Chapters: 3/5
Fandom: č¬å±ć®ć²ćØćććØ | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime), č¬å±ć®ć²ćØćććØ | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Manga), č¬å±ć®ć²ćØćććØ - ę„åå¤ | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jinshi & Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Ah Duo & Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Ah Duo & Luomen, Luomen & Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Jinshi & Luomen (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Minor jinmao
Characters: Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Jinshi (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Luomen (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Ah Duo (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Fengxian (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Sick Character, Maomao being Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Traveling Merchant Ah Duo, Fluff and Humor, Jinshi's True Identity hinted at (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), black cat Maomao & stray puppy Jinshi, Prologue, POV Alternating, Jinshi Needs a Hug and the main story hasnāt even started yet ;-;, Mama Ah Duo, yes the rating did get bumped up, implied/referenced attempted kidnapping, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Maomao Needs a Hug (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), Unreliable Narrator Maomao (Kusuriya no Hitorigoto), aged-down characters
Series: Part 1 of When Camellias Bloom Again
Summary:
[Prologue fic to When Camellias Bloom Again]
"Listen, I know I shouldn't be here. I know that I am the reason you are hereā¦"
"Fate is twisted indeedā¦"
Ah Duo brings her sick son to the pleasure district apothecary under the cover of night, which sparks the beginnings of an unlikely friendship between the son of a traveling merchant and the daughter of an apothecary.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Whelp, guess there's no going back now. Let's see where the insanity leads.
This AU is basically a "what if Maomao was a steampunk engineer instead of an apothecary, but also with magic." I tried really hard to maintain her core personality while just changing the object of her hyperfixation, but apologies in advance if I accidentally get caught up in my own headcannons and have her do stuff out of character.
The setting is something I've had kicking around for a long time but could never really figure out what to do with the characters beyond "grease monkey", "secretly the prince", and "shenanigans at magic university". And then I discovered KnH and the Jinmao brainrot set in...
Anyway, here's chapter 1 of... a lot, probably lol.
maomao is really good at lying to herself meanwhile jinshi is incapable of lying to himself and the dichotomy is intriguing. jinshi spent years as a eunuch and doesnt know nor care that he is the imperial son. maomao represents a place where he can truly drop all pretenses and not have to use his looks to get what he wants. maomao realizes jinshi is someone she can depend on, someone who is a source of warmth and constantness in her life. maomao especially values those who show up for her, more than people who just happen to be in her life.
The Prologue and Epilogue mirror each other. The Prologue depicts the moment when a young Yoh traps Ah-Duo by choosing to make her his bedmate, while the Epilogue suggests that history is repeating itself: the prince follows in his fatherās footsteps by attempting to force Maomao into a similar cage.
The final part of the Epilogue also shows the consequences of Yohās actions. He imprisoned Ah-Duo and was ultimately punished for it. He obtained the woman and the son he wanted, but he could never truly have either of them. He was forced to give up Ah-Duo because she lost her womb and became āuselessā to the Empire, while his son was officially made his brother, meaning Yoh could never acknowledge him as his own.
The myth I discussed here https://www.tumblr.com/augustinamiaumiau/781535647390416896/the-myth-of-vega-and-altair-and-how-it-relates-to also serves as a warning about what their future could look like if nothing changes. In my previous post, I focused on a lot of unnecessary details, but I now think the reason Natsu included the myth was because the lovers end up together in Heaven, yet they are still separated by a river. Jinshi, who represents the princess in the story, can bring Maomao, the commoner, into the heavens that is, into the imperial family, but they would still remain emotionally separated, symbolized by the river.
š¬ 0Ā Ā š 4Ā Ā ā¤ļø 31Ā Ā·Ā The myth of Vega and Altair and how it relates to Jinshi and MaomaoaĀ Ā·Ā LN5 SPOILERS
āThe sky seemed so vast. There was no
The Epilogue forces the two of them to communicate and sets off a chain reaction that moves the plot forward. In Volume 6, Jinshi finally asks Maomao how she feels about him and about the possibility of marrying him. Maomao says that her main concern is Gyokuyou, prompting Jinshi to brand himself. As a result, he is sent back to the Western Capital alongside Maomao, where they finally end up together.
You know, an interesting tumblr transformation that's happened gradually, and which I've seen no one talk about: ask-culture has essentially dropped off to nothing.
By which I mean, asks used to be WAY more of the tumblr economy. They used to be more common to send, and receive, and see. They were integral to the collaborative, forum-like behavior of old tumblr communities, not even to speak on the HUGE number of ask-blogs that used to exist to only be interacted with in ask-form.
I'm not saying this in a vying-for-attention way but instead in an observational way: I used to get way way more asks in like 2015, even with a fraction of my follower count. I wonder if it's due to the homogenization of social media sites? There's a lot more of this divide between "content creator" and "consumer" instead of just a bunch of peer blogs who would talk to each other. "Asks" aren't really a thing on twitter, are they? And as I understand it, the closest thing to an "ask" on instagram or tiktok would be a creator screenshotting some comment and responding to it in a new reel or video or whatever those content mediums are. Are asks just too tumblr-specific? Is that aspect of the site culture dying out as more and more people converge to using all their social media sites in the same way?
it's probably from assholes making asks a minefield of trolling/harassment for years with no real blocking ability, which turned people off from allowing asks on their blogs so as a whole the site moved away from it
but now that we do have better blocking, we should try to revive it.
