The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 14 - Chapter 17

Chapter 17: The Forbidden Hunting Ground

Time flew at a busy department like the one Maomao was assigned to, and before she knew it, it was summer, the season when the cicadas sang fulsomely.

In addition to her assigned duties, Maomao was receiving the same education as the physicians. She thought she had finished with that when she had been selected to go to the western capital, but no.

“A doctor must study their whole life. They have to make sure their skills don’t get dull. The folks who went to the western capital will now undergo the same intensive training as the rookie physicians.”

Since this injunction came from the chief physician, Dr. Liu himself, Maomao’s only possible reply was “Yes, sir.”

And as for the form that intensive training took...

“I guess we’re going to some farm somewhere today, huh?”

Maomao sat in a bouncing carriage, Dr. Li and Tianyu seated across from her.

They had previously performed dissections on livestock and game animals as a prelude to doing autopsies, and now they had been instructed to go for a refresher.

This was hardly the first time she had been out with Tianyu to do dissections, but having Dr. Li along was unusual.

“It’s not a farm today. It’s a hunting ground, I gather,” he said.

“I thought this time of year was closed season around here,” Tianyu said.

Dr. Li was silent at that. Closed season: In other words, hunting was forbidden. Maomao was no hunter, so she didn’t know very much about it, but she had heard that hunters avoided animals’ mating seasons.

“Some areas of Kaou Province declare closed season from spring through summer. I’m almost sure this area is off-limits this year,” Tianyu pressed.

“How do you know so much about it?” Dr. Li asked, casting a look at the uncharacteristically insightful Tianyu.

“I mean, this is where I’m from.”

Before she could stop herself, Maomao jumped to her feet.

“Be careful!” Dr. Li cried, and he was right to warn her: The carriage jumped, and Maomao nearly fell down. She quickly resumed her seat.

“What are you doing, Niangniang?” Tianyu asked.

Maomao simply sputtered, “Where you’re from?”

“Uh-huh. My home. Urgh, what should I do? If my dad finds out I’m here, he’ll turn me into jerky!”

Why would Dr. Liu send us to Tianyu’s home?

If it really was Dr. Liu who had ushered Tianyu into the world of medicine, he would at least know where he had come from.

“Well, I can probably guess why there’s still hunting going on even though it’s closed season,” Tianyu said. Dr. Li looked away. “Only hunters are forbidden from hunting. If you’re rich or important, you get a free pass, right?”

Dr. Li didn’t say anything at all. He seemed to be a pretty poor liar—his silence was as good as confirmation.

“But I’ll bet it’s not just some moneybags this time,” Tianyu went on. “It’s a bigwig. Some pampered princeling, maybe?”

“How could you know that?”

“Ha ha ha! The hunting grounds around here are my dad’s turf. He never liked jobs that had to do with the court, and I think maybe once I left home, he stopped taking them at all.”

Dr. Li was silent again. Tianyu might have an unseemly taste for dissections, but he was intelligent.

“These important guys want to eat whatever game they get, but carving up an animal is hard. So they’ll hire a hunter or whoever happens to be around.”

“And we’re the ones who were chosen this time?” Maomao asked.

“Yep!”

To be sure, Tianyu was second to none when it came to butchering animals.

“I’m guessing Dr. Liu had to bite his tongue when he sent us out here,” Maomao said. “Physicians aren’t usually assigned to chop things up.”

The human autopsies were of course a secret, but animal dissections were unlikely to be smiled upon either.

“Yeah, I kind of assumed Dr. Liu would say no to something like this,” said Tianyu.

Maomao agreed that it seemed out of character for him.

“It wasn’t Dr. Liu who chose this place. He would never agree to send trained physicians on such a trivial errand,” Dr. Li said.

“So we’ve been summoned here secretly, without Dr. Liu’s knowledge?”

“Yikes! I bet he’s gonna be mad!”

“Don’t even say it. Look, no matter how high you rank, there’s always someone over your head. Someone with their own problems to deal with.”

It sounded like life wasn’t easy for Dr. Li.

“Was there no one else to send? Frankly, I’m awfully worried having Tianyu along,” Maomao said.

“And I’m awfully worried having Niangniang along,” Tianyu said.

“Yes, well. The request was specifically for people who wouldn’t flinch no matter what happened.”

“That doesn’t sound foreboding at all,” Maomao said. She was trying to decide whether she should consider it an honor that she had been chosen for this trip.

