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Maomao was walking through the court when she spotted Xiaolan holding a strange object.
"Maomao! Over here!" the younger girl called.
Her curiosity piqued, Maomao came to her with her hands in her sleeves. "What's that you have there? A glass ball?" Though it was small, it was certainly still on the expensive side.
"A crystal ball! I got it from the caravan a while ago, but I've only recently mastered its secrets," Xiaolan said confidently.
Maomao tilted her head. "What kinds of secrets?"
Xiaolan chuckled smugly. "I was told by a merchant that with the proper techniques, this can be used to divine secret information—"
"So a scam, then."
Xiaolan pouted. "It wasn't a scam! The merchant told me that I had unique gifts and—Maomao, come back here! At least let me try this on you!"
With a sigh, Maomao walked back and stood in front of her friend with narrow eyes. "Alright, the scam's in the past already, so might as well get some use out of it."
Pointedly ignoring that remark, Xiaolan directed her friend to an empty area where they could sit. She set a scrap of cloth on the ground and gently placed the ball on it. Then she waved her fingers over it. "This technique is specialized in finding out the feelings of others, and I know you spend a lot of time with men, so how about we figure out who has a crush on you!"
Maomao raised a hand dismissively. "Pass." She already had a good idea of how that would go, and hearing it spoken out loud was the last thing she needed right now.
Xiaolan sighed. "So you aren't interested in romance, but you can at least figure out what other people think about you. Who knows, maybe you're in someone's good graces without even knowing. Or someone secretly hates you."
Maomao thought for a second. "You know, that does sound useful. I am pretty bad at figuring out what people think of me. The four consorts would be a good place to start." At the very least, she figured that getting Xiaolan’s take could be interesting.
Xiaolan nodded. "Alright. You work for Lady Gyokuyou, so let's see what she thinks about you."
She waved her hands around the crystal ball, causing a faint light to appear. Maomao leaned forward, gazing at it. "Hmm, very interesting. Is there a magnet inside that's reacting to metal you have up your sleeve?"
"I have no such thing, this is real magic, Maomao! Anyway, I'm getting a message... the features Lady Gyokuyou most associates with you are: intelligent, trustworthy, and funny!"
Maomao scrunched her brows. "Hmm, that does sound about right. I have helped her out a lot... wait, 'funny'?"
Maomao remembered that there was more than one conversation she had with or around her that ended with her laughing uproariously. She never really understood why. But more importantly, would Xiaolan have known about that?
Maomao twisted one of her pigtails with a finger. "I suppose there might be something to this."
"Who's next?" asked Xiaolan, quite pleased with herself.
"The one I've interacted with the most after her is Lady Lihua."
Xiaolan immediately got to work and the crystal ball glowed again. "Alright, Lady Lihua! The feelings she has toward you are... shame, appreciation, and trust!"
"So Lady Lihua still feels ashamed, huh... wait, isn't this a different format than with Lady Gyokuyou?"
Xiaolan shrugged. "People's minds are organized differently. Anyway, Maomao, isn't it nice that so many important people trust you?"
"More people trusting me means more work for me, though," Maomao responded with a slouch. "Anyway, next is Lady Lishu."
"You did help her with that ghost recently, so I'm sure she trusts you," Xiaolan said with a smile. She performed the ritual again and announced, "Lady Lishu thinks you are... scary." She blinked, looking at the crystal ball from different angles. "There are other feelings, but more than anything else, she thinks you're scary."
"I feel like I should be more surprised at that," Maomao said with a wry grin.
Xiaolan reached over and patted Maomao on the head.
At this point, Shisui peeked past a corner and then squatted down excitedly by them. "Hey, what are you two doing over here?"
"Shisui, you have to join us! I'm using this crystal ball to read the minds of people and figure out what they think about Maomao," said Xiaolan.
"Oh? I'm surprised you'd be into this kind of thing, Maomao," Shisui responded, reaching over and gently rubbing one of the apothecary's pigtails between her fingers.
"It's proving to be more interesting than I expected," Maomao responded, staring into the orb. "Could I hold it for a second, Xiaolan?"
Xiaolan narrowed her eyes. "Are you going to break it to see what's inside?"
Maomao didn't respond for a few seconds. The two girls stared at each other, until finally, Maomao looked away while making a tsk sound.
Xiaolan hugged the crystal ball to her chest. "I knew it! I'm not letting you touch it."
Maomao waved her hand. "Fine, fine. Anyway, all that's left is Lady Loulan."
Shisui blinked. "Eh?"
Xiaolan hummed. "You two haven't really interacted, right? I'm not sure we'll get much out of her."
"It's like you said, it'd be good to know if she secretly hates me," Maomao replied.
Shisui forced a smile while sweating. "I'm sure she doesn't hate you, so I don't think there's a need to..."
Xiaolan returned the crystal ball to its original position and waved her hands.
"Hold on, wait a second!" Shisui said.
Unheeding, Xiaolan announced, "Lady Loulan's greatest feelings toward you are... friendship!"
Shisui's mouth twisted. "Well that's—"
"Romantic love!"
Shisui released a duck-like exhalation as she fell onto her butt.
"And near-uncontrollable lust!"
Air fled from Shisui's lungs as she laid dying on the ground.