I finished watching the Apothecary Diaries anime and...
look it's really good but especially in season 2, parts of Jinshi and Maomao's relationship bothered me.
I wanted to hear some other opinions so I watched a video "debunking" everyone that has issue with it and I don't know how else to explain it other than it was full of rape apologizing.
And like...I agreed that I don't think Jinshi would do that. The series also makes a point about rape, specifically pedophilia, but that doesn't mean it's immune from all criticism, like the essayist seems to think.
The most infamous scene is the "frog" one so let me go through that.
Context: Jinshi is the head eunuch in charge of managing the rear palace. Secretly, he's the emperor's brother and crown prince, so he wasn't castrated. Since it's a secret, no one outside of his small circle, including Maomao, knows.
In this scene, a group tries to assassinate him and he escapes with Maomao by jumping off a waterfall and hiding in a cave behind it.
This is the first part the essayist went over that bothered me.
Yes, Maomao strips and tells Jinshi to do the same. This is not her exerting power in the situation or trying to "allure" him; this is to dry their soaked clothes and there's no ulterior motives.
There's a difference between a state of undress and sexualizing a state of undress. This is not sexual. It doesn't matter that Jinshi "could've" reacted here if he wanted to assault her.
Further, they put their dry clothes back on and go through the cave to an opening in the ceiling. He's obviously much larger than her, so he boosts her up, she gets thrown off balance by a frog and they topple on top of each other, you know the trope. This is where the "frog" incident occurs.
The argument was made here that Maomao acted first by touching him and not stopping immediately. Should she have removed her hand when asked? Yes. But she didn't walk up to him and cup a feel for the hell of it, they fell and she was trying to get out of his grasp, that's just where her hand happened to land. She also was confused because, you know, she thought he was a eunuch. She was calculating, as she does throughout the entire series. Again, yes, she should've removed her hand sooner, but the touch itself was not sexual in nature.
Compare this to him pinning her, grabbing her leg and straddling her basically going "do you wanna find out how big it is?" THAT is sexual in nature.
It pissed me off so much that the video essayist said that BECAUSE she didn't say no, BECAUSE she didn't fight, because she "provoked" him, (which was her typical snark in a nervous attempt to not hear information a servant girl shouldn't have and he got touchy about his "size") she obviously wanted it and was in control, ignoring that her immediate thought is about how she pushed him too far.
All this right after where she has an inner monologue about how she shouldn't think on anything that would put her life at risk (if she steps out of line, she can be killed) and freezes when wondering if she should kick him off.
Additionally, in episode 47, a man in Jinshi's guard gets beaten because during a fight, Jinshi got a single cut on his face. Yes. Maomao is right to be afraid of repercussions of physically hurting or rejecting him. That's why she tries to stay ignorant and use the "I fell on a frog" as plausible deniability.
Now do I believe he would've stopped if she said so? If she seriously said it instead of simply trying to disengage, yes. god what does that say in general though
Although there is the infamous "honey" scene. To be honest, I never took issue with it until I heard it defended. Maomao actively tells him to stop, calls for help and eventually is only spared when Lady Gyokuyou shows up.
Maomao doesn't have the authority to deny him, unlike a high-ranking concubine, which causes him to nervously scurry away like a rat. It then gets brushed aside as a prank. Overall the scene helps Maomao solve the case and her telling Gaoshun if he really thinks it was harmless fun, he can do the licking next time is funny.
The essayist claims Maomao agrees that it was a prank, but that's not what happens in the anime. She doesn't linger on it, but she never excused it. Even if she did, she's not in a position where she's allowed disagree.
Why does harassment so easily get brushed aside as "it's just a prank, bro" like that comment didn't sit right with me and I didn't even care about the scene.
As far as pranks go on him, it's really just her helping with what he asks, such as the Moon Fairy dance. Yes, she had him swim a lake, but he was the one who asked for her help and the plan did work. Yes she got a little carried away with a disguise and put lipstick on him, but that's very minor. Mostly her "pranks" against him are just being mildly snarky and blunt, which is also just her personality.
I don't think Jinshi is a bad person. He adores Maomao and frankly forgets his rank around her, but she doesn't (except very briefly when she gets excited). We as the audience know he loves her and wouldn't harm her, but she doesn't believe no one else would. She knows there's rules in place and crimes are punishable by death. Early on in the show, she even requests if she's ordered to be killed, let her die by poison instead of beheading. Jinshi of course says that's not gonna happen and he wouldn't do that, but Maomao recognizes he's a high-ranking official and she is just a servant girl.
What would've happened if the dog didn't show up and save her?
3 times in the show he tries to get intimate and all 3 times, he's interrupted. Frankly I find him trying to fool around with her while next to the bodies of 5 dead children to be distasteful at best. (I'm surprised this one isn't as infamous as the final scene where he bites her.)
