#ln 16

LN 16 epilogue Maomao:

"all look natural"

I want Maomao to get home, tired after the trip, and immediately flop down on her bed while still wearing Jinshi's coat. Sure she shouldn't lie in bed with clothes she wore outside, particularly at a farm; it's unhygienic, but she hadn't been home all day and brazier would take forever to warm the room, and while the coat no longer holds on to the heat of his body, it's still pretty warm

I'm saying, instead of a carriage scene 2.0, I want Maomao to roll around in her bed a bit, because they literally just went on a date where she koala'ed his arm the entire time and then stopped to get noodles on the way home. I want her to tug the collar of the jacket up to her nose and bury her face in it.

It's not scented, of course. He was in disguise and it wouldn't do to have imported incense perfuming his clothes, but it still smells like Jinshi, and with the lack of other scents, she can catch something faint, but uniquely him; perhaps a bit of sweat or the tea he drank before joining her on this trip

I'm saying, Maomao should deny it, at first. She's not the type of person to be overtaken by passion over a simple article of clothing given out of practicality rather than affection--she's not a pervert. She's just excited after a fruitful day discussing medicine and a change of scenery at the farm.

Also, this jacket probably costs multiple months of Maomao's salary if not a whole year, she should carefully take it off and wash it before returning it. He'd want it back, right? Sure Jinshi is always trying to foist gifts on her, but this wasn't one of them; he was just being considerate of her lack of proper attire for the trip

I just need Maomao to eventually give in and touch herself while wearing his jacket and thinking about him. Her fingers are frustratingly and infuriatingly insufficient but she can still imagine it's him; she can still hear his voice in her ears, and she can imagine how even though she's supposed to be the one unraveled by his hands, Jinshi would still be incredibly flustered and squirming and unsure of what to do. She'd have to carefully and gently coax him into it.

And how Maomao, who never had a problem staying quiet, now worries for the thin walls of her dorm because she keeps moaning his name into her pillow. Would he be disappointed by the lack of spectacle had he been in the room with her? Maybe ask her to roll onto her back instead of stuffing her face into the pillow so he could better see her. Would he then ask her to to lift up her skirt so he could get a better view of what he's doing?

Gods, Jinshi would probably moan while fingering her.

She wonders whether he'll keep his mouth to himself, or if he'd take away the collar of his jacket form her nose to instead bury his face in the side of her neck. With more of his scent and more of her weight helping her through.

So, to put things into perspective:

Lihaku's annual salary as a relatively high-ranking military official is 1000 silver.

From LN 16:

Maomao's medical assistant's monthly salary is around 23 silver (we get a 2-month estimate and not a clear-cut number). So she's making around 276 silver per year.

From LN 8, we know that:

1 silver: easily 2 weeks of meals (or a well-printed book)

10 silver: a commoner can live comfortably for a month (I'm assuming this includes rent and water, etc., not just meals).

Finally:

"It is said that a year's worth of salary is required to spend a single night with a Princess"

A year's salary for a commoner, given the 10 silver estimate, would be 120 silver (give or take, depending on which type of commoner was used in the estimate)

Maomao paid for 3 nights for Lihaku with Pairin, so around 360 silver. BUT! I'm guessing there was a ton of extra charges considering he didn't just "spend the night" but was also living and eating there for 3 whole days. So it's minimum 360 silver, if not closer to 400, if we're treating the verdigris as a luxury hotel

6 months of Maomao's rear palace wages (I'm assuming also includes the generous hazard pay she's given by Gyokuyou), and it's "not nearly enough."

From her wording, I'm assuming she was able to make another sizable payment on her debt, but not all of it. Hence why she's doing courtesan work part-time

Doing a lot of speculations here, but she's still at least 1-year worth of silver in debt

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