Chapter Text
It was a frosty morning. Plenty of snow had fallen overnight and covered the leafless trees, the earth, and the Imperial Court's roofs decorated with thin icicles under a thick, icy layer of its flakes. Turning the scenery into something akin to a winter painting, created with delicate brush strokes.
A comparatively calm day in the Outer Palace, still devoid from the New Year's bustle that would start in a bit more than a month. Apart from a few servants sent on errands or shoveling the beautiful snowy blanket in order to create slip-free walking paths for the noble court residents, there was currently no one outside near the residence of a certain young lord.
No, stop! A trail of relatively small footsteps belied that fact, proving that there was someone else, after all. Starting from the building's entrance, they led around it, going straight to its backyard...
...and ended right behind a short young woman standing there all alone almost ankle-deep in the snow and gazing down at a small, empty and also snow-covered piece of land in front of her. Her lips were adorned by a rarely seen blissful smile, and her eyes were shining as if a tiny sun was warming her from within on that cold winter day.
Without producing a sound, Maomao was happily contemplating her future little herb garden that her ever so generous employer Jinshi had decided to give her as a present out of the blue. Once again was she reveling in delightful fantasies about which kinds of medicinal herbs she would plant there, a new habit she had developed recently and was regularly indulging in ever since having "received" that gift from him.
Only for a few minutes every day, however, though it wasn't easy to keep her visits short even despite the weather. But she had to, otherwise she risked getting lectured by Jinshi himself, who actually didn't mind her going outside to see her new garden now and then (as long as she didn't neglect her duties, of course), but also worried about her getting sick if she stayed out in the cold for too long.
The apothecary softly clicked her tongue. That was the very first time in her life that someone was making such a fuss about her well-being, and it really wasn't easy to get used to his sometimes nearly suffocating concern. But she had no other choice than to bear with it, for she had realized that there wasn't anything she could do about it anyway. He always became as stubborn as a mule about those topics and refused to listen to any objections.
Well, that was how Jinshi was like.
But curiously only towards her. Her alone.
Maomao quickly shook her head, not wishing to ponder about such things, and turned back to her (still) empty herb garden. Her gaze softened again.
And although she seemed as calm and composed as always from the outside, she was, in fact, almost bursting with impatience. Daydreams and fantasies were nice, indeed, but she wanted to finally plant there something for real! She wanted it so badly that her fingers were basically itching! Stupid winter! Too bad that she didn't possess the ability to make time pass faster...
The apothecary briefly gritted her teeth and then exhaled deeply, producing a tiny cloud with her breath. Hah, it was useless... but her hands still kept shaking with boundless excitement and anticipation!
Or rather from the cold?
A frosty wind, as cutting as a freshly-sharpened blade, made her face burn and reddened her cheeks. Though it wasn't snowing currently, aside from a few single flakes that danced through the air, the thick, gray clouds showed that this fact could change any minute now. Maomao narrowed her eyes, shivered, and pulled her warm cloak closer around herself. Enough for today. It was time to head back and return to her duties before she could get in trouble for slacking off.
Hence, she tucked her hands into her sleeves and started walking. The snow crunched beneath her feet.
***
However, after a few dozen meters, the apothecary suddenly stopped and cast a silent look towards the residence. She was now very close to the window of a certain office.
"He's probably already sitting in front of his usual paperwork," she thought, her face completely devoid of any emotions. Then, after a short while, she intended to resume her path and even raised her foot to continue walking, but instead lowered it again and bent down to pick up a handful of snow.
Maomao didn’t have the faintest clue herself what had come over her there, yet before she knew it, she had already made a snowball.
A snowball she sent flying towards the aforementioned window...
...which started to open at that very moment.
Jinshi stared, completely dumbfounded, down at the snowball that had landed directly on his chest, and shuddered from its numbing cold. What a surprise! And he had merely wanted a bit of fresh air before sitting down to work...
"Bullseye..." Maomao thought, startled, and opened her eyes wide. She could have used the opportunity to flee as fast as her feet could carry her, but for some reason, her legs refused to obey, making her stay where she was, as if glued to the ground, and stare at the window.
Which was why Jinshi immediately spotted her, the culprit, as soon as he composed himself again and looked up. Furrowing his finely curved eyebrows.
Then he brushed the snow from his clothes with a single movement of his hand and crossed his arms in a reproachful gesture.
"Great throw, apothecary," he commented in a voice, oozing with sarcasm.
Maomao gulped and bowed to him.
"My apologies, Master Jinshi!"
She didn't even try to deny that she was the thrower. Well, obviously, because why would she? Who could have done it except for her? The wind? Oh please, Jinshi wasn't such an idiot to believe a stupid excuse like that. Even though he did act like one from time to time.
He kept eyeing her for another while.
"Hmph. Wait a bit."
Next, he closed the window again and left it.
The apothecary knew exactly that she was in trouble and tensed up, but obeyed, staying where she was.
