That Butterfly Doctor; TOO GOOD
Maomao found herself summoned to Jade Palace the next day at morning by a eunuch who later witnessed Maomao's jumping abilities after hi-speed running for the walls.
'What the?!' the eunuch's eyes popped out as in seconds, she was gone. She can run on top of walls and on tiled roofing with great balance!
There's a reason why she was called Doctor Butterfly. She was known by that moniker than her actual name that had nothing to do with lovely insects.
'Get used to it.' said the doctor. 'When the lass is in a rush, she becomes a butterfly fluttering around.' the old doctor chuckled. 'Tea?' he offered the amazed eunuch tea and some rice cakes.
'Er, thanks...'
It didn't take long for Maomao to come, jumping off the walls and into the palace gardens of Consort Yuye's residence. Then fixing her bangs with a comb, she walked in. Inside the parlor room, there's a small banquet, and the Emperor.
'This servant Maomao is here to report.' she gave all her manners before the royals. The Emperor eyed her rather...unusual appearance as she stood up from her submissive kneeling position only a MAN in the military would do, and gave her sword to Head Maid Hongniang who was horrified at being made to hold it. Butterfly coat and hairpin, white jiaoling ruqun upper garment, unusual style of black trousers with leg accessory wrapping that matched her coat, and combat boots. Since no woman could own a pair of military combat boots as it's military-issued, her shoes are clearly custom-ordered somewhere.
Her sword is unusual. Quite thin by standards, and long. Well, probably custom-made as there's no way this tiny girl can lift a typical military-issued sword...
Her background is indeed, eccentric, considering where she came from. She is a high-class lady...who lives in squalor by choice!
'I called you here today for a matter you know of, other than security.' said the Emperor. 'For now, begin.'
'Sire.' Maomao proceeded with the testing after Guiyuan provided a stool for her to sit on, and Yinghua provided the sampling ware on a tray, nervous.
Maomao sampled everything...and the seafood dish was put away.
No questions asked as Maomao left to puke it back up next room over, before coming back to sample the rest. Once it's done, Ailan quickly threw the poisoned ones away while Guiyuan gave her tea. Maomao then smiled graciously afterwards.
The Emperor talked about what Renshi found out last night about Diamond Palace. He clearly wasn't too happy when many things came to light, when through skillful word-savvy and Consort Lishu's pure, but oblivious honesty, a lot of disturbing facts came out and she was clearly unaware she was made a fool of for years, and exploited...and she clearly didn't learn a thing as nobody taught her since she was a child, other than required general education befitting a high-class lady.
She knew nothing about being a Consort other than...performing when required as she was told to. She doesn't even know the meaning and duties of a Virtuous Consort other than attending or holding tea parties which further added to why she was looked down upon and its ensured she doesn't hear of it to keep her that way, much to the disbelief of Jade Palace residents.
His majesty isn't too happy judging by the pressure he emitted, and he was grateful to Maomao for bringing this to light.
Maomao knows that punishment was done. And whatever happened, is not fit for tiny ears to hear as little Lingli is present. Chinese punishments are so brutal seppuku was preferable, she thought. She cannot imagine being beaten by a stick or a paddle, though she requested a sentence of Paddling to anyone who denied a high-class lady medicine.
'I'm only doing what's right, your majesty.' said Maomao softly. 'No child deserves all the blame in the world as a scapegoat for the sins of their elders. What will become of her though?'
'She will live out her term in peace, until a new empress is born.' said the Emperor, observing Maomao while getting a gist of her character with his own eyes. 'I will then bestow her to a man worthy of her. I will deal with the rest.' that conversation is clearly over. 'Oh yes, where did you get your sword? I haven't seen anything like it.' he said, beckoning Hongniang to come closer, wanting to see the sword thus drew it out of it's sheath. It's a single-edged blade.
He looked at it out of curiosity, before giving it back to Hongniang.
'It's from an island country to the east called Riben. They call it katana in their language, or in our tongue, just Dao.' Maomao explained. 'There's no sword available for lady martialists like myself, so I asked merchants around since our country's swords are made for muscular men, and they told me of Riben and their sword they think suits me.' she said. 'I traveled to Riben after getting enough money to buy many bolts of silk and had a multilingual guide assist me in buying one for myself. I gave that merchant some silk, then he sold it to another for money they call Ryo which was a flat oval gold coin as big as a tongue and I purchased my sword. 1 ryo is equivalent to 1000 brass mon coins, enough to buy a person a year's worth of rice for himself, and I had to pay three ryo for mine...equivalent to that bolt of silk I gave away.'
