Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 20 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

Thornapple

After waking from her stitched wound, Maomao links a chain of apparent accidents to a deliberate plot involving a deceased metalworker's alloy. Lihaku reports that Suirei died of poison, but Maomao doubts it, and at the morgue the coffin turns out to hold another body. Maomao theorizes that Suirei revived and escaped with an accomplice's help, while Jinshi reflects on his secrets and Gyokuyo's possible pregnancy sends Maomao back to the rear palace. The episode closes with gossip about a courtesan's contract being bought out.

• Deliberate accident chain

  Linking a ritual official's death, a warehouse fire, and food poisoning, the falling pillar is traced to replacement fittings made from a deceased metalworker's low-melting alloy.

• Doubted poison death

  Suirei, reported dead from apparent poison with a scheduled cremation, is suspected of having taken thornapple and a resurrection drug, and the coffin at the morgue holds another body despite the physician's confirmation.

• Escape theory and palace return

  Maomao theorizes that Suirei revived from the drug just as an accomplice opened the coffin, and that she left disguised as a worker after a coffin holding another body was swapped in. Jinshi privately reflects on the secrets he keeps, and Gyokuyo's missed period sends Maomao back to the rear palace.

Recent Timeline

• Jinshi's disguise for the outing (Episode 17)

  Maomao altered Jinshi's build, skin tone, features, and voice, and completed the disguise with cotton in his cheeks so he would pass as a commoner. Suiren then proposed disguising Maomao as well, and she went out as a young lady with Jinshi serving as her attendant under an assumed name.

• Lakan's request refused by Jinshi (Episode 18)

  Lakan, who had sought Maomao for over ten years, asked Jinshi to let him see her and offered any payment. Jinshi realized Lakan knew his true identity and recognized him as Maomao's biological father. Jinshi promised to refuse the request, and Maomao thanked him, having concluded she had been discovered.

  Maomao also followed the scent of herbs to an unofficial medicinal garden and met Suirei there. Suirei tolerated her presence without a reprimand but warned that frequent visits would be noticed, since the medical officers knew of the garden.

• Intrusion into the ceremony (Episode 19)

  Maomao rushed to the ceremony and warned that the altar had a sabotaged defect and that lives were at risk. A guard refused her entry and struck her when she provoked him. Lakan intervened, condemned the guard, and took responsibility for letting her proceed.

  When the pillar fell, she reached Jinshi in time to save him. Injured and in need of stitches, she still asked him for the ox bezoar he had promised as her reward.

• Suirei's faked death exposed (Episode 20)

  Suirei was reported dead from poison, but when Maomao opened the coffin the body inside was not hers. Another corpse had been substituted so that the scheduled burning would hide Suirei's escape.

• Maomao's return to the rear palace (Episode 20)

  Jinshi sent Maomao back to the rear palace because Gyokuyo's menstruation had stopped, raising the possibility of pregnancy. Maomao resumed her daily food-taster poison testing there.

Character Graph

Gyokuyo

Rear palace

The emperor's favored consort and mother of Princess Lingli, who made Maomao her lady-in-waiting after Maomao saved Lingli from poisonous face powder. Her missed period now raises the possibility of a new pregnancy, so Maomao returns to her as food taster.

• 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

Riishu

consort

A fourteen-year-old consort who served the previous emperor, became a nun after his death and returned to the rear palace under the current emperor. She cannot eat mackerel, and Jinshi believes the emperor, who despises his predecessor's taste for young girls, will not lay a hand on her.

• 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, Hostility)

  Thirty-five-year-old figure with whom Riishu has a strained relationship, explained by Yinghua and Guiyuan.

• Maomao (Other, Mixed)

  Maomao treated her food allergy and gave her food taster written precautions; later Riishu answered Maomao's questions about honey while her attendants resisted, keeping the exchange guarded.

Aaduo

A former high consort who lost her womb and the emperor's first son because her delivery was neglected while the physicians attended the empress dowager's. She has since left the rear palace, and Roran entered in her place.

• Age

  Thirty-five years old.