"In increasing order," Xiaolan finished.
Maomao stared at the orb.
Xiaolan stared at Maomao, trying to gauge her reaction.
The desiccated corpse of Shisui didn't move.
Maomao blinked then snapped her fingers next to both ears. “Sorry, can you say that last one again?”
“Near-uncontrollable lust!”
If Shisui had any life to her, she would have died again.
Maomao crossed her arms and sighed. “Xiaolan, that makes no sense. I will admit that you had me curious for a bit, but that’s absurd.”
Shisui made a full recovery and launched up onto her feet. "Exactly! After all, you yourself said earlier that Maomao and Lady Loulan haven’t really interacted, so how could any of that be accurate?”
Xiaolan touched her cheek. “It is quite strange. The message is coming in even stronger than the others—almost like Lady Loulan was right next to us.” Shisui discreetly looked away. “Actually, Maomao, though you said you two haven’t really interacted, you still interacted a bit, right? What was that like?”
Maomao touched her chin. “When did we interact…?” Her eyes widened. “Oh. The sex class.”
Xiaolan tilted her head. “The what?”
Shisui could feel her soul leaving her again.
Maomao closed her eyes and nodded her head. “Yes, now I understand. A sheltered girl like her learns that another girl her age is rich in forbidden knowledge and that gets her imagination running. So behind that emotionless face, she’s quite the pervert, huh? It makes perfect sense.”
“That’s not it!” shouted Shisui.
Maomao raised an eyebrow. “What’s gotten you so worked up?”
Caught, Shisui’s eyes darted around. “Yes, well, it’s—It’s you, Maomao!” She grabbed the apothecary’s shoulders and shook them. “We know your life has led to you looking down on love, but you need to understand that such strong emotions come from repeated positive interactions. Romantic love is pure!”
Xiaolan added, “We’ve been so focused on the lust part, but that… class of yours doesn’t explain the friendship and romantic love.”
Maomao’s reaction to all this was muted. “Alright, then, Miss Love Expert, what’s your explanation?”
Shisui pointed at the crystal ball. “This thing is broken!”
Xiaolan twisted her mouth. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I think maybe we pushed it too far with such a weak connection between Maomao and Lady Loulan and it got mixed up.”
Shisui nodded. “So then we only use it on people with strong connections.”
“Like you and Maomao!”
“Exactly, like—wait.”
Maomao shrugged. “Sure, let’s see if it gets something that makes sense from Shisui.”
Shisui’s face tightened, squeezing out sweat. As the others set up the ritual again, she realized she had no other options left. She turned away from the other girls and pulled out a strange object of her own: a small white whistle. Blowing into it, she produced a noise that couldn’t be heard by human ears.
Xiaolan waved her hands. "There we go, first up is friendship again, and... wait, what's going on?!"
To her and Maomao's amazement, a swarm of butterflies, beetles, and bees all gathered around the crystal ball. They sat gawking as the insects lifted the ball into the air, higher and higher, and soon it was out of reach.
Xiaolan stood up. "No, my crystal ball! Shisui, can you do something?"
Shisui looked at the swarm with a hand above her eyes. "Wow, that sure is something, huh?" she said with feigned confusion. "I've never heard of this happening before."
Xiaolan turned. "Maomao, do something! It's leaving the inner palace!"
Maomao had tired eyes. "Xiaolan, I just witnessed a magical orb seemingly summoning insects to carry it away. What am I supposed to do in this situation?"
The three of them watched the swarm as it shrank into the distance. The crystal ball belonged to it now.
Shisui clapped her hands together. "Here's an idea! How about we forget this ever happened?"
Maomao nodded. "Shoving inconvenient information deep into the recesses of my mind is what I do best."
Xiaolan sulked. "But that cost money..."
Shisui smiled. "Don’t worry, I’ll try to find you something even better."
Xiaolan glowed. "Aww, thank you!"
Maomao stood up. "Anyway, I'm going to lie down in my room for a while. I don’t even remember what I came out here for in the first place."
"OK, see you!" Xiaolan said, waving as the apothecary sulked away.
Shisui furrowed her brows and wore an uncharacteristic frown. She thought to herself, "'Near-uncontrollable lust'? How can that be on top? I see Maomao in the bath house all the time, and I handle that just fi—"
Maomao stretched while walking, rolling her shoulders back, causing her robe to slide down just slightly and reveal more of the nape of her neck...
"I see you drooling, Shisui. Want to get a snack?"
Shisui wiped her mouth. "Oh, sure."
The disguised concubine followed behind her friend, her lips tight. Eventually, distance from the strange incident allowed her to sober up. “So those are my feelings toward Maomao,” she thought with lowered eyes.
She grew a small smile thinking about it. She wished she was there from the start, so she could hear Maomao’s reactions to Xiaolan’s other mind readings; every second she could spend with those two girls was precious.
She was glad that she at least got there before they thought to read “Shisui’s” mind. “After all,” she thought, “Maomao learning about my feelings will only make what’s to come more painful for the both of us.”
Shisui took in a breath and smiled. The end was coming, but it wasn’t here yet. She started running and called out, “Race you there!”
Xiaolan’s eyes widened. “Wait up, Shisui!”
Meanwhile, the crystal ball continued flying to destinations unknown.