Chapter Text
"Maomao?" Luomen called, holding an assortment of medicines in a bag, ranging from simple headache tonics to abortion medication, all of which a brothel would need.
If Maomao had animal ears they would have perked up in response to the sound of his voice calling her from inside. Maomao set the watering can she was cleaning down gently. Then, Maomao scrambled inside so she could give Luomen her full attention. Maomao respected him extremely, after all, he was her mentor and she didn't wish to miss a single moment in which he could teach her more medicinal practices.
"Yes father?" Maomao responded once she got inside with her usual monotone voice and inquisitive eyes..
"Can you deliver these to the Verdigris house for me?" Luomen asked with his sweet smile he always had plastered on his face, holding out the bag to Maomao, because of his missing kneecap, he couldn't go over there very often to deliver things himself, resulting in Maomao doing most of the delivering, of both messages and medicines.
"Of course father." Maomao responded, grabbing the bag of medicines before she started heading towards the door. Even if she disliked being a delivery person sometimes, she really liked to see her adoptive father, Luomen happy.
"Be back by sunset!" Luomen added while she put her shoes on.
After all, the red light district was a dangerous place, especially at night...
From the diseased drunkards to the kidnappers who sold women to the inner court to the unsatisfied men who couldn't afford to spend a night with a courtesan, a women Maomao's age was at extreme risk being out at night where they lived. Maomao sighed and gave him a slight smile.
"I always am." Maomao responded before she departed.
The Verdigris house wasn't too far a walk from the apothecary, so Maomao didn't think anything would go wrong and it didn't! At least on the walk TO the Verdigris house.. Just five minutes there and back, like always.
While she was walking, Maomao noticed a grassy patch she hadn't paid attention to before, but, it was spring so she just had to take a glance. To her surprise it was filled to the brim with herbs, probably from lack of human care, and she almost started salivating right then and there.
No, she needed to stay focused. She slapped her cheeks to get back to the task at hand, much to her own dismay. Maomao would just have to come back to that grassy patch later.
The area near the Verdigris house was bustling as usual.
It was filled with market stands and rich people flaunting their wealth. Maomao had to dodge crowds of people as she made her way to her destination. There was an over-stimulating amount of sounds and smells, people talking, dogs barking, meat sizzling, flowers, and the occasional burning food. It was clear the Verdigris house was extremely successful. Probably due to her adoptive sisters, the three princesses of the Verdigris house, Joka, Pairin, and Meimei, whom were some of the most famous courtesans in the red light district.
Of course, Maomao knew that not all of the red light district looked like this and just one turn around the corner would reveal the rampant poverty, the unsatisfied drunkards whom were kicked out of brothels, and most of all, the massive amounts of illness, and that, she knew, well. It was somewhat of a stark contrast, but Maomao was used to it by now.
Before she could dwell on it any longer though, Maomao had already arrived at the Verdigris house, staring at the entrance for a bit before entering.
Maomao has almost instantly been bombarded the second she arrived.
Pairin had known she was coming today and was waiting at the door like a dog waiting for it's owner to come home. Maomao had to physically peel Pairin off of her to avoid suffocating in her.. assets..
"Kitty! I haven't seen you in forever!" Pairin exclaimed, her tone filled with pure excitement and a smile plastered on her face. Maomao would usually hate the childish nickname coming from anyone else, however, considering Pairin was one of the closest things to family she'd ever get, she allowed it.
"I was literally here last week.. you go through the soreness medication faster than a child goes through their grandmother's candy supply when visiting." Maomao responded in her usual monotone voice, however, her eyes had a twinkle of playfulness in them.
Pairin chuckled in response, she enjoyed her little sister's company very dearly and wished she'd visit more. Before Pairin could take a jab back at Maomao, the madam of the house appeared behind them menacingly, fan in hand.
"Pairin, what did I say about slacking off! You're not safe either Maomao, you know you're not supposed to distract the courtesans while they're working!" The madam scolded before giving each of them a solid smack on the head with her fan.
Then, the madam noticed the bag in Maomao's hand.
"Go put those away in the cabinets." She instructed Maomao, despite her doing the same thing everytime she delivers medicines, before walking off and grumbling about one money related thing or another.