She got incredulous stares.
'...that can't be, a year's worth of rice for us is 1/4 that amount!' Lady Yuye exclaimed. She's from a family of merchants, so she knows her goods well. 'And swords are less that!'
'Kinda pricey compared to our country, makes me think they haven't valued goods there properly, and only samurai and government officials, are allowed to own such a sword thus as law there so I really had to bribe around with silk I brought with me, to get myself one...and I purchased a translated book so I can have a custom made any time incase what I got broke, as our country's swords are bigger and meaner, too much for a girl with slender arms even if I worked out.'
'I see. Can I see that book?'
'Its got weird letters other than what we can read in it...'
xxx
'So you got that chat with the Emperor huh?' Renshi commented when Maomao told him how her morning went. 'A lot happened last night and it stressed me out.' he said tiredly. 'After asking Lady Lishu a lot of questions, I had to tell her what's all wrong and the night ended in drama. Shuilian stayed behind to console her and be her temporary maid while I had to take the ladies to his majesty on a ruse, and told him the story...and they got their punishment after. Then I have to look for new maids today but the attitudes worry me.'
'Well, you'll have to tell the new hires her background history, what to and what not to do.' said Maomao. 'The previous maids are ignorant of the truth, acting high-and-mighty, and deeming themselves righteous to bully a girl who they think is infidel to her husband when they know nothing, and they're not virtuous themselves who enjoy bullying an innocent person. And its best to hire countryside girls. Newcomers oblivious to city intrigue. And you must hire tutors for Diamond Palace as countryside girls lack education, so they must know manners expected of of handmaids, literacy and arithmetic enough to do their jobs right, while a royal lady tutor will teach Lady Lishu what she was long denied, making her ripe for exploitation.' she advised.
'You yourself must tell everything before they get tainted by ignorant gossip and be the next person to harm Lady Lishu who may now have trust issues at this point she'll only trust who have your approval as in her eyes, you saved her so you're the only one she can trust now. But right now...one strike, you're out is the deal here.'
'Right...I'll take that into account.' Renshi accepted her advice. Maomao then gave him a piece of paper.
'Oh, and here's the sizes of the previous maids, there's no time to remake attendant formal outfits, I only have spare time for Consort outfits in the remaining six days which was why I agreed to make one extra pink dress.' so go get maids of the same sizes, was her unsaid request.
'Alright.'
xxx
Days Later, the Garden Party...
From the garden to the restroom, it takes a good half hour to get back and forth.
So Maomao who's only a Food Tester can arrive fashionably late legally, and can leave early if all food is taken out, and tested. Her duty was testing of the royals' meals while officials have no such worries...unless they pissed off someone to spike them to death, that is!
She didn't bother to come in the morning as one, it's cold and two, she's not interested in the banquet's morning performances. She's just here to do her job, end of story.
She wore a striking, green butterfly dress with matching accessories.
Two Eunuchs were with her, awkwardly nervous until its time for their awkward job.
The Garden Party was a banquet held in the middle court. There was a crimson carpet laid out in the large gazebo. Long tables were lined up in two rows, where the seat of honor was established at the end.
The arrangement was that the emperor will sit on the seat of honor, with the empress dowager and the imperial brother on both his sides. The Noble Consort and the Able Consort will sit on the east side, and the Virtuous Consort and Pure Consort the west side. Each lady has their Head Maid behind them. The other maids waited behind at the curtains. The princess was being rocked by the Empress Dowager. Her drifting elegance and her unfading beauty did not pale in comparison to the Four Consorts around her. Little Lingli, unlike everyone else, wore a high quality bright red wool coat over her dress for warmth, and her baby basket was lined with wool to keep her warm in this effing cold weather.
All ladies, Maomao arranged to have wool-lined coats under the outer silk appearance before she could dye and work her craft on them. This was what keeps the emperor and the royal ladies warm. She tried to ask Renshi for the same for attendants, but its a big nope. Poor girls. At least for herself she has that privilege.
Spring and Winter Garden Parties SUCK, even Emperor doesn't wanna do it, but its a part of his duties.
Noblesse Oblige being one of the reasons.
According to her doctor friend who's now a good study with good encouragement, the current imperial brother from the same mother is currently first in the line of succession with the death of the crown prince.
