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The Apothecary Diaries

647 statements
127 feature instances
26 referencing feature instances

The Apothecary Diaries	type	TVTItem
The Apothecary Diaries	label	The Apothecary Diaries
The Apothecary Diaries	page	TheApothecaryDiaries
The Apothecary Diaries	comment	The Apothecary Diaries (Japanese title: è–¬å±‹ã�®ã�²ã�¨ã‚Šã�”ã�¨, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto) is a Web Serial Novel by Natsu Hyuuga. Originally starting in 2011 on Shousetsuka ni Narou, the novel's first volume was published by Ray Books in 2012. Two years later, it was republished as a light novel series by Hero Bunkoban with illustrations by Touko Shino. There are two manga adaptations, both of which began in 2017; the former (The Apothecary Diaries) illustrated by Nekokurage is serialized in Monthly Big Gangan, and the latter (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto: Maomao no Koukyuu Nazotoki Techou) illustrated by Minoji Kurata is serialized in Monthly Sunday Gene-X.Taking place in a fictional Imperial Chinese-inspired land, the series follows Maomao, a cynical pharmacist who worked in the red-light district before being kidnapped and sold as a servant in the imperial court. Wanting to lead a quiet life, Maomao initially hides her capabilities until the death of the crown prince and illness of the consorts forces her hand. Though she attempted to act discreetly, she is caught by the beautiful eunuch, Jinshi. He enlists her as a food-taster and frequently consults her on herbology and mysterious deaths in the court. Despite her wish to live quietly and concoct medicines, Maomao is constantly thrown into a detective role due to the political machinations of the court.Since November 2020 the light novel series is officially licensed and published by J-Novel Club. The manga series drawn by Nekokurage is officially licensed by Square Enix and published since December 2020. The French translation is published by Ki-Oon.In 2023, the series announced an animated adaptation by OLM Incorporated, which ran for 24 episodes. A second season has been greenlit for 2025.Here is a spreadsheet containing the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of most character names and place names from the anime and light novel.Beware of Unmarked Spoilers
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_118a2d16	type	Hanlon's Razor
The Apothecary Diaries / int_118a2d16	comment	Hanlon's Razor: Lihua almost dies because her ladies-in-waiting are only trained in keeping her presentable but not healthy. When their lady becomes bedridden, they give her rich food she's too weak to swallow, burn incense rather than bathe her, and unwittingly cause the illness by applying makeup that was banned as poisonous. They learn their lesson after a venomous dressing down from Maomao, and readjust to help Lihua recover.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_129749df	type	All Men Are Perverts
The Apothecary Diaries / int_129749df	comment	All Men Are Perverts: Due to the historical nature of the setting, this attitude is commonplace. Maomao notes there are those in the pleasure district starved for sex and sexually assault women. Even Maomao, who is described as 'chicken-boned', experienced an attempted rape which upset Jinshi. Due to this, Maomao deliberately uglifies herself with fake freckles.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_14a8974a	type	Love Potion
The Apothecary Diaries / int_14a8974a	comment	Love Potion: In Volume 1, Jinshi requests Maomao to concoct an aphrodisiac, which she does. Well, it turns out quite effective, as seen by the three maids being all hot and bothered. Curious, Jinshi tries it out too and ends up kissing Maomao on her neck before smoothly exiting the scene. Smoooooth.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1869b4b1	type	Unreliable Narrator
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1869b4b1	comment	Unreliable Narrator: As the story mostly follows Maomao's Point of View, most of descriptions of other characters' backstories and circumstances are from her subjective conjectures. That, and with only occasional third-person POVs in side stories, the readers will have to piece the clues themselves to see the full picture, and even so each one has their own interpretation of the truth.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_19d1c1ae	type	Always Someone Better
The Apothecary Diaries / int_19d1c1ae	comment	Maomao admits that one of the pettier reasons she dislikes her biological father is because she knows he's more gifted than her at figuring out mysteries and she finds this fact irritating, especially because he often can't be bothered to personally do anything about something he's noticed and tends to pawn the work off to someone else.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1b465242	type	Conditioned to Accept Horror
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1b465242	comment	Maomao and Jinshi's relationship is rife with this, as they frequently misread each other or don't tell each other things properly. One of the more dire examples happens in volume 5 when Jinshi in a fit of jealousy over someone kissing her hand nearly forces himself onto Maomao while failing to listen to her explanation that it had been a formality. Maomao being Conditioned to Accept Horror and all too aware that Jinshi both outranks her and is stronger than her, decides it's better to submit to him and kisses him instead of trying to reason with him. Her upbringing made her very skilled at romantic acts like kissing, but she does so without any apparent emotion. Jinshi finds himself stunned and feeling inferior to her, not comprehending the reality that she was responding in terror rather than trying to look down on him.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1c445e86	type	Poor Communication Kills
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1c445e86	comment	Poor Communication Kills: In Volume 1, Maomao receives several hair sticks at the garden party, which can be used to arrange a meeting with someone's suitor to leave the court temporarily. Maomao arranges a deal with Lihaku for which she has to pay dearly. However, she also received a hair stick from Jinshi. If Maomao had waited a bit longer or talked to Jinshi first, he could have gotten her out without any recompense. Although at the end of Volume 1, he does pay off her debts and makes her work for him again. At the end of Volume 1, the culprit of the poisoning attempt at the garden party confesses and is punished. The punishment extends to her family and all people that have done business with said family. Maomao's kidnappers did business with the family, so Jinshi has the choice to dismiss Maomao or make any evidence that she is connected to the poisoner disappear. When Jinshi asks Maomao what she wants to do, Maomao tells him that she would do any work she is asked to do, be it menial labor or testing food for poison, indirectly saying that she does not want to leave. Jinshi completely reads her wrong and thinks she wants to go home (where Maomao knows she might be forced to sell her body) and dismisses her... with a generous severance pay. He immediately comes to regret this and later learns that Maomao in fact did not want to leave at all. Jinshi then decides to pay off her debts and reemploy her. The tragedy of Maomao's parentage comes down to this: Her mother Fengxian didn't elaborate her plan to cheapen her value as a courtesan by getting pregnant, and her father Lakan didn't ask. Lakan was sent away by his family for years and missed Maomao's birth and Fengxian's fall from grace. When Lakan got back and realized his folly, Fengxian's madam accused the man of willingly abandoning his lover, thus didn't tell him she was still alive. Ah-Duo's situation is largely the result of this. She and the Emperor have been friends since they were toddlers and they grew up playing together. She once jokingly suggested that the Emperor should make her 'The Mother of the Nation'. Given her status as the child of a wet nurse, she assumed it would never happen, but the Emperor ended up taking her suggestion dead seriously. He has pulled strings to keep her in his life long after she was left unable to bear children, and is doing everything in his power to make sure that even if she cannot be his Empress, he can make their secretly surviving son Jinshi the next Emperor. In reality, Ah-Duo never wanted to be the Emperor's concubine and wished to travel the world, but never seemed to be able to get that message across. Maomao and Jinshi's relationship is rife with this, as they frequently misread each other or don't tell each other things properly. One of the more dire examples happens in volume 5 when Jinshi in a fit of jealousy over someone kissing her hand nearly forces himself onto Maomao while failing to listen to her explanation that it had been a formality. Maomao being Conditioned to Accept Horror and all too aware that Jinshi both outranks her and is stronger than her, decides it's better to submit to him and kisses him instead of trying to reason with him. Her upbringing made her very skilled at romantic acts like kissing, but she does so without any apparent emotion. Jinshi finds himself stunned and feeling inferior to her, not comprehending the reality that she was responding in terror rather than trying to look down on him.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1cbde068	type	Oblivious to His Own Description
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1cbde068	comment	Oblivious to His Own Description: At the start of Volume 3, Maomao and Hongniang discover a stray kitten in the rear palace, which they take with them to the quack to care for. After a while, Jinshi and Gaoshun come visit, and Jinshi wonders why people love little kittens so much. When Maomao begins to explain, she remarkably manages to describe cats in a way that she would fit this description too. Jinshi agrees with her and admits that he can see the appeal of cats.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1cf11f13	type	No Sympathy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1cf11f13	comment	No Sympathy: Played for laughs, but Gyokuyou shows no sympathy for how torn up Jinshi feels after getting Maomao fired at the end of Volume 1, and she merely tells him he'll regret it. She is also upset with him for getting one of her trusted ladies-in-waiting fired.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_1d2400e9	type	Green-Eyed Monster
