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The Apothecary Diaries

This story is a work of fiction. The names of all of the characters, organizations, and so on are imaginary. It also bears no connection to any specific real-life events.

That building will be torn down soon.

We would like you to investigate before that happens.

Please identify the true nature of what Lady Anshi calls a "curse,"

the reason why the late emperor's body remained intact after death.

It's been six years since the late emperor passed away.

Once the building he lived in gets torn down,

the only thing to remember him by would be his grave, I guess.

If the mystery remains unsolved, Lady Anshi will never feel better.

I understand.

However, I have just one request.

A request?

Would it be possible for us to enter the room where the late emperor resided?

I will request permission.

Getting permission from the emperor shouldn't be hard,

Episode 33: The Late Emperor

as long as the empress dowager puts word in for us.

Maomao, your bed is ready.

Thank you, Lady Suiren, for letting me use this room.

Don't worry about it.

Her tastes are cuter than I expected.

A couch would have been fine, by the way.

It would be uncomfortable for me.

It's been a while since you were last in this building.

Please rest well.

Thank you.

Yeah, I've been in the Jade Pavilion a whole lot lately.

To be honest, I'm glad I didn't have to go back there tonight.

I don't want to think about how Lady Hongniang would react if I went back...

I guess she's been very lenient until now.

A worker who isn't clearly part of any specific pavilion,

who frequently visits the other pavilions?

That can't be comfortable to have around, for a head lady-in-waiting.

Come to think of it, I sometimes don't even know what my own position is.

Reading by candlelight? That's extravagant.

Would you like to read something too, Maomao?

You can go into the back room and find something.

Books are precious. I should read them whenever I have the chance.

I hope there's something that suits my tastes, though.

Wait for me!

Lady Suiren's tastes are pretty young.

Are you curious?

Please don't worry! I'm not trying to steal anything!

I know that.

Children's toys?

Yes. Master Jinshi's favorites.

Maomao, what do you think of Master Jinshi?

I think he's a good boss.

As long as he keeps the rare medicines coming.

Did I notice some hidden intent there?

Well, anyway.

These are the items I hid from Master Jinshi

because he kept playing with them all the time.

Whenever I did that, though, he would cry uncontrollably.

There are other toys, sir!

No! I want that one! I only want that one!

Gaoshun always had a hard time trying to find new toys to placate him.

Why did you take away his favorite toys?

If one focuses too much on one thing, they lose sight of the others.

He was born into a position that doesn't allow for that.

No matter how hard it was, he had to step up and be the adult.

That was what Master Jinshi's mother desired.

His mother...

I hear that, when one is raised in a repressed environment,

it can have an effect on their mind.

The childish tendencies that he's starting to show around me...

Those must also be a part of his true personality.

And yet, by the others surrounding him, he's treated as "The Elegant Eunuch."

What a strange turn of events.

This picture...?

Oh, there it is.

I was told to throw it away.

What was it?

May I touch this?

Well, certainly?

It's just a pebble. I wonder where he found it.

Did you take this from him immediately?

Yes. I mean, a found pebble can't be clean, can it?

Good call.

This is poison.

What in the world?!

I'd like to know myself. Why would something like this be lying around?

Did Master Jinshi ever visit the inner court when he was young?

Yes, sometimes. But why would you ask?

I can't say anything for now.

I do have one hypothesis, but no proof.

Lady Suiren, the "curse" as described by the empress dowager...

The reason why the late emperor's body didn't rot... I can clear that up tomorrow.

Could you wait until I do that?

Master Jinshi's here, too?

I didn't want to make this a huge deal.

This stinging smell... It can't just be mold.

A brush with the tip cut off to make it straight... I knew it.

Did the late emperor take up painting as a hobby?

Just once, he painted a picture for me.

He said it was a secret. That if the others found out, they would take it away.

Is he getting uneasy? That's Master Jinshi's nervous tic.

I'm sure he thinks he's acting calm.

I don't know, and don't want to know, much about the late emperor.

But, in order to figure out the nature of the "curse,"

I need evidence.

Did the late emperor always paint in this room only?

I don't know for sure, but ever since the late emperor began closing himself in this room,

he was waited on by just one servant.

Can you bring him here?

I think he still works here.

I will find him.

May I touch this?

Please.

It's harder than I thought.

It has a particular smell, too.

Translucent shards on the floor.

Some markings, like someone furiously tried to clean something.

And those marks...

There are more of them as we get closer to the wall.

It's soft. It must have layers of thick paper on it.

There's paint on the surface to make it tougher, I guess.

I already had a good idea what the "curse" is,

but I think I made another useless discovery.

I brought him.

You're...

He seems quite old for someone tasked with taking care of the most noble person...

I wanted to ask you a few things.

This person is a former slave.

Also, he is unable to talk.

I understand.

I see.

It's not uncommon to select a person who can't speak as a servant.

That's especially the case for the noblest person, who is always under public scrutiny.

In that case, please just nod or shake your head.

Were there any paintings in this room?

I'm sure there was something here.

Is he just refusing to talk to a random girl?

No, that's not it.

Is he hiding something?

What's on this wall?

May I tear off this wallpaper?

It's like he's yelling at me to stop.

Go ahead.

This whole building is to be torn down, anyway.

So, if that helps find something...

Carefully...

This painting...

What is that?

It must have been painted by the late emperor.

