Volume 1, Chapter 28: Self Other (1/2)

“Uwah, won’t the lass come along with me too?” The quack doctor’s shoulders were trembling when he begged her, so she considered why not.

He brought her along to the front of the east gate’s military station. There were several eunuchs surrounding something. Maids gathered together around them in a doughnut shape.

“It’s good that it’s winter,” she said.

There was a woman with a pasty face hidden under the woven mat. She had matted hair and bluish black lips. For a drowned corpse, she looked relatively nice, but she still wasn’t something people would be comfortable with looking at. It was truly good that it was in the cold season.

The quack doctor who should be doing autopsy was hiding behind Maomao’s back like a maiden. He was totally a quack.

It seems the woman was floating in the outside moat this morning. No matter how you look, with her appearance, she was surely a palace lady from the inner palace. She couldn’t be dealt with properly outside, and so the quack doctor was summoned, but-

“Can lass look for me instead?” Though he was looking at her with upturned eyes, his loach moustache quivering, it wasn’t that she didn’t know about that sort of thing.

What could he be thinking about getting people to do?

“I can’t. I’ve been told to not touch corpses,” she told him.

“That is surprising.”

Saying something rude yet again was a familiar heavenly voice. Needless to say, the surrounding court ladies raised coquettish voices. It was like watching a stage play.

“Pleasant day to you, Jinshi-sama,” she said.

(Though it isn’t anything pleasant before a corpse.)

Maomao looked at the lovely young man without any deep emotion as usual. Gaoshun, of course, was waiting behind him. He was a worldly-wise person who was always appealing to her with his gaze.

“So, teacher(老師).Will you look properly for me?” Jinshi asked.

“I understand,” the quack doctor said.

Although his face was slightly reddened, he looked at the drowned corpse reluctantly. He timidly turned over the mat cover. Palace ladies let out screams of shock from the back.

It was a tall woman. She was wearing stiff wooden shoes, and the one foot that wasn’t wearing it was wrapped in bandages. Her fingertips were deep red; nails were brutally damaged. It was understood from her clothes that she was from Food Duty.

“You look fine from seeing it,” Jinshi said.

“It’s scenery I’m used to,” Maomao replied.

If you go a little deeper into the pristine pleasure district, you go into the lawless area. It wasn’t rare to find the miserable figures of young girls who had been passed around and violated. In one perspective, you may think that there wasn’t a reason to enclose courtesans in a cage, but the flip-side was also to protect them so that they don’t get dragged into the dangers around them.

“Let’s hear your opinion at the back,” Jinshi said.

“I understand.”

(It must have been cold.)

Maomao, after the quack doctor finished his autopsy, politely covered the corpse with the mat. Though there was no point in doing so at this point.

Jinshi brought her along to the Palace Official Chief’s room. As usual, the Palace Official Chief was on standby outside.

They avoided speaking about the corpse at the Jade Palace. That sort of thing wasn’t appropriate in a place with a baby.

(He might as well get his own room.)

She lowered her head at the elderly Chief. Apologies for every single time.

“The Palace Guard is under the impression that it was a suicide by drowning,” Jinshi said.