Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 21 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

How to Buy Out a Contract

Maomao examines a physician's paper production, noting that the paper is weak in strength and has a fuzzy surface. Lihaku asks for advice on buying out the courtesan Pairin, leading to a physique check interrupted by Jinshi. Jinshi offers money toward the buyout, Lihaku refuses it, and the episode ends with Lihaku deciding to write a letter asking Pairin what she wants.

• Paper production inquiry

  Maomao questions the physician about the paper's weak strength and fuzzy surface, learns that the glue uses wheat flour and standing spring water, and suggests checking whether cattle drink from that water supply.

• Pairin buyout consultation

  Lihaku seeks advice on buying out Pairin, and Maomao estimates his yearly pay and the ten-thousand-silver upfront cost while assessing his physique, until Jinshi interrupts the examination.

• Jinshi's offer and Lihaku's refusal

  Jinshi offers twenty thousand toward the buyout, which Lihaku declines in order to earn Pairin's freedom himself; he then resolves to write and ask Pairin what she wants.

Recent Timeline

• 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.

• Unofficial medicinal garden discovered (Episode 18)

  Maomao 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, warning 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 needing 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. This showed that another corpse had been substituted so the scheduled burning would hide Suirei's escape.

• Lihaku refuses Jinshi's buyout funds (Episode 21)

  Jinshi offered twenty thousand toward Pairin's buyout, citing trust in Maomao's judgment and a wish to get on good terms with a promising officer. Lihaku refused, choosing to earn the freedom of the woman he hopes to marry through his own work. Jinshi accepted his answer and asked to approach him again later.

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

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.

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 for Maomao and stood by Jinshi when Jinshi sounded out Lihaku over Pairin's buyout.

• 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.

Meimei

courtesan

One of the Verdigris House's three leading courtesans, who helped look after Maomao as a child. She told Maomao that the old proposal concerning her had resurfaced, and has chosen to keep working a while longer.

• Career stance

  Tells Maomao how few courtesans are ever wanted by the one they want, yet chooses to keep working a while longer rather than go independent.

• Maomao (Friend, Affinity)

  A friendly acquaintance who offers to wash Maomao's back; Maomao does not understand her feelings.

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 serves as Gyokuyo's food taster after a stint as Jinshi's maid. After exposing Suirei's faked death she returned to the rear palace, where she suggested to the physician that the cattle might be behind his family's paper problem and advised Lihaku on buying out Pairin.

• 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.

Jinshi

Rear palace · Court official

A beautiful eunuch who oversees the rear palace, presented as twenty-four but actually nineteen. He interrupted Maomao's examination of Lihaku, then offered Lihaku twenty thousand toward Pairin's buyout; when Lihaku refused, he accepted the answer and asked to talk with him again.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• 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.

• Offer to Lihaku

  Offered twenty thousand toward the buyout; accepted Lihaku's refusal and asked to approach him again

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

  Pressed her about her claimed illiteracy and brought her to Gyokuyo; when he caught her examining Lihaku's body, he asked whether she could read his the same way, and Maomao suspected he wanted to show off his beauty.

• Lihaku (Other, Neutral)

  Wishes to cultivate a connection with a promising officer

Lihaku

A military officer, the son of a provincial official, who hopes to buy out the courtesan Pairin with money he earns himself. He refused Jinshi's offer of twenty thousand toward the buyout and decided to write to Pairin to ask what she wants.

• 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.

• Stance on Pairin buyout

  Refused Jinshi's twenty thousand, wanting to earn her freedom himself

• 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.

• Pairin (Other, Affinity)

  Woman he hopes to marry; resolved to ask her what she wants rather than simply come for her

Pairin

One of the Verdigris House's three leading courtesans, a skilled dancer who helped raise Maomao and was like a mother to her. In a letter she said she is still in her prime and waiting for a young lord to come for her, and that a visitor's talk of a buyout had misled the apprentices.

• Departure preparations

  Pairin assures Jinshi that Maomao was carefully prepared for the occasion and hopes she will return with a vigorous, wealthy patron.

• Current stance

  Says she intends to continue working and is still waiting for a prince to come for her

• Maomao (Friend, Guardian, Affinity)

  Like a mother who helped raise Maomao at the Verdigris House, she looked after Maomao's preparations and wished her success in earning.

World Memo

• Courtesan training and valuation

  The Verdigris House raises girls from childhood to become courtesans. Promising beauties attract customers through conversation and accomplishments rather than being sold for sex right away. A courtesan's price rests on her untouched status: losing it can halve her value, and pregnancy can reduce it to almost nothing.

• Rear palace ban on men

  Men are banned from the rear palace.

• Village paper production supplying the court

  Paper is produced by a family organized within their village, which supplies paper to the court.

