The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 15 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

After some two weeks, the Emperor resumed his public duties. His progress after the procedure was excellent, and there were no complications. Once Maomao had seen the stitches in the surgical site safely removed, she'd thrown up her hands for joy. And she wasn't the only one. Auntie Liu, Dr. Wang Wang, and the rest of the medical staff were equally thrilled.

The postsurgical team had been looking after His Majesty in shifts, essentially without break.

"Argh! I'm going to find a street stall and get the greasiest noodles money can buy!" Wang Wang announced.

"Oooh," said Maomao.

Boy, do I know the feeling.

The single biggest issue with spending nights on call was food. They couldn't leave the rooms, so the Emperor's chefs generously made extra portions of his meals for them. Which would be wonderful if he were having sumptuous royal fare, but he was on a recovery diet of congee without so much as rice in it. It was felt that the Emperor's doctors could hardly eat better than he did, so every meal that was presented to them was pathetic stuff like that. If Dr. Liu and Luomen hadn't smuggled in some snacks for them when they came to do their exams, the postsurgical team might have started to suffer from malnutrition.

Food time, food time!

Doctors would continue to take shifts for a while yet, but the postsurgical team as such was to be disbanded.

"It's such a shame. And just when we were getting along so well."

"Hee hee hee! Lady Suiren, we must take tea together sometime."

Suiren and Auntie Liu had grown thick as thieves, perhaps because they were so close in age.

Come to think of it ...

Had Jinshi survived two weeks without Suiren?

"Now I suppose I'd better be getting back to looking after the younger young master," Suiren said.

The older young master must be the Emperor.

In Maomao's books, Suiren and the madam were the two most formidable old ladies she knew.

"Won't you come eat something, Maomao? I hear Taomei and Maamei have made far too much for the young master to finish on his own."

"Too much food?" Maomao asked, feeling herself start to salivate.

It would be a lot of trouble to go home now and still have to make her own meal. At the same time, it didn't quite feel right to insist that her junior Changsha should cook for her. She'd been contemplating getting something from a street stall.

I do want to eat that food, but ...

Suiren would be there, and Taomei, and Maamei-and, Maomao somehow suspected, Chue too.

Sounds pretty awkward.

She was just weighing a good meal against getting to relax a bit when Suiren whispered, "The young master seems rather tired. Perhaps you could take a look at him."

Maomao simply answered, "Yes ma'am."

With the Emperor on complete bed rest for two weeks, someone had had to step in to do the work.

"I tried to save you from as much work as I could, Moon Prince," said Hulan, although his excuse didn't carry much water. Jinshi was there, a dried out husk of a man.

"If only my husband could have helped," Taomei said, putting her hands to her cheeks and sighing. "But he's had three times as much work as usual lately. In Western-capital terms, it's been an increase of fifty percent."

If things had been busier than in the Western capital, it was no surprise that Jinshi was wrung out.

He looks like a frog in a dried-up pond, Maomao thought-irreverent as ever.

"My, my, my, my, my." No wonder Suiren looked less than happy: The carpet was plush, yes, but someone had walked on it without wiping their feet, and there was Jinshi, lying right there. "We need to at least carry him to bed."

"I'm very sorry. He said to just leave him-that he couldn't afford to sleep yet," Basen said apologetically.

"Doing something about that situation is what followers are for! Xiaomao, let's get to work," Suiren said, wasting no time in making use of her. Maomao would have been just as happy to get some rest herself, but so it went.

"Could you make up some sugar water, for a start?" Maomao asked.

"I'm on it!"

The prompt reply came from Chue, who instantly produced a carafe.

'Here, Master Jinshi. Drink." Maomao propped his head up and made him drink the sugar water.

After a moment of taking it in, Jinshi's eyes snapped open. "Yurgh!" he exclaimed.

"Yurgh? What's that mean?" Maomao asked.

"Young Master, what crass behavior," Suiren said gently.

"Master Jinshi, would you like something to eat?"

After a second he said, "Yeah ... "

"And while you're at it, perhaps you could bless me with a meal as well? I'm very, very hungry."

"Eat your fill," he replied.

"Thank you, sir."

Then Jinshi realized he was in Maomao's arms, and sat up, looking awkward.

"We'll keep the food coming!" Taomei said as she and her daughter Maamei started producing a feast. The round table filled with food, and Maomao's stomach growled.

"Miss Maomao, Miss Chue hopes you'll leave enough for her," Chue said-she was even hungrier than Maomao.

"You, over here," said Taomei, grabbing Chue by the collar. "You look liable to eat this whole thing!"

"Noooo! My feast!"

Taomei dragged Chue off somewhere. It wasn't just the two of them -Basen, Hulan, and Maamei likewise disappeared.

"Just call me if you need anything," Suiren said. She set down a bell with which to summon her, and then went into another room.

"Sit," Jinshi said. "Eat as much as you like."

"You do the same, Master Jinshi."

Jinshi smirked with his dry lips. "As long as you eat."

With no one around, Jinshi didn't worry about his manners. He put his elbows on the table and stared at Maomao.

Well, he ordered me to eat, so ...

She started with the noodles, which felt wonderful as they slid down her throat.

Jinshi didn't touch the food, but only watched her intently. Maybe he was still a bit dehydrated, because his gaze remained somewhat vacant, like he wasn't quite all there.

"I can't eat if you don't take some food too, sir," Maomao said.

"Right, yes." Jinshi clutched a bean bun in one hand and took a bite. What did we say? Bad manners.

"Master Jinshi. I can see you would die if you became emperor."

"A sudden prophecy of my demise?" he said.

"Yes, sir. You're totally unsuited for the throne." Maomao was exhausted too, and because there was no one else around, the disrespectful words came flooding from her.

"I see. I'm not suited to be emperor, you say?" Jinshi sipped some noodles, looking oddly happy.

"Please don't ever be one."

"I don't wish to."

"Are you going back to work after you eat?"

"Please don't speak of work. I want to at least relax during my meal."

"Yes, sir."

Their conversation, along with their meal, wound on slowly. Maomao should have been starving, but she found herself strangely sated, and her chopsticks moved at a glacial pace. Jinshi, likewise, started tearing little bits off the bean bun.

The feast gradually went cold, yet somehow they still enjoyed eating it.

It was, Maomao thought, an unusually serene moment.