Hahahah! Jinshi sure knows how Maomao ticks, because Maomao went absolutely crazy when he offered her the reward of the rare Ox Bezoar (a medical gallstone from a Ox). Though I think we can all agree he underestimated just how much she wanted that thing though ahahahahaha!
At last, each of the individual incidents that have occurred in these recent episodes have finally revealed the correlation they share with each other. Each incident had a connection with the ceremony that took place today.
The first and second incident, which were the death of Master Kounen and the official who is currently in a coma from the poisonous seaweed, both held positions for the ceremony rituals. And the third, that pulls it all together, was the warehouse fire, which turned out to be a cover while the ceremonial tools were robbed from the warehouse they were stored in. Thanks to Lihaku’s report and being intimately familiar with the previous cases, Maomao was able to deduct from the description of the court lady who had gifted the solider the pipe was described as tall, and smelled of medicine, leading Maomao to deduce it was none other than Suirei. However she did not drop her name, following her father’s wisdom of not to be careful what she says. So she had to drop hints to Lihaku in a roundabout way.
Maomao came to identify the trap when the official who was helping her out in the archives shared crucial information about his concerns about the safety involving the hanging pillars. In fact, the most suspicious part is that he had actually been demoted from the Board of Rites for even expressing his concern about it– and lo and behold, look at what happened. The guy ought to get his position back, but I digress. The important detail here was the metals which was responsible for hanging the pillar so it wouldn’t drop. This brings the case involving the puzzle involving the family heirlooms left to the brothers.
Each of these incidents were done slowly, methodically over a period of time to make it look like mere coincidences, when in fact once put together, overlapped revealing a trap set into motion. The goal was the kill the one carrying out the ritual ceremony.
Now to some extent, we understand why Lakan sent Maomao on these missions. He knew something was up, and had Maomao solve the case because he knew she could. Why he didn’t do it himself, well I think that will be self-explanatory in the upcoming episodes, but lets just say for now it has a lot to do with his personality. That said, Lakan was not pleased to see Maomao hurt, in fact he was absolutely furious at the soldier who whacked her in the face with the baton to the point it almost knocked her out (and if it had, yeah heads probably would be rolling since Jinshi would’ve been killed). I don’t think he was expecting to find her in even worse condition after saving Jinshi’s life, that or he wanted to be the one to carry her out, or both.
Needless to say, as result of trying to thwart the plan that had already been set into motion, Maomao got battered today, one from deliberately provoking the guard in hopes to stir up enough of a commotion to interrupt the ceremony (which, unfortunately did not work), and then once she got access to get inside (thanks to Lakan’s intervention), her leg got seriously busted from getting caught in the pillar, that it will require a lot of stitches. But hey, at least she’ll get her Ox Bezoar, right?
And that’s what at the forefront of Maomao’s mind at the moment, and after going through all that I could hardly blame her. I also couldn’t help but laugh how instead of asking if he was okay, Maomao instead asked about the Ox Bezoar he had promised to reward her with. (I mean, I can’t blame her. She knows better that Jinshi is alright.) That said, Jinshi had no idea any of this was going to happen— though when you think about it, had it not been for Gaoshun assigning Maomao to the archives to read up on the suspicious connections she had come to discover after Lihaku had reported the ceremonial tools were stolen from the warehouse, Maomao may have come to realize the plot too late, and the outcome could have been very different.
While Maomao could only think of the promised Ox Bezoar and the need to stitch up her leg before she lost consciousness, it was nice to see a tender moment between her and Jinshi. He was both alarmed and upset to see how wounded she was, to the point she did lose consciousness, and he was the one to carry her out.
Now I know they got time to fill, but I’m not gonna lie, the way they do extend these scenes with songs kind of makes me laugh a bit. I couldn’t believe they actually animated the entire walk, because that was long walk. But what it did do was highlight was Jinshi’s regal status. Everyone was bowing down to him, meanwhile Maomao remains blissfully unaware (as such, both of them would prefer to keep it that way). That said, Maomao did wonder why Jinshi was there, but she was hardly in the state of mind, let alone the condition to really think about it.
That said, this certainly ended in a way where we’re like: HEY! WE NEED THE REST! I skipped the ED to check for post-credits, ahaha, nope just the preview. But now that the trigger has been pulled, things are about to change.
Bearing that in mind, I must confess, the last few weeks has left me with a relatively strong impression that we’re going to get a second season. I highly doubt what’s to transpire following this incident is going to make it within the next five episodes. Just for perspective sake, we’re still on Volume 2. The Apothecary Diaries novels are long, (and delightfully so). Hopefully when this season ends, there will be an announcement of more to come in the near future.
Lakan said it best in an earlier episode that those with talent should be recognized. I’m sure that’s the reason he didn’t solve it himself. He probably told Lihaku about the ceremonial tools being stolen so that Lihaku would approach Maomao, leading to her solving the case. He just had that much faith in his daughter.
That’s a good point there, I hadn’t connected it like that. Whether Maomao wants that recognition however, is left to be debated (that is, unless there’s a good prize or something worth of interest catches her eyes ahahahaha).
I’ve been suspicious of Suirei since last episode when the doctor that prepared Suirei and Maomao’s medicine said, “A court lady shouldn’t be doing this.” and then immediately told Maomao to forget what he said after noticing that she was there. Suirei is clearly a suspect character, but I did not expect that she was a mastermind behind an assassination attempt on Jinshi’s life.
Suirei did pose the question to Maomao, “Just how good are you?” and shared that she would be planting morning glories at that mound soon. If Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is meant to be a Sherlock Holmes-eque story, maybe that was Suirei trying to size up Maomao as an opponent with the additional context viewers gained from this latest episode.