The art of ballroom dancing

      "Good evening, Mrs Gekue! What can I do for you? " Maomao asked in a bow, expecting to hear the reason why Madam had summoned her to the Jade Palace for a private meeting.       It wasn't unexpected or strange to her, but this whole setting with everyone's gazes directed at her was a bit tense.       Gekue sat in a chair with her hands folded in her lap in a mannerly manner. A silk hanfu flowed down her body, and vines of flowers were embroidered from her feet to her head, enveloping her appearance. Several maidservants stood nearby.       " Hello, Maomao! As I know the girls have already told you about the reception we will be attending. At the event, there will be a time when everyone will be dancing. And so that you don't feel out of place, I've decided to ask Mr Jinshi to teach you the art of ballroom dancing. I hope you won't mind," Gekue revealed her plan with a soft smile as always.       Maomao couldn't even guess how to refuse the concubine who carried only good intent in her offer. However, the prospect of becoming Jinshi's apprentice could have appealed objectively to anyone but her.       " Madam, are you sure that I won't take up too much of Jinshi-san's time. As I know he has a lot of work to do, and distracting him wouldn't be the right thing to do. We can find someone with more free time than Mr Jinshi, who has a lot of work to do," Maomao replied, hoping to get someone else to be her teacher, especially for dancing, where she can be quite clumsy and not ready to be ridiculed.        Gekue didn't even have time to reply before, to everyone's surprise, the door swung open and none other than Jinshi himself walked into the room.       " Maomao, I will always have time for you," the eunuch was as gorgeous as usual and dazzled the poor herbalist with his beautiful gaze that sent shivers of revulsion through her body.       As much as she wanted to, Maomao still couldn't refuse Gekuya. So it was with pain and sadness that the time for the first class had to be set. Her sixth sense told the girl that something unusual would happen. That was basically what happened. °°°       " Left, right, passing turn," Jinshi said, pulling the vowel letters. " Herbalist, this is going nowhere. Where's your posture, your plasticity, your confidence. I'm not even talking about technique. Didn't I tell you for an hour at what point, where to put your feet and all the other parts of your body?"       'Self-confident peacock,' Maomao thought. As usual, all he knows how to do is scratch his tongue, and he never once showed me how to do it properly."       "Let's do it again, this time try at least a little harder so as not to keep us both here for another hour."       Maomao had been ploughing like a curse for the third hour under Jinshi's guidance to possibly not dance at the reception, which was becoming more and more unwelcome by the minute. It seemed that after such a long training session, the result should have improved, but not so. The girl was already so exhausted that it was hard to stand, her hands were shaking from the strain, sweat was pouring down and dripping on the floor. For Maomao, this lesson had been the worst torture of her life, she was unlikely to forget it.       And so she stood up again, already in the position she hated. Head tilted to the left, legs bent, body straight, centre collected, both hands in front of her in a bent position, one higher, the other closer to her chest. But suddenly, to the girl's surprise, Jinshi approaches her and stands opposite her, giving her a hand, thus inviting her to dance. He confidently with one hand takes her palm, and the other puts it on the sharp shoulder blade and begins to lead, stunned from such actions Maomao. But she has no strength to resist, and she lets him lead her through the ballroom. The girl has noticed that it is easier to dance with a partner, there is support, and the steps just need to mirror.        Suddenly Maomao stumbles, but the eunuch catches her, gently holding her up. Suddenly he shortens the distance between them and covers the girl's lips with his own. It was not passionate at all, but a tender and inept kiss that made his heart beat three times faster and his legs buckle. A realisation came to Maomao as to what was happening at the moment and she quickly jumped aside.       " Herbalist, you bounced like a scalded woman. And how you blushed," the eunuch said with a sneer and his trademark smirk.       Maomao stood for a few seconds in confusion, staring intently at Jinshi, and then quickly rambled on.       " Mr Jinshi, are you all right? No headache? Is your sanity okay? I think it's time for us to leave. You should prepare a potion for you, because the dancing has made you dizzy to the point of losing your mind. It's probably the heat and...," the girl speculated aloud, but she was interrupted by Jinshi without respect.       " You are to blame, Maomao, for my loss of judgement. There is only one potion in this world that will help me. And that is you."