'When is your baby going to be born? '

Maomao stands holding a stack of invitations in the parlor of Verdigris House, staring at Pairin in confusion. Everyone at the palace is talking, but Maomao only knows that because Jinshi told her. She never has any idea about what anyone is gossiping about because she doesn 't want to know.

The fact that Verdigris House has also been taken by the rumor that she is pregnant is odd.

She 's sure if she does get pregnant sooner rather than later, everyone will just think they were right, and while she doesn 't want to give them that pleasure, she also wants to get that pleasure. From the Imperial Amphibian.

The weirdest thing about reaching the stage of adulthood that involves sex is that so much of her time was spent worrying about when and how to have sex, and now she can just have it whenever.

Maomao asked the prince a lot of questions about the conditions he would be willing to enjoy sexual relations with her:

If she is in the mood and he 's asleep?

'Wake me up. '

Early in the morning?

'Yes, please. '

In places beside the bedroom?

'Don 't tease me like that. '

What about really inappropriate places?

She walked past his office on her way to leave the palace and thought, 'the amphibian is in there ' and five minutes later, she was on her knees under his desk.

Best of luck to the prince who needs to focus very hard and get a lot of work done today.

But also, she thinks he might have some sort of degradation kink because she kind of remembers now that at the beginning, her disgusted glares really seemed to do something to him. Like, he was sending her signals, and she was sending him signals, and they were not being received as intended by the target.

She was disgusted by his fascination, and he was fascinated by her disgust. A few perfectly mundane adventures later, and now she 's passing out wedding invitations and hoping he impregnates her. All perfectly normal. This must be how everyone falls in love.

But anyway.

Maomao says, 'Why do you all think I 'm already pregnant? '

Pairin answers, 'Lihaku told us. '

'He did? '

'Sometimes, whenever I touch him, he just starts telling me things. I think some of them might be secrets. Where the troops are, how many feifas the army has, where they hide secret 'catches?...of gunpowder. '

'Caches. '

'Yes, that was the word, ' Pairin answers.

Lihaku has now risen to an extraordinary rank for his age and is a rising star. Maomao and Jinshi were actually just talking about him earlier that day because the prince has to find a new primary attendant for when he becomes an

unprince

.

Pairin does her best to explain that whenever she pleasures Lihaku he basically expels everything he is holding inside of his brain, regardless of whether or not that information is valuable.

While Pairin has probably been told enough to overthrow the government, she lacks motivation to do so and probably has not retained any of this information. Pairin is a simple woman and only really wans a few things in life and sowing government discord is fortunately not one of them, although Maomao thinks she could make an army march for her if she ever wanted to.

'There 's no baby? ' Pairin says.

'No baby. '

Pairin pouts. 'Well, there should be. '

'Working on it. '

'Lihaku says he heard the emperor and Kan Lakan talking about it. I assumed he was telling the truth because how could the emperor be wrong? ' she asks.

Maomao answers, 'Very easily, actually. You cannot believe how wrong the emperor can be. '

'Is it against the law for you to say that? '

'Probably. I forget how people who have never interacted with those people think about them sometimes, ' Maomao says, wondering what it would be like to be an average person who believes the country is being run by sane and wise individuals who exercise excellent judgement at all times.

Maomao looks back to yelling at the emperor and throwing food at him and wonders how often anyone has behaved that way toward him. They all accepted they deserved it, so it was fine. And it 's not like the Ma clan attendants did anything to stop her. If anyone else started talking crazy to the royals or throwing food, Gaoshun would have drawn his sword on them.

Pairin says, 'You said you 're working on it. Does that mean our little Maomao has become a woman? '

'Yes. '

' 'So? '

She asks, 'You want details? '

'As many as possible. '

Maomao dishes.

Pairin giggles at Maomao 's explanation of things, and says, 'Oh my. He sounds impressive. I don 't think you would loan him to your big sis for an evening. '

'He would be so confused. And perhaps I don 't want to share. But it is very ugly. '

'Oh, they all are. '

'Really? '

Joka enters and says, 'I don 't even need to ask what you 're talking about to know. Yes. They 're all ugly. '

'All of them? '

Joka explains, '

Men

are ugly. If you had a thousand of them, and you started to undress them one article of clothing at a time, maybe one out of ten would look better partially exposed than fully covered. And once you got them down to the last piece of clothing, exactly none of them would become more attractive by removing that last bit of cloth covering their male hideousness. '

It's worth noting that Joka hates men, and when Maomao was young, she wondered how a woman who was a courtesan could hate men. Then she spied on her once as a young child and saw Joka stomping on a man, telling him he was a pile of shit that deserved to be punished.

