she thought, nearly breaking into a giant grin. Among Tianyu’s ancestors was a physician who, although a member of the Imperial family, had committed an unpardonable crime. Just the other day, they had found the book this ancestor had left behind.
He did say they were repairing it...
Maomao bounced along in the carriage, barely able to contain herself. Before she knew it, she was even humming.
“Is it just me, or does Niangniang seem kind of...creepy today?” Tianyu asked.
“Now, now, you mustn’t say such things,” Chue drawled. “Didn’t the neighborhood uncles ever tell you that?”
“Dr. Liu has definitely gotten mad at me a few times.”
They were having a huddled conversation, but it was very much in character for them that they made sure to have it loud enough that Maomao could hear them.
Say what you want, she thought. Her head was too full of Kada’s Book to care about anything else. What might be written in it?
“Okay, from here, we walk,” Chue said. The carriage had stopped, but not in front of Jinshi’s palace. “We’ll be in here today!”
They were somewhere near Jinshi’s office. Outside of work hours, Maomao was usually shown to his pavilion, and it had been a long time since she’d come to his office.
“Hey, Niangniang, what are you doing these days?” Tianyu asked, obnoxious as ever. In fact, though, Maomao had exactly the same question.
What’s he doing these days?
If he’d passed the selection examination, he had presumably received reassignment just like she had.
“What about you?” she shot back. “What are you doing?”
“Take a guess.”
Tianyu showed her the palms of his hands. Maomao studied them intently; Chue imitated her.
I see calluses.
Just as those who wielded the sword could develop calluses on their hands, so, too, could those who wielded the brush get them on their fingers. Tianyu’s calluses, however, probably came not from a brush but from a scalpel.
The pad of his pointer finger is red.
A red line ran down the side of the finger, showing that he had been holding a scalpel for a very long time.
Doctors used scalpels when cutting skin. Had he been performing autopsies?
No, I don’t think so.
Tianyu’s eyes had gone beyond shining to outright sparkling, like those of a cat who had finally spotted a flesh-and-blood rat instead of a toy fluff ball.
“Are you operating on living people?” she asked.
“Wooooh!”
His reaction suggested she was correct.
Maomao wasn’t sure they should be discussing surgery right in front of Chue, but it was probably useless to try to hide anything from her, and besides, she had to suspect that doctors did that kind of thing. Maomao decided to just go ahead and entertain the subject.
She thought she could see how this worked: Patients whose condition was not helped by the drug trials were moved on to surgery.
“Are you cutting them open and removing the filth?” she asked.
“Have you learned to read minds since I saw you last, Niangniang?” Tianyu asked, a theatrical expression of befuddlement on his face. It was not as cute as he thought it was. Chue was doing the same, but at least with her it was sort of cute.
The conversation had taken them almost to the doorstep of Jinshi’s office.
Wow, this really takes me back.
Maomao saw hallway windows that she had polished the hell out of when she was Jinshi’s serving maid. And she’d had more than a few tussles with other palace ladies there.
There were no officials in the halls now; it was almost dark.
Now that I think about it, this is the same office he had back when he was a “eunuch.”
She was only now realizing. She might have expected him to find a new place once it was public knowledge that he was the Emperor’s younger brother, but not so. The current location was just too convenient.
Two guards stood outside the office. Chue greeted them, and they stepped away from the door in an unspoken command to enter.
“Hellooo! Pardon me?” Tianyu called as he entered the office. The gravity of the moment didn’t seem to have any impact on his attitude.
Maomao, meanwhile, tried to steady her breathing as she entered the room. I have to calm down. I don’t know for sure that this is about Kada’s Book.
As soon as she saw who was inside, however, any thought of remaining calm fled her mind. This was more than enough reason to get agitated, although it had nothing to do with Kada’s Book.
“It’s been much too long,” said the other person in the room. He was a young man, not yet twenty years old, who bowed his head in a show of humility. His deferential attitude might be enough to fool some people, but his name was violent and beastly: Hulan, which meant “tiger and wolf.”
