Chapter Text
"Very well. Let's see how my herbs have dried in the meantime."
In an attempt to get rid of the sluggishness caused by the hot weather, Maomao briefly rubbed her face with both hands while heading towards the shed near the Jade Pavilion that Consort Gyokuyou had been so kind as to let her use freely to her heart's content under the condition that she would continue to sleep in her room in the residence itself.
Granted, her "banishment" there had been supposed to be a kind of punishment first, but for our apothecary, it was truly like a dream come true: a spacious, isolated place where she was able to store all her stuff and peacefully produce her medicine and conduct experiments without hearing complaints about unpleasant odors and other things. It was so wonderful! Almost too good to be true...
The consort was a truthfully generous person. Unlike a certain young noble who had refused to let her move into the stables when she had still been living with him in his residence... And this after he himself had offered her to give her another room if she wished so! Geez!
Maomao gave a soft snort at the memory and tucked her hands into her sleeves. Well, but on the other hand, it was also quite unfair of her to judge him so harshly, since in other areas, his generosity nearly knew no bounds: he had already given her so many rare herbs... and that fungus growing out of an insect... and the bezoars! Oh, the bezoars! The mere thought about those precious stones made Maomao's body tremble from unspeakable happiness and quickened her heartbeat. She almost wanted to dance right then and there!
But then she patted herself on the cheeks and cleared her throat, wiping the trail of drool from her lips and composing herself again. Ahem, whatever. Daydreams about her treasures would have to wait for later, for now, she still needed to check on the herbs she had collected and hung up to dry some time ago. In that weather, they surely must have dried already.
Maomao entered the shed and nodded with satisfaction while she ran her fingers over the plants hanging down from the ceiling. Just as expected, they were ready to be used.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with her palm and headed to the table with a little smile on her face in order to get a mortar and a pestle out of a drawer and grind some of the herbs right away. Not paying any heed to the two small birds sitting on the windowsill.
Suddenly, one of the birds flew inside as if it had been waiting for Maomao to move away. It then skillfully ripped a tiny branch off from one of the hanging plants with its beak and fluttered outside once again.
Holding the mortar in her hand, Maomao arched an eyebrow and followed that brazen little thief with her gaze for a while, before she closed the drawer and merely shrugged, not saying a word.
Alright. She could spare one little twig.
But once she intended to approach her herbs again with her equipment in hand, she noticed that the second bird had also decided to get itself a souvenir. Oh, and there was the first one, coming back and flying towards the same plant as well in order to rip off some more.
"What the...?!" Maomao thought and started to move, wanting to chase away the uninvited guests. "Why the heck did they have to choose my plants as their nest material?!"
Normally, the apothecary wasn't the kind of person to get upset over small things, but when it was about her beloved medicinal ingredients, it was a totally different story. She certainly did not intend to share them with some birds or to just stand there and watch while they were getting stolen. Taking a closer look at the herbs, she realized that those winged troublemakers had obviously already helped themselves to them during her absence.
Maomao gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists.
"Hey! These are mine! Find yourself something else to build your nest with!"
She then started to wave her hands around to drive the birds away, but the latter didn't as much as flinch, treating her as if she were air. What an arrogant behavior, coming from two such tiny creatures!
And Maomao generally was a very reasonable and collected person, sometimes even too reasonable for somebody so young, one could say... but not when her herbs' existence was on the line! In such a case, even she might forget the meaning of the word "reason" and lose all common sense.
Just as now, as she mentally declared war on those tiny little birds.
The very first thing she did was to walk to the window to close it and keep those little pests from entering, however quickly found out that it was broken and refused to close properly.
"This shed seems to have been in disuse for quite some time now," she thought, irritated. "So no wonder..."
With a sigh, Maomao left the window and stroked her chin, trying to think of something else. To report the broken window and ask for it to be repaired was a possibility of course, but would take way too much time, putting her plants at risk of getting stripped clean of all their branches and leaves. No, she needed a better solution! But which one? She briefly considered getting the kitten Maomao to help her chase the birds away, but they were so brazen, that even that might not really work against them. Not to mention that she naturally couldn't just demand of the little furball to guard her shed day and night.
Still immersed in thought, Maomao left the shed and craned her neck, inspecting the building from outside. A few minutes later, she had finally found the two culprits' nest on the shed's roof and balled her fists in determination.
"Just you wait!" she hissed. "I'm going to get my herbs back, that you can be sure of!"
Later, she would probably shake her head at her own behavior, but right now, she didn't give a damn about it.
And while the apothecary was standing there and watching with narrowed eyes how the birds kept flying between their nest and the window with more and more stolen goods in their beaks, she suddenly got an idea. Now, it was a bit absurd, she had to admit, but absolutely worth a try.