She thinks that Jinshi has a very mild case of whatever

that

is.

Pairin says, 'It 's really fine if they 're not nice to look at. They 're fun to play with, and that 's all that really matters. '

Joka answers, 'As long as you make sure the man knows you 're disgusted. '

Maomao wonders if she 's more of a Joka than a Pairin?

Pairin tells Joka, 'Maomao says there 's no baby. Yet. But our sweet Maomao is a woman now.

'I could tell from how you 're walking, Maomao. You have the confidence of a woman that has absolutely ruined a man. I 'm proud, ' Joka answers, giving her a pat on the head.

Maomao nods. 'Yes, the ruination has happened. Successfully. '

Gaoshun noticing her walking a little unsteady the morning after because of the frog, and Joka noticing her walking confidently seem like two sides of some very weird coin. She 's noticed that Jinshi seems much bolder and more confident too.

Maybe sex really is as good as everyone says it is after all?

Maomao holds out a printed invitation. 'This is an invitation to my wedding day after tomorrow. You need this invitation to get past the gate. I understand if you can 't come, obviously. It 's short notice, after all. '

'A wedding? Our little Maomao? '

'Yes. '

While Maomao wasn 't sure if she cared about any sort of ceremonial thing, she tried on the dress Gyokuyou bought for her, and now she 's kind of excited. It 's so pretty. Despite not being a super girly girl who has ever fantasized a lot about a wedding, there 's something about a wedding gown that made her feel very happy.

Maomao says, 'It 's just a ceremony, and a banquet. Supposedly there are not going to be a lot of people, but there are signs things are getting out of hand. '

'Are there going to be a lot of rich potential clients? ' Joka asks.

'Yes, but the ceremony is in a shrine, if you could maybe put your tits up for the night. Or at least for the shrine part. If you devour men at the banquet, that 's their fault, ' she answers.

Joka puts her hands on her chest and says, 'I heard the emperor likes a woman who has been blessed. '

'He 's the emperor. He won 't touch a woman another man has ever breathed on, ' Maomao answers.

'Well, that 's picky. '

Maomao answers, 'I don 't know that he 'd be interested in the kind of love you offer, Joka. He 's only ever been with silly little virgins. If you broke out your whip, he 'd probably scream for his attendant. '

Poor Gaoshun

! Even in her imagination, he suffers. If he had to rescue the emperor from a whip-wielding Joka? She 'd probably tried to whoop both of them because she 's an ambitious girl. It would be such a terrible and awkward misunderstanding.

But who knows?

Gaoshun seems like someone who enjoys a plain bowl of rice, but Maomao has heard men like that are the spiciest. She makes a mental note to give his wife some of the shiny black candies she made. Half gift, half vengeance for dragging her across the Outer Court like a carpet.

Mischief pleases her, for she is a cat.

Somewhere, Gaoshun is eating his lunch in peace and feels strangely disturbed for a moment. It 's almost like catching a whiff of sulfur from the proverbial volcano, and he wonders if he 's losing his mind.

Maomao spends much of the early afternoon at Verdigris House, catching up with everyone, and upon returning to the palace, still has a few invitations to pass out. While she could have entrusted someone else to do this for her, she kind of enjoys seeing people 's faces when they find out she 's getting married.

The way no one at all seems surprised is surprising?

Since the most common response to this is 'about time! ' she wonders if everyone has just been in the world with her, seeing her every day, knowing she was going to get married to Jinshi someday while she thought she was very good at keeping her feelings a secret?

Have she and Jinshi actually been very bad at keeping their private business private?

(YES.)

Unfortunately, the current apothecary, future wife, and frog tamer has a few more invitations to pass out, and so she approaches the Grand Commandant in the courtyard where he is as always sitting around drinking juice and being a public nuisance.

This recent debacle has left her wondering how busy the most powerful people in Li actually are, because it really seems like the absolute top tier in the hierarchal structure is not busy and then the layer under that is just dead from exhaustion.

Probably standard in management structures, now that she thinks about it.

