Volume 9, Chapter 39: The Golden Ratio

Day Forty-Five:

Additional supplies of medicinal herbs delivered, but not enough.

Day Forty-Eight:

Sterilising bandages.

Day Fifty-Two:

“What to do?”

Rahan’s older brother racked his brain. He had spread out a large map spread on a table in the medical office. 

“What can we do?”

The quack doctor was also thinking hard. Maomao had to put him to work, so she placed a pestle and medicinal herbs beside him.

“Why are you here, Rahan’s older brother?” Maomao asked.

This was the medical office, so it would be typical to think that it wasn’t good to have too many outsiders. She could see that he came here as this place had the friendliest atmosphere compared to elsewhere.

“No, the old man told me that I can stay here,” Rahan’s older brother replied.

“Lass, Rahan older brother-san is tired. You have to be kind to him.” It seems the quack doctor had mistakenly thought that Rahan’s older brother’s name was Rahan, but it was also a pain to correct him.

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Speaking of which, was Rahan’s older brother no longer interested in fixing his constant exhaustion, did he not notice it, or did he get used to it?

(He’s the hardest worker of us all.)

When you think about the damage normally, this man might have saved ten thousands of people’s lives, but the person himself hasn’t realised it at all.

“By the way, what are you looking at?” Maomao studied the map. Upon closer look, it was quite detailed. It noted out the climate and types of soil depending on the region. 

“It’s a map I filled in when I went on my journey to exterminate locusts. Since I was already at it, I also made notes on the characteristics of the fields, but I only got to cover half of it.”

(What to do, this person is useful.)

And thus, he was in the unfavourable position where he was just being used because he could be used.

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He should be recognised for this case at least, Maomao thought.

“So, what are you looking at on the map that’s making you troubled?” she asked.

“The produce. They can’t always get food from the capital, right? I was thinking of backup reserves, something that can be grown quickly within our means,” he replied.

“What about potatoes?”

“Not like we can give out something we don’t know is going to grow or not. That’s an experiment that’ll take some years.”

“What about wheat, normally? What about reaping the fields that weren’t able to be harvested and plant some there?”

“We are growing wheat. But that’s only on fields that are already planned to do so. Monocropping will decrease the harvest.”

“Ah.”

You’re right, Maomao nodded.

“Monocropping? Harvest?” As usual, the quack doctor didn’t understand, but she left it for now.

“Beans might work, but the problem is that its harvest season is late. Assuming that part can’t be helped.” It seems in Rahan’s older brother’s head was a cultivation calendar of produce. “The biggest problem would be the seeds, I guess.”

“Seeds?”

“Yes. When there’s nothing to eat, there’ll be no extras to leave behind seeds for next year either. Once that happens, we’re finished, right?”

Certainly, you can’t do anything if there’s nothing to grow.

“And so, I was thinking about a field for crops that can be harvested quickly and for growing wheat seeds. Things like that.”

It became quite a significant topic, but the person in question was scary in how he was enthusiastically thinking about reorganising the fields in the neighbourhood.

“I really have to keep in mind about the size of the harvest, population, and quality of the soil. I don’t really like doing the calculations though.”

“Rahan would do it if he was here, though,” Maomao said.

“Don’t talk about that glasses prick,” Rahan’s older brother replied coldly. The older brother had always drawn the short end of the stick compared to his clever younger brother, so it is what it is.

“How about younger brother?”

“Wouldn’t that make you, younger sister, then?”

It was going to turn into an unproductive quarrel, so she stayed silent and pretended it didn’t happen.

“Oh yeah, I never got a letter from that guy,” he said.

“Letter? Didn’t they come recently?”

“Only from my dad. Rahan is quite a ready writer, so I thought he would write more.”

Considering how it came to Maomao, it wouldn’t be strange for it to come to Rahan’s older brother too.

By the way, it seems the quack doctor finally realised that Rahan’s older brother wasn’t Rahan, but his older brother. But he didn’t ask for his name.

“….”

“What?” Rahan’s older brother asked.

“Nothing.” Maomao suddenly recalled the letter she received a few days ago. She didn’t think deeply about it then, but…

“Give me a moment,” she said.

“Mh, aah.”

Maomao went to her room on the first floor. When she went inside, she saw a small flower. She had removed all the girly furniture, but occasionally, the quack doctor would leave a flower like this.

“It’s this.” Maomao brought the box of letters with her.

“What is it?”

“A letter from Rahan.”

“…this guy’s using nice paper, ain’t he?”

“I thought it was to withstand the long-distance, though.”  Maomao studied Rahan’s letter. The paper was reinforced by pasting oil paper on the back. Yao and En’en’s letters that came with it also used the same paper.

“Heeey, what is this letter supposed to mean?” Rahan’s older brother had a rather grim look.

Yao-san and company are still at my place, what should I do?

So the contents indicated.

“Such and such.” Maomao frankly spoke about Yao’s group.

What kind of face was Rahan’s older brother making at that moment? There was a murderous look in his eyes. He was baring his teeth like a beast, his nostrils flared. Incidentally, his hair was standing on end, reaching for the sky.

“Eeek.” The quack doctor cowered.

