Maomao/Relationships

## Family

### Luomen

Maomao's adoptive father and mentor in herbal medicine, Luomen is a strong positive influence for Maomao due to his gentle nature and knowledge of medicine; she in turn loves and respects her father and always seeks to uphold his teachings. Whilst solving mysteries, she always considers which conjectures she should say aloud, since saying assumptions without evidence is against Luomen's teachings.

Though she respects him, Maomao recognizes Luomen's faults; she realizes that he is bad with money and does not like the way that he lets people pressure him into helping them, since it is because of these two traits that he lived in a shack in the red light district, despite being a renowned physician.

### Madam

Though she is constantly exasperated by the Madam due to her miserly nature and desire to make Maomao a courtesan, Maomao considers the Madam her "granny" and part of her family at the Verdigris House.

### Three Princesses

The Three Princesses helped raise Maomao before she was adopted by Luomen, and Maomao calls them her sisters. Pairin in particular was Maomao's wet nurse, and though she calls Pairin her sister, Maomao believes that she is closer to a mother than a sister to her.

She has a clear grasp of her sisters' preferences and cares deeply about their well-being and happiness, going as far as to evaluate Lihaku in order to determine whether he was suitable for Pairin.

### Fengxian

Maomao was hated by her biological mother, who lost her career due to pregnancy; her mother went as far as to cut off the tip of Maomao's finger and send it to Lakan, who had been absent for three years while Maomao was being born and raised. In the light novel, Maomao treated Fengxian's ailing body at Verdigris House despite Fengxian's animosity towards her--though the medication had little to no effect since she was already in the final stages of syphilis. While not feeling affection for her, Maomao is grateful that she was born from her tryst with Lahan to be raised by Luomen.

## Imperial Family

### Jinshi

While she acknowledges his extraordinary beauty, Maomao is one of the few people in the series to be unaffected by Jinshi's charms. Because of their master-subordinate relationship, she takes care to wear a thin veil of respect towards him, and always avoids blatantly disobeying him; however, she finds both his attention-grabbing looks and his clinginess towards her to be bothersome. She tends to express her aversion towards him through body language; for example, she often looks at him with an expression that people describe as the way someone would look at a bug.

She frequently partakes in an exchange with him in which she solves mysteries for the court and he provides her with rare medicinal herbs and poisons.

Despite her outward irritation towards the man, she cares about him to some degree--she was disturbed when she realized how self-sacrificial he could be for her sake, particularly when he was injured during the Shi Clan rebellion, and afterwards, encouraged him to use her rather than protect her. She was also indignant for his sake when his credit for helping to mitigate locust damage was stolen by Gyokuen. In the light novel, she saved him from being crushed underneath a metal bar during an assassination attempt, at the cost of injuring her own leg--though she was not aware that it was he who was being targeted at the time. She also did not mind being bought from Verdigris House by him and working for him in the Outer Court.

She is aware of, but pretended for a long time to be ignorant of, Jinshi's affections for her, and because of her unwillingness to disrespect him, she allows him to cling to her despite outwardly showing no signs of feeling the same way towards him. She continues to avoid a relationship with him for multiple reasons: his potential to become Crown Prince clashes with her loyalty to Gyokuyou and her son, and their difference in class continues to disturb her since she has no desire to affiliate with her high-born father (though Jinshi eliminated the first reason by branding himself with Gyokuyou's mark in the light novel).

### Emperor

He is aware of her due to her unique skill and knowledge. And compared to his public appearance, he is more laidback and willing to joke around her; much to Jinshi's dismay.

## La Clan

### Lakan

Maomao does not look kindly on Lakan, finding his clingy attitude bothersome and wanting to avoid him at all costs. It is implied that her distaste initially came from the fact that he abandoned Maomao and Fengxian (albeit unintentionally), leaving Fengxian to become a streetwalker and leaving Maomao to her mother's abuse. On the other hand, she is grateful that she was born from his tryst with Fengxian to be raised by Loumen.

### Lahan

Because she frequently saw him accompanying Lakan, she had a bad impression of him and was disappointed that they were so similar in looks.

## Inner Court

### Gyokuyou

After saving Lingli's life, Gyokuyou promoted Maomao to become her personal attendant and food taster. She feels a strong loyalty towards Gyokuyou and the rest of the attendants of the Jade Palace, and respects Gyokuyou for her gentle and easygoing nature.

### Lihua

She told Lihua about the poisonous face powder that was killing members of the Inner Court; when Lihua remained ill, Maomao caught the maid who had continued to give her the face powder and nursed Lihua back to health. She was surprised at the consort's gratitude towards her and began to respect her humble nature, finding it a trait worthy of an empress. She also gave Lihua advice in order to catch the Emperor's attention. Lihua gifted Maomao a kanzashi for her help, and the two continue to be on friendly terms, causing Maomao to feel slightly guilty since she is already with Gyokuyou.

### Loulan

She considered Loulan more or less a friend, and the two would chat together with Xiaolan during Loulan's escapades as "Shisui"; however, the realization that she was supporting the Shi Clan in rebelling against the country, followed by the reality that she planned to save her sister and family, caused Maomao to become deeply conflicted over Loulan's true nature. She was very troubled over her apparent demise.

### Quack Doctor

Though she instantly recognizes him as a fake, Maomao acknowledges that Guen has a pleasant personality. Until Luomen rejoins the Inner Palace, she does much of his work as an Inner Court physician, and she helps him with his family business's predicament.

### Xiaolan

Maomao sees her fellow inner court servant as an air-headed but earnest friend.