Ok so this might be wrong but this is as far as I can deduce right now. Basically the ex-courtesan with the blackened facial features (the one MaoMao was taking care of after Jinshi asked how to reduce the price of a courtesan) is assumed to be MaoMao’s real mom. Rakan really wanted MaoMao’s mom but she was too expensive for him so to decrease her price, he raped her and got her pregnant (which makes her “worthless” as a courtesan as MaoMao explained). Then MaoMao’s mom either ruined her own face from the trauma, her face was ruined by Rakan, or she fell ill and some sickness got to her. Anyway MaoMao’s mom hates MaoMao because she is the product of Rakan raping her and causing her life to be miserable. MaoMao was hurt when Jinshi asked her how to reduce the price of a courtesan because it was what happened to her real mom. She was abandoned and her foster father (the banished eunuch medical officer with a missing kneecap) adopted her.
Hope this helps you understand sorry it’s so long.
Thank you, this matches with how I understood it too :))
Because of the dark way that Rakan has been portrayed, we are supposed to assume he raped her and she consquently had to take customers and got syphillis (which ruined her health and appearance).
Why Rakan never acknowledged MaoMao or why he didn't get to keep the mother, dunno. Whether it was consensual or rape, dunno. But they keep showing him as sinister and Mao Mao as fearing him...but that could be misdirection. Or he's a jerk. We'll find out.
Spoiler from the web novel
It is consensual. Maomao mom did choose Rakan and invited him first, it is just they both did not know, rakan's family decided to send him far away so there is no competition for the rights of being the head of the Ra clan. When he finally managed to return, everything was too late and nobody wants to forgive him, Rakan was pretty mad too and decided to claim his family name to himself and pushed his family to the country side... He is protecting maomao by not declaring their blood relations coz everyone hates Rakan
Hello can someone clarify for me the MaoMao father arc? What did Rakan do to her mother exactly? Sorry for being such a noob :'(