Maomao was shocked too. To think that Rahan’s older brother could look this angry. If they were to carve his current look on wood, he would probably make the statue of a demon.

“…that bastard. Drove me away into the sticks, and young unmarried maidens for himself, moreover, two of them…”

En’en was present, so that guy won’t make a mistake, but it was a drop in a bucket to say that to the current Rahan’s older brother.

“But the content of this letter is rather strange, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Oh reeeally, what part of it?” Even his tone changed. For someone from the Ra clan, his looks were decent, but it was now twisted to the point where nothing could be said.

“I’ll understand if it was not “still” but “again”. Those two went back once.”

“But, they’re there now, aren’t they.”

“Rahan’s older brother, don’t come closer with that face please.”

“DON’T MENTION HIS NAME TO ME!”

“Ahh, yeah sure.”

It seems his younger brother’s female relations were his sore spot.

She supposed that Yao and En’en returned to Rahan’s house again because of Yao’s uncle doing this and that. She can see that. However, would Rahan miswrite “again” for “still”? 

(This bothers me a bit.)

Maomao studied Rahan’s letter. The oiled paper and paper were firmly stuck together, with no signs of being able to be taken apart. No, wait…

(A mark where someone tried to peel it apart?)

Although faint, there was a mark that looked like it had been torn up off the four corners of the oiled paper.

(Was it peeled off then reglued?)

Maomao double-checked the other two letters.

If there was some tampering with Rahan’s letter, there was a high possibility that the other two letters had been given the same treatment.

She carefully checked the contents of the letters. The characters were blotted. The writing on the surface must have blurred after the oiled paper was glued to it.

Three letters. She felt that there had been something similar happening in the past.

If Yao and En’en hinted at it, there should be some connection to it.

(Something like invisible ink, no–)

As it was pasted on oiled paper, it will burn up if she were to light a fire. Was the reason they purposely stuck it to oiled paper, to make sure the letter receiver confirmed and recognised that the contents are safe? If so, the oiled paper would then have to be a mere bluff.

Maomao scrutinised the letters.

Rahan’s older brother also looked.

The quack doctor pretended to think, since he wanted to be included.

“…did Rahan really send this?” Rahan’s older brother asked.

“Why? It’s Rahan’s handwriting. Please accept the sad reality,” Maomao said.

“Not that! That’s not what I meant. I know that guy is really fussy about numbers.”

“Yes.” She knew that too well.

“Isn’t this letter, unshapely?” Rahan’s older brother opened Rahan’s letter.

“I can’t see anything weird though.”

“No, it’s weird. That guy writes only in the arrangement of five columns and eight rows.”

“No, I didn’t know such a thing.”

Could it be what Rahan says, a beautiful ratio?

Unfortunately, Maomao wasn’t that interested in Rahan’s letter. “Wasn’t it because he didn’t have enough paper?”

“No, you don’t understand his bizarre obsession with numbers. There was a time I cut off a bit too much of my bangs. I didn’t really mind it, but he fixed it on his own accord while I was sleeping. Do you understand how I felt when nearly all my hair was hacked off because of a mistake that was about one fingernail in length? That was when he was five, you know.”

“You didn’t have a good experience with your younger brother, huh.”

Rather than younger brother, there was also his family though.

“This is Rahan we’re talking about. There has to be some reason behind it.” Rahan’s older brother studied the letter.

Maomao looked at the other two letters too. Yao’s was significantly lengthier than Rahan’s, but compared to En’en, it was better. En’en’s was long, and written with characters the size of rice grains; she didn’t want to read anymore.

Rahan’s and Yao’s handwriting were a perfect size, so it was easy to read.

Maomao suddenly tried to put Rahan’s letter over Yao’s. The length of the columns matched. The length of the rows was precisely tripled.

The two’s writing were uniform and also matched when overlapped. Occasionally, Yao’s emotions would seep through, altering the size of the characters.

“Oh hey,” she said.

“What is it?”

Quite a lot of test-takers and successful applicants for the civil exam come to Rokushoukan of the pleasure district. The anxieties they talk of that time seem to be about copying out texts for several days in a location that was like a cramped cellar. She recalled their handwriting had to be beautiful and uniform like a copybook.

“Rows and columns.”

Not just the size of the characters, the number of characters in a column also matched precisely. Then, Maomao looked for the word “Still” that bothered her.

“Seek. Out. Coal.” She hunted for the word “still” in Yao’s writing overlapped with Rahan’s. Yao’s letter was triple the length of Rahan’s, so she moved it. The writing rose to the surface.

“Coal?” Rahan’s older brother asked.

“Coal. It’s a flammable rock. It can be a medicine depending on how it’s used, but I heard it’s also really harmful.”

Maomao’s adoptive father Ruomeon knew that medicine is also poison. He used harmless medicine whenever possible, so Maomao wasn’t really familiar with it.

“What did you say coal is?”

“I don’t know much. Shall we report this just in case?” she said.

It would be good if it were merely a coincidence, Maomao thought as she stored the letters in the box.

- my thoughts:
Ten more chapters to go till the end of the arc. Who's excited? Same as before, Monday and Friday schedule. For now.
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