Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 12 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

The Eunuch and the Courtesan

After Fengming's execution, her relatives are punished, and Gaoshun reports that her family's business ties reach about eighty women in the rear palace, Maomao among them. All of them are to be dismissed. When Jinshi asks what she wants, Maomao says only that she will do whatever she is ordered; he takes it as a wish to leave and dismisses her with generous pay.

Back in the pleasure district, Maomao accompanies Meimei, Pairin and Joka to a noble's banquet and runs into Jinshi. He offers to buy her, and she tells him she had wanted to stay and that returning would not be bad. Days later, Jinshi arrives at the Rokushoukan with a chest of money and a strange plant and asks for one girl.

• Aftermath of Fengming's execution

  Jinshi reviews the losses of Fengming's relatives, while Gaoshun reports the reach of her family's business connections into the rear palace.

• Maomao's dismissal

  Named on the mass-dismissal list, Maomao says only that she will do whatever she is ordered; Jinshi takes this as a wish to leave and dismisses her with generous compensation, and she makes farewell visits.

• Return to the pleasure district

  Back in the pleasure district, Maomao attends a noble's banquet as a helper to the Rokushoukan's top courtesans and runs into Jinshi; she tells him she had wanted to stay and that returning would not be bad.

• Jinshi comes calling

  Unsure whether to return, Maomao muses that the rear palace and the pleasure district are alike, both gardens and birdcages. Days later, Jinshi arrives at the Rokushoukan with a chest of money and a strange plant and asks for one girl.

Recent Timeline

• Senior official's salted-wine death and drowned servant (Episode 9)

  A senior official's death, first taken for excessive drinking, was traced to a large amount of salt dissolved in the wine rather than poison; Maomao found the salt in a broken jar, and the official's dulled sense of taste had hidden the danger from him. In the same stretch, a kitchen servant was found drowned in the outer moat and judged a suicide by climbing the wall, though Maomao doubted her bound feet could manage the climb without equipment. The case was closed as suicide after an apparent farewell note turned up, even though the servant had been present at the garden party poisoning incident. Gaoshun also delivered the result of a two-month search for a person with a burned arm, identifying Fengming, head lady-in-waiting of Aaduo.

• Tea with Riishu and the honey question (Episode 10)

  Gyokuyo hosted Riishu for tea, and honey-cooked citrus peel served there exposed the bullying: Riishu's aversion to honey and an attendant's complaint about her pickiness ended Maomao's hope that the report was mistaken. Maomao later asked Riishu about her dislike of honey; Riishu said she had been told as an infant that honey nearly killed her and that she must avoid it. Her attendants objected, and Maomao saw them isolating her from outsiders. Searching court archives, Maomao found that Aaduo had borne the future emperor a son seventeen years earlier, around the time his younger brother was born; the records showed Aaduo and the emperor shared a wet nurse, and an infant's death sixteen years earlier led Maomao to examine who attended that birth.

• Fengming's surrender and Aaduo's departure (Episode 11)

  Fengming surrendered to Jinshi, saying she had acted to preserve Aaduo's rank, and was executed afterward; her confession closed the matter of the poisoning of Riishu's soup. Aaduo left for a southern detached palace on the schedule already decided, a move not caused by the poisoning, and returned her consort's crown for a consort entering the palace later.

• Fengming's relatives punished and Maomao dismissed (Episode 12)

  After Fengming's execution, her relatives lost their property and received corporal punishments, while Aaduo escaped punishment because Fengming alone was held responsible. Because the people who had bought Maomao were tied to Fengming's family business, she fell under the mass dismissal. Jinshi asked what she wanted; she said only that she would do whatever she was ordered, and he took this as a wish to leave and dismissed her with generous compensation. She made farewell visits and returned to the pleasure district the following week.

• Banquet encounter and Jinshi's visit (Episode 12)

  At a banquet hosted by a high court official introduced through Lihaku, Maomao recognized Jinshi. He offered to buy her, and she said going back to the rear palace would not be bad, pointing out that she had asked to stay and he was the one who dismissed her; she allowed him to touch only her fingertips. Days later, Jinshi arrived at the Rokushoukan with Gaoshun, a chest of money for the madam and a strange plant for Maomao, and asked for one girl.

Character Graph

Gyokuyo

Rear palace

Consort favored by the emperor, mother of a surviving princess (Lingli); received a warning about face powder and appointed Maomao as a lady-in-waiting.