About four-five minutes later, she spotted Jinshi outside, wearing a winter cloak on his shoulders as well and approaching her. He still had a rather strict expression on his gorgeous face, looking as though he was about to scold her. Well, that was to be expected. Maomao merely wondered why he went through the trouble to go outside for that instead of calling her inside or at least ordering her to come closer to the window.
And when they were finally a few mere meters apart from each other, the young noble suddenly stopped and looked around, frowning.
"Good, no one here."
"Eh!? What the hell is he planning to do?" Maomao thought, alarmed, and unconsciously clenched her hands into fists. And in that very next moment, she already felt something ice-cold hit her arm and looked up at her employer once again...
...who was now giving her a big grin as he already formed the next snowball in his hands. In the blink of an eye, the graceful "Celestial Nymph" had transformed into a playful young man. Revealing one of his hidden sides that he only showed to very few people apart from the apothecary.
"Did you really think I would let that slide, eh, apothecary? Don't look at me like that, you were the one who started it."
Well, that was another fact that Maomao couldn't deny. She relaxed again, glad that he didn't seem to be angry after all. Then it was her turn to frown.
"Don't you have work to do, sir?"
Jinshi grimaced for a second, giving her a "look who's talking"-glare.
"I do, but Gaoshun hasn't arrived yet, so I decided to take advantage of that. Alright, so how about a little snowball fight?" He put on another grin that looked even a tad more mischievous than the previous one. "Or do you want me to tell Suiren that you attacked me with a snowball?"
Maomao looked at him as if he were a gigantic spider hanging from the ceiling in her room.
"Huh!? Are you three years old or what!?" she thought, and the line between her eyebrows deepened further. "And besides, that's blackmailing!" Oh, but she brought it on herself!
And although Maomao didn't believe that he was really capable of such a heinous act, she preferred to not take any risks.
The Moon Prince noticed her expression.
"Oh, don't worry, that was a joke, I wasn't actually going to do it. But still, I always wanted to have something like a snowball fight at least once. Please! Just a bit, alright? Just five minutes!"
It was written all over Maomao's face how she found that idea, but she realized that she didn't have any other choice since she was still dealing with a noble here, who was also her employer, and couldn't refuse that easily.
She sighed heavily.
"Fine," she reluctantly agreed in the end. Urgh, just what in the world had she been thinking when she threw that goddamn snowball at his window!?
And as soon as she pronounced that word, she felt another snowball land on her, this time on her hip.
"Haha, got you!" Jinshi cheered like a... three-year-old and even raised his arms in triumph. His cheeks were deep-red from the frosty air and his joy.
Hm, well, looked like he had totally forgotten his own warnings about staying out too long in the cold...
Maomao shook the snow from her clothes and picked up a handful as well to get back at him, since she really wasn't planning to just stand there like a living target.
Against her will, however, she got carried away then and there and formed a particularly large snowball, planning to aim for Jinshi's shoulder with all the force she possessed. He must have noticed that, but didn't even try to dodge, instead even stretching out his arms to the side, as if wanting to welcome her "missile".
Maomao took a few steps towards him, swung her arm and...
...and widened her eyes when she suddenly lost her balance. As it looked like, she had stepped on an icy surface, hidden under the snow, without realizing it.
"Apothecary! Look out!"
In the next moment she felt herself being seized by a pair of strong arms. But it was too late: while rushing towards her, Jinshi slipped on the ice as well...
And thus, they both fell onto the icy, hard, and snowy earth with a loud thud.
"That'll probably result in a few bruises," Maomao thought when she had calmed down from the sudden fright and closed her eyes, rubbing her side with a low groan.
"Is everything alright, apothecary? Are you hurt?"
She opened her eyes again and looked directly into Jinshi's worried face that was so close to hers that she could almost count the snowflakes hanging in his long eyelashes. He was still holding her in his arms with them both lying on their side. The apothecary could feel his fast heartbeat.
She stretched her body a bit in order to check whether she was unharmed.
"I'm fine, sir."
Jinshi sighed out in relief and hugged her a bit tighter.
"Thank goodness..." he muttered.
"And you, Master Jinshi?"
"I'm alright as..."
But unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to finish his sentence.
"Sir! What in the world are you doing!?"
Startled, both Jinshi and Maomao raised their heads, turned them towards the residence and saw an unusually shocked-looking Gaoshun standing at the office's window.
"Uhm..."
The two of them sat up and stared at the aide, dumbstruck and not quite knowing how to explain everything. They had snow in their hair and on and inside their clothes and were shaking violently.
Just a bit later, the apothecary and the young lord were already rushed inside by an angry Suiren, like a pair of naughty children, and demanded to go to their respective rooms, remove their cold and soaked-through clothes and take a bath.
Gaoshun heaved a deep sigh and went off to draw a bath for his master and then to help the chief lady-in-waiting carry a tub with hot water to Maomao's room...