The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 6 (Light Novel)

you hate me so much?” he asked, his face now less like a wild dog and more like a puppy. Love, hate—some people wanted the world to be so black and white. Why wouldn’t he give her the choice of a gray area?

“I suppose I don’t hate you as such,” she said. She might even think of him favorably. Certainly, she regarded this noble more positively than she had back when they’d first met.

Jinshi pursed his lips, not very pleased with this evasive answer. Maybe he was hoping she would come right out and say she loved him, but quite frankly, Maomao wasn’t at a point where she could bring those words to her lips. The best she could manage was that she wasn’t without a certain affection for him.

He didn’t want to relinquish the sensation that still lingered on his lips.

Jinshi first heard this story when he was more than ten years old, after Gaoshun had seen him teasing Basen for trying to keep his distance from the ladies-in-waiting.

“Women are such fragile creatures,” Basen said. “I think it’s too soon for me.”

What could Jinshi say to that? There was nothing. Instead, he held out his cup, silently asking for more juice.

She wished it could stay this way.

Just when she was expecting to feel a rush of wind against her body, she felt a pressure against her belly instead.

I’m not certain I can control my strength—but may I hit you?”

Maomao was just wondering what he could be up to—when he ran a finger along her back, raising gooseflesh all over her body. “Wanna know something, mister? Freckles here can’t stand it if you swipe your finger along her back. It’s a hoot!”
Maomao, wondering why the hell Chou-u would bring up something like that at a moment like this, raised a hand to knuckle him in the head.
Jinshi, however, said, “Is that so?” and grinned.

Finally, unable to hold it in any longer, laughter burst out of her. The book on the desk, the one Maomao had been copying, tumbled to the floor. At last thinking, perhaps, that he had gone too far, Jinshi let her go.

The tickling had moved down her foot now; she gritted her teeth and twisted, pressing her lips together and trying not to make so much as a sound. She wasn’t quite successful.
The long fingers worked their way to the arch of her foot, inducing a thrash from her, whereupon they went to her other heel. The tickling kept moving before she could become accustomed to it in any one place, landing on her toes, the top of her foot, her ankle, and even her calf.
Jinshi looked down at her with a smile, totally in control of things. He seemed to be savoring the sight of Maomao flopping like a fish despite her best efforts to control herself. Teasingly, he brushed the top of her foot, which was by now arched like a bow.

“Hrk?!” Maomao choked, squirming. The many experiments she’d conducted throughout her life had made her far less sensitive to pain, and the instruction of her various older sisters had numbed her to matters sexual as well, but even Maomao had her weak points. The back of her foot, and her back as well, were hopelessly vulnerable to a gentle brush of the fingers.
“M-Master Jinshi... That’s...not...fair!”
“Fair? I don’t know what you mean,” he said, and sliiide went his fingers again. How did he know to do that? When had her secret gotten out? Why did Jinshi know Maomao’s weak point?
“Let me go. Y-You’re dirty.”