The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 6 (Light Novel)

you hate me so much?” he asked, his face now less like a wild dog and more like a puppy. Love, hate—some people wanted the world to be so black and white. Why wouldn’t he give her the choice of a gray area?

“I suppose I don’t hate you as such,” she said. She might even think of him favorably. Certainly, she regarded this noble more positively than she had back when they’d first met.

Jinshi pursed his lips, not very pleased with this evasive answer. Maybe he was hoping she would come right out and say she loved him, but quite frankly, Maomao wasn’t at a point where she could bring those words to her lips. The best she could manage was that she wasn’t without a certain affection for him.

Jinshi first heard this story when he was more than ten years old, after Gaoshun had seen him teasing Basen for trying to keep his distance from the ladies-in-waiting.

“Women are such fragile creatures,” Basen said. “I think it’s too soon for me.”

What could Jinshi say to that? There was nothing. Instead, he held out his cup, silently asking for more juice.

I’m not certain I can control my strength—but may I hit you?”

He didn’t want to relinquish the sensation that still lingered on his lips.

He could still see it when he closed his eyes: her face looking down at him, the stars above the only light. He hadn’t been able to see her well, and yet it seemed to him he could remember her so clearly. Her eyes, usually languid, were dim, but her mouth glistened warm and moist. A thread dangled from the moistness, and then fell away. It was over, Jinshi saw with a combination of disappointment and relief.

And then the regret.

His partner was well within her comfort zone. She never blushed, nor looked away in embarrassment. Only stared calmly, coldly down at the man beneath her, then licked her lips, sucking in the thread of saliva. She wasn’t savoring the afterglow, but simply eliminating all traces, as if it had never happened. Her small body bestrode Jinshi’s, easily twice her size, her hand placed over his heart. She could feel his heartbeat, but he couldn’t feel hers.

As he watched the family, Maomao silently watched him.

Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at him. Her alluring lips arched. “My, my. Done already?” she seemed to ask, although she said nothing. Her smile made clear how much she still had left in her.

It meant he had lost.

He let his fingers brush across his mouth, as if to confirm for himself what had touched them just an hour before. His body was possessed by a combination of heat and gloom that wouldn’t seem to go away

“Do they know each other?” Gramps had asked, to which Chou-u had replied, “She practically collects weird guys like him.”

“Chou-u? No idea. Probably with Ukyou or Sazen.”

“Hm. There’s something I’d like him to draw for me.”

“Porno?”

Meimei grinned and gave Maomao an affectionate pinch of the cheek.