Once the Emperor learns of the “famous apothecary”, he asks her to look after Lady Lihua. That is to say, he commands her to cure her of her affliction. If Maomao can’t, it means she’s disobeying the emperor and will surely be beheaded. That said, Maomao approaches this latest mystery—with her usual wit and levelheadedness.
That said, Lihua’s stuck-up ladies-in-waiting don’t make it easy. At first, they make it outright impossible. Maomao knows that in Lihua’s weakened state she needs easy-to-digest food to slowly build up her strength. Instead, they turn Maomao away and insist on serving their lady the richest, most luxurious foods. She’s too weak to eat them, so she wastes away.
Jinshi, who is monitoring Maomao’s progress, she that she’s hit an interpersonal snag and provides an immediate assist, by reminding the smitten ladies-in-waiting that the emperor wishes Maomao access to Lady Lihua. And she gets it not a moment too soon, as she discovers that the ladies-in-waiting have continued to apply the poison makeup to Lihua.
This goes beyond simply having no idea how to treat Lihua in her delicate state; they are actively continuing to killing her for the sake of beauty, and hid the toxic makeup from he eunuchs assigned to confiscate it. Upon learning this, Maomao approaches the lady responsible for Lihua’s make up, delivers a vicious slap to the face, then pours the makeup over her head.
This is about more than Maomao simply demanding respect for having the knowledge and experience to treat Lihua. It’s also about more than saving her own skin by obeying the emperor. Maomao simply cannot abide such wanton ignorance and stupidity in her presence. And when she delivered that slap, she cemented heself as my Forever Heroine.
The slap, which occurred in front of Jinshi, who doesn’t interfere and thus tacitly approves, also serves as a message to the other ladies-in-waiting: when it comes to Lihua’s health, Maomao is the new boss of the Crystal Pavilion. She carefully crafts a diet Lihua can handle, adjusts it as her strength ever-so-slowly returns.
No longer being poisoned by the makeup, Lihua graduates from rice water to porridge and tea, to broth and fruits and vegetables. Maomao also ensures her chambers get proper ventilation, and even takes up Jinshi’s offer to help again by asking him to have a steam bath built on the premises so Lihua can keep sweating out the toxins.
As Lihua’s color and vitality improves, there’s a subtle change in Maomao’s appearance; bags form under her eyes, she seems to move more slowly and more deliberately, and perhaps she even gets a bit thinner. Again, it’s subtle, but very apparent. The fatigue that results from her tireless exertion serves as a sign of her dedication to doing the job she’s been given right.
One day, while sitting by Lihua’s bedside trying to stay awake, Lihua gathers the strength to speak. She asks Maomao why she didn’t simply let her die. Maomao replies, quite simply, that Lihua ate food when it was placed in her mouth. Because she ate food, and continues to eat it, means she doesn’t want to die.
Maomao took note of this the first time she fed her. It wasn’t the lack of will to live that kept her from eating, but lack of strength from the neglect of the ladies-in-waiting. We learn the head lady was confined and the eunuch responsible for confiscating the makeup was flagellated—more reminders that this was not a request from the emperor to do her best, but a command to make it happen.
When Lihua recalls when she had her health, and her darling infant son in her arms, and…that’s when I couldn’t help but tear up a bit. Lihua suffered incalculable grief and loss, but also guilt for not heeding the warning about the makeup. But she agrees with Maomao’s assessment that she wants to live. She does want to live, to honor the memory of her lost son.
The recovery regime continues with Maomao in charge and the ladies-in-waiting assiting her with Lihua’s steam baths, wipe-downs, laundry, and everything else. One day, the head lady she slapped returns, now contrite. She vows she’ll never make the same mistakes she made again, and says the clearly exhausted Maomao can go rest; she’ll take it from here.
When she sees that Lihua is strong enough to greet her, her eyes fill with tears of relief. I’d hoped she’d have actually apologized to Maomao for being such an idiot and almost killing Lihua, and thanked her for restoring her health so dramatically, but just because she doesn’t say those things out loud doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel that way.
In all this time with Lihua, Maomao learned more about her, and that she wasn’t the selfish princess she first thought her to be. When Lihua is strong enough to take strolls through the garden on her own, Maomao’s service to her is coming to a close.
When she finds Maomao fast asleep on a hard bench, Lihua offers her thanks by sitting beside her and gently stroking her hair. It’s a scene of regal, dignified, yet tender and heartfelt gratitude exemplified. Maomao did good, and even Jinshi is impressed she was able to fulfill the emperor’s command.
When the time comes for Maomao to return to Lady Gyokuyou’s pavilion, Lihua asks her if she’s still capable of having children. Maomao honestly answers that she doesn’t know, but there’s no harm in trying. When Lihua says the emperor’s love for her has gone, Maomao reveals that she was given express orders from the emperor to care for her, so it’s not like he hates her.
Maomao leaves her with some advice from her big sisters from the red-light district: a tactic they taught her, but which she cannot use due to her lack of endowment. Lihua doesn’t have that problem, and in fact her bust is superior to Gyokuyou’s, so she is able to employ it.
She apparently does, as shortly after Maomao returns (and is embraced like a sister by her fellow ladies-in-waiting), the frequency of the emperor’s visits to the Jade pavilion are diminished, and Gyokuyou is finally able to get some good nights’ sleep. Everybody wins this week, thanks to Maomao, the extraordinary apothecary.
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