The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 6 - Chapter Pr

Character Profiles

Maomao

An apothecary in the pleasure district. Downright obsessed with medicines and poisons. Nineteen years old. Daughter of a courtesan and the military strategist Lakan.

Jinshi

Played the part of a eunuch in the rear palace, but his true identity is the Emperor’s younger brother. Inhumanly beautiful. Real name: Ka Zuigetsu. Twenty years old.

Basen

Gaoshun’s son; Jinshi’s attendant. Can be almost helplessly earnest, but in battle there’s no one you’d rather have at your side.

Lakan

Maomao’s father. The freak strategist; the monocled freak; the old bastard. (All nicknames Maomao uses for him.)

Lahan

Maomao’s cousin and Lakan’s adopted son. Big on numbers.

Luomen

Maomao’s adoptive father; Lakan’s uncle. An extremely accomplished physician, but seems to have more than his share of bad luck and unhappiness.

Consort Lishu

One of the Emperor’s four most favored consorts. Very young and still timid. Sixteen years old.

Ah-Duo

Formerly one of the Emperor’s four favored consorts. A handsome woman who dresses in men’s clothing.

Empress Gyokuyou

The Emperor’s legal wife. Hails from the west. Daughter of Gyokuen. An exotic beauty with red hair and green eyes.

The Madam

The old lady who runs the Verdigris House, the brothel where Maomao operates. A real miser.

The Three Princesses

Pairin, Meimei, and Joka. The three most popular courtesans at the Verdigris House.

Chou-u

A child survivor of the Shi clan. He’s partially paralyzed and has lost his memories. A talented artist.

Ukyou

Chief manservant of the Verdigris House. He’s of medium build and doesn’t immediately stand out, but his considerate nature makes him popular among the courtesans.

Sazen

A former farmer who fled to the capital after the Shi rebellion. Currently in training as an apothecary.

Zulin

An apprentice at the Verdigris House. Unable to talk. Chou-u’s henchman.

Gyokuen

Empress Gyokuyou’s father. An official who ranks high enough to hold the western capital, but still hasn’t received a family name from the Emperor.

Uryuu

Consort Lishu’s father. He raised Lishu, but never loved her.

Prologue

Jinshi stared at the crackling brazier. It was going to be another cold night. Basen put some more coals on the fire.

It got bitterly cold in the western capital after the sun went down. The whiplash change from the heat of the day might be enough to make some people take ill. Not Jinshi—he wasn’t used to nights in this sandy region, exactly, but at the moment he preferred the chill.

Jinshi was resting on a couch, a melancholy expression on his face. On the table in front of him, a cup of citrus-and-honey cut with hot water sat untouched. He was thirsty, but he couldn’t bring himself to drink it. He didn’t want to relinquish the sensation that still lingered on his lips.

He let his fingers brush across his mouth, as if to confirm for himself what had touched them just an hour before. His body was possessed by a combination of heat and gloom that wouldn’t seem to go away.

He could still see it when he closed his eyes: her face looking down at him, the stars above the only light. He hadn’t been able to see her well, and yet it seemed to him he could remember her so clearly. Her eyes, usually languid, were dim, but her mouth glistened warm and moist. A thread dangled from the moistness, and then fell away. It was over, Jinshi saw with a combination of disappointment and relief.

And then the regret.

His partner was well within her comfort zone. She never blushed, nor looked away in embarrassment. Only stared calmly, coldly down at the man beneath her, then licked her lips, sucking in the thread of saliva. She wasn’t savoring the afterglow, but simply eliminating all traces, as if it had never happened. Her small body bestrode Jinshi’s, easily twice her size, her hand placed over his heart. She could feel his heartbeat, but he couldn’t feel hers.

What did she think, feeling the way it raced and pounded?

It was obvious at a glance. The wind caught her hair, sending ripples through it. Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at him. Her alluring lips arched. “My, my. Done already?” she seemed to ask, although she said nothing. Her smile made clear how much she still had left in her.

It meant he had lost.