“We’ll do the work in a small shed dedicated to the purpose so nobody sees us. We’ll also change our clothes and wear masks.”

“Ugh, that sounds hot!” Tianyu complained.

“We’ll have to be careful not to get dizzy,” Maomao agreed.

She was thinking about what happened in the retreat area some years before. Jinshi had gotten heat stroke—then, to make matters even more complicated, had been targeted by an assassin.

And that was how I learned about the frog...

In spite of her thousand-yard stare, Maomao managed a question. “There are other hunting grounds. Why did they pick this one?”

“Funny you should ask. There are supposed to be zhen birds there.”

“Zhen birds!” Maomao cried, her eyes sparkling. The zhen was a bird that was supposed to be extremely poisonous. There were records of several people having been assassinated by means of these birds throughout history, but whether the stories were entirely true remained unclear. If the animals really existed, and weren’t just legends, then Maomao wanted to see one.

“You should know better than to talk about poisons in front of Niangniang,” Tianyu chided the other physician.

“Oops! It just slipped out,” said Dr. Li regretfully.

“Is that what they’re hunting? I’d love to catch one alive if possible. Argh! If you’d just told me, I could have prepared some things to help us withstand zhen poison.”

“You’re assuming these mythical birds actually exist, Niangniang.”

“I’m sorry to tell you this, but you won’t be part of the dissections, Maomao,” Dr. Li said.

“Huh?” Maomao’s jaw hung open. “Wh-Why not? I can cope with the heat—I’ll even wash the internal organs if that’s what you want!” The intestines had excrement in them, so it was no one’s favorite job—but Maomao would volunteer for it today.

Dr. Li said, “You have other work to do. Something you’re very good at, I hear. Tasting food for poison.”

Oh...

Only then did she finally realize that something must be afoot.

Once they arrived at the hunting grounds, Tianyu and Dr. Li went one way while Maomao went another.

“We’ve been waiting for you, ma’am.”

Normally it might have been Chue who greeted her here—but today she was met by someone different.

“Hulan.”

“Indeed, and may I say what an honor it is to hear you greet me with such friendly familiarity, with no title.”

He was a young man, not even twenty years old, with a smile on his face, but she knew not to be fooled by his unctuous grin and his humble attitude. It was thanks to him that Maomao had found herself chased all over I-sei Province, and ultimately nearly killed by bandits.

I’m not being friendly with you!

Outwardly, Hulan was the younger brother of Shikyou, the chieftain of the western capital and Gyokuen’s grandson. He served Jinshi at the moment, but it was in some ways a form of banishment from his home city. He had believed that Jinshi would be a better leader of the western capital than his own brother—why, she couldn’t fathom—and it had led him to attempt to assassinate Shikyou. He was not someone to take lightly.

“I’ve come to greet you on the Moon Prince’s orders,” he said.

“Yeah. Great.” Maomao didn’t hide her annoyance. If there had been anyone else around, it might have been one thing, but she didn’t feel any special politeness was warranted when dealing with Hulan alone.

Apparently, they had called the physicians out here specifically to summon Maomao. She’d been requested by name, and the other two were essentially collateral damage—so it was sheer, strange coincidence that Tianyu was with them.

“Hmm? I might have expected you to be surprised, but you seem quite cool about this. Has someone already told you what’s going on?”

“Let’s just say I can take a guess.” Maomao’s sour mood was only partly because she had to deal with Hulan. There was another reason. “Don’t tell me...that stuff about the zhen was a lie?”

“Lady Maomao, you’re making a scarier face than my own sister. Please, fear not. The tale of the legendary poisonous bird was brought to us by the ones who invited us on this hunt.”

“Oh, really?”

“You’re close! You’re way too close to me!” said Hulan, whom Maomao had all but cornered. “In any case, shall we go?”

He led the way, and Maomao followed.

Hulan led her to a clearing where several tents had been pitched—one very large, and three relatively smaller ones. They were living-tents of the kind often seen in I-sei Province.

She could also see a large building nearby. “Is that where the Moon Prince is?” she asked.

“No, ma’am. He was offered a room in the annex, but he refused.”

“Why?” The tents were certainly of excellent construction, but the freestanding house would have been more sumptuous still.

“These tents have only one entrance each. No unwanted insects can get in. Much better than a house, where you never know what might be crawling about, said the Moon Prince.”

