The Apothecary Diaries - Volume 8 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Thunderclap

It was an autumn afternoon, and Maomao and her father were both looking puzzled.

“Think it might rain today?” her father asked, looking at the sky out the window of the medical office.

“Cats and dogs...uh, sir,” she said, catching herself before she spoke too brusquely to him. There were other members of the medical staff around and she had to be careful. Yao and En’en weren’t there, however. As the medical assistants grew more comfortable with their jobs, they were increasingly assigned to different places, wherever there was work to be done. Maomao happened to have been sent to help out today at the medical office where her father worked.

Luomen held a message in his hands—orders from one particular person. The problem lay in exactly who that person was.

“Guess he’s been hard at work. I’m a little surprised,” mumbled a young physician nearby, seemingly in spite of himself. Maomao had met him when she was working for Jinshi—and if you’re wondering, no, she hadn’t learned his name yet.

“He ought to be. He ought to be working,” Luomen said, but he sounded somewhat less firm than usual.

“What does Grand Commandant Kan want with you, though, Dr. Kan?”

In short, the freak strategist was trying to foist his work on Maomao’s dad. The letter was phrased as a polite request, not an order, but nothing about the contents said if you’d be so kind.

“I must admit, I’m not confident that I’m the best person for an interrogation,” Luomen said. He was being asked to speak to a trio of suspects. Normally, that would be the business of some legal functionary. Why ask a doctor to do it?

“One might have expected them to be a little more discreet about a matter like this,” Maomao said.

“Yes, one might,” Luomen agreed. The suspects were three soldiers—this was an internal investigation.

“What exactly is it that you’re supposed to ask them about?” the young doctor inquired. He seemed like the kind who was too professional to ask gossipy questions, but it appeared his interest had been piqued.

“I can see why they might want to keep this quiet. There’s a woman involved,” Luomen said.

“A w-w-woman?” said the doctor, studying the ground with all the embarrassment of an innocent boy.

Why do they want my old man to handle this? Maomao wondered. Maybe there hadn’t been anyone else suited to the task. She grew more surprised, however, the more she learned about the interrogation subjects. “They all have the same family name,” she said.

The number of family names in Li amounted to no more than several dozen, so it wasn’t unusual for people to share a name, but for all three of the suspects to happen to have the same one—that was a little odd.

“They’re brothers. Triplets, at that,” Luomen said.

“Triplets?” That got the attention of both Maomao and the young doctor.

“A woman claims that one of the three tried to force himself on her, but she brought her charges without being completely certain which of them it was. Since the woman is related to a soldier, it was decided that the investigation should begin as an internal matter. However...”

“Yes? What?”

“The triplets’ father is a high-ranking official with the Board of Justice, and he’s insisting that no trial can be held until they know for sure which of the three did it. My understanding is that this wouldn’t be the first time the boys have used their father’s privilege to shield them from responsibility for their wrongdoings.”

Geez, Maomao thought with an instinctive scowl.

“We’ll have one chance and one chance only to question them, and to make it clear who committed the crime. We must not fail.”

That was why the freak strategist had turned to Luomen. Why he’d suddenly become such an industrious worker remained a mystery, but he continued to display excellent judgment in his choice of operatives. Maomao’s father was brilliant, a man who could hear one fact and deduce ten more.

Luomen wasted no time; he went to hear the young men’s stories the very next day. “Would you come with and write down what they say, Maomao? I’d like to have a third party’s opinion.”

“I’d better not. I always bring out the freaks.” Or more precisely, the freak. She shook her head, imagining what would happen if the strategist showed up.

“You needn’t worry. Lakan won’t be there.”

“All right, fine, but what about Yao and En’en?” She glanced over. The two were working in the same office as she was today, and they would be sure to notice if she slipped away.

“I’ve spoken to them. Yao declined; she said she’s not versed in shorthand.”

