#Lihua

[inatafortuna]

She is so cute x3

[realrosielol]

Don’t let the narrative fool you it is MAOMAO’s harem

[burnt-venus]

The slap was so good, way better than I expected, the crowd stood up and cheered lady Lihua as she went into action

You know a slap was worth it when both cheek and had are left red and numb

Lihua chose violence and we love her for that

[fangirlingpuggle]

A very very dumb Apothecary diaries AU where Lakan checks in on Fengxian before he leaves finds out she's pregnant. She can't go with him or marry him yet but instead while he goes abroad to study she stays with Luomen helping him set up pharmacy after he's cast out from his family.

She and Lakan stay in regular contact through letters, both of them gushing over letters only for someone top look over their shoulders and see letter is only a move in go They're playing long distance each letter is just the next move. At least until Maomao is born the Fengxian includes scribble drawings Maomao does or hand prints...Lakan office and room are full all walls covered in them.

The two reunite and although they live with La clan and Lakan gets headship but they still visit Luoman and the visit Verdigris house (Madame still hastes Lakan but they send good business recommending them to high ranking officials). So Maomao still has her big sisters and still learns about medicine and poison from Luomen.

She still tests on herself , Lakan freaks out but Fengxian trusts her daughter just makes sure they have plenty of antivenom and antidotes ( Basically every room in the LA family state has an emergency draw for if Maomao has had poison again)

Maomao doesn't get kidnapped, she ends up in rear palace because consort Ah-Dou she can see that Lishu is struggling she can't intervene or protect her within her own court so she contacts Fenxian who she's met at functions other the years.

Ah-Dou- Fengxian you have a daughter correct. Is she as terrifying as you?

Fenxian: Of course

Ah-Dou: May I please request a favor?

Maomao enters Lishu's court not as a noble but as a lady in waiting (and the food tester, it's how she agreed to it)

Maomao: Do I really need to go into court I want to make medicine

Fengxian: You will be testing food for poison

Maomao:....deal

She of course see's the bullying in the court and instantly Nopes, she does totally overhaul terrifying Lishu's ladies in waiting and getting rid of them, she spends time around other servants and ends up recruiting other servants as new ladies in waiting ones who will actually care for and protect Lishu. Full big sister Maomao mode with Lishu.

She keeps an eye on other departments dressing as a maid while moving around to avoid suspicion and still see's the confrontation between Gyokuyo and Lishu and sends the messages with torn dress (She didn't get chance to change and couldn't go into their pavilions in her lady in waiting clothes)

She gets dragged in the room with other maids also, she kinda gets stuck and pulled in and meets Gyokuyo having to admit so sorry can't be your lady in waiting already Lishu's. Jinshi suddenly puts together about the totally change in ladies in waiting and promotion of other servants. Jinshi is very curious but Maomao is able to divert attention.

Gyokuyo still wants to see Maomao and so she moves between both her and Lishu and gets Lishu to spend more time with Gyokuyo the two getting along well.

She also helps Lihua as before and then she is basically going between 3 of them and the 3 consorts spend time together... Lihua and Gyokuyo figure out who Moamao is but they're not saying they want to keep Maomao around and also they are all shipping Jinmao and enjoying watching this soap opera.

The banquet happens but Maomao is of course Lishu's food tester not Gyokuyo's but none of the old ladies in waiting are there to bully Lishu and swap bowls so Moamao still gets poison. (She 100% tried to get to test food for all 3 consorts ... they didn't let her)

Lakan still trolls Jinshi because he's seen letters Ah-Dou and others sent Fengxian keeping her updated and is suspicious about Jinshi and his precious daughter. (Fengxian and Jinshi are planning the wedding already)

When Maomao is still dismissed after the poisoning is revealed and Jinshi is super upset and sulky until fancy banquet and high ranking personnel and then sees Maomao again as daughter of head of La clan...

Maomao: I suppose you are upset than I hide my identity

Jinshi:...

Jinshi:Yes very upset (he says hypothetically ignoring looks he is getting form the emperor and Gaoshun)

She still comes back to rear place (The consorts missed her so much... plus they have a betting pool... a lot of people are in it Fengxian has a board plotting moves so the 2 get together when she's bet...while Lakan is pouting in corner that no one deserves their baby girl)

(Light Novel spoilers

Lahan is raised as Maomao's brother and adores his sister, the two are chaos gremlins her making medicines and him plotting how to self and market them

He is also adored by Verdegris house the beloved little brother... also everyone is pretty sure he and Maomao are twins they know there was only 1 baby but... they're sure the 2 are siblings.

The madame also adores him both coming up with schemes for money and he happily does the accounting when they visit (they're sure he's her favorite)

When Jinshi sees them together before knowing they're related he thinks the 2 might be a couple, Gaoshun is face palming and despairing while the courtesans are losing it laughing)

[instantcollectornerd]

[gabbyp09]

[sairusboom]

🫐 🍑

[nezuxi]

[moth2uhflame]

It’s been awhile but I’m writing a little something again, here’s the outline:

[kittytudor]

something i really love about “the crystal pavillion, for the third time” is the fact that the entire plot only happens because a servant was ill.

most of the mysteries maomao solves are related to high ranking officials or concubines, and if they aren’t, they usually happen in such strange circumstances that it’s impossible to not suspect potential foul play. in contrast, this episode’s mystery isn’t even really a mystery at all. a servant girl got sick with a rather common and treatable type of illness, and was put in isolation by her boss. on surface level, it’s as low stakes a plot as it could get. in the imperial court, servants are merely tools that can be replaced once they die. their lives are not seen as valuable, as even maomao acknowledges.

and yet, it is this unknown, nameless servant girl who becomes shin’s downfall. maomao may have had her suspicions about shin and the perfumes, even before this episode, but she had nothing concrete to go on. she couldn’t accuse a high ranking concubine’s chief attendant of trying to harm a preganant concubine with no evidence (at that point, she didn’t even know who shin’s target was). shin may have been a lot of things, but she was no fool, she was an incredibly intelligent woman who knew how to cover her tracks well, which is why maomao had to goad a confession out of her in order to prove her guilt. she’s arguably one of maomao’s cleverest adversaries yet, after suirei and lakan!

but shin’s fatal flaw is pride. she believes she’s better than lihua and she believes she’s better than a mere servant girl. so she cruelly uses her as a means to an end in order to hide the forbidden perfumes through the smell of her sickness. and in the eyes of the palace law, she is not committing a crime either. a servant girl’s life is nothing compared to the life of a high ranking concubine. who would even notice she’s missing? who would care if she quietly died?

but people did notice. the clinician noticed the maid had been missing and was worried enough to ask maomao to look into it. the other crystal pavillion servant loved her friend so much she planted flowers outside the shed because she hoped it would help her get better, which was the key clue that made maomao realize that’s the place where the servant is locked up. all of shin’s machinations get revealed because she refused to treat a servant girl as someone who mattered. it’s such a powerful message and i love it.

[roaroarke]

Heavy stuff in this week's Apothecary, and the culmination of a few background details that are gaining prominence now that the series is exploring Jinshi's origins

When Maomao breaks down the balance of power within the inner palace, she notes that Lihua and the Emperor are cousins from his maternal line (almost all of his paternal i.e. the imperial line was wiped out in a pandemic). This makes her Empress Dowager Anshi's niece or second cousin, or maybe something even more screwed up given her family's practices grooming concubines for the emperor.

The Apothecary Diaries talks a lot about power through the language of patronage, and it frequently draws parallels between Maomao's upbringing in a brothel and the inner palace where ladies are gathered for the emperor's harem. She's outright