Chapter Text
Time ended up proving Maomao right.
As she had speculated, following her wedding to the precious Moon Prince as per sacred word of the Emperor, several attempts were made at her life. Men who feared her influence in the court and the consequential emerging power of the La Clan, and frowns of envy who did not appreciate the chicken-bones woman stationed at the side of the exquisite Moon Prince.
In the measure of possibilities, Maomao’s new status and the protection it entailed proved great in rebuking physical attempts, as she went nowhere unsupervised and never travelled long without her escort, Lihaku - her long-since high-ranking appointed guard, promoted in anticipation of her rise of status to appease Jinshi’s warranted concern and to nudge him to buy her sister Pairin. As for her frequent trips to the rear Palace, a guard often stalked after her until the threshold of the royal Palace.
Thus, physical assaulters were either easily scared off by the gap of status and to-be repercussions, or rightfully intimidated by the assortment of muscles sported by her companion. This ordeal was rendered even more pronounced when she was escorted by Basen, whose years of fatigue at Jinshi’s side were rewarded by the warrant reputation of his uncontained brutal force. All of this left the schemes of assasination favoured by the folk of the Palace, subtle, efficient and deadly: poisoning.
Thrusted in this promising stage, the only struggle Maomao experienced in such occurrences was the difficulty in subduing her own delight and amusement under a well-plastered face of aloofness, thinning her rarely-seen grins in favour of a plain look and of muttering words at her husband’s ear. Many would say it was her own effort to secure her thick skin and reputation in public, but what she most secretly strived for was to hide how unaffected she was to poisons so that people would rack their brains over ways to get to her through stronger toxins.
This maddening longing was often accompanied by sparkle of eyes in the shape of a memory, one that brought her back of one year and a half to the latest successful poisoning attempt made at Jinshi.
About that tasteless and odourless poison...
Even years later, the episode was closed as one of the cases comprised in the conspiracy of late Vice-Minister Chu, for which he and his allies, from Fu Chuanli to his servants and wife, were incriminated and executed. Yet, even if it mattered not in the face of the gravity of his committed sins, much had been pushed in his guilt box.
However, while Maomao could bear a doctored evidence as a formality or to keep up with appearances, she believed people ought not to dismiss the circumstantial nature of these episodes if they didn't want to be caught unprepared at a later incident.
After all, the question that most mattered to the apothecary was still unanswered: how did Fu Chuanli happen to come in contact with an exotic, never-seen-before poison of such complex essence and peculiar properties?
After months of discrete investigation by the Mi Clan, of whom Chue was a member, they had learnt, through means Maomao was not prone to indulge, of a contact from the West, a dangerous individual Vice-Minister Chu avowed meeting and exchanging a dose of said poison and its antidote.
In exchange of what?, they had thought simultaneously while only one voiced the question out loud. Information.
As if this news wasn’t successfully concerning on its own - that the poison had been sold off by a contact from the West, which swarmed of spies and bandits from the neighbor countries - a stranger in the wild had asked for information. Unless he employed them privately, they could be on the precipice of war between countries. It was a serious matter that must be handled with care.
"There is some… interesting news."
Maomao heard Jinshi hum the words just as she budged inside his office.
She curtly dismissed the formality from Gaoshun, prompting him to straighten up and heading straight for the center. Indeed, now that her nominal ranking exceeded his, he could not eschew etiquette, much like she shouldn't have done around Jinshi back in the day. Because of their long acquaintance, whenever he bowed, like right now, she was quick to put him at ease, never missing the chance to counsel he skipped pleasantries around her, at least in private. If not for his, then for her own sanity.
"What news?" Maomao exclaimed as she paraded across her husband's office.
Dress fanning out on his office’s pavement, she stopped only in front of Jinshi's desk to serve him the tea she'd prepared for him. Usually, whenever she came over while he worked he would invite her to round the desk and get clingy, provided that it was just Gaoshun or Suiren with them - Basen too, but whenever they got carelessly close or intimate in his presence, the man would turn beet red and hasten his leave, so they tried to spare him the embarrassment.
This time, however, he did no such thing. He looked awfully serious and stiff at the shoulders, prompting from her the thought that she’d barged into a momentous plight. Her husband wasn’t likely to actively try to keep political affairs from her if she solicited him to talk. He often asked her opinion on certain matters and had her flank him while investigating for the sake of satiating her curiosity and keeping her entertained (as long as Lihaku or Basen were close enough to take action if needed). But he always preferred to avoid involving her in matters that had the potentiality to hurt or endanger her in one way or another.
When she served him tea just now, instead, he accepted it almost dutifully with a refreshing smile - he was happy as always to have her here, but couldn’t pretend as though there weren’t other pressing thoughts swirling around in his head.
Straightening on her feet, she adopted a serious stance and turned a sharp eye to the previous conversation. "So?" The two men shared a talkative look, but any trace of reluctance was soon dispelled in the face of reality: it would do them no good keeping her out of it; later she would have to be filled in anyway.
Jinshi’s arms plunged tiredly on the desk. "After months of research, we have a lead on the source of the foreign poison. I have discussed it with the Emperor, and he wants us to make a trip there." Her eyes expanded, prompting a predictable unhappy grumble from both men. “Don’t be too excited.”
“When are we setting off?” she asked, voice high-pitched with unconcealed enthusiasm, drawing sounds of exasperation from both Gaoshun and Jinshi.
“’We’?”
Her tone turned sour for a moment.
"I must come along, both as your wife and your apothecary." She licked her grinning lips, undisguised excitement running below her skin alongside a rush of blood. "If things come to worst, my body has developed a slight resilience to poison. It could turn useful."
Mushrooms sprouted from their blackened faces. Jinshi grumbled quietly, headache pressing at his temples and prompting him to grab the cup of tea he’d previously sat aside. "Maomao, we said no more experimenting with poisons."
In the wake of his condemnation, her eyes shut in austere dismissal. “We said limited experimenting and caution. Furthermore, your seed has yet to take root in my womb, Your Highness. We could hold it off for some more weeks."
Gaoshun made a strangled noise in his throat, Jinshi almost spit out the tea he had been sipping, undubiously flushed after hearing her address so brazenly their marital duties in front of a third party.
“Have you no shame!?”
Maomao shrugged. Well, not like her impudence and stolidity in matters centered around physical intimacy were a novelty to him. Honestly, he should long-since have gotten used to her manners, if not lack thereof, especially with how enlivened their bouts of intercourse were.
Finding no additional solid hindrance in her pursuit, she clapped her hands together, chest bubbling. “So? When do we leave?”