The Apothecary Diaries ‒ Episode 10

We are getting into deep territory now where it’s going to be really hard for novel-readers to keep their foreknowledge to themselves (but let’s all try, okay?) It’s also clear that the days of floating around the inner palace solving little cases here and there may be drawing to a close. Lihua and Gyoukuyo’s plots have largely focused on their ability to bear heirs for the emperor and the rivalry that springs from that, and Lishu’s storyline continues to focus on her youth and how her ladies-in-waiting prey on that. Ah-duo, the remaining high-level consort, is now brought into the story, and it’s clear that more is involved in her story than merely being thirty-five years old.

That easily puts her as the oldest consort, and it’s noted that she’s a year older than the emperor. She’s also his longest-serving concubine, having become one before he ascended the throne. While she may be past what is considered prime childbearing years, she’s also hardly ancient. But she also appears to lack the physical assets that draw the emperor to Gyoukuyo and Lihua, so most people seem to be operating on the assumption that the emperor keeps her around out of old affections – and she was his foster sibling before she was his concubine, so there’s probably something to that. But even more interesting is the revelation that she bore him a son seventeen years ago, a child who perished a year later…and was delivered by a Dr. Luomen, who you may know as Maomao’s dad.

There’s a lot to unpack in those revelations. The foster sibling bit aside (and it could simply mean that they were nursed by the same woman, which was relatively common), Ah-duo’s son would have been born around the same time as the emperor’s younger brother, which seems a little too coincidental although it’s not outside the realm of possibility. It’s perhaps melodramatic to think about infants switched at birth, but there aren’t many other good storytelling conclusions to leap to. We still have to wonder if Ah-duo is staying in the inner palace as a favor for having once borne a son, but then why would Lihua be so afraid of being repudiated? (Granted, death via arsenic poisoning and plain old disease are two very different reasons for infant mortality.) Ah-duo herself doesn’t seem like the typical consort, either. Maomao, when sent to Ah-duo’s pavilion, finds herself moving jars of honey and airing out the vast library, both indicating how different the Garnet Pavilion is from its peers. Maomao also notes that Ah-duo looks like she’d be more comfortable riding a horse or dressed like a man, both of which beg the question of why she’d want to stay in the inner palace, especially if the person we see drinking atop the wall at the beginning of the episode is, in fact, her.

The fact that Luomen delivered Ah-duo’s baby is also interesting. Maomao was unaware of her father’s work in the inner palace, although she did notice some definite discrepancies in his life, such as his eunuch status, the missing bone in his knee, and his outsize medical skills for the area he practices in. There’s a bigger mystery here, and right now it’s not entirely clear if Jinshi’s aware of it, or why he would want Maomao to figure it out if he already knows the answer. (Or perhaps he doesn’t know and wants her to learn it for him.)

Fengming, Ah-duo’s chief lady-in-waiting, is part of the entire issue. Lishu is afraid of her and her honey, which says something since the poor girl doesn’t know to be afraid of her ladies. The drowned woman was almost certainly framed for Lishu’s poisoning, and right now it’s looking like Fengming was the one who did it – and if she did, how much was done with Ah-duo’s approval? Possibly none; Fengming could just have been proactively trying to ensure that if a new consort is brought in, she’ll replace Lishu, not Ah-duo. But the threads are looking increasingly tangled here, and who knows what is becoming an ever more pressing question.

Gaoshun may be able to stare blithely out the window when Jinshi harasses Maomao, but no one’s going to be able to get away with that sort of willful blindness now that Maomao is on the scent of what’s going on in the inner palace. Her name may mean cat, but she’s going to be like the proverbial dog with a bone now that this involves her father, so whoever’s brewing up trouble had best be watching out.

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