The Apothecary Diaries

Episode 11

It's a barely concealed fact that everyone in the inner palace has their secrets. Some are better hidden than others, like the disdain of Lishu's ladies-in-waiting her versus what happened to Ah-Duo's baby years ago. That last is far from being fully exposed, although Maomao's theory of Jinshi being the emperor's son instead of brother seemed to make sense. Were it only the resemblance between him and Ah-Duo, that could be hand-waved away, but as Maomao notes, there are a few other pieces that might fit. Among them, Ah-Duo's wording when she speaks of her purportedly dead son has subtle implications that indicate someone is trying very hard not to speak the truth. Her son “leaving” her may not be just a euphemism while it is the “will of the heavens” that he left that is her attempting to convince herself that she did the right thing. Maomao's reasoning that the unnoticed switch and subsequent death of one of the babies that led to her father being thrown from the inner palace also makes sense. We know he's a good doctor, so it would have had to be something terrible that resulted in his expulsion, especially since he had part of his kneecap removed, per an earlier episode. Not noticing or facilitating the switching of the two infants would do it, especially since one prince died.

It's all just conjecture right now, no matter how convincing it all sounds or looks. (Although if her father was a eunuch in the palace when the babies were born, does that indicate that he's not Maomao's biological father? Or is it simply a question of timing?) But it all points to the depth of the political machinations going on that Maomao largely isn't privy to. The only reason she gets caught up in this one is because Fengming, Ah-Duo's chief lady-in-waiting, is also involved, attempting to cover up her accidental murder of whichever baby was being raised in the Garnet Pavilion seventeen years ago. It was bad enough that the child died while she was taking care of him while Ah-Duo recovered from what was an excruciating birth, but when she heard the food-sensitive Lishu mention that she'd almost died from being fed honey as an infant, Fengming's guilt became overpowering. I don't want to say that she “snapped,” but her psychological distress caused her to do something foolish (attempt to poison Lishu), ultimately leading to her off-screen execution.

Fengming feels like an inherently tragic character. She's a bit of a player in the consorts' lives and she knows it, placed into that role by her parents. She came to love and admire Ah-Duo, but in some ways that only made things more difficult for her, because it didn't seem like Ah-Duo felt the same. Even though it doesn't seem to have been a romantic love for the other woman, Fengming's life came to revolve around her, and all of her decisions came back to what was best for her lady. I don't doubt that Ah-Duo cared for Fengming as well, but it wasn't the sort of whole-hearted devotion Fengming had for her, or even the warmth of her relationship with Lishu, who she seems to have more-or-less mothered during the girl's first stay in the inner palace. Ah-Duo gives the impression of holding herself apart from her own life, and when she says to Maomao that she got to return to just being the emperor's friend after the loss of the baby, it feels like she's relieved. There's no friends-to-lovers trope here; Ah-Duo and the emperor appear to have done what they were told (like Fengming) and made the best of it. Maybe the emperor isn't “forcing” Ah-Duo out of the position of consort but instead “allowing” her to leave.

Maomao may think she's got things figured out, but there are almost certainly secrets she's still missing as she puts her puzzle together. She'd also better learn to find a place for Jinshi in it because as the hug this week shows, he's come to rely on her for more than just investigating and teasing; she's the person he feels safe enough to cry with, and he's not going away any time soon, at least if he has anything to say about it. We'll have to see what comes to light next week when it looks like he'll get his chance to take Maomao into town.

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