Maomao had half a mind to send a flying kick straight into him, and her body was already nearly moving, but Chue took her firmly by the hand. “Dignity, Miss Maomao, dignity,” she advised. “I know how you feel, I really do, but we must comport ourselves properly.”
Chue was very strong; even with one hand she could keep Maomao firmly in place.
“Just an arm. Just one arm,” Maomao begged. If she could just break one of his limbs...
“That’s not dignified,” Chue repeated. “Let’s at least wait for a moonless night.”
Hulan was the reason Maomao had been chased all over I-sei Province and ultimately nearly killed by bandits. And Chue had as much reason to hold a grudge against him as Maomao did: It was because of him that she had lost the use of her arm.
“I must say, you’re both looking very frightening tonight,” Hulan said. The complete lack of venom in his smile made him all the more grating. Maomao’s hackles went up and she gave him a threatening look.
“Ha ha ha! You’re even less popular than I am!” Tianyu chortled. Evidently he actually was bothered by the general distaste people had for him.
Maomao had had to see Hulan on the hunt the other day, and she was aggravated to now find him here in Jinshi’s office.
“So you’ve arrived,” said Jinshi, who was seated in a chair waiting for them. Basen stood beside him as his bodyguard. A curtain, otherwise out of place, hung across a corner of the room, meaning Baryou must be with them as well.
“Good evening, Moon Prince. Incidentally, I believe there’s someone present who has no business being here. Do you not see fit to chase them out immediately?” Maomao asked with her most humble attitude.
“You don’t mean me, do you?” Tianyu said, pointing at himself. Sadly, no; today, she did not mean him. There was someone even worse than Tianyu there.
“Why, whomever do you mean?” Hulan asked, looking innocent.
“Now, now, you must be able to see things objectively. Shall I bring you a mirror?” Chue said, backing Maomao up.
“Miss Chue, Miss Chue, I have a mirror,” Maomao said, taking a small bronze plate from the folds of her robes.
“I should have known you would be prepared, Miss Maomao.”
Jinshi watched this exchange with exasperation. “I fully understand what you’re trying to say, believe me, I do, but as I’ve told you before, this man is capable. So just live with it. Also, I’d rather he be where I can keep an eye on him.”
“Wait...is it moi you’ve been talking about all this time?” Hulan put on his surprised face. His features were young and cute; they were the only cute thing about him.
Jinshi got a bit of a faraway look in his eyes. Hulan was, after all, publicly the younger brother of the ruler of the western capital, so Jinshi couldn’t afford to ditch him outright.
“I’m sorry, but I have no time to chat with people who might as well be animals. Could we get straight to the point?” Maomao asked, collecting herself. “And incidentally, what is the point? I know it’s got to be the...you know. You know.”
“It looks like you don’t need any help from me to imagine why I might have called you here,” Jinshi said. “But in any case, calm down and have a seat.” He made a motion as if gesturing to a dog to sit.
Maomao seated herself on the couch, although she fidgeted furiously. Tianyu sat down too, and Chue planted herself between them.
“Why are you sitting, Miss Chue?” Maomao asked.
“Miss Chue is putting herself on the line—it’s very valiant of her,” Chue said and winked broadly at Jinshi. He didn’t say anything, but he nodded at her.
There were no palace ladies present, so Hulan made tea. Maomao folded her legs to one side and made it her business to look annoyed. She glowered at the tea he gave her and gave it a good sniff, making sure there was no poison in it.
“You’re not being very polite, Niangniang,” Tianyu said, adding dramatically, “That’s not very nice.”
“I’m simply behaving as befits the person I’m interacting with,” she replied. Tianyu was hardly comporting himself with the formality one might have expected before Jinshi. He seemed to have the same attitude as Maomao: that if Hulan could be permitted so much, then so could they.