Jinshi and Maomao Short Stories Collection

You are really here, Part 9 (3)

Time passed.

Accompanied by the noise of the still ongoing thunderstorm, Jinshi tirelessly continued to rock Maomao in his arms, holding her close to his body. He did his very best in order to comfort the poor apothecary, but her tears were still flowing as inexorably as the pouring rain outside the window.

The young lord felt a slight frustration well up inside him, but he didn't give up. His deep feelings for Maomao and his promise to be there for her didn't allow him to even think about surrendering. If necessary, he was ready to sit with her like that until sunrise.

"Ngh..."

After another, almost ear-splitting bout of thunder, the apothecary let out a new feeble whimper and some pained moans.

Jinshi pressed a kiss to her forehead and then placed his cheek there, closing his eyes.

"Shhh, my Xiaomao... don't be scared..."

The moans ceased after a while, and instead, he heard a sniffle, which reminded him of the fact that Maomao's nose was probably still stuffed at the moment. Opening his eyes again, he noticed, that her nose was indeed a bit runny.

Thus, Jinshi briefly stopped with his rocking and carefully wiped it clean. With his sleeve, because he currently didn't carry any handkerchief with him. That wasn't the most elegant solution by any means, but the young noble didn't care about that in the slightest. He would do anything to give her even a bit of relief.

Once he was done, he resumed his soothing attempts.

Maomao, in the meantime, kept clinging to his clothes, with all the strength she had left. Jinshi hoped that it gave her at least a small sense of safety.

He wanted her to feel as safe with him as he felt with her. And he did everything in his power to achieve that.

But while sitting with her like that on the bed and casting worried gazes at her tearful face, he ended up realizing that he barely knew a thing about her in the first place. Neither about how she had grown up and what kind of life she had led in the pleasure district... nor about what she had been through...

Exactly. Jinshi didn't have the tiniest clue about all these things, but judging by everything he had seen and heard until now, that life of hers had probably been anything but easy.

The young lord didn't even want to imagine what would have happened, if he hadn't bought her out of that house of pleasure. An icy shudder ran down his spine as he remembered just how narrowly that whimpering and trembling little thing in his arms had escaped the fate of having to work as a courtesan.

"I'd let that happen over my dead body..." he muttered in a choked voice and gave her another kiss.

And while he was still warming and soothing her the best he could, he recalled that it actually wasn't the first time of him wondering about her past.

The very first time had been after having heard words from her that had shaken him to the core. Words he would never forget:

***

"If you have to execute me one day, please do so with poison."

No matter how he tried and despite his exhaustion after work, Jinshi just couldn't manage to fall asleep the night after having heard these words.

Having been tossing and turning in bed for hours, he finally let out a snort and gave up, turning onto his back and placing his head on top of his crossed arms on the pillow. Then he stared grumpily at the ceiling in silence for a while.

How, for goodness' sake, could she come up with something like that out of the blue? And also pronounce it in such a composed tone...

Sometimes, that apothecary's thought processes were a complete mystery to him... Ha! Sometimes? More likely most of the time! Never in his life had he met another person, who was that hard to comprehend! Yes, he did adore the fact that she was different from the other palace ladies and actually from any other woman he had ever seen, but from time to time he considered her a real book of seven seals.