Maomao

This one got requested, I tried on the voice, I swear 😭Maomao is the titular main protagonist of The Apothecary Diaries franchise. She is a young Chinese woman who lives and works as a lady in waiting in the Emperor's Inner Palace after being kidnapped and sold off to her employers. Maomao is highly intelligent and was trained as an apothecary by her father, which gives her a general understanding of poison and diseases. This skillset helps her perform her job as a poison taster, lady-in-waiting, and unofficial investigator in the Inner Palace. Upon her arrival, she is assigned work as a maidservant, and initially plans to keep a low profile for her contracted year or two of service; however, shortly after starting, she witnessed some of the Emperor's top concubines/consorts like Gyokuyou and Lihua and their respective children suffering adverse health effects. While rumors spread amongst the palace personnel that it's the result of a curse, Maomao quickly deduces that it's actually because of toxic components in the lead-based face powder they were using, so she sends Gyokuyou and Lihua discreet and anonymous notes informing them about this. While Lihua's head lady-in-waiting ignores this, which tragically results in Lihua's unborn son dying, Gyokuyou heeds this, which leads to her and her young daughter quickly recovering. Maomao was originally conceived between a high-ranking courtesan named Fengxian and a military officer named Lakan (who is also a major tactician and the commander of the Li military in the present). However, due to extraordinary circumstances, she was initially raised by the Three Princesses and the Madam of the Verdigris House in the red-light district, and was later adopted by Luomen, her great-uncle, who passed on his extensive knowledge of herbs and medicines to her, allowing her to grow up to become a talented pharmacist alongside him that served various brothels in the district where they made their home.