Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 24 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

Jinshi and Maomao

Having lost the match, Lakan resolves to give up on his daughter, but while choosing a courtesan at the Verdigris House he follows a lullaby to the sickroom, finds the ailing Fenshen, and insists on buying her out despite the madam's objections and the high cost. After escorting Lakan there, Maomao is called to Jinshi and explains her mother's motives and her own feelings about Lakan and Ruomen. Back in the rear palace, she dances a send-off atop the wall, and when her wound reopens she asks Jinshi for an ox bezoar.

• Lakan's purchase at the Verdigris House

  Having lost the match, Lakan means to give up on his daughter and nearly picks Meimei, but he follows a lullaby to the sickroom, finds the ailing Fenshen, and insists on buying her out at any price. Over a game of Go he tells her Maomao takes after her, while Meimei weeps that they should have been honest sooner.

• Maomao's account to Jinshi

  Maomao explains her mother's fertility scheme, Lakan's facial-recognition difficulty, and her gratitude for being Ruomen's daughter, while admitting her jealousy of Lakan's talent.

• Farewell dance and gossip

  A few days after returning to the rear palace, Maomao receives Meimei's letter and cloth and dances the send-off for the bought-out courtesan atop the rear palace wall; Jinshi finds her there and tells her Lakan's buyout has become gossip and that he took ten days off.

• Wound and ox bezoar request

  Maomao's wound reopens during the dance, unnoticed at first because drug experiments have dulled her sense of pain; Jinshi carries her to avoid worsening it, and she asks him for an ox bezoar, which he answers with a headbutt.

Recent Timeline

• 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.

• Spiked-cup board game with Lakan (Episode 23)

  Maomao set a best-of-five board game with Lakan: after each game the loser drinks the cup the winner picks from three, one of which is secretly spiked, and forfeiting for any reason means defeat. After she lost the first two games, Lakan conceded the third and drank the spiked cup, which held strong liquor he could not tolerate; he collapsed and could not continue, so he had to buy out a courtesan from the Verdigris House as the wager's price.

• Lakan buys out Fenshen (Episode 24)

  Bound by the wager to buy out a courtesan and told he could pick anyone, Lakan found the ailing Fenshen in the sickroom and insisted on her, offering any sum to buy her out of the Verdigris House. The buyout became public gossip, Lakan took ten days off, and seven days of celebration were planned; since a bought-out courtesan does not appear in public, only the Verdigris House's reputation grew, as the madam intended.

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. Now confirmed to be pregnant again, she keeps Maomao by her side 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

Basen

Gaoshun's youngest son, nineteen like Jinshi's true age, who serves at Jinshi's side. He went with Maomao to escort Lakan to the Verdigris House, then grumbled about Roran and her scheming father.

• 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. After hearing Maomao's account of Lakan, he told her that no father ever wants to be hated.

• 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.

Ruomen (adoptive father)

physician · apothecary · eunuch

Maomao's adoptive father and teacher, a former rear-palace physician and eunuch who now runs an apothecary in the pleasure district. He once told Maomao that Lakan was a pitiable man who had long suffered from not recognizing faces, and Maomao is grateful above all for having become his daughter.

• Expulsion

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

• Advice before palace entry

  Ruomen warns Maomao that carrying pharmaceutical equipment into the palace without being a medical officer may draw suspicion, and urges her to seek permission gradually.

• Background

  Maomao recalls hearing that the previous emperor's mother, the former empress dowager, had him made a eunuch because he had studied in the West.

• Maomao (Family, Friend, Mentor, Affinity)

  Her adoptive father and teacher; Maomao returned home to him and explained her disappearance, and she worries about him living alone.

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 Lakan bought out the ailing Fenshen, she realized the woman was her birth mother and told Jinshi she dislikes Lakan but bears him no grudge. Later she danced a send-off atop the rear palace wall, reopened her wound and asked Jinshi for the ox bezoar.

• 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 is back at her side as food taster now that Gyokuyo's pregnancy is confirmed.

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

  Her employer, to whom she confided that she dislikes Lakan but bears him no grudge; when her wound reopened after the farewell dance and he carried her, she still asked him for the promised ox bezoar.

• 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; later he accompanied her when she escorted Lakan to the Verdigris House.

Jinshi

Rear palace · Court official

A beautiful eunuch who oversees the rear palace, presented as twenty-four but actually nineteen. He heard from Maomao about her mother and her feelings toward Lakan, later found her dancing atop the rear palace wall and carried her when her wound reopened, answering her plea for the ox bezoar with a headbutt.

• 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; he heard her account of her mother and Lakan, and when her wound reopened after the farewell dance he carried her and answered her ox bezoar request with a headbutt.

• 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.

Fenshen

Verdigris House courtesan

An undefeated, fiercely proud Verdigris House courtesan, Lakan's former lover and the mother of his child. Long ill and hidden in a sickroom, she was found by Lakan through her lullaby and bought out, and Maomao realized she was her birth mother.

• Past with Lakan

  Met Lakan for several years in repeated games of go and xiangqi; the two shared a bond without romantic words.

• Lakan (Friend, Affinity)

  Regular patron and game partner who became her lover; years after her buyout fell through, he found her ailing in the sickroom and bought her out.

• Maomao (Family, Neutral)

  Her daughter by Lakan; ashamed of her illness and lost nose, she kept her distance, and Maomao has no memory of her as a mother.

Lakan

A military strategist and Maomao's biological father who cannot combine facial features into faces yet recognizes Maomao and Ruomen. Bound by the wager, he followed a lullaby to the sickroom and bought out the ailing Fenshen at any price, then took ten days off.