The Apothecary Diaries / int_1d2400e9	comment	Green-Eyed Monster: Jinshi, on multiple occasions. Gaoshun frequently is victim to Jinshiâ€™s green-eyed glare. And when Maomao came back with Lihaku? He was pissed. Maomao admits that one of the pettier reasons she dislikes her biological father is because she knows he's more gifted than her at figuring out mysteries and she finds this fact irritating, especially because he often can't be bothered to personally do anything about something he's noticed and tends to pawn the work off to someone else.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_212a8182	type	Attractiveness Discrimination
The Apothecary Diaries / int_212a8182	comment	Attractiveness Discrimination: Something Maomao is all too aware of. While she is often treated as irrelevant, people bend over backwards for Jinshi just for a smile. Thankfully for her, thatâ€™s the way she likes it.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_2260cfe3	type	Like Father, Like Son
The Apothecary Diaries / int_2260cfe3	comment	Like Father, Like Son: The Emperor and his secretly surviving firstborn son Jinshi have painfully similar love lives. They both deem their One True Love to be unconventional girls who they have genuinely strong relationships with, but who also don't see them in quite the same light, Ah-Duo and Maomao respectively. Poor Communication Kills is also in full effect for complications in both of their relationships, with Ah-Duo and Maomao trying to get across that they don't feel comfortable with being a romantic partner in sometimes Innocently Insensitive ways, and the Emperor and Jinshi not managing to take the hint.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_2317bc85	type	Tampering with Food and Drink
The Apothecary Diaries / int_2317bc85	comment	Tampering with Food and Drink: When Consort Gyokuyou was pregnant with her first child, she escaped two poisoning attempts on her, though this led to her dismissing more than half of her staff. She employs Maomao at the start of the story, as thanks for saving Lingli's life from the poisonous face powder. During the spring garden party in Volume 1, Maomao tests the soup intended for Gyokuyou and discovers poison. The actual intended recipient was Consort Lishu, though. Lishu's poison tester switched Lishu's food with Gyokuyou's to embarrass her mistress, which ends up saving her life. Because of his illness, Kounen did not notice the copious amount of salt poured into his drink and subsequently died. After Maomao temporarily returns to the pleasure district in Volume 1, a courtesan and her guest seemingly are involved in a double-suicide. However, Maomao discovers that the courtesan tried to murder her guest by making him drink wine with tobacco. In Volume 2, Maomao challenges Lakan to a game of shogi. The loser has to drink a cup of sake, but three of the cups have something mixed in, with Maomao noting that drinking too much is poison. In truth, she mixed salt and sugar in the cups to make the alcohol kick in earlier. Since she knew Lakan Can't Hold His Liquor, she only had to make him drink one cup to make him go out drunk and forfeit the match. Lakan likely knew what she intended though and let her do as she pleased.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_23473ae7	type	Adaptation Expansion
The Apothecary Diaries / int_23473ae7	comment	Adaptation Expansion: In general, both the GX manga and the anime add scenes that fill the narrative gap in the novel that exists due to the story mostly being told from Maomao's view. The light novel and both manga series start with Maomao already serving in the rear palace. The anime begins with Maomao going to the pleasure district for work and establishing the characters of her father, 'Grams' and her 'sisters', and only later shows her being kidnapped while trying to gather herbs. In Episode 1, when Maomao anonymously delivers a message to Consorts Gyokuyou and Lihua, it is shown that her warning never reaches Lihua directly, as one of Lihua's ladies-in-waiting throws it away, further foreshadowing Shin's real feelings for her mistress. Episode 4 contains an additional scene of Lihua gently patting a sleeping Maomao's head. Episode 5 starts with Jinshi having a training session with Gaoshun's youngest son Basen. Suiren also appears right after attending Jinshi. Episode 12's second half is more or less a recap of the first cour to close the first cour with Volume 1 of the light novel. Episode 19 has Maomao collapsing and passing out after saving Jinshi from an assassination attempt. In the light novel and manga, the scene ends with Maomao blacking out. However, rather than cutting to her waking up later or ending the episode at this point, there is a two-minute sequence with no dialogue and only background music playing with Jinshi carrying the unconscious Maomao in his arms through the palace while numerous officials bow to him, emphasizing both his authority and the relevance of his care and concern for a servant girl as her leg is bleeding profusely. We also see Lakan stunned and horrified, both by his daughter's injuries and by Jinshi having such close contact with Maomao, knowing he'll never be able to experience that himself. Episode 22 shows the conversation between Lakan and Jinshi where the former asks the latter if he could produce blue roses for the next garden party. This was a conversation that was stated to have happened in the light novel and manga, but not actually seen. In the anime, in leadups and flashbacks related to the Kounen, Seaweed poisoning, and metalworking brothers cases, the same court official with dark blue eyes is seen, implicating them in the cases. Closer inspection indicates this is Suirei in disguise, setting up the related crimes. The light novel and manga implicate her in these incidents, but the anime actually shows it.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_23a1e2a9	type	Adaptation Deviation
The Apothecary Diaries / int_23a1e2a9	comment	Adaptation Deviation: In the "Gangan" manga adaptation by Nekokurage and the anime adaptation, instead of shogi, the Japanese variant of chess, Lakan favors xiangqi instead, a Chinese variant of chess, which is more in line with the Chinese-inspired setting.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_259d5879	type	Anachronism Stew
The Apothecary Diaries / int_259d5879	comment	Anachronism Stew: While it's clear that the story takes place in a country similar enough to imperial China (and neighbors), the culture and dress of Li take inspiration from several different periods like the Ming, Tang and Song dynasties. There is also some out-of-place practices like the usage of very by-the-book modern-day CPR techniques.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_25a7dcb9	type	Suggestive Collision
The Apothecary Diaries / int_25a7dcb9	comment	Suggestive Collision: Of all things, the way Maomao ends up finding out that Jinshi isn't a true eunuch and is still anatomically intact is through accidentally falling on him and getting a handful of his groin.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_29d26001	type	Spoiled Sweet
The Apothecary Diaries / int_29d26001	comment	Unlike their mistress, Lihua's ladies-in-waiting are openly rude and condescending, taking every opportunity they can to look down on and insult Maomao, Ailan, Guiyan, and Yinghua.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_2af6bbeb	type	Break the Haughty
The Apothecary Diaries / int_2af6bbeb	comment	Break the Haughty: Maomao does this to one of Lihua's handmaids. Maomao at first ignores the handmaid for making rude remarks about her and calling her ugly but when Maomao learns that the handmaid still used the lead makeup on Lihua despite the palace banning it after learning it's poisonous, she gets pissed with the handmaid, slaps her and calls her out for her stupidity for still using the same poison that killed Lihua's baby and is slowly killing Lihua herself. The haughty handmaid can only weakly make excuses about wanting to make her mistress beautiful and is forced to quit.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_2c136406	type	Standard Royal Court
The Apothecary Diaries / int_2c136406	comment	Standard Royal Court: Nobles, servants, consorts, eunuchs...The whole she-bang.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_2f52c0af	type	Accidental Pervert
The Apothecary Diaries / int_2f52c0af	comment	Accidental Pervert: In Volume 3, Maomao finally digests what she had suspected all along—that Jinshi was never a eunuch—when she accidentally grabs his crotch. She tries to ignore what she felt and pass it off as her grabbing a passing frog, but Jinshi (already having had enough of Maomao's teasing beforehand) decides he's just going to show her what it is himself. That moment ends up interrupted by the timely arrival of a dog Lihaku is taking care of.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_328b32	type	Unequal Pairing
The Apothecary Diaries / int_328b32	comment	Unequal Pairing: What Maomao and Jinshi are eventually teased as, to Jinshi's frustration. Him being a noble, let alone the crown prince makes whatever relationship he wants to have with Maomao infinitely more difficult, and Maomao's all too happy to point this out. She does say later on that she would accept a proposal from him, but just as easily admits that she knows how to handle herself so he won't have any royal complications—when all he wants with her is a baby.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_355007c3	type	Brilliant, but Lazy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_355007c3	comment	At the start of Volume 2, Jinshi and Gaoshun planned to give Maomao bigger duties. What they didn't expect was for her, who is literate, clearly intelligent, and so knowledgable about medicine, to flunk the test for Court Ladies, which is why she ends up primarily doing work as a maid and clean the rooms or carry out small errands. Maomao completely loses her motivation to study when it's about topics she isn't interested in.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_363f94c9	type	Awful Truth
The Apothecary Diaries / int_363f94c9	comment	Awful Truth: At the end of Volume 1, Maomao, who sympathizes to a degree with the culprit, suggests to hide one of the motives for their Assassination Attempt on Lishu. Fengming had fed Ah-Duo's child honey that was safe for adults, but not for babies. Lishu knew about honey being potentially lethal for babies, so Fengming attempted to silence her. Ah-Duo's child's cause of death is a truth that neither Fengming nor Maomao want anyone to find out, so Fengming turns herself in and only says that she wanted Ah-Duo to keep her position as consort as the motive.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_38718ea8	type	Beautiful All Along
