Inundated

Some sketches (jinmao vampire au)

as you lie amidst the wisteria flowers

other versions under the cut! (that i hope will work heh)

GiyuuShino Daughter AU (Modern Version) done by @fran-aka-mak

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⚠️ Heads up: this post contains spoilers from the novel, and it contains major spoilers from the series in general not yet adapted in the anime or the manga adaptations.

Now that light novel 16 is finally available digitally in English, here are my thoughts. Before I dive in, I want to say that this cover is one of my top favorite covers of the series, look at how confident and mature Maomao looks.

I find it interesting how we were introduced to Kokuyou in novel 6, yet we finally got to see a backstory about him in novel 16. He had it rough! Despite all the smiles, and the cheerfulness, he lost a brother and a mentor in disturbing ways. He almost died, and was mistreated it for his scars. The surprising part is behind this cheekiness, apparently he can be a wicked person. Is he going to cause trouble? We'll see.

My favorite part is seeing how Maomao got troubled with the whole Kokuyou's situation. He's not a bad person, so she can't just throw him out like that. But, he might actually do bad things if confronted with a bad person, can she live knowing that anything can happen because she stayed silent about it? I loved her pondering upon this.

We had small moments where there's a throwback to the characteristic Maomao solving a case with Jinshi presenting the issue, the story of the cursed jar and how that was a facade to hide an abuse is really interesting. If Maomao felt bad or jealous about the thought of making the girl a concubine of Jinshi, even if it's just a front, she didn't show it. I loved how considerate Maamei and Chue were of her discreet feelings, and Jinshi was already firmed about the idea. There's no way that's going to happen so the girl got sent to Lakan's mansion. lolol.

Speaking of throwback, it's also nice seeing Lishu growing up, embracing humble life in the village. It's nice to see her in good health. She deserves to live in a peace.

When Jinshi went accompanying Maomao to the village, his disguise resembled Kokuyou's look. I can't help but imagine that this might be because lowkey, he wanted to look like how Maomao described Kokuyou. He was nervous of how she was talking about Kokuyou, he tends to feel jealous and threatened by any man who Maomao engages with, and has a positive impression of. Lihaku, Rikuson, and now Kokuyou. Maomao tried to put emphasis on their working relationship but Jinshi had to see the man himself I guess, and yeah, sure he wanted to see Lishu, too.

Funny that the first action he took when he was mistaken for Kokuyou during the attack was to protect Maomao. As if him getting harmed in the process is going to be just fine. I wished there was an official illustration to this scene.

The letters chapter had me laughing because Lahan sent a long neat letter only to be responded with a NO by Maomao, that was hilarious. Also Xiaolan's letter was adorable. It's so bittersweet seeing her writting to Maomao after learning her characters, she's so innocent. As usual, Jinshi loves to pamper his cat by sending her fancy tea instead of idle words. He knows that she loves gifts more than anything, especially if it's a useful herb or medicine. Also that empty paper he sent, did that somehow imply that he wishes to read what she writes instead? Maomao's response is cute, sending a cat paw, she's literally confirming that she's his cat as he described her earlier.

Although, it's an easy read with bits of stories here and there, I noticed it tried to lighten the weight of a potential smallpox horrors by showing easier to digest stories. Mainly, this volume showed more character development and emotional growth for our favorite cat, Maomao. She first was showing tolerance towards Lakan. I can't help but notice how she's getting comfortable around others, too. There are many co-workers who she interacts with casually nowadays, more than ever. She's getting more social, and is engaging with different people. This shows how she's gaining confidence and emotionally healing, hence the comment about the cover above.

That takes me to how much she have changed towards Jinshi. She's talking more openly to him (keeping the formal tone, though), she also grabbed his arm, whispered in his ear, shared her day with him in a letter and wanted to visit him when confronted with difficulty. I love that she had developed this sense of comfort when she feels bad, she would go directly to him. We saw that in novel 12, when she was about to get attacked and Chue almost died protecting her, she later on had the urge to go see him. It's now similar imo, it seems like, she assigned Jinshi as a stress relief whenever things get tight, as he does with her. She now understands his desire of "recharge" every time he faced distress and sought any physical contact from her. Despite all the inner denial and indifferences she tends to show, Maomao truly enjoys being with Jinshi. His persistence and good efforts paid off.

Maomao and Jinshi- The Apothecary Diaries: Chapter 7

Note: I'll try since this man doesn't get much attention. Also my first one-shot, so bare with me it's been a hot minute. (Probably boring so fair warning ig idk.🤷🏻‍♀️)

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You're Jinshi's childhood friend due to your mother being good friends with the empress dowager. But evidently so you ended up being one of Jinshi's only lady-in-waiting since all the previous ones are taking his stuff as souvenirs, drugging him, or not doing their job when their busy drooling over him. You don't see the appeal of him since he's practically like a brother to you, he's good-looking... but not your type.

So when you go to the Rear Palace with Jinshi to see what's going on over there. You become acquainted with the apothecary known as Maomao and get tangled up in solving mysteries and quickly realize the affiliation with her and Lakan... due to their obvious family traits of the La Clan.

