Chapter Text
As much as Maomao hated that she now lived in the La estate, she couldn’t be too mad about transferring schools. Imperial Preparatory Academy was probably one of the best schools in the country. She just had to lay low and keep her grades up for the next two years, she’d be guaranteed a spot in medicine at Imperial City University.
Truthfully, living in the La estate wasn’t horrible.
Maomao had been against it at first, the last thing she wanted to do was to uproot herself and live with that man. With Luomen’s health declining, Lakan insisted on him and Maomao moving into the La estate in the city. When she really thought about it, she’s at school most of the day and at least Lakan had the money to make sure someone would be able to take care of Luomen when no one was home; something Maomao couldn’t do by herself.
Now, all she had to do was keep to herself and get through the rest of high school.
As she slinked into the only available seat in the class. The girl sitting in front of her turns around.
“Your name’s Maomao Kan, right? So are you Grand Commandant Kan’s daughter?”
Great.
It was clear that the girl wasn’t asking to be nice. She was asking Maomao who her family was to decide how much, or little social standing Maomao had.
Maomao is disgusted that she's at a school where people care about titles and families, worse yet, that she’d be grouped in family with that man
“No, sorry. I think you must be mistaken, I have no idea who you’re talking about. That man’s a stranger to me.”
“Are you sure? I heard that the Grand Commandant’s daughter was transferring h-”
“No, you’re mistaken.”
Maomao could hear snickering from the seat across from her and as she turned, she saw a boy with long hair in a ponytail, trying to hold in his laughter. For some reason, he looks familiar to her but she couldn’t quite place why he seemed familiar.
Before the girl could question Maomao any further, the teacher walked in.
*****
Aside from that one girl, nothing eventful happened the rest of the morning. The school campus was an impressive one. It seemed like the students could sit in the sprawling campus garden or the sports fields when they weren’t in use for lunch so Maomao figured that she could sit alone in the secluded part of what appeared to be a lacrosse field no one was using that day.
“Hi, mind if I sit here?”
It was the boy from her first class.
Up close, she finally realised why he looked so familiar.
He was the Moon Prince. The Emperor's son. The heir apparent to the Empire of Li.
She really wanted to eat her lunch alone, but it was probably best not to be rude to the crown prince on her first day.
“Suit yourself, your Highness.”'
“We’re peers, here. Please, call me Jinshi. I just wanted to welcome you to Imperial Prep.”
Something about this guy just screamed fake. Rehearsed, even.
“Thanks, I guess.”
“Listen, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation earlier today and I was really curious, are you Grand Commandant Kan’s daughter?”
“I really don’t know who that is.”
That earned her a laugh from Jinshi. “No, really. I’m just curious. I’ve seen Grand Commandant Kan around and I know he has a nephew. I just never thought he was married or had children”
“Why? Is it because he’s a weirdo?” Her question seemed to have thrown him off.
“What?! No, it’s just that h—”
“So you don’t think the Grand Commandant is a weirdo?”
That made Jinshi laugh again. “Okay, yes. He is a little weird, but it’s really because he’s never mentioned having a wife or children”
“He’s a widower so there’s your answer.”
“Ah, so you do know the Grand Commandant.”
“Listen, Moon Prince—”
“Jinshi,” he interjected.
“Right, Jinshi, I just want to be just Maomao.”
“Well, just Maomao, I do hope to see you around."
Gods, I hope not, Maomao thought.
*****
The rest of her day was going well until the final period came around and she found herself assigned as Jinshi’s lab partner for Chemistry for the rest of the school year.
Lab partners. Of all the bad luck.
The other girls in the class were openly glaring at her.
So much for laying low.
Jinshi smiled and made his way over to her table. “Isn’t it great that we get to be partners?” He spoke in that same fake overly nice voice from earlier that day.
“No, not really.”
"And here I thought we were getting along so well on the lacrosse field."
"We weren't."
Jinshi laughed, “You really speak your mind. I like that.”
*****
Maomao had to admit that Jinshi wasn’t the worst lab partner she could have.
On the contrary, he was a very good lab partner.
