The main protagonist of the series Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. She is a young woman, age 17 at the start of the series, with black (web novel) or very dark green hair (light novel) usually tied up with a cloth hair tie in the back and blunt bangs in the front. She has black (WN) or purple eyes (LN), and regularly is depicted with freckles around her nose. Although as revealed midway in volume 1, her freckles are fake, a combination of shallow tattoos and makeup.
Maomao is described as being short and scrawny, and has an eccentric personality that is drawn toward the knowledge of medicine and other things that might pique her interest, though much difficulty in learning things that are outside these interests. Her left arm is normally bandaged to conceal various scars on it. A result of self-inflicted wounds from her many efforts testing out various poisons and healing salves on herself. Her left pinky finger is also crooked, the results of an injury she sustained when she was very young.
Maomao grew-up in the pleasure quarter on the southern side of the Imperial capital. She was raised by her adoptive father the apothecary Luomen, as well as the courtesans and madam of the brothel the Verdigris House (Rokushoukan) who she treats as her older sisters and granny respectively. Before the start of the series human traffickers kidnapped her and sold her in to work in the capital's rear palace as a maid taking care of the Imperial harem. Due to curiosity and a nature to help others, she ends up involved with the high consort Gyokuyou and the eunuch Jinshi.
