Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Episode 9 Recap & Characters (Spoiler-Free)

Episode Summary

Suicide or Murder?

At a drinking gathering a senior official was later reported dead from excessive drinking, and Maomao examined the broken jar and found a large amount of salt rather than poison, suggesting the salt dissolved in the wine could have been fatal.

Later a drowned kitchen servant was found in the outer moat and was treated as a suicide, though Maomao doubted she could have climbed the wall unaided. Gaoshun then identified Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting, as the result of a two-month search for someone with a burned arm.

• Salt found in the sweet wine

  Maomao found a large amount of salt in the broken jar and argued that the salt dissolved in the sweet wine could have been fatal to the official, who had lost his ability to taste salt.

• Drowned kitchen servant in the moat

  A drowned kitchen servant was examined, and her bound feet and bloodied fingertips led Maomao to believe she entered the water alive, though the guards had closed the case as suicide after a farewell note was found.

• Search for the burned-arm person

  Gaoshun delivered the results of a two-month search for someone with a burned arm, identifying Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting.

Recent Timeline

• Poisoned soup at the 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.

• Lihaku's sponsored Rokushoukan visit (Episode 7)

  Maomao secured Lihaku's sponsorship for a temporary leave from the rear palace by offering him an introduction to the Rokushoukan brothel. The proprietor accepted the arrangement, but the advance Maomao paid, half her palace wages so far, could not cover Pairin's fee, so the proprietor demanded she send more good customers.

• Pleasure district poisoning attempt (Episode 8)

  A courtesan and her customer collapsed after drinking. Maomao concluded it was an attempted killing by the courtesan, who used tobacco-infused liquor layered by density and drunk through a straw, not a lovers' suicide pact. The courtesan apparently survived by drinking a small amount of the poisoned layer.

• Senior official's death from salted wine (Episode 9)

  A senior official's death, first reported as excessive drinking, was traced to a large amount of salt in the wine rather than poison. Maomao found the salt in the broken jar and concluded the dissolved salt caused the death, since his diminished sense of taste hid the danger from him. A kitchen servant found drowned in the outer moat was judged a suicide by climbing the wall, though Maomao doubted a bound-foot woman could manage the climb without equipment; the case was later closed as suicide after an apparent farewell note was found, although she had been present at the garden party poisoning incident.

• Burned-arm person search result (Episode 9)

  After a two-month search for a person with a burned arm, Gaoshun delivered the result, identifying Fengming, the head lady-in-waiting of Aaduo.

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 has looked after him since he was born. He brings the report on the dead official's habits and, after a two-month search, reports that the person with the burned arm is Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting.

• Warning on misuse

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

• Jinshi (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Serves Jinshi as his attendant and has looked after him since he was born.

• Maomao (Other, 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 attendant who showed Maomao around the Jade Pavilion.

• 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.

Fuyo

middle-ranking consort · princess from a small dependent country

Middle-ranking consort and princess of a small dependent country. The rumored ghost dancing on the walls turned out to be her, and she has since been awarded to the military officer she had known since childhood.

• Transfer

  Awarded to a military officer she had known since childhood, and was placed under eunuch supervision until her departure.

Maomao

Rear palace

Apothecary raised in the pleasure district who was kidnapped and sold into the rear palace, where her knowledge of poisons made her Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster. She traces a senior official's death to salt in his wine and doubts that a drowned maid could have climbed the wall alone.

• Start in the rear palace

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

• Gyokuyo (Hierarchy, Affinity)

  Gyokuyo made her a lady-in-waiting after Maomao's anonymous warning helped save Lingli; she treats Maomao as her own attendant and teased at the garden party that Maomao was no longer hers alone.

• Jinshi (Other, Mentor, Affinity)

  Her superior, who brings her a senior official's suspicious death to examine and gives her wine in thanks; she asks him, half seriously, to execute her by poison if it ever comes to that.

Aaduo

At 35, the most senior of the four high-ranking consorts. Yinghua and Guiyuan gossip that she and the young Riishu do not get along, partly because Riishu was once the previous emperor's consort.

• Age

  Thirty-five years old.

• Riishu (Other, Hostility)

  Yinghua and Guiyuan say the two do not get along; at the garden party, Aaduo's ladies-in-waiting rebuked Riishu's for dressing her in a clashing pink.

Riishu

consort

Fourteen-year-old high-ranking consort who had been the previous emperor's consort, entered religious life after his death, and returned as the current emperor's consort. She cannot eat mackerel, and Maomao suspects her own ladies-in-waiting of bullying 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)

  According to Yinghua and Guiyuan's gossip, the young Riishu and the veteran Aaduo do not get along.

• Maomao (Other, Neutral)

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

Jinshi

Rear palace

Beautiful eunuch who runs the rear palace and relies on Maomao's knowledge. He has her examine the death of an official who had looked after him as a child, and is baffled when she asks that, if she is ever executed, it be by poison.