Neither am I, Maomao thought, but she chose not to say it. If Yao happened to overhear, she might go ahead and volunteer—and En’en would never let her be in a room with men accused of perpetrating violence against a young woman. No, the wise choice here was to stay silent. Yao might be frustrated by her own shortcomings, but she was willing to accept the limits they placed on her.

Yao had been watching Maomao regretfully from behind a post for some time now. Behind her, En’en was waving a white handkerchief as if to say Get going! See you later!

“I guess we’d best be going,” Maomao said, knowing that the sooner they got started, the sooner they would be finished.

They were given a conference room amidst the military offices in which to work. It wasn’t cramped, but it wasn’t spacious either, more of an interrogation chamber than a real meeting room.

The incident they were here to investigate had occurred about five days ago. The question was which, if any, of the men had laid hands on a fourteen-year-old girl. Maomao assumed someone would try to claim that it was partly the girl’s fault for letting herself be taken in by a handsome face, but there had been a sudden thunderstorm that day and the girl, who’d gotten separated from her attendant, said she’d been scared.

That’s the day I went shopping with Yao and En’en. Maomao felt a flash of anger; she wanted to find some way to punish the man who had taken advantage of a frightened girl. No, no. Calm down. She had to remain fair-minded. They didn’t know for certain which of the triplets was the culprit, and there was, admittedly, the possibility that the accusation was false.

“Oh, it’s you!” said the soldier who met them at the door. Maomao recognized the big mutt—er, that is to say, Lihaku.

“Thank you for being here,” her father said with a polite bow.

“Sure. If there’s any trouble, just shout. There’s another official in there, a secretary, but he’s just a bureaucrat.” He thumped his broad chest, outgoing and direct as always.

“What brings you here, Master Lihaku?” Maomao asked.

“Orders from above. The suspects being who they are, we can’t have anyone getting violent. They wanted a capable guard on hand. Plus, I outrank those three brothers, and I know you. I think that’s why they chose me.”

“Very interesting.” It made sense. Although it might have been more accurate to say not that Lihaku knew Maomao, but that he knew Maomao would be impartial.

“Besides, assignments like this are a nice change of pace from time to time.” Lihaku grinned at her, ever the good-natured fellow. She noticed that the sash of rank around his waist was different from before.

“Looks like you’re really moving up in the world, if I may say so,” she said.

“Sure am. Thing is, I’ve started getting so much desk work that my body is losing its edge.”

Maomao was eager to know how much money he was making these days, but she knew it would be uncouth to ask, so she refrained. She was most curious, however, if he would be able to redeem Pairin, the Princess of the Verdigris House whom he so adored.

“My apologies for the interruption, but might I ask you a few things?” Luomen said, looking at Lihaku.

“Oh! Yes, of course. Sorry, go ahead.”

“It sounds like you have some personal acquaintance with these three young men. What kinds of people are they?”

Lihaku put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. “You know, I’m not quite sure how to answer that. All three of them are clever scoundrels. They look identical, and they even sound a lot alike. I guess their personalities are pretty similar too. I couldn’t be sure, though—I haven’t known them long enough to really tell one from the others. I guarantee no one meeting them for the first time could tell them apart, and I think they’re using that to give that young lady the runaround. They’re good-looking, no doubt about that. Definitely handsome enough to pull the wool over an idealistic girl’s eyes.”

“Hoh.”

“That’s why they only go after sheltered girls, young women who don’t know how the world works. There’s even... There’s even stories that they’ve assaulted girls as young as twelve years old.” Lihaku looked like he found the idea incomprehensible.

That tears it. We don’t need the likes of them. Trying to make time with girls who might not even be menstruating yet—the thought was as much as Maomao could stand. She could imagine a great many of the girls crying themselves to sleep after it was all over.

Her father nodded. “Are the brothers close with each other?”

“Not to speak of,” Lihaku said. “Once, one of them screwed up on the job, and when there was an inquest to see who’d made the mistake, there was no covering for each other or trying to help each other out. In fact, they all seemed to want to make it as bad as possible for the others.”

