There was the young man with his inhuman beauty and his
perpetual, divine smile. Even the way he sat on the cloth-draped
sofa in the sitting room was elegant.
What's he want today? Maomao thought. Her cold detachment
was not shared by the three ladies-in-waiting who blushed and
bustled off to make tea for the guest. Maomao could hear them
arguing in the next room over who would have the honor of
preparing it. Finally, an exasperated Hongniang made the drink
herself, sending the other three ladies back to their rooms. They
went with their shoulders slumped, the very picture of dejection.
Maomao, the food taster, picked up the silver teacup and gave
it a delicate sniff before taking a mouthful of tea. Jinshi had been
watching her this entire time, and it made her fidgety. She
squinted so she wouldn't have to meet his eyes. Most young
women would have been quite satisfied to have the attention of
such a fine man, even if he was a eunuch. But not Maomao. She
didn't much share the interests of the common run of people, so
even if she acknowledged intellectually that Jinshi was intensely
beautiful, she still watched him at a remove.
"Someone gave me some treats. Would you be so kind as to
taste them, too?"
Jinshi indicated a basket filled with baozi. Maomao took one of
the buns and pulled it open, discovering a filling of minced meat
and vegetables. She took a sniff; it had a faintly medicinal odor
she recognized. It was the same as the stamina booster from the
other day.
"An aphrodisiac," she said.
"You can tell without tasting it?"
"It's not harmful to speak of. Go ahead and take them home
with you. Enjoy them."
"I don't think I could, knowing who they came from."
"Indeed. I think you might have a visitor this evening."Maomao made sure to sound downright nonchalant. Jinshi, who
had clearly not expected this reaction, looked at a loss. He was
just lucky she didn't give him her staring-at-a-worm look. Giving
her a bun to taste when he knew there was an aphrodisiac in it!
There remained the question of who had given him the baozi.
Consort Gyokuyou laughed to overhear their conversation, her
voice like the tinkling of a bell. Princess Lingli slept peacefully at
her feet.
Maomao bowed and made to leave the room.
"Just a moment, if you please."
"Do you need something further, sir?"
Jinshi and Gyokuyou shared a look, then nodded at each other.
It seemed they had already discussed whatever was going on—
and it involved Maomao.
"Perhaps you could make a love potion."
For just an instant, Maomao's eyes lit up with a mixture of
surprise and curiosity. What's that supposed to mean?
She couldn't imagine what they wanted with such a thing, but
the subject was one she would be more than happy to entertain.
Forcing herself not to smile, she replied, "I need three things:
tools, materials, and time."
Could she make a love potion? Oh, yes. Yes, she could.
⭘⬤⭘
Jinshi wondered what was the matter. His eyebrows furrowed
like drooping willow branches, and he crossed his arms. Jinshi was
a person of such beauty that some said if he had only been born
a woman, he could have had the country under his thumb;
indeed, it was held that had he wished to, he could have
convinced the very Emperor to affirm that gender meant nothing.
But such "praise" brought him no pleasure.
Today as he went about the rear palace, he had once again
found himself the object of something like catcalls, by one of the
middle-ranked consorts and two of the lower-ranked ones, and
even by two separate male officials in the palace, one military and
one bureaucratic. The military official had even given him dim
sum laced with a stamina tonic, so Jinshi decided to forgo his
rounds tonight and retire to his rooms in the palace instead. Hewasn't slacking off; it was for his own protection.
He quickly noted some names on the scroll lying open on his
desk—the names of the consorts who had called out to him today.
Even if she had scant visits from the Emperor, it was awfully
audacious of a woman to try to invite another man into her
bedchamber. Jinshi's list was not an official report, but he
suspected they would be even less likely to receive an Imperial
visit after this.
He wondered how many of the little birds trapped in this cage
understood that his own beauty was a testing stone for the
women of the rear palace. Women were chosen to be consorts
based first and foremost on family background, but beauty and
intelligence played their part, too. Compared to the first two
qualities, intelligence was trickier to measure. They also needed
an upbringing befitting a mother to the nation, and of course they
must be of chaste outlook.
The Emperor, in a nasty little tweak, had made Jinshi the
standard for selecting his consorts. It was in fact Jinshi who had
recommended both Gyokuyou and Lihua. Gyokuyou was
thoughtful and perceptive. Lihua was more emotional, but
possessed unimpeachable manners. And both had unquestioned
loyalty to His Majesty, without a shadow of untoward feelings.
Consort Lihua, though, now seemed to have no place in His
Majesty's adoration.
The Emperor might have been Jinshi's master, but he was also,
in Jinshi's estimation, terrible. He set up concubines purely based
on their usefulness to him and the country, got them pregnant,
and then when the children showed no aptitudes, he would cut
them loose.
In the future, Jinshi surmised, the Imperial affection would
continue to incline ever more toward Gyokuyou. The death of the
young prince had marked the Emperor's final visit to Lihua, who
now seemed as insubstantial as a ghost. Lihua was not the only
consort for whom it seemed His Majesty no longer had any need.
