An old man drinks at the restaurant in The Apothecary Diaries episode 9. He’s rude to ask for wine. A couple of young guys gather together at the table. They’re happy with what happened to the old man. There’s a young man not far from them. He poisons the wine and he gives the wine to the old man. Jinshi is on the desk in his office. He’s listless. Gaoshun holds the papers. He reminds Jinshi that he has work to finish. Jinshi claims that he knows it. But Gaoshun points out that Jinshi wouldn’t be obsessed with a toy.
Gaoshun gives the new work to Jinshi. He reveals he and Jinshi knew the truth from Consort Gyokuyou. They were told that the present is seeing the top courtesan in The Apothecary Diaries. The officer breaks into Jinshi’s office in the evening. Gaosun suggests that the guy should come next day because they’re off duty. The guy claims that it’s not about work. Jinshi is shocked after knowing what happened to the chancellor Haoran.
Maomao Investigates Haoran’s Death
We go to the Crystal Pavilion. Gyokuyou is sad after she heard the bad news in The Apothecary Diaries. But Maomao doesn’t sympathize with the chancellor because she doesn’t know who he is. She learns that the man is 50 years old and he died from drinking. She thinks he deserves it. Jinshi questions Maomao if she thinks the cause of death was drinking. She thinks drinking was a reason. He leaks that the guy drank a lot with his friends at the banquet. She figures it out that the man would die.
But Jinshi points out that Haoran is a good drinker. He doesn’t believe that the man would die from drinking. Maomao hears Haoran is the fighter who can drink up a pot of wine. He has many friends. Jinshi puts the wine the man drink on the table. Maomao is excited after she saw the wine. Jinshi reveals there’s no win left in Haoran’s drink because the pot was broken. Maomao points out that nobody knows if the wine was poisoned. Jinshi agrees to what she said.
Maomao notices that Jinshi is very kind. She thinks he knows he’s forcing her. She mentions he has been like a kid recently. She drinks the wine and she discovers that the wine is sweet and salty. She tells Jinshi that the win’s taste was weird. He knows it was sweet. Because Haoran had a sweet tooth. Maomao points out that the man would have diabetes. Jinshi blames the girl for bringing him back to reality. Maomao wonders if the food at the banquet would be added salt. He admits it. He reveals there were mooncakes and jerky at the banquet. He plans to prepare it for her. But she goes against it because she will drink up the wine soon. Maomao asks Jinshi to go to look for Haoran’s wine pot. She thinks it’s fine even if the pot is broken.
Maomao Finds Out Haoran Died from Drinking Salted Wine
Jinshi finds the wine pot soon. Gaoshun hands over the report to Maomao. She touches the shard of the wine pot with her finger. She licks her finger then. Jinshi and Gaoshun are shocked. Jinshi worries about the girl. Maomao comforts the man that it’s not poisonous. She throws the salt into the fire. She mentions what Jinshi said that the man had a sweet tooth. But she found a lot of salt from the wine pot. She reveals a person will die if he eats a lot of salt.
Jinshi learns that the man died from eating a lot of salt. But he thinks Haoran would notice it since it was salty. Maomao reveals the man couldn’t see it. She gives the report to Jinshi. She mentions the man couldn’t taste salt. She reveals Haoran was outstanding and restrained. He lost his wife and his children in an epidemic. He focused on his work since then. His only hobbies were wine and sweets. Maomao thinks Haoran lost his sense of taste because of the pressure.
Jinshi Is In Mourning for Haoran
Jinshi wonders who added the salt into the wine. Maomao cannot give him the answer. She thinks someone added salt because he didn’t like sweet wine. She guesses there were many people who don’t like serious people. So they wanted to vent at the banquet. But Haoran didn’t care for it. He continued to drink. So those people wanted to add salt until Haoran could sense it. Jinshi gives Gaoshun an order. Gaoshun leaves the office.
Maomao thinks she almost leaked the names of the culprits. She doesn’t want to be the reason that someone is punished. Jinshi thanks her for helping him. She notices the Obsidian Tassel he wears. She realizes that he’s in mourning. She figures it out that Haoran is a big role. Jinshi reveals the man took care of him when he was a kid. Maomao notices that Jinshi is just an ordinary person. He gives a pot of wine to her. She’s happy with it. But he comes close to her.
Jinshi mentions he didn’t see appreciation from Maomao’s face. But she asks him to work hard. He claims that he’s working hard. He offers to create a bill that disallows young people under 20 years of age to drink. She’s terrified. She begs him not to let the bill pass. He smiles and he claims that he cannot decide it on his own. Jinshi drinks alone in his room in the evening. A girl falls into the water.
A Maid Throws Herself Into The River
The next day, Maomao works with Quack Doctor at the hospital. Someone brings a bad news to Quack Doctor. Quack Doctor is taken to see the dead. He’s terrified to hide behind Maomao. She checks the dead. She figures it out that the girl drowned. She asks the officer where he found the dead. He reveals the dead was floating in the moat. He guesses she’s a maid in the palace, according to her dress. Maomao learns the reason why Quack Doctor was taken there.
Maomao takes a look at Quack Doctor who looks scared. He asks her to have an autopsy for him. She rejects it because someone told her not to touch bodies. Jinshi shows up with Gaoshun. He’s surprised after he heard the girl’s words. He sees that Maomao saw many bodies before. He wonders why she doesn’t touch bodies. She reveals the teacher who taught her medical skills asked her not to do that. She mentions the human body can be a medicine. Maomao and Luomen had a talk about body at home. He suggested that she shouldn’t touch the body because he worried that she will go to dig a grave.
SEE ALSO: The Apothecary Diaries Episode 8 Recap: Wheat Stalks
Jinshi learns the reason why Maomao refused to check the body. He asks Quack Doctor to do the job. Quack Doctor reluctantly accepts the order. Maomao returns the office with Jinshi. He reveals the girl climbed over the wall and she killed herself, according to what the guard said. But Maomao thinks the girl couldn’t do it on her own. Because there was no ladder at the wall. She mentions Consort Fuyou climbed over the wall. But the maid was foot-bound.
Maomao Suspects The Maid Was Murdered
Jinshi wonders if the maid was killed by someone since she didn’t kill herself. Maomao cannot make a judgement. But she knows the girl fell into the moat when the girl was alive. She grabbed the wall many times for climbing up. Her fingertips were red with blood. Maomao walks to the flowers. She holds the flowers. She claims that she wouldn’t kill herself if she was the maid. She wouldn’t let others kill her because she wants to taste medicine and poison. She wonders what kind of poison she needs to use if she’s going to die.
Jinshi is nervous after knowing Maomao wants to die. But he’s told that she doesn’t have the guts. She thinks some people have to die. She mentions Haoran. She tells Jinshi that they cannot change their fate. She asks him for a poison punishment if she will be punished. She knows he will punish her if she makes a mistake. She mentions she’s just a civilian. She thinks her life isn’t important. Jinshi claims that he won’t do that. Maomao leaves his office. A few days later, Gaoshun reports to Jinshi that the culprit was Fengming at the Garnet Pavilion. Fengming is the chief maid of Consort Ah-Duo.