History Characters / TheApothecaryDiaries

* ChivalrousPervert: His enthusiastic fulfillment of his 'duties' in the rear palace, support of the 'instructional materials' Maomao supplies, and his open preference for women with a [[BuxomBeautyStandard certain endowment]] that Maomao personally lacks place him firmly in this territory. But he displays care for each of his concubines and tries to spend time with his young children, qualifying him for the chilvarous part. Maomao is surprised though when she finds out when he was still crown prince, he only had Ah-Duo as his one concubine.

* ChivalrousPervert: His enthusiastic fulfillment of his 'duties' in the rear palace, support of the 'instructional materials' Maomao supplies, and his open preference for women with a [[BuxomBeautyStandard certain endowment]] that Maomao personally lacks place him firmly in this territory. But he displays care for each of his concubines and tries to spend time with his young children rather than be a completely absentee parent, qualifying him for the chilvarous part. Maomao is surprised though when she finds out when he was still crown prince, he only had Ah-Duo as his one concubine.

* EmotionlessGirl: Unless she's geeking out over poisons or delicious food, Maomao's almost always calm and reserved. When she was still a baby she learned that crying wouldn't get her anything, since her sisters generally had to wait until their work was done before they could tend to her, and thus she thinks being emotional is generally a waste of time.

** In regards to her father [[spoiler:Lakan, she doesn't like him in part because of a horrible first impression that has stuck in her mind: the first time she saw him, he'd just been beaten bloody for showing his face again at the Verdigris House, and he was in crazed desperation trying to reach out to her after discovering she was his daughter. Ever since then, whenever Maomao thinks of "fear", his face is the first thing that pops up in her mind. She also finds Lakan's strong insistence on trying to get her to acknowledge him as her father and replace Luomen as her father figure to be extremely distasteful when she resolutely views Luomen to be her dad, given Luomen was the man who actually raised her. There is also a hint of jealousy involved, because Lakan is a BrilliantButLazy genius. Maomao is frustrated that he's smart enough to figure things out with very little work, something which earns him Luomen's praise, but is also too often too lazy to do anything about it even when its important. Meanwhile, Maomao is a WellDoneDaughterGirl for Luomen, and wants that open approval herself]].

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In the manga adaptation by Nekokurage and the anime adaptation, which based its designs on the former, Maomao looks more beautiful than she is described as in the novel and by WordOfGod[[invoked]]. In the adaptations, she physically resembles her mother more, while having her father's eyes. Canonically, she's said to take more after her father's family, as it's often noted that [[spoiler:she and her cousin/adoptive older brother Lahan look very much like siblings]].

** [[spoiler: After her son's traumatic birth, fearing for his life and her capacity to care for her son properly while knowing he would not get as much attention as the Crown Prince's brother, who was born at nearly the same time, she swapped the two children. She knew that being raised as the second prince would give her child better odds for survival. Despite her desire to be freed from being a Consort, it's implied Ah-Duo allowed being retained in the position for as long as she had because it gave her the opportunity to have a relationship with Jinshi, her son, even if he isn't aware of the truth]].

** She isn't actually ObliviousToLove. Maomao is very aware that Jinshi is in love with her, but she largely ignores his romantic gestures, mainly because she can't be bothered to deal with it.

** She isn't actually ObliviousToLove. Despite Jinshi's numerous passes and love confessions, Maomao largely ignores him, mainly because she can't be bothered to deal with it.

* MamaBear: For all of her otherwise more masculine traits, Ah-Duo has a strong maternal instinct and cares a lot for children.

** [[spoiler: After her son's traumatic birth, fearing for his life and her capacity to care for her son properly while knowing he would not get as much attention as the Crown Prince's brother, who was born at nearly the same time, she swapped the two children, because she knew that being raised as the second prince would give her child better odds for survival. Despite her desire to be freed from being a Consort, it's implied Ah-Duo allowed being retained in the position for as long as she had because it gave her the opportunity to have a relationship with Jinshi, her son, even if he isn't aware of the truth]].

** [[Ah-Duo was able to love the Emperess Dowager Anshi's second son, when his real mother could not given the dark circumstances around his conception. This was in part what helped fuel the decision to swap the children, since her own child would get better care while Anshi's child would at least be loved. When the child died in infancy, Ah-Duo genuinely mourned his death]].

* MamaBear:
** For all of her otherwise more masculine traits, Ah-Duo has a strong maternal instinct and cares a lot for children. [[spoiler: After her son's traumatic birth, fearing for his life and her capacity to care for her son properly while knowing he would not get as much attention as the Crown Prince's brother, who was born at nearly the same time, she swapped the two children, because she knew that being raised as the second prince would give her child better odds for survival. Despite her desire to be freed from being a Consort, it's implied Ah-Duo allowed being retained in the position for as long as she had because it gave her the opportunity to have a relationship with Jinshi, her son, even if he isn't aware of the truth]].

** [[spoiler:She swapped her son with her husband's brother at birth because she knew the latter would get better care and have better odds to survive[[note]]The difference in treatment would stem from the different social status of the babies' mothers. At the time of the babies' birth, Ah-Duo would have been the consort of the Crown Prince (and one of humble origins, at that), while Anshi would have been Empress Consort.[[/note]].]]

* AnimalMotifs: Her name means Sparrow.

* Catchphrase: Chue has a habit calling Maomao twice, to which Maomao responds by calling back to her twice too.

** [[spoiler: When Maomao examines her body she founds marks of injury that even a warrior would be proud of and some marks of torture.]]

* LikeFatherLikeSon: It's apparently a hereditary trait to fall madly in love with an unconventional person who, despite a genuine close relationship forming, does not return the feelings romantically. Jinshi falls ''hard'' for Maomao, who at first vehemently dislikes him. But even after she begins to respect him and they grow to develop a good bond, she continues to have no interest in romance with him. Or anyone else, for that matter. [[spoiler:Meanwhile, though Jinshi's real father the Emperor has favourites among his consorts and makes Gyokuyou his Empress when she gives birth to their son, it's heavily implied that the woman he ''truly'' loves above all others is the androgynous, OneOfTheBoys Ah-Duo; she was for many years the Emperor's only consort, and he retained her as a high-ranking consort for over a decade even after she was rendered incapable of having children. Even when she ceases to be his consort altogether, he tries to keep her by his side in some form by giving her a villa to live in. But for all of the Emperor's devotion, it emerges that while Ah-Duo genuinely loves him as her childhood friend, she never saw him as a romantic partner ''or'' really wanted to be his consort, and she longed to explore the world rather than staying put in the rear palace]].

* OnlySaneMan: She appears to be this out of everyone from the Jade Pavilion as Gyokuyou enjoys teasing Jinshi about his feeling for Maomao '''a lot''', Ailan, Guiyuan and Yinghua occasionally get into incidents (like the one with the aphrodisiacs) and Maomao is well... [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Maomao.]]

* BunnyEarsLawyer: Chue always acts cheerful, refers to herself in third person and often says something silly but she is capable doing various trick, a polyglot, and [[spoiler: skilled in disguises and martial arts.]]

Baryou's wife and a member of the Mi clan.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Is this out of Lihua's staff. While the majority of Lihua's maids may be arrogant, they at least care about her. Shin on the other hand, actively tries to sabotage her cousin and couldn't care less if she died.

* TeenPregnancy: If the math is right, Ah-Duo gave birth to her only child at the age of 16.

* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Maomao is capable of objectively recognizing attractiveness, but Lihaku and Jinshi's good looks notably do not get much of a reaction from Maomao. The latter is why he's so interested in Maomao.