Jinshi’s shoulders slumped at the memory. He had tried to make some riposte, but the apothecary girl had simply said “Pardon me” and left as if nothing had happened. She claimed she heard her cousin calling; it was like she had nothing more to do here. She would have been more emotional about a dog bite. Or a mosquito bite.

Jinshi heaved a sigh as he returned to reality.

“I knew it, sir. You’re not feeling well, are you?” said his attendant, Basen. If Jinshi said he was feeling fine, Basen would only press him about whether something had happened. And if he said he was indeed feeling unwell, Basen would probably take it upon himself to nurse Jinshi back to health and never leave the room.

There were moments when Jinshi wished to be alone—he always wondered why Basen hadn’t inherited his father Gaoshun’s intuition for that. The young man could be a bit dense.

Jinshi wasn’t the only one who felt out of sorts that day, though. Basen seemed different from usual as well. His cheeks were redder than normal—not like he had suddenly gotten excellent circulation, but more like he was excited about something. Maybe it was fighting that lion. A bandage was wrapped around his right hand, the hand that had been holding the iron bar. It was swollen; when the apothecary girl had spotted the ugly appendage, she’d declared, “It’s broken” and promptly begun to check him over, but inside she probably had questions about the obtuse young man.

“You look more tired than I do today, Basen. You ought to go get some rest.”

“By no means, sir; not after what just happened. Who knows if they might try something else?” he said earnestly. Jinshi really, really wished he would take a hint.

Jinshi picked up the honey-water, but didn’t drink it, just let it warm his hands. Even if he’d changed into his sleepwear and gone to bed, Basen probably still wouldn’t have left. There was another couch in the room with a cushion that could double as a pillow if need be.

Jinshi couldn’t sleep, and it seemed Basen couldn’t either. Was it the adrenaline of fighting a large animal—or was it something else entirely? It was more than just the customary furrow in his brow; Basen’s lips were twisted into a frown. Some memory seemed to flit into his mind, and each time, he would blink, then shake his head suddenly as if to get rid of it. It was very suspicious.

One of the strange things about humans is how they become calm when someone else is struggling worse than they are. Jinshi let out another deep sigh. He couldn’t go on like this. The night’s banquet might have been over, but there were still more meetings tomorrow. He resolved to find some equilibrium. He recognized, though, that being alone would not be the best way to get his thoughts together. Instead he said, “Basen.”

“Yes, Master Jinshi?” Basen replied, using Jinshi’s assumed name. That was easiest for Jinshi. If Basen wasn’t going to call him by his true name, as he had when they were children, then this was the next best thing.

“Have you ever succeeded in bringing someone around?”

Frankly, Basen was not a very good choice to talk to about such matters, but Jinshi wasn’t looking for a serious response. He could answer his own questions; he just wanted to talk out loud so he didn’t sit there with his mind going in circles. Basen didn’t need to understand exactly what Jinshi meant; he just needed to offer a yes or no or a grunt here or there.

“Er, how so, sir? You’ve spoken to so many people since we got here that I don’t know whom you might be referring to...”

It was true: a great many women had spoken to Jinshi since his arrival in the western capital. How many? One wouldn’t wish to say.

“You don’t have to finish that thought,” Jinshi said.

Basen’s brow wrinkled. “I’m not in your position, sir, and I don’t have much experience in such matters. Though in the future I may find I gain some, whether I want to or not.”

He probably never had experienced such things, not yet. Even though they had only seen each other a few times a year since Jinshi had entered the rear palace, they were still milk brothers and trusted friends. Jinshi knew that Basen didn’t always feel very confident around women—the more womanly, the less he liked to have anything to do with them. The fact that he was able to have a more or less normal conversation with the apothecary girl suggested he didn’t see her in those terms, although Jinshi was conflicted as to whether that was a good thing or a bad one. It wasn’t misogyny—rather a sign of how deeply Basen’s early experiences had influenced him. A misfortune that had occurred because of his particular characteristics.

Basen responded to Jinshi’s question by stroking his chin. “I can only say I suppose it would depend on the person. There are a lot of people I don’t feel entirely comfortable around. But the situation has something to do with it too. How confident and competent the other person is can affect the flow, and vice versa. And you have to deal with so many people at once, Master Jinshi—isn’t it a strain?”