The Apothecary Diaries / int_38718ea8	comment	Beautiful All Along: A mild example: Maomao reveals she's been painting freckles onto her face to be less attractive to men, making her less likely to be sexually assaulted. Without her freckles, she much more closely resembles a traditional Japanese beauty, which Jinshi takes notice of.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_3ae51e0	type	Resigned to the Call
The Apothecary Diaries / int_3ae51e0	comment	Resigned to the Call: Maomao is all too aware of her low status to refuse. So when the Emperor asks her to cure Lihua in Volume 1, or whenever Jinshi calls her up as a detective, she accepts with resignation. While Jinshi tries to abide by Maomao's wishes, Maomao has pointed out that due to their differing status in positions, its foolish for him to act like she truly has a choice when he asks things of her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_3b79029a	type	Crapsaccharine World
The Apothecary Diaries / int_3b79029a	comment	Crapsaccharine World: Maomao muses that the rear palace, for all its beauty and opulence, really isn't that different from the pleasure district. Many of the women who work in the palace (who are themselves often indentured servants) can only leave under heavy restrictions. The consorts and concubines can't leave at all for a certain number of years if the Emperor doesn't visit them, and even then they have to rely on his goodwill and their families arranging a good marriage for them in order to be released from their position and return to the outside world, much like a courtesan having her contract bought out; plus the Emperor can 'gift' any of his women to someone else should he feel like it. If a concubine actually wants any kind of power then she has to catch and keep the Emperor's attention and affection, and hopefully give birth to a healthy son. All this naturally leads to a lot of feuding and backstabbing — not so much among the four Higher Consorts themselves, as unlike other harem narratives they do seem to get on fairly well with each other, but definitely among the lesser consorts or concubines and their handmaidens; the tension and power struggles can often lead to noblewomen mistreating their servants and the servants quarrelling with each other.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_3d2c6d30	type	Skewed Priorities
The Apothecary Diaries / int_3d2c6d30	comment	Skewed Priorities: While Maomao is recovering from an injury she received when she saved Jinshi from an assassination attempt, she's more upset that she didn't get the ox bezoar she was promised than that her leg wound opened up again.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_3ed23024	type	Surprisingly Realistic Outcome
The Apothecary Diaries / int_3ed23024	comment	Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: (See also, Too Dumb to Live) It's no secret that Lishu's ladies-in-waiting (Outside of Kanan) all take advantage of her young age and naivety to bully and push her around, despite how easily they can be punished by either her or Jinshi for this. They eventually finally push their luck too far in getting Lishu framed and exiled for a crime she didn't do, all in the hopes of going to another Concubine's house. It really never hits them until after the fact that, as Lishu's ladies in waiting, they were naturally going be kicked out too.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
The Apothecary Diaries / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: The conclusion of vol 2. of the light novel and the first season of the anime is this in many respects. Maomao pulls a gambit to force her biological father Lakan to buy out a courtesan from the Verdigris House, although she lets him choose which one. Somewhere in her heart, Maomao hoped that Lakan would take in Meimei, who helped raise Maomao and is approaching the age when many courtesans start being expected to retire. If Lakan took Meimei in, Maomao would be assured that Meimei would at least be set to live a comfortable life. Additionally, Maomao seemed to be aware that after many years of entertaining him during his visits to the brothel, Meimei had developed an attachment to Lakan herself. But, aware of the tragedy surrounding the circumstances of her birth, most of the pieces Maomao set in place were ultimately aimed to allow Lakan to learn that Maomao's biological mother Fengxian was, although terminally ill, still alive. It was giving them one last chance to be together again. While Lakan does briefly consider taking Meimei in, Meimei is the one who shows him the room Fengxian resides in. Even ravaged by disease, Fengxian is still the beautiful love of Lakan's life, and he, overcome with emotion, chooses her immediately. Meimei completely understands this and is happy for them, although it still breaks her heart. When Maomao learns of the final decision, she privately dances in honor of the reunion of her biological parents, lamenting that it is a reunion doomed to not last very long. A few volumes later, Fengxian does pass away which causes Lakan to become depressed.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_4478c66d	type	Flashback Nightmare
The Apothecary Diaries / int_4478c66d	comment	Flashback Nightmare: In Volume 2, Maomao has a nightmare of a madwoman pinning her to the ground and then cutting off her finger. It was not just a bad dream.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_44989f6f	type	"Could Have Avoided This!" Plot
The Apothecary Diaries / int_44989f6f	comment	"Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: After Lakan learns that Fengxian is still alive and wants to buy out her contract, Meimei, who is heartbroken after hoping to have her contract bought out by him, tearfully tells Grams that she should have just told Lakan that Fengxian was alive to begin with.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_4668be6f	type	Distinguishing Mark
The Apothecary Diaries / int_4668be6f	comment	Distinguishing Mark: One of the ways the severely face-blind Military Strategist Lakan copes with his disability is to identify people through other notable traits, such as their voice and build. His nephew and adoptive son Lahan wears glasses despite not actually needing them for vision to help Lakan recognize him easier. Later, Jinshi acquires a facial scar that allows Lakan to recognize him better.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_47fea76b	type	Butt-Monkey
The Apothecary Diaries / int_47fea76b	comment	Butt-Monkey: Lahan's big brother, the only normal person in a clan full of talented eccentrics. Maomao never bothered to remember his name and it became Running Gag that something always happened when he was about to mention his own name. It is revealed to be Junjie.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_4977d7b8	type	Body Double
The Apothecary Diaries / int_4977d7b8	comment	Body Double: People taking the place of other people is used as a plot device a number of times. Jin is a concubine who was suffering from an illness for a year before passing away. The truth was the real Jin died accidentally in an altercation the year previously, and a serving girl who strongly resembled her had been taking her place during visits, covering herself in bandages and pretending to be ill. Ah-Duo ends up standing in for the Imperial Brother for a meeting on short notice. Given that the Imperial Brother already barely makes public appearances and when he does, wears a mask to cover up what is said to be burn scars acquired in childhood, Ah-Duo doesn't have to do much more than wear platform shoes to increase her height and not speak. Concubine Loulan deliberately wears a lot of makeup and changes her fashion style frequently to make it difficult for people to remember her appearance. On top of that, she picked ladies-in-waiting who all shared similar looks and body type with her. This was all in preparation for a plot where she would slip away, making one of her ladies take her place indefinitely.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_4e7017f1	type	Wig, Dress, Accent
The Apothecary Diaries / int_4e7017f1	comment	Wig, Dress, Accent: When Jinshi wants to go into the pleasure district in disguise, he turns (as usual) to Maomao for her skills. While she kits him out in suitably smelly clothes, she also uses her apothecary knowledge to make his silken hair rough and coarse, adds blemishes to his skin with makeup, brews him a drink that irritates his mouth and throat in order to alter his voice, hides his impressive musculature with padding under his clothes and changes the shape of his face by stuffing wads of cloth in his mouth. By the time she's done, he looks remarkably different even to the viewer. It seems Jinshi learned a thing or two from Maomao's previous instruction on becoming a different person, as when he has to travel incognito again, he does his own but still strikingly different disguise as a man with a large burn scar on his face.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_5037b961	type	Et Tu, Brute?
The Apothecary Diaries / int_5037b961	comment	Et Tu, Brute?: This is Lihua's response in Volume 3 once she finds out that her cousin Shin has been attempting to abort her second pregnancy.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_517266f6	type	Kiss of Life
The Apothecary Diaries / int_517266f6	comment	Played straight in Volume 3 of the novel where Maomao gets revived by Jinshi via CPR that doubles as a Kiss of Life moment after nearly drowning.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_55473bc9	type	CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable
The Apothecary Diaries / int_55473bc9	comment	CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Mostly subverted in Volume 1 of the Light Novel/Episode 8 of the anime. Maomao and a courtesan resuscitate two victims of poisoning in this manner and apart from the fact both patients are revived with little other assistance, it's played pretty realistically in showing how messy the process can be. Played straight in Volume 3 of the novel where Maomao gets revived by Jinshi via CPR that doubles as a Kiss of Life moment after nearly drowning.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_566f1565	type	10-Minute Retirement
The Apothecary Diaries / int_566f1565	comment	10-Minute Retirement: Maomao is dismissed from the rear palace near the end of Volume 1. Since that greatly depresses Jinshi and Maomao never wanted to leave, Gaoshun arranges a meeting with Lihaku's help. After learning about her situation, Jinshi decides to pay off Maomao's debts and reemploy her, this time as his personal servant.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_571833a	type	Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?
