Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

Chapter 7

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The four maids who were there from the start were all workaholics.
Although the Jade Palace wasn"t that large, the four of them moved about constantly. Bedroom duty, otherwise known as housekeeping maids, also come in, but it had always been the four maids who cleaned up the whole interior.
By the way, the original maids had all divided up their jobs.

As a result, the only job left for the newcomer Maomao was to eat.

She didn"t know if they were feeling guilt due to them forcing the worst job onto her, or that they didn"t want her to invade their territory. But all the maids aside from Honnyan didn"t force Maomao to do anything. Rather, they forced her out of the room with a gentle “it"s fine" when she comes in with the intention to help.

(I can"t sit still.)

She was forced into her small room, only called out twice for meals and afternoon tea. For a couple of days, she also ate the nourishment dishes when the emperor came to visit. Once in a while, Honnyan would entrusted something onto her. But they were all quick, simple jobs.

(What is this? Eat and sleep?)

In addition to poison tasting, the meals have become more extravagant than before. The leftover sweet snacks from the tea party were given to Maomao as well.
She wasn"t working hard like an ant. That nutrition will become fat at this rate.

(It"s like I"m livestock.)

There was one more thing that Maomao was unsatisfied with, poison tasting aside.
Maomao had always been skinny. It was hard to know if her contact with poison had anything to do with it.
Moreover, as the lethal dose depended on body weight, there is a higher chance of surviving just by being fat.

It wasn"t that Maomao didn"t know how much the poison contributed to her skinniness. She had confidence that she could survive beyond lethal doses of poison, though it didn"t seem to be the case for the ones around her.
The three maids pitied Maomao, who looked young with her short height and overly skinny frame, the poor disposable piece.
They fed her gruel, piling on seconds even when she was already full. She was also served one more side dish than the others.

(Reminds me of the big sisters at the brothel.)

Even though she is such quiet and unsociable thing, lacking that innocent charm. Why was it that the prost.i.tutes doted on her? At every opportunity, they fed her, gave her sweets.

—By the way, what Maomao didn"t realise was that there was a reason to her being doted upon.

Maomao"s left arm was covered in scars.
Cuts, stabs, burns, scars from being stabbed with needles.
She was short, too skinny and had countless scars.
Her arms were often bandaged. Occasionally she went about pale faced and fainting.
Though the girl was quiet and unsociable, it was because of the treatment she received up until now that everyone was overwhelmed with tears.
Everyone thought she was being abused. But the truth was different.

Maomao inflicted everything on herself.
To study the effect of salves and drugs that stop inflammation. To gain resistance to poisons by gradually ingesting them. Sometimes she also got a venomous snake to bite her. There were times she got the amount wrong and fainted as a result.
Consequently, this was why the scars were all concentrated on her left arm, and not her dominant arm.

It wasn"t that she had a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic, self-harming hobby. She was just too much into satisfying her intellectual desire that she was quite different from normal girls.

The one who was extremely bothered by such a daughter was her dad.
He was getting unwarranted slander before he knew it. Living in the prost.i.tution quarter, he taught his own daughter medical knowledge and writing to give her another path outside prost.i.tution.
He understood some of her motivations, but he condemned most of it.
He couldn"t even think that his daughter, who was of age, would repeatedly harm herself for the sake of experiment.

For such reasons, everyone thought she was pitiful girl, who, after being abused by her parent, was sold to the inner palace and made to become a disposable poison taster.

People know nothing at all—

(At this rate, I"ll become a pig.)

As Maomao thought of such things, a detestable visitor appeared before her.

–

The young man with an otherworldly face was lit with a constant heavenly smile.

The three maids prepared tea for the visitor while taking in his face.
Upon observing the sound of a quarrel from the other side of the wall, it sounded like there was an argument on who will prepare it.

The amazed Honnyan prepared the tea herself, and directed the three to return to their rooms.

The poison taster Maomao sniffed the contents of the silver teacup and held it in her mouth.

She felt like running away from the gaze of Jis.h.i.+n, who had been staring intently at her for some time now. She squinted, trying to not meet his eyes.

As a young maiden, just by being looked at by a good-looking man, even if he was a eunuch, doesn"t feel bad. But it wasn"t like that for Maomao. She drew a line, even though she appreciated Jis.h.i.+n"s celestial maiden like beauty, because aside from that interest, there are too much differences between them.

"This is something I received. Can you taste it for me?"

Inside the basket was a steamed bun. Maomao picked it up and split it apart. It was stuffed with minced meat and vegetables. [T/N: not sure if it’s one steamed bun or a bunch of them. No plural markers in j.a.panese, not really. One sounded more logical.]
Sniffing it yielded a medicinal scent.

It was the same as the tonic she ate the day before yesterday.

"There"s aphrodisiac in it."
"You didn"t even need to eat it to know."
"It"s not harmful to your health. Please take it back. Savour it."
"Nah, when I think about the one who gave it to me, I really don"t want to eat it."
"Indeed. You might get a visitor this evening."

To Maomao"s nonchalant statement, Jis.h.i.+n made a wordless expression. His reaction was different to what she expected. Although he made her eat the steamed bun while knowing it was spiked with an aphrodisiac, it was better than being looked at like a pest.
By the way, she wondered what kind of person did he receive it from.

Consort Gyokuyou laughed, her voice like a bell, at the two"s banter. The sounds of Princess Shaorin"s sleeping followed her footsteps.

Maomao bowed once and made to leave the guest room.

"Just wait."
"What do you require of me?"

Jis.h.i.+n and Consort Gyokuyou looked at each other, and nodded. It appeared that they had settled on the main topic before Maomao came over.

"Can you make me a love potion?"

In an instant, Maomao"s eyes glowed with surprise and curiosity.

Though she had no idea what use they had for that medicine, there was no mistaking that Maomao was all too happy to prepare it.

Maomao stated, while controlling her smile.

"Time, ingredients and utensils. If I can have those."
Saying, she can make something like a love potion.

T/N: Jis.h.i.+n’s descriptions are just a headache to translate….

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