Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Chapter 10 Part1

Infa, a maid who serves the Beloved Consort Gyokuyou, will work with whole-hearted devotion today as well.

The other day, she committed the disgrace of sleeping on the job, but her master, Consort Gyokuyou did not blame her.

In that case, she shall commit her full body to serve and meticulously clean every single window frame down to the handrails.

Originally, this sort of act is unworthy of a lady's maid like herself, but even so, Infa will conduct herself as a maidservant. Because she had told Consort Gyokuyou that she loved to work.

When she entered the room to arrange the kitchen's tea utensils, the new maid was making something. Her name is Maomao. She rarely speaks, so Infa isn't sure what kind of person she is.

The only thing she knew was that the girl has scars on her arm from abuse. And the she was sold, and hearing she is now employed as the poison expert, wanted to run away.

Infa increased the girl's meals to fatten up her skinny body and didn't allow her to sweep, seeing how pitiful it was to see her exposed wounds. The other two maids also thought the same way. As a result, Maomao didn't have much jobs to do.
This is fine, Infa thought.

The head maid Honnyan said that was not enough, and a.s.signed Maomao to do the was.h.i.+ng. As was.h.i.+ng only required her to carry the basket, the wounds on her arms do not stand out. She was also entrusted to do other small tasks.

"What are you making?"

The new maid was boiling some plants in a pot.

"Cold medicine."

She states the absolute minimum of what she needs to say. Surely, she was probably not good with socialising due to the after effects of abuse, Infa thought to the point of tears.

As her knowledge of medicine is deep, she makes it this way sometimes. Infa had nothing to say about that as the girl cleans after herself perfectly, and the other day she received medicine for dry skin she treated as priceless treasure. Occasionally, it seems that Honnyan requests her to makes medicines as well.

Infa took out the silver teacups and meticulously polished them with a dry cloth.

Maomao doesn’t speak much, but she is a good listener; someone worth talking to. Infa told her about the strange rumour that had been going around recently.

The rumours of a white woman dancing in mid-air.

○●○

Maomao left for the medical office, bringing along the laundry basket and the cold medicine she finished making with her.
Just this time, she wanted to get the doctor's judgement, even merely for form's sake.

(An incident from a month ago?)

Maomao tilted her head at the ordinary strange story.
This was yet another rumour she has never heard of before coming here. Shaoran had told her everything she knew as far as rumours went, so Maomao knew that this was a recent one.

The Inner Palace was encircled by a wall. On the other side of the fence is a deep moat and the only way to traverse the place is through the four directional gates. It is impossible to escape or raid the place.
It was said that there is a consort who attempted to break out of the Inner Palace and is still resting under the deep moat even now.

(Near the castle gate huh.)

There were no buildings close by, just an expansive pine forest.

(It was from the end of summer yeah.)

Although it was this season, it was harvest time.

As bad thoughts came to her head, as if right on the mark, she heard a disagreeable voice.

"Good work."

At the gorgeous peony like smile, Maomao maintained an expressionless face.

"No, not really."

The medical office was close to the central gate in the south. The parlours of the three departments that govern the inner palace were also set up here.
Jis.h.i.+n usually appears there.
As he is a eunuch, he should be in the department of inner servants. But this man is not attached to any room. Rather, he looks over everything like an overseer.

(It looks like his position is higher than Palace official Chief.)

It is possible he is the guardian of the current emperor. But it was hard to imagine that for that young man who looks around twenty. There's no reason for him to specially become a eunuch if he was the emperor's son.
It is also thinkable he is the guardian of Consort Gyokuyou, seeing as they are close. Actually….

(An emperor's chosen?)

In the case of the emperor's visits, it is normal as far as seeing him friendly with Consort Gyokuyou, but it doesn't match his appearance.
It is troublesome to think of such thoughts, so let's settle with him being the emperor's lover for the time being.

"You look like you're thinking of something extremely rude."

"Are you sure you're not imagining it?"

She bowed once and turned around. When she entered the medical office, she saw the loach moustache shrub doctor rigidly grinding the mortar. Maomao knew that the doctor in this case wasn't making medicine but wasting time.
Otherwise, it is pointless for him to give away half the medicine he makes every time.

At the start, it seemed that he thought that she was a little girl who didn't know what she was doing, but his att.i.tude gradually eased after he saw the medicines Maomao made.
Nowadays, he gave her tea cakes and it reached the point where he gave portions of unneeded ingredients to her, which is not a very good thing for a medical office to do.
He doesn't really have confidentiality.

"Can you look at this medicine for me?"

"Oh, if it isn't the la.s.s? Wait a sec."

He prepared tea cakes and crude tea. He had senbei instead of sweet manjuu.
Maomao, the drinker, was happy.
Recently, it felt like she had been forced to eat various things.

Although a shrub, he is a good person. Though his personality is good, he is the type that is bad at his job.

"I want a share of that too."

A tender, willowy voice is heard.
Even without looking back, for some reason, it felt like the air around her completely brightened up.

The shrub doctor, with a look of surprise and elation, replaced the senbei and crude tea he troubled himself to make, and bought out white tea and moon cakes.

(Not the senbei…)

The one with the brilliant smile sat across her.
Though he refused to sit with her because of the difference in social status, her shoulders were forcibly pinned down by the doctor.
Maomao winced. That overbearing action that was completely different to his gentle appearance.

"Teacher, I'm sorry but can you get this from the inside for me?"

Jis.h.i.+n handed over a sc.r.a.p of paper.
Even from afar, Maomao could see that a considerable number of ingredients written on it. It'll take a while to collect.

The shrub doctor narrowed his eyes, and went into the inner room with a disappointed look.

(He planned to do that from the start)

"What do you really want to talk about?"

Maomao who was good at guessing, asked that as she rocked the teacup.

"Do you know about the ghost disturbance?"

"As far as rumours go."

"Then, do you know about sleepwalking?

Jis.h.i.+n did not miss the light that settled in the corner of Maomao's eyes.

Kukuku, his celestial maiden's laugh gained a s.a.d.i.s.tic tone.

A large palm stroked Maomao's cheeks

"How would you go about curing that?"

He enquired, voice like sweet, sweet cider.

T/N: This is a three parter.

Keeping with the setting of the novel, the senbei (煎餅) could be referring to the Chinese pancake [jianbing] instead the j.a.panese rice cracker.