The Apothecary Diaries / int_571833a	comment	Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?: Maomao to Jinshi, in one instance. After Jinshi forcefully comes on to Maomao, she is surprised by his hesitance after she returned his kiss in self-defense. While Maomao abhors the kiss and wants it to be over as soon as possible, Jinshi misreads her lack of reaction as scorn that he isn't capable of "triumphing over" her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_57d43e40	type	Fantasy Counterpart Culture
The Apothecary Diaries / int_57d43e40	comment	Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Li, the country that forms the primary setting of this story, is pretty much just imperial China with a few tweaks. Judging by the fashions Loulan wears, there are also counterparts for South Asia, Mongolia, Russia and even Renaissance Italy, plus the Western ambassadors seem to come from somewhere akin to the Balkans.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_598ad6e2	type	Even the Guys Want Him
The Apothecary Diaries / int_598ad6e2	comment	Even the Guys Want Him: Jinshi's looks have been known to attract quite a bit of male attention.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_5a40d6a	type	Adaptation Distillation
The Apothecary Diaries / int_5a40d6a	comment	Adaptation Distillation: The Gangan version of the story cuts out a few of the light novel's mysteries to present a more streamlined version of events. They are present in the GX version, though.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_5f4097ba	type	Not Distracted by the Sexy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_5f4097ba	comment	Not Distracted by the Sexy: Jinshi has an appearance so beautiful that he's weaponized as a living test for this. It is explained that at least part of the reason he was placed in a position in the rear palace was to weed out any workers or concubines who are too easily distracted by his allure to the point they are disloyal to the Emperor. While Jinshi is a test to weed out workers who are overly distracted by him, he's also in turn actively used as a tool for the express purpose of distracting people when deemed necessary, and he finds it notable and somewhat unnerving when faced with an adversary who does not fall for it. Maomao acknowledges that Jinshi is ridiculously attractive, but she's completely immune to his charm and in fact finds it offputting when he leans too much into his pretty boy act. It is for this reason Jinshi finds Maomao interesting - and quickly becomes infatuated with her. The Military Strategist Lakan is largely immune to human physical appeal in general, due to him having medically significant face-blindness - meaning that he cannot distinguish people by their faces. You can describe a person to be attractive to Lakan all you like and it would be fairly meaningless to him. This of course means that Jinshi's charm is also ineffective on him. Although, the main reason Lakan dislikes Jinshi, is Jinshi's interest in Lakan's biological daughter Maomao.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_627264e0	type	Death Glare
The Apothecary Diaries / int_627264e0	comment	Death Glare: Both Maomao and Jinshi are shown to have quite the scary death glares.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_62f9d08e	type	Freeze-Frame Bonus
The Apothecary Diaries / int_62f9d08e	comment	The anime adaptation includes scenes that allude to future arcs, such as Shin being shown from behind in a Freeze-Frame Bonus in Episode 1, pushing the flower that had Maomao's warning about the face powder to Lihua out of the Crystal Palace window; and the beginning of Episode 2 showing Fuyo's childhood friend in regards to how he gained the military merits to request her as a reward (he successfully stopped other soldiers from executing villagers for an attempted poisoning, when the "poisonous" effects were from the wood the soldiers were burning for their evening meal campfires).
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_65acf9db	type	He Knows Too Much
The Apothecary Diaries / int_65acf9db	comment	He Knows Too Much: One of the reasons Consort Lishu was almost murdered in Volume 1 was that she may accidentally tip off Ah-Duo that her son died from the honey that Fengming fed to him, while not understanding that honey is poisonous to infants.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_671a3e1	type	Too Kinky to Torture
The Apothecary Diaries / int_671a3e1	comment	Too Kinky to Torture: Maomao is so enthralled with poison that she willingly jumps into opportunities to consume or apply to herself different kinds of toxins, when these are things that would terrify other people. Maomao's cousin Lahan funnels his own attraction to Jinshi into shipping Jinshi with Maomao. Irritated by Lahan's insistence that Maomao and Jinshi should just start making babies, Maomao retaliates that he should have his male parts removed and get a womb transplanted into him and see if he could carry Jinshi's babies himself. Lahan seems to seriously consider this and ask her if that's even possible, which completely bewilders Maomao.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_6a85e9e1	type	Dub-Induced Plot Hole
The Apothecary Diaries / int_6a85e9e1	comment	Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In Episode 3 of the English dub, Maomao calls the Court Physician of the rear palace by his name. She doesn't actually learn his name until Volume 4.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_6ad1eeb8	type	Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality
The Apothecary Diaries / int_6ad1eeb8	comment	Sliding Scale of Gender Inequality: Women have relatively little power in this setting, much as they did in the historical period that inspired it. They are also forbidden to become doctors officially, which gives Maomao pause since she and, as she has observed, several other women in the palace, have been allowed to produce medicine or administer care. Jinshi's explanation is that for some inividuals, including her, the staff have been turning a blind eye, but official laws are more difficult to overturn. However, women can take exams to become high ranking servants, and the two Western ambassadors that come to treat with the Emperor are both women albeit they were chosen in part because of their beauty, with the clear intent to get at least one of them taken on by him as a consort.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_714342fb	type	Erotic Eating
The Apothecary Diaries / int_714342fb	comment	Erotic Eating: The infamous honey scene, where Jinshi sticks his two middle fingers in a jar of the stuff before offering Maomao a taste, complete with bedroom eyes.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_723606c4	type	Adaptational Early Appearance
The Apothecary Diaries / int_723606c4	comment	Adaptational Early Appearance: The anime adaptation includes scenes that allude to future arcs, such as Shin being shown from behind in a Freeze-Frame Bonus in Episode 1, pushing the flower that had Maomao's warning about the face powder to Lihua out of the Crystal Palace window; and the beginning of Episode 2 showing Fuyo's childhood friend in regards to how he gained the military merits to request her as a reward (he successfully stopped other soldiers from executing villagers for an attempted poisoning, when the "poisonous" effects were from the wood the soldiers were burning for their evening meal campfires). Basen and Suiren already appear in Episode 5, which would be during the events of Volume 1. They both first originally appeared in Volume 2 of the light novel. Suirei, a tall court lady who is introduced in episode 13, is seen breifly in episode 9 in disguise as a male officer giving Sir Kounen the over-salted alcohol that would kill him. She was implied to be the culprit in the source material, but the anime makes this more explicit. Lakan's main assistant Rikuson isn't introduced until vol. 5 of the light novel, but he's already seen by Lakan's side in episode 14 of the anime, which is adapting material from vol. 2.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_7294b403	type	Altar Diplomacy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_7294b403	comment	Altar Diplomacy: Frequently seen, given the type of setting this is. Most people in this story get married for strategic reasons. Marrying someone because they're in love with them is a luxury few have the option of, and that becomes truer the higher status someone is.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_75e2bf23	type	Chiaroscuro
The Apothecary Diaries / int_75e2bf23	comment	Chiaroscuro: The black-and-white illustrations in the novels are drawn in this style.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_762b9223	type	Played for Laughs
The Apothecary Diaries / int_762b9223	comment	Maomao loves alcohol and always jumps at the chance to drink some despite being only 17 at the start of the story, due to the concept of legal drinking ages not existing yet. This is Played for Laughs when Jinshi mentions looking over a new bill that forbids anyone under the age of 20note The legal drinking age in Japan; this is likely due to the series' author being Japanese, since the drinking age in China is actually 18 from consuming alcohol, which causes Maomao to get upset and beg him not to pass the bill.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_7ac5c1de	type	Unishment
The Apothecary Diaries / int_7ac5c1de	comment	Unishment: In Volume 3, Maomao is given the storage shed as her room in the Jade Pavilion as punishment for her recent behavior. Except Maomao is ecstatic because her room is usually too small to conduct experiments. She was asking for a storage shed in the previous volume already.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_7de3aec2	type	What Does She See in Him?