• Logging ban by former emperor's mother

  A ban on logging imposed by the former emperor's mother forced paper materials to change, damaging exports of the paper.

• Courtesan contract buyout

  Courtesans in the pleasure district serve under contracts with a promised release date, and a customer may buy a woman out of her contract before that date.

  As prices rise and access narrows, a celebrated courtesan's customers may pay enormous sums merely to share tea. Sometimes they buy out her contract without ever touching her.

  A courtesan's buyout price depends on her expected future earnings, so buyers are judged by how much they can be expected to pay the house over time.

Clue Board

• Rumored courtesan buyout (Episode 13)

  A rumor circulated that the rear palace administrator had bought out a courtesan from the Verdigris House; its truth remains unconfirmed.

  Lakan admits he once wanted to buy out a courtesan at Verdigris House known for excelling at board games, but two wealthy rivals drove her price beyond his reach. He says he later used an underhanded method to lower her value, and he withholds how he did it.

  Meimei reports that the familiar proposal concerning Maomao has resurfaced, and Maomao suspects it explains the madam's wish to make her a courtesan.

  Gossip spreads that one of the three leading courtesans is going to have her contract bought out.

• Lakan denies noticing anything (Episode 14)

  Rikuson asked Lakan whether something had caught his attention, and Lakan denied that anything had, though the explosion had just sounded. His denial is left unexplained.

• 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.

• Medicine said to revive the dead (Episode 18)

  Suirei mentions a medicine capable of reviving the dead, which excites Maomao until Suirei's claim is dismissed as a joke.

  Suirei had mentioned morning glories and a resurrection medicine; Maomao recalls a drug that makes a person appear dead before reviving, reportedly made with thornapple and pufferfish, and theorizes Suirei was revived and escaped.

• Suspected sabotage of ceremony pillar (Episode 19)

  A large pillar hangs above the central altar of the ceremonial venue and is lowered for inscriptions. A former ministry official was transferred after raising concerns about the strength of its supports. Maomao suspects a failed fitting could drop it onto the high-ranking officiant, and that the stolen implements may have been remade for this purpose.

  Maomao links a ritual official's death the previous year, a warehouse fire that coincided with the theft of ritual equipment, and the equipment custodian's food poisoning into a chain of apparent accidents she suspects were deliberately arranged.

• Stolen ritual implements (Episode 19)

  Several ritual implements were stolen from another warehouse on the day of the small fire, apparently while the disturbance drew attention. Maomao suspects the thefts may connect the incidents to an upcoming ceremony.

  The stolen fittings would have needed replacement, and Maomao proposes the replacements were made using a deceased metalworker's special alloy that could melt near a fire.

• 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.

• Thornapple poisoning question (Episode 20)

  Maomao asks whether Suirei took thornapple, which resembles white morning glories and can work as an anesthetic in controlled doses; the physician says the symptoms fit but he cannot identify the poison conclusively.

• The Emperor's unclear motive (Episode 20)

  The Emperor keeps visiting Roran despite limited enthusiasm, and Maomao suspects his situation is more complicated than mere lust.

• Cattle and water source for glue (Episode 21)

  The physician's paper quality declined after cattle began doing the heavy labor, and the glue is made with wheat flour and standing spring water. Maomao suspects the cattle's drinking water may be the same supply used for the glue, but the physician does not know where the cattle are kept, so the possible link stays unresolved.

• Attendant's misunderstanding of buyout talk (Episode 21)

  Pairin explained that an attendant had apparently misunderstood a visitor's discussion of a buyout, and it emerged that winning Pairin's affection could lower the required buyout below ten thousand. Who that visitor was is left unstated.

• Rikuson's meeting request to Lakan (Episode 21)

  Rikuson called Lakan to a meeting, and Lakan answered only by mentioning blue roses. The purpose of the meeting and the meaning of the blue-rose reply are left unexplained.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Glue composition

  The paper's glue is made from wheat flour and spring water left standing.

• Earlier material changes

  A logging ban imposed by the former emperor's mother forced changes in the physician's family materials, which damaged exports.

• Threatened supplier status

  A letter from the physician's younger sister warned the paper might lose its status as a court supplier.

Evidence

• 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.

• Starch drink test

  Maomao showed that saliva can thin a thick starch drink, which she used to test the glue's behavior.

Inferences

• 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.

• Possible cattle water link

  Maomao reasoned that the cattle's water could affect the glue made from spring water.

Suspicions

• 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.

• Cattle drinking water

  Maomao suspects that the cattle drinking from the water supply used for the glue may be the cause of the quality decline.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–21

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. Back in the rear palace as the possibly pregnant Gyokuyo's food taster, she advised Lihaku on buying out Pairin.

Music Releases

• Ambivalent (OP)
• Ai wa Kusuri (ED)