“So, this mistake—they didn’t try to conspire to keep it under wraps?”

“You think they could? Lak—I mean, the monocled old fart, he’d see right through them.” How nice of Lihaku to remember what Maomao had told him.

The freak strategist was basically worthless as a human being, but he was good at Go, Shogi—and judging character.

He should’ve dealt with this case himself, then, Maomao thought. Then again, what they really needed was hard proof. Even if he had a gut feeling who the perpetrator was, they’d have to produce some evidence.

“Phew, that was something to see! Oh, that reminds me,” Lihaku said.

“Yes?”

“I assume two of the three brothers will be honest. They do whatever they like, ’cause they know their father will protect them, so they won’t expect to be punished if they haven’t done anything wrong. I think they’ll tell the truth if they don’t think it will do them any harm.”

“You’re quite an honest person yourself,” Luomen said, his face softening into a smile that made him look like a kindly old lady.

“G-Gee, you think?” Lihaku said.

“In any case, thank you for your help. We’ll be counting on you to jump in if we need anything in the way of more...physical assistance.”

Her father walked into the room, and Maomao trotted after him.

They found a man with the air of a civil official waiting inside. He must have been the secretary Lihaku had mentioned. When he saw them, he got up from his chair and bowed. “They should be here soon. If you’d have a seat.”

“Thank you kindly,” Luomen said, sitting down. There was a table with a sheet of paper—which detailed the three brothers’ jobs as well as exactly who their family members were. Are they trying to intimidate us? Maomao wondered. The paper seemed to mean: We’re here because the strategist ordered it, but you don’t have any authority to punish us.

“Now, how are we going to handle this?” Luomen mused.

They were to speak to each of the three brothers individually, and the first of them had arrived. Time to get started. Maomao dipped her brush in ink, ready to take down everything she could.

○●○

You’ve clearly got something wrong somewhere, because I haven’t done anything. I mean, for one thing, I find it unthinkable to lay hands on a girl a mere fourteen years old. What evidence do you have against me?

Hrm? Where was I five days ago? I was downtown, getting a drink after work. Anyone would want a tipple when they’re finally off for the day, wouldn’t they? I didn’t want to break the bank, though, so I headed for the southern side of town—I know a place that sells good grape wine for cheap.

No, I didn’t go to the pleasure district. That part of town’s not for drinking, I can tell you that much. And you always run the risk of accusations just like this one. And you wonder why men say women are so frightening!

Thunder? Ah, yes, that huge thunderclap. I certainly do remember it. Who could forget a boom like that? The lightning must have struck very close to the capital—I heard that tremendous noise almost as soon as I saw the flash of light. I don’t mind saying, it gave me a good start! The rain only got worse after that, so I stayed at the tavern until it let up.

You want to know when this all happened? It was right about the time the evening bell was ringing. First I saw the sky light up, then I heard the bell, and it wasn’t a moment later that the thunder came.

So, as you can see, I’m completely innocent. You can ask the tavern keeper, he’ll vouch for me. One of my younger brothers did it. Dispose of them however you like. But if you try to pin this crime on one of us without some very good evidence—well, I assume you know what’ll happen to you.

○●○

The eldest brother was the first to speak to them. He was good-looking, just as Lihaku had said, but his pallor was poor and he was given to the occasional twitch. His fists were clenched, and stayed that way the entire time they questioned him. Perhaps he was hung over from the drink he was so fond of—or maybe it was nerves taking their toll on him. Nonetheless, he answered their questions with alacrity, although in a tone that defied them to finger the culprit.

Luomen gave a thoughtful “Hmmm” and stroked his chin. Maomao knew that even if she and the secretary hadn’t recorded a thing, her father would remember every word. He was simply that gifted.

The eldest brother left; in his place came a man who looked just like him, but with much better color in his cheeks. This was the middle brother, according to the paper. How polite of them to go from oldest to youngest, in an easily identifiable order.

