Rikuson is canonically ten years older than Maomao?!
I somehow totally missed this when reading the light novels the first time, but it makes his interactions with Jinshi so much funnier. Rikuson is truly Jinshi’s worst nightmare—a handsome older man with impressive skills and influence who proposes to Maomao. Meanwhile, Rikuson probably sees Jinshi as a kid and is having the time of his life rage baiting him and generally making him act silly over Maomao.
Like yeah that’s the face of someone close to 30 making fun of a lovesick teenage boy
After Maomao agrees to participate at the banquet as Lahan’s relative she returns to her room where she finds a tailor. She assumes it’s Lahan’s doing.
When the tailor leaves she sits on the bed where she obverves a box.
When she opens it she discovers a hair stick.
“For just a moment, she thought that somehow the silver hair stick she had never expected to see again had managed to return to her”
Maomao knows it’s from Jinshi because it looks very similar to the one he gifted her.
Maomao describes it as a “lovely piece, carved with the image of the moon and flowers-and poppies. Lovely, yes, but Maomao grinned as she realized what the poppies meant.”
Poppy seeds is Chinese Culture represent passion and deep love and Maomao knows it.
“She went ahead and put the stick in her hair, just because. Strangely, it felt rather fitting, and the way she continued to wear the accessory thereafter was perhaps rather unlike her.”
With the knowledge of who gave it to her and what it means she decides to wear it. She feels like it fits her and keeps wearing it which is “unlike her”-highlighting what a big deal this is.
At the banquet Rikuson remarks the hair stick and how beautiful it is.
Maomao is not ready or emotionally equipped to acknowledge its significance or talk about it so she makes up a reason why Rikuson might seem intersted in it which also solves the “mystery” of why some noble women were glancing at her hair.
“Maomao remembered she was still wearing the hair stick from the paulownia-wood box. It wasn’t flamboyant, but even the untutored eye could tell it was of fine make. Maomao had thought she’d detected the more well-bred young ladies in the room occasionally glancing, and now she understood why.”
The next night Lahan takes a dig at Maomao
“Well,” Lahan said, eyeing her. “They say clothes make the man, but apparently the same doesn’t go for women. At least some of them.”
“Shut up.”
Which trigger an unusual moment of insecurity in her.
“Maomao was dragging a heavy skirt behind her. The outfit, like the meal, was western-style, more or less. Not exactly the same-it hadn’t been possible to get something like that ready-but the silhouette, the overall look, was similar, including the bone hoop that went around her waist to puff out the skirt. It was also the style with western dresses to squeeze the waist and shop the top half of the cleavage for emphasis-but sadly, Maomao didn’t have much to show off, and lest she embarrass herself, she instead wore a long-sleeved top, submitting only to having her waist cinched about with a belt.
They did her hair too, somewhat; it was put up in a rather showy manner, but ultimately the stylists were limited by the material. It was better than it had been, perhaps, but it suffered by the truly resplendent comparisons present at the banquet. She looked like a stalk of shepherd’s purse among a field of roses and peonies.”
Maomao sees herself as inferior to these noble women appearence wise. She sees herself as an ugly plant while she compers them to beautiful flowers. She doesn’t want to show her cleavage to not emberass herself because she doesn’t have a big chest, it doesn’t matter what she’s wearing because in her head she’ll forever be lacking compared to them.
But.
There’s one thing that makes her feel better.
“Just one thing helped calm her in this otherwise unfamiliar and unsuitable ensemble: a fine silver hair stick.”
The hairpin calms her down because it’s proof that she has something these women don’t, but wish to have: a hairstick from the Moon Prince. She is the chosen one, they aren’t.
Later when Rikuson invites her to dance he tries to remind her that she’s not a “desinterest third party. Never forget the import of what you wear on your head.”
It wasn’t her choice to go to the Western Capital and she only reculantly agreed to participate at the banquet as a lady of the La clan because Lahan convinced her to, but to wear that hairpin was her decision, nobody else’s.
Some sentiments from the Apothecary Diaries cast [LN spoilers] that prove how much everyone loves Lahan ♥️♥️♥️
En'en: Lahan is an evil, ugly, scrawny, and worst of all SHORT bastard who's trying to steal my great mistress Yao's heart! What the hell is wrong with him?!
Yao: Good morning Lahan, my favorite person to freeload. I will stay in your house for 12 more months 👍
Lahan's Brother: Why does that dork have so many cute bachelor girls in his house??? I'm gonna kill him someday I swear
Maomao: Tousle-glasses—to whom I have no relation—is a money-grubbing, swindling, average-looking, pasty, uncommittal piece of trash. His shallow ass only cares about looks and money and social status. He loves his abacus more than human beings. No matter how much you love him, he will never love you back, he can only pretend. He will instantly leave you for a finer woman if it gets his numbers up. And worst of all, if you marry him, you will get the worst person ever as your new father in law. GET AWAY FROM HIM.
Sanfan: Yes, Lahan is a loser. Yes, he is a manipulative, greedy, selfish two-timing bastard who would gladly put another woman above me. Yes, he is a wimpy scrawny pathetic pale-skinned pitiful average little weakling who can't ride a horse or shoot an arrow or kick a ball or reach a high shelf. Yes, he is a piece of trash who's worthless apart from his brains. But he's my piece of trash who I will always love no matter what 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 now get the fuck out of our house @ yao
Rikuson: Lahan's a pretty neat guy, I like working with him yeah
Lakan: Hello son. I just drove our family deeper into debt again please fix it for me k thnx byeee
