An unexpected encounter

Stifling a yawn and barely able to think straight from exhaustion, Jinshi was walking through the hallways of his residence, on his way to his bedroom. It was quite late already, and the now completely silent house was immersed in darkness, illuminated merely by the dim light of a candle he was carrying in his hand to shine his way. He rubbed his eyes as he walked, shuddering slightly at the thought of the mountain of paperwork that would await him yet again the next day, never seeming to get any smaller.

Eager to have at least the most important tasks finished before going to sleep, he had completely lost all sense of time, and, before he knew it, it was already night. Great, wasn't it? He had been overworking himself once again, even though he had promised Maomao to take better care of his health and to get enough rest. Urgh! She would notice his state right away, that was sure. He could almost hear her sigh in disapproval and see her look at him like at a disgusting slug that was crawling before her feet and leaving behind a trace of slime. Or maybe a worm. Jinshi caught himself thinking that he wouldn't mind that in the slightest and was actually even looking forward to it. A bit. But not because he was a masochist, of course not! He was just tired of the dreamy gazes he was getting from all the other women (and also some men), who were stunned by his appearance.

Speaking of Maomao... now that he thought about her, he realized he had barely seen her all day. Had she been busy with mixing up some medicine again or gathering herbs? Or did his merciless attendant Suiren perhaps bury her under a ton of chores?

"She really does sometimes work her almost to death, huh?" Jinshi muttered with a chuckle, turning the corner. But as soon as he did that, he was greeted by an unusual sight: there was something on the floor, leaning against the wall. He shone his candle at it with surprise and discovered that it was not something, but rather someone...

"Maomao!" he gasped, suddenly wide awake, rushing to her side and kneeling beside her, his mind blank from panic. The candle almost fell out of his trembling hand.

The girl was sitting on the floor, her eyes closed and her back against the wall. His first thought was a horrible supposition, a fear he had since the first time he had seen her ingest poison: that she would one day accidentally give herself a lethal dose of something. Because no matter how immune and resilient her body might be, she was still human and poison was poison. A large amount would be able to kill even her.

Trying to think what to do and wondering if he could perhaps still save her by making her vomit it out, he suddenly perceived the gentle movements of her chest and looked closer. Then he froze for a second and carefully placed his ear against her chest: she was breathing and her heart was beating. She was definitely alive.

Just sound asleep.

He relaxed his tense muscles, lowered his head, sighed and almost laughed out in relief, but managed to control himself at the last moment.

Sleeping on the bare floor in the hallway... only Maomao was able to pull off something like that. Was she really so tired she couldn't even reach her bed? He couldn't say he was very surprised, though, as he was already used to her odd personality.

Now being completely calm once more, he took a look at her freckled face again. So it had really been a long and hard day for her too, hadn't it? What an irony: scolding him for overworking, but then doing the same to herself.

As his gaze and mind got lost in her relaxed features, he ran his large hand over her cheek, brushing his thumb over it, unconsciously but still careful to not wake her up. It felt kind of strange being able to do that so freely, without her flinching from his touch or perhaps cast him a glare that would make a few ladies-in-waiting freeze with fear.

His mouth twisted into a smile. Seeing her like that, he had to admit that she was really cute. Well, to be honest, he had found her cute almost from the very beginning, even despite her rather plain-looking face, but now, sleeping so peacefully, she was it more than ever.

Looking so small and vulnerable... Jinshi realized that her petite body was making him want to protect her... even though she had already proven to him during more than one occasion that she was neither fragile nor delicate. And better shouldn't be underestimated.

Jinshi grinned at the memory of the cacao-aphrodisiac she had made for him back then. Neither him nor anyone else present could believe their ears when she told them that the leftover chocolate was supposed to be her snack! Not to count all the times she had ingested things that shouldn't be ingested willingly and even seemed to enjoy it. First, he had thought that there might be something wrong with her head, but then realized that she was completely sane, that this was simply how she was.

Yes, Maomao was, indeed, absolutely unique, so unique he was sure he would never meet anyone else like her as long as he lived. Though a bit ashamed of this, he was a bit thankful to the ones who had kidnapped and brought her to the Rear Palace, for she would probably never have crossed his way otherwise.

He spotted some herbs lying on her lap and stuffed them into her sleeves where they had surely fallen out of (no, he had no clue what these herbs were and didn't even want to know) and then just kept sitting next to her quietly, watching her sleep and forgetting over it about time and his own fatigue that was waiting to attack him with full force again. It was kind of hypnotizing.

Until she suddenly sneezed in her sleep, a sound that broke through the silence of the night and almost made him jump. Just now he realized that it was, indeed, quite chilly in the hallway, so he probably shouldn't let her sleep there any longer or she might catch a cold.

He placed the candle together with its holder on the floor, got up and then bent down in order to gently lift her into his arms. After that, he stood there for a few more seconds, making sure she was still fast asleep, and then started to walk, heading to her room in order to place her into bed, imagining on the way what kind of face she would make if she were to wake up in that exact moment. The candle was left behind, since he didn't have a free hand to take it with him.

But it didn't stay there very long: as soon as Jinshi had left, Gaoshun emerged from a corner and picked it up, wondering whether his master would have trouble finding his way in the darkness carrying Maomao in his arms.

He had casually stumbled over that peaceful scene before as he had been heading through the hallway as well and decided to stay hidden, feeling that it wasn't right to bother the two of them.