○●○

What a pain. I’m trying to get my work done, you know, and you call me away for an interrogation? How do you plan to make this up to me when you realize I haven’t done anything wrong?

Well, anyway. Since I haven’t done anything wrong, I’m perfectly happy to talk to you and get this over with, after which I will be leaving. I suppose you want to know where I was and what I was up to five days ago. I just happened to not have any duties that day, so I took a short trip on horseback. Not too far, though—I had work the next day, so I knew I had to be back by evening.

What’s that? Where did I go? Not far from the capital. And I was back in a hurry, since the heavens looked ready to open at any moment. I was tired, so I came home and went straight to bed. I’m sure you know which house is mine? Since you must know who my father is. Then again, maybe you don’t—or you would never have dragged me here.

Do I have anyone who can vouch for my alibi? Well, there’re my servants, but I don’t suppose you’d believe them. I’m sure you’d whine and cry and claim that I ordered them to lie on my behalf. I’m afraid it is what it is, though. My quarters are in an annex, not the main house, so I doubt anyone else even noticed me coming or going.

You want to know where I was when the evening bell sounded? Ahh, you mean around the time there was that clap of thunder. Believe me, the rainstorm that came after that put the finishing touches on a tiring day.

It surprised me something terrible—the sky lit up just as the bell was sounding, and then there came that terrible crash. It must have been an awful fright for the bell ringers—they might well be struck by lightning themselves, being all the way up there. They weren’t, of course... More’s the pity.

There. Are you quite satisfied? I’m going back to work. It must’ve been one of my brothers who did it—the older or the younger. I’m sure you’ll look into it. Very carefully, of course. We wouldn’t want any...mistakes.

○●○

This second brother was no less provocative than the first. He had a mocking smile on his face from beginning to end. Maomao caught a glimpse of blisters on the palm of his hand, but that wasn’t surprising. As a soldier, he practiced swordsmanship and rode horseback. A few blisters was nothing unusual.

Maomao finished recording his testimony, scowling slightly. Her father nodded and made a twirling motion with his finger. They both wanted to get this farce over with.

The third and youngest brother came in. He looked, of course, just like the others. Maomao was getting a bit sick of that face, but she would have to suck it up. As for the youngest brother’s health, he looked ordinary, neither ill nor particularly exuberant.

○●○

What, I’m last? Wish one of my brothers had gone ahead and confessed. I could have been spared all this. Ah, well. Can we hurry up and get through this? I’m already done with work for the day.

Five days back, I was working all day. Yes, yes, it was quitting time, but they’d piled some more work on me. Ugh. Go to the archives! Fetch this book! That’s a bureaucrat’s job, if you ask me. Blast that freak strategist... Ahem! No, er, I didn’t say anything. Nothing at all. Anyway, I went to get the books, but I got to having a pleasant chat with a court lady I bumped into. No, she wasn’t fourteen! Her name and department? Err, it was... You know, I guess I don’t remember.

Which archive was I in? The storage building in the western quarter. Soldiers don’t get out there too often. But at least I have a new friend to show for my little excursion.

So anyway, before I knew it, it was past time to go home. Yeah, I think I was in the archives when the evening bell rang. It was dark outside and there was a bit of a rain shower. I didn’t hear the bell, but it must have been about then. But that thunder, oh yeah. I heard that. I had an armload of documents, and the flash spooked me so bad I dropped them all over the floor. I bent down to pick them up, but then I heard the sound—it felt like the earth was shaking! Boy, it was big.

How long before I finally worked my way to the floor? I was a bit dazed, but it couldn’t have been more than four or five seconds.

There, how’s that? I’m dying to get home, so I’ll be on my way now, thank you.

○●○

She’d hoped at least one of the brothers would turn out to be a halfway decent person, but no. All three of them were hopeless. Maomao was exhausted, and she’d only been transcribing the interviews.