Those women would be quietly returned to their homes at an
opportune moment, or else gifted as wives to various officials.
Jinshi pulled a particular paper out of his pile. It referred to a
middle consort of the Upper Fourth rank, Fuyou by name. She hadjust been promised in marriage to the leader of the assault on the
barbarian tribe in recognition of his military valor. Truth be told,
they were less appreciative of the man's energetic destruction of
the enemy than of his restraining certain short-tempered elements
among his own troops. That a certain small village had been
blamed and punished for something it hadn't done was not a fact
that had been made public. Such was politics.
"Now then, I wonder if it will all go well."
If everything went just as he had calculated in his head, there
would be no problems. He might have to lean on the chilly
apothecary to help him out with a few things, though. She had
turned out to be even more useful than he'd expected.
She wasn't the only one who showed no special desire for him,
but she was the first to regard him as though she were looking at
a worm. She seemed to think she hid the feeling well, but the
disdain was clear on her face.
Jinshi smiled in spite of himself. That smile, like nectar from
heaven, some said, contained just a hint of something mean in it.
He wasn't a masochist as such, but he found the girl's reaction
intriguing. He felt like a child with a brand-new toy.
"Yes, where will this all lead?"
Jinshi placed the papers under a weight and decided to go to
sleep. He made sure to lock his door in case he should have any
uninvited visitors during the night.
⭘⬤⭘
People spoke of "cure-alls," but in fact there was no medicine
that would cure all. Her father had always insisted as much, but
Maomao had admittedly gone through a phase in which she had
rejected his claim. She had wanted to create a medicine that
could work on anyone, for any condition. That was what had led
her to inflict those ugly wounds on herself, and had indeed
resulted in the creation of some new medicines, but a true
panacea remained nothing more than a dream.
As much as she hated to admit it, the story Jinshi brought her
was enough to pique Maomao's interest. Since arriving in the rear
palace, she'd been unable to make much more than sweet
amacha tea. To her surprise, a variety of medicinal herbs did growon the grounds of the rear palace, but she lacked the implements
necessary to make proper use of them, and trying to do anything
with them would have attracted undesirable attention in her
crowded quarters anyway, so she forced herself to leave the
plants alone.
This was what she liked best about having her own room. Now
she just needed excuses to go gather ingredients—laundry was a
convenient one. She suspected Hongniang would soon see to it
that Maomao was entrusted with all the washing.
Now she arrived at the room she had been told was the
doctor's, ostensibly to deliver clean laundry. She entered the room
to discover the lamentable quack himself along with the eunuch
who so frequently accompanied Jinshi. The doctor had a
mustache that made him look like a loach fish, which he stroked
as he gave Maomao an appraising glance. He seemed to be
wondering what this petite young woman was doing on his turf.
I'll thank you not to stare so hard at a young lady, Maomao
thought.
The eunuch, by comparison, was as polite as if Maomao were
his own master, ushering her gracefully into the room. When
Maomao saw the space, surrounded by medicine cabinets on
three sides, she was overcome by the biggest smile she'd smiled
since coming to the rear palace. Her cheeks flushed, her eyes
brimmed, and her lips went from a thin, implacable line to a
gentle arch.
The eunuch looked at her in surprise, but what did she care?
She gazed at the labels on the drawers, doing a sort of little
dance when she spotted an especially unusual pharmaceutical.
The joy was simply too much to keep inside.
"Is she under some sort of spell?" Maomao had been indulging
this rapture for a good half an hour, unaware that Jinshi had
appeared in the room. He watched her with a mixture of curiosity
and sheer bewilderment.
Maomao went row by row, collecting any ingredients she might
be able to use. Each one went into a separate baggie, the name
written carefully on the package. In an era when most writing was
still done on rolls of wood strips, such extensive use of paper wasa luxury. The loach-mustached doctor came peeking into the
room, wondering who or what was in there, but the eunuch
closed the door on him. The eunuch's name, Maomao learned,
was Gaoshun. He had a steady countenance and a well-built body,
and if he hadn't been here in the rear palace, she would certainly
have taken him for some sort of military official. He appeared to
be Jinshi's aide, and was often seen in his company.
Gaoshun politely fetched any medicines that were in drawers
too high for Maomao to reach. His superior, meanwhile, did
nothing. Maomao maintained a neutral expression but privately
wished that if he wasn't going to make himself useful, he would
go away.
Maomao spotted a familiar name on one of the topmost
drawers and craned her neck for a better look. Gaoshun passed
the stuff to her, and she looked at it in wonder. Several small
seeds rested in the palm of her hand. They were exactly what she
needed, but there weren't enough of them.
"I need more of these."
"Then we shall simply get them," the indolent eunuch said with
an indulgent smile. As if it were so easy.
"They're from all the way in the west, then farther west, then
south."
"Trade's the thing. We'll check the goods that come in, and I
suspect we'll find some." Jinshi took one of the seeds between his
fingers. It resembled the seed of an apricot, but had a unique
aroma. "What is it called?"
"Cacao," Maomao replied.