The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 1

She must have been much admired for her beauty in those halcyon days before she had arrived at the palace, but when she got here, she discovered she had known as much about the outside world as a frog who had spent its life in a well.

Maomao was a relatively objective thinker for a girl of seventeen, but she had a few qualities that continually dogged her. For one, curiosity; and for another, a hunger for knowledge. And then there was her budding sense of justice.

It was always possible he was the current emperor’s guardian, but considering Jinshi looked to be about twenty years old, it was hard to imagine. Maybe he was the son of the Emperor or something, but then why become a eunuch?

even the most minor innovations

When one let oneself become too attached to custom, one ceased to be capable of discovering

She thought he might fling himself face-first onto the reed mat

“Perhaps,” Gaoshun ventured now, “I might ask you to stop regarding Master Jinshi in the same manner in which you might look at a worm.”
Damn. They noticed.

but she was the first to regard him as though she were looking at a worm

Indeed, his looks were what gave Jinshi his value in life

They had weighed their lives against their beauty, and in the end had lost them both