It’s really nice to have The Apothecary Diaries back given how weak this season of anime looks. Jinshi and Gaoshun visit all the concubines, and one thing of note is that Jinshi noted the obscenely high number of ladies-in-waiting Loulan has, which was increased after the garden party, and I have always found this extremely suspicious given how bad it makes the other concubines look and ’cause there is no real use to have such an inordinately high number of them unless one has ulterior motives.
If you recall from episode 20 of Season 1, it was said that the Emperor didn’t like to visit Loulan compared to the other concubines ’cause she dressed so differently and with so many different hairstyles that it appeared it she was someone else entirely each time he visited, resulting in him getting confused.
Maybe that’s ’cause that is actually the case, and Loulan has some of her ladies-in-waiting impersonate her so she can do whatever she is plotting. I don’t think we have actually seen her speak even once in person, and we’ve just her look brooding or disinterested every time she’s on screen, maybe ’cause the one time she was shown speaking, it might’ve been someone impersonating her who was speaking. And if you recall from Episode 17 of the first season, it is possible to ingest substances that alter the quality of your voice, which could allow Loulan’s ladies-in-waiting to have voices that can pass for Loulan’s.
The OP for this season shows a scene with 6 Maomaos at the 25 sec mark, and I’m wondering if some of the new ladies-in-waiting Loulan’s father procured for her can actually impersonate Maomao, leading to Maomao being blamed for things she didn’t do. Regardless of what actually ends up happening, I’ve always been extremely suspicious of her extremely high number of ladies-in-waiting, and she definitely doesn’t NEED so many of them.
Jinshi founds out from his visit to Gyokuyou that Maomao is at the clinic, and Gyokuyou has this info since Maomao is working under her again since she’s pregnant. Maomao’s making scented oils away from the Jade Pavilion since a high concentration of certain substances can cause miscarriages, which Gyokuyou doesn’t want since she’s expecting a second child. Maomao whispered that info Jinshi since she didn’t want the quack doctor knowing since he can’t keep secrets. Maomao also revealed after Jinshi inquired about it that she was distilling alcohol to disinfect the Jade Pavilion since they have a a very young child there who they don’t want to get seriously sick.
Then Maomao’s package arrives, and it was poor timing as Gaoshun and Jinshi vetoed them being distributed due to them being too explicit. Maomao tried to reason that the Emperor might choose a girl he takes a shine to, so it’d be in their best interests to teach the girls of the palace about sex and ’cause the Emperor found the books she previously brought to the palace as teaching materials were not exciting enough, but they didn’t want to hear it. Gaoshun did remark about the fine paper the books were made of, and Jinshi made his own order of a novel from the same shop Maomao’s grandmother had gotten Maomao’s order from since one of his goals he revealed to Maomao in Season 1 was that he wanted to raise the literacy rates of the court ladies, and I guess improving the literacy rates of everyone in the rear palace, who would eventually become ladies-in-waitings, would be one way to do that. Xiaolan found the inspiration to read and write ’cause the one reading the novel to her became hoarse due to overextending herself, so she wants to read the copy of the novel that Ailan made for her and the other girls since it will come in handy when she leaves the Rear Palace, which Maomao is very pleased to her since Xiaolan is thinking of her own future.
Back at the Jade Pavilion, Gyokuyou reveals to Maomao and her head lady-in-waiting, Hongniang, that she has gotten approval from the Emperor to have her daughter, Lingli, go out on walks under the supervision of 2 eunuchs as well as Hongniang and Maomao, which Maomao reasons is due to all of the Emperor’s children up ’til this point dying young, something she finds reasonable. Gyokuyou also wants Maomao to teach Lingli about flowers and all sorts of creatures, which she believes will prove useful after Hongniang protested since Lingli will be married off one day and could use the knowledge to fend for herself when she is in a foreign land, and Maomao thinks Gyokuyou is just so clever for thinking so far ahead for her daughter’s future. She’s clearly an excellent mother.
On the walk, Maomao teaches Lingli that the flowers she took an interest in are primroses although she may not remember due to how young she was. She then heard the sound of a kitten and rushed to it, which led to Maomao checking out what was there, and Lingli frantically wanting them to chase it, which led them to the woods where the girl being shown taken by surprise by something at night earlier in the episode catches the cat for Maomao after saying, “Found you”, showing she had encountered it before. This girl is in the OP, so she should have an important role, whatever it is. Maomao opposed letting the princess touch it since it was dirty and possibly had all sorts of diseases as a stray. She brought it back and helped it survive since it was really scrawny and not in great shape. The Emperor gave her the okay to keep the kitten, which they found out was a female, since he knew his daughter was really taken by her. After nursing her back to health, the Emperor granted it the title of the Admonisher of Thieves since it was protecting the clinic from rats that would pillage supplies.
During that time, Maomao and Jinshi both indicated they aren’t cat people unlike with Gaoshun and the quack doctor, but after Maomao listed all the reasons people like cats, Jinshi realized he actually was one after thinking of how Maomao’s behaviour was very reminiscent of the reasons she listed and pressed the cat to his face, which was quite fun to see. Maomao is also repeatedly shown with cat imagery and cat ears through these two seasons, and given she hissed in this episode, it shows the show and probably the source material very intentionally linked Maomao to cats, which is why the kitten was also named Maomao.
Maomao was never able to find out who brought the cat to the palace, but given how starting with the second part of the first season how all the details matter, her mental note that at the place you need a license to have a pet could possibly be important later in the season if the show ever intends to address where the cat came from.
I don’t know what to make of the two ladies part of the caravan that Gyokuyou’s ladies-in-waiting were talking about, but whatever their roles will be, I’m thinking it’s not something good given what little we saw of them.