Several years before, there had been a woman who had faked a suicide and fled the court.
Her name was Suirei, and she was a member of the Shi clan—which had been annihilated—as well as a granddaughter of the former emperor. As a result of the special circumstances of her birth and her past mistakes, her survival could not be made public, and she currently lived with Ah-Duo.
This young woman had medical knowledge—she and her mentor had devised a drug that could put people into a comatose state and then bring them “back to life.” Among the drug’s ingredients was thornapple.
As for Ah-Duo, she had stepped down from her position as high consort and had left the rear palace, and now she lived in an isolated villa.
I’m not sure I get how it’s different from the rear palace. She just lives somewhere else now, Maomao thought, although she wasn’t about to say it out loud. She was in a carriage, clattering along toward Ah-Duo’s villa.
She heard children’s voices:
“Ha ha ha!”
“Wait for meee!”
They were the children of the Shi clan, whom Ah-Duo harbored along with Suirei. Chou-u, the little troublemaker of the pleasure district, should have been here by all rights as well, but as a side effect of the resurrection drug he had lost his memory, and therefore could walk a different path from these other children. So long as the ones who were here remembered their former clan, they couldn’t go out in public.
You have to take the really, really long view here.
From the perspective of lifespan, Ah-Duo would die before these kids—they would outlive her, assuming they didn’t get sick or seriously injured. Was there someone who could and would look after them until the bitter end, keeping their secret safe all the while?
There were two men with the children—no, two women dressed like men. Ah-Duo and Suirei both frequently dressed in men’s clothing, perhaps because it was easier to move in, or perhaps out of personal preference.
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