• Role

  Mother of the surviving princess Lingli, favored by the emperor

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Thanks Maomao for saving Lingli and appoints her as a lady-in-waiting

Gaoshun

attendant to Jinshi

Jinshi's attendant, who has looked after him since he was born. He reports that Fengming's family's business ties reach about eighty women in the rear palace, watches Jinshi brood after dismissing Maomao, and goes with him to the Rokushoukan.

• Warning on misuse

  Warned that Maomao's medicinal knowledge could also be misused.

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Serves Jinshi as his attendant and has looked after him since he was born.

• Maomao (Colleague, Mixed)

  Warned about the misuse of her knowledge and objected to Jinshi trying the aphrodisiac, while granting her access to supplies.

Hongniang

head attendant

Gyokuyo's head attendant who showed Maomao around the Jade Pavilion.

• Staged pottery test

  Revealed that pottery had deliberately been used instead of silver at Jinshi's suggestion to test Maomao.

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Head attendant to Gyokuyo at the Jade Pavilion.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Introduced herself and granted Maomao hazard pay, while having staged the pottery test on her.

Emperor

The emperor. While visiting the Jade Pavilion he asked Maomao to look after Rifa, whose condition was worsening at the Crystal Pavilion, and for a while afterward his visits to the Jade Pavilion sharply decreased. Court records show that, as crown prince, he had a son with his milk sibling Aaduo, who died in infancy.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Maomao accepted his request as an order to cure Rifa and feared the consequences of refusing.

Riishu

consort

Fourteen-year-old high-ranking consort, once the previous emperor's consort. As a child she adored Aaduo like a mother, but Fengming kept turning her away after Riishu said honey had nearly killed her as a baby; the soup poisoned at the garden party had been meant for her, and Aaduo has now left the rear palace.

• Background

  Had been a consort of the previous emperor, entered religious life after his death five years earlier, then returned as a consort of the current emperor.

• Condition

  Cannot eat mackerel; reacts with hives to the food, and Maomao warned the reaction could also obstruct breathing.

• Aaduo (Other, Affinity)

  Has looked up to Aaduo like a mother since the previous emperor's reign; she runs to Aaduo on the day of her departure.

• Maomao (Other, Mixed)

  Maomao treated her food allergy at the garden party and later asked about her aversion to honey, over her attendants' objections.

Aaduo

The most senior of the four high-ranking consorts, a year older than the emperor and his milk sibling. She lost her womb giving birth to his son, who then died in infancy, and has since lived more as his friend than his consort; she has returned her consort's crown and left for a southern detached palace.

• Age

  Thirty-five years old.

• Departure

  Her move to a southern detached palace had been decided before the poisoning.

• Riishu (Other, Friend, Affinity)

  Has cherished Riishu since the previous emperor's reign, when the lonely girl looked up to her like a mother; on the day Aaduo leaves, Riishu runs to her.

• Fengming (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Her devoted head lady-in-waiting, who cared for her baby; Maomao's proposal keeps Aaduo from learning that the honey Fengming fed him caused his death.

Fengming

Aaduo's household

Aaduo's devoted head lady-in-waiting, whose honey, fed as a tonic, caused the death of Aaduo's infant son. She poisoned Riishu's soup to hide it and protect Aaduo's position, turned herself in and was executed, and her relatives were stripped of their property and punished.

• Search result

  Identified as the person with a burned arm sought for two months.

• Confession

  Admitted that she had taken from Aaduo the child Aaduo treasured most.

• Aaduo (Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Revered Aaduo from their first meeting and served her devotedly ever since, blaming herself for sixteen years for the death of the son Aaduo treasured.

• Maomao (Other, Mixed)

  Maomao confronts her with the truth about the honey and offers to reduce her two motives to one so that Aaduo never learns it.

• Riishu (Other, Hostility)

  Kept turning Riishu away from Aaduo's residence after Riishu said honey had nearly killed her as a baby, then poisoned her soup at the garden party to keep the secret.

Ruomen

Maomao's adoptive father, an apothecary in the pleasure district. As a palace physician he was expelled from the rear palace after failures that included Aaduo's delivery; Maomao is living with him again after her dismissal.

• Expulsion

  Driven out of the rear palace after the delivery failures and the child's death.

• Maomao (Family, Affinity)

  Her adoptive father, who raised her and taught her medicine; she is back home with him after her dismissal.

