The pine forest near the inner palace drops its dead branches and leaves once a year, which created the ideal conditions for the growth of a particular mushroom. What she was holding onto was the rare mushroom with the spreading conical cap, the matsutake. Matsutake Mushrooms are a good source of B vitamins, protein, copper, potassium, zinc and selenium. All essential minerals to a healthy diet. It was a small forest, but as they are often found growing in groups, her basket contained five matsutake mushrooms.
At the medical office, besides the loach mustache old man, was an unfamiliar pale-faced eunuch.
He kept rubbing his hands for some reason.
"Oh hey, lass. Just as I wanted to see you," the quack doctor said.
"What is it?" Yen asked.
"It looks like his hands have developed a rash. Can you make a salve for me?" he said.
In no way could those be the words of the one who controls the medicine of inner palace. Well, as it's the usual, she went to the room with the medicine shelves next door.
Before that, she set down the basket and took out the matsutake. "Do you have charcoal and stuff?"
"OH, you brought some splendid things. It would be good if we have sauce and salt." It was early to talk about his favorite foods. With a happy bounce in his steps, he went to the dining hall to pick up some seasoning for her while pathetically leaving behind his patient as he is.
When the quack doctor came back with seasoning, charcoal, and a grill mesh, she was just finished with making the viscous salve. Taking hold of the eunuch's right hand, she carefully smeared the cream onto his red rash. She had to endure the smell as it was somewhat strong. Color seemed to have returned to his pale face for a bit when she finished applying the medicine.
"Ohhh, what a kind maidservant," the eunuch said.
"I know right. She oft' helps me," the quack doctor replied.
The two eunuchs conversed without care. Eunuchs, according to the times, are treated as bad people who are filled with a lust for power, but in truth, those were only a small handful. Most of them have calm personalities like this.
Yen made an unpleasant face as she set the charcoal on fire, placed the mesh and added the matsutake she picked by hand. She cut the sudachicitrus that she had stolen from the orchard again. She served it on a plate once the wonderful fragrance reached her nose and they were a little charred. She then enjoyed it seasoned with salt and sudachi.
The moment the two old men placed it in their mouths, she determined them as accomplices.
As Yen chewed, the quack doctor was chatting in a carefree manner. "The lass is helpful because she can do anything. She made a lot of medicine aside from the salves for me."
"Hoooh, how wonderful," said the eunuch. Yen was somewhat troubled by the fact that he was treating her as if she was his daughter.
A tiny bit unsettled by the strong feelings, the quack doctor said the odd things that a quack doctor would say. "Ahh, there aren't medicines you can't make, right?". Yen gave him a confused look.
Before she told him to stop with the false advertising, the eunuch before her reacted. "Anything?"
"Anything." the quack doctor huffed in pride.
"Then, can you make medicine that can break curses?" the man said while rubbing his inflamed right hand. Color had returned to his pale face some time ago. "It was something from the evening of yesterday. I finished with the cleaning up the rubbish as usual. Rubbish from all over the inner palace is collected in a cart and incinerated on the west side. It was originally forbidden to light a fire after the evenings, but since there was no wind and the air was humid, it was approved with no issues.
The low-ranking officials threw the rubbish into the hole. I devoted myself like the others so that I could quickly finish my job. Suddenly, something in the cart caught my eye. A woman's clothes, although it wasn't silk, it was of exceptional quality. It would have been a waste to throw it out. Then I saw that there were loose wooden slips bundled up inside it. There was a large scorch mark on the cuff of the clothing that wrapped it. I then throw the wooden slips into the flames, and in doing so, the flames blew up into a gust and changed into a weird color," the eunuch said.
"Ahh." The old man's shoulders trembled, looking dreadful from his reminiscence.
"Were the colors red, purple and green?" Yen asked.
"That's right," the eunuch affirmed. Yen nodded in understanding.
"That's the curse of the consort who died in a fire a long time ago. I knew it was wrong to light a fire at night. That's why it turned out like this." It seemed that the rash on the eunuch's hand was from after seeing that flame. "Hey, girl. Make me medicine that will break the curse."
"That sort of medicine doesn't exist." After declaring that coldly, she got up from her seat and went to rummage in the medicine shelves next door.
Giving a backward glance at the flustered quack doctor and the old man, she put something on the table. There were several powders, and then pieces of wooden slips.
"That flame. Was it this color?" She added the wooden slips onto the charcoal, and after confirming that they were lit, she scooped up some white powder with a medicine spoon and added it to the fire.
The orange fire turned red.
"If not that then, this?" After she added a different powder, it turned green.
"I can do even this." When she added a pinch of salt that been on the matsutake, it turned yellow.
"Lass, what in the world was that?" The quack doctor asked astonishment.
"It's the same as colored fireworks. Just that the color changes according to what is burnt," she replied.
"Then, what is with my hand? Is it not due to the curse?" the eunuch asked.
Yen presented him the white powder. "A rash can break out if you touch this with your bare hands. If it weren't for that, they wouldn't paint lacquer onto the wooden slips. Either way, isn't your skin weak to these?"
"…is that what it was?" He slumped down as if he lost his bones. His face was a mix of surprise and relief. It must have been on the wooden slips. Burning that will birth colorful flames. That was all it was.