OK, I kinda take back that “side quest” thing from last week. This trip is obviously still the main part of the arc – and maybe the season – but the paper thing is sort of a side quest. But it still totally works because lets be honest – 22 minutes of Maomao being GAR isn’t a bad thing by any means. Maomao is a formidable person whose abilities and knowledge do, at times, defy realism. But she doesn’t descend into Mary Sue-ism because we see plenty of her flaws, and she has a lot of them. She’s emotionally closed and has tunnel vision, among others, and not nearly as good at reading people as she thinks she is (though she is very good at it in a detective sort of way).

Subtle? No – there’s a very clear-cut good and bad to this whole dispute. But it’s not meant to be taken too seriously, I think – just a fun diversion on the way to something larger. And it starts with a really strong scene with Jinshi visiting Maomao in her room. He washes his face with the water she washed her feet in, because she decides it would be more trouble than it’s worth to mention it. He’s there, he says, to have her reapply the fake scar he’s had painted over the real one. But in truth he’s there because the only time he can relax is when he’s with Maomao.

Tenderness is not a quality that comes naturally to Maomao – just look at her interactions with Chou-u. But somewhere in there empathy does exist – just look at her history with Chou-u. I do think she’s aware of how viscerally exhausted Jinshi is, and how he leans on her for support. But her practical side blinds her to the possibility of really opening up to him. The ability to joke around together does present a sort of progress in their relationship – a lowering of her barriers just a little. It gives Basen quite a start when he walks in on it, though.

This village dispute is all about rice – as indeed, so many developments small and large in this sort of setting were. And greed of course, not to mention lust. The meeting with the new landlord takes place at the local inn, which is the source of most of the clues Maomao picks up on. Lots of sake and shochu of various types, what each group (and the landlord) chooses to drink. And the vital new bit of information Jinshi shares with her, that Lahan – who knows his way around an abacus and a spreadsheet – has noted a dropoff in rice production from this area (which is why Jinshi wanted to stop here).

Maomao is only too happy to do a solid for Guen’s family – as cold as she is she does like him, and has a visceral distaste for injustice. But mainly I think she’s enjoying solving a mystery and giving some asswipes their just desserts, two things she loves doing. Drinking is another thing she loves doing, and so she gets to kill multiple birds with one stone by challenging the landlord to a drinking contest, with the papermaker’s contract on the line. It’s pretty clear that the scoundrel has taken advantage of the fact that his father couldn’t read and the witness and scrivener from the original contract have passed on.

Maomao only has to be beat five opponents to cover the 4500 silver “owed” by the doctor’s family – no big challenge for her. When she mows down four and the landlord himself steps in as the fifth, she adds some disinfecting alcohol to their cups (he insists on a share) and he’s quickly vanquished. He tries to cast the whole bet aside but she springs her trap then, detailing the scam he’s been pulling by diverting rice to brew alcohol and then selling it (untaxed) to the inn and maybe others, too. Then his daughter – who’s in love with Guen’s oldest nephew – comes in pleading for mercy and it’s pretty clear why the landlord is being especially petty and vindictive about all this.

Small potatoes in the big picture? No doubt – zaku like this aren’t much of challenge for Maomao, in drinking or in thinking. But again, she hates injustice and Jinshi did want the rice issue sorted, so check off those multiple birds. She even gets Verdigris supplied with rice as part of the settlement, though one could argue that bastard of a landlord still got off easy. There are far bigger fish to fry here, ones that can pose a real threat both to Maomao and Jinshi, and now that the warmup act is finished it seems the real show is about to begin.