The Apothecary Diaries Book 11

Tianyu

After some discussion of how to handle Dr. You's shy streak, it was determined that Jinshi should grant him some object he could wear or carry.

"As long as all I have to do is wear it!" said the good doctor, but he was effectively convinced. Maomao thought such a gift was likely to get him even more fawned over than just saying he was there because of the Moon Prince, but she wasn't sure he realized that.

They should just give him a sash or a jade ring to put on his belt or whatever and be done with it.

It had been decided that Dr. Li should get something as well, and he, for his part, was much honored. When, after work, they'd told him about it, he'd actually refused.

"S-Surely there is no reason for me to have anything!"

"Wait! I can't be the only one who gets something!" Dr. You exclaimed. Dr. Li looked at his boss uneasily.

"Is it just the two of them?" Tianyu piped up. "If Dr. Li doesn't want his, I'll take it. My name's Li too."

It was indeed; the fact that Dr. Li and Tianyu shared the same surname was no end of trouble. And Maomao certainly wasn't privy to Dr. Li's personal name. Not to mention Lihaku was there as well, meaning there were no fewer than three Li's right there in that room.

"You're not getting it!" Dr. Li snapped. It couldn't be easy, having such...distinctive personalities both above and below him.

"Well, it's getting late. I think we should be on our way home," said Chue, packing her belongings. The clinic was closed for the evening. Chue was highly capable at everything she did, and that seemed to extend to cleaning a room.

Then she asked, "Say, what's this package?" Maomao thought Tianyu had brought it back with him.

"Oh, that's just..." Tianyu tried to swipe the package from Chue, but it fell. The contents went rolling across the floor.

Everyone looked on in silence. They were lucky that Basen and the other guards had gone to the bathroom and weren't there for this.

"Say, young lady," said Lihaku, giving Tianyu a grim look. "You think I should restrain this guy?" He looked like he meant it.

"No, let's see if we can find out what's going on here first," Maomao said, taking another look at the scattered contents of the package. It was a human arm. Just an arm, a single human body part lying there on the floor. It didn't get much weirder than that, but the people in the room at that moment included the doctors, Maomao, Lihaku, and Chue.

"Care to explain the arm?" Maomao asked.

"I mean, look at it. I don't think it can be reattached, not with the way it was cut off," Tianyu said, picking up the appendage and blithely showing them the state of the stump.

It was a mess, all right; it didn't look likely to stick even if they tried to reattach it.

"The grasshoppers chewed through a rope that was securing a sign. The sign dropped down and the arm popped right off. The guy it used to belong to said he didn't need it anymore, so I took it."

"You...took it."

The guy had probably been in the pits of despair at losing his arm; Maomao figured he'd thought Tianyu would take it to give it a proper burial. Not to do...whatever this was.

"Niangniang, I thought maybe you and I could dissect it tog—"

He was interrupted by Dr. Li, who plucked the arm away from him—then dropped a knuckle on his head.

Ooh! He's strong.

"Yow! Ow! I was just trying to learn something!" Tianyu objected.

"That's enough out of you! We're going to bury this, and bury it properly! And don't just leave that there! It stinks!"