Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 6 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

The Garden Party

At the cold garden party the seating stokes rivalry among the four consorts, and Yinghua clashes with Rifa's ladies-in-waiting when they belittle Maomao. During the banquet Maomao notices that a fish dish the emperor favors contains jellyfish instead of its usual oily fish, then tastes poison in the soup served to Gyokuyo and spits it out; a minister who drinks the soup to test her claim collapses.

Finding hives on Riishu's arm, Maomao concludes that Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals were swapped because Riishu cannot eat mackerel, so the poison may have been meant for Riishu. She gives Riishu's food taster written precautions, and Gaoshun wonders whether the case is tied to the earlier wooden slips.

• Seating rivalry and insults

  The attendants endure the cold while the seating encourages rivalry; Yinghua defends Maomao against Rifa's attendants' insults and the attendants wonder at Maomao's composure.

• Riishu's background and hand warmers

  Riishu is introduced as a former consort of the previous emperor who returned after entering religious life, and Maomao obtains permission to share hand warmers.

• Poisoned soup and the minister's collapse

  At the meal Maomao detects that the fish dish contained jellyfish, declares the soup poisoned, and a minister collapses after drinking it.

• Riishu's allergy and precautions

  Maomao questions Riishu about her seafood reaction, explains the danger of serving the food, and warns that a mistake could threaten her life; Gaoshun then wonders whether the incident is tied to the earlier wooden slips.

Recent Timeline

• Fuyo's transfer to the officer (Episode 3)

  Fuyo was forbidden to go outside and kept under eunuch supervision until her transfer, and then departed on the day of her transfer to the military officer.

• Attendant's poisoned cosmetics punishment (Episode 4)

  An attendant who kept applying the poisonous face powder to Rifa to preserve her beauty was punished by Maomao, who condemned her for using the same poison that had killed Rifa's child. After confinement she returned, was allowed to serve Rifa again, and promised not to repeat the mistake.

• Rifa's recovery from poisoning (Episode 4)

  Maomao took over Rifa's care after the attendants obstructed treatment, feeding her thin rice gruel and tea to flush out the lingering poison, and gradually adding richer foods. About two months later Rifa could walk on her own again, and her willingness to eat showed she did not want to die despite the loss of her child.

• Failed search for arm-burned person (Episode 5)

  An order was issued to find someone who had recently burned an arm. By the eve of the garden party, Gaoshun reported that the search had failed, leaving the person unidentified and Jinshi hoping the party would pass without trouble.

• Poisoned soup at banquet (Episode 6)

  Maomao detected poison in the soup served to Gyokuyo and announced it, causing an uproar. A minister who drank the soup collapsed, and Maomao supplied a strong emetic for him. She traced the altered jellyfish dish to a swap of Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals, since Riishu cannot eat mackerel.

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 formally introduced himself to Maomao and gave her permission to use the available supplies.

• Warning on misuse

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

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Affinity)

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

• 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 lady-in-waiting, who showed Maomao around the Jade Pavilion. At the garden party she pointed out how young Riishu still is and remarked on Maomao's kindness in sharing her hand warmers with Rifa's attendants.

• 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.

Jinshi

Rear palace

The rear palace administrator, a strikingly beautiful eunuch. At the garden party he hurried Maomao to the infirmary after she detected poison in the soup, and heard her conclude that Riishu may have been the real target.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• Maomao (Other, Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Sees Maomao's medicinal knowledge as a useful asset and is intrigued by the open contempt she shows him.

Emperor

The emperor, master of the rear palace. While visiting the Jade Pavilion he ordered Maomao to look after the ailing Rifa at the Crystal Pavilion, and afterwards his visits to the Jade Pavilion dropped off sharply for a while.

• Maomao (Hierarchy, Neutral)

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

Rifa

A high consort who lost her son, the crown prince, to the poisonous face powder and fell gravely ill. Restored by Maomao's two months of care, she attended the garden party and gave Maomao a hairpin.

• Maomao (Other, Affinity)

  Maomao cared for her during her illness and later reassured her and passed on a technique.

• Gyokuyo (Other, Hostility)

  Rifa questioned whether she could rival Gyokuyo in beauty.

Maomao

Rear palace

An apothecary from the pleasure district, now Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster, who paints on fake freckles to look plain. At the garden party she spat out poisoned soup and worked out that Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals had been swapped.

• Start in the rear palace

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

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Promoted to lady-in-waiting by Gyokuyo, who treats her as her own and teasingly complained at the garden party that Maomao was no longer hers alone.

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Jinshi keeps pressing her into service; on the day of the garden party he apologized for the lax oversight that let her be sold into the palace and gave her a man's hairpin, and she told him it was not his fault.

Aaduo

One of the four high consorts, the Pure Consort; at thirty-five she is the longest-serving. Her ladies-in-waiting feud with Riishu's, since Riishu, once a consort of the previous emperor, was formally her mother-in-law.

• Age

  Thirty-five years old.

• Riishu (Other, Hostility)

  Strained relationship with the fourteen-year-old Riishu, explained by Yinghua and Guiyuan.

Lihaku

A military officer at the garden party who handed hairpins to the attendants so none would be left out, giving one to Maomao. He later watched her detect the poison and raised the alarm when the minister collapsed.

