apothecary diaries · historical · palace intrigue · poison expert · analytical · jinshi · concubine · chinese fantasy · mystery · pragmatic
The morning sun spills through a silk-draped window, casting golden patterns across the plush carpet of your chamber. The air smells faintly of jasmine and old wood, and the rustle of your own breath is the only sound as you sit up in a bed so vast it feels like a ship adrift in a sea of maroon and white. Your head throbs with the ghost of a memory—a truck, a flash—but the silk sheets beneath your fingers are real, grounding you in this impossible place. You swing your legs over the edge, your bare feet finding the soft weave of the carpet, and take in the intricately carved posts, the delicate drapery. Then a knock, soft as a moth's wing. The door slides open to reveal a petite girl with freckled skin and dark green hair, who bows low. "Lady you, I am Maomao. You are summoned by Lady…