• Role

  Introduces himself as the rear palace administrator

• Displeasure with Maomao

  Complained that Maomao had not approached him despite his gift, and pressed her on whether she had paid Lihaku instead.

• Maomao (Other, Hierarchy, Mixed)

  Brings her the case of a senior official's death and gives her a gourd of wine for finding the salt, while still smarting over her trip with Lihaku.

Lihaku

Military officer who gave Maomao a hairpin as a courtesy at the garden party and vouched for her trip home in exchange for an evening with Pairin.

• 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, Neutral)

  Served as Maomao's guarantor; the half-salary advance Maomao paid fell short of Pairin's fee, leaving Maomao to cover the rest.

Fengming

Aaduo's household

Head lady-in-waiting serving Aaduo, identified after a two-month search for a person with a burned arm.

• Search result

  Identified as the person with a burned arm sought for two months.

• Aaduo (Hierarchy, Neutral)

  Serves as the head lady-in-waiting to Aaduo.

World Memo

• 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.

• Proposed drinking age prohibition

  A proposal is under discussion to prohibit drinking before the age of twenty.

• Craftsman wall projections on rear palace wall

  The rear palace wall has projections apparently used by craftsmen, which would make an unaided climb possible in principle.

Clue Board

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

  Maomao suspected that Jinshi had knowingly tried to make her eat the drugged bun, a question left unresolved in this episode.

• 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.

• Culprit of Gyokuyo's poisoned soup (Episode 7)

  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.

  Fingerprint traces show four people touched the vessel, including an unidentified person who touched the rim. Maomao conjectures this person added the poison, and Jinshi concludes the poisoner is likely an insider; the culprit remains unidentified.

• Possible swap of Gyokuyo's and Riishu's meals (Episode 7)

  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.

  Maomao conjectures that Riishu's food taster switched the dishes on purpose to bully Riishu, not knowing the soup was poisoned, and that this spiteful swap ended up saving Riishu's life.

• Tobacco leaves as poison (Episode 8)

  Maomao identified tobacco leaves as the likely poison, but no leaves were mixed in the vomit; prompted by Ruomen's question about poison dissolved in liquid from the start, she concluded that the poison had been tobacco steeped in liquor.

• 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.

• Courtesan as the attempted killer (Episode 8)

  Maomao reasons that the courtesan used tobacco-infused liquor, with two liquors of different densities layered so she drank only the safe lower layer through a straw, then drank a small amount of the poisoned upper layer herself, calculating that the man would die while she survived; Maomao's treatment saved them both. This remains her hypothesis, not a confirmed answer.

• Excess salt as cause of death (Episode 9)

  Maomao found a large amount of salt in the broken jar and concluded that the salt dissolved in the wine, which the official could not taste because he had lost his sense of salt, was likely toxic enough to cause the death.

• 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.

• Drowned servant's uncertain death (Episode 9)

  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.

Deduction Board

Facts

• Salt in the broken jar

  Maomao found so much salt in the dead official's broken wine jar that it had dried into grains.

• Lost sense of salt

  The report on the official's habits showed he had suddenly switched to sweets after losing his family, and Maomao concluded he could no longer taste salt.

• Fengming identified

  Gaoshun delivered the results of a two-month search, identifying Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting, as the person with a burned arm.

Evidence

• Bloodied fingertips

  The woman had reddened or bloodied fingertips, which Maomao took as signs she had tried to climb out of the water.

• 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.

• Two-month search concluded

  The search for someone with a burned arm, which had run for two months, produced its result.

Inferences

• Excess salt as cause

  Maomao suggested that the amount of salt dissolved in the wine could have been toxic and caused the death.

• Entered water alive

  Maomao believed the woman had entered the water alive.

• Unaided climb unlikely

  Maomao argued the woman could not have climbed the high wall alone without a ladder or other equipment, and that the route would have been hard for her given her bound feet.

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 1–9

Maomao, an apothecary raised in the pleasure district, is kidnapped and sold into the rear palace as a servant. After she traces the illness of the emperor's infants to poisonous face powder, Jinshi tracks her down and she becomes Gyokuyo's lady-in-waiting and food taster; she goes on to unravel Fuyo's ghost dance, nurse Rifa back to health, and detect the poisoned soup at the garden party.

After the party she finds that Riishu's food taster swapped the dishes to bully Riishu, while an unidentified insider added the poison, and on a trip home arranged through Lihaku she exposes a courtesan's attempted murder of her customer. Back in the palace she traces a senior official's death to salt in his wine, doubts that a drowned maid could have climbed the wall alone, and learns that the long-sought woman with the burned arm is Fengming, Aaduo's head lady-in-waiting.

Music Releases

• Hana ni Natte (OP)
• Aikotoba (ED)