The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 15 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Patient

They stayed in the book repair room for a while. Tianyu was humming loudly, which got on Maomao's nerves, but since she was probably doing the same thing, maybe she should take a long hard look at herself first.

Jinshi had disappeared at some point; maybe he still had work to do. That was frustrating to Maomao: She was left with the nuisance that was Tianyu, but without the crucial key that was Jinshi.

"All righty, everyone, what say we wrap it up?" Chue drawled. "Miss Chue hasn't had her dinner yet!" Evidently she was done eating her candy, although she was still licking her lips. "The Moon Prince said he'll call you again when there are more pages to see," she assured them.

"Man, I'm hungry too," Tianyu said as he and Maomao left the room.

"I'll get a carriage ready," said Chue.

"It's all good. I've been sleeping in the medical office lately anyway."

"At least get a fresh set of clothes," Maomao urged him. If a physician didn't maintain hygiene, what was the point? 

"I know, I know," Tianyu said. They watched him go, then Maomao headed back toward Jinshi's office.

"What's up?" Chue chirped.

"There's something I'd like to check."

"Yeppers, sounds good!" Chue went dutifully ahead of Maomao and said a few words to the guard outside the office door. Then she turned back. "Okie dokie, right this way!"

Maomao walked into Jinshi's office for the second time that evening.

"What's the matter?" asked Jinshi. He was, as she had suspected, still working. Basen and Hulan were already gone, although she didn't know whether Baryou was still behind his curtain. There was a soldier to serve as guard, but it wasn't Basen-Maomao didn't know his name, but he was clearly someone Jinshi trusted.

Chue stood behind her.

"Nothing," Maomao said, taking a close look at Jinshi's expression. There was something that had been bugging her ever since she found out about the drug trials. "Master Jinshi. May I ask a question?"

"What is it?"

Jinshi noticed that Maomao was concerned about the people around them; he swept the room with a quick glance himself to see if there was anyone he needed to get out of there.

"Would you happen to be sick these days, Master Jinshi?"

"Do I look it?"

Maomao looked at him intently. "Your shortage of sleep is less acute than it used to be, but you continue to overwork yourself. You're borrowing against your future health. Also, you still like to hurt yourself."

"Was that last part really necessary?"

"It's true, sir."

She was sure the red flower brand must still be on his flank. It was her way of indicating that she was about to talk about something very secret-and Jinshi was clever enough to understand.

He raised a hand, and his guard withdrew, although he didn't look very sure about it. Maomao suspected this meant that Baryou had already gone home as well.

"What about me?" Chue piped up.

"You too."

"Goodness gracious! Well, enjoy yourselves!" She shuffled out of the room, looking dejected. The thought of the report she seemed likely to bring Suiren was frightening.

"All right, go ahead. And don't beat around the bush."

"Is someone in the Imperial family sick with some disease of the internal organs?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"The physicians, chiefly the palace's own doctors, are actually conducting drug trials. They're also getting the new physicians lots of surgical experience. Considering the scale of the endeavor, I have to think there's some serious illness afoot."

Jinshi set down the brush he had been holding. "Who else has noticed?"

"Didn't you deliberately gather people who would keep their mouths shut even if they did?" Maomao thought back on the people who had been assembled for the selection exam. They were all folks who were exceptional even among the ranks of the physicians.

Well ... Maybe not all of them.

Dr. Liu was probably keeping a very close eye on Tianyu.

Jinshi was quiet, considering his words. At that moment, there was a knock at the door.

"I thought I told everyone to clear out," Jinshi said, somewhat mystified.

"I'll go see who it is," said Maomao. When she opened the door, she found the familiar, overworked face of Gaoshun, Chue peeking out from behind him.

"Miss Chue's animal instincts told her that you just might want her father-in-law around," she said, standing up ramrod straight in a most unusual pose. Even if she'd hurried to get Gaoshun, she'd brought him awfully quickly.

"I'm very sorry," Gaoshun said. "She said Xiaomao was here with you, Moon Prince."

"It's all right. You've come at just the right moment-I have a question. Chue, you may withdraw."

"What?"

Evidently she'd had every intention of sticking around, but Jinshi wasn't going to let her. Gaoshun handed his daughter-in-law several snacks and sent her out the door.

I guess Gaoshun and Baryou handle their wives in the same way.

An odd place to find similarity between father and son.

"Now, Gaoshun. Why did you come here?"

"I suspected that a clever person might deduce from the physicians' recent activities that something was going on. And I thought this might be about the time Xiaomao would ask you about it."

Maomao shivered to realize how thoroughly he had seen through her.

"Thinking that I might be more knowledgeable in the matter about which our little cat wishes to learn, I took the liberty of coming here myself."

