It’s really not that hard to read between the lines
You don’t even have to read the light novels to be able to grasp the nature or underlying feelings of a character in TAD.
Maomao for instance. Through her socially-constipated yet brilliant quirks, viewers arrived at the conclusion that she’s probably autistic. Now, I’m not versed in that psychological department but I do know that she’s wise enough to understand behavioral cues.
From one interaction, she could tell Basen wasn’t fond of her, she could tell that Lishu was harassed by her ladies-in-waiting, she knew when her words had struck a nerve whenever she tried to taunt people and she was well-aware that she had to do damage control where necessary. However, I also found that she struggled to understand or react to matters of heart.
Gyokuyou gave her a hairpin and somehow, verbally, claimed ownership over her and she practically failed to understand the gravity of that proclamation. We saw how much she struggled to bid Loulan farewell. And the most pressing aspect: Jinshi. After recognizing that he had romantic feelings for her, she acknowledged that she wasn’t someone who knew what to do in that situation. And she mentally blocked herself from acknowledging that Jinshi liked her.
This is why I relate to her character so deeply, especially when it comes to love. Now, I’m not autistic and I’m not as traumatized as Maomao is but her fight or flight response to love and care is really normal in my mind’s eye.
Maomao was someone who grew up surrounded by women and who inevitably dreaded encounters with men, including her own father. She had tried desperately to hide away to the point where bad makeup provided temporary solution. I imagine what little tolerance she might have for men stemmed from her perceived belief that not all of them are bad people, thanks to her adoptive father, Luomen, and maybe even her real father, Lakan.
And this brings me to the most misunderstood character in the series: Jinshi, and his relationship with Maomao.
Jinshi the Eunuch was more or less an anomaly for Maomao. As we’ve seen in the show, most of her conjectures on various investigative matters turned out to be true. However, half the time, it wasn’t the same when it came to Jinshi.
She assumed he was someone who always had his way right from when he was little. He was this young master who curried favor from (more like slept with) the emperor and other high officials because of his immense beauty. He was nothing but a fine face. He was a hierarchy higher than whatever Matron used to be in charge of the laundry servants.
For the most part, her deductions weren’t unfounded. He had a mission to seduce her for intelligence sake and crossed personal boundaries quite a lot. But here’s the part most people tend to overlook: Maomao was not wary of him.
Her discomfort most definitely came from the fact that he was the first man to actually get on a personal level with her. They bickered a lot, conversed a lot and often revealed their sensitive sides to each other. Jinshi was her introduction to interpersonal male relationships (remember I’ve not read the novels so I don’t know if she played with other boys growing up) and this is why she passed through hurdles to come to terms with him and when she eventually did, we got glimpses of her wondering why he seemed younger than his age.
It’s quite unfortunate that some viewers ultimately chalk up his character to “some weird good-looking pedo/predator” without fully trying to understand why he was like that or trying to see other aspects of his behavior that ran contrary to that predatory outlook.
“He’s such a beast” but he never preyed on women in the emperor’s vineyard of servants and concubines.
“He’s a freak” but Maomao herself was fine with him buying her out of the brothel.
“He’s never been told no in his life” but we also see that he’s someone who acknowledges and learns from his mistakes (I call his apology after the waterfall scene)
Jinshi is essentially a flawed character on a journey to personal development. But some viewers can’t seem to see that he doesn’t remain on the island of douchbags as the story progresses.
Sometime back, I saw someone say that Maomao had no choice but to obey him because he could kill her and I wondered if it’s the same show we watched. OP even claimed that he never cared to consider Maomao’s feelings or opinions. I wonder if there’s a pirated version somewhere that these people are watching.
Jinshi doesn’t care about her opinion? Really? Here are some few instances I can remember right from the top of my head.
After being conflicted about whether or not to fire her, he asked for her opinion, and since Maomao wasn’t clear enough, he let her go with compensation. And you know very well that he never wanted to, and went into a depressive episode afterwards.
He sought her advice on ways to boost literacy amongst the servants. In fact, he always wanted her advice on other topics of interest. Maomao was a servant in ancient China. Putting her opinion on a pedestal was unheard of, and it shows you how much Jinshi valued her.
Again, he bought her out of the brothel after she consented to it.
He always tried to make things comfortable for her, even when she was sent on official missions. An example is her task to heal Concubine Lihua and this was way before he genuinely liked her.
Jinshi constantly asks her if she prefers life outside the palace because he wanted to settle for what she preferred.
He hated Lakan’s guts but still didn’t want to interfere in father-daughter business. So, he asked her if she wanted to meet him. After seeing her reaction, he understood how she felt about her old man. Later we saw him react strongly to Lakan’s wish to take her back.
He looks out for Maomao when her habits of self-harm become excessive.
Jinshi is entitled and spoiled but he's not terrible to the point that he would put his needs over others.
Maomao herself isn’t that innocent, damsel-in-distress character that’s constantly violated. She contradicts herself in most cases because her actions don’t match her thoughts. She’s not even a saint. She also has her moments of leading Jinshi on, but it’s always unrecognized.
I can’t even stress further how it’s pretty much in character for Maomao to not flat out reciprocate Jinshi’s feelings. Both of them need room to grow and understand each other’s personalities. Only then will I expect reciprocity on her part.
