Maomao

Maomao (猫猫マオマオ, Maomao?) is the main protagonist of The Apothecary Diaries series. After getting kidnapped and sold, she found herself working as a maid servant (and eventually a lady-in-waiting) in the Inner Palace of Li. There, she was able to make use of her sense of practicality, keen deductions and insightful knowledge of herbs and illnesses to solve the mysterious problems within the inner court. Maomao is a flat-chested and petite girl who is both scrawny and short and has freckles on her face. She has dark green hair and purple eyes (dark-blue eyes in the anime). As her preferred method of testing both poisons and remedies, her left forearm is covered extensively with self-inflicted scars and she usually keeps it wrapped in bandages. Maomao typically presents herself very plainly, wearing simple clothes and avoiding makeup save for freckles she paints around her nose. On the occasions she dresses up, she is considered gorgeous by many when effort is given with most failing to recognize her as the same person entirely.Although she normally wears an impassive expression on her face, she flushes, her eyes light up and she begins to smile whenever she is able to taste poison or interact with rare ingredients or medicines. Her main outfit consists of an aoqun hanfu with a light green top and a long, burgundy skirt. The inner layer of her top is white and the collar is pale and dark green. She also wears dark green flats. A light blue ribbon holds her hair back. Two strands of hair frame her face and are adorned with 2 beads each; the top one being red and the bottom one being sky blue. Maomao also has white bandages on her left arm, which conceal several scars she gained from her experiments with poisons and herbs. Maomao is a very pragmatic individual who is well aware of her position in the world as someone with no status and that she could be considered expendable at a moment's notice. While she has an intense curiosity and a sense of justice, she prefers to not get involved with the more dramatic parts of the royal court recognizing that it could easily prove more trouble than it's worth, though she is often dragged in.

She is also an extremely detached individual who avoids making any sort of close connection or deep attachment with the only exception being her adoptive father, Luomen. She finds the idea of romantic dreams foolish and silly as they are likely to lead to someone's ruin rather than happiness. Her cynicism towards romance is likely due to her exposure to the events in the red-light district. Maomao shares her father's side of the family's unique traits of having an astounding intellect, but odd personality.

A large part of her perspective is due to being raised in the red-light district where she never received true unconditional love; while she was well-loved by her, what she considers to be, "older sisters" who work in the brothel (known as the Verdigris House as the Three Princesses: Pairin, Meimei and Joka) Nevertheless, she came second to their job. Even "Madam" or "granny," as Maomao refers to her as, had no qualms about trying to force her into becoming a courtesan, despite being incredibly fond of the girl. As a baby, her cries would not be answered until her sisters completed their work for the day, so she eventually stopped crying and asking for help.[6] She herself has stated she does not believe she has the capacity to love somebody or let them get close to her. Her negative opinion of love is heavily influenced by her mother Fengxian; her mother had intentionally conceived Maomao with the patron she was in love with in order to bring her price down to one he could afford. However, he (seemingly) abandoned her and it forced Fengxian to work night service for the lowest paying patrons, which led to her getting syphilis.[7] What's more is that she took her anger and frustration out on Maomao, going so far as to cut her pinky off. Maomao came to view her mother as stupid and foolish for her actions.

Having been raised by the esteemed pharmacist Luomen, Maomao is fascinated by poison and herbs that she has a habit of experimenting with them to observe their effects, primarily on her own body. Due to her passionate love of poisons and her enjoyment when consuming them, she is considered strange, creepy or obsessed by many characters in the series — a trait she shares with many other members of the eccentric and uniquely talented La Clan. This obsession is a major motivation for her actions throughout the series as Jinshi learns to bait her to solve court mysteries with the promise of giving her rare medicines. Maomao's approach to life is very practical, focused on learning to survive in whatever way her environment demands her to and avoiding trouble. Being raised in the red-light district led her to develop exceptional street smarts. Calm, mature and sharp-witted, she is rarely tricked or charmed by others: she is one of the few to be unaffected by Jinshi's beauty and charm. Her mindset has helped her come to terms with matters that many would find concerning or even scarring: she considers her near-rape, and later her kidnapping, enraging situations, but also as inevitabilities of living in the red-light district.

As she has learned that her focus on survival and avoidance of trouble requires her to act with caution, she never acts rashly and follows commands without outward protest. In part because of her own self-preserving attitude, she finds people who will help others to their own detriment (e.g. Luomen and later Jinshi) painful to watch. Despite her awareness of the hardships of being low born, she believes that social hierarchy is the inevitable way of things, and that people of lower status should expect to be used and should be used, including herself. Despite her pragmatism, Maomao's insatiable curiosity often leads her to involve herself in the problems of others. It is also implied that she has a strong sense of justice, empathy and compassion, which makes it hard for her to ignore misdeeds and injustice once she has witnessed them. This has made her wish she could avoid seeing or hearing about certain things.[8]

While Maomao has an incredibly high intellect and ability to master anything with ease, this only applies to things she is interested in; she failed her court lady exam as she found the material boring and couldn't retain it.