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Eventual crossover of APD and TBHK???
I say Jinshi is Aoi and Maomao is Akane! It makes sense to me!
A crossover does sound fun! I wouldn't be able to put them in roles very similar to Maomao or Jinshi's because of how important gender roles are in the apothecary diaries, but I do agree Aoi having Jinshi's status (if a bit lower because she is a woman and she will never be as valuable to the palace as a man) and Akane being born in the red-light district, adopted by a wise doctor is cool.
I like the idea of Akane growing into a doctor because everyone is always sick in the town and he'll be damned if he will just watch people everywhere die when he have knowladge to help, so he become a doctor less out of passion for medicine and more cause a doctor is needed.
Maybe Akane healed a noble that got sick at the Verdigris House and was dragged to be a palace doctor. He does not have a choice to go agaist a noble's wishes, so he become his personal doctor.
He'll talk about herbs and flowers to Aoi who would get a genuine passion for the subject but hide her interest , keeping her questions neutral and her smile the same polite one she shows everyone. She'll make her own garden in secret, far more passionate about plants and their many uses than Akane, and she'll be way more distrustful of him, having grown up surrounded by fake people and murder attempts, she doesn't trust easy even if she find him rather pleasant compared to most of her company.