The Apothecary Diaries Book 5

Sleep

Three days later, a masked noble appeared at the apothecary shop as the sun was crossing the meridian.

"Welcome! Thank goodness you're here!"

Jinshi was set back on his heels by Maomao's warm greeting. Behind him, Gaoshun's mouth hung open; he was clearly wondering what had happened.

"H-Hey, what's the matter?"

"Xiaomao, you do know that that's Master Jinshi before you, right? You don't have him confused with someone else, do you?"

Maomao scowled. Ridiculous reactions, both. Gaoshun glanced at Jinshi, knowing he'd accidentally let the wrong name slip, and was greeted with an annoyed look from behind the mask.

Jinshi entered the shop and seated himself on a round cushion. The place wasn't exactly spacious, so Gaoshun retreated to the front room of the Verdigris House, as he always did. Once the sliding door was closed, Jinshi finally removed his mask.

There, as ever, was his beautiful face, and the scar along his cheek that never failed to look out of place. The stitches had been removed and it looked far less painful than before, but even so, it was enough to make a person sigh with regret for the sheer wastefulness of it.

People had started writing entertaining tales of the last year's rebellion of the Shi clan. The hero was the Emperor's beautiful younger brother, and the villain was played by Loulan. One might expect the latter role to go to Shishou, the leader of the Shi clan, but Loulan had displaced him in the popular imagination, and that scar, one might suppose, was the reason.

The villainess who had injured this unearthly face would be spoken of for generations to come. When Maomao remembered the bug-loving palace lady, laughing merrily, she found it gave her a desolate feeling.

"I thought you had something you wanted to tell me," Jinshi said.

Oh! Yes, I did.

Maomao took the encyclopedia she'd bought down from the bookshelf.

"What's this?"

"Some opportunist plucked it from the flames of the stronghold and sold it."

She would keep quiet about the former guard for the time being. He was under the care of the Verdigris House's chief manservant, Ukyou, who would know what to do with him.

The man who had fled the fortress had decided to start calling himself Sazen. Maomao had wanted him to use an assumed name just on the off chance his real one caused the little brat, Chou-u, to remember his past. Luckily enough, "Sazen" seemed to have no special attachment to his former name. Now he was learning the business from Ukyou.

We were able to recover the books he sold.

Ukyou had acted immediately to gather them up. Sazen said he'd sold them to a procurer with whom Ukyou happened to be acquainted, so the chief manservant talked to the other man and bought the books from him. Meaning there was just one problem left.

"I think the last of these books is at the fortress. And I want to get my hands on it."

Jinshi gave her a look. "And why are we collecting these books?"

Maomao decided the best answer to that question was a practical demonstration. She placed a bowl of food in front of Jinshi with a none-too-elegant thonk: a mountain of stewed bugs of a rather unappealing color. Jinshi frowned openly and backed away. "What in the world are those?"

"Stewed locusts. Although the chief ingredient is actually grasshoppers." Maomao picked one up in her chopsticks and leaned toward Jinshi. He backed away again, but soon found himself stymied by the wall, where he simply crumpled.