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There’s an island country to the east of Li that harbors dark spirits… or so it’s said. The truth of the statement was questionable. One of those renowned spirits was a beautiful fox-spirit woman who made her way into the emperor’s good graces. Tamamo had paid attention to that story more than the others. Why? Because that fox spirit was also called Tamamo.
Tamamo smiled to herself. She was no fox. If anything, she was a tanuki. A cowardly animal that made itself seem bigger than it was to survive. She’d done something like that before. And now she was here, in the eastern island country.
She’d arrived with no intention of returning to Li, but she found that she didn’t have much of a choice anymore.
I guess after all that, everything seemed better.
It was a miracle she was alive. A hairpin had saved her from immediate death, and a should-be apothecary had saved her from a slow demise. Tamamo looked off into the distance and wondered why there were so many apothecaries in her life.
That old guy, an apothecary. Her sister, an apothecary. A random soldier, an apothecary. Her friend/love interest/something else (?), an apothecary. An apothecary with a diary.
Well, taking her mind off of the many apothecaries she knew, Tamamo looked up at the great boat before her. It was a merchant ship, meaning she had to be a merchant to get on. Obviously, she wasn’t one.
When she’d arrived in this eastern island country, she was more concerned with being alive than with getting a job. She had a cute jade cicada to accompany her. Who could ask for more? Her, because she was poor and had no money. The cicada could only be so useful without being sold off.
She wasn’t going to sell that cicada, no way! She’d traded a slightly broken hairpin for it, probably something that had a value that would only increase if anyone learned its origin. Not that she could actually tell anyone.
Tamamo possessed a great many skills. She was an impeccable actor, and was so good at it no one noticed her dual (now triple) identity until it was obvious. She was very adept at assessing political situations. There was more, but the list was long and altogether boring.
She’d lived as a commoner before, but it got a little hard when you were in a new country. Tamamo had studied the language, of course, because it had always been her plan to escape to here. But who was supposed to tell her that it was impossible to find a job?
Tamamo had a pretty face, obviously. She was a former consort. If she was desperate, she could probably sell herself to a brothel or something. She wasn’t exactly intact, though, so she’d be the lowest type. Not an ideal situation.
She could’ve been a maid, but there weren’t many people in the coastal city eager to hire one. The central region was too far, and she really was too old for all this. Yes, she hadn’t even turned twenty, but the point stood.
And so one year after living off of poorly paid side gigs, Tamamo decided she had to return to Li. No one would recognize her, right? Right???
This was the only way to live like she wanted, able to catch bugs and go home to a nice meal with good ingredients. Selling seashells, by the seashore.
She was going to sell sea shells by the sea shore. It’s a good time to mention that her original name was Shisui, and she came from the Shi clan. Shi sells sea shells by the Sui shore?
⋆｡𖦹 .°⋆｡𖦹 .°
Maomao lived in the central region, and planned to stay there her whole life. That visit to the north was a fluke. That visit to the west was for her job, and by extension she’d gone south on the journey west. All that was left was east, but no way she was leaving her nice comfortable life yet again!
Though she said that, Maomao had given in after hardly any pleading from Jinshi. It was only supposed to be a three-week trip, because the central region wasn’t actually very central, and it took only a week to reach the coast. A week spent there and a week on the way back added up to less than a month.
She looked around at the market stalls. Pretty ordinary for a sea town. It was just like Anan, but less hot and more watery. No former consorts here. Especially not ones that danced atop high places.
‘’Miss Chue, Miss Chue, I want to buy something,’’ Maomao said to her friend, who dutifully produced a pouch full of coins.
‘’What is it that you need, miss Maomao?’’ Chue asked.
‘’I want medicinal ingredients.’’
‘’Oho, what a shock!’’
Yes, it was quite a shock. Maomao walked around, searching intently for a certain good. A shell commonly referred to as a wonder shell, wondrous for its total absence from markets in the capital. Maybe she could get some here.
Maomao paused and gave it some thought. Who would sell seashells by the seashore? Couldn’t you just pick some up from the beach? Well, there were some hard to find ones around, but those wouldn’t be in a common marketplace.
Just when she was about to turn back, a certain stall caught her eye. Her jaw dropped in shock.
Is it…!?
Maomao couldn’t believe what she was seeing! She’d tried to avoid seeing this sight for way more than a year now, and even avoided thinking about it!
A whole stall full of frogs!
Yes, that was a horrible encounter she didn’t like to think of. Frogs reminded her of something. A rich noble. Dual identity. Purple hair. Related to Suirei. Was in the same building as Shishou and Shenmei and a bunch of dead kids at the same time. Very beautiful.
Eager to escape the frog stall, Maomao quickly walked away. She came across a locust stall. She had seen that noble eat a locust once. Maomao walked even faster.
Purple hair… purple hair! Why was she thinking of it? Why was it right in front of her face? Wait, what? Purple hair in front of her? But Jinshi was in a palace or something. Ah-duo?
The purple-haired person turned around suspensefully.
That’s not Ah-duo…
Pure consort, yes, but Ah-duo? Not at all. This was…!
‘’Oh my god! Maomao?! What are you doing here?’’ Shisui asked, sounding as surprised as Maomao felt.
Maomao stared in shock. Shisui, here? How?
‘’I could ask you the same thing, Shisui.’’
Shisui’s expression became totally blank. ‘’Who’s that? I’m Tamamo, the sea shell seller.’’
Maomao rubbed her eyes. Shisui was here, selling sea shells by the sea shore. This was too weird for comfort. ‘’How’d you get here?’’
‘’Well, I got shot twice, but your hairpin took the worst of it, so thanks for that! Oh, also, I sold it. Sorry. The other gunshot hurt a lot, but Sazen helped me out. Then I left for the eastern island country to start a new life,’’ Tamamo explained.
‘’Why are you here, then?’’
‘’It’s hard to make a living, you know? I wasn’t making any money, so I had to come back. Don’t you know the feeling, Maomao? Being a maid only pays so well.’’
‘’I’m not a maid anymore, actually. I’m a court lady.’’
Tamamo waved her hands around. ‘’Same old, same old. I don’t care about that palace stuff anymore. Want a seashell?’’
⋆｡𖦹 .°⋆｡𖦹 .°
‘’What was it that you saw, Maomao?’’ Jinshi asked.
‘’An old friend,’’ Maomao answered. ‘’I met her at the rear palace.’’
‘’Oh, so she’s got a new job?’’
‘’Shi sells sea shells by the Sui shore.’’
‘’Why are you spelling it like that?’’
Maomao didn’t know. She didn’t know a lot of things, especially when they were purple haired beautiful noble related. It was just so confusing. And that’s why green hair is better. The end.