Looks like we’re going to have to wait yet one more week before the Lakan storyline gets some real clarity. But as always with Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, there are no coincidences. Lakan is certainly involved in this week’s events, though as usual it’s as an orchestrator more than a participant. And what the episode seems to be about – indeed, spends most of its time on – is clearly only a tangent from the main branch of the story.
Blue roses. That’s the MacGuffin Lakan introduces. He remembers them from the old days, he tells Jinshi, and longs to see them again. Perhaps at the upcoming garden party several weeks off. We can speculate on Lakan’s motivation for this (and I will), but what’s somewhat puzzling for me is that Jinshi agrees to take on this challenge. Why not just say no – what’s the power that Lakan has over him? But say yes Jinshi does. And this is beyond the scope of Gaoshun to achieve, as nobody seems to remember seeing any blue roses. It’s pretty easy to see where this is going.
Maomao has been working at Gyokurou’s palace, and indeed the latter is expecting. But Jinshi pulls her aside to take on this quest, which she accepts even after (or perhaps because of) figuring out that Lakan was behind it. It’s not going to be easy to accomplish, given that roses are out of season and won’t bloom anywhere near in time for the garden party. But through the introduction of two more possibly anachronistic inventions (the hothouse and flower dyeing) she takes the bull by the horns.
With her leg injury (perhaps worryingly) slow to heal, Jinshi summons Xiaolan to assist (and babysit) Xiamao. This hothouse process is interesting to watch play out, with some other developments like Maomao introducing nail painting (that at least fits the timeline) as a means of distracting staring court ladies. Maomao works herself to exhaustion as usual, and in the end it’s really about getting the roses to bloom early – the blue color will come from dyeing them (internally, through the water they absorb). And she makes it (just) in time for the garden party, telling the emperor in advance to make him feel special and avoid her trick becoming a political football.
So really, we’re faced with a three-pronged fork of a question here. What was Lakan’s reason for requesting this, Jinshi’s for accepting it, and Maomao’s for taking it on after realizing Lakan was behind it? Loulan seems to be the key to the first question, as this garden party is her coming out party. We know she’s a suspect in the attempt on Jinshi’s life, and her father Shishou (Chou) was a favorite of the previous Empress Dowager. Loulan is a threat, it seems – and perhaps Lakan (who sees Shishou as a rival for influence, maybe) staged the blue roses gambit as a means of drawing attention away from Loulan.
Maybe Jinshi just can’t say no. As for Xiaomao, Occam’s Razor suggests she’s simply ready to take things with Lakan out on the open (relatively speaking). It’s almost certain that he’s her father, and she’s tired of being manipulated by him. Lakan is shown to see others as go stones or chess pieces – it’s only Maomao (and her mother) whose faces are faces. Whether this is intended literally in Odd Taxi fashion or not I’m not sure (he does seem to have vision issues), but he too seems ready for more direct interaction with Maomao. I know I am – the tease is starting to drag on more than a little bit.
Casey W
March 11, 2024 at 12:52 amWhen Lakan remarks that his provocation has failed, at first I thought he meant that he’d tried to provoke Jinshi/Maomao (by giving them an impossible task) and he’d failed (because they pulled it off). But on second thought, it seems more likely that he was trying to provoke Loulan’s father in some way, and since Shishou didn’t react except to smirk a little, Lakan didn’t get the response he was hoping for.
But then, if Shishou had actually had an extreme response to the blue roses, Jinshi and Maomao both would have been on the hook for that with the Emperor. Even if the Emperor isn’t likely to punish Jinshi too severely (and Jinshi could probably save Maomao from execution, at least) it would have made Jinshi and Maomao look like dangerous meddlers who can’t be trusted with important work…
Guardian Enzo
March 11, 2024 at 9:37 amMaybe he was just trying to steal Loulan’s thunder, though? That seems possible to me.
Vance
March 11, 2024 at 11:12 amI believe Lakan was trying to provoke Shishou and Loulan given Lakan said that his provokation failed. Since blue roses are unnatural, he meant for the blue roses to upstage Loulan’s first public appearance, which in turn might get Shishou or Loulan to lash out, causing both of them lose face for getting flustered so easily. Neither Shishou nor Loulan took the bait though, and I believe that’s why Lakan said that his provokation failed.
As for what Lakan has over Jinshi that allows him to force Jinshi to do his bidding, that was made clear in a previous episode when Lakan said that there are not many people with a higher rank than Jinshi. Lakan knows Jinshi’s real rank and can blow the latter’s cover on pretending to be a eunuch, and that is likely why Jinshi just does whatever he says.
Nicc
March 12, 2024 at 8:25 amIt’s been a few weeks since Maomao returned to the Jade Pavillion and it’s confirmed that Gyokuyou is indeed pregnant. If Lingli gets a little brother, mom might be up for a promotion. But, that’s going to be a topic for later. Also, Maomao should wait until Lingli is a little older to teach her about poisons. Elsewhere, Lakan is bugging Jinshi again. Lakan’s latest request is for blue roses and to get them ready by the next garden party. I remember reading before that the blue color in nature is rare because the natural pigment for a true blue does not exist. Thanks to genetic engineering, it is possible to grow blue roses now.
Right, Jinshi accepts the challenge despite knowing the difficutly level. I’m hoping that we’ll get to why Jinshi keeps on entertaining Lakan’s requests. Somehow, Jinshi is not a position that he can simply brush him off. It doesn’t take long at all until it falls onto Maomao’s shoulders to do something about it. She’s about to reject it at first too, but changes her mind when she learns that it came from Lakan. She wants to get a win over him.
But, that’s going to be tricky and so he heads over to the Crystal Pavillion to set up what seems to be a combination of a greenhouse and sauna. Roses are out of season and so she has to find a way to trick the roses to bloom early. She’s running herself ragged going back and forth between the Jade and Crystal Pavillions and so Gaoshun recruits Xiolan to help out. She gets more screentime in this episode than in all of her previous combined appearances. However, the nights are still long and combined with moving the plants around, she’s practically a zombie when it’s time for the garden party. Gaoshu and Jinshi have been too busy with the preparations for the party that they haven’t been able to check in on her. Gyokuyou is sitting this one out as it is featuring Loulan. Neither Gaoshu and Jinshi have any idea if Maomao has succeeded or not.
But, succeed she did and it’s bouquet with blue flower and a few other colors. She reveals the trick to Jinshi and the emperor himself was clued in earlier too. I also can’t tell just who Lakan was trying to annoy with the blue flowers and it didn’t the get reaction the was expecting. As for the garden party itself, I wonder if it’s just going to be a speedrun as I don’t think that Loulan has a VA yet. A minor subplot involves painted nails and there’s a certain color that Maomao is going for. That relates to Lakan, who seems to have prosopagnosia or facial blindness. An “Odd Taxi” mashup, eh? There could be a spinoff named “Odd Rickshaw” as Odokawa pulls passengers around the city. Anyway, the color of the nails on Maomao gets Lakan’s attention and he definitely sees her face. The next episode preview shows who might be mom? I too think it’s about time we get down to just what happened between this might-have-been family.