• 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.

• Background

  Lifelong inability to distinguish people alienated his father; he later learned to perceive people as game pieces and obtained a military command through his family.

• Loss of standing

  Having lost his place as family heir to a half-brother, he could not match the rising buyout offers for Fenshen; after his uncle fell from favor, his father sent him away to study, keeping him away for three years.

• Maomao (Other, Family, Mixed)

  Her biological father, and one of the few people whose faces he can recognize; he insists on being her father, but Maomao, though she bears him no grudge, dislikes him and rejects the claim.

• Jinshi (Other, Mixed)

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

• Fenshen (Friend, Affinity)

  Lover from years of go and xiangqi whose buyout fell through when she carried his child; he found her ailing in the sickroom and bought her out.

• Ruomen (Family, Mentor, Affinity)

  His uncle, who taught him to recognize people by voice, gestures and build rather than faces.

Meimei

courtesan · Verdigris House

One of the Verdigris House's three leading courtesans, who served Fenshen as a child apprentice. When Lakan nearly chose her, she urged him to choose properly and opened the sickroom door, and she later sent Maomao a letter about the buyout and a length of fine cloth.

• 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.

• Past link

  Had once served as Fenshen's young attendant and played games with Lakan.

• Maomao (Friend, Affinity)

  A caring older sister figure who offered to wash Maomao's back and once asked her to dance properly at Meimei's own send-off when she is bought out; Maomao wished it had been Meimei she was sending off.

• Lakan (Colleague, Neutral)

  Looked after Lakan at the Verdigris House after he was brought there by a nobleman's emissary.

World Memo

• Verdigris House brothel

  An expensive brothel in the pleasure district, run by a madam who is eager to see her courtesans of a certain age bought out. Its top courtesans, such as Pairin, Joka and Meimei, are beyond the reach of many senior officials.

• Pleasure district kinship rule

  Inside the pleasure district, a courtesan does not accept the woman who bore her as her real mother; the bond of birth mother is not treated as mother there.

• 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.

  Buying out a courtesan's contract is expensive and can cost tens of thousands of silver.

• 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.

  Courtesans perform a dance to send off a courtesan whose contract has been bought out, and dancing is part of their basic education.

Clue Board

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Adoptive father among eunuchs (Episode 18)

  Jinshi tells Gaoshun that Maomao's adoptive father was a eunuch and medical officer, and Gaoshun questions whether such a skilled physician served among the eunuchs. Lakan's flashback later shows that Ruomen had indeed become a rear-palace physician before he was expelled.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Fingers in Fenshen's letters (Episode 23)

  Lakan found letters from Fenshen enclosing two fingers, one much smaller. Maomao later explained that after her plan failed, Fenshen harmed herself and even enclosed her baby's little finger in a letter; Maomao's own little finger is still crooked.

• Fenshen's pregnancy and failed buyout (Episode 23)

  Lakan linked the collapsed buyout to Fenshen's pregnancy with his child, and the madam told him she was gone. She had in fact been kept in the Verdigris House sickroom, where Lakan found her and bought her out.

• Lakan's face recognition limit (Episode 24)

  Lakan can distinguish facial features but cannot combine them into recognizable faces; Ruomen once said Lakan had long suffered because of it. Lakan can still recognize Maomao and Ruomen, which Maomao thinks explains his unusual attachment to them.

• Lakan's unusually reliable intuition (Episode 24)

  Maomao suspects Lakan sensed danger at the ceremony through an unusually reliable intuition, though he rarely acts on that talent.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Lakan drank the cup

  After the third game Lakan drank a cup and reported an unpleasant flavor; Maomao explained the substance was alcohol, which Lakan cannot tolerate.

• Partial facial perception

  Lakan can distinguish individual facial features but cannot combine them into a recognizable face.

• Mother's distance from Maomao

  Maomao had come to learn that she herself was the reason the Verdigris House nearly went under, and that the woman who kept away from her out of shame over her missing nose was her mother.

Evidence

• Fertility-timing method

  Maomao explains that a courtesan could estimate her fertile days and arrange a client's visits accordingly.

• Letter with baby's little finger

  Maomao believes her mother harmed herself after her failed plan and sent a letter containing her baby's little finger.

• Nightmare matching events

  Maomao recognizes that her nightmare reflected real events.

Inferences

• Ruin of a courtesan

  Lakan imagined the ruin awaiting a courtesan whose reputation and value had collapsed.

• Lakan's deliberate sacrifice

  Jinshi interpreted Lakan's drinking as a deliberate sacrifice to identify the poison.

• Source of attachment

  Maomao thinks the difficulty explains why Lakan is so attached to her and Ruomen.

Suspicions

• 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.

• Maomao's poisoning accusation

  Jinshi suspected Maomao of actually poisoning Lakan, but this was dismissed.

• Deliberate conception

  Maomao's mother may have arranged the conception on purpose, though this is only Maomao's belief.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–24

Maomao, a pleasure-district apothecary sold into the rear palace, served as Gyokuyo's food taster and Jinshi's maid, solving poisonings and an outer-court plot in which a dead metalworker's alloy rigged a ceremonial pillar; she saved Jinshi from it, while Suirei faked her death and escaped.

Facing the strategist Lakan, her biological father, she answered his blue-rose challenge with dyed buds and beat him in a wagered match. Lakan then bought out the ailing courtesan Fenshen, whom Maomao realized was her birth mother, and Maomao danced a farewell atop the rear palace wall.

Music Releases

• Ambivalent (OP)
• Ai wa Kusuri (ED)