“Unwanted insects. Ah.” Maomao once again thought back to the time when Jinshi had habitually hidden his face. Even then, he’d frequently found his food spiked with vitality drugs—it had been a nightmare. “But wasn’t it hard to refuse the accommodations?”

“Indeed it was. We had to tell them that in addition to hunting, the Moon Prince enjoys camping out. It’s tough being from the central region, you know? He doesn’t own a single tent.”

Maomao looked around. In the distance she could see what looked to be a group of people setting up and taking down tents. Why? Well, if the bigwig on the trip was going to camp out, his subordinates could hardly stay in the annex. So they were trying to put up tents as best they could.

“And which grand official invited him this time?” Maomao asked.

“This is a gathering of prominent figures from among the named clans. It’s important for even members of the Imperial family to get some rest and relaxation—but it’s also necessary to meet and greet potential candidates for high office. Yet the Moon Prince is such a serious man that he keeps refusing these meetings.”

“And eventually it gets harder and harder?”

“Precisely. Personal relationships are so crucial to politics, you see. And there were some...qualms about this particular gathering as well.”

Qualms, huh?

Hulan flipped open the entrance to a tent. “I’m back, Moon Prince,” he said.

“Took you long enou—Huh?!”

Jinshi was openly shocked.

“Your food taster is here,” Hulan said. Maomao bowed her head politely.

In addition to the startled Jinshi, Suiren and Taomei were there, looking very conspiratorial. Basen was present as Jinshi’s bodyguard, but he looked uncomfortable to be in the same workplace as his mother.

The closed space of the tent was surprisingly cool. Several buckets filled with chunks of ice sat around, and guards moved the air with fans. A skylight provided a change of air.

“Wh-What are you doing here?” Jinshi asked, out of sorts. Basen was likewise agog, but the two ladies-in-waiting were smiling.

“Was I not summoned on your orders, Moon Prince?” Maomao looked at Suiren.

“I took the liberty of calling Xiaomao here. I thought she would be perfect for the job,” the old lady-in-waiting said.

Maomao didn’t know whether she was perfect, but she certainly got the impression she’d been played.

Then again, he used to summon me for all kinds of annoying chores.

The more Maomao accepted Jinshi’s feelings, however, the more he seemed to want to keep his distance. Maomao continually felt that Jinshi was too loyal for his own good.

“I didn’t hear anything about this, Suiren,” Jinshi said.

“You must pardon me. Did I let myself go overboard?” Suiren snickered, a strikingly girlish sound for the older woman.

And she’s Jinshi’s real grandmother, huh? Maomao thought. How many other people in the tent knew that? One thing she was sure of: Basen certainly didn’t.

“Well, anyway, have a seat,” Jinshi said, and Maomao found an empty chair and sat down. Suiren prepared tea, as always.

“It’s unusual for you to be part of a hunting expedition with other young people, Moon Prince,” Maomao said, not using the name Jinshi in front of Taomei.

“I suppose. Things happen.”

“Troublesome things, sir?”

Jinshi grimaced. Maomao thought she saw him hesitate for a second, then evidently decide that it would be better to tell her. He straightened up and folded his hands. “You know there’s been a good deal of skirmishing among the soldiers lately, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir, and I can honestly say it’s been a real pain in the neck.”

It just meant more work for her.

“The troublemakers may refer to themselves as the Empress’s faction or the Empress Dowager’s faction, but it’s mostly the young people who are stirring things up. They seem to want to find any excuse for a fight.”

You’re a young person too, remember!

Maomao stayed quiet and let Jinshi talk.

“One group that’s been particularly prone to violence is on this hunt. They belong to the Empress Dowager’s faction. Supposedly they all hit it off at the meeting of the named and decided to go hunting together, but I can’t shake the feeling there’s something else going on.”

“And you’re here to find out what, sir?”

“That’s right. We have to stamp out the sparks before they can start a fire.”

Maomao acknowledged the necessity, but also worried. “Don’t you think that’s dangerous?”

“I doubt people claiming to belong to the Empress Dowager’s faction would do me harm, even if it is a pretense on their part. If there’s any danger, it’s only that they might try to involve me in some unsavory plan.”

Regardless of how Jinshi himself might feel, those looking in from the outside probably assumed he was aligned with the Empress Dowager. These youngsters would never imagine that the man they considered to be their ally had joined them specifically to find out what they were up to.