Luomen, however, alone among the three of them, was nodding as if this somehow made sense to him. The secretary promptly went about making a clean copy of what he’d written down. Maomao leaned over, whispering so she wouldn’t be overheard, and said, “Did you get anything, pops?”

“Eh. I think we have most of the pieces we need,” he said. He sounded downright blasé. Maomao looked at him in confusion. She liked to think she’d picked up a thing or two from her dad, but there was still so much she didn’t know—such as what was going through the old eunuch’s head at that moment. “Perhaps we can organize our thoughts when we get back,” he said. He lifted himself out of his chair, using his cane to steady himself.

Outside, they saw their would-be guard. “Didn’t need ol’ Lihaku, huh?” he said, although he sounded a bit dejected about it. Maomao was sure he would have loved an official excuse to punch in at least one of those three infuriating faces.

As soon as they got back to the medical office, Maomao’s father requested a map of the capital and its environs. Maomao was just wondering if she would have to go to the archives to get it when Dr. Liu brought out a copy and saved her the trouble. “Just keep it clean,” he warned them. Luomen, who’d had every intention of marking it up, quietly hid his brush. He looked around for something he could use instead and found some small ceramic knickknacks in various colors, normally used to keep medicine packets from flying away.

“What are you doing?” asked Yao. She and En’en came over with much curiosity. Dr. Liu could hardly object—they were both already done for the day. It was up to them what they did with their free time.

“Just trying to organize the information we have,” Luomen said. “Would you two like to help?”

Yao flushed at the way he was obviously hoping they would say yes; she looked away, meaning: Well, I suppose I have no choice. It was very much like her to not quite be able to simply say “Yes.” En’en was clearly burning the image of her young mistress into her retinas; her intensity was a little frightening.

“For starters, one marker goes here,” Luomen said, placing a red piece of pottery in the center of the capital.

“What’s that represent?” Maomao asked.

“This is where they ring the evening bell, yes?” Luomen replied.

“Yes, that’s the place. It’s located so you can hear it anywhere in the city,” Yao said. She knew very well where it was, since they’d walked right by it on that stormy day.

Next, Luomen put down three blue markers, one round, one triangular, and the other square. “The round one represents the eldest son—where he claimed to be at the time of the incident. The triangle is on the house where the second son said he was, and this square I’ve placed at the western archives, where the youngest claimed he was.”

“So no two of them were in the same place on the day of the attack,” Yao said.

“That’s right. And this is where the young woman says she was.” Luomen pointed again to the red object, right near the shopping district.

“But that...” Maomao said. It was right near where she and her friends had been.

Yao frowned. “If we’d found that poor, frightened girl, maybe none of this would have happened.” She looked pained, then cast her eyes to the ground. They’d barely been able to see a thing for the rain that day—and anyway, they’d been intent on finishing their shopping as quickly as they could. They’d been too occupied for anything else.

“‘If’ means nothing in the face of what is already done,” Maomao’s father said, not unkindly. “The most we can do now is to help ensure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

“All three of the suspects claim they have witnesses who can testify to their whereabouts, but all three of their alibis seem fishy. Do you know which of them is lying, sir?” Maomao asked, mindful to speak politely in Yao and En’en’s presence.

“I believe I do. But first, I think a little more information would be helpful.” He looked at the three of them. “Do you all remember that thunderclap five days ago?”

“I do! What a noise!” Yao said.

“We were outside when it happened. It was quite surprising,” En’en added.

“You said you were near the bell tower, yes?” Luomen asked, tapping the red object. “And from what I’ve heard, the lightning struck near the northwestern part of the city.” He placed a yellow object by the city walls.

Maomao and the others blinked. They couldn’t fathom what he was getting at.

“Might I ask one more question?” Luomen said.

“Please do.”

“Which came first—the lightning and thunder or the evening bell?”

His question prompted En’en to clap her hands. Well, now. This was surprising. “The sky lit up at the same moment as the bell sounded, and then the thunder came after,” she said.