'My precious petunia! '

Maomao frowns. 'When did you decide to start calling me that? '

'It just came out when I was upset about that little misunderstanding and it seems to suit you. '

Petunias are actually very exotic flowers, but they 've found favor among the upper class of Li. A generation ago, no one here would have known what a petunia is. They 're pretty and reasonably tolerate the climate, so they 're sort of invading the palace.

'How am I like a petunia? Like, specifically. If I started calling you a rubbish bin, you would want to know why, and I would tell you it 's because you 're just a container full of trash. '

He smiles and says, 'Because petunias are my favorites. They make the world a lovelier place, just like my sweet daughter. '

'Ugh, ' she stares at him in utter disgust as she throws a stack of invitations for him and few others in their clan, 'And also, don 't threaten to murder the emperor. That 's how misunderstandings happen. '

Lakan is surprised that Maomao found out, and he wasn 't sure whether or not he wanted her to know. Well, now she knows how much her Papa loves her, and it is a lot. And he has an invitation to watch his little girl get married.

After she continues to glower at him, Lakan smirks. 'There was no misunderstanding. I made sure that man knew no one in this world can stand between my daughter and her happiness. I 'm excited for you to be closer to the clan. '

'It was marginally better than dying alone. I 'm still going to avoid you and call you bad names when that fails, ' she answers.

'You 'll still be my perfect little petunia. '

Relentless men are so exhausting, she decides as she groans and leaves. There 's an adage in her mind about women choosing men who are like their fathers, and Maomao has tried to figure out if Jinshi is like Luomen, but he 's not. In any way. She refuses to consider the other possibility, especially since she 's still trying to accept a universe where the Old Fart enthusiastically accepts the Frog Prince as his son in law.

Now she has to find some other way to disappoint Lakan. What 's left for a woman to do? She could get some tattoos or take up alcoholism, but considering her tolerance, that would get expensive fast.

Then again, she is marrying the future Prime Minister, so they 'll probably be able to avoid some embarrassing vices.

It seems like her original plan when she was first brought to the palace as a kidnapping victim to wash laundry and be as irrelevant as possible has not worked out.

Marrying into the noble class is an annoyance, like being born into the noble class, which she attempted to deny. There are probably worse inevitabilities than being expected to dress well and behave.

The Prime Minister is just a powerful civilian, and there are no laws about what she can or cannot do, so she plans on continuing to work in the infirmary. The rude Other Doctor wants to institute a rule that married women can 't see patients with contagious diseases since many contagious diseases can endanger a pregnancy.

Luomen agrees, and she 's pouting about it.

It feels like a rule made very specifically just for her. Because it was.

If she accidentally contracted the plague from a patient, the Prime Minister would be mad though, so there 's that. And probably, she also doesn 't want to be pregnant and have the plague. One at a time seems like enough.

Jinshi leaving the imperial family probably won 't change his day to day life very much. They 're moving into the Prime Minister 's Residence, which as never been lived in because the emperor built it for Shishou who obviously decided to die instead. Then there have only been short acting prime ministers since then. It 's actually bigger than the house where he actually lives now.

Being mistress of a large house sounds annoying, and like a job she doesn 't want. She wants to joke to him that he should marry someone who likes that sort of nonsense and keep her as a concubine, so she doesn 't have to deal with it. She knows not to tell that joke because the last time she suggested another woman to him he choked her and she just pretends that never happened because what the hell, Jinshi?

Being with him means this sort of life.

It wasn 't like he was going to quit the family and join her in pretending to be a commoner.

The emperor was being generous, gifting them a country estate, tons of money, and so forth, in addition to elevating the La clan. Since the La clan was going to hold the top civilian and military offices, that was quite a big deal unless one knew that Jinshi wouldn 't do the Old Fart 's bidding.

Most of the household attendants that work for Jinshi now will simply be moving to the other place too. And on a day-to-day basis, Jinshi will basically be doing the same work.

Leaving the imperial family for him mainly means escaping from expectations and ceremonial stuff, and the weird, twisted politics of the royals.

It 's mainly going to be a change for her, who lives in a tiny apartment, and has gone through various small rooms over the course of her life.

It is what it is. If she wanted Jinshi, some of this was never avoidable.

She 's going to get married in two days and they 're going to escape to their country estate for a couple of weeks, which is a nice perk not usually enjoyed by commoners. She will spend five of those days menstruating, but the world isn 't perfect.