I don’t think that’s the only danger.

“I think they might try to set you up with a pretty member of their family,” Maomao said.

Jinshi glared at her and said nothing.

“Don’t worry, sir. There’s no one in this world more beautiful than the moon.”

“Oh, please.” he gave her a wry smile. In the past, he might have gotten angry at her for saying such a thing, or at least annoyed, but today, it seemed, was different. And now the time had come for Maomao to ask Jinshi about the real matter at hand.

“When does the hunt begin?”

“In an hour. They won’t be serving lunch, so you can just wait here in the tent and relax.”

“May I not be part of the proceedings?”

“What? This is a hunt we’re talking about. Can you even shoot a bow?”

“Of course not. But what if somebody gets poisoned? Think of the risk!” Maomao’s eyes were shining.

Jinshi gave her a doubtful look. “Don’t tell me...you believed that story about the poisonous birds.”

“Everyone needs some dreams and romance to get them through life.” This was Maomao’s roundabout way of saying that yes, she had.

“Dreams and romance? Not words I usually hear from you.”

Slightly bemused, Jinshi took a bite of fruit. It appeared to be sugared peach with crushed ice. Unlike the last time they had gone out to beat the heat, this time Jinshi was accompanied by two highly capable ladies, Suiren and Taomei, so he wouldn’t want for decent food.

I guess no women are going to be creeping in here in the middle of the night with these two around.

Plus, Hulan seemed likely to be a dab hand at dealing with sneaks like that.

“The legendary birds are just that—rumors, stories. Don’t be too upset if we don’t find any.”

“I’ll search for even a single feather, sir!” She was ready to crawl with her nose to the ground if she had to.

“My, but you are persistent, Maomao!” Suiren put some stewed peaches in front of her. Jinshi gave her the signal to eat, so she gratefully picked up her spoon. The soft fruit was sweet and delicious.

“I’ve learned something about the thing you asked me to investigate. It was such an old matter that it took some time.”

“What did you find out?” Maomao asked, setting the spoon down.

Jinshi glanced around. Taking his meaning, Suiren ushered Hulan out the room, and Taomei did the same with Basen.

“What? I can’t stay?” Hulan looked studiously innocent. Maomao was perfectly eager to get him out of there. His cute-kid act only made her angrier.

“Me, neither?” Basen asked.

“You need to keep Hulan in check,” Taomei said.

“Yes, ma’am.” Basen didn’t look very happy about it, but he wasn’t about to disobey his mother’s orders.

Once they were both gone, Jinshi finally began to speak.

“The owner’s real name isn’t left to us,” Jinshi began. “But I can surmise that it seems to have belonged to an Imperial family member known as Kada.”

“Kada...”

There was a name Maomao knew.

“I see you recognize it. I hear he’s quite famous among the physicians.”

“He was a legendary doctor himself,” Maomao said.

“Correct. However, among the Imperial family he’s known for something else entirely. The story goes that he’s a former Imperial family member who was punished for breaking a taboo. I believe you know that too.”

Maomao saw what Jinshi was getting at. Yes, she’d heard this story before.

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell me what kind of person he was,” Jinshi said.

Maomao took a deep breath. “As well as being a member of the Imperial family, he was also an accomplished physician, so gifted that he was called by the name of a legendary doctor. He was always seeking new techniques. But he did an autopsy on the corpse of, of all people, the prince whom the emperor at that time loved most of all.”

Jinshi nodded.

“That couldn’t be allowed even if he was part of the Imperial family, so he was punished, and his name stricken from the records. I’m told that’s the reason that doctors are forbidden from performing autopsies even now.”

“That’s right.”

“The jade tablet belonged to this Kada, yes?”

“That’s right.”

Maomao squeezed her eyes shut. That would certainly be reason enough to deface the tablet. The physicians performed autopsies only on criminals, and then only in secret, because it was believed that if a corpse was disfigured, its former owner could not be reborn.

Even though once you die, your body is just a lump of meat.

She doubted the emperor at that time was capable of being so magnanimous in his view.

“The fact that we have this jade now means that Kada must have given it to someone during his lifetime,” Jinshi said.

“So it would seem, sir.”

“And the only person he would have been likely to give it to would be...”

“The woman carrying his child.” Maomao scratched her head.

“Maomao.”

