I hate it, man, I hate it. What’s my beef this week? Just… the situation, I guess. Well, the girl’s father too. But let’s back things up a bit. A disheveled man comes to the apothecary, begging for help. His daughter is incredibly sick, and she needs medical attention fast. At first, Maomao refuses to lend her services because the man obviously has no money. She relents, however, when she hears about the daughter. She lets the man “sign” a bond promising to pay them back later.

So what’s up with the girl? She ate the weird, crumbly cracker (or whatever you call it) that the mysterious lady has been passing out. I mean, what can you do, right? You’re starving, and someone offers you something edible. You would like to rely on the goodness of human nature, and it’s hard to ignore an empty stomach. It’s literally painful. When I saw the girl’s sunken cheeks and blackened fingers and toes, I thought she was too far gone. She looked like a corpse. But luckily, I’m not a doctor, and nobody should take any medical advice from me. As it turns out, the young girl is extremely malnourished, but food, exercise, and not eating any more of that damn laced grain will eventually see her fixed right up.

But then money rears its ugly head again. The father still can’t pay, because surprise, surprise, he’s a pathetic deadbeat who forces his kids to work. Whatever meager pay they earn, he takes and frivolously gambles away. And of course, he beats his kids. Gotta add that in there for good measure. As a result, when the girl’s older sister comes to check on her, Maomao threatens to sell the girl off. Not gonna lie, I thought that was harsh. Nevertheless, the older sister decides that she’ll sacrifice herself; she’ll become a courtesan for both herself and her sister. Ugh, this is what I’m talking about. This made me sick to my stomach.

To be charitable to Maomao, there’s no point sugarcoating it. Her tone makes her sound heartless, but you can argue that she is stealthily nudging them, giving them a potential way out of their dire situation. Sadly, for a commoner, what else can the older sister do? This is likely her only way to survive. The older sister even admits that the father would’ve eventually sold them off anyway. As Maomao, she can’t really afford to treat patients for free or else she’ll end up just as poor and destitute as them. Then she would have to become a courtesan. I get it, I get it… but it doesn’t make it any less unpleasant to watch.

I have to sit there and watch the girl grimace as she bathes herself with cold water in order to prepare for her future “customers.” We then cut back to Jinshi in the royal palace, living it up with all those fine clothes and good food. These people are sequestered far away from the true horrors running rampant throughout the empire. I know Jinshi isn’t personally at fault. It’s the whole damn system. Why do we kneel and bow to men who would let us starve and sell our bodies? This was one of the main reasons why I was apprehensive about covering this show. I know it’s historical; I know these things happened. But like I said, it doesn’t make it any less unpleasant to watch. I always wince when stories glorify kings and lords — when characters leave the comforts of modern life for some bullshit fantasy world where a petty ruler could condemn you to death because he didn’t like the way you look. I wince when “honorable” knights willingly die for these fuckers. I wince when characters pontificate about the nobility of serving. I hate watching shows about emperors with their gajillion concubines while farmers starve to death. Do we have our own share of villains? Of course. But at least I don’t have to bend the knee. Yeah, the people might revolt over a locust plague? Maybe they fucking should, with or without the bugs.

The loser father eventually tries to get his daughters back, but he only wants them to keep earning money for him. There are no happy endings here, just slightly less bad outcomes.

Stray thoughts & observations:

— So the girl was poisoned by ergot, which I believe is a fungus? Maomao said the symptoms were similar to frostbite, and that’s because ergot poisoning can lead to constricting of your arteries. It’s gangrene, basically. That’s why a nearby old man completely lost his fingers. If you keep ingesting ergot, your fingers and toes die and rot.

— Oh yeah, ergot contains the acid that is precursor to LSD. I still have no clue what the mysterious woman’s goals might be. Make everyone lose their fingers and toes? How does that help? Make them trip balls? Hmmm…

— Jinshi got Maomao the books she wanted, but they’re apparently still missing a third volume on insects. Naturally, this missing volume is the one that might have the information on locusts that they desperately need. Sazen suggests that it might have been buried with the author, so now Maomao wants to desecrate the dead and dig up his remains. From my cursory understanding of how things worked back then — and I’ve only read a few history books so I’m no expert — I don’t think they really had the technology to stop locust plagues. Even now, with our pesticides, eradicating the pests is a headache. The Apothecary Diaries has been relatively grounded in reality. There’s no mystic bullshit, so I wonder where the show is going with this. I just can’t imagine the missing book containing any substantive solution. At best, it might have observations on how grasshoppers become locusts, i.e., don’t let your crops die from droughts. But it’s not like you can make rain clouds magically appear, right? Nevertheless, Maomao is off to see Suirei, because she was supposedly responsible for the dead man’s remains. Guess that means we also get to spend time with Ah-Duo again.

— All I really remember about Suirei was that she was forced to play a role in Jinshi’s attempted assassination. And oh yeah, she wasn’t the friendliest woman around.

— Does every kid do this? Even back in the Tang Dynasty?