The SM ref was unexpected. Hilarious, but unexpected, but hilarious. 😅😂

Important to keep in mind that the season only ended ~2 months ago. Typically the production time between seasons is over a year (though usually shorter for the longer-form trillion episode shonen shows). We know the show is getting a second season, but we're probably not getting any proper announcements/trailers until near the end of the year.

21:08 And thus the Bomb is dropped! 😆

Some clarification of the story to this point. Based on what the anime has shown Lakan wanted Maomao's mother, but could not afford her. He got her pregnant and her dropped value to nearly zero. This caused the Verdigris House to lose their reputation and had to operate in shame. So after Maomao was born her mother was forced to take common customers and unfortunately catch Syphilis from one of them. Maomao's adoptive father (Lomen) came around this point, but due to the illness being in remission and a lack of trust towards Lomen the Syphilis was not treated when it was still treatable. Maomao was apparently raised by the women of the Verdigris House before taken in by her adoptive father. Lakan apparently started coming to the Verdigris House regularly for the past decade and tried to purchase his "daughter" from the Madam. The staff clearly tries to keep him away from Maomao if she is present and Mei Mei will spend time with him until he leaves. His apparent beef with Jinshi is his purchase of Maomao, which he has spent over a decade to accomplish without success.