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Once again, Maomao finds herself pushed against the ground. Instead of the cold, rocky floor of a cavern, polished wood rests beneath her back now. She purses her lips, a little bit frustrated with her current predicament. It's not like she's going to fight against it, though...
It was, in fact, what she was expecting. After all, what kind of man barges into your room at night– one who'd sworn to make you his wife, after all– and doesn't do... this? Well, what kind of man that isn't one of those girlish eunuchs? Her eyes trail over to the medicinal herbs he'd brought that were laid on the top of the cabinet. Hmph.
This is what Maomao would have accepted to happen once she'd accepted her feelings for the man. In fact, this was what she was preparing for back when he'd invited her to his chambers. And it didn't happen. She still didn't know whether or not to feel disappointed, or... well.
"Let's continue, shall we?" His voice was hauntingly sweet– an air of breathlessness lined his voice. He slowly set his hands behind her knee and lifted up her right leg in one, slow motion. She could've sworn she was getting goosebumps as they shifted into a more compromising position than prior. What will Tianyu think when he finds out she hadn't finished organizing the herbs like she'd promised by morning?
Maomao squeezes her eyes shut for a moment. No, she can't be thinking of another man right now. That is simply improper of a woman. Slowly, she opens her eyes, meeting Jinshi's hungry gaze. A moment of stillness passed before he leaned forward slightly, his face slowly closing in on hers.
Two small knocks on the door– enough of a signal for Jinshi to practically leap off of her, yet not enough for her to react– before the door opens. "Maom–" the all-too-familiar voice cuts off. 'Practically leap off', but not fast enough. Maomao freezes and slowly looks at the door, meeting the brown eyes of a particular colleague of hers. She would use the term friend, though she just might lose that title after this.
The door quickly slams shut as Maomao scrambles to her feet, finding herself shriek, "Yao!" Jinshi rests his head in his hands– but no worrying about him. "Yao, wait!" The door swings open as she manages to catch a glimpse of Yao running away from the scene.
Considering Maomao was barefoot and Yao was wearing some rather uncomfortable shoes, Maomao quickly caught onto her sleeve, yanking her backwards as they practically fell onto the ground– but Maomao cushioned Yao's fall. Ouch. "Yao!" She wheezes breathlessly.
"Wait for what?!" Yao's face scrunches as she sits up. "Have you got something to say for yourself, Maomao?"
"That wasn't what you thought it was," Maomao stammers. This was probably the most emotion Yao had seen on her face in... well, possibly since they've met.
"You're sure?" Yao narrows her eyes suspiciously, "tell me what I'm getting wrong. I would like to hear it from you," she demands.
She sucks in a breath, taking a moment to regain her composure as she sits up. "Well, I'd like to clarify that Ji– the Moon Prince and I were stuck on a mystery. An incident that had happened with a feifa. Back when I was at the rear palace," she cringes, realizing she'd never mentioned exactly what she had done in her previous job, "he brought me on an excursion to a dinner. For the record, I wasn't aware of his identity as the Imperial Younger Brother, and simply knew him as Master Jinshi, manager of the rear palace." The details are slowly coming together for her. The incident was so long ago, yet so near. "A little bit later, he excuse himself and I followed, and we were shot at with a feifa in the woods."
"Uh-huh, go on," Yao crosses her arms. Her tone made it plain that she clearly didn't believe Maomao, but the slightest smile twitched at the corner of her lips– this woman! She was enjoying her misery, wasn't she?!
Maomao would like to keep as many real elements into the story as she could, yet at the same time, she would really not like to go on about her life. But... she has to retain the slivers of dignity she has left, so she clears her throat and continues, regaining her composure. "As I was saying, he grabbed me and leaped off a waterfall." Yao's eyes widened. "I'm not sure what happened exactly, as I fell unconscious, but we ended up in a cave and... things led to another, and we were attacked again. That was the position we were in," she elaborates, lying as smoothly as she could, "and we were trying to figure out the shooter's position. The Moon Prince was actually shot in the shoulder," she explains, "and I remained unharmed." Hopefully this story was pleasing enough.
"Hm," Yao grunts, eyes still narrowed. They were seated on their knees in the middle of an empty hall– it was just about nighttime. Surely, Maomao's previous yelling woke someone up. Or maybe they just didn't care.
"Then I'll talk to En'en about it," Yao concludes, "because I have my doubts..."
"Not En'en!" Maomao exclaims, though she quickly hushes her voice. Drat! In her predicament of things, she'd forgotten about the girl that completed their trio of friends– the most loyal lady-in-waiting she'd ever met. Well... tied right up there with Hongniang. She manages a sheepish smile. "Yao," she drawls slowly, "you mustn't bring this up with anybody... who knows what kind of ideas they'll draw up in their heads?" Her voice was shaky now. Truly nervous. As oblivious Yao could be, she drew the line with someone as observant as En'en. She couldn't lie her way out of that.
"But if they are all false, then nothing will come out of it, right?" Yao asks flippantly, "you do trust En'en and I, don't you?"
Eep! "Of course I do," Maomao scrambles to her feet, her voice heightening in slight panic. This woman was going to ruin her life! "But it's much more preferable if you didn't share this with anyone else."
Yao scoffs. "En'en."
"Please," Maomao pleads.
"Then I'll tell everyone."
"No."
"Tianyu's up first, then. Don't make me include him in the deal."
"No!" She yelps. Not that scoundrel of a man! "Fine, En'en. But you two must swear not to tell anyone about this," she grumbles. She can't believe she was admitting all that.
"Is that a confirmation to my original suspicions?" Yao stands up, too.
"Not at all," Maomao does a swift bow and swivels around, running off before Yao can put in another word.