“Yes?”

“Kada lived generations ago. I don’t believe His Majesty would punish his descendants now.”

“That’s what I’m trusting, sir.”

“However, if someone is trying to get their hands on this tablet, that’s a problem.”

Joka had consulted with Maomao for her own safety, specifically because she thought someone was trying to steal the jade tablet.

“Its former owner threw it away,” Maomao said as firmly as she could. She felt she had to say it out loud.

“That owner was a woman, yes?” Jinshi asked.

Maomao hadn’t said a word about that. Jinshi really had looked into the owner’s identity, even though Maomao had never given him a name. That would explain the increased guard presence at the Verdigris House.

“But what would someone do with a broken jade tablet bearing the name of someone who was stricken from the records?” she asked.

“Establish a pretext.”

“That sounds like something from a stage play.”

“Countries sometimes rise—and sometimes fall—for reasons as ridiculous as those in any play.” Jinshi was deadly serious.

They could never let Hulan or Basen hear them talking like this. There was no telling what Hulan might take it upon himself to do, while Basen totally lacked any ability to prudently conceal the truth.

“There have been times in history when an empress dowager’s lover has tried to help the country flourish, or eunuchs have attempted to set up their own state,” Jinshi said.

“Tried. Attempted. In other words, they ended in civil war.”

“Once in a blue moon, it works.”

“I knew I never liked history.”

Jinshi had a distant look in his eyes. There must be many history books full of such absurd tales.

“Moon Prince?” Maomao said.

“Yes?”

Maomao knew she couldn’t call him Jinshi in front of Taomei, but he didn’t appear to like it very much.

“About this descendant of Kada’s.” Maomao pondered what exactly to do.

I know about another of his descendants.

It was Tianyu. She didn’t specifically care what happened to him, but she didn’t want to get Dr. Liu or Dr. You in trouble because of anything she said.

But still...

Under the circumstances, she had to tell Jinshi.

“Do you remember a physician named Tianyu?”

“I do. A young man with a...quirky streak, yes?”

So Jinshi did remember him. He took some peach on his spoon and put it into his mouth.

“He’s also a descendant of Kada.”

“Brrf?!”

Maomao found herself with bits of peach on her face.

“Oh, my goodness gracious.” Suiren was wiping Maomao’s face in an instant. There were certain people who might have considered it a privilege to have a gorgeous nobleman spit food on them. Maomao, however, could sum it up in one word: unhygienic.

“S-Sorry. Of all the things I thought you would say...” Jinshi said.

“Not at all, sir. I’m not completely certain of this story yet, so I debated whether I should say anything.”

Maomao told him how Tianyu was the son of a hunter, and how one of his ancestors was a woman who’d been Kada’s bedmate.

“I see. Tianyu, he...”

Jinshi also seemed to know something about the autopsies the doctors were performing, and his expression was conflicted: partly accepting, partly knowing that this was a delicate subject.

“So you think he might know something about this tablet?”

“I haven’t asked him, sir,” Maomao said firmly.

“Why not?”

“Tianyu is a man who became a doctor to feed his curiosity. Dissection is what gets him out of bed in the morning, and without Dr. Liu’s astute guidance, by now he would probably be digging up graves or even murdering people outright. As it is, when he catches wind of something that interests him, he disregards his own safety, drags in the people around him, makes a huge scene, and generally causes all kinds of trouble. He’s not someone you can speak to carelessly.”

Jinshi’s and Suiren’s gazes both settled on Maomao. They made her at once uncomfortable and uneasy.

“Yes? What is it?” she asked.

“It’s...nothing,” said Jinshi.

“Nothing at all!” Suiren agreed, and with a jolly hoh-hoh-hoh she began making more tea.

“I even thought it was possible that the dead man, Wang Fang, had been looking for Tianyu.”

“What makes you think that?” Jinshi asked, but it was a difficult question to answer. Here they entered entirely into the realm of Maomao’s suppositions. Maomao couldn’t shake the sense that she spoke much more on the basis of assumptions and educated guesses than she used to.

“Wang Fang appeared to want the tablet,” she said. “Not for its own sake—he was looking for members of the Imperial family. Evidently, he was also investigating the Shin clan’s family heirloom.”

“Ah, yes. The Shin clan, which turned out to be the common denominator behind the three court ladies who killed Wang Fang. Unfortunately we took that investigation as far as we could—but he seems to have stuck his nose in where he shouldn’t.” Jinshi appeared less interested in Wang Fang’s murder than in what he had been after.