“‘So many at once’? I think you’re overestimating me.” Jinshi hadn’t expected quite such a direct answer. He smiled sardonically to hear himself described as if he were crazed with lust. Come to think of it, Basen had been going to the pleasure district in Gaoshun’s place a lot lately. Had he managed to gain some experience? Jinshi knew what a cunning saleswoman the madam of that brothel could be. She might well have tried to give Basen the hard sell.

Jinshi looked at Basen, conflicted. The Verdigris House was a high-class brothel with excellent courtesans. And Basen idealized women, even if he wasn’t very good at talking to them. The educated—and very firm-handed—ladies at the Verdigris House might be surprisingly congenial for him.

Jinshi swallowed heavily. “Basen... Did something happen? At the Verdigris House?”

“Wh-What’s this all of a sudden?!” Basen asked, startled. The man was a bad liar—quite frankly, he was a less than ideal adjutant when it came to politics. But that aspect of his personality was exactly what allowed Jinshi to relax around him. “Nothing happened,” Basen insisted. “And anyway, I can rise to the occasion when I need to!”

Rise to the occasion? A somewhat unsettling choice of words—but yes, Basen could indeed do what he had to do, when he had to do it. Jinshi was willing to acknowledge that much. He swallowed again, realizing he would have to rethink how he saw his milk brother once more.

“What brings this on, Master Jinshi? Did something happen with you?”

“No. It’s simply that there’s someone I would very much like to triumph over,” Jinshi said, although he had to struggle to get the words out. He was nowhere near smooth enough to handle “so many” women at once, and he wanted to avoid inflating Basen’s opinion of his abilities any further.

He went on: “I’d gotten the idea that I knew how to play this game. This someone can be rather elegant, but in practice I’m supposed to be the superior—and perhaps I trusted too much to that. That illusion was thoroughly shattered tonight, and it’s left me feeling quite pathetic.”

He might not always have a great deal of confidence, but he’d at least had some. He couldn’t count how many women had come on to him in his six years at the rear palace, and it had given him the (more than a little conceited) belief that he could make them dance in his palm.

Basen was looking at him with a hint of amazement. “This person must be quite skilled, sir, to make you say that.”

“Yes...” At least Basen didn’t seem to realize whom Jinshi was talking about. Thankfully. “We fought over something minor,” he said. “I started the fight...and I lost it.”

Basen looked puzzled for a second, but then he said, “Ah!” as if it all made sense to him. “You lost, sir? Ahh, so that’s what you mean... A sparring partner, sir? What a boor they must be!”

He could be perceptive at the most surprising moments. Perhaps it would sound insulting to suggest Jinshi was startled to realize Basen even knew what it really meant to be rivals in love. But that Rikuson—that was his name, right?—he might look like just another pretty face, but he wasn’t to be underestimated. He was a direct subordinate of the strategist, Lakan—but he wasn’t the one Jinshi was worried about.

“So there was someone at that banquet who could make even you admit defeat, Master Jinshi,” Basen said quietly, looking profoundly thoughtful.

“Don’t flatter me, please. I’m aware that I’m still young. My opponent is like a willow tree, or...or like trying to shove a curtain. No matter how much I push or strike, they simply roll with it.”

The question was what his inexperienced self should do. The only thing that would help would be to gain some of that experience, he supposed—but how? He couldn’t go about romancing another woman, but neither did it seem wise to head for a brothel simply because there supposedly wouldn’t be any consequences.

It was then that Basen said something quite unexpected. “Can I be of help in some way?”

“I’m sorry?” Jinshi said, nearly dropping his water. He knew for a fact Basen was straight—so how could he say that?

And yet Basen went on: “I must confess I’m not very capable. I’m all too aware that you’re far more skilled than I am, Master Jinshi. But I venture this suggestion in the belief that it must be better than simply moping around doing nothing.”

“Basen...”

Yes, he was right. And if Jinshi did it with Basen, well, on some level, it didn’t count, did it? That must be what the young man was thinking. Well, but—no, wait. Something was off here.

