Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace
Chapter 161: At the Age When You Want to Peek

“It’s about time for Xu to wake up, so we’re going to listen to her story. Well, it’s a question whether she’ll speak the truth, though”, the man said.

“Let go, I said let go!!”

A woman’s shrill, piercing cry rang outside the room.

Yui Mei perked her ears while looking perplexed, and the man chuckled seeing her like that.

“Hmm, so the likely winner has come ahead of Xu, huh.”

Yui Mei’s eyes widened when she heard what the man said.

Likely winner — was he referring euphemistically to the criminal?

She strained her ears, trying to listen in, when a thud resounded, as if something had been pushed inside the room.

“It’s as planned.”

The man remarked as he put the tea he had been drinking on the table. He then stood up and strode towards the wall.

Yui Mei silently watched him, inwardly wondering what he was up to, when the man suddenly groped the wall, and a small peeping hole appeared.

“Fuhaa!?”

Yui Mei let out a weird sound, so the man placed a finger to his lips and gestured for her to be quiet.

“There’s a hanging scroll on the other side, so they won’t notice the existence of this hole.”

The man whispered and Yui Mei nodded like a chicken.

‘Got it, got, I have to be quiet, then!’

The other side’s room seemed to be boisterous, so it seemed that Yui Mei’s gaffe wasn’t heard earlier. 

Yui Mei was curious what was going on on the other side, but she still meekly sat down even though she was fidgeting.

This was the penitentiary, after all, so she wouldn’t mistakenly display her thirst for gossip.

However, contrary to her expectations, the man beckoned Yui Mei.

“…!”

Yui Mei had almost toppled the chair in her haste to stand up, so she hurriedly catch it before it hit the floor. She then tiptoed towards the man, careful not to make a sound as she drew nearer to the wall.

The man let her peep into the hole.

True enough, there was a hanging scroll in front of the hole, but it also had a hole so they could see the view clearly.

It made Yui Mei curious about what was on the hanging scroll.

However, she must focus on the scene before her right now.

“Do you know that courtesan?”

The man asked, but Yui Mei shook her head in response.

“No, actually, the only courtesan I know is Miss Xu. I also started cleaning the Jiaofang yesterday.”

Yui Mei explained while peering more intently at the scene beyond the hole.

The courtesan surrounded by the men of the Ministry of Justice was clad extravagantly, so she was probably the biggest earner among the courtesans.

Her hands were shaking, her eyes were darting around restlessly, and she looked terrified — she was obviously acting suspiciously right from the get go.

“That woman’s addicted to poppy juice, and it seems like she’s a heavily sick patient.”

Yui Mei unwittingly mumbled, but the man caught her whispers.

“I see, so that’s a good example of what happens in the end, huh.”

The man nodded.

“Still, what a horrible stench. Is that the fragrance of incense? I can smell the pungent odor all the way over here.”

Libin, who had drawn closer without Yui Mei noticing, remarked.

Indeed, even if the hole was small, the strange aroma of cosmetics wafted to them.

It was probably a scent that was a mixture of pomade and incense and other assorted smells.

‘Well,  that’s what happens when you try to cover your body odor, I guess.’

If a person was exposed to poppy juice for a long time, the scent would resemble burning incense, and it would naturally permeate into the clothes as well as the hair.

And just like the smell of cigarettes, it wouldn’t easily disappear no matter how much they cleaned their bodies.

Once that happened, it would be difficult to get rid of the stink, and the only way to erase the smell was to cover it with a stronger fragrance.

As a result, it would be a vicious cycle of using pungent odors to eliminate similarly pungent smells.