Specifically to explain things to me? Maomao tilted her head quizzically: That was awfully proactive for Gaoshun.

"At the Emperor's orders?" Jinshi asked.

"No, sir. My own personal judgment."

Jinshi grunted. "Very well."

"In that case, let me begin with a question for Xiaomao. What were you about to ask the Moon Prince?"

"I was just asking Master Jinshi whether someone in the Imperial family is ill."

Gaoshun referred to Jinshi as the Moon Prince: He had long ago ceased to be Jinshi's direct servant and now served the Emperor personally.

"Might it be the Emperor who's sick?" Maomao asked.

"Yes," Gaoshun replied without hesitation.

I sort of suspected, but ...

To actually hear it acknowledged weighed heavily on her.

"What is His Majesty's current condition?"

"What do you suspect, Xiaomao?" Gaoshun asked, answering her question with a question.

"This is just my speculation ... " she began.

"Your favorite expression," Jinshi remarked. Maomao didn't assume her opinion was an actual answer, however, so what else was she supposed to say? This was just what she guessed based on what she knew of the illness among the patients in the drug trial.

"My guess is that His Majesty has typhlitis. My reasoning is that at present, the court physicians are validating the effects of various drugs for the condition. And if it is typhlitis, I suspect it's chronic."

"What makes you say that?" asked not Gaoshun this time, but Jinshi.

"It takes time to verify the effects of a drug. If the condition were acute, it would be too late to be doing drug trials now. Or else, the typhlitis appeared earlier in life and was cured, but there's a risk of relapse-then it would be worth investigating."

Gaoshun nodded. "It's the latter. His Majesty had typhlitis once, but it was cured with drugs at the time."

"So you're saying that the same symptoms have been observed again?"

"Yes. I should know-I was his aide at the time."

There was a weight to Gaoshun's words.

If he was serving the Emperor, this must have been before Jinshi was appointed to oversee the rear palace.

Which was to say, before the throne had changed hands.

"When specifically did this happen?" Maomao asked.

"More than ten years ago. Even before that, His Majesty had chronic stomach aches, and at the time he also had nausea and occasional fevers. His attending physician diagnosed typhlitis due to stress and was able to calm the condition using boiled herbs and a change of diet."

Typhlitis could be caused by a wide variety of factors, so it was hard to be certain that stress was the reason. But if that was what the physician at the time had diagnosed, His Majesty must have been under enough stress that it was impossible to miss.

"Do we know the source of the stress?" Maomao asked.

"It's hard to be completely certain, but in his capacity as crown prince, His Majesty often argued with the mother of the former emperor-much more than with his father. I suspect that might have been the cause."

Maomao was quiet. In other words, he was arguing with the empress regnant. That would give anyone enough stress to cause an ulcer or two.

Maomao had never actually met the former empress dowager, popularly known as the "empress regnant," so she couldn't say for certain, but from what she heard, the woman had been a force of nature. Word on the street likewise held that in her twilight years, she often clashed with the man who was the crown prince at the time and was now the Emperor.

"Also-and I don't know how you'll feel to hear this, Xiaomao ... "

"Yes, sir?"

"The one who was always at His Majesty's side at that time was Sir Lakan."

Maomao's mouth hung open. "Not good news!"

"Your true feelings are showing," Jinshi remarked before he could stop himself.

Nonetheless, now that Gaoshun had mentioned it, it made a lot of sense. Seventeen-no, eighteen-years ago, the monocled freak head returned from the western capital. He would have needed a powerful backer to rise in the world as he had after that. Given that the crown prince was both younger than him and at odds with the empress regnant, an alliance could have strengthened both their positions.

It might at least explain why a man who took matters into his own hands to the extent of smashing through the walls of the rear palace got away without so much as a slap on the wrist.

He's got a finger on the Emperor'sweakness

Yes, it made sense ... almost too much sense.

"You don't think the old fart with the monocle might have been the source of the stress?" said Maomao.

"I prefer to refrain from commenting on the matter," Gaoshun said. So he was running away.

"All right. So the Emperor is now showing the same symptoms he did back then?"

"That's right. As far as Dr. Liu and Dr. Kan can discern, the situation isn't yet critical."

Dr. Kan: in other words, Maomao's old man, Luomen.

"But it also doesn't look like it's going to fix itself, huh?" said Maomao. "If anything, it must be gradually getting worse." 

Gaoshun nodded.

If the condition didn't seem to be responding to drugs, they would have to do surgery.

Wounding the "jade body"? Yikes.

Even Maomao understood that those who would take such an action must be prepared to die for it, even if they did it in the name of surgery. Even if the procedure was successful, who knew what people might say? Someone might find some excuse to put them to death anyway. They were dealing with someone who lived "above the clouds," which automatically made this a vastly weightier matter than even the cutting open of the Empress Dowager's stomach.