I don't care about the late emperor's personality.

But he passed without being able to let his true talents shine,

all because he ended up becoming the leader of this nation, it seems.

This painting is powerful enough to convince me.

The paint used to create the color of the garment worn by this woman here

was created by crushing a mineral called orpiment.

Orpiment has the same toxicity as arsenic.

And arsenic can make things less likely to decompose.

At first, I thought perhaps there was orpiment in the wallpaper or something,

and the late emperor unknowingly absorbed it into his body.

However, when I saw the shape of the brush in this room,

I thought of a different possibility.

He was using pigment made from orpiment.

The late emperor must have gradually absorbed orpiment into his body.

I'm sure the substance was all through his body by the time he passed away.

In this room, where he painted secretly.

It would be unacceptable for an emperor to spend his time painting pictures.

At least, that's what the people around him would think.

That's why he never revealed it, even while being referred to as the idiot emperor.

That's also probably why he had a mute slave manage the room.

There's still some softness.

How many layers are under this?

To be able to paint so many pictures, someone had to acquire the tools...

Probably his mother, the so-called empress.

The woman in the picture knew

that her son was not fit to be emperor.

So, when her son accidentally ended up becoming emperor,

she gathered power to herself, to protect her child.

Even if that resulted in people calling her the empress.

The empress did everything she could for her son.

Her last gift to him was this place, and the things he needed for painting.

Not knowing that it was poison...

How ironic.

That's all I can say.

Yes. You did well.

It's like she's trying to send questions to someone beyond the skies.

Wow, look at me getting all emotional.

Oh, how infuriating.

Even faded, that person's presence is strong.

I wonder if I'm even part of this picture?

No, I must have been only a passing thought to him.

This scar on my body is the only thing

allowing me to be treated as the mother of this nation.

A young girl, who accidentally fell victim to the late emperor and became pregnant.

Some would describe me that way, to pity me.

I'm sure such a girl did exist.

But I knew about the emperor's tastes beforehand.

My father was a bureaucrat, and my mother was his concubine.

I had a young-looking face, but my menarche came early.

My father used that to his political advantage.

I entered the rear palace as the lady-in-waiting of a mid-rank concubine.

The concubine I served was my sister from a different mother.

My sister, who was raised like a princess,

had no idea what our father had in mind.

Hey, Anshi! Put those accessories on me already!

Yes, dear sister.

Tonight's finally the night! The emperor is coming!

I saw him from a distance the other day.

He's so handsome!

I see.

I have eagerly awaited your arrival.

Please, come inside...

Don't touch me!

Your Majesty!

He didn't come off as the leader of a nation at all.

As lady-in-waiting, I could have consoled the concubine I served,

or apologized to the emperor.

But instead...

Are you alright?

At that moment, his gaze surely fell on mine.

The eyes of the girl, full of ambition.

I carried the emperor's child, and my life was put in danger countless times.

Fortunately, the child was a boy,

and the empress accepted him officially as her grandson.

There, there. There, there.

There once was a girl who gave birth to a daughter.

She claimed that the girl was the late emperor's daughter,

but he denied it, saying he knew nothing of it.

A doctor was declared the father and was exiled with the baby.

Back then, doctors were the only ones allowed to enter the rear palace without castration.

After that, doctors were required to be castrated as well.

The one in charge of this operation on my womb as well...

How unfortunate for him.

The girl who gave birth to the so-called daughter was left in the rear palace.

She will probably never leave the rear palace.

Then time passed...

When I no longer had the appearance of a young girl,

the late emperor stopped visiting me.

I hear the rear palace is expanding again.

Yes. I have heard that Master Shishou suggested it.

I see.

The rear palace continued to grow, and many young girls arrived,

tasked with the same mission as me.

A pathetic man, a puppet of the empress, who can only talk to young girls.

To have such a man forget me, that was unacceptable.

Do I scare you?

Is it because I'm an adult woman now?

Or is it this scar on my belly?

In the bedchamber, as he begged for forgiveness, I tormented him.

The young girls who fell victim to him.

The glorious empress, his mother.

I wanted him to remember me more intensely than any of them.

After that,

the late emperor's mind was destroyed, and he shut himself in that building.

I don't even want to think about whose fault that was.

In the end, he must have stayed in that room,

thinking only about his mother, the empress, and the other girls who had no ambitions.

He painted me, just once.

I treasured that painting, but I told Suiren to discard it.

I had no need for it.

Just like the late emperor had no need for me.

He visited us once, in the past.

Yes. How many years ago was that?

I found this back then.

This is the orpiment that was mentioned today.

This stone...

Suiren finally gave it back to me today.

I see...

Child of immorality. Child of a mistake.

No matter what they say, a precious child, nonetheless.

I think I saw that picture before, once.

It was a painting of a young girl, in light colors.

I must have picked up this rock because I remembered that picture.

I thought I told her to get rid of it.

You used to favor garments in this color, in the past.

Just a coincidence.

Is that woman in the picture really the empress?

What did he try to tell us back then?

I don't know.

I chose not to know.

Anyway, you seem to be partial to quite an interesting girl.

She's quite useful.

I see. But...

Even I can tell there's more to it than that.

I've been watching you for many years now.

You should hide your favorites.

Or else someone may hide them from you.

Next Time

Next time: "A Ghost Story."

Episode 34: A Ghost Story