The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 9 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

Maomao looked out the small window. She could see more and more ships come into view. Their fleet seemed to grow larger with every port they called at. Most of the additions were merchant vessels, also going to the western capital and presumably joining them to help protect themselves from pirates.

“Funny. This trip has felt so long, but we can finally see the destination!”

“What are you talking about, Miss Chue?” the quack asked. Chue was lounging in the medical office like she belonged there, as she so often did.

“Oh, nothing. It just seemed like the right sentiment, so I said it.”

“You say the strangest things. I just don’t follow,” said the quack. Maomao agreed that Chue’s pronouncements could be obscure, but there were a handful of creatures like her in the world.

Maomao stepped away from the window, intent on taking inventory of their remaining stock of medicine. As Chue’s helpful exposition indicated, they would soon be arriving in the western capital. They would have to think about restocking their supplies, but the quack—ostensibly the key to the functioning of the medical office—spent all his time chatting, as he always did.

Chue now spent as much time in the medical office as Lihaku did. She insisted that it was “for work.” Maybe she mispronounced “cutting work.”

“Master Physician, if you could at least take some notes as to our quantities of medicine,” Maomao said, pressing a notebook and brush into the quack’s hands. It wasn’t a big job, and she could easily have done it by herself, but she thought it was important not to spoil the doctor.

“Want me to help?” Chue offered.

“No, thank you. We’ll never hear the end of it if we let nonmedical staff touch the medicine.”

“That’s too bad. Miss Chue knows a lot about poisons, you know!”

She also never missed a chance to promote herself. Trying to justify her continued presence in the medical office (and absence from real work), Maomao supposed.

“Enough to do food tasting, at least, I see,” Maomao said. She thought back to the banquet in Anan. The banquet, then the case of the missing quack, then slapping Jinshi...

That last one was a real problem for her. Maomao put a hand to her lips. Why’d I do that? She knew perfectly well that children’s charms didn’t have any medicinal effect. She’d treated Jinshi like a child who could be deluded by a little charm.

The one silver lining was that the people in the room hadn’t appeared to have heard anything—maybe the balcony had been built specifically for such secret conferences. Maomao had been worried what would happen if Suiren, Taomei, or Gaoshun had heard them. Yet only Chue had displayed any interest.

As for Jinshi’s request that she slap “the other side too,” he’d just needed something to wake him up. It definitely wasn’t a masochist thing, he’d explained.

What else was I supposed to think, with that look on his face?

His story for the red mark on his face was that he had given himself a good, hard slap on the cheek just before coming back into the room. Suiren and the others were aghast, but he’d simply chuckled and explained that “I just needed to make sure I was good and alert.”

Maomao had remained absolutely silent. It was all she could do.

She was so very, very tired.

“Ooh, I had such a good time in Anan! I can’t wait to see how much fun we have in the western capital,” said Chue, her small eyes sparkling. She produced little flowers, flags, and even, for some reason, doves out of her hands, but Lihaku and the quack had already handled the witty comebacks on those subjects. No need for Maomao to get involved in that game now. She did have a question, though.

“How are you doing that?”

“Oh-ho! Interested in Miss Chue’s mysterious abilities?” She snorted proudly with her bean-bun nose.

“Yes. Because in my experience, such abilities usually require some preparation.”

She’d seen the White Lady do similar things onstage, although her tricks had involved less “preparation” than a knowledge of human psychology.

“What would you do if I told you?” Chue asked.

“I thought they might be perfect for when the bigwigs ask me to entertain them,” Maomao replied. Her brothel jokes always seemed to fall flat, so a little performance she could put on instead seemed ideal. Even better if it could help take the tension out of a situation.

“I’m sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ve already shown the Moon Prince what I can do on this trip, and if you’re thinking of amusing His Majesty, I did this for him before we left so he could help me decide where to go with them in the future.”

Where to go! The quip almost escaped Maomao’s mouth, but she forced it back. Truly, Chue was a woman who knew no propriety.

Maomao emptied out bags of medicine, made the quack take notes, then put them back in the chest. Again and again they did this.

“Oh! I haven’t told you about our upcoming schedule yet, have I?” Chue said.

“So you do have an actual job here,” said Maomao, who had been certain Chue was just slacking off.

“Yep! Miss Chue always works hard so her mother-in-law won’t get mad at her.” She straightened up and fished a roll of wood strips out of the folds of her robes.

