Chapter 9: Cacao

“At least I grasp its effectiveness now,” Jinshi said with an annoyed glance at Maomao.

“As do I,” Maomao said.

Jinshi looked almost overcome by the catastrophic scene in front of him.

“Ugh,” he said, and there was no hint of his usual detached smile. There was only fatigue on his face. “How did this happen?” To answer that question, we’ll have to go back in time a few hours.

The cacao they were sent was no longer in seed form, but had been powdered. All the other ingredients Maomao had requested had already arrived at the kitchen of the Jade Pavilion. Three of the ladies-in-waiting were busy trying to look on, but a word from Hongniang sent them scurrying back to their work.

Milk, butter, sugar, honey, distilled spirits and dried fruits, and some oils derived from aromatic herbs to give everything a pleasant odor. All nutritious —and expensive—ingredients, and all useful in a stamina concoction.

Maomao had tasted cacao only once. It had been in a hardened, sweetened form called chocolate, and she had received it from one of the prostitutes. It had been a piece hardly the size of the tip of her finger, but on eating it, she felt she had drunk an entire cup of some especially sharp liquor. It made her oddly giddy.

The chocolate was, the woman had explained, a gift from an especially nasty customer who had hoped to buy the affections of a girl who had been sold into prostitution, by offering her a rare treat. When the girl noticed Maomao’s altered state, however, she was deeply angry, and the madam of the brothel forbade the customer from coming back. It came to light later that a trading concern had started to sell the stuff as an aphrodisiac. Maomao had managed to obtain a handful of seeds since then, but she had never used them as medicine. No one in the red-light district came to the apothecary seeking something so extravagant for a simple medicament.

Even now, Maomao remembered the chocolate for the way it had been hardened with oil and fat. Her wide experience with an eclectic collection of medicines and poisons in all their various flavors and aromas naturally also gave her an excellent memory for ingredients.

It was still the hot season, and she suspected butter wouldn’t set well, so she decided to cover some fruit instead. A bit of ice would be perfect, but that was of course impossible and didn’t make the ingredients list. Instead she asked for a large, unglazed water jug to be prepared. It was filled half full with water. As the water evaporated, the inside of the jug would become cooler than the outside air, cool enough to help harden the fats.

Maomao dipped a spoon into the mixture and tasted a bit of it. It was bitter and sweet at the same time, and her knowledgeable tongue likewise detected elements that would improve the mood. She was far more resistant to things like alcohol and toxins now than she had been when she’d had that first taste of chocolate, and it didn’t affect her nearly as much. But she could still tell it was powerful stuff.

Maybe I should make the portions a bit smaller.

She chopped the fruit in half with a simple cleaver, then dipped them in the brownish liquid. She put them on a plate, then placed them in the jug. She put a lid on the jug, then covered it with a straw mat to hide it. The only thing left was to wait for the chocolate to harden. Jinshi would come by to collect it that evening; that should be plenty of time.

Guess I’ve got a little extra...

She hadn’t used all of the brownish liquid. The ingredients were extremely expensive, and it was quite nutritious. Aphrodisiac or not, it had a minimal effect on Maomao, so she decided to eat it herself later. She chopped some bread into cubes and soaked them in the stuff; this way she wouldn’t have to worry about any cooling process, either.

She put a lid on the jar of cacao liquid and set it on the shelf. The rest of the ingredients she put in her own room, then headed for the washing area to clean the utensils. She should have put the dipped bread in her room, too, but she was already thinking about other things. Maybe her taste-testing had left her a little inebriated.

Well, it was too late now.

It happened after that, while Maomao was out running errands for Hongniang, stopping off along the way to pick some medicinal herbs for herself. The bread, and the fact that it should have gone on the shelf, were chased clear out of Maomao’s mind. She returned with a laundry basket full of herbs, thoroughly pleased with herself, only to be greeted by Hongniang and Consort Gyokuyou, looking deathly pale and rather disturbed, respectively. Gaoshun was there too, which implied Jinshi was somewhere about.