• Departure

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

• Riishu (Other, Friend, Affinity)

  Yinghua and Guiyuan described the two as on strained terms, yet Aaduo found comfort in Riishu's company even as Fengming's attitude toward Riishu changed.

Suiren

Jinshi's household staff

The sole attendant of Jinshi's private quarters, strict but warm toward Maomao. When Maomao woke in Jinshi's bedroom after the ceremony, Suiren told her she had needed fifteen stitches and that Jinshi had brought her there himself.

• Private quarters duty

  Suiren is the only attendant managing Jinshi's private rooms because previous attendants did not last.

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Suiren serves Jinshi as attendant in his private quarters.

• Maomao (Colleague, Affinity)

  Suiren gladly accepts Maomao's offer of help with the private rooms.

Lihaku

A military officer friendly with Maomao who is smitten with the courtesan Pairin. He brought word that Suirei, implicated in the ceremony plot, had been found dead of poison and was to be burned in her coffin.

• Introduction

  Offered Maomao a gift and introduced himself; Maomao assumed he gave gifts so no attendant would feel embarrassed.

• Guarantor role

  Served as Maomao's guarantor and accompanied her on her visit home, where he was delighted by a night's pleasure; the silver Maomao's advance payment did not cover is hers to make up.

• Maomao (Guardian, Other, Neutral)

  Served as her guarantor, and her half-salary advance fell short of Pairin's fee, leaving her to cover the rest; when they met again while she was gathering herbs, she explained her new posting and later asked him to warn the warehouse keeper against smoking in the storehouse.

Roran

A consort who entered the rear palace in Aaduo's place, the daughter of an official favored by the former empress dowager. She keeps changing her hair and makeup, and the emperor visits her every ten days more out of obligation than desire.

Basen

Gaoshun's youngest son, nineteen like Jinshi's true age, who serves at Jinshi's side. When Maomao woke after the ceremony, he burst in angrily demanding to know what had happened.

• Source investigation

  Investigated the seaweed's source and confirmed it came from the south

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Escorts her to the house and has her act as his attendant

Gaoshun

attendant to Jinshi

Jinshi's attendant and right hand, and father of Basen. He checked Suirei's empty coffin and found the nail marks that supported Maomao's escape theory, and he urged Jinshi to let him hold more grandchildren soon.

• Warning on misuse

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

• Outer court placement

  Gaoshun explains why Maomao cannot return to her former post and guides her through the outer court, warning her away from the eastern military area.

• Case reporting

  Reported that the official's younger brother confessed to buying the imported seaweed and gave an account of where he learned about the poison

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Attends Jinshi as his attendant and reported where the village meal came from.

• Maomao (Colleague, Hierarchy, Other, Neutral)

  Warned that her knowledge could be misused and objected to Jinshi trying the aphrodisiac, while granting her access to supplies; he later asked her to examine a past food poisoning record and reported the case results to her.

Jinshi

Rear palace · Court official

A beautiful eunuch who oversees the rear palace, presented as twenty-four but actually nineteen. After Maomao saved him at the ceremony he had her nursed in his own quarters, and he sent her back to the rear palace when Gyokuyo might be pregnant.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• Employment of Maomao

  Jinshi intends Maomao for the female official examination and presses her on studying.

• Work friction

  Complains that work piles up because a senior military official keeps disagreeing with him and delaying approvals

• Public identity

  Presented publicly as a twenty-four-year-old eunuch; the appearance requires daily medicine that suppresses his manhood.

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

  Pressed her about her claimed illiteracy and brought her to Gyokuyo, later taking her on as his maid; he now worries about her injury and, from her attitude toward Lakan, suspects some history between her and her father.

Emperor

The current emperor, who favors Gyokuyo and once asked Maomao to cure Rifa. He visits Roran every ten days only out of regard for her influential father, and Jinshi believes he has no intention of touching the young Riishu.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Neutral)

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

• Roran (Other, Neutral)

  The Emperor keeps visiting Roran with limited enthusiasm, because Roran's politically influential father cannot be treated lightly.