Jinshi

Rear palace

Beautiful eunuch who runs the rear palace. Unwilling to keep Maomao against her wishes, he took her answer as a wish to leave and dismissed her, then met her at a noble's banquet, offered to buy her, and learned she had wanted to stay. Days later he arrives at the Rokushoukan with money and a strange plant and asks for one girl.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• Displeasure with Maomao

  Complained that Maomao had not approached him despite his gift, and pressed her on whether she had paid Lihaku instead.

• Stance toward Maomao

  Feared that keeping her somewhere against her wishes would deepen the distance between them, and later offered to buy her out.

• Maomao (Other, Hierarchy, Mentor, Colleague, Mixed)

  Dismissed her from the rear palace, then met her again at the banquet; learning she had wanted to stay, he took her wish seriously and admitted he had misread her.

Maomao

Rear palace

Apothecary raised in the pleasure district who was kidnapped and sold into the rear palace and rose to be Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster. Caught up in the mass dismissal of women tied to Fengming's family, she returns to the pleasure district, helps out at the Rokushoukan without taking customers, and runs into Jinshi at a banquet.

• Start in the rear palace

  Began as a lowly servant in the rear palace before Gyokuyo appointed her lady-in-waiting

• After dismissal

  Worked part-time in the pleasure district after her dismissal and told Jinshi that serving in the rear palace again would not be bad.

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Gyokuyo made her a lady-in-waiting after Maomao's anonymous warning helped save Lingli; she treats Maomao as her own attendant and teased at the garden party that Maomao was no longer hers alone.

• Jinshi (Other, Mentor, Hierarchy, Colleague, Mixed)

  Former superior who dismissed her; at the banquet she tells him she had asked to stay, and when he offers to buy her she says going back to the rear palace would not be bad.

• Gaoshun (Colleague, Affinity)

  Asks her to forgive Jinshi's teasing and offers to search the court archives for her investigation.

Pairin

courtesan

One of the Rokushoukan's three top courtesans. She helps dress Maomao for a noble's banquet and joins the others in pressing her about the handsome man she met there.

• Banquet

  Performs with Meimei and Joka at a noble's banquet, where Maomao attends as their helper.

• Maomao (Friend, Affinity)

  Like an older sister to Maomao; she lends Maomao her own lipstick for the banquet and teases her about Jinshi afterward.

Meimei

courtesan

One of the Rokushoukan's three top courtesans. During Maomao's visit home she told her how worried everyone had been, and after Maomao's dismissal she helps get her ready for a noble's banquet.

• Banquet

  Performs with Pairin and Joka at a noble's banquet, where Maomao attends as their helper.

• Maomao (Friend, Affinity)

  Like an older sister to Maomao; she told her everyone had worried when she vanished, and now helps make her up for the banquet.

World Memo

• Proposed drinking age prohibition

  A proposal is under discussion to prohibit drinking before the age of twenty.

• Craftsman wall projections on rear palace wall

  The rear palace wall has projections apparently used by craftsmen, which would make an unaided climb possible in principle.

Clue Board

• Illness of imperial children (Episode 1)

  Rumors blamed a curse for the deaths of three imperial children, and doctors were treating Rifa's and Gyokuyo's sick infants; Maomao judged it was no curse but poisoning from the face powder used around them.

• Jinshi may have tested Maomao with drugged food (Episode 2)

  Maomao suspected that Jinshi had knowingly tried to make her eat the drugged bun, a question left unresolved in this episode.

• Maomao's reading of Fuyo's sleepwalking (Episode 3)

  At first Maomao wondered whether distress over being given away had caused Fuyo's sleepwalking. Later she told Gyokuyo her conclusion: like a courtesan she once knew, Fuyo faked it so the emperor would not be tempted to keep her before she was handed to the officer. Maomao stressed it was only conjecture, and Fuyo never confirmed it.

• Swap of Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals (Episode 7)

  A dish normally made with oily fish contained jellyfish, showing that Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals had been exchanged. Riishu's food taster had switched them on purpose to bully Riishu, unaware of the poison, and Fengming has now confessed that the poison was meant for Riishu.

• Riishu's outfit as deliberate embarrassment (Episode 7)

  Maomao conjectures that Riishu's attendants deliberately let her wear a bright pink outfit too similar to Gyokuyo's to embarrass her. A flashback of criticism over the clothing, which Maomao reads as Aaduo's attendants rebuking Riishu's attendants, supports the suspicion; it remains unconfirmed.

• Attendant's possible foreknowledge (Episode 8)

  Maomao suspects the young attendant sought an absent apothecary to delay help and may have known the courtesan would survive, though she questions whether she is overthinking it.