Hongniang could only put a hand to her forehead and point to the kitchen,so Maomao pressed her laundry basket into Gaoshun’s arms and headed over.

She discovered Jinshi, looking annoyed. The delicate way to put it would be to say that a great medley of peach and light-red colors spread before her.

Which is to say, more plainly, that three ladies-in-waiting were all leaning against each other, sound asleep. Their clothes were in disarray, their disheveled skirts revealing lascivious glimpses of thigh.

“What happened here?” Hongniang demanded of Maomao.

“I’m afraid I’m not best placed to answer that question,” she replied. She went over to the three young women and crouched down, flipping down their skirts and examining them.

“It’s all right, this attempt failed to—” Hongniang, blushing furiously, smacked Maomao on the back of the head.

Sitting on the table was the brown-colored bread. Three pieces were missing.

The girls had mistaken it for an afternoon snack.

The fatigue caught up with her after they had put each of the girls to bed in her own room. In the sitting room, Gyokuyou and Jinshi were looking at the chocolate bread with some wonder.

“Is this your aphrodisiac?” Gyokuyou inquired.

“No, ma’am, this is.” Maomao gave her the chocolate-covered fruit.

Approximately thirty pieces, each the size of a thumbnail.

“What is this, then?” Jinshi asked.

“It was supposed to be my bedtime snack.” Everyone seemed to recoil a little at that. Had she said something wrong? Gaoshun and Hongniang both looked like they could hardly believe their eyes.

“I’m very accustomed to spirits and stimulants, so I don’t feel them much.” Maomao had once, in the name of science, pickled a venomous snake in alcohol and drunk it, so she could safely be called an experienced drinker.

She considered alcohol to be a kind of medicine. The more susceptible one was to new forms of stimulation, the better medicine worked on one. Take this bread, for instance: here in the Jade Pavilion, it passed for an aphrodisiac, but she had to think that in the land where the ingredients had come from, it would be substantially less effective.

Jinshi picked up one of the pieces of bread and looked at it doubtfully. “I wonder if I might safely try a piece, then,” he said.

“No, sir, don’t!” Hongniang and Gaoshun cried almost in unison.

Maomao thought this was the first time she had heard Gaoshun speak.

Jinshi put the bread back, remarking that he had only been joking. It would, of course, have been improper for him to consume a known aphrodisiac in the presence of the Emperor’s own favorite consort, but perhaps even more to the point, hardly anyone could have resisted him had he come to her with that nymph-like smile and a flush in his cheeks. His face, if nothing else, Maomao reflected, did him credit.

“Perhaps I should have some made for His Majesty,” Gyokuyou said with amusement. “It might keep him from his usual ways.”

“It would most likely work about three times better than a typical stamina medication,” Maomao informed her.

At this, Gyokuyou’s face took on a cast that was hard to read. “Three times...” She mumbled something about whether she could endure so long, but those present affected not to have heard her. It seemed it wasn’t easy being a concubine.

Maomao put the aphrodisiacs in a covered jar and handed it to Jinshi.

“They’re quite potent, so I recommend taking just one at a time. Taking too many could overstimulate the blood flow and produce a nosebleed. Also, consumption should be limited to when the patient is alone with their partner.” With these instructions duly conveyed, Jinshi stood up. Gaoshun and Hongniang left the room to prepare for his departure. Consort Gyokuyou likewise nodded to him, then left with the sleeping princess in a carrier.

As Maomao went to clean up the plate of bread, she smelled a sweet aroma from behind her.

“Thank you. I put you to quite a bit of trouble.” The voice was sweet, too, like honey. Maomao felt her hair being lifted up, and something cold was pressed against her neck. She turned in time to see Jinshi waving at her as he left the room.

“I get it.” When she looked at the plate, she discovered one of the pieces of bread was missing. She had an idea where it was.

“I just hope no one gets hurt,” Maomao muttered, but she didn’t seem to think it had much to do with her.

The night was still young.

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