Maomao

Rear palace · Jinshi's household · apothecary · pleasure district

An apothecary raised in the pleasure district who served as Gyokuyo's food taster and later as Jinshi's maid. Recovering from her stitched wound after saving Jinshi at the ceremony, she exposed Suirei's faked death at the morgue, and she was then sent back to the rear palace as Gyokuyo's food taster because the consort may be pregnant.

• Start in the rear palace

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

• Investigative role

  Asked to examine a ten-year-old food poisoning record and inspect a household kitchen, and tested seaweed preparation herself

• Home visit disguise

  Maomao is dressed in Suiren's daughter's clothes and poses as a young lady on the trip, with Jinshi as her attendant.

• Interest in Suirei

  Wants to meet Suirei again to learn how to make the resurrection medicine.

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Became Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting after helping her anonymously, and Gyokuyo teasingly complained at the garden party that Maomao was no longer hers alone; Maomao has now returned to her as food taster because Gyokuyo may be pregnant.

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

  Her employer, who once pressed her on her literacy and the cloth linked to the warning; he sent her back to the rear palace because Gyokuyo might be pregnant, and she welcomed the posting because it kept her away from someone she wanted to avoid, wondering whether he had arranged it for her sake.

• Gaoshun (Colleague, Affinity)

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

• Basen (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Went with Basen to an official's house posing as his attendant, and he ordered her not to act on her own.

Suirei

military

A palace woman who gathered medicine for a military duty station and kept an unofficial herb garden. Implicated in the ceremony plot, she was reported dead from poison, but Maomao found another body in her coffin and believes she revived and escaped with an accomplice's help.

• Garden stance

  Tolerates Maomao's unofficial visits but advises against frequent ones because the medical officers know about the garden.

• Escape theory

  Maomao believes Suirei revived from the drug just as an accomplice opened the coffin, and escaped disguised as a worker.

• Maomao (Other, Mixed)

  Suspected Maomao of trespassing in the garden, then let it go and tested her skill as an apothecary; after Suirei's escape, Maomao, fascinated by her knowledge and audacity, wants to meet her again to learn the resurrection medicine rather than capture her.

World Memo

• Rear palace administrator post

  The rear palace has an administrator role held by a eunuch, who oversees the servants gathered there.

• Guarded rear palace perimeter

  The rear palace is enclosed by guarded gates and a surrounding moat.

• Poisonous face powder

  Face powder used in the rear palace is poisonous and dangerous to infants; many courtesans in the pleasure district were poisoned by expensive powder, a known hazard.

  The poisonous face powder has been banned, and eunuchs have reportedly collected all remaining supplies in the rear palace.

• Twice-yearly garden gathering

  The palace holds a garden gathering twice a year, offering entertainment and food, and the Emperor attends it with his highest-ranking consorts.

• Ministry of rites handles ceremonies

  The ministry responsible for rites is the office that handles ceremonies at the palace.

• Ceremonial altar pillar mechanism

  A large pillar hangs above the central altar of the ceremonial venue and is lowered during the ceremony to add celebratory inscriptions.

• Rear palace ban on men

  Men are banned from the rear palace.

Clue Board

• 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.

• 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.

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

  A record of an infant's death sixteen years earlier leads Maomao to examine who attended the birth, reinforcing her suspicion of a link to her father, a former eunuch with exceptional medical skill; the connection is unconfirmed.

• 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.

• Unknown person smoking in storehouse (Episode 14)

  Maomao suspects someone entered the storehouse to smoke in secret, but who that person was is not identified. Lihaku was asked to warn the warehouse keeper against smoking inside.

  A palace woman gave the fine pipe to the warehouse guard as thanks for escorting her after dark. She hid her face with a scarf, was unusually tall, and smelled of medicine. Maomao suspects the gift tempted the guard to use it right away, causing the fire.

• Tavern stranger's poison knowledge (Episode 15)

  According to Gaoshun, the younger brother claimed a stranger seated beside him in a tavern told him about the seaweed's poison by chance. Maomao regards this explanation with skepticism, and the stranger's identity and motive remain unknown.