• Courtesan as the attempted killer (Episode 8)

  Maomao reasons that the courtesan used tobacco-infused liquor, with two liquors of different densities layered so she drank only the safe lower layer through a straw, then drank a small amount of the poisoned upper layer herself, calculating that the man would die while she survived; Maomao's treatment saved them both. This remains her hypothesis, not a confirmed answer.

• Unknown salter of the drink (Episode 9)

  Maomao did not name who added the salt. She suggested that someone may have changed the sweet wine to suit their taste or repeatedly salted the drink as a malicious prank, and privately admitted she had effectively pointed toward a culprit.

• Burned garment and wooden tablet (Episode 10)

  A worker burned palace refuse and found a woman's garment with a scorched sleeve and a wooden tablet, then threw them into the fire; his hand trouble and the flames were taken as a curse, and Maomao suspects something on the tablet irritated his skin and may carry a secret message.

  Maomao names Fengming as a possible outside communicator, citing the bandage on her left wrist and the colored wooden slips wrapped in a scorched garment; she suspects differently colored flames may be a code, while noting Fengming's gentle manner proves nothing.

• Infant death tied to Maomao's father (Episode 10)

  A record of an infant's death sixteen years earlier led Maomao to her father, a former eunuch with exceptional medical skill. She has now confirmed that her adoptive father Ruomen, then a palace physician, attended Aaduo's delivery and was expelled after a series of failures.

• Drowned servant's uncertain death (Episode 11)

  A kitchen servant was found drowned in the outer moat and the guards believed she jumped from the wall. Maomao could not determine suicide, doubted she could climb the high wall alone, and believed she entered the water alive. The case was later closed as suicide after a farewell note was found, though she had been present at the garden party poisoning incident.

  Maomao concluded the drowned maid killed herself and suspected Fengming helped arrange it to divert suspicion from Aaduo.

• Abduction and sale of a person (Episode 11)

  Jinshi said he had heard someone was abducted and sold, in the same scene where Gaoshun presented a list of Fengming's relatives and associates.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Fengming's relatives punished

  After Fengming's execution her relatives were stripped of their property and subjected to corporal punishment, while Aaduo was spared because the crime was ruled Fengming's alone.

• Maid's death ruled suicide

  Maomao concluded that the drowned maid had killed herself.

• Business connections reach Maomao

  Gaoshun reported that Fengming's family's business connections extended to roughly eighty women in the rear palace, including Maomao through the people who had bought her after her abduction.

Evidence

• Reported suicide

  The servant was said to have killed herself, per the report Xiaolan relayed.

• Aaduo lamented suffering in cold water

  Aaduo's lament about suffering in cold water prompted Maomao's conclusion.

• Registered family is a trading household

  Maomao remembered that her registered family was a trading household.

Inferences

• Possible motive tied to Aaduo

  Xiaolan wondered whether the servant acted for Aaduo, who was rumored to be losing her position to a younger consort.

• Fengming may have arranged the suicide

  Maomao suspected Fengming might have helped arrange the death to divert suspicion from Aaduo.

• Possible dealings with Fengming's beekeeping family

  Maomao suspected her registered family might have dealings with Fengming's beekeeping family.

Suspicions

• The noble's request

  When Jinshi arrives at the Rokushoukan with a chest of money and a strange plant and asks for one girl, Maomao assumes he means to buy her.

• Link to garden party poisoning

  The drowned servant had been present during the garden party poisoning incident, and a farewell note led the case to be closed as suicide.

• Aaduo's position as motive

  Maomao reasoned that removing Riishu could protect Aaduo's position before a new consort arrived, since the emperor did not visit Riishu.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–12

Maomao, an apothecary raised in the pleasure district, is kidnapped and sold into the rear palace as a servant. After she traces the illness of the emperor's infants to poisonous face powder, Jinshi tracks her down and she becomes Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster; she goes on to unravel Fuyo's ghost dance, nurse Rifa back to health, and detect the poisoned soup at the garden party.

On a trip home she exposes a courtesan's attempted murder, and in the palace she traces an official's death to salted wine. She then shows that Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting, poisoned Riishu's soup to hide that the honey she had fed Aaduo's infant son caused his death; Fengming is executed and Aaduo leaves. When households tied to Fengming's family are purged, Maomao is dismissed and returns to the pleasure district, but days after meeting her at a banquet, Jinshi arrives at the Rokushoukan with money and asks for one girl.

Music Releases

• Hana ni Natte (OP)
• Aikotoba (ED)