The Apothecary Diaries Book 9

The Secret of the Numbers

Jinshi gave a great stretch, his just reward for finishing a chunk of his work. He was alone in his office. No, that wasn't quite true—from behind a screen came the sound of someone shuffling papers. Who? Baryou, he of the social anxiety disorder.

Jinshi was almost done with his work, but there was something he wanted to ask Baryou.

"Baryou, may I ask you something?"

"Yes, sir, what is it?" came a thin voice from behind the screen.

"How'd the love start?"

"Hrm? How'd what love start?"

"If I said Chue, would you understand?"

Love might sound like an odd thing to be talking about, but despite his screen and retiring attitude, Baryou was in fact a married man. A man married, in fact, to someone who had recently entered service as one of Jinshi's ladies-in-waiting: Chue. Jinshi's main condition when choosing his attendants was that they never spare him so much as an amorous glance. Chue certainly met that requirement.

"Yes, she hardly seems human, does she?" Baryou replied. Another statement that seemed apt to invite misunderstanding.

"Erm, isn't she your wife? You have children, don't you?"

Jinshi had to admit, it was difficult to see how a woman with such a forceful personality ever worked with Baryou. The curiosity had driven him to ask about their love story, but he didn't quite expect the answer he got.

"It was a bit of scheming on the part of my mother and my older sister Maamei. They looked at me, and they looked at Basen, and they picked the surest way of continuing the family line."

Jinshi was struck dumb.

"I accepted, on the condition that they would handle all the child-rearing, and so the marriage was decided. We only see each other face-to-face once every two weeks, and we don't talk much, but I must say, I think we get along rather well."

"Yes... I mean, if you say so..."

The Ba brothers seemed to be polar opposites of each other. Jinshi could see how one might consider the exceptionally frail Baryou a better choice than the exceptionally powerful Basen. It was a political marriage through and through.

"They pointed out that there's no telling how long I might live, and ordered me to hurry up and produce some heirs. They even wanted me to put it ahead of taking the civil service exam."

Baryou had passed the civil service exam two years earlier, which implied that he had taken it only after conceiving children.

"She's certainly...unique, but with Suiren to keep her in line, she's been quite a trustworthy helper," Jinshi said. It actually reminded him of when Maomao had been working under him.

"She comes from the Mi clan, albeit a subsidiary line."

That would explain much. As the Ma clan provided bodyguards for the Imperial family, the Mi clan produced an information network that served the Emperor and his kin directly. They both guarded the royal family, one in the light, one from the shadows. It made sense that they might sometimes marry their members to each other in order to strengthen the bonds between them.

"I see it's not easy being you," Jinshi remarked.

"I daresay you have far more troubles than I, Master Jinshi. In terms of both your looks and your rank. As for me, my sister told me to simply lie down quietly at night and my wife would take care of the rest."

Once again, Jinshi had no answer. Baryou had said something rather impudent, and followed it up with something Jinshi distinctly felt he shouldn't have heard. How easy life would be if Jinshi could accept a political marriage as readily as Baryou.