Chapter Text
Maomao had a bad feeling.
It was a beautiful day, with the sky clear and a little breeze that was preventing them from overheating under the bright sun.
They were at one of the named clan’s house (Maomao didn’t bother to remember who was their host, honestly) for the weekend. It was under the pretense for the named families to celebrate amongst themselves the birth of the new imperial babies birthed by Consort Lihua, a pair of twin of a boy and a girl. In reality, like all the other meetings, it was mostly to establish connection between clans and find a good match for their offspring or accelerate a promotion.
But unlike all the other meetings, the Moon Prince, younger brother of the Emperor, was present. He was the guest of honor and had all the difficulties in the world in turning down all the hopeful parents and daughters without seeming to do so. It brought back Maomao to his days in the rear palace under the identity of Jinshi the eunuch. It looked like he was a beautiful flower surrounded by ambitious bees. With his lustrous black hair, fair skin, beautiful eyes and toned body he was indeed the most beautiful flower of the day. After all, he could have brought the country to it’s knees if he was born a woman instead of a man.
Basen, his body guard, was never farther than a step behind and seemed distressed by the constant presence of the delicate ladies. Even if their center of attention wasn’t his person, they were still way too close to him. As always, he was afraid of causing them physical harm by simply pushing them out of the way if needed be.
Chue, or Miss Chue as she liked to be called, was one of his two ladies in waiting attending the event. She was oddly behaving herself, not trying to eat half the plate she was supposed to only taste for poison, not doing any magic tricks and keeping her quips for herself. Maomao suspected her mother in law, Basen’s mother, to be behind this strange conduct.
Maomao wasn’t part of the Moon Prince’s party. She was here as La Lakan’s daughter, accompanied by her adoptive brother Lahan. After so many years, and mostly the year spent at the western capital, she couldn’t deny anymore the fact that the Freak was her birth father. Plus his father had married her mother and she was officially into the family’s registry. As such, it made as much sense for her to be here as a representative of the La clan than Lahan.
She didn’t have the occasion yet to approach them. She missed spending time with Miss Chue lately, being to busy at work to do anything else than go straight to bed when she returned to the dormitory. And as much as she hated to admit it, she missed the easy conversation she could have with Master Jinshi (as she still called him when only those closest to him were present).
Luckily, Yao was here as well. Niece of the Vice Minister Lu of the Board of Rites, she was here as his representative since he still was in the western capital. She was accompanied by En’en, her colleague / lady in waiting. The three of them were good friends and Maomao was glad they were here.
Yao wasn’t interested in Lahan anymore (interest that Maomao couldn’t understand in the first place) and seemed disappointed the he came alone. En’en and Maoamo hadn’t said anything, but they both suspected Yao to have a crush on Lahan’s brother. Fact that was causing conflicting emotion for En’en since he seemed to be the perfect man for her mistress but she, as the same time, couldn’t let go of her.
After the banquet, during which they were served plenty of savory food and dry wine (just as Maomao liked it), most of the men went hunting in the nearby mountain forest.
The women went back to their chambers or stayed in the garden to enjoy the warm rays of sunshine while drinking tea and enjoying some snacks. Lahan was enjoying tea with two beautiful ladies quite older than him.
Maomao wished she could have gone to the forest. But looking for medicinal herbs and mushrooms while a hunting party was ongoing was decidedly not a good idea if she wanted to stay unharmed.
Miss Chue was returning from the Moon Prince quarter, where she probably helped Suiren with some chores, and went straight to where Maomao and her friend’s were to spend some quality time.
The day was nice, the food was delicious and she enjoyed her friends company.
But still, Maomao had a bad feeling.
Suddenly, a big commotion was heard at the gate.
Then, a horse bursted into the garden. On the horse, Jinshi.
Without realizing it, Maomao jumped onto her feet and sprinted towards him. As she grew closer to him, she started to notice some dark red spots on his otherwise light blue clothing.
He was holding his right side and blood was dripping from his right arms, staining the reins.
"Maomao, help me" he breathed.
His eyes closed and he fell directly into the arm of Basen, who had arrived just in time to catch him.