With a grin on her lips, she walked away from the shed and started to pluck some grass that had dried in summer heat, using a thread to tie it into a bundle that she put into the folds of her clothes. Then she left in order to find a long ladder somewhere to borrow.
About twenty minutes later, she finally returned, panting and sweating, and carrying such a ladder with the muscles in her thin arms already starting to hurt from its weight (She had actually wanted to ask at least one of the eunuchs to help her carry it, but they were all so busy that none of them had any time for her. Well...)
Having arrived, Maomao allowed herself to rest a bit and cool off in the shade. Then she leaned the ladder against one of the shed's walls outside and started to climb it until reaching the roof.
There was the nest! Maomao looked around, making sure that the birds currently weren't nearby, and then started to examine it. Indeed, it was made mostly out of her medicinal herbs. Luckily, there weren't any eggs inside yet, that made things a bit easier.
The apothecary produced the dry grass she had collected earlier and put it on the roof. Then she reached out, wanting to grab the nest quickly.
But before she managed to do it, she suddenly heard some deafening shrieks near her ear and promptly felt two sharp little beaks, angrily pecking her forehead and hand. Damn, she hadn't been fast enough! The bird couple had returned and was now fluttering furiously around her, trying to shoo her away and protect their nest.
"Ouch! Stop that! These herbs are mine, you can have this grass instead!"
Yes, those birds were stubborn. But so was Maomao. Even though she had started to feel a bit stupid for doing all this.
"What am I doing here, trying to negotiate with birds?"
***
Jinshi allowed himself to wipe his honeyed smile from his face for the fraction of a second while he elegantly brought his teacup to his lips and drank a sip. Then he placed it back on the table and absent-mindedly petted the head of the small princess, who was sitting on his lap and munching on a piece of mooncake, her round cheeks reddened with joy. Lingli giggled and reached out with one of her sticky little hands, grabbing his index finger.
Sitting across from the young lord, Consort Gyokuyou drank some tea as well and raised her hand to her mouth, letting out a soft, discreet laugh.
"My, you are rather quiet today," she remarked. "Do you maybe have something on your mind?"
Jinshi looked quite surprised for a moment, but then showed her one of his immaculate, nymph-like smiles, as though his expression from before had been nothing but a mere illusion.
"My apologies, but it's nothing, milady."
"Oh, really? So it was just my imagination seeing your gaze wander around through the room? Don't worry, Maomao should return soon."
The Moon Prince was rendered speechless for a few seconds and widened his eyes slightly at the consort, who was treating him almost like a younger brother from time to time.
Gyokuyou laughed again.
"But of course I know," she answered his unspoken question with a lively sparkle in her green eyes. "For I sincerely doubt that my pregnancy" — she briefly stroked her rounded stomach — "and my little Xiaoling are the only reasons why you are visiting my residence more frequently than the ones of the other first-rank consorts. Hah, and to think that you and Maomao have just recently returned from your hunt where you surely spent quite a lot of time together. You really are unable to live without my poison tester, aren't you?"
Judging by her tone, she was obviously having fun teasing him.
Standing behind her, the chief lady-in-waiting Hongniang gave a soft sigh.
"How mighty perceptive you are," Jinshi thought, feeling caught and a bit annoyed by her words, since Gyokuyou's "poison tester" was still officially his personal maidservant he had merely lent to her for the time being. A few tiny sweat drops rolled down his temple, and his cheeks turned a barely noticeable shade of pink as he involuntarily remembered just how much "time" he had spent with Maomao during the hunt and what exactly had happened there. He cleared his throat.
But before he could give a reply, he got distracted by the little girl, who had lain down on his lap in the meantime and was now looking up at his face and tugging at his clothes, making him forget his displeasure for now.
"Brother!"
"What's the matter, princess?" His voice and his smile were as gentle and sincere as always when he was talking to the child.
Lingli raised one of her arms, smiling back at him.
"Brother! Take!"
Jinshi carefully accepted the tiny piece of mooncake she was offering to him.
"Thank you, my little one."
Gyokuyou watched the adorable scene between her daughter and the beautiful young noble with fondness in her eyes and then placed her hands on her lap.
"But Maomao is taking awfully long, I must say. She informed me that she was going to the shed to take a brief look at her herbs."
"Maybe she just started to make them into one of her mixtures and forgot about time yet again. Or she spotted some new ones somewhere on the way and couldn't help collecting them," Hongniang suggested.
Jinshi and Gyokuyou nodded. They both knew the young woman well enough by now, and those words sounded absolutely logical to them. Well, thanks to the shed, at least Maomao's room in the Jade Pavilion itself didn't smell like a pharmacy anymore.
"I see. Well, then I should get going and pay the apothecary a little visit, if you don't mind, milady."
"Not at all."
Thus, Jinshi picked up the princess and gave her a hug, stroking her head once again before getting up and placing her into Hongniang's arms.
