The Apothecary Diaries Book 8

Thunderclap

It was an autumn afternoon, and Maomao and her father were both looking puzzled.

"Think it might rain today?" her father asked, looking at the sky out the window of the medical office.

"Cats and dogs...uh, sir," she said, catching herself before she spoke too brusquely to him. There were other members of the medical staff around and she had to be careful. Yao and En'en weren't there, however. As the medical assistants grew more comfortable with their jobs, they were increasingly assigned to different places, wherever there was work to be done. Maomao happened to have been sent to help out today at the medical office where her father worked.

Luomen held a message in his hands—orders from one particular person. The problem lay in exactly who that person was.

"Guess he's been hard at work. I'm a little surprised," mumbled a young physician nearby, seemingly in spite of himself. Maomao had met him when she was working for Jinshi—and if you're wondering, no, she hadn't learned his name yet.

"He ought to be. He ought to be working," Luomen said, but he sounded somewhat less firm than usual.

"What does Grand Commandant Kan want with you, though, Dr. Kan?"

In short, the freak strategist was trying to foist his work on Maomao's dad. The letter was phrased as a polite request, not an order, but nothing about the contents said if you'd be so kind.

"I must admit, I'm not confident that I'm the best person for an interrogation," Luomen said. He was being asked to speak to a trio of suspects. Normally, that would be the business of some legal functionary. Why ask a doctor to do it?

"One might have expected them to be a little more discreet about a matter like this," Maomao said.

"Yes, one might," Luomen agreed. The suspects were three soldiers—this was an internal investigation.

"What exactly is it that you're supposed to ask them about?" the young doctor inquired. He seemed like the kind who was too professional to ask gossipy questions, but it appeared his interest had been piqued.

"I can see why they might want to keep this quiet. There's a woman involved," Luomen said.

"A w-w-woman?" said the doctor, studying the ground with all the embarrassment of an innocent boy.

Why do they want my old man to handle this? Maomao wondered. Maybe there hadn't been anyone else suited to the task. She grew more surprised, however, the more she learned about the interrogation subjects. "They all have the same family name," she said.

The number of family names in Li amounted to no more than several dozen, so it wasn't unusual for people to share a name, but for all three of the suspects to happen to have the same one—that was a little odd.

"They're brothers. Triplets, at that," Luomen said.

"Triplets?" That got the attention of both Maomao and the young doctor.

"A woman claims that one of the three tried to force himself on her, but she brought her charges without being completely certain which of them it was. Since the woman is related to a soldier, it was decided that the investigation should begin as an internal matter. However..."

"Yes? What?"

"The triplets' father is a high-ranking official with the Board of Justice, and he's insisting that no trial can be held until they know for sure which of the three did it. My understanding is that this wouldn't be the first time the boys have used their father's privilege to shield them from responsibility for their wrongdoings."