The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 5 (Light Novel)

Perhaps you’d be interested in asking the Emperor’s younger brother to plant his seed in your belly.”

She wanted to run. This could only bring more trouble, more uncertainty. She wanted to dodge all those problems—but those eyes, the eyes of an untamed dog, weren’t going to let her escape. He was going to devour her, and all in pursuit of something that wasn’t even there. Maomao could only look back at him with empty eyes, like those of a puppet or a doll

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Basen called out, “I’m coming in.” The door opened before they could stop him. His widened eyes were greeted by the sight of Jinshi, apparently doubled over with pain, and Maomao leaning toward him, her face and hand covered in something red.

He didn’t say anything.

They didn’t say anything.

Shortly thereafter, Basen couldn’t say anything. Just as he was about to shout for someone, Maomao crammed the handkerchief into his open mouth, while Jinshi pinned him down. It was the most coordinated thing they’d done since the day they’d met.

He would have made a scene so big that an escaped lion would have seemed like child’s play in comparison.

To replace the other one.” His voice came from above her, his chin resting on her head.

. “You could switch them, and it seems like no one would know.”

She’d been half joking, but half serious—gauging which way the other woman took her. All of their various attendants and nursemaids had been dismissed from the room.

“You might be right. Could you take care of him, please?” her mother-in-law said, picking up Ah-Duo’s child. She removed his swaddling clothes, preparing to change his diaper. Meanwhile, Ah-Duo accepted her brother-in-law and did the same, replacing his diaper with the one she’d brought along.

Each of them had just given birth, and each of them felt like she was missing a piece of her heart. There was nothing in Anshi’s eyes as she looked at her own child. Nobody seemed to notice because Anshi constantly kept a smile on her face. But she looked at Ah-Duo’s baby with genuine warmth. Perhaps she found her son’s child lovable even as her husband’s seemed hateful to her. Perhaps that was why she said nothing, even when Ah-Duo left and went back to her pavilion with Anshi’s child still in her arms. They exchanged the healthy, bouncing babies as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Later, the child that Ah-Duo was raising died. Perhaps, without that switch, it would have lived. Ah-Duo mourned the loss, for she had come to love the child—but she was also glad to know that her own offspring was still alive. Anshi’s child had died unloved by its own mother, with its rightful place usurped by its nephew, and all before it could even bewail its own fate.

The death appeared to shake both Ah-Duo and Anshi. The naughty little troublemaker who had always given the serving women such headaches was now enough of a grown-up to sense it—but he was also young enough that he had to lash out somehow

be happy to help you.” She could use him as a test subject for her burn medications at the same time.
“Stop that.”

Someone had interposed himself between Maomao and the aggrieved farmer. A substantial purse was on the table now—and Jinshi was standing between the two of them.

He turned the purse over, and a veritable hail of silver poured out, jangling noisily. Everyone in the room looked at it with eyes wide and mouth agape, including Basen, whose mouth was opening and closing uselessly, aghast. What, he seemed to wonder, was Jinshi doing?

“Three hundred silver would be cheap at the price for this girl,” Jinshi said. He had pitched his voice lower than usual, and he used his handsome but unsettling looks to keep the room in check. He almost casually brushed away the hand of the man holding Maomao.

Don’t go flashing your silver like that! Maomao thought, but she had no choice but to roll with it. She straightened her collar, planted a foot on the chair, and stuck out her chest (such as it was). “You see? Men who know value know what they’re looking at when they’re looking at me.”

She felt her body jerk as someone grabbed her by the collar, pulling her up until she was standing on her tiptoes. Ah: her rather unflattering comparison of country girls to root vegetables hadn’t gone unnoticed. Jinshi was about to make a move, but she shot him a look out of the corner of her eye. If he involved himself now, it would only make things more complicated.

“Just you say that again!” howled a farmer—call him Farmer No. 1—red in the face and coming for her with his fists raised. His clenched hands were blackened with the dirt of the fields, and she could see that if he hit her, it was not going to be pleasant.

But I may have to live with it, she thought. She’d come this far; she couldn’t back down now.

The quack had collapsed, while his fellow villagers watched with looks of horror.

“You can’t even read or write,” Maomao continued. “Heh! You’ll never even use paper—let alone do a decent job of making it, even if they did teach you.”

The fist launched at her—but it never hit her. Instead there was a thwack of something striking the table.

that turned out to be Jinshi jumping out of his chair. Maomao, though, simply nodded as if to indicate her calm confidence.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! Three hundred! That’s a big number for such a little girl. Do you have any idea how the market works, kid?”

Well, yes; that was why she’d said it. She felt she’d seen her fair share of young ladies being sold off.

“The most perfect jewel in the world don’t sell for more than a hundred, and you think you—” The landlord was laughing so hard, spittle flew from his mouth; he was enjoying himself to the hilt now. His friends, likewise, were good and drunk—perfect.

Maomao looked at them and then laughed. “Pff!” She made sure they knew that it was a mocking sound. The drunken men picked up on it, as she had hoped, and a good half of them began to glare at her.

“You only think that because a daikon fresh out of the dirt will never go for more than fifty silver,” Maomao declared. “To think, you don’t even realize that!”