Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 22 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

Blue Roses

As spring approached, Gyokuyo's pregnancy became certain. Lakan claimed that vivid blue roses had once been displayed at court and challenged Jinshi to stage a viewing at the next month's garden party. Jinshi accepted, and Maomao forced roses out of season in a steam-heated hut; they did not bloom in time, so she had the white buds absorb dyed water and presented buds in blue and other colors at the gathering.

• Blue rose challenge

  Lakan challenged Jinshi to show blue roses at the garden party, and Jinshi accepted despite doubting they existed.

• Forcing the roses

  Maomao built a steam-heated hut with sunlight and assembled more than a hundred early-flowering rose plants, tending them through cold nights until the first bud appeared.

• Coloring at the party

  At the gathering the roses, originally white, were coloured by absorbing dyed water, and Lakan was left unsettled by the nail colouring that reminded him of balsam red.

Recent Timeline

• 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, showing that another corpse had been substituted so 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, and Maomao resumed her daily food-taster poison testing there.

• 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, and Jinshi accepted his answer and asked to approach him again later.

• Blue rose challenge at garden party (Episode 22)

  Lakan challenged Jinshi to show blue roses at the following month's garden party, and Maomao forced white roses out of season in a heated hut; when they did not bloom in time, she had the buds absorb dyed water. Buds in blue and other colors were displayed at the party and surprised the guests, and Lakan's provocation failed.

Character Graph

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.

Lakan (Maomao's biological father)

A military strategist and Maomao's biological father who sees most faces as mere game pieces. He challenged Jinshi to show blue roses at the garden party, and afterward the nail rouge around him stirred a memory of a paler balsam red.

• Courtesan history

  Recalls a go-playing courtesan who repeatedly beat him, whose price was pushed beyond his reach by two wealthy rivals, and whom he later devalued by an underhanded method

• Paternal claim

  Asked Jinshi to tell his daughter he would visit her soon, after Jinshi named him as the official wanting to see her.

• Maomao (Other, Family, Affinity)

  Her biological father, who wants to see her and claim her as his daughter; Maomao saw his hand behind the blue-rose demand on Jinshi and set out to beat him at it.

• Jinshi (Other, Mixed)

  Lakan knows Jinshi's true identity and openly contests Jinshi's claim on Maomao, conceding he cannot compel him.

Emperor

The current emperor, who favors Gyokuyo and once asked Maomao to cure Rifa. At the garden party he admired the dyed rose buds, having already heard the secret from Maomao and enjoyed being the first to know.

• 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. Seeing Lakan's hand behind the blue-rose demand Jinshi had accepted, she took it on, forcing roses in a steam-heated hut with Xiaolan and, when they failed to bloom in time, dyeing the white buds for the garden party.

• 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.

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

  Her employer, who sent her back to the rear palace as Gyokuyo's food taster; when he was saddled with Lakan's blue-rose demand, she saw Lakan's hand in it and took the job on.

Jinshi

Rear palace · Court official

A beautiful eunuch who oversees the rear palace, presented as twenty-four but actually nineteen. Challenged by Lakan to show blue roses at the garden party, he accepted despite his doubts and turned to Maomao, then presented her dyed rose buds at the party.

• 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; saddled with Lakan's blue-rose demand, he turned to her and presented the rose buds she had dyed at the garden party.

• 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.

Roran

A consort who entered the rear palace in Aaduo's place, the daughter of Shisho, who was favored by the former empress dowager. At the garden party, where Gyokuyo gave up her seat, she made a splendid debut that drew the guests' attention.

Gaoshun

attendant to Jinshi

Jinshi's attendant and right hand, and father of Basen. When Lakan demanded blue roses, he had flower shops searched across the country and prepared what Maomao asked for before the garden party.

• 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.

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.

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Blue roses shown at court long ago (Episode 22)

  Lakan claims vivid blue roses were once displayed at court and challenges Jinshi to show them again at the garden party; Maomao speculates someone with free time repeatedly fed roses blue water, perhaps to impress a woman, but the origin remains unconfirmed.

• Lakan's subtler balsam red memory (Episode 22)

  Troubled by red flickering before his eyes, Lakan notices the nail coloring around him and recalls a subtler balsam red, a hint of an unresolved memory.

Deduction Board

Facts

• 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.

• Lakan's claim of past court display

  Lakan claimed vivid blue roses had once been displayed at court and used this to challenge Jinshi to arrange another viewing at the following month's garden party.

Evidence

• 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.

• Jinshi's doubt about existence

  Jinshi doubted that blue roses existed, yet accepted the challenge and had Gaoshun search flower shops throughout the country.

Inferences

• 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.

• Colored-water method parallel

  Maomao had colored white roses by letting their buds absorb differently colored water, a method that could explain blue roses produced by feeding water.

Suspicions

• 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.

• Repeated blue-water feeding by an admirer

  Maomao speculated that someone with ample free time repeatedly fed roses blue water, perhaps to impress a woman.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–22

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 and exposed Suirei's faked death, though Suirei escaped. Back in the rear palace as the pregnant Gyokuyo's food taster, she met Lakan's blue-rose challenge to Jinshi by dyeing out-of-season rose buds for the garden party.

Music Releases

• Ambivalent (OP)
• Ai wa Kusuri (ED)