“Skill I may lack, but I’m confident in my stamina, how much I can endure,” Basen said.

“St-Stamina? I really don’t think...”

No, this wasn’t a conversation Jinshi could continue. He quailed. Maybe Basen had been taught some twisted game at the Verdigris House, he fretted. Should he report this to Gaoshun?

Basen, though, was looking at Jinshi, completely serious. He seemed excited, but not in the overheated way he had earlier. “Just think of it as practice, sir. Nothing more. I may not be the person you have in mind, but just...pretend.”

Jinshi lapsed into thought—and then jumped into action. He put the water on the table, rose from the couch, and slowly came and stood in front of Basen.

“Shall we move somewhere, sir? It’s a bit cramped here.”

“No, this is space enough.”

It wasn’t as if they needed to use the bed. And he absolutely didn’t want anyone to see them, so he had to finish this while they were still in this room.

Basen was about two sun shorter than Jinshi—he wished Basen might shrink another seven.

Jinshi leaned in, and Basen backed away. What was this? He acted so much like the very person Jinshi was imagining!

“Master Jinshi?”

“It’s all right. That’s perfect.”

“I’m, er, empty-handed...”

“So am I.”

Yes... Now that he thought about it, he’d heard tell of employing all manner of tools and contraptions, but he had certainly never expected Basen to bring up such a thing. They had taught him perverse things in the pleasure district, Jinshi was sure of it now. But maybe he shouldn’t mention it to Gaoshun.

All right. No more reason for Jinshi to hesitate, then. No reason to be inordinately restrained.

Each time Jinshi got closer, Basen opened up the space again, not with the slight stagger of the apothecary girl, but the agility of a trained soldier.

“Master Jinshi?”

“This person never initiates, but only responds to what is done.”

“So, Master Jinshi, I should—?”

Basen looked at Jinshi, deeply concerned; his back was already against the wall. Jinshi had succeeded at that before; it could almost be called his specialty. With Basen all but cornered, Jinshi planted his hand firmly against the wall. Bam!

“M-Master Jinshi...”

“No. Be quiet.”

Jinshi focused his imagination: he was picturing not his milk brother, but the person he wished to best. He had to strike before the mouth spoke, the mouth that was usually so inarticulate, but grew voluble and clever at the oddest times. He took Basen’s chin with his free hand and pressed his thumb to his lips.

“M-M-M...” Basen had gone completely white, and from this distance, Jinshi could see he was covered in sweat. Why did he look so worried? This was his suggestion! Somehow, he almost looked as if he hadn’t expected any of this to happen.

Could there be some mistake here? Some crucial, momentous misunderstanding?

Perhaps it was the tension both of them were feeling—neither noticed the sound of voices right outside. And just as Jinshi was about to put the pieces together, the door to the room flew open with a tremendous bang.

“It’s been too long since we shared a drink! And I’ve caught a most fascinating quarry in my net!” announced a sprightly but gender-neutral voice.

“L-Lady Ah-Duo!” cried a guard outside, but the lovely person in men’s garb was already pushing past him into the room. The odor of alcohol came with her; she seemed to have been sharing a drink with herself before she’d thought to invite Jinshi. She’d been like this ever since the rear palace, always trying to get him to drink with her. Maybe she was a little soused, because the way she entered the room was, well, forceful at best.

And the moment she had chosen was an awkward one.

Jinshi was almost on top of Basen, who was pinned against the wall with Jinshi’s fingers brushing his lips in what was unmistakably a lover’s caress. Basen was sweating and his face was completely bloodless.

The two guards who had come in trying to restrain Ah-Duo covered their eyes with their hands and peeked out between their fingers. As for Ah-Duo, her eyes went wide and her mouth dropped open.

“Ah!” she said. “That’s right. You don’t have to choose a flower. I guess I was mistaken.”

With that she backed out of the room and politely shut the door.

Neither Jinshi nor Basen said anything, but after a moment of silence, the darkened You manor was filled with the sounds of two men shouting at each other.