“Does that information come from Miss Chue?”

“No... From Hulan. I take it you don’t like him very much,” Jinshi added when he saw Maomao grimace.

“You’d prefer that I did?”

“No—I mean, I understand. But he is useful in his own way.” There was that distant look again.

“He’s a capable servant, but comes with his own challenges, doesn’t he?” said Maomao.

“People have certainly stopped foisting work on me since he got here. I haven’t had to do so many all-nighters.”

“Come to think of it, your color does look better than usual.” Maomao had to acknowledge the little bastard’s talent. “But are you sure you should keep him so close?”

“I can do it, if I just think of him as a Lahan with a slightly different hair color.”

“Yikes! That makes him sound like the most exquisitely awful servant.”

He would do his work, but always with the most untoward looks at his superior.

“He’s quite a capable second-in-command. Even if he does sometimes needle other civil servants’ weak points...”

“He really is just Lahan with a different hair color, isn’t he?” Lahan would deny it if it were put to him in those terms, but that was no skin off Maomao’s nose. “Anyway, sir, I think we’ve gotten off topic.”

Maomao got out of her chair and looked outside the tent. All she saw was the guest house and the forest; there were no commoners’ houses anywhere to be seen. “Tianyu’s home village is supposed to be somewhere around here.”

Jinshi looked startled. “Do you think that’s coincidence?”

“I can only hope, sir.”

In Maomao’s experience, though, there had been disappointingly few cases in which so many coincidences turned out to be, well, coincidence.

There were Wang Fang’s footprints. Tianyu and Joka, both descendants of Kada. The jade tablet. And now, Tianyu’s home area had been chosen as the party’s hunting grounds.

“Urgh. I don’t feel so good,” Maomao said.

“What’s wrong?” Jinshi asked, suddenly seeming to be concerned about his deportment for some reason. Evidently he thought he was the one who had upset her.

“I mean, about Wang Fang. Something about his—well, I mean, about the military’s factional strife—feels inconsistent.”

“How so?”

Maomao had to ponder the question. “It’s hard to say exactly, but the military essentially has three factions—the Empress Dowager’s people, the Empress’s backers, and the neutrals, right? And Wang Fang went from the neutrals to the Empress.”

“That’s right.”

“But does that make sense? Why would Wang Fang, a member of the Empress’s faction, go looking for some undiscovered member of the Imperial family? They have a perfectly good heir in Empress Gyokuyou’s son, so where’s the need to find another?” Maomao crossed her arms. “Moreover, there’s been a lot of injuries related to factional disputes among the soldiers, but they’re all over trivial things. Nobody is fighting for their convictions. It just seems like a lot of young guys who are jumping on the bandwagon so they can let off steam.”

“A lot of them are hot-blooded, indeed. I think I see what you’re saying, though.”

Hearing him say it, it certainly sounded true enough. But by the same token, Maomao saw only a lot of feuding youngsters.

“If I may ask, is this really factional strife?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“Because only young people seem to be involved, not anyone of major importance.”

“Now that you mention it...”

This seemed to spark a thought for Jinshi. He would know the situation better than Maomao did, which suggested she wasn’t just imagining this.

“Something’s odd, though,” Jinshi said. “Have you heard that the U clan is the object of special torment?”

“Yes, sir.”

From the patriarch himself.

“It seems the new faction in the army doesn’t like me much at all.”

That’s what he’d said.

It made sense to go after a weakened, old-line clan—but in Maomao’s opinion, that didn’t rise to the level of factional strife.

“Which clans did you say are involved in today’s hunt?”

“The Shin and the Chu, as well as the Shen—the Monkey clan.”

The Shin again.

Maomao thought of Mister Love Letters and began to worry that he might butt in today.

“It’s about time for you to be getting ready,” Taomei warned Jinshi.

“I have to collect myself,” he said.

“Of course, sir.” Maomao stood up, clenching her fists.

Jinshi, Suiren, and Taomei all looked at her silently.

“What?”

“You’re staying here.”

“B-But what about my zhen?”

“If they exist, I promise we’ll catch one and bring it back to you,” Jinshi said. “So just stay here!”

Maomao was about to tail Jinshi out of the tent, but Suiren caught her by the shoulder. Firmly.