This imperial brother lives an obscure lifestyle in spite of his mother being the empress dowager. He was to sit on the seat of honor, belying his public appearance, but it was empty. He rarely leaves his room due to his weak constitution and doesn't perform his official duties either. All sorts of speculation circulate about him. Some say the many years younger brother is pampered by the emperor. Otherwise, he is confined to his room. Or that he isn't allowed to go outside, as the empress dowager is overly affectionate to him.
That was as far as Maomao knows.
As it was the intermission, it couldn't be helped that a lot of people were walking through the back of the curtains. It wasn't just maids. There were military officials and civil officials too. Everyone was holding onto an accessory in one hand.
A kanzashi.
It was for 'invitations'.
Soon, the banquet began.
It was quite a spectacle to view the banquet once again from the seats of honor.
Military officials lined the west side, and civil officials lined the east. Sitting at about one-fifth from the middle of the long table, was Gaoshun on a seat on the military official side. Though she realized that he was more of a big-shot that she had thought, she was surprised the eunuch was able to line up there without feeling out of place.
In contrast, Renshi was nowhere to be seen. Seeing as he sparkled to that degree, he should be someone she would find easily there was no need to find him, she decided to devote herself to her main job.
People looked at her.
They must think that for a good-looking Food Tester servant, she dressed a little too well for someone of her station, as she wore a daxiushan herself. Who was she? Background? Such thoughts were clear on their faces to Maomao's amusement.
The wine came first thing before the meal. They were slowly poured from glass containers into silver shook the cup slowly, checking to see if there were cloudiness in the places she touched. It would blacken if there was arsenic poison.
She sniffed the cup while she slowly turned it and held the contents in her mouth. Though she knew there was no poison, if a food tester didn't swallow, the food tasting wouldn't be recognized. She moistened her throat with a gulp, then rinsed her mouth with fresh water.
The other food tasters had yet to drink from their cups. After they confirmed that nothing happened to Maomao, they timidly raised their cups to their lips. Everyone is afraid of death. If there was anyone who tried first, it was safest to watch to make sure before they do it themselves.
If you have to use poison at the banquet, it would have to be fast acting to be beyond a doctor's grace.
Among those people, the one who would deliberately ingest poison would be only Maomao who trained herself using demon techniques of Tamayo. In this world, there isn't such a rare type of person.
She then received Fish Namasu, the appetizer.
Then the rest of the course...
Once the royals' food are deemed safe, THEN everyone can eat and drink!
There was poison intended for Lady Lishu so she gave it to the guy who gulped at getting it. She was without a soup course thus.
Everyone watched stiffly.
When there are nobles together in a banquet, there is always poison in hand. The cuisine – no matter what high-class ingredients, what secret techniques employed – its deliciousness would be halved by the time the food tasting is over.
Cold food aside, there's also fear they might get spiked goods.
It doesn't help that usual Food Testers, can't blame them, are slow in the act of guaranteeing everyone's safeties.
But this time, that butterfly girl fearlessly tasted everything.
Only that one soup meant for Lady Lishu was taken away. Poor girl was ashen faced that her food was spiked when she realized why she had no soup on her table. Because Maomao knows her food issues, she naturally has no seafood.
The banquet then proceeded awkwardly, followed by another intermission before the next performances.
'So it's this one huh?' Renshi looked at the bowl shown to him by a Eunuch.
'Yup. Best investigate who's responsible for this soup.' said Maomao. 'The culprit would be who touched this bowl but no doubt this bowl passed many hands...the one who ladled it, Food Tester, and the mysterious person who spiked it but held it firmly and securely while dissolving poison into a piping hot bowl. Try that trick I showed you to narrow things down. The poison in it is fugu. I pretended to swallow it but spat it out with a hanky while my mouth went numb. I'll swallow anything but that.'
'Alright.'
'Well, I have to get dressed real quick, I got a final job to do back here.' and she ran off and disappeared.
'Final job...right...' Renshi twitched, as he took the soup with him home and hid it for later investigation as to WHO held it in a way that Maomao suggested as its a gesture of 'furiously stirring' fugu into the soup to dissolve it before it gets handed out.
His majesty is intrigued with Maomao's skills as a swordswoman. The final performance of the banquet, is her VS a swordsman in the army.
And so, dressed in her usual outfit and hairstyle, everyone has the expression of, 'What the hell is going on?' as the Emperor declared a sword match performance between Maomao and an officer in the army! They were of course, given blunt swords with rounded tips to avoid fatalities.