Of course she was focused on that, money was her favorite thing after all, although she did have a soft spot for the courtesans she directly trained.
"Owwww. How do you have such a hard strike despite being old as fuck." Maomao grumbled as she rubbed her head.
Maomao proceeded to take off her shoes so she could go into the medicine cabinet areas, and sort the medicine into the appropriate cabinets, taking care not to spill anything.
Once Maomao was done, she tried to sneak out to avoid getting jumped by one of her older sisters again, she wanted as much time as possible in that herb patch, however, her sisters had other plans, waiting directly at the door for her.
"See I told you she'd try to leave without so much as a goodbye!" Pairin exclaimed, proud at the fact that she was right, still smiling.
"That's our Maomao for you." Joka added fondly with a soft smile.
"I really thought she'd say goodbye this time!" Meimei sighed with an overdramatic pout.
"I'm right here you know." Maomao muttered, it was annoying how her sisters were so attached to her but she understood why..
"I need to get home before sunset, I can't dillydally with you guys or else father will get worried." Maomao added, hoping to get away without being kept too long.
Her sisters looked at her as she tried to leave. "There's still a good few hours before sunset.." Meimei responded, feigning hurt.
"Our sweet kitten is always so busy, why does she never spend time with us." Pairin added with an even more dramatic pout.
Joka didn't add anything but snorted at her sisters' dramatic display.
"There's an herb garden I have to tend to at home you know and I don't wanna be smacked on the head by the granny for distracting you all." Maomao responded.
"Look here she comes! Bye!" Maomao exclaimed hurriedly as soon as she saw the madam approaching with her fan in hand, and proceeded to run off without another word.
When Maomao located the herb patch she was ecstatic!
So many unchecked herbs had grown here due to the lack of human activity. Maomao started to categorize each herb, Shan yao, Ginseng, Ling zhi, AND da huang, how lucky was she!
She started to gather most of the plants, Practically drooling at the sight of all the roots and leaves, she almost did a little happy dance out of excitement, but she somehow managed to restrain herself.
Maomao was so enthralled in her work that all she could think of was how much she could manage to carry without dropping anything, so she never noticed the footsteps behind her.
The kidnappers waited to strike until Maomao had decided to turn around to go home so she could drop off her newly gathered herbs.
When Maomao turned around, her vision was completely blocked by the slightly damp, gross, sack that they had put on top of her head to muffle any sounds.
It wasn't a very long walk to the transportation method they were using. All Maomao knew is that she was placed in some sort of horse drawn vehicle for a long ass amount of time and it pissed her off, what could they possibly even want from her.
"Where the fuck are we even going?" Maomao muttered to herself in annoyance.
Eventually, Maomao would find out when she overheard her captors speaking about the imperial palace and how much she could make them.
"I doubt she'll make us that much money if we sell her to the imperial palace." One captor commented disappointedly.
"We'll just say that she is our sister and have them give us her paycheck." Another responded, annoyed.
"Still won't make us that much." The one from before muttered under his breath.
It almost offended her when he said she wouldn't make them that much money, key word: almost.. However, this still was gonna be two years of indentured servitude that she was NOT going to enjoy, and she didn't want to give them the satisfaction of making more money.
"I'm surprised the herb trap actually worked!" Someone exclaimed, causing the person next to her to chuckle.
"Women are a sucker for anything free!" The one next to her added, receiving another chuckle from his buddies.
God, Maomao hated people like him.
How was Maomao supposed to know stopping to pick herbs that she randomly came across would turn out like this. Okay, maybe, just maybe, she should've been a bit more cautious, but it was herbs for fucks sake! How was Maomao supposed to resist a whole, untouched, wild, patch of herbs!
"You think she can read?" One of Maomao's captors asked.
"She's from the pleasure district, there's absolutely no way she can." Another responded.
Thank goodness Maomao knew how to play dumb, otherwise she'd probably benefit her kidnappers.
Maomao knew plenty enough about the imperial palace, enough to know she was less valuable if she was dumb. The less valuable the tool, the less you get when you sell it, her personal favorite saying..
However, little did Maomao know, laying low would be harder than she thought. Which she would find out soon enough.