The Apothecary Diaries Book 3

The Hunt (Part One)

The next day, Jinshi and the others rode off to the hunt. Jinshi wore his disguise (though he looked annoyed to have to do so), and continued to call himself Kousen, the name it appeared he was going to use for the duration. The disguise was understandable. Having someone who looked like Jinshi wandering around would be an absolute distraction all by itself. This wasn't the palace; nobody here knew he was a eunuch. With the incident at dinner fresh in her mind, however, Maomao couldn't help wondering what exactly the eunuch was hiding. She chose not to pursue the question. She could only imagine what would have happened had Jinshi mingled freely during mealtime. No wonder he kept the windows shut.

So it was that Maomao followed the hunters in a carriage. Indeed, the carriage contained several household servants, along with firewood, soup pots, and an array of other cooking implements. It seemed they intended to cook whatever they caught right on the spot.

The carriage rattled its way past the gaoliang fields for a good half an hour, and then the mountains came into view. After that they traveled on foot up the slopes for another hour, until they arrived at a house built on an elevation with an astonishing view. The green all around was refreshing, and water could be heard in the distance; it seemed they were near a large waterfall.

The servants, used to all this, set about preparing a fire. Several of them went with jugs to go fetch water. Maomao wondered if she should do something to help, but the entourages of the other officials with her weren't lifting a finger. They'd found a place under a canopy set up by some servants who had come early and were chatting together. The noble members of the party would eat in another location.

Probably safer not to do anything, Maomao thought. All too often, people did more harm than good when trying to help and only earned the enmity of those around them. The servants were probably just as happy to be left alone.

As she wandered, Maomao spotted a dog—one with a familiar keeper. So the mutt's brought his mutt. It was Lihaku, who was something of a big, friendly dog himself. Wondering what he was doing there, Maomao went over and squatted beside him. He was busy rubbing the dog's belly, but when he realized someone had approached him, a suspicious look crossed his face.

"Hello?" he said.

"Hello," Maomao replied.

"Hm? That voice... Oh!" He clapped his hands and nodded. "Young lady, it's you! What are you doing here? And looking so much lovelier than usual too!"

"So glad you finally noticed." Between the fact that she had no freckles and that she wasn't wearing her usual outfit, he seemed not to have realized it was her at first. He was a man who knew how to be rude, as ever.

"Yeah, but seriously, why are you here?"

"I was personally requested to attend."

"Huh, that's really something." One of Lihaku's good qualities was that he didn't think too hard about things. Maomao had spoken to him without really thinking about it herself, but maybe this wasn't the best time to be revealing who your acquaintances were. "You know, it was the same for me," Lihaku said. "Somebody asked for me by name to be part of the guard unit..." He sounded somewhat put out about this, though he continued to stroke the dog's belly. The animal wore a collar, and Maomao surmised from the breed that it was a hunting dog. Unfortunately for him, they would be hunting with hawks today; the dog would just have to cool his heels. That must have been why he and Lihaku were here holding down camp instead.

"'You, you just keep an eye on the dog,' they said." Evidently, though he'd been asked for by name, the other bodyguards—themselves proud men all—had effectively ostracized him. Lihaku had been making his way up in the world lately, but the higher you went, the more fierce the resistance became.