He was smarter than she expected and did his share of the work without having to be asked. She almost felt a little guilty for assuming that he’d have been a spoiled rich kid who’d make her do all the work.
Granted that, if he was incompetent she’d have rather done all the work than make a scene about it.
But overall, she couldn’t complain about her life at Imperial Prep. It’d been a month since she started and she’d befriended Xiaolan from her Literature class and Shisui in Biology.
When Jinshi suggested that the two of them study at her house, it somehow morphed into a study group with Xiaolan, Shisui, Maomao, Jinshi and Basen who seemed to be Jinshi’s only friend.
Sometimes they’d all gather at the La estate, sometimes it was just Xiaolan, Maomao and Shisui and other times, it would be just Maomao and Jinshi.
Today, it was one of those evenings where it was just the girls since Jinshi and Basen had a meeting for cadets.
They were half-way through their math homework when Xiaolan spoke, “Soooo, has Jinshi texted you?”
“No? Why would he? I don’t think they can use their phones during cadet drills."
As Xiaolan pouted, Shisui interjected, “You do know that Jinshi has a huge crush on you, right?”
“He doesn’t? He just sort of ended up studying here since we became lab partners.”
“He does have a crush on you!” Xiaolan continued, “Before you came along, the only person he’d hang out with was Basen, which doesn’t really count since Basen’s dad is the Emperor’s aide-de-camp and chances are Basen would be Jinshi’s when he becomes emperor. He’d never have gone to someone’s house.”
“I think he only gets to come here because it’s that man’s house. Besides, Jinshi wouldn’t like a girl like me, anyways.”
“What do you mean? You’re from one of the oldest clan families in Li! You could so date Jinshi if you wanted to! And besides, I think Jinshi actually likes that you’re kinda mean to him.”
Maomao sighed. It seemed like Xiaolan wasn’t going to let this go. “How about we just get back to our homework?”
*****
When the mid-term rankings were posted, Maomao’s study group did pretty well. Maomao herself was in the top 5 in the year and the top student for Chemistry and ranked second in Biology, only behind Shisui. While Jinshi was ranked seventh in Sociology and tenth in Economics, Basen and Xiaolan had ranked in the top 25 for a few of their subjects.
He knew she was smart, but being her lab partner and then studying with her, he couldn’t help but be in awe of how smart she was. How much her hard work had paid off. He found it admirable that she wanted to be a doctor just like Luomen was and it made him feel proud of her to know that she was well on her way of achieving just that.
He was grateful that he met Maomao and that they were paired together for Chemistry.
He wished he didn't feel like he annoyed her so much but he appreciated the way she treated him.
She never hesitated to correct him when he was wrong or push him when his work fell short. There tutors that Jinshi had in the past that would let him get away with work that was “okay” holding back their criticism out of deference to his royal status. But not Maomao. She wasn’t afraid to tell him when something he did was only a mark past mediocre, as she’d put it.
It was just the two of them at the La estate again and Jinshi had spent most of the evening that he should have been working on their Chemistry homework, staring at Maomao.
Maomao hadn’t looked up from the textbook when she spoke, "You really need to stop staring at me."
Jinshi felt the heat rush to his cheeks, "There's... a leaf in your hair," he stammered, reaching across the pile of books and practice questions to brush it out.
Before his fingers could touch her hair, the sound of someone clearing their throat cut through the silence of Maomao’s room.
Jinshi froze, his eyes darting to the open doorway where Grand Commandant Kan stood, glaring at him.
Flustered, Jinshi immediately scrambled to his feet, bowing his head nervously. "Grand Commandant, sir!"
"Hmph," is Lakan's response and he walks off
Jinshi wasn’t surprised by the lack of formality. Lakan Kan was infamous for his…eccentricities. But what Jinshi really didn’t like was that he’d made a horrible first impression on Lakan as Maomao’s friend. Worse yet, he didn’t even get to explain what he was doing.
Jinshi looked between Maomao and the empty doorway Lakan had just been standing in, “He—!”
“Just ignore him, it’s what I always do.”