The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 15 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Sowing Seeds

Jinshi was getting a headache from having this conversation for the umpteenth time.

"But what's to be done should anything happen to His Majesty's honored personage?" asked the officials. It sounded like a question, but they were really looking for confirmation.

Exactly what answer they wanted from Jinshi depended on their position. Some sought to set Jinshi up as crown prince; others didn't. Some were trying to judge which camp they should join.

Now it was lunchtime, and things were finally quiet. The flow of people and paperwork had stopped.

"You've got to do something about this!"

"I'm afraid I can't, sir."

The voice came from behind a dividing screen. As ever, Baryou was avoiding everyone else as he did his work. The officials who came calling would never have suspected he was behind that curtain. Thanks to which, he at least could continue working away no matter who showed up.

"This is making me want to hide," said Basen, looking just as bothered as Jinshi. He attended Jinshi as his aide and bodyguard, but diplomacy was not his strong suit. Jinshi was just happy he hadn't punched anybody yet.

Jinshi noticed that the number of officials who asked him prying questions decreased drastically if Basen was glaring at them. It suggested they took Jinshi himself rather lightly. Was it because of all those years he'd spent pretending to be a eunuch? Or did he need to put on a more forceful front?

"Perhaps I need a few more of these," Jinshi said, scratching the scar on his cheek with a finger. Some more scars might help turn his jewellike visage into something more intimidating.

"You're not thinking about doing anything you shouldn't, are you?" someone asked.

Jinshi put an end to his ruminations by looking at the source of the voice. It was Maamei, who was preparing lunch. He had all three Ma siblings in one place today.

On the table in front of him, Maamei placed his lunch, something that was quick to eat. Jinshi had sometimes gone without lunch, but there was no winning against this older-sister-like lady-in-waiting. No matter how busy he was, she would make sure he got a meal.

He took a bite of some cubed meat tucked into some bread. It wasn't a very refined way of eating, but only his milk siblings were here, and he knew they wouldn't hold it against him. Most importantly, Maamei had encouraged him to relax a little, at least at mealtimes. And her younger brothers were not about to go against what their older sister said.

"If you might hear me out, then? I don't mind if you keep eating."

Jinshi nodded wordlessly. Maamei was a woman-and for that reason, there were certain jobs he could only entrust to her.

"There are currently three vacancies among His Majesty's four most favored consorts. But two of them appear likely to be filled soon."

At the moment, there was only one upper consort, the Wise Consort Lihua.

Baryou and Basen were men, making it difficult for them to get a good sense of exactly what was going on in the rear palace. Instead, Jinshi sometimes tasked Maamei with reporting to him on the situation there.

Jinshi had once overseen the rear palace, even if only for a few years. It had been more than two years since he had left that position, but he still knew more about what happened there than any number of less qualified officials.

"As you said, Moon Prince, the positions of Precious Consort and Virtuous Consort are going to be filled by young ladies from the Empress Dowager's faction and the Empress's faction, respectively."

The position of Precious Consort had once belonged to Empress Gyokuyou, while that of Virtuous Consort had formerly been held by Lishu of the U clan.

As for the position of Pure Consort, it practically seemed cursed: It had been held by a young woman whose clan had attempted rebellion.

Jinshi looked at a piece of paper that Maamei held out for him. His brow furrowed-there was a name on this list that he had not been expecting.

"I grant that if we had the same ... materials as we did two years ago, there would be some inadequacies in the selection. Which name concerns you, sir?" Maamei asked. 

Jinshi washed down the bread with some tea. Without missing a beat, Maamei handed him a handkerchief, so he wiped his hands and took the paper.

"The candidate from the Empress Dowager's faction," he replied. "She's seventeen years old, and only entered the rear palace last year." She was the grandniece of the Empress Dowager's half-brother, Hao- but also the great-niece of the Empress Dowager herself. "I was of the belief that Hao had only an older sister and a younger sister by way of siblings."

"That's correct, sir. This girl is the granddaughter of the Empress Dowager's older sister."

"The Empress Dowager's older sister ... "

Jinshi brought up his mental family tree. He recalled that the older sister of Empress Dowager Anshi had entered service as a middle consort, but that it was her younger half-sibling, Anshi, serving as her lady-in-waiting, who had attracted the former emperor's attention.

The former emperor's reprehensible behavior bore a certain resemblance to something that had led to the rebellion of the Shi clan. That episode had been in some ways a revenge drama staged by Shenmei, whom the former emperor had spurned.