Maomao unconsciously scratched her head. It would be ridiculous for her father Luomen, not to mention Dr. Liu-both excellent doctors -to suffer unjust punishment over something completely beyond their control.

"Why has the condition relapsed? What could cause-" Maomao began, but then she happened to look at Jinshi. Specifically, his flank.

It's this son of a -!

Jinshi bit his lip and pressed a hand to his side. At least he seemed to know.

Maomao tried to put herself in the Emperor's shoes. Officially, Jinshi was his younger brother, but in reality he was his son. And that young man had abruptly burned a brand into his side and asserted that he would not take a consort, and then he'd disappeared to the western capital and not returned for a solid year-yeah, that would cause some pretty unimaginable stress.

There were probably plenty of other things weighing on the royal mind as well, but Maomao had a suspicion that Jinshi accounted for a pretty good percentage of it.

However, from Jinshi's perspective, the Emperor was his older brother, not his father. He still didn't know the secret of his own parentage, she was pretty sure. That misapprehension was a big part of what had allowed him to do something as rash as burning a brand into himself.

All right, no point pursuing the cause of the illness at this moment, then.

"Master Gaoshun," Maomao said. "What purpose does it serve to hear the opinion of the likes of me?"

"One wishes to get a variety of perspectives, Xiaomao."

"A variety, sir?"

Gaoshun of all people should be able to hear about His Majesty's condition from the highest-ranking physicians in the land. By the same token, however, hearing from any of the lower physicians would be difficult. She supposed he wanted the viewpoint of a minion like her to avoid becoming too biased in his thinking.

Then again, perhaps he was considering the possibility that the upper physicians were lying to them. Whether from good motives or bad, it was hardly unusual for a doctor to conceal the extent of a patient's illness.

"If you're involved, Gaoshun, then I take it we can assume it's not good," Jinshi said.

"No, sir, it's not. I think it will soon be hard to cover for His Majesty's condition. We've been careful to conceal his poor pallor with whitening powder, but I think people will soon begin to notice anyway."

"And once they do, it's going to be a big deal," Maomao said.

Ordinarily, one wished to worry only about the sick person themselves. With the royal family, however, matters were different. The state of their health could provoke a great deal of talk.

"If anything should happen to His Majesty, the country would be thrown into chaos," Jinshi muttered, and he was right. The Crown Prince wasn't even five years old. If he were to have a regent to rule in his stead, it would be Empress Gyokuyou's father, Gyokuen.

Many of the Emperor's subjects disliked the Crown Prince, in whose veins flowed distant western blood. Many others no doubt would wish to put Consort Lihua's son, who was the same age as the Crown Prince, on the throne.

And there was one other candidate: the twenty-two-year-old younger son of the Emperor's own mother. Jinshi.

Chaos! Chaos wouldn't even begin to cover it.

Jinshi himself might not have any interest in the jade throne, but that wouldn't dissuade anyone else. Crying that he simply couldn't because he had a brand in his flank wouldn't pass muster.

Just when it seemed the discord between the Empress's faction and the Empress Dowager's was calming down, an even bigger bomb was poised to go off.

This isn't going to make him less stressed out, Maomao thought. Trying to conceal his illness so as not to worry those around him would only make it worse. The Emperor has to be the Emperor before he can be a sick man.

Whatever the illness, so long as one was in the position of majesty, one had to simply get through it. One could not just beg off and relax for a while to recover.

The Emperor was said to live above the clouds; he was not like those who lived on the earth.

Gaoshun might be worried about the state of his milk brother, the Emperor, but he was also a vassal of the same man. What was it that he, a vassal, wanted Maomao to do?

"Master Gaoshun. Are you sure you should be quite so forthcoming with me?"

"Are you the kind to blab to others, Xiaomao?" he replied promptly -the back-and-forth felt familiar.

"Surely you don't need to go so far as to tell me the Emperor's actual condition."

"It would be rude to ask for information without offering any."

It sounded as if Gaoshun were talking about simple give-and-take, but that wasn't really true.

"I have faith that the physicians will tell you only what is true," Maomao said. It was all she could say.

"Understood," Gaoshun replied, and left.

It had been so long since the three of them had had a chance to talk together, but this conversation had only reinforced to her how different their positions now were. Nonetheless, Maomao decided to take a positive view of things: This was certainly better than if the Emperor had no allies at all.

Be that as it may ...

Maomao watched Gaoshun leave, then glanced at Jinshi. "What are you going to do, sir?" she asked.

"I can't say I know what you mean."

Maomao crept up to Jinshi and poked him in the flank.

"Yikes!"

"You should think about what you've done."

Jinshi pressed a hand to his abdomen and said, "Believe me ... I'm aware."