“I see you remember very well,” Luomen said appreciatively. Maomao realized that En’en’s memory must have been tied to her image of the flustered Yao. It was the only answer. But why does he want to know that? she wondered. She looked at the map, comparing the locations of the various objects—and gasped. She returned to what she’d written down during the interviews, looking at what the three men had told them.

“What’s the matter, Maomao?” Yao asked.

“Read this. Does it give you any ideas?” she asked, showing Yao the testimony, particularly the parts about the thunder.

“Hmm... Yeah. Something seems off.” She looked intently at the eldest brother’s testimony. “The order is wrong here.” His claim was, in a few words, that the sky lit up, then the bell sounded, and then the thunder crashed. “And here too!” she said as she read the second brother’s testimony. That claimed that the flash in the sky and the sound of the bell came at the same time, followed by a dramatic thunderclap. “This last one might be accurate, but it doesn’t say when the bell sounded.” The youngest brother had said that four or five seconds after the flash of lightning, the thunder had come like an earthquake. “So does that mean the oldest and middle brothers are lying?” Yao asked.

“Not necessarily,” Maomao replied. She thought to herself, Now I see what this is about. She looked at her old man, who was regarding the three of them with a gentle expression, waiting to see if they would reach the answer.

She remembered what Lihaku had said: that at least two of the brothers could be expected to tell the truth. The big mutt might not have needed to come in swinging, but he’d given them some very interesting advice all the same. If he was right, then the three men wouldn’t try to cover for each other. He’d said the brothers who hadn’t assaulted the girl wouldn’t lie to Maomao and Luomen as long as they didn’t think it would make trouble for them. Which led to one conclusion...

“Maomao, tell us what’s going on here,” En’en said.

Maomao looked at her father. “If indeed you’ve figured it out,” he said with a smile.

Well, now she really wanted to get it right. She took a deep breath and got her thoughts in order, trying to decide where would be the easiest place to start. After a moment she said, “Yao, En’en—do you know how to tell how far lightning has struck from you?”

“You can tell by how loud the thunder is, right? And how soon you hear it after the flash...” Yao had a good head on her shoulders. She just needed a push to see the answer. “So you’re saying that the earlier they heard the sound, the closer they were to where the lightning struck!”

Luomen nodded. Yao’s brow wrinkled as she compared the three men’s testimony.

“It’s hard to work out the time line. They all mention the thunder, but they don’t agree about the bell.”

Her confusion was understandable. Maomao said, “The farther you are from the lightning, the longer it takes the sound of the thunder to get to you. Wouldn’t the sound of the bell behave the same way?” That explained why the men reported hearing the sounds in different orders. And when they compared those details, only one man’s testimony stood out as clearly wrong.

“It’s the middle brother, isn’t it? If he was really at his house when the thunder sounded, like he says, it wouldn’t make sense.” En’en used her fingers to measure the space between the yellow, red, and blue objects on the map. “Even without knowing the exact distance, you can see that if he was at home, there’s no way he could have heard the bell at the same time he saw the lightning.”

The bell tower was far from the house where the second brother claimed to have been. Instead, he’d heard the sounds in much the same order as Maomao and the others—meaning he was near the same place they had been.

“The middle brother must have been around here,” En’en said, moving the blue triangle over beside the red object. Precisely, in other words, where the young woman said one of the men had accosted her.

Maomao, Yao, and En’en looked at Luomen. Was this what all his questions had been about from the start? Who would think to establish a person’s location by the sounds they heard? Maomao thought, nearly unable to believe it.

“Now then, we have the secretary’s records and our own conclusions. I think it’s time we reported to Lakan,” Maomao’s old man said, heaving himself up from his seat.

“How did such an astonishing person end up as a eunuch?” Yao breathed. Maomao, supporting her old man with his bad knee, knew exactly how she felt. He was a doctor, yes, but one people could afford to value a little more highly.