The main difference was that after they learned of Anshi's pregnancy, her family had swiftly sent her older sister out of the rear palace.

"No, no, no, no," said Jinshi.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes," replied Maamei. "There's no one better."

"This person is just asking for trouble."

"Yes. Which is why we don't make her the Pure Consort, but the Precious one." Maamei had that look on her face like a predator. The former Pure Consort, Loulan, had been a daughter of the Shi clan and one of the masterminds of the rebellion.

"Couldn't you come up with anyone else?"

"I'm afraid Master Hao had no direct relations who could be admitted. Several of his more distant relations are in the rear palace, but his honored elder sister seems bent on restoring her honor."

"Oh, geez," chorused not Jinshi, but Baryou and Basen.

From the Emperor's perspective, Hao's great-niece would be his cousin's daughter. In order to prevent illnesses arising from marriage to close family members, all other things being equal, consorts would be chosen from the most distant bloodline possible. That was why Lihua, who was a relative of the Imperial family, had been made Wise Consort: Although the four great ladies were all upper consorts, the Wise Consort ranked last among them.

Jinshi doubted Hao realized such factors played a part in the selection of these women.

"She was persistent enough that even His Majesty was obliged to spend one night with her," Maamei said.

Jinshi narrowed his eyes and took a big bite of bread.

This subject always made him feel awkward, despite the fact that during his time as a "eunuch," he'd been in charge of preparing for these encounters. Basen looked down, a little embarrassed-he didn't know much about the rear palace, but he seemed to sense Jinshi's discomfort.

This was a world where the map of power could shift depending on how many times the Emperor had gone into the chambers of a woman from one faction or another.

"A young lady from the Empress's faction was admitted to the rear palace at the same time and made a middle consort," Maamei said.

That, Jinshi already knew. He'd been contemplating what to do about exactly that. Since Gyoku-ou's adopted daughter had ultimately wound up as one of Empress Gyokuyou's serving women, someone from their bloodline had to be admitted to the rear palace or it would have left a bad taste in their mouth. So instead, they had chosen to admit the child of one of Gyoku-ou's other siblings. They decided the daughter of Dahai, Gyokuen's third son, was a particularly good choice.

The girl was not consulted about whether she wanted this. It would be impossible to conduct politics if they had to worry about how she felt -but at the same time, Jinshi was aware that they were doing something terribly cruel. At times it tormented him, the thought of how awful a person he could be.

"His Majesty has visited her chamber as well," Maamei reported.

The Emperor, Jinshi thought, was a very cunning man. He was thinking about what his ill health might later cause. He was thinking, Jinshi suspected, about how to make a soft landing for himself and his country if all should not go well.

"Was that not the same basis on which you yourself recommended high consorts, Moon Prince?"

Jinshi swallowed his food, hard. "Yes. Of course. I simply thought ... Well, he's leaving nothing to chance, sowing his seeds like this."

"Sowing his seeds" had two meanings.

A middle consort visited by the Emperor would be promoted to upper consort. Those outside the rear palace would most likely suspect her of being pregnant.

Jinshi wasn't so sure about the Empress's faction, but at least Hao, the head of the Empress Dowager's faction, was a relatively easy man to manipulate. They just needed him to jump to the conclusion that the girl was with child. With more game pieces among his relatives, his thinking would naturally change.

"I've already sent maids to each of the ladies," Maamei said. Jinshi could only marvel at her thoroughness.

"Will they be able to fan the flames as necessary?"

"It's not a matter of whether they'll be able to. They'll do it." Maamei seemed uncommonly invested in the matter.

"We don't know whether the child will be a boy or girl. For that matter, we don't even know if she'll really get pregnant," Jinshi said.

"There are those who believe that the sex of the child is determined by the condition of the mother's womb. And I have it on good authority that at a drinking party, Hao claimed that the reason he has only sons and grandsons is because the pregnant women in his family eat only sour foods."

"Could that possibly be true?" Jinshi asked. He would have to check with Maomao next time he saw her.

But whatever-if that was enough to get Hao to change his thinking, then wonderful.

"I have a handful of other strategies in mind," Maamei said.

"Good, good."

It was better than sitting and doing nothing.

Nothing was what Jinshi could do about His Majesty's illness. The only thing within his power was to make sure the environment was as conducive as possible to treatment and healing.