"Ahh, so it was really like that."
"Yes, I heard that was what the doctor saw upon entering."
Maomao had tilted her ears as she sipped her soup. Several hundred maids were eating breakfast in the spacious dining hall. They had a soup and a cereal porridge.
The maidservant sitting diagonally across her continued to gossip. She had a pitiful expression, but beyond that, curiosity was shining from the inside of her eyes.
"It was the same with Gyokuyou-sama, and Rifa-sama too."
"Woah, those two as well. Still, it was half a year, and three months, right?"
"That's right. It must be the curse."
The mentioned names were the emperor's favourite consorts. Half a year, and three months were the ages of their respective imperial children they gave birth to.
Rumours stride in the Inner Palace. They were about the court ladies who were their emperor's mistresses and the heirs, and since there were also bad reputation due to bullying and prejudice, there were even those that sound like fitting ghost stories in the sweltering heat.
"I guess so. Otherwise there's no reason for those three to pass away as well."
The ones who passed away were the children the consorts' gave birth to; so to say, this was about the imperial children who could be chosen as successors. There had been one when the emperor was the crown prince, and now as the emperor, two. All of them passed away when they were infants. Though it is obvious that the mortality rate of infants are high, having three children from high ranked people to die was strange.
As of now, only Gyokuyou and Rifa's children are surviving.
(Could it be poisoning?)
Maomao reached a different conclusion as she held the hot water.
Two had been princesses among those three children. Since only boys can be bestowed succession rights, there were no reasons to kill princesses.
The two sitting in front of her continued to speak curses and calamities without moving their chopsticks.
(There is no such curse.)
Absurd. It all boiled down to that single word. Maomao's thoughts of the method of family extermination just because of a curse was pretty much heresy. However, Maomao's mind had knowledge she could assert her basis on.
(What kind of illness? Could it be genetic? How did they pass away?)
It was then the quiet and unsociable maidservant spoke to the talkative maidservant.
The regret from losing to her curiosity, was something that happened a little while later.
"I don't know the details but, it was said they all gradually got weaker."
The talkative maid, Shaoran who spoke with Maomao had an interest on the topic. Afterwards she also told her about the rumours.
"I believe Rifa-sama's has it worse, seeing how the doctor has been seeing her more often."
She said as she wiped down the window frame with a wrung dust-cloth.
"What about Rifa-sama herself?"
"Yes, mother and child both."
The fact that the doctor was seeing Consort Rifa more often suggested that it was the crown prince who was sicker. Consort Gyokuyou's child was a princess.
The emperor's favour was deeper for Consort Gyokuyou, but it was clear with the gender of the children who was the more important one.
"While I don't know the specifics of the symptoms, of course, I heard there were things like headache, stomach aches, and nausea."
Shaoran went to her next job, apparently satisfied, after she said everything she knew.
Maomao gave her tea with liquorice as an expression of gratitude. It was made from the ones that grew on the edges of the courtyard. It had the medicinal pungency but was strongly sweet. The maid who rarely tasted sweetness was overjoyed from that.
(Head ache, stomach ache and nausea…)
As she recalled the symptoms, she could not form an answer.
You must not think of things through speculation alone, her dad had severely told her.
(I'll try go there in a bit.)
Maomao decided to finish her work quickly.
The scale of the inner palace, even if you put it all together, was vast. Normally, there are two thousand court ladies and over five hundred stay-in eunuchs.
Though maids like Maomao were crammed into large rooms in groups of ten, low ranked consorts had their own rooms, middle ranked consorts had buildings and high ranked consorts had large palaces that were larger than towns complete with a dining hall and garden.
Therefore, Maomao cannot leave her station in the east side. She had no free time as she could only leave when she is called to work.
(If I have no tasks, I can just make do with something.)
Maomao talked to a court lady who was holding onto a basket. The basket in the court lady's arms had high quality silk that must be washed in the pool on the west side. It would be damaged if it was washed in the east side, whether it be due to the water quality or having different people to wash it.
Though Maomao knew about the difference of drying it in the shade on the deterioration of silk, it wasn't something she needed to say.
"I want to see the extremely beautiful eunuch that is said to be at the central."
After talking about something which she had incidentally heard from Shaoran, Maomao gladly took over.
Here where the incentive for romance is scarce, it appeared that even eunuchs can be a target for motivation. After court ladies resign, you can sometimes hear that some become the wives of eunuchs. That they still have a healthy lust for women, is still something that tilts heads.
(I wonder if I will turn out like that?)
Maomao groaned and folded her arms when she asked herself that.
After swiftly delivering the laundry basket, she looked at the red building that was situated in the central. It was an elaborate palace, more refined than east.
As of now, the Crown Prince's mother, Consort Rifa, resides in the largest room in the Inner Palace. While the emperor is lacking an empress, it can be said that Consort Rifa with the only male child is the most influential person.
Inside that sort of place, the spectacle she saw was not much different to town.
There was a scolding woman, a woman who hung her head in shame, flustered women, and a man who was acting as the mediator.
(It's not much different to a brothel.)
Maomao joined the onlookers as the third party, with extremely calm thoughts.
The scolding woman was the inner palace's most influential person. The one looking down was the next powerful. The flustered ones were their maids. And the one who came into mediate was the doctor who was already no longer male. That was what she gleaned from the surrounding whispers.
"It's your doing. Just because you yourself gave birth to a daughter, you wanted to curse the male infant to death, didn't you!"
Her beautiful face that was distorted to something terrifying. Her looks, which was like a demon, and her white skin, which was like a ghost, faced the beauty who had her hands drawn towards her cheeks.
"You know that sort of thing is impossible. Shaorin is also suffering in the same way."
The woman with red hair and jade eyes replied coldly. Consort Gyokuyou with her western features gazed up towards the doctor's face.
"As you said, I want to see your daughter's condition as well."
Although the doctor acted as the mediator, the reason for the outburst seemed to be about him.
The doctor had just seen crown prince; it seemed she raised a protest about him not seeing her own daughter.
Maomao didn't understand mothers, but it is a given that male infants came first in the structure of the Inner Palace.
Considering the doctor, she saw he had a face that wanted to say 'unfounded'.
(Is he an idiot, that quack.)
That he didn't notice with the two consorts standing so close to him. No, he didn't even know about it before that?
The death of the infants. Headaches. Stomach aches. Nausea. And Consort Rifa's white skin and unsteady body.
Maomao left the place of discord while muttering and grumbling to herself.
While thinking,
(What can I use to write?)
Consequently, she took no notice of a passing person.