The Apothecary Diaries Book 9

The Dissection

The weather had begun to get warmer and the butterbur had blown its edible buds when Maomao and the apprentice physicians were brought to a dark, dank spot.

"Finally time for the real deal, huh?" Tianyu said flippantly. He was the only one who had the wherewithal to act unintimidated; the other apprentices were all pale-faced. Once in a while they would shoot Maomao looks that said, What are you doing here? but they refrained from actually saying anything. Maomao had weathered plenty of these looks while they dissected animals together. She wasn't about to let it bother her now.

Well, it wasn't quite true that no one said anything.

"Someone's getting very special treatment," remarked Tianyu. As frivolous as he might seem, he had an iron nerve. When they had been dissecting livestock, he'd been the calmest of them all. He might not take to classroom learning as readily as the other students, but his composure made him a more gifted practitioner than the others. Indeed, he was very good.

"If you want to call it that," Maomao replied.

"Ooh. I'm jealous."

Maomao was starting to think Tianyu couldn't stay calm unless he was talking to someone. Most of the other apprentices were too nervous during the practical work to talk to anyone, let alone Maomao, but Tianyu seemed to prattle at her relentlessly.

"If my treatment's really so special, maybe I could get one of those white coats."

"Ooh, don't think that's possible, Niang-niang."

It's Maomao! Was he doing this on purpose? Whatever; it would be too much work to set him straight, so she let it be.

To be fair, she could see where Tianyu was coming from. Special treatment, huh? Guess I can't really blame anyone for accusing me of that. Under normal circumstances, Maomao would never have walked this dim, dank hallway in the doctors' company. As to where the hallway led—it was the room where executed criminals were placed in repose. The doctors were using a special passageway so that no one would see them go there.

It was not, however, the first time Maomao had used it. No, that had been when she'd gone to see whether Suirei was really dead. Suirei, who was now living with the former consort Ah-Duo. Kind of wish she could've learned surgery too.

Once, on the way to the western capital, she'd helped Maomao treat some injured guards, and had proven unflappable even though the treatment had involved, among other things, amputating a human arm. She would've done great here.

I guess the circumstances of her birth would have made it impossible, Maomao thought. While it wasn't officially acknowledged, Suirei was the former emperor's granddaughter. She was also a member of the exterminated Shi clan, so although her life had been spared, she was fated to remain in the shadows as long as she lived.

Such a waste. There was nothing Maomao could do but lament it. Anything else was far beyond her power. One might think, then, that perhaps Suirei should have stayed dead—but that would be an affront. One could not forget that there was another girl who had staged a once-in-a-lifetime performance so that Suirei could live.

"So, who's backing your participation here?" Tianyu asked. Very direct.

"Are you accusing me of nepotism?" Maomao asked—the same thing of which she had been suspected when she'd first joined the staff at the medical office.

"No. I think it's something bigger than that. Men's intuition."

This son of a...

How could Tianyu act so frothy and yet be so perceptive? It would be bad for everyone if he sniffed out Jinshi's involvement here.