• Father's recurring symptoms (Episode 16)

  The late craftsman suffered recurring anemia, abdominal pain, nausea, and depression. Maomao asked about his health and about the use of solder, but the link between these symptoms and his work is not stated.

• Metalworker's lost technique (Episode 16)

  A court metalworker died without naming a successor or passing his secret technique to his three children, who were also his apprentices. Lakan suspects the craftsman's suggestive final instructions may hold a clue and asks Jinshi whether his clever new maid could investigate.

  Maomao suspects only the youngest son understood the father's intent: lead, tin, and a third substance could form an alloy melting at a particularly low temperature. This remains unconfirmed.

  Maomao suspects the metalworker unwittingly followed an order and that his death conveniently concealed both the customer and the technique, though she cannot establish that he was murdered.

• Jinshi's possible military background (Episode 17)

  Jinshi's calluses and his remark about camping food suggest martial or campaign experience, which Maomao finds odd for a eunuch attendant; the matter is left unasked and unexplained.

• Suirei's military link and court service (Episode 18)

  Suirei is seen collecting medicines for a duty station, which Maomao takes as the source of the herbal scent, and the physician remarks that Suirei should not have needed to work as a court lady before withdrawing the comment.

• Reason for Jinshi's presence (Episode 19)

  Jinshi is found at the ceremony site when Maomao arrives, and she wonders why he is there. The reason is not yet given.

• Suirei's possible accomplice (Episode 20)

  Maomao doubts Suirei acted alone or chose suicide and suspects an accomplice helped her, opening the coffin so she could escape disguised as a worker.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Central drawer jammed

  The second son's central drawer stopped opening while the father was modifying it, and the father warned against forcing the lock because the contents would also be damaged.

• Drawer opened by sunlight

  Maomao recreated the fishbowl's former place so that concentrated sunlight fell on the lock, and after the light passed into the tree's shadow the second son's key opened the drawer.

• Replacement fittings

  The stolen ritual-equipment fittings would have needed replacement, proposed to have been made with the deceased metalworker's special alloy that melts near a fire.

Evidence

• Father's ailments

  The father had suffered recurring anemia, abdominal pain, nausea and depression, as Maomao learned while asking about his health and his use of solder.

• Key mold

  Maomao identified a key mold and reasoned that heat had melted the metal blocking the keyhole, which flowed into the mold below and formed another key.

• Warehouse fire and theft

  A warehouse fire coincided with the theft of ritual equipment, linked to the ritual official's prior-year death and the equipment custodian's food poisoning.

Inferences

• Faked death and escape

  Maomao theorized that a substituted corpse hid Suirei's escape: she revived from a thornapple-and-pufferfish drug just as an accomplice opened the coffin, and left disguised as a worker.

• Heat-melt unlocking method

  Maomao reasoned that the concentrated light heated a low-melting metal plug in the keyhole so that it could be removed.

• Unwitting metalworker

  Maomao suspected the metalworker unwittingly followed an order, and his death concealed the customer and technique, though murder could not be established.

Suspicions

• Clue in final instructions

  Lakan believes the suggestive final instructions may point to where the technique went.

• Low-melting alloy design

  Maomao suspected that only the youngest son understood the father's intention, namely that lead, tin and a third substance could form an alloy melting at a particularly low temperature.

• Drawer proportions

  Maomao considered whether the differing drawer sizes indicated proportions, but did not explain this further.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–20

Maomao, a pleasure-district apothecary sold into the rear palace, became Gyokuyo's food taster after saving Princess Lingli from poisonous face powder, and later, as Jinshi's maid, cracked a dead metalworker's low-melting alloy while Jinshi learned that the strategist Lakan is her father.

When a ceremonial pillar rigged with that alloy fell, she saved Jinshi, then exposed Suirei's faked death, though Suirei escaped. With Gyokuyo possibly pregnant, Maomao returned to the rear palace as her food taster.

Music Releases

• Ambivalent (OP)
• Ai wa Kusuri (ED)