Manga Chapter 007

## The Garden Banquet ②

**The Garden Banquet ②** (園遊会 (その②), *Enyuukai (Sono ②)*?) is the seventh chapter of Nekokurage's *Kusuriya no Hitorigoto* manga.

## Summary

Maomao and the rest of Jade Pavilion is at the Garden Party. Being the guest of honor, Lady Gyokuyou has retreated with Hongniang to her post, leaving Maomao and the rest of the servants outside. The season is winter and the weather is cold. Even with the heat stones, Maomao and the maids were still shuttering in the cold of winter.

As the party begin to assemble, Maomao is able to catch a glimpse of the Emperor and his family. While the Emperor sits on the throne, the Emperor's mother is seated to right with Princess Lingli in her arms. When Maomao commented on how young the Empress Dowager is, one of the maid servants begin to explain to Maomao that the Empress Dowager was actually only a child herself when she had the Emperor.

This causes Maomao to wonder how the Empress Dowager manage to get pregnant in the first place. But before she wonders about it even more, she notice that there is empty seat next to the Emperor. When Maomao asks who it was for, the maid servant replied that it was for the Emperor's brother, the imperial prince. The imperial brother was apparently very sickly and is often confined to his quarters. Thus, the seat is left empty.

Before Maomao can think about who the imperial prince may be, she was interrupted by Yinghua's loud voice as Yinghua fought with the maids of the Crystal Pavilion. Upon closer look, Maomao realized that one of the maid Yinghua fought was a maid she threaten during her stay in the Crystal Pavilion. Seeing how cheeky she's acting, Maomao decided to reveal herself to the maid, causing the maid to cower in fear.

After the maids of the Crystal Pavilion left, Maomao suggested that they replace the heat stone for it was no longer warm. Seeing how thoughtful Maomao is, the maids of the Jade Pavilion quickly accompanied Maomao towards the stove. That is when they encounter the maids of the Diamond Pavilion quarreling with the maids of the Garnet Palace. Yinghua and the others commented on how it was only natural for the two sides to clash for one of them used to be the mother in law of the other. The high consort of the Late Emperor becoming a high consort of his son, the Current Emperor. Such is the family issues of the imperial family.

Hearing this, Maomao thought that Lady Ah-Duo of the Garnet Palace was the mother in law because she was 35 years old while Lady Lishu of the Diamond Pavilion was only a teenager. But as it turns out, Lady Lishu is actually the mother in law for she became a consort to the Late Emperor at the age of nine. That is when it was revealed to Maomao that the Late Emperor was a lolicon. He only fancy young little girls which explains why the Empress Dowager is so young.

After gossiping, Maomao and one of the maid servants went to check on Princess Lingli. That is when they happened to see High Consort Lishu pass by. She was clad in a red dress, unfitting for her symbol for she is the High Consort of the Diamond Pavilion and her symbol is white. Red, on the other hand, is Lady Gyokuyou's symbol. For Lady Lishu to wear the color red can only means that she's either doing it on purposely or she's an air head who don't know how to read the mood.

With that, Maomao return to her work. But while working, she notices that the maids of the inner palace is interacting with the court officials of the outer palace. They would even go as far as giving the maids ornaments as gifts. Seeing how curious Maomao was, Yinghua begin to explain that the Garden Party is not only a place for the Emperor to celebrate but also a good time for the servants of the inner palace to interact with the officials of the outer palace. And that the ornaments that they give out signifies their symbol which they give to those who they want to serve them.

Finally learning the meaning behind the ornament, Maomao now understand why it was such a big deal for Jinshi to gave her a hair pin and why Lady Gyokuyou said that Maomao was no longer serving only her. Nevertheless, Maomao wasn't planning on staying in the inner palace. She plan to leave after two years of her service so she has no plan on making any connection here.

Upon hearing Maomao's lack of interest in the ornaments, Yinghua replied that the ornaments has other implications as well. But Maomao was still not interested, causing Yinghua to pout in disappointment. But before they were able to discuss anymore, Maomao was approached by a military official. He introduce himself as Lihaku and gave Maomao a hairpin as he quickly left. Seeing that Maomao has been given a hairpin, the rest of the maids quickly gather around her to celebrate. Though she saw in point in celebrating.