Maomao refuses to acknowledge the hypocrisy that she loves eating rich food, occasionally wearing rich clothes, and having rich perks, but still bemoans the idea of rich life.

On no, a girl of noble birth married a man of noble birth, who has a high ranking position in the government. What an unexpected outcome. That 's definitely never happened before.

Externally, most people are not aware of the Great Misunderstanding. It 's not like Maomao could put out a public announcement to let people know she wasn 't already pregnant, but would hopefully be soon. And if she was going to make an announcement, what? Hang a notice on a bulletin board that she 's letting the Moon Prince use her vagina to empty his man bags several times a day?

To the gossip class, there was a rumor that she was pregnant, and now there are whispers of a very quick wedding. This seems to confirm the rumors rather than alleviate them, and if she does get pregnant soon, if she has a baby close enough after the wedding, people are going to 'I told you so ' quietly over tea.

If she doesn 't, they 'll probably assume something sad happened.

Either way, her future child is definitely going to overhear at some point that his or her parents had to get married in a hurry because of a pregnancy scandal, and she will someday have to explain the Great Misunderstanding, about how Grandpa Fart and Sun Uncle are just dummies.

As she is walking back to the prince 's home where her things are mostly packed since they were moved from her place, but their things are going to be moved again in a few days, she considers what to pack for her honeymoon.

She finds the trunk with the lingerie in the bedroom, open, the tiny little garments spread out all over the place.

Jinshi is staring, contemplative, and Maomao marches in and says, 'Were all your underwear in the wash or something? '

He holds the beaded bottom up. 'I need to see you in this right away. '

'You already have. I was wearing Gaoshun 's robe on top of it though. '

A gasp escapes from his mouth as he ponders the fact that she yelled at him while secretly wearing the sexiest, cutest little thing. 'Will you put it on for me? '

'After I have my bath tonight. Maybe. I 'll think about it. '

Jinshi reaches for silky top. 'What about this? '

'Might be a little small for you. You 'd look good as a scantily clad woman. The frog is a problem. He seems a big fat for the tuck maneuver. '

'He cannot be tucked, Maomao. '

Maybe it would be fun to do anyway, she decides, and as she daydreams of this strange little debauchery, he glares at her.

So what if she wants to see the frog constrained by little silk, perhaps a fine brocade, desperate for freedom? Maybe she could tie that fat ugly frog up with some pretty ribbon?

He says, 'You 're thinking of something very perverted. I can tell just from your face. '

'Like you aren 't? '

'Of course I am. I discovered my wife-to-be has a trunk full of naughty things, but I think we are having very different fantasies, because one of us isn 't normal, ' he answers.

Maomao lets out her villainous laugh. 'You 're right. You 're weird, but it 's okay. I don 't mind. '

While she wants to be annoyed that he decided to go through her things, their personal lives are in the process of being melted together in a rather permanent way, and those things are for impressing him. The difference she feels about him violating her personal space and privacy now is different since they both know the frog is going to treat her to a free organ rotation before she sleeps.

She says, 'Anyway, have you decided who your chief attendant is going to be? '

'Probably Lihaku. '

'I think that, if he accepts the posting that you should buy Pairin out for him. As a reward for him committing to your service. '

'That seems reasonable. '

She 's not going to tell him it 's because Lihaku has loose lips with Pairin. As long as he 's doing his emotional catharsis and bearing of truths at home alone with Pairin, there 's no problem. It 's only a problem if he 's doing it loudly at the Verdigris House.

The prince pauses and then hesitates, and then asks, 'Pairin breastfed you, right? That 's a thing she can do. Do you think he 'you know? '

'A lot of Pairin 's clients call her Mommy. '

'Is there a market for that? '

Maomao asks, 'For horny, perverted men with lots of money who have issues related to or caused by their mothers? For those who need Mommy, there 's Pairin. For those perverts who need to be told they 're disappointing and need to be spanked, there 's Joka. They represent both types of Mommy Issues. '

He plops down on the bed. 'I don 't have any mother issues, so I 'm not some sort of weird freak. '

Maomao thinks there is roughly an eighty percent chance this man doesn 't know whose body he crawled out of to enter the world. It 's okay. He 's fine.

But he would be finer if the fat, ugly amphibian was tucked neatly behind a little lace, or tied with a pink ribbon, or otherwise restricted in a very cute way.