• Introduction

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

Riishu

consort

The fourteen-year-old Virtuous Consort, one of the four high consorts. She had been a consort of the previous emperor, entered religious life after his death five years ago, and returned as a consort of the current emperor; she cannot eat seafood such as mackerel.

• 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, Neutral)

  Maomao treated her as a patient for the food allergy and gave her food taster written precautions.

World Memo

• Rear palace administrator post

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

• Twice-yearly garden gathering

  Twice a year the emperor and high officials gather in the palace garden for performances and a banquet. Since the emperor has no empress, he brings his four highest-ranking consorts.

• Hairpin gifts as recruitment

  In the rear palace, gifting hairpins can serve to recruit talented women, and the gift also carries a second, unstated meaning.

Clue Board

• Illness of the imperial children (Episode 1)

  Rumors said three imperial children had died after gradually weakening, and now the babies of Rifa and Gyokuyo showed the same symptoms. Maomao saw that it was no curse: the cause was the poisonous white face powder.

• Rhododendron warning note (Episode 1)

  On the day Gyokuyo went to the Crystal Pavilion to ask for her daughter to be examined, a warning tied to a rhododendron branch was left by her window: the white face powder is poison, keep it from the baby. Gyokuyo asked Jinshi to find the writer, and he traced it to Maomao through the laundry servants' cloth and her ability to read.

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

  Maomao suspected that Jinshi had knowingly tried to make her eat the drugged bun; the question was never answered.

• Soldiers' collapse after a village meal (Episode 2)

  Soldiers sent against a foreign tribe collapsed amid cries of poison after eating a meal made in a nearby village. The headman was seized for siding with the tribe, but an officer calmed the scene and his punishment was put on hold. Since the soldiers ate outdoors with utensils they had prepared themselves, Maomao suggested poisonous plants, even fresh wood that turns toxic when burned, rather than the villagers; the cause has not been confirmed.

• 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.

• Burned garment and wooden tablet (Episode 5)

  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.

• Possible swap of Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals (Episode 6)

  A dish normally made with oily fish contained jellyfish, suggesting the meals of Gyokuyo and Riishu were exchanged; Riishu confirmed she cannot eat mackerel, and whether Riishu was the intended target depends on whether other dishes also contained poison.

• Culprit of Gyokuyo's poisoned soup (Episode 6)

  The soup served to Gyokuyo was poisoned and a minister collapsed after drinking it, but who poisoned the dish remains unidentified; Jinshi asked and Maomao requested that Riishu be summoned.

• Search for the arm-burn person (Episode 6)

  An order was given to find someone who had recently burned an arm; the search had failed by the eve of the garden party, leaving Jinshi hoping the event would pass without trouble.

  After the poisoning, Gaoshun wondered whether it was tied to the earlier wooden slips, noting that the lady-in-waiting they had just seen had no burn marks; the culprit remains unidentified.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Refuse burned by worker

  The worker burned palace refuse that included a woman's garment with a scorched sleeve and a wooden tablet, and he believed the flames and his hand trouble were a curse.

• Arm-burn search failed

  Gaoshun reported that the search for the person who had recently burned an arm had failed.

• No burn marks

  The attendant questioned in this episode had no burn marks.

Evidence

• Wrong dish suspected

  Maomao suspected the meals had been served to the wrong people because the ingredients were altered.

• Reluctant to eat fish

  Riishu's distress suggested she disliked fish but felt unable to leave it uneaten in the emperor's presence.

• Worker's skin irritation

  The worker's hand was badly irritated after handling the burned items, and at the physician's request Maomao prepared an ointment for it.

Inferences

• Poison believed to remain

  Maomao believed the poison remained in Rifa's body, so she gave tea to promote urination

• Meals possibly exchanged

  Maomao concluded that Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals had somehow been exchanged.

• Dangerous reaction risk

  Maomao warned that the reaction could obstruct breathing, so knowingly serving the offending food would be equivalent to poisoning.

Suspicions

• Tablet irritated the skin

  Maomao suspected that a substance on the wooden tablet had irritated the worker's skin.

• Tablet carries a secret message

  Maomao privately suspected that the colored wooden tablet carried a secret message and decided not to pry.

• Possible connection to wooden slips

  Gaoshun wondered whether the poisoning incident was connected to the earlier wooden slips, leaving the culprit's identity unresolved.

Season Summary

Season 1 — Season 1

Episodes 1–6

Abducted and sold into the rear palace, Maomao exposes the poisonous face powder behind the imperial infants' illness and becomes Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster. She detects an aphrodisiac in a bun, suspects poisonous plants in a soldiers' poisoning case, makes an aphrodisiac for Jinshi, and concludes that the consort Fuyo faked her sleepwalking to avoid the emperor before being given to her childhood friend, an officer.

Sent by the emperor to the Crystal Pavilion, she nurses Rifa back to health, then traces a eunuch's 'curse' to a wooden tablet that may carry a coded message. At the garden party, after Jinshi gives her a hairpin, she detects poison in Gyokuyo's soup and works out that Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals were swapped, leaving Riishu as the possible target; Gaoshun wonders whether the wooden tablets are connected.

Music Releases

• Hana ni Natte (OP)
• Aikotoba (ED)