And a clear indicator of knowing that he's her father is when you're not assisting Jinshi, Lakan hunts you down since you're around Maomao all the time and he just really detests Jinshi being around her and "stealing her away from him."

"Oh Miss (Y/n), would you care to partake in a lovely game of Go?" Lakan says. "Very well, but I still have work to attend to later today." You sigh. "Lovely, come on then." You and Lakan end up going to one of those tables (forgot the actual wording for it.) outside due to the nice weather.

"Shall we play I'll let you go first, and while we're playing you can tell me how my lovely daughter is doing and if that eunuch is too close to her lately." Lakan says excitedly about Maomao, then is annoyed thinking of Jinshi. "If we're doing a two out of three and I beat you what do I get out of this?" You exclaim. "Hmm, if you beat me I will let you choose whatever you want, within reason of course." Lakan exclaims happily. "Very well." You say, side eyeing him.

Since this is the first time you're playing Go with him, he assumes you'll most likely lose like all the others. But unbeknownst to him you're one of the Emperor's Go Instructor's granddaughter from your mother's side. You start first on the board and while you're both in the middle of playing you let him know that Jinshi and Maomao weren't around each other as much due to the busyness of their work at the moment.

Lakan is gleaming due to Jinshi not being near his daughter as of right now, then you take that chance and beat him in the first round of Go. "Well well well, you surprised me (Y/n)." Leaving him slightly stunned, not expecting to be beaten by someone close to his daughter's age.

You both keep playing, going into the second round while telling him about Maomao and the poison she's been finding lately in her investigations. He smiles knowingly at his daughter's habit even if it is unfortunately cumbersome. Setting his piece down, you put down the last piece to finish the game and win by a hair. You sigh in relief about this being over with. While he laughs at what he just witnessed. Not having to go to a third round.

"We should play again sometime soon (Y/n), but since you won both rounds in a row against me. Why not marry Lahan since you're both close in age and not married, you could come and go from the estate, and let me know how my dearest daughter is doing and I can play against you regularly for a challenging game of Go. Killing two birds with one stone as they say." Lahan said in amazement and shock about beating him at Go so quickly. And dare I say twice in a row.

"I'll pass on the marriage since I hardly know your son. And for my winnings I wa-" "FATHER!!! You have to hurry to the meeting, it's about to start soon!" Lahan runs out of breath and looks tired trying to chase down his father, for the meeting he's supposed to attend soon. Looking over at the person he was playing against staring a bit longer than necessary. "Hmm, very well let's go, and (Y/n) you can tell me what you want the next time we cross paths, until then." Walking away to the meeting, annoyed that she got interrupted.

(Y/n's Pov)

"Sly fox, trying to sneak away when I'm about to say what I want." Glaring at the two retreating figures. More so at your earlier competitor than the other. You're annoyed that your precious time was wasted on playing Go and not relaxing, also with him trying to strategically have you marry Lahan to get more information about Maomao's daily whereabouts, instead of getting something from him.

This is going to get very tedious for you in the coming days, you can sense it. As for Lahan he's not the most beautiful guy you've seen, but he's not that bad to look at either. You wouldn't mind getting to know him, since you'll probably come across him eventually due to work or Maomao or even Lakan's insistents of bugging you. But even so, is he still weird as others say of him?

(Lahan's Pov)

"FATHER!!! You have to hurry to the meeting, it's about to start soon!" I yell trying to bring father to the meeting as quickly as possible. I look over to see a breathtakingly beautiful lady, whom father had apparently played Go with. But unfortunately, I don't have the time to flirt with her due to the meeting, and the number she has is so pretty I could just stare at her forever.

"Hmm, very well let's go, and (Y/n) you can tell me what you want the next time we cross paths, until then." Father says to her while we walk to the meeting that's taking place. "How do you know her father?" I question wanting answers about (Y/n), since I haven't seen anyone as beautiful as her compared to the others I've come across. (Besides Jinshi even though he's a guy.)

"(Y/n) is working for that eunuch, while also being around my dearest daughter all day. She is surprisingly good at Go, she beat me twice in a row." Father says ecstatic. 'WHAT!?' I thought, my eyes going wide from pure shock knowing she beat him not once but twice? At Go seriously?

"Twice?" I say. "Yes, the first in the Rear Palace to beat me twice in a row. It was so shocking, that I asked if she would like to marry you since your close in age and I could have regularly updates on my daughter and someone challenging at Go." Father exclaims.

'MARRIAGE WITH (Y/N)!?' I wouldn't mind having her as a wife. She's pretty and seems capable to be a valuable asset later, I'll have to look into her and see who she is since I've never seen her till now. If everything's good I could propose to her and besides with her beauty and my tactical and mathematical smarts, we could have beautiful future heirs that could be smart also, when we marry. Smiling at the thought dreamily. This will an intresting encounter.

Extra:

Somewhere at the Rear Palace Jinshi's lady-in-waiting is preparing to make tea until she can't stop sneezing (Courtesy of Lahan.) needing Maomao to kick her out for the rest of the day.