Next, he bowed briefly before the consort and turned around to leave.
"Goodbye, Lady Gyokuyou, and until next time, princess."
Lingli, who hadn't been too happy to see him leave first, now waved her tiny hand at him, laughing.
"Bye-bye, brother!"
***
Maomao was still shielding herself from the birds' attacks. With one hand, though, since she needed to hold on to the ladder somehow.
No, that wouldn't do. Not a chance. Those birds were small, but pretty brave and tenacious. Too tenacious, in fact. So she was left with no other choice than to admit defeat.
Alright, but at least, she would go and report that broken window, so that something like this could be avoided in the future.
"Fine! It's fine! Ouch! You've won! I'm leaving."
She started to climb down, very slowly and carefully, however, despite her surrender, those two little thieves didn't even think about stopping and continued to peck her mercilessly. Hence, Maomao was forced to raise her hand once more in order to protect her face.
And since she instinctively closed her eyes during the process, she didn't notice that she had stretched out her foot a bit too far and missed the ladder rung she had wanted to step on.
Suddenly she felt that she started to lose her balance and her hold... the ladder tilted... threatening to fall down together with her...
Maomao widened her eyes in shock, and her mind went blank.
There was no way she could make it through such a fall without broken bones…
***
In the meantime, Jinshi was walking towards the shed. Deep in thought and with mixed feelings.
On one hand, he was beside himself with happiness and couldn't wait to meet Maomao again, since he had indeed been missing her. Like always when she wasn't by his side. The mere idea of seeing her soon made him feel so warm inside as if he was eating a pleasantly hot soup on an icy winter evening.
Like a bright ray of sunlight, breaking through a thick, gray blanket of clouds.
"Maybe Consort Gyokuyou is right, and I really cannot live without the apothecary..."
He blushed a bit at the thought and lowered his gaze. His long lashes trembled ever so slightly.
But on the other hand...
"A frog, huh?... And a decently sized one at that..." he muttered under his breath, his face flushing red. His left eye started to twitch.
Yes, he had brought her along on that hunt especially so he could reveal his secret to her... but not like that! It certainly wasn't supposed to happen that way! Absolutely not!
Jinshi's face was now glowing like a brazier as he remembered where exactly Maomao's hand had touched him... He quickly shook his head, composing himself again.
No, now wasn't the time for such thoughts! The apothecary would read them from his face the second she saw him and take him for a pervert!
But that wasn't the only thing he hadn't expected in the slightest, but also the fact that she would deny everything as vehemently as she had done. Play dumb and pretend that nothing had happened at all.
Jinshi briefly scratched his head and gave a long sigh, furrowing his brows.
After having given it a lot of thought, he admitted that he had started to understand her motives a bit better. Of course, she didn't want any unnecessary trouble, that much was logical, and he really didn't want to drag her into anything, but...
It hadn't been an easy decision at all, but it had just felt wrong to keep lying to her. Despite his fear of how she would take the truth, he wanted her to know everything about him and why he was hiding his real identity in the first place. If there was someone who deserved to know, then it was her.
For the first time in his life, he had felt the need to open up to another person.
"I wanted to show you so bad... how much I trust you... and I really do… unconditionally."
And her rejection had truly hurt him.
It had hurt him so much that he had lost control over himself for a moment.
The young lord averted his gaze to the side, feeling quite awkward.
He didn't know himself what exactly had come over him there, however, that pain caused by her behavior, mixed with confusion and desperation, had been so intense that he just had no clue what to do, how to make her listen to him, to accept the facts...
...but in the end, he had accomplished nothing with his actions, apart from frightening her.
But luckily, she had accepted his apology and forgiven him... or at least, he assumed as much, judging from her reaction when he had handed her the promised ox bezoars.
And despite everything, she had even accepted him in the end...
Her words "You are who you are, Master Jinshi" had been such a blessing for him. Such a relief.
The best medicine to soothe the pain in his heart.
The Moon Prince sighed again and returned his gaze to the path before him.
Perhaps, she would be ready to hear the entire truth from him one day. Who knew. But for now, he would just let her treat him like she always did.
The shed was already no more than fifty meters away.
"What's that? A ladder?"
Pushing all his thoughts and memories about what had happened during the hunt into the back of his mind for the time being, Jinshi looked up, curious and surprised.
And promptly experienced one of the biggest shocks of his life. His heart nearly stopped beating.
"Apothecary... Apothecary! What are you doing?!"
His eyes opened wide like plates when he spotted Maomao on the very top of that ladder, half-standing, half-hanging from it. Her face was red from the strain as she desperately tried to get a hold again, while the ladder itself kept tilting forward. Dangerously and incessantly.
Jinshi almost felt himself brought back to the day he had been standing with her on the wall of the inner palace, the one she had danced on and had almost fallen off from. Like some kind of déjà-vu.
