A plume in the hadal zone

from the get-go, Jinshi wasn't a kid who wanted lots of variety or was greedy for a shitton of toys, but was content with only playing with the ones he liked best. And then those were the ones targeted by Suiren and Gaoshun for removal

And the thing that bothers me the most is the "secretly hide them" part. It's one thing to try to tell him that some toys are being taken away for his own good, even if it's still cruel and doesn't convince him, but to just take them away from him is... he'd never even get the chance to object or voice his feelings. and he could never anticipate the moment a beloved toy would be taken, only the growing feeling of dread that it would be taken from him, out of nowhere, now that he likes it

Like i honestly do understand their reasoning (to some extent) but this is expecting him to learn the lesson on his own with brute force, rather than gently guiding him towards why he shouldn't cling too much to things

Also, noting that Jinshi had no friends at that age (until Basen joined him a bit later) makes this even more isolating and devastating. He was incredibly lonely and couldn't even get attached to stuff, no pets either!

I'm speculating here, but I think this toy is when he began to "hide his favorites" because there's no way Suiren or Gaoshun would've let him keep it for long enough to become this dark if they knew about it

Instead of learning not to get attached, like they wanted for him, he learned to hide and keep his feelings all to himself

Maomao's no-speculation rule probably also extends to judging charcater (since she's particularly bad at it, she needs to be extra careful) but she finally had evidence for her suspicions that Jinshi's childish behavior is more his true self

aaaaannd then she pulls back from it:

No, no Master Jinshi isn't a sweet person who was greatly mistreated (and emotionally abused) during his childhood! That's absurd to consider!

He's just the beautiful sleazy Eunuch, of course of course

but then

Suiren trying to gauge Maomao's feelings towards Jinshi, unaware she's up against Denial's final boss

on a side note, I love that Maomao mentions the Ox Bezoar as a pro to Jinshi being her boss even though he's yet to give it her. she just considers his promise as good as done

It's interesting that Maomao is already being tormented by the need to pick a side. This makes her resolve later in LN 5 and LN 6 more appropriate and not like it came out of nowhere

Maomao never misses an opportunity to much on some rich person's food

she really is my bestest food-motivated character

The image of 10 yo Anshi will forever haunt me