'The darkness just crept back into your eyes. I saw it, ' he says.

Jinshi still owes Maomao, because she very unexpectedly walked into his office, said very little to him besides insulting his penis, performed fellatio while sitting under his desk, and just walked out. No explanation was given for this, and it felt like a strange dream which he liked very much, but he did not have a productive day at work.

He kept thinking about her cute little face under the desk, but he knows his cat is on

such

a power trip because he 's so willing. He doesn 't care about the time, place, or reason.

When Maomao starts putting the lingerie away, he whines. 'Maybe we could just leave it out? I just want to look at it. '

'Nope. Someone will come here and think you 're even weirder than you are. Maybe not as weird as Lihaku, but 'peculiar. '

He asks, 'Maybe, you could put on a show tonight and show me all your little outfits. '

'All at once? Such avarice. '

'I love seeing you in new outfits. I think you don 't understand what that is like for a man. You are just wearing clothes. To me, it 's something magical. '

'In what way? '

The future unprince says, 'Whenever I see you looking new or different, my brain paints an exact picture of you. A singular Maomao. I remember all the Maomaos. Cute laundry girl Maomao, Garden Party Maomao, Western Capital Ball Maomao, Under Desk Bad Secretary Maomao 'there are so many. I even have Wounded Maomaos that I remember to encourage myself to be a better person. I care for all my little Maomaos. '

'Have you been insane all this time? ' she asks.

He answers, 'I think that all men think this way, except most have all kinds of women in their collection and mine are all Maomaos. '

' 'and you are sure this is normal. '

'I am certain. This what a man 's mind is like. '

Maomao says, 'How bizarre. And oddly unbelievable. '

'I know you used to do sixteen fake freckles, and then you decreased it to twelve after you went home the first time and then increased it back to sixteen in the Western Capitol, and then went down to ten when we returned. Now you 're not doing any, but all of my Maomaos are historically accurate and have the correct number of freckles. '

Somehow, she thinks she may have underestimated how obsessed this man actually is with her. He counted and tracked the number of freckles on her face like some ancient shaman looking at the stars to predict good or bad fortune. This is actually accurate information, which meant as far back as when he gave her his hairpin at the Garden Party, he was already creating these little monstrosities in his mind.

This man 's brain is basically just a giant rodent cage, except instead of being filled with rats, it is infested with these effigies of her that he created out of his affections and that 's just very odd to her.

Maomao asks, 'What do your little Maomao 's do for you? '

'I mean, it 's my mind. They do whatever I want them to do. '

'Perverted stuff? '

'You would be offended if I told you I never fantasized about you. But also nice stuff! Whenever I 'm tired and alone, I think about having a Sleepy Maomao with me so I can rest, or maybe an annoyed Maomao to tell me to keep working. '

Maybe Maomao has just never thought about how men 's fantasies actually work or how potent they are. Obviously, there is a difference in how women go about attraction and how their inner workings are set up.

Maomao puts her hands on her chest. 'Do you like this Maomao better than the old versions? '

'I like all my Maomaos. Hair up, hair down, breasts up, breasts down, fancy dress and behaving, naked and feral from lust. All Maomao 's are precious to me, and I cherish them all. Like different facets of a glittering gem. I want to meet them all. I 'm excited to meet Wife Maomao 's, and Mama Maomao 's someday. '

Maomao stands on her tiptoes. 'You 're deranged, but cute. To be clear, my mind is a much more normal and sane place. '

'Of course, my poison-obsessed princess. Nothing unusual going on in here, ' he says, putting his hands on her head.

'But anyway, I guess getting to see you grow and change in the future will be nice. Husband Jinshi is probably an all right guy. Dad Jinshi 'definitely a lovable idiot. I think you would be such an imbecile if you had a daughter. '

He flashes her the biggest, dumbest smile at the idea of little Meowmeows to go with Maomao. 'My brain would fall directly out of my head as intended by the gods. '

'Probably not a good idea. Your little delusions might escape and start running around like little mice, causing all kinds of mischief. '

'If there were tons of little Maomao 's running around, I would be so happy. I would take such good care of them all. '

Maomao answers, 'This mental imagery is wildly disturbing to me, the Actual Maomao. I would probably use the Maomao 's in medical experiments since they are technically little versions of myself. If I ate them, I wouldn 't be breaking any rules. '

