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.

More than one father approached “Sir Lahan” to ask who his “honored younger sister” was, but when they found the young woman greeted them with chicken soup all over her face, they would smile ruefully and excuse themselves. No doubt the rumors would soon start that Maomao’s family were all eccentrics.

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.

No doubt the rumors would soon start that Maomao’s family were all eccentrics

She went ahead and put the stick in her hair, just because. Strangely, it felt rather fitting, and the way she continued to wear the accessory thereafter was perhaps rather unlike her.

Maomao might have marked him as a pedophile at that moment, but perhaps it simply demonstrated the depth of his devotion to Jinshi’s beauty. She didn’t doubt his faith that a woman who inherited even a fraction of Jinshi’s looks would be among the most beautiful who ever lived. She also didn’t doubt that Lahan was completely hopeless, totally worthless, and that if anyone ever asked her if she knew any nice men, he was the one person she would never, ever introduce to them. Ever.

I know you—you’d like to try giving birth, just for the experience. But you have no interest in children as such. Me, I would be happy to raise the child of the Emperor’s younger brother, and I would do a good job of it. Meanwhile, you could do what you like, or perhaps, not do what you don’t like. I’m not necessarily suggesting you formally become his wife. There only need to be a few...slipups. You get to give birth, I get an heir; everyone’s happy.”

“Then make one yourself,” Maomao growled.

“I would, but for the life of me I simply can’t find the ideal partner.”

Lahan’s “ideal partner” was probably just the female version of Jinshi, the one who would bring the nation to its knees. Such women didn’t grow on trees, after all.

“It truly is a waste, that he should be the Emperor’s younger brother. To think—even with that scar on his cheek, still no one excels him in beauty.”

“Why not just cut off your most prized possession and get a womb transplant? Get some seed planted in you?”

“Can you do that?” It was frightening, how earnestly Lahan asked that. When Maomao replied that no, you could not, he looked down at the ground, actually a little disappointed. So he was straight, but evidently had no issue with sex changes. Maomao didn’t grasp his standards.