If id been the writer of apothecary diaries I would have come up with a different reason to kick Maomao out of the palace. In fact I wouldn't have had Jinshi kick Maomao from the palace at all. I would have let her term end and Jinshi desperately thinking about how he could offer her a job. Or asking her boss to ask her to stay. Whether she'd want that. And Maomao thinking: damn I kinda love being a taster EVEN THOUGH BEING HERE HAS PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS. but I do want to see my dad again, BECAUSE HE SHOULDNT WORK IN THE FIELDS ALONE, and my sex worker sisters, who takes care of them now, now that their apothecary is gone? And she goes back. BECAUSE she is written up until this point as a caring person who is in solidarity with her fellow commoners. And Jinshi has set like three plans in motion to find out what she wants and to give her a place and to convince her to stay and. Then she just tells him goodbye, telling him why she's leaving (Jinshi realises her relatively poor circumstances keep her from him). And he realises he can't keep her against her will, she has people she cares about out there. He gets very depressed.
AND THEN, something happens that really puts Maomao in debt. NOT to her grandma figure trying to sell her into sex work as though its nothing. Some criminal and rich guy. Some brothel landlord, to contrast baba's verdigris palace and introduce some competition that would explain their money hunger. Maybe she gets called in and 'the merchandise' DOESNT survive, and she gets blamed and rung up for it. Or rather her dad, who's pushed to sell her. And Jinshi doesn't know that his job offer would be of great use now. She's getting threatened, Baba gives her a courtesan job to try and stave off her 'creditor'. Goushan finds out and arranges a meeting at an event along the lines in the show.
This maintains tension because it maintains the duress that Maomao is under in a believable way, and even increases the dubiousness of a relationship between a commoner and a noble. Maomao is now 'his', because she has no better choice. This also maintains the theme of the palace being so much like the brothel district. This would develop his class consciousness further and would prompt his desire to give Maomao intellectual status by making her do the exams, so he can balance and justify this new dynamic in several ways (outwardly, and inwardly). Also this money would go to her DAD, so that he really doesn't have to work his old bones IN THE FIELDS anymore.
Hit me up for any and all of your scriptediting needs because damn that was easy
