The Apothecary Diaries

Chapter 25: Wine

"What terrible news," Consort Gyokuyou said, her face darkening. Standing before her, Jinshi's heavenly countenance was likewise troubled.
I guess some bigwig is dead. Maomao was there, too, but she was simply present, feeling none of the emotion of the moment. It might have seemed cold, but she wasn't sentimental enough to muster any sympathy for someone whose name she had never heard and whose face she had never seen. The deceased had been more than fifty years of age, anyway, and the cause of death was drinking too much. You reap what you sow; that was all there was to it.
Or it should have been.
Even after completing her food tasting duties, Maomao couldn't leave the room. Jinshi had apparently sent Hongniang on some kind of errand, and as a consequence Maomao had to stay instead. Even a eunuch couldn't be alone with a royal consort; a lady-in-waiting had to be present. The salient point was that Jinshi had charged Hongniang, and not her minion Maomao, with the task.
And that means he's plotting something, Maomao thought. And she was right.
"Do you think the cause of death was truly too much wine?" Jinshi inquired, and his lovely gaze was focused not on the consort, but just over her shoulder—in other words, on Maomao.

There were a number of ways to die of drink.
Even Maomao, who enjoyed her alcohol, understood it became a poison if one drank too much. Any medicine did if the dosage was too large.
Chronic drinking could induce dysfunction of the liver. Too much at one time could cause death on the spot. In this case, it was the latter: an overabundance of drink at a party among compatriots. Allegedly, the victim had partaken liberally from a generous jug.
"That certainly would kill you," Maomao remarked flippantly as they came to the guardhouse by the main gate. It was the same place she had met Lihaku. Still a simple room with only the barest furnishings, but today tea and snacks were provided and a brazier was lit to ward off the cold.
"But it was half as much as usual," Jinshi said. (Half as much wine as usual, presumably.) Gaoshun took something from a serving girl who appeared from outside the rear palace. The girl said nothing, only bowed her head and withdrew.
"Frankly, I can't bring myself to believe he died of drink," Jinshi said.
"Not Kounen."
Kounen was the name of the dead man. He had been a splendid warrior who drank wine by the jugful, and from what Jinshi and Gyokuyou said, he wasn't a half-bad person, either.
Gaoshun placed the object he'd received from the serving girl on the table. It was a gourd flask. Gaoshun poured from it into a small drinking cup.
"What's this?" Maomao asked.
"The same wine that was served at the party," Jinshi informed her. "We took it from one of the other jugs that was present. The one Kounen was drinking from had been overturned and all the contents spilled out."
"So we'll never know if that jug had poison in it." After all, poison
would be the next obvious culprit, if it wasn't the wine proper that had killed him.
"Quite right." Jinshi obviously knew how unrealistic his hopes were, bringing Maomao this alcohol to examine. The fact that he did so anyway—that he clearly wanted closure on this matter—made her curious. Did he owe the dead man a favor? He just needs to turn that stupid charm back on, Maomao thought. Lately Jinshi had looked so much more childish to her;
she couldn't help it. Honestly, it was easier on her when he huffed and puffed and ordered her around.
Now she brought the wine to her lips and lapped at it gently with her tongue.
Hello, what's this? The wine tasted both sweet and sour at once. It was as if it had started out sweet, and then someone had added a pinch of salt.
It's like cooking wine.
"A most unusual flavor," she commented, looking intently at Jinshi.
"Yes. It was Kounen's personal preference. He had quite the sweet tooth.
He enjoyed a sweet wine and would only take sweet snacks with it." Jinshi almost seemed in a rapture as he described the deceased. Kounen could be presented with the finest smoked meats, or luxurious rock salt, but he wouldn't touch them, according to Jinshi. "Way back when, he used to enjoy more savory foods, but then... One day, out of the blue, he completely reversed himself. So much so that almost all his meals became exclusively sweet." The hint of a smile, genuinely spontaneous, it seemed, drifted across Jinshi's face.
"Sounds like he was flirting with diabetes," Maomao said, unsparingly presenting her opinion.
"Don't sully my memories with bleak reality, if you please," Jinshi said ruefully.