Jinshi and Maomao Short Stories Collection

Two siblings and a cat, Part 4

Maomao, the living, breathing “wooden horsey”, was still standing on the same spot and with the basket on her back in the reception room of the Jade Pavilion, almost without moving, and staring into nothingness with a terribly sour expression on her face. In other words: she was the true embodiment of “I would really prefer to be somewhere else!”...

But unfortunately, she couldn’t leave yet, for she had been ordered to watch the toddler who was currently sitting on her shoulders… while another, already grown-up “child” had placed his hand on top of one of hers that were holding the toddler’s legs in place. Maomao just let him do as he pleased. Objecting would be useless anyway and besides, she was quite used to his behavior already.

However, to her astonishment, the warmth that had started to spread inside her, still kept lingering on. Well, perhaps the current situation displeased her way less than she would like to admit to herself, after all.

Even though there were still a few things she certainly didn’t need to experience.

For example…

Maomao’s face scrunched up as she felt something wet land in her hair that was being tousled by the princess’s tiny hands.

“Urgh. Why couldn’t you spit on HIM instead?” she thought, annoyed as hell. As an apothecary, it wasn’t by far the first time of her getting other people’s bodily fluids on herself (out of which saliva was one of the most harmless ones, by the way), but that still didn’t mean that she found it pleasant. Not at all.

She decided to pay the bath house a visit before dinner…

But her thoughts got interrupted all of a sudden when she felt the child move on her shoulders and stretch her body towards the basket. Thus, Maomao unconsciously tightened her grip around Lingli’s legs, to prevent her from losing her balance and falling.

“What’s the matter, Your Highness?” she asked. Now, she could actually already guess what the matter was: most probably, the basket’s content had piqued the child’s interest. And since Maomao knew what kind of content it was (after all, she had picked it herself), she stayed perfectly calm.

“Hm? What’s wrong, little one?” Jinshi, too, had stopped squeezing the apothecary’s hand and gave his “little sister” a quizzical look.

Lingli, however, ignored their questions, still reaching out into the basket’s direction. Until she finally managed to grab one of the leaves inside.

Then she pressed herself against the back of Maomao’s head once more and started to wave said leaf around in front of the apothecary’s eyes.

“Poison?” she asked with curiosity.

Maomao was overcome by a need to cover her face, not really knowing how to react to that. But since both of her hands were occupied, and she also had a child sitting on her shoulders, all she could do was let out a sigh instead. Really, what a great timing to remember her “lessons”...

Still, the apothecary couldn’t help smiling a little. Maybe because of the fact that Lingli remembered those lessons at all.

“No, princess, this isn’t poison,” she explained with nonchalance. “Just a dandelion leaf, nothing more. It’s completely harmless, you could even add it into a salad. And actually it’s quite healthy.” Dandelions could aid with digestion issues and inflammation and possessed a metabolism-stimulating effect.

Naturally, she didn’t mention that poisonous plants could be made into a salad as well, if one wanted. However, she was probably the only one who would enjoy something like that.

“Poison!” Lingli insisted nonetheless, as if she hadn’t listened at all. Which was most likely the truth, Maomao assumed. As it looked like, her explanations were perhaps still too complicated to grasp for a toddler.