That is when Lady Lihua appear before them, wearing an elegant blue gown decorated with pearls and crystal to amplify her godly beauty. With her presence known, she slowly steps forward to give Maomao a hairpin of her own. An ornament hairpin decorated with pearls and crystals to signify the the symbol of the Crystal Pavilion and Lady Lihua herself. Upon giving Maomao the hairpin, Lady Lihua quickly left. Seeing such a sight, the maids of the Jade Pavilion was all in shock. For a maid of the Jade Pavilion to receive an ornament of the High Consort of the Crystal Pavilion, Had Lady Gyokuyou saw that, it might not have ended so well.

With the preparation done, the party is now ready to commence. Maomao, who is the food tester of Lady Gyokuyou, was seated next to her beside the Emperor. Meanwhile, the court officials are seated on both sides with the civil officials seated in rows to the right and the military officials seated in rows to the left. Within the military officials, Maomao recognize Gaoshun who was placed as a high ranking official. She also recognize Lihaku as well who is seated as a lower ranking official. Maomao look around once more to see where Jinshi is but he was nowhere to be present.

Before Maomao can look around more, the maid servants begin to prepare food onto the table in front of her. She is a food tester after all and it is her duty to test for poison. The first thing she had to test is alcohol poured into a silver cup. After examining it, she speculate that there is no poison. But since it was required of her to taste to alcohol, she did. As she suspect, there was no poison.

She then casually move onto the next dish but then she suddenly realizes that everyone was starring at her. Once she looks at her peers, it wasn't hard to understand why. The other food testers was very hesitant in taking the food while she did it without hesitation. It is only natural for a food tester to be scared because eating poison would mean their death. But for Maomao, eating poison is a treat. Not only that, she is an expert in herbs and resistant to poison so the chance of her dying from poison is low. This takes the fear out of it and she is able to taste without hesitation.

Upon thinking about the poison she would like to taste which is blow fish, Maomao gave out a delightful grin. Which only causes everyone to fix their sight on her even more. A food tester that is not afraid of poison. But now is not the time to think. She has a job to do. Upon inspecting her next dish, she notice that the food presented was something that doesn't match the Emperor's taste.

Since Lady Gyukuyou is not a picky eater, she usually just eats whatever the Emperor is eating. But the dish before her is clearly made for another person other than the Emperor. Meaning that whoever set the dish made a mistake in delivering the wrong dish to the wrong person. Maomao ate the dish anyway. There is no poison in it.

But as she finish eating, she notice something very wrong with Lady Lishu. The dish that was delivered to Lady Lishu is filled with mackerel, a dish that the Emperor favors. But it would seem that Lady Lishu doesn't want to eat it. Even if that was the case, Lady Lishu cannot lose face in front of the Emperor. She would have to eat at least once bite. Which she did.

Moa Mao thought nothing of it. But upon looking at the food taster of Lady Lishu, Maomao notice that she had a grin in her face. That's when Maomao realize that the maid purposely gave Lady Lishu a dish she hates to bully her. Seeing this, Maomao can't help but feel a bad after taste in her mouth.

The next dish is presented to her. It was the broth. Maomao inspect it carefully. It looked normal. While she's doing her job, all the court officials and the maids had their eyes fixed on her. The mere fact that she isn't hesitating at all while tasting the food made her extraordinary. As she taste the broth, the spectator saw a face that they never thought they'd see in a food taster. A face brimming with a smile of ecstasy.

It made them curious as to how good the food was that would cause her to make such a face. But Maomao quickly spit the food into a hand towel and declare that there is poison that dish.

## Characters

* Yinghua
* Maomao
* Ailan
* Guiyuan
* Anshi
* Lingli
* Emperor
* Ah-Duo (mentioned)
* Former Emperor (mentioned)
* Lishu
* Lihaku
* Lihua
* Gyokuyou
* Gaoshun
* Kanan