The Apothecary Diaries / int_7de3aec2	comment	What Does She See in Him?: Other women seethe in jealousy and are bewildered by Jinshi's attraction to Maomao. Maomao doesn't get it either.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_7f080f98	type	Vague Age
The Apothecary Diaries / int_7f080f98	comment	Vague Age: While the novel gives the ages of the characters, how old they really are is not known due to the aging system that was in place at the time period the setting appears to take place in, as its unknown if that's a factor in this story. For instance, while it's said that Maomao is 17 years old at the start of the story, by the older age system, she could be closer to 15 or 16.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_80621707	type	Arranged Marriage
The Apothecary Diaries / int_80621707	comment	Arranged Marriage: With the story being set in the court, arranged marriages are common. Princess Fuyou was rejected by the Emperor, which is why she is instead given to a military officer as a reward for his merit. When Jinshi is later revealed as crown prince, a gathering full of young eligible women is thrown for potential mates. He, of course, announces his interest in the La daughter, Maomao. Gaoshun's marriage was arranged when he was 16 and his fiancÃ©e 22. Shishou had two arrangements. As a branch member, he was originally promised to the daughter of the main Shi house, Shenmei, but she was forced to go to the rear palace before they could marry. The former emperor then set up a marriage with Shishou with his unacknowledged daughter, with whom Shishou had Suirei. After Shishou managed to gain the Empress Regnant's favor, he asked for Shenmei (in truth a political hostage) to be released so he could finally marry her. Gaoshun's oldest son Baryou was set up with Chue, mostly because they need to further the family line and they don't trust in Basen's skills with women.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_83cef301	type	Right for the Wrong Reasons
The Apothecary Diaries / int_83cef301	comment	Right for the Wrong Reasons: Lady Anshi, the Empress Dowager, has been subjected to rumors that her child is not the Former Emperor's due to him being known to only be interested in young girls, leading to people thinking she slept with another man to have the Imperial Brother. It turns out she did forcefully conceive a child from him, but that child got swapped during infancy with Jinshi, who is actually the Former Emperor's grandson.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_8414865	type	Aroused by Their Voice
The Apothecary Diaries / int_8414865	comment	Aroused by Their Voice: Maomao notes Jinshi's 'voice of honey' could melt any woman. Well, except her, apparently.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_88cee6e2	type	Abhorrent Admirer
The Apothecary Diaries / int_88cee6e2	comment	Abhorrent Admirer: Inverted. Jinshi, the most beautiful man in the setting, falls for Maomao, a plain maidservant. Maomao refuses to acknowledge this.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_8bc5b86e	type	One-Shot Character
The Apothecary Diaries / int_8bc5b86e	comment	Because of his illness, Kounen did not notice the copious amount of salt poured into his drink and subsequently died.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_8e0ceaf5	type	Finger in the Mail
The Apothecary Diaries / int_8e0ceaf5	comment	Finger in the Mail: When Lakan returned from his three-year-long service in the military, he came home only to find a pouch that was sent to his residence. Inside was a finger. He immediately realized that finger belonged to his beloved, Fengxian. She sent it to him in her grief that he left her, not keeping his promise to return in time. By the time he got back, there was no Fengxian for him to be found. Furthermore, when he saw Maomao near the Verdigris House, he realized that Fengxian actually sent two fingers. The second one belonged to Maomao.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_8ed5c6e4	type	Asshole Victim
The Apothecary Diaries / int_8ed5c6e4	comment	Asshole Victim: Consort Jin, so much that her ladies in waiting covered up her death. Gyoku-ou, half brother of consort Gyoukuyou ended up killed not long after his plot was revealed, having manipulated Jinshi and others for power. Maomao only regrets that his death came at a wrong time, but ponders it would be worse if he was still alive.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_90e31482	type	Laser-Guided Karma
The Apothecary Diaries / int_90e31482	comment	Laser-Guided Karma: The majority of Lishu's handmaids enjoy bullying her for reasons she had no say in (such as her seafood allergy and her being the previous Emperor's consort), doing so almost every time they show up. After her food taster Kanan stops bullying her, the rest of the handmaids begin to harass her as well. However, when they try to frame Lishu for a crime she didn't commit, this decision ends up biting them as well as they are kicked out of the rear palace. On the flip side, Lishu eventually reconciles with Kanan and has the Emperor find a good match for her as thanks for taking care of her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_939d9a9e	type	Unfocused During Intimacy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_939d9a9e	comment	Unfocused During Intimacy: Both of Maomao's biological parents were having thoughts along the lines of "I'd rather be playing a strategy board game right now" while conceiving her. In at least one version, her mother voices the thought out loud and her father is silently understanding due to being in the middle of having similar thoughts, the only real difference being which game he'd rather be playing. Rather than disinterest, it serves to highlight how similar they were.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_96c812a4	type	Pair the Smart Ones
The Apothecary Diaries / int_96c812a4	comment	Pair the Smart Ones: Downplayed. While both Jinshi and Maomao are intelligent, they're more sharp and perceptive than book smart.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_97926168	type	Rewatch Bonus
The Apothecary Diaries / int_97926168	comment	Rewatch Bonus: The anime takes advantage of using visuals for foreshadowing that weren't possible in the Light Novel and/or absent in the manga, giving the anime quite a bit of rewatch value. In episode 3, Maomao is seen staring at her left pinky, which is crooked. The viewers learn much later that the tip of Maomao's pinky was sliced off in infancy and grew back crooked. In episodes 9 and 14, the same nondescript palace officer with blue eyes is seen in scenes that serve as preludes to eventual crimes. Episode 20 indicates this person is Suirei in disguise, orchestrating the crimes. But one would have to go back to rewatch the episodes to notice this.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_9a888d97	type	Finger-Licking Poison
The Apothecary Diaries / int_9a888d97	comment	Finger-Licking Poison: A staple in this world. Maomao off to the rescue!
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_9ae69919	type	Indignant Slap
The Apothecary Diaries / int_9ae69919	comment	Indignant Slap: In Volume 1/Episode 4, in one of her very rare moments, Maomao is so outraged to find that one of Consort Lihua's ladies-in-waiting hid and still regularly applies the poisonous face powder on Lihua, that she slaps her and drags her by her hair. Maomao then takes control of the situation and makes the ladies follow her orders while she attempts to help Lihua regain her health.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_9bf49893	type	I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me
The Apothecary Diaries / int_9bf49893	comment	I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Inverted, as Maomao neither appreciates nor returns Jinshi's affection. Her self-deprecation is not based on a lack of self-worth, but rather, a realistic evaluation of herself as a potential mate who is not conventionally attractive.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
The Apothecary Diaries / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: In an anime exclusive scene, Shin pushes Maomao's warning about the lead face powder out of the Crystal Pavilion so that her cousin Lihua doesn't receive it. This foreshadows how she resents Lihua and wants for her to lose her child. The anime also is more deliberate in foreshadowing the sordid relationship Maomao has with her biological mother, as well as her resulting complicated views on the concept of 'love'. At the conclusion of the story of Concubine Fuyou, who had come up with a plot to be released from her duties as a concubine in order to be with her childhood friend and true love, Maomao looks despondently at her pinky, which is crooked, and wonders what kind of medicine 'The Power of Love' could make if she could bottle it. Maomao's biological mother cut off the tip of Maomao's pinky when she was a baby, losing herself to insanity after thinking Maomao's biological father abandoned her. This, in combination with the kind of upbringing Maomao had to endure, has left Maomao feeling like she doesn't really understand feelings like 'love'. There are various hints that Jinshi is the Imperial Brother and the current Emperor's son...which Maomao admittedly picks up on, but chooses deliberately not to assess further, since it isn't of interest to her and she senses that knowing more would just make her life more complicated than she wants.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_9dbf9610	type	World of Technicolor Hair
The Apothecary Diaries / int_9dbf9610	comment	World of Technicolor Hair: The novels' illustrations give the characters unusual hair colors, such as Maomao's dark green hair and Jinshi's purple hair, and no one ever comments on them. It's implied that nearly everyone's hair is really just stylized shades of black, as the illustrations and anime color Lishu's hair a light brown, but the novel explicitly describes her hair color as black. The only major character whose hair color is in-universe considered unusual is Gyokuyou, whose red hair and bright green eyes mark her as having foreign ancestry. Two foreign envoys are also denoted as looking unusual to the locals for having blonde hair.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a00fb5fd	type	First Love
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a00fb5fd	comment	First Love: Maomao's father's first love was her mother, Fengxian. She was one of the few whose face Lakan could see. It's likely one of the reasons he's so attached to Maomao. The Emperor's first love is Ah-Duo. Even after her time as consort ends, he keeps her close and he wishes for their son, Jinshi, to succeed him.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a20460b8	type	Hot Consort
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a20460b8	comment	Hot Consort: Gyokuyou, Lihua and Ah-Duo respectively. Lishu is a bit too young for that.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a21d8982	type	Assassination Attempt
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a21d8982	comment	Assassination Attempt: In Volume 1, during the garden party Maomao detects poison in the soup that was intended for Consort Gyokuyou. However, Maomao finds out that the actual intended target was Consort Lishu. The culprit was Ah-Duo's chief lady-in-waiting, Fengming. She was trying to save Ah-Duo from losing her position by freeing up the Diamond Pavilion for Ah-Duo's replacement. Volume 2 seems full of filler cases until it revealed it was all tied together as an elaborate murder plot targetting Jinshi. In Volume 3, Ka Zuigetsu, the Imperial younger brother, i.e. Jinshi, is almost gunned down by assassins.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a24670a4	type	Benevolent Boss
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a24670a4	comment	Benevolent Boss: Despite his teasing and flirtations, Maomao notes that Jinshi's actually a pretty swell boss. He bought her into his service to avoid her becoming a courtesan (though to be fair, it was because he laid her off she was in that situation in the first place) and gave her a personal room. He also later upgraded it, to boot! To thank him, she attempted a smile taught to her by her sisters, which ended up with Jinshi banging his head on a column. Despite it being a When She Smiles moment, Maomao surmises that her smile was so atrocious and vows not to do it again.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a2dc61eb	type	How Dad Met Mom
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a2dc61eb	comment	How Dad Met Mom: How Maomao's parents met is detailed in Volume 2. A whole chapter is dedicated to their meeting and relationship.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a4c37cbe	type	Mood Whiplash
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a4c37cbe	comment	Mood Whiplash: After a fairly dramatic scene where Maomao slaps one of Lihua's handmaids and calls her out on using the same poison on Lihua that killed her son, Jinshi suddenly notes that he's surprised that women could be this frightening and Maomao reacts in shock that now she's done it, turning the scene comedic.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a6209f13	type	Insert Song
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a6209f13	comment	Insert Song: Episode 3 ends with Yuiko Ohara's song "Omoikaze". Episode 12 has "Flower in the Snow" sung by Kanako Kishi playing while Maomao contemplates the events she's endured over the last year. During Jinshi's walk with Maomao in his arms in Episode 19, Daichi Takenaka's song "Soukuu no Honoo" is played. Episode 24 features "Omoi Saku Toki" by Aoiema, which plays as Maomao dances on top of the castle wall. This song is a melody reprisal of the previous "Flower in the Snow".