Maomao was...
...too shocking.
Her style was different than techniques taught in the military. That, and she's too fast! Her caliber as a fighter, is something else entirely. And her jumps are too high!
And she defeated a freaking army captain.
That was the talk of the palace since that event, Maomao got a loooong talk with the Emperor after that, but skillfully lied her way about the breathing swordsmanship. And as she walks, she has wary, but respectful looks aimed at her as she patrols the Inner Palace
Given her history, she must have learned skill and trained hard in it while working to pay off her debts and amassing money for modest livelihood comforts.
And to think her job is fabric producer, Food Tester and doctor! But before she got recruited in the palace, she also keeps the back alleys in line she was a feared personality. And when she's gone, crime rates returned and only vanishes when she comes home from the Palace! She also wears unusual footwear made out of woven rice straw, until she was convinced by Renshi to wear boots...custom-made for her smaller legs and feet.
Sure she wore ladies' shoes while she was in town, but in her travel days, she wore her...footwear and stuck by it since.
She was a powerful beauty. But a very deadly flower.
Her new problem, as well as Renshi's, was that she got marriage offers from military officers.
'What the hell, I'm just her employer, NOT her father!' the annoyed eunuch sputtered. 'Go visit Verdigris Hall for Doctor Ruo Men! HE'S her father!'
However? Disaster occurred in the palace...caused by a certain man who gave all families an impossible task if they want Maomao's hand in marriage...
Renshi pinched his nose hard.
The cause of all this headache, was of the Luo Clan, the eccentric strategist who took pleasure in screwing everyone over. Then again, this man, is Maomao's true father and the complicated tale behind that...he knows from the elderly doctor who felt that fate will always find a way.
Maomao is of the Luo Clan through Luo Han...and her mother a former Verdigris Princess, Fengxian.
And like a Luo Clansmen, she was talented.
However instead of one field...it was a whopping four. And a WOMAN being a martial artist who's also insanely fast and skilled, was unheard of. Her prodigiousness was off-charts that the Luo Clan was up in arms and wanted to thoroughly VET her suitors.
Cooking. Medicine. Swordsmanship. Dyeing Fabric with a dress worth 5 gold a set for a silk outfit!
Maomao was too valuable to go to just 'any man' in Luo Clan's eyes.
Problem?
She hates her parents' guts. She has nightmares that a 'corpse woman' tried to kill her in a dark room only to learn the nasty truth years later. And she hates her father as she grew up in the world of courtesans. The old doctor is actually, her UNCLE and her true father is his NEPHEW and he raised his daughter on his behalf as he was in no condition given the aftermath. In Maomao's eyes, she has three mothers who saved her thus she focused on her fields to elevate them as Verdigris Princesses as gratefulness. She created medicine and makeup safe for Verdigris that they were the only ladies not hit by the Lead Plague.
So yes, things are complicated, that unknown to Maomao, the entire Luo Clan is talking and he keeps tabs as her employer.
xxx
Meanwhile...
Princess Lingli was happily eating baby food that's easy to make in Jade Palace as all it really needs, is hot water, pots, stirring spoons, ladles, a knife and cutting board with the palace supplying herbs and vegetables Maomao needs. Her baby food, is EXTREMELY SAFE not from the Palace Kitchens. It's medicinal herbal egg drop soup. It helps that she's a glutton to shove more medicine in her to help her heal as she grows up from Lead Poisoning. She still breastfeeds though.
'OK, baby burp~' Consort Yuye gently encouraged her very-much-full daughter while patting her back. 'Good girl!'
'The way she is, she'll be better in a year!' said Hongniang hopefully.
'Yeah, she's taking a lot of medicine too.' said Yinghua. 'But Maomao, so much is OK?'
'As long as it's in food form in just the right amount its OK.' said Maomao optimistically. 'In little missy's food is enough for a whole day's worth for her.'
'It's still a little on the eccentric side.' said Guiyuan. 'Lucky it's tasty.'
'Sneak medicine in food and fussy patients will take it...but sadly, bad people use poison instead.' Maomao sighed. 'They turned what's a good thing into bad.'
'That's the sad truth.' Consort Yuye sighed. 'All that matters is Xiaoling's food is always OK.' she said grimly. She on the other hand, cannot trust her food, and reliant on Maomao three times a day. And being a lady of a wealthy household with half-siblings, she's long used to it but its a different story if its HER CHILD.