“Goodness, you’re behind the times, Miss Chue. You should get some nice paper, much easier to use,” said the quack, stretching his fingers. He came from a family of papermakers, and he sounded pleased to be in the know.

“Nopers! I am a woman of elegant taste who loves the old ways. I adore the texture of wood, I savor its smell!”

Paper was convenient, but there were plenty of aesthetes like her who preferred the virtues of wood. Maomao didn’t really get it herself, but neither did she have a reason to stop Chue from writing on whatever she wanted. She was, however, curious how Chue had managed to conceal such a lengthy scroll in her robes.

“When we reach port, we’ll get in a carriage with our luggage. It should be about a thirty-minute ride to the western capital. You’re advised to look out for scorpions.”

Maomao nodded, hoping that there would in fact be scorpions.

“Once we get to the western capital, the quack—ahem, I mean master—physician is to join up with the other doctors. You’ll go with him, Maomao. There will be someone to show you to the room where the medical staff will be based. It’s somewhere in Master Gyokuen’s villa, and all of you won’t be able to fit in there at once, so you’ll be divided into three groups. Also, the higher-ups will be all together; you’ll just have to live with it.”

Did she say quack?

She hadn’t done a very good job of covering for herself, but the quack was so busy writing that he didn’t seem to have noticed.

“Miss Maomao, you’re going to be working with the other doctors for the most part, except when summoned for things like food tasting. I think you’ll be seeing a lot of me and Lihaku.”

Lihaku was the quack’s bodyguard, but what about Chue? A messenger, maybe? It mostly seemed to Maomao like she was trying to come up with an excuse to cut work and avoid seeing too much of her mother-in-law, or “the big lady,” but she politely pretended not to realize it. The last thing she wanted was for Suiren to get involved instead; it would be a disaster.

“One other thing. At night, I’m off the clock, so please don’t call for me then.”

“What? Not even in an emergency?” the quack asked, although he continued to work, the brush agile in his plump hands.

“Not even then. My mother-in-law is giving me the hurry-up about the second one, so I have to use my most transcendent techniques.” Somehow, she managed to say this with a straight face.

The quack doctor was perplexed at first, but when Maomao said, “Miss Chue is a married woman,” he seemed to connect the dots—because his face went beet red and he dropped his brush. Maomao was surprised he’d survived as the rear palace’s physician, based on that reaction.

Still, knowing that Chue’s husband was literally the man behind the curtain, Maomao questioned whether he could fulfill his role.

“Fwoooo! Now, big, deep breaths!” Chue had squatted down and was gliding her hands around her stomach.

Maomao interrupted. She felt bad, but Chue showed no sign of stopping otherwise. “Miss Chue, enough with your weird exercises. Anything else we should know?”

Chue straightened up as if nothing had happened. “When we get to the western capital, I think you’ll find yourself living pretty much in the manner to which you’ve become accustomed on this ship. The only difference is, your instructions will come from Dr. You, one of the upper physicians.”

You—so that was the name of the tan-skinned doctor. It was a reasonably common name, especially in the west. Maomao would have to try to remember it.

“Like I said, I think we’ll be spending a lot of time together, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask Miss Chue or Dr. You. Except at night, like I said. Nobody knows if the young Ma boy will be able to produce an heir, so there’s a lot of pressure on me! The continued existence of the Ma clan rests on my shoulders! Well, okay, so there’s a branch family still, but... Well, you know my mother-in-law...”

Chue looked downright desperate. So there was something that could scare her.

I guess it’s not easy being the wife of the eldest son, Maomao thought, not that it really concerned her. She put away the last of the medicine, and with that they were done taking inventory.

Chue stood up. “We’ll arrive very soon, so I’m going to go back.”

“See you next time, Miss Chue!” the quack doctor said as if she were a friend just dropping by for a visit.

Chue waved and was about to leave, but then she paused and turned back. “Miss Maomao...”

“Yes? Is something the matter?” What else could Chue want?

“People lie in the palace just as much as they do in the pleasure district. There are going to be plenty of liars in the western capital, so do watch out. Oh, and I’ll keep quiet about what happened—don’t you worry.” Then she grinned, her dark face looking even darker in the minimal light of the lower decks.

What happened? Maomao wasn’t sure what she meant by that.

“All right then! Bye!”

Chue closed the door with a clack, and then there was only the gentle rocking of the ship.

Thus Maomao arrived, again, in the western capital. She could only wonder what awaited her on her second visit.