'Monster! '

She asks, 'But I am curious. What is your favorite Maomao? '

Jinshi thinks for a moment. 'Well, Wet and Half Naked Cave Maomao is popular among my Maomao 's for no particular reason. '

'Of course. That time I almost died from drowning must have been so erotic for you. '

'You know what I 'm talking about. But normal Maomao 's? That day where we wore disguises and I pretended to be your servant. You had a light pink dress, with a dark pink jacket, and your hair was down with flowers in it. It was such a feminine and pretty look. I hold the Pink Maomao 's in very high regard. The light pink did something to me. High Ponytail Maomao does something bad to me. I can 't handle her. '

Jinshi vividly remembers a dress she wore several years ago, although Maomao herself has long forgotten anything about it. She can 't remember the color if asked or how her hair was styled, but apparently that version of herself from that day has persisted as a separate being inside of Jinshi 's brain, haunting him.

Perhaps she will get a light pink dress in order to make his little situation worse. She 's not sure if she should be trying to drive him further into the madness of his affections, but it seems like a fun thing to do.

Maomao has over the past couple of days felt a sort of tangible glee that makes her feel really good and also mildly nauseated at the same time. She thinks she might be experiencing a temporary state of intense joy brought on by life deciding to not be a disappointment.

Life is good. Is she happy? She considers whether this might be happiness: a slightly senseless man with a fat ugly frog who fervently wishes to meet every possible version of her that can exist so that he can hallucinate about them.

Maomao has no idea how to articulate her own feelings, but she is very much into these nice things she 's been feeling and wants to continue feeling them and for Jinshi to also feel them with her.

Despite being the woman in this relationship, she thinks she is least emotionally capable, but he doesn 't mind.

Maomao thinks she has inadvertently stumbled upon why some men are naturally monogamous. Surely, Basen only has Lishu 's running around in his head all day. He barely seems aware that other females exist on earth.

For a man who cheats on his lover, does it start like this, with a strange creature appearing among the wives, who will begin to invade his fantasies.

The emperor 's head is either a place of absolute chaos, or there 's nothing but Ah-Duo 's up there and everybody including Ah-Duo would be mad if that was the case.

Perhaps it is natural for men to simply collect things they like to look at, and rarely, one of them decides to fixate on one particular thing. 'I only want Maomao 's! And the other fantasies have to leave and may never return.

Maomao is kind of curious about whether that space was empty when the first Maomao was created or if there were other things there and the first Maomao banished them. And who was the first Maomao? What made him begin this strange act of infestation?

Their conversation is interrupted by Suiren, who comes to tell them dinner will be ready soon, and glimpsing the inappropriate garments spread all over the room, asks, 'Would you like me to pack those for the honeymoon? '

'Yes, please! ' Jinshi quickly says.

Maomao answers, 'I suppose. I think some of them might be a bit small for him but look how excited he is. '

Suiren laughs behind her sleeve, and the prince notes that it really seems like they 've been having a lot of little jokes at his expense lately.

The future mistress of the household is just grateful to Suiren that every morning, she has a hot bath waiting for her, because the servants apparently know she wakes up filthy every da. Being able to have a hot bath in the morning to wash the funk smell off is such a nice perk. Maybe nobility isn 't so bad.

But poor Suiren, having to tell the servants to prepare a bath, knowing her master and potentially grandson is such a filthy animal at night.

There are aspects of sexuality that are a little hard to just sort of accept for Maomao. People know they 're living together and about to get married, so basically, she just moves about in a world full of people who know she is getting fucked. It 's not awkward when it 's other people; she worked in the rear palace and everyone knew what was going on back there.

But talking to her dad and knowing he knows is just so awkward.

The 'blushing bride ' isn 't blushing because she is happy; she is blushing because it 's awkward to talk to people who knows she 's getting dick now and the purpose of a wedding is evidently to celebrate that with everyone.

'Will there be pitter patter of little feet soon ' was a frequent question she heard while passing out the wedding invitations. How is she supposed to answer that?

'Yes, I get pumped so full of semen every night that it oozes out of me into a pool while I sleep and I can 't join polite society until I 've had a bath. '

But for now, dinner.

Jinshi still hasn 't repaid Maomao for not helping him with his office work, but he got carried away when he saw the lingerie, and now they have to eat, but what he really wants is to

eat

.

