#If Lahan doesn't marry her...

[vishnya55]

Sanfan before she ran away from home 🫐

It's been a long time since I've painted normal people 😭🥺

[lastofthe20thcenturygirls]

(ln8 spoilers) jinshi thinking except for my godly looks i am just average and then his smartass goes and kills around five birds with just one brand. someone whose status is so high that even his name can't be said by anyone except the emperor jinshi branded himself with the crest of the empress vowing loyalty to her assuring her he doesn't wants to take the place of her son. one-upping his "bro" with this who refuses to let him leave the line of succession wouldn't let him become a commoner doesn't wants to let him become a servant to the royal family. only slaves get branded and if this ever got out there will be chaos in the court. gyokuyou tho considers jinshi like a brother and he did swear loyalty to her but if she ever tried to cross his family her clan's brand on his body would be enough to prove her as an adultress which would be bad for her and her clan.

and jinshi did this in front of these two people and maomao so now she is the only one who can see him naked and the emperor cannot order him to marry anyone which was something that was definitely gonna happen had he not done what he did. as a bonus he gets to spend more time with maomao after a long time and he did all this while saying the exact words: empress gyokuyou, your enemy i shall never be in front of maomao reassuring her because she once muttered i don't want to be an enemy to empress gyokuyou and he had heard her but before he could tell her that he had no intention of doing that either he couldn't because of the lishu incident. one of the major reasons maomao hadn't accepted her own feelings for jinshi one of the obstacles he promised to remove for her. even though he doesn't even know that maomao's concerns about her becoming gyokuyou's enemy had to do with his birth secret his true status. that no matter what he is the rightful successor. something jinshi himself isn't even aware of and yet without knowing that he did this to deal with it all in a single way most preferable to him: masochism

[julietcpulet]

Hi! I kinda want to ask something about Maomao. Do you think her accepting her place as a member of the La Clan (therefore, embracing her nobility) is part of her character growth? At this point, I don't think Jinmao will ever happen unless Maomao does so and I feel like people may take this the wrong way because Maomao has been extremely vocal since the start of the series about her social status and dislike for politics and noble stuff. People may think the author made Maomao accept her nobility just so she can get together with Jinshi easier (and this is kinda shown in LN 16 too and even in LN 14 during the named clan meetings). She's been conducting herself as someone of status, which kinda doesn't seem fair to her because even after everything, it's still Maomao who has to compromise and adjust. This has been bugging me so much, and I'm curious what you think about it.

Great question! (Spoilers below)

Yeah I do think it’s part of her growth. MaoMao has actually been a noble woman since her birth so it’s less about her entering the world of nobility through marriage like it’s presented than it is accepting her position there where she has always had a place. To me there’s three reasons why she’s struggled with moving into being princess of the La Clan:

1. It means she has to acknowledge she is Lakan’s daughter by birth and not Luomen’s. For her, being Luomen’s adopted daughter is a source of pride. She still struggles with her past related to Lakan, doesn’t accept her mother because of the abuse she suffered and feels Lakan doesn’t understand her wishes as an apothecary, as such this acceptance of him as a father would be her biggest step personally. She’d have to recognize that in acknowledging Lakan she’s not rejecting Luomen, because I don’t believe Luomen would see it that way, it would merely be a formality for what everyone in the public eye has already recognized. She’s already been under Lakan’s protection, as witnessed since LN 7 when everyone is intimidated by him peering through the medical office and knows they have a connection. Her officially becoming a member is mostly a formality that would solidify to her what others are already acknowledging, that she has all the status and weight of the La Clan behind her. For her I think it’s more personal than simply political.

