Considering there’s a wannabe assassin roaming free at the rear palace, this was quite a calm and relaxed episode of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto. Admittedly Jinshi is working long hours, but apart from that there are few overt signs of stress (never mind crisis). Heck, Maomao even takes advantage of the circumstances to finagle a homecoming trip (though she does contribute to the investigation first).
The headline of course: the freckles are back. I like Maomao better with them, shallow as that may be. And she’s showing no ill-effects from her near-ingestion of the poison, as much as her boss and co-workers try and baby her. In fact Gaushun shows up at Gyokuyou’s palace at Jinshi’s behest, bearing the poisoned soup. In addition to allergies, Maomao is also wise to fingerprinting – she really is ahead of her time. She speculates on who might have been responsible, and informs Gaushun of her belief that Lishu’s ladies-in-waiting are bullying her. It’ll be interesting to see if Jinshi chooses to take any action on that score (a case can be made that it’s none of his business, politically speaking).
At that, the focus turns to the aforementioned trip (a short one in terms of distance at least) home. Maomao has no idea of the myriad ways in which the hairpins are important, and one of them is that it means she can use the giver to escort her on a trip outside the palace. Personally I think she’s wrong in the assumption she makes about Jinshi, but Maomao chooses Lihaku as her target. I’d been under the impression he fell for her at the garden party, but his reaction when he realizes who’s sent him a meeting request suggests anything but. He also fails to recognize her when she appears sans her makeup but with her freckles, though he’s hardly alone in that.
Maomao proposes a simple quid pro quo – if he vouches for her, she’ll get him an invite to hang with one of the “three princesses” of Verdigris, the high-class brothel she worked so closely with. Lihaku is skeptical but recognizes this is a rare opportunity, and decides to chance it. A three-day visit is arranged, and off the pair of them go. Refreshingly, there are absolutely no signs either of them has the remotest interest in the other romantically – if that’s ever to be a complication, you’d never guess it by their interaction here.
Most of the intrigue here involves Maomao’s father (Yanaka Hiroshi), who’s extremely nonchalant when she strolls through the door. Especially considering Maomao openly suspected him of selling her off, she too is very nonchalant about this reunion. It’s all very pleasant but there’s obviously an undercurrent of something else here, and his comment about what a “twist of fate” it is that Maomao ended up at the rear palace is veritably fit to bursting with possible implications.
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