They 've only been properly cohabitating for a few days, but so far, he 's in heaven. Even though she has lived on the same property as him, it 's very different for her to be there as his woman.

Having meals together makes him feel so warm and happy. Going to bed with her, having sex, falling asleep snuggled up, waking up and getting ready for the day together, sharing meals 'he 's almost incomprehensibly happy and he can tell she 's genuinely sharing that as well.

After they finish eating, she retires to her private bath to find the beaded lingerie set out for her, surely at the prince 's request.

How demanding

.

Maomao takes her bath, puts her hair up into the highest ponytail, higher than any of the High Ponytail Maomaos he has seen before. Heavy, dark eye makeup, blush, red lips, dangling gold earrings, the new perfume he bought her, and then the red silky, gold beaded lingerie.

The trunk has relocated itself to the storage room adjacent to her bath during dinner, and she digs through it for two gold fans.

Jinshi waits patiently, sitting on the edge of the bed.

When she dances across his field of vision with her little fans and her outfit, her high ponytail and sexy eyes and shiny red lips, his brain temporarily stops working.

Tiger Goddess Maomao has manifested.

'M-Maomao?! '

He reaches out, and she swats him with the fan. 'I didn 't say you could touch, did I? '

She spins as he sits on the edge of the bed with such force that her very high ponytail that is almost too hot for him to bear whips him right in the face.

Of course, Jinshi loves to be teased. He loves it until he reaches his limit, and then he 's going do what he 's going to do. So, she teases, but she knows they 're just counting down the little taunts before he throws her down on the bed.

But she 's so beautiful, dancing around in her little beaded outfit, with almost all of her skin showing, the beads clattering together to make a sort of music as she twirls with her fans.

When he reaches out to grab her as she passes him again, she lightly swats his hand away with a fan again.

To him, she 's like a cat rolling around in the sun, presenting her belly, but slapping him with her paw every time he tries to touch it.

Jinshi gives her a rather sweet little smile that says he 's going to let her have her fun, but they both know the exact moment that he has been teased enough, she will know.

Maomao loves watching his eyes as his self-control and patience slowly evaporate.

After letting her do her little dance and being swatted two more times, he growls, 'Maomao, have you been a goddess all this time? '

She holds a fan, covering the lower half of her face.

'I 'm just a lowly peasant girl, ' Maomao says, eyes cast down.

'Okay, but can I still eat your pussy? ' Jinshi asks, flashing a devilish grin.

Maomao answers, 'What 's in it for me? '

'I will make your thighs shake. '

She considers this but counters, 'What if I just pleasure myself and don 't let you touch? I 'll let you watch. '

Does he absolutely want to watch her touch herself? Yes. But he also doesn 't wish to be excluded from the fun. He can 't threaten her in kind because him jerking his fat cock off in front of her is objectively not as nice to watch. Best case scenario, she might laugh at him and remind him that it 's ugly, which he does like. Meanwhile, she 's just pretty all over and he doesn 't think that 's fair.

A goddess has appeared before him, so it 's only reasonable that he might worship at her altar.

When she twirls by him, he grabs her by that high ponytail and gently holds her in place so he can bite her neck.

And suddenly, a knock.

Suiren 's voice calls through the door:

'My apologies, the emperor has come to request an audience with you. '

The prince answers, 'Tell him I died! '

'Of course. I 'm certain he 'll be sad to hear that. Should I tell him you will be alive again in the morning to receive his company? ' the old woman asks.

'Yes, that is fine! '

Suiren suppresses a bit of a laugh as she turns and returns to the living room where the emperor is waiting to visit with Jinshi.

'The prince regretfully informs you that he is currently deceased, but will be alive again in the morning if you would like to meet at that time, ' she says.

Emperor Yang looks out an open window, confused.

'How unfortunate that he has died, but I suppose I 'll return in the morning once his condition has improved. But really, they 've retired for the night? The sun hasn 't even set? '

'They enjoy an early dinner and retire early in the evening, ' Suiren answers.

While he was wrong about everything, the emperor thinks he was also right about everything: Maomao is a greedy woman. He feels a bit like a prophet, really.

Everyone blames him for the Great Misunderstanding, but he just got the sequence of events wrong. He 's sure she 's going to be pregnant

and

greedy very soon at the rate they 're going.