2. If she accepts her place in the La Clan, there are no excuses regarding status why she can’t marry Jinshi anymore. Much of Maomao’s personality is about denial. Self-denial, denial of reality, finding ways to avoid change because of insecurity and doubt. If she becomes the princess of the La Clan officially, many of the obstacles that have been put up between her and Jinshi no longer exist. She becomes the best candidate to marry him due to status, Lakan is feared in the Imperial court so few are likely to stand against him and even if she were to become a Consort and Jinshi the Emperor (which I doubt) she’d be fearsome with her family behind her and their protection. As even my posts have mentioned, she was never opposed to being with Jinshi but opposed to his status and the fears of political games but with her being elevated to a noble woman, those gaps disappear. She can no longer claim that he’s so far above her as the Moon Prince and her a lowly servant girl. And to me a part of her keeps this distance out of a continual insecurity and fear that if she’s a noble woman and there are no barriers between them, her love and affection may not measure up to Jinshi’s, as we’ve seen her be unsure of their matched feelings, which is not reality at all.

3. Having a higher status will take away her life as an apothecary. This is really the last barrier I think to any kind of acceptance on her part and it’s only slightly legitimate as we’ve seen, her nobility is actually a benefit to her in ways. Instead of having to rely as much on the status of others as before like Jinshi or Lahan, she can now do things herself and even procure medicines which she could not do presenting herself as a servant. And as much as she appreciated her supposed freedom in the stall at the Verdigris House, her ability to conduct herself in the broader world has proven that her aversion to a life of politics and nobility wasn’t because she was incapable but likely more due to comfort and insecurity in her own perceived abilities. Even if she still prefers a quieter life we can see that as she gains confidence in these circles she’s better able to navigate them regardless of how she feels about politics in general. To me that shows she likely wouldn’t have been happy forever in complete obscurity. Also, due to Jinshi’s intervention and her actually fighting Luomen for the first time she has already elevated herself to a higher medical status than most women occupy so many of the supposed obstacles in her way to remaining an apothecary are gone.

I don’t believe the author is doing it all for relationship purposes. Maomao is a young woman who’s struggled with change and forming relationships outside her tight circle. Being a noble woman would mean having to form a wider net of connections, develop social skills so Maomao can adapt to various situations and be willing to communicate with people she doesn’t always like. I think the stories overall have been pushing Maomao in this direction as she’s had to come out of her comfort zone and it’s not all forced on her in the sense that even if she complains internally, she likes being challenged and is shown to be good at handling these tough political arenas regardless of her rough edges. Ironically having grown up in the pleasure district where she’s seen so many different personalities of women, disputes between sexes, fights to climb the social hierarchy of the brothels, it’s given her enough perspective to not be intimidated by the squabbles among the nobility. The nobility even respect and acknowledge her even when she doesn’t conventionally look or act like them as seen when she attends the meeting of the Named Clans in LN 14 so it’s apparent she carries an air about her that gives this impression already.

As for compromise, the key for me is how the story contrasts her and Jinshi with Ah-Duo and the Emperor. We’ve been shown that Ah-Duo stayed with the Emperor not out of love but more because of their friendship and her feeling obligated due to his status and a promise made as children. Also that the Emperor, lacking freedom himself, forgot that he was someone who could easily steal that from others and did so from Ah-Duo. This has led to her feeling stifled and wishing she could leave to travel the world. When Ah-Duo and Maomao have their discussion in LN 13, Ah-Duo basically offers to help Maomao escape the entrapments of the palace. Instead of Maomao agreeing, which we expect her to given her supposed want to live in obscurity as an apothecary, she says she would remain and find beauty there.

Though she was free, Maomao was a more flexible person than Ah-Duo had realized. Faced with a confined place, she didn’t seek to escape or even destroy it, but changed her form in order to get whatever she could out of the situation.

It shows the difference in perspective. Where Ah-Duo only saw the bars and restraints because she lacked reciprocal feeling for the Emperor, Maomao is the opposite. She chooses to see that no matter the situation there can be good found there because she will focus on being there with Jinshi who she’s come to love, at least that’s the interpretation I get from it. It shows how the love actually is in the compromise on both sides. Maomao is willing to find beauty even if she’s taken in at the palace because she’s made the decision to be with Jinshi but we find later that he also has decided that should that happen, he would set her free. This contrasts Ah-Duo and the Emperor who, due to his lack of perspective, could not see that keeping Ah-Duo would make her miserable and she lacked the flexibility to grow into loving him at all due to his oversight of her feelings. The mutual love between Maomao and Jinshi has led them to want to compromise for one another no matter the circumstance to stay together even if the other isn’t even always aware of that sentiment. As Ah-Duo says just before Jinshi makes the decision not to put any additional pressure on Maomao:

Don’t let Yue walk the same path as Yoh.

They’re proving that their path won’t take that of Ah-Duo and the Emperor. Jinshi won’t cage Maomao but she is willing to go places with him and be more flexible because she sees value in him and being together. Also it shows her trust in him and how he cares for her that she knows she can joke about building a greenhouse with Chue. This is where her being willing to become a member of the La Clan is all part of that flexibility. But while I believe Maomao’s status could be a factor in removing barriers to her and Jinshi being together, I also don’t think that will be the final decider. I think the author is weaving towards a hopefully satisfying and ultimately happy ending for them.

Sorry if this is one big ramble 😂 I hope it makes sense and answers your question, I wanted to cover a few different bases but may have gone off course a bit to help add background detail I thought was important to the overall picture.

[joyglass]

TAD LN 5 highlights (obvious spoilers before)

maomao feeding jinshi GRASSHOPPERS. he only eats them because she's the one feeding him. asks her for congee afterwards and expects HER to feed it to him. she feeds him congee and then feeds him another grasshopper (masochist? sadist?) 😭😭😭

joka being a courtesan that hates men. so real.

jinshi insisting maomao use the water she washed her hair in to wipe his face. she also dipped her feet in it but she doesn't tell him that (i don't think he'd care anyway)

maomao stroking jinshi's hair and him nearly falling asleep

maomao and jinshi having fun playing with face makeup and then ganging up on basen to stop him from screaming

maomao betting herself on a wager and jinshi calling the three hundred silvers cheap for her price (romance baybe)

lahan aka maomao's adopted brother being an absolute numbers loving freak who attracted to jinshi's beauty but not into men (every single so called eccentric member of this family is autistic i swear)

lahan asking maomao to get pregnant with jinshi's baby so he can have a heir and when maomao says she'll cut his dick off and help him with a womb transplant so HE can get pregnant he is. genuinely interested in it. if the baby's a girl who inherited jinshi's beauty then lahan would raise her until he can marry her 🤢

jinshi saying he's not going to hurt her but then proceeding to choke her?? 😭😭😭😭 (this is the LEAST romantic proposal EVER. yes he was PROPOSING TO HER)

maomao comparing jinshi to 1) a wild starving dog 2) an anxious dog 3)an untamed dog

[katarh-mest]

novel spoilers hidden

why is not not hiding the Keep Reading in the replies? ARGH

NOVEL SPOILERS AHOY

look at all this space

Lahan is described as "if Maomao had been a boy" in appearance. They have big sibling energy immediately and she likes to stomp on his toes when he is irritating her.

He's a numbers savant! That abacus is not just for show. He's an accountant. He sees the world in numbers! If he was born in the last 20 years he'd have been the smarmy little frat boy tech bro who graduated from business school and is working for the government as a data analyst, but doesn't need AI to detect anomalies and patterns in stuff. He just knows.

He is a JinMao shipper, because he says Jisnhi has "perfect numbers" and laments not being born a woman himself.... but if Maomao marries Jinshi, their offspring will also have perfect numbers.

Maomao, unreliable narrator she is, thinks this means he wants to marry such a daughter himself - but Lahan has only shown interest in older, married women, so suspect that bit was Maomao interjecting her own worst interpretation of the topic.

Lahan's brain:

BIG DAY FOR ANNOYING PEOPLE (Lahan)