Also I can't believe the essayist actually said "she's a tsundere" as an excuse. Yes, she's blunt and gets comfortable being less formal with him as the show goes on, even enjoys some teasing, but frankly there's a difference between banter and actively moving in on someone trying very hard to pivot and disengage.
It's not okay because Jinshi is "a green flag in a sea of red flags". (I don't even agree there is a sea of red flag men in the show tbh) It's not okay that her frozen silence was taken was a "yes". I don't know if I even agree he wouldn't ignore her clear signals when each time he's made advances, she has tried to pivot or actively swatted him away and he still presses. She's not being coy.
I don't think Jinshi's an abuser or that many of these things actively bother Maomao, like it's just their dynamic and it can have fun rom-com-adjacent moments, but the bigger ones leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I don't think including them is wrong, actually after each incident they spend time away from each other and I think their relationship backslides a bit, but seeing the scenes called "cute" by fans and eaten up as shipping material is a little off-putting.
The essayist made a comment about how many headcanon Maomao as asexual and they disagree because she plays these "cat and mouse" games, as if she doesn't make a face to every "cute" comment Jinshi makes towards her.
Maybe I'm too ace myself, and yes this is just my own personal feelings, but Maomao does read as ace to me. She's more interested in herbs and medicines than anything else, flat out ruining sweet moments when her deeply-desired ox bezoar comes up. Season 1 shows she wants to keep working in the palace because if she's out of work, she'll be pushed to become a courtesan and sold off, which she expresses a LOT of distaste for. Add this onto her being seemingly the only woman who is not affected by Jinshi's looks or cares about the handsome eunuchs like other court ladies, yeah. I get a lot of ace vibes from her. (Don't forget when she had a guy strip to assess if her sister would like his build. Wasn't sexual to her, despite how it looked to others.)
I don't see her snarky comments as flirting and toying with hearts as much as this essayist did. Sometimes I wonder about straight people...
Anyways, that's about all I have to say on it. Show was good, I liked it, just prefer the murder plots to trying to make characters kiss in uncomfortable ways.
As a fellow ace-spec myself who loves analytically chewing this series to bits, allow me to offer my perspective.
Even though those scenes are often considered ācuteā by the majority of the fandom, I do believe that the undercurrent of uncomfortableness is intentional.
Itās important to keep in mind that these are two characters who both have a history of sexual trauma to some degree. (Maomao from growing up in the red light district as a woman and Jinshi from being regularly harassed to the point of being desensitized to checking his food for the equivalent of date rape drugs.) Even if they respect and care about each other, which they clearly do, of course theyāre going to struggle with healthy boundaries surrounding intimacy if they even know what that looks like.Ā
The frog scene itself is a pivotal example of this. Throughout the whole hunting trip, Jinshi had been waiting for the opportunity to finally be honest about who he is, and understandably, Maomao immediately shuts him down. Under their snarky banter about the āfrogā is a mental battle in which Jinshi is desperately wanting to be emotionally vulnerable, while Maomao desperately wants to keep things the way they are because knowing the truth is dangerous, literally and emotionally.
When he lifts her leg, Jinshiās objective wasnāt to do anything to her. He was frustrated and wanted to scare her to quit playing dumb and admit that she knows who he is. Growing up in the political position that heās in, Jinshi wants this rare genuine connection so badly, but Maomao is not ready for that yet.
Maomao knows her place, but she also uses it as an emotional barrier.
Now does this excuse Jinshiās actions? Absolutely not. Jinshi himself acknowledges that what he did wasnāt ok when he goes to apologize for making her uncomfortable and lets her keep a physical barrier in between them.
As for the dead kids scene, there is a way to read it as a literary device that I think is an interesting take on it by @aspoonofsugar in their Shisui/Loulan analysis: https://www.tumblr.com/aspoonofsugar/788333383805812736/what-do-you-think-of-shisui-in-the-apothecary?source=share
But that is to say, I also disagree with the sentiment that she āprovokedā him or āwanted itā.
You may have heard the tsundere argument from people who insist that Maomao is an unreliable narrator, which is true, but also oversimplified. Maomao is an unreliable narrator the same way Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games is.Ā
She wouldnāt blatantly lie that sheās uncomfortable in her own mind. What she thinks is what is true in her perspective, but itās not always whatās objectively going on. Maomao herself admits that she struggles with recognizing emotions in herself and others and has formed this emotionally reserved and cautious mindset as a survival response to the environment she grew up in.
To me personally, they feel more like two friends who are emotionally stunted young adults feeling āfeelingsā for the first time and not knowing how to deal with it properly. Itās a classic case of anxious attachment x avoidant attachment.
A central point of Maomaoās character arc is how she sees herself as ābrokenā because of how she doesnāt love or show affection the same way everyone else does, when that's clearly not the case. Meanwhile, a central point of Jinshiās is how heās not the perfect āson of heavenā. Heās just human, and a terribly flawed one.
Tldr: These scenes are there to purposefully highlight the power imbalance, emotional immaturity, and how much more they still need to grow as characters. They are both unfortunate products of their circumstances, and the power imbalance in particular is an important point for the development of their relationship.
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