And now, she threatened to fall again! He had to catch her at any cost!
With the sight of the falling apothecary reflected in his wide opened violet eyes, he started running as fast as he could, making the rim of his robes and his sleeves flutter and stretching out his arms.
"APOTHECARY! WATCH OUT!!!"
What followed was a bunch of noise that scared the birds on the roof, forcing them to fly away.
Jinshi, Maomao, and the ladder were lying on the ground.
Blood started to flow and dyed the dry grass under the young noble's head red.
***
“Uh…”
Maomao gradually came to her senses. The adrenaline that had been rushing through her veins, got replaced by a deep feeling of relief, and her heart calmed down as well. Since she could move without a problem, she must have survived that fall unscathed after all.
The apothecary took a deep breath. So no broken bones, huh? Great. But where had she landed, anyway? It was something firm and warm… and it was breathing… And what was that? Long hair? And that smell of incense… Wait a minute!
Maomao immediately opened her eyes and raised her head. The “something” she was lying on, was, without a doubt, Jinshi. Or more precisely: Jinshi's back, since he himself was lying on his stomach.
“Oh no, not again…” she thought, remembering that time he had already saved her from a painful fall with her landing on his lap. And the time in that… cave not long ago that had ended with a landing in his arms. So now it was his back’s turn, eh? That must have hurt…
She instantly rolled off him and took the wooden ladder off herself that had fallen together with her and had ended up on top of her. That had probably left some bruises on her body…
“My apologies, Master Jinshi, and thank you for catching me. Are you alright?”
He would probably get angry and scold her again, but since she admitted that she had indeed done something stupid this time, that lecture would be well-deserved in her opinion. It was just that she had no clue where the young noble had appeared from so suddenly. Now, she believed to vaguely remember having heard him scream, however, she had been too busy trying to regain her balance at that time, so she couldn't say for sure.
“Please give me your hand, I will help you get up.”
No response.
“Master Jinshi?”
Only now did the apothecary notice that despite his regular breathing, he wasn't moving at all.
Then she spotted the red fluid on the grass and quickly directed her gaze at Jinshi's head. Blood trickled from a wound on his forehead. His eyes were closed, and his mouth slightly opened.
Right next to his head was a big stone that bore some blood stains as well.
Maomao felt her stomach tighten.
“Damn! He must have hit his head against this stone!”
She grabbed his shoulder and started to shake it gently.
“Master Jinshi! Can you hear me?”
Still no reaction. So he obviously couldn't.
“He doesn't wake up!”
During her time as her father Luomen’s assistant, she had witnessed more than once just how dangerous such a head injury could be.
She crawled closer to his head and started to rummage in her clothes, finding a small bottle of disinfectant she was luckily carrying around. Having used it to clean her hands, she brushed his bangs aside and started to examine his wound. Her hands quickly became bloody, and some of it also got on her sleeves, but she couldn't care less.
A few seconds later, she finally let out the air she had been holding. The injury was still bleeding, however, as far as she could tell, it wasn't deep, and his skull itself was intact. At least something.
But it was still way too early to feel relief.
“Since he passed out, he must have a concussion for sure.”
Maomao gritted her teeth. The longer he stayed unconscious, the more dangerous the situation could become for him.
After having checked his breathing and his pulse, she finally sat down on the grass and stabilized Jinshi's head with both hands, carefully raising it and placing it on her lap, trying not to move the young lord too much and not bend his neck. Then she pulled out a clean handkerchief and pressed it firmly on the wound. Several thin trails of blood ran down his face and towards her skirt.
“Maomao! What in the world has happened here?!”
The apothecary looked up and saw a startled and pale Infa, who was staring at her with her eyes wide open. She had surely been sent to get her, perhaps she was needed in the Jade Pavilion.
“Infa!” There was currently no time for explanations. “Please run to the medical office and get my adoptive father! And Master Gaoshun too, if you happen to see him somewhere!”
What luck that Luomen had been brought to the rear palace due to Consort Gyokuyou’s pregnancy, since the quack wouldn't have been of any help at all.
Infa was still standing there, as if petrified.
“Infa! Hurry up!”
“Y-Yes!”
The other lady-in-waiting finally nodded and ran off as fast as her feet could carry her.
“Urgh…”
As soon as she was gone, Maomao felt that Jinshi had started to stir. He groaned softly and coughed a few times, as though he had something stuck in his throat.
“Sir! Ah!”
Just in time, Maomao noticed that he was about to vomit and grabbed his head with both hands once more, holding it so he wouldn't choke.
Part of his stomach contents got on her, but she paid it no heed, continuing to call out for Jinshi instead.
Finally, he managed to look up to her, panting.
“Who are you?”
A deep confusion could be heard in his voice and was also written all over his still lovely face.