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a70223	type	Karma Houdini
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a70223	comment	Karma Houdini: For all she had done, Suirei is getting away scot-free due to being blood-related to the imperial family. Although to be fair she was merely a pawn of her stepmother and suffered immensely under her foot.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a7b324e	type	Handicapped Badass
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a7b324e	comment	Handicapped Badass: Lakan is regarded as a genius, eccentric Military Strategist, but he has clinically severe face-blindness, also known as prosopagnosia. As a child he couldn't even recognize his own parents and as a result he was passed over as heir to his family despite being the eldest son. Eventually, he learned to cope with the disorder by distinguishing people via their other traits. As a lover of strategy board games like Chess, he began to associate important people with chess pieces and it is said that in contrast to his impaired ability to remember faces, his ability to assess other people's skills and maneuver them into useful positions is basically superhuman.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_a94eaaa4	type	Odd Friendship
The Apothecary Diaries / int_a94eaaa4	comment	Odd Friendship: The intricacies of the court dynamics have caused Jinshi in particular to have some relationships with unusual implications. Jinshi was officially raised as the Emperor's younger brother, but is in reality his biological son. Aside from that, he was also mostly raised by his biological grandmothers in different capacities. Jinshi is not aware of his real parentage either. As a result, Jinshi's relationship with his biological parents resembles that of friendship more than parent and child, especially with his biological mother Ah-Duo. Additionally, the complications around Jinshi's parentage mean that his eventual official sister-in-law Gyokuyou is actually his mother-in-law, even though they're roughly the same age and also regard each other more like friends.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_aabe2fb	type	Deliberate Values Dissonance
The Apothecary Diaries / int_aabe2fb	comment	Deliberate Values Dissonance: While the series takes place in a fictional country, the setting is still heavily inspired by Imperial China and different values from that period of history are sometimes brought up: The whole story begins with Maomao being kidnapped and sold into indentured servitude in the rear palace, while her wages go into the pockets of the men who abducted her. Even though what happened to her was illegal, and rather than be outraged at her situation, appeal to the palace authorities or plot to escape, Maomao knows she realistically can't do anything except keep her head down and wait for her time as a servant to finish, while also trying to make sure her kidnappers don't benefit too much from her labour. When Jinshi learns about her capture, he apologises for the palace not preventing it — but Maomao points out that buyers can't tell the difference between someone who's been kidnapped and someone who's legally sold off to reduce the burden on their family, like her friend Xiaolan. The emperor favors buxom women, in contrast to how many present-day nations view slender women as more beautiful. This is true to history, as there were certain time periods in China's history in which curvier women were favored. There are also darker examples. For instance, one of the emperor's four main consorts at the start of the story is only fourteen, though she wasn't his personal choice and he never touches her; she was originally one of the previous emperor's consorts and came to the rear palace when she was nine. The previous emperor was terrified of mature women thanks to his overwhelmingly powerful and oppressive mother and was attracted solely to very young girls; the harem simply adapted to his preferences (albeit many people not in the know are sickened when they find out). Following on from that, Consort Lishu is held in distain and bullied by her ladies in waiting because she was a consort of the late previous emperor and is now a consort of the current one, having not only married her 'son-in-law' (which is admittedly odd to modern viewers) but also having married again after being widowed. Never mind the fact that in both cases Lishu had no say in the matter, but still gets hate for it. Maomao loves alcohol and always jumps at the chance to drink some despite being only 17 at the start of the story, due to the concept of legal drinking ages not existing yet. This is Played for Laughs when Jinshi mentions looking over a new bill that forbids anyone under the age of 20note The legal drinking age in Japan; this is likely due to the series' author being Japanese, since the drinking age in China is actually 18 from consuming alcohol, which causes Maomao to get upset and beg him not to pass the bill.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_ab8e26e2	type	Slipping a Mickey
The Apothecary Diaries / int_ab8e26e2	comment	Slipping a Mickey: One of the reasons that Jinshi needs his food tasted and tested, aside from the risk of poisoning so prevalent in the rear palace, is that people have tried to slip him food laced with aphrodisiac drugs in the past. It's happened so frequently it barely surprises him anymore, and he mainly reacts by making sure his doors are locked extra securely after receiving them.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_ad3e13c5	type	The Loins Sleep Tonight
The Apothecary Diaries / int_ad3e13c5	comment	The Loins Sleep Tonight: Jinshi takes a drug that causes this to make himself technically a eunuch so that he can legally enter the Inner Palace despite being anatomically intact. Though this is not without any downsides, as he is warned that if he takes the medicine for too long it may actually render him permanently impotent.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_ae79c5af	type	Grudging "Thank You"
The Apothecary Diaries / int_ae79c5af	comment	Grudging "Thank You": Maomao, to Jinshi. He becomes quite pleased with himself, to the irritation of Maomao.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_b0bce7aa	type	Selective Obliviousness
The Apothecary Diaries / int_b0bce7aa	comment	Selective Obliviousness: Despite her natural curiosity, Maomao deliberately ignores things she picks up on if she senses she might be stumbling on information that will make her life even more complicated or if the information seems absurd on the surface. Sometimes it's also due to simply being blatantly uninterested. This results in her being Locked Out of the Loop for a number of things for extended periods of time, including Jinshi's true identity as the Imperial Brother. It ends up coming back to bite her in the ass just as often as it saves her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_b11ac9f5	type	Abusive Parents
The Apothecary Diaries / int_b11ac9f5	comment	Abusive Parents: As shown in Volume 2, Maomao has a nightmare of when her mother sliced a piece of a young Maomao's pinky while restraining her. Not exactly 'Mother of the Year' material. Thankfully, her father(s) love her and treat her well. As revealed in Volume 4, Lady Shenmei apparently poured boiling water over her daughter's (Loulan's) hands when she didn't do a good enough job with massaging her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_b7920c43	type	Lost in Translation
The Apothecary Diaries / int_b7920c43	comment	Lost in Translation: Foreshadowing is oftentimes lost in the translation, since the names are romanized. Jinshi's name is written as å£¬æ°�. The æ°� character is also present in Anshi (å®‰æ°�), his official mother aka the Empress Dowager. Furthermore, in Volume 2, while being disguised as a commoner, Jinshi chooses Jinka (å£¬è�¯) as his alias. Maomao notes how unusual this is, because a flower-related kanji is more common for a female name. However, it's actually a hint at his noble origins, because this specific kanji for flower is reserved to only be used in names for nobility. His real name is Ka Zuigetsu (è�¯ç‘žæœˆ). As is revealed in Volume 2, Luomen is Lakan's uncle. Luomen is written as ç¾…é–€, while Lakan is written as ç¾…æ¼¢. Both share the ç¾… character, which can be read as either "luo" or as "la". In Volume 3, Maomao meets an upbeat serving woman, Shisui. The characters for her name (å�ç¿ ) are a bit unusual. As is later noted in Volume 4, Shisui is the former name of Suirei (ç¿ è‹“). It was made up of the distinctive ç¿ (sui) character (which is still present in Suirei) and å� (shi), for she is actually a member of the Shi clan.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_b7fa9b36	type	Adaptational Explanation
The Apothecary Diaries / int_b7fa9b36	comment	Adaptational Explanation: The GX manga offers explanations where the novel left things vague. For example, it is not known who a disguised Jinshi meets in the town in Volume 2. The manga however shows he was meeting Ah-Duo.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_b8f395f	type	Royally Screwed Up
The Apothecary Diaries / int_b8f395f	comment	Royally Screwed Up: Specifically, the previous emperor. The previous emperor was a pedophile because he was literally afraid of adult women. This was caused by his overbearing mother, who frightened him both as a child and adult. As a result of this, the woman who would become the Empress Dowager, Lady Anshi, was impregnated by him and gave birth when she was only ten years old. This repulsion against adult women was so intense that his second child was conceived against his will by an adult Lady Anshi forcing herself on him.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_bbd25056	type	Eunuchs Are Evil
The Apothecary Diaries / int_bbd25056	comment	Eunuchs Are Evil: Averted. While stereotypical scheming eunuchs do exist in this world, the majority of eunuchs are stated to be relatively gentle, easygoing types.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_c1c07d6f	type	Rejection Affection
The Apothecary Diaries / int_c1c07d6f	comment	Rejection Affection: Poor Jinshi. How has he not given up yet?
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_c4b0faae	type	Can't Hold His Liquor
The Apothecary Diaries / int_c4b0faae	comment	In Volume 2, Maomao challenges Lakan to a game of shogi. The loser has to drink a cup of sake, but three of the cups have something mixed in, with Maomao noting that drinking too much is poison. In truth, she mixed salt and sugar in the cups to make the alcohol kick in earlier. Since she knew Lakan Can't Hold His Liquor, she only had to make him drink one cup to make him go out drunk and forfeit the match. Lakan likely knew what she intended though and let her do as she pleased.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_c4c4004a	type	Treachery Cover-Up
The Apothecary Diaries / int_c4c4004a	comment	Treachery Cover Up: In Volume 3, Lihua merely dismisses her chief lady-in-waiting Shin and bans her from the rear palace on the grounds of being disrespecting, for which she slaps Shin. The consequences would have been far more dire if Shin had been arrested for trying to make Lihua abort, for both Shin and her immediate family.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_c63e5338	type	It Runs in the Family
The Apothecary Diaries / int_c63e5338	comment	It Runs in the Family: Maomao's adoptive father says 'the rear palace, eh? I guess it's fate.' Others comment on Maomao's eccentric nature and cunning resembling her biological father, Lakan.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_cd54b574	type	Switched at Birth
The Apothecary Diaries / int_cd54b574	comment	Switched at Birth: Jinshi and the imperial brother. Meaning, it was the imperial brother who died from the poisoning, not the crown prince...and Jinshi doesn't know this. When he inevitably discovers that his father is his grandfather, his mother is his grandmother, his brother is his father, and his former sister-in-law is his mother...well, it'll be a very awkward family dinner.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_cd83fa5b	type	Spoiler Opening
The Apothecary Diaries / int_cd83fa5b	comment	Spoiler Opening: The 2nd cour opening of the first season of the anime is a huge one, basically being a summary of events that will happen over the course of the entire cour in the style of a story diorama. It's done artfully enough though that unless one actually read the source material beforehand, people are unlikely to notice until the events actually occur.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_d0bab7f5	type	Royal Inbreeding
The Apothecary Diaries / int_d0bab7f5	comment	Royal Inbreeding: In Volume 3, Maomao helps the Emperor find the right path for the Shrine of Choosing. As she finds out, the test is easily solvable for someone who is colorblind. This is a trait that Wang Mu's descendants wanted to preserve, which is why she suspects they kept inbreeding to keep their bloodline pure. However, Maomao also suspects that the inbreeding is the reason the previous Emperor's older siblings all died early.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_d129e13e	type	"Eureka!" Moment
The Apothecary Diaries / int_d129e13e	comment	"Eureka!" Moment: Multiple times, as the story is a mystery series. For instance, near the end of Volume 1, Maomao has such a moment when she suspects that the imperial babies were swapped. This would mean that the crown prince is still alive. She ditches that idea when she realizes that following this line of thought, Jinshi would be said crown prince. Because no way that pervert eunuch is the next emperor of the country, right? Hahaha...ha.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_d137b509	type	Competence Porn
The Apothecary Diaries / int_d137b509	comment	Competence Porn: Much of the anime focuses on Maomao's amazing ability to solve things with her skills and knowledge.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_d8827578	type	Alternate Character Reading
The Apothecary Diaries / int_d8827578	comment	Alternate Character Reading: The names of the characters can be read very differently, as it's an Imperial Chinese-inspired work written by a Japanese person. Therefore, the reading isn't strictly kun-yomi, on-yomi; sometimes the reading is meant to be slightly different. For instance, the name æ¢¨èŠ± in on-yomi is ãƒªã‚« (Rika), but the author gives ãƒªãƒ•ã‚¡ (Rifa), which is why the official English translation chose the name based on Mandarin Chinese - Lihua. çŽ‰è‘‰ in Chinese would be Yuye, but the given furigana make it clear that it's meant to be read in on-yomi, so her name is ã‚®ãƒ§ã‚¯ãƒ¨ã‚¦ (Gyokuyou).
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_daba0e87	type	Acquired Poison Immunity
The Apothecary Diaries / int_daba0e87	comment	Acquired Poison Immunity: Maomao has built up a tolerance (though not total immunity) to poison through her experiments.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_dc8ba6d5	type	The Scapegoat
The Apothecary Diaries / int_dc8ba6d5	comment	The Scapegoat: In Volume 3, Lo-en is temporarily used as one by Basen, to mislead the real assassin after the assassination attempt against Ka Zuigetsu.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_deea2fb5	type	Idle Rich
The Apothecary Diaries / int_deea2fb5	comment	Idle Rich: What Maomao thought Jinshi was, seeing as he often stopped by just to tease her. Later averted, when she starts to work for him as his maid and realises that he is actually really busy and works his ass off. Still, it doesn't answer how a eunuch can be swimming in so much gold...
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_dfa15af2	type	Hair Memento
The Apothecary Diaries / int_dfa15af2	comment	Hair Memento: Jinshi's lady-in-waiting, Suiren, informs Maomao that sometimes people will try to slip gifts into Jinshi's drawers while he's away. One of them being clothing and underwear sewn with human hair. This manages to completely creep out even the mostly-unflappable Maomao.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_dfa40c1b	type	Didn't See That Coming
The Apothecary Diaries / int_dfa40c1b	comment	Didn't See That Coming: In Volume 1, Maomao uses the hair ornament she received from Lihaku to make him accompany her back home. In return, she arranges a night for him at the Verdigris House. She baited him by claiming that she would pay for him for a weekend with one of the Verdigris House's three princesses. When they arrive at the Verdigris House the old proprietess really does produce Pairin, and since Lihaku is exactly her type, she gives him a magical night. The grams adds this all to Maomao's debt. At the start of Volume 2, Jinshi and Gaoshun planned to give Maomao bigger duties. What they didn't expect was for her, who is literate, clearly intelligent, and so knowledgable about medicine, to flunk the test for Court Ladies, which is why she ends up primarily doing work as a maid and clean the rooms or carry out small errands. Maomao completely loses her motivation to study when it's about topics she isn't interested in.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_e0aed924	type	No Antagonist
The Apothecary Diaries / int_e0aed924	comment	No Antagonist: The story doesn't have a clear antagonist or villain. Many of the terrible deeds that some of the characters did, such as Fengming or Lihua's servants, were unconsciously or accidental rather than true malice. The story is simply a running plotline of following the lives of Maomao and the people she encounters as she gets swept up in various mysteries and political drama and using her skills in to navigate these situations, even as those situations increasingly complicate her life far more than she ever wanted. At best, antagonism comes in the form of the power struggles inherent in the court setting the story primarily takes place.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_e19e68	type	Cruel Mercy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_e19e68	comment	Cruel Mercy: In Volume 3, Shin received this from Lihua. Her life was spared despite what would normally have been an executable offense, but in turn her future, name and reputation were irreparably damaged, and she was banished from the rear palace (and with it any chance of receiving the Emperor's affections).
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_e5fd8bc2	type	Hate Sink
The Apothecary Diaries / int_e5fd8bc2	comment	Hate Sink: It's pretty clear that the audience isn't supposed to like Lishu's maids (or at least the ones who aren't Kanan). They constantly find ways to bully their mistress for reasons she had no say in and try to isolate her from others while painting themselves as her only allies. After Kanan stops bullying Lishu, the other maids begin harassing her as well. There is also a point in the story where they frame Lishu for betraying the Emperor.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_e923c801	type	Did Not Die That Way
The Apothecary Diaries / int_e923c801	comment	Did Not Die That Way: Ah-Duo's child. It is revealed that Ah-Duo's child died from eating honey, which Fengming unwittingly fed to the baby, not realizing honey is poisonous to infants. But this is only the accepted story and the truth is a bit more complex.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_e9e35e8f	type	Exact Words
The Apothecary Diaries / int_e9e35e8f	comment	Exact Words: Maomao unknowingly trolls Jinshi with this, upon returning from her three-day leave. He's annoyed she relied on Lihaku to vouch for her rather than himself, and asks what she gave him in exchange. She answers, "A night of blissful dreams" (she hooked him up with a high-class courtesan), that she worked very hard, and Lihaku was very happy with the result. Cue Jinshi going Blue with Shock. In future volumes, Rikuson was found with the dead body of Gyoku-ou, half brother of consort Gyoukuyou and another corpse of a dead farmer. He tried to explain it as self-defense: "He was already killed when I came here, so I fought the attacker." He didn't say who was killed and the killer though. Lakan seemed to caught on but purposely covered it up.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb81c601	type	Big Damn Heroes
The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb81c601	comment	Big Damn Heroes: In Volume 2, Maomao concludes that someone intends to kill a high-ranking official with a faulty construction. She barely arrives in time before the official, who turns out to be Jinshi, is saved in time, although in the process she cuts her leg open.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb8ec7c8	type	Jerkass
The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb8ec7c8	comment	Jerkass: Consort Jin was known to abuse her servants and attack other consorts out of jealousy. Unlike their mistress, Lihua's ladies-in-waiting are openly rude and condescending, taking every opportunity they can to look down on and insult Maomao, Ailan, Guiyan, and Yinghua.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb8f64a6	type	No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
The Apothecary Diaries / int_eb8f64a6	comment	No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Unsurprisingly, even Maomao's antics and problem solving skills receive some blowback. While she was able to correctly point out one of Lishu's would-be poisoners, the woman was eventually executed at the end of the incident. This doesn't bother Maomao too much until a bit later, when she is to be dismissed from the rear palace because her "family" (actually the kidnappers who'd sold her to the rear palace) had done business with the woman's family.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_ee8807f9	type	LawOfConservationOfDetail
The Apothecary Diaries / int_ee8807f9	comment	Law of Conservation of Detail: For a series that is structured mostly episodically, it pulls this off extensively. Even when it seems like the story is going on a random tangent, most of the individual subplots eventually have relevance to a greater plot somewhere down the line. For example, a solitary death in one chapter ends up having been part of an assassination attempt in a later volume.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_f10d3363	type	Distracted by the Sexy
The Apothecary Diaries / int_f10d3363	comment	Distracted by the Sexy: All those in the imperial harem are victim to Jinshi's looks, to his discontent. Maomao comments that's probably why he only has Suiren, Gaoshun and later her as his personal staff. He also hires En'en for an extended period of time because she's only attracted to Yao. Jinshi's exceptional attractiveness is sometimes deliberately weaponized to distract people or loosen lips when it is deemed necessary.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_f231fc12	type	I Love You Because I Can't Control You
The Apothecary Diaries / int_f231fc12	comment	Maomao acknowledges that Jinshi is ridiculously attractive, but she's completely immune to his charm and in fact finds it offputting when he leans too much into his pretty boy act. It is for this reason Jinshi finds Maomao interesting - and quickly becomes infatuated with her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_f627b434	type	Platonic Life-Partners
The Apothecary Diaries / int_f627b434	comment	Platonic Life-Partners: An uncommon variation in fiction between Ah-Duo an the Emperor. Ah-Duo and the Emperor have been friends since they were children. Ah-Duo became the Emperor's first consort when he was still a prince and they had a child together, but Ah-Duo has stated that she primarily sees the Emperor as a friend. After Ah-Duo is released from her position as consort, they continue to maintain a close relationship. However, it's heavily implied that despite Ah-Duo's feelings on the matter, the Emperor has always been in love with her.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_fc07e468	type	Puzzle Box
The Apothecary Diaries / int_fc07e468	comment	Puzzle Box: In Volume 2, a famous blacksmith leaves his three sons a set of items before his passing: a fishbowl, a dresser, and a shed. But the dresser won't open with the key provided to it and is nailed to the floor, preventing anyone from moving it. The inheritance seems useless until Maomao figures out its secret: when the fishbowl is filled with water and placed on a windowsill in the shed, the light is refracted onto the lock. The resulting heat causes the lock to expand, allowing the key to open it and access the three metals inside. This doubles as a Secret Test of Character, as Maomao realizes that the blacksmith only planned to bequeath his secret techniques to the son who managed to figure out the puzzle and deduce his methods from the contents of the dresser.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_fd497706	type	Accidental Murder
The Apothecary Diaries / int_fd497706	comment	Accidental Murder: Subverted. In Volume 1, Maomao detects poison in the soup that is served at the garden party. The intended target was Lishu, but her own poison tester Kanan switched the food on the tray with Gyokuyou's food, because she wanted to embarrass Lishu, as she knew Lishu doesn't eat mackerel. Maomao later explains to Lishu and Kanan that Lishu is actually allergic to mackerel and abalone, so it's not like she just doesn't want to eat, she can't, and in the worst case she could die if she does so anyway. Kanan accidentally saved Lishu's life by switching the food, but now that she knows Lishu is allergic to some things, if she ever tried to make Lishu eat something she is allergic to again, it would be like she poisoned Lishu. As is revealed at the end of Volume 1, Fengming accidentally killed who she thought was Ah-Duo's child by feeding him honey, which can be poisonous to babies.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_fed93e1b	type	Dark and Troubled Past
The Apothecary Diaries / int_fed93e1b	comment	Dark and Troubled Past: It would be easier to point out which of the cast doesn't have one given the nature of the story, but certain examples are real stand-outs with their traumatic/tragic circumstances: Maomao: Borne the child of the pleasure district's most desired courtesan (Fengxian) as part of a bid by her mother to secure their freedom by having the man (Lakan) she had fallen in love with redeem her, the plan completely collapsed due to factors beyond both their controls and resulting in the ruin of both her and Verdigris House reputation for a time. This resulted in her having to accept less clean customers in order to afford a living and eventually contracting syphilis which gradually destroyed her physically and mentally. She would have eventually tried to kill her own daughter in her madness had the women of the house not taken Maomao under their wing and cloistering Fengxian away as the disease took its toll and left her a husk of her former self. Many of the servant girls within the rear palace were sold there in order to reduce the number of mouths a family would need to feed. Some will try to extend their work contracts while others will try to get in the good graces of a concubine in order to secure work outside the palace once their contract expires as they are all aware they can never return to their former families. Xiaolan is one such example. Suirei: Forced to watch her birth mother be beaten to death by her cruel stepmother, stripped of her own name, and then implied to have been tortured into obedience by the same woman while her father stood by helpless to do anything. The only bright spots in her life were practicing medicine and her step-sister, Loulan. Loulan/Shisui: Forced to bear her half-sister's stolen name and even treat that sister like a servant lest they both be punished; coupled with being raised by a cruel woman who can't even remember her face unless she act like an obedient puppet and who would on a good day, pour boiling water on her hands if she make even a minor mistake, made Shisui seek opportunities for freedom anyway she could once she was free from her mother's influence. Gyokuyou and Lishu: Born the children of concubines of their respective fathers, both grew up the object of torment and ridicule by their older half-siblings, for Gyokuyou this was her racist, sexist and much older half-brother Gyoku-ou and for Lishu, it was her snobby and utterly repulsive older half-sister Yakou.
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The Apothecary Diaries / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
The Apothecary Diaries / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: While the series is an Anachronism Stew and there are a few things that are left vague or a bit of bend on reality, the series often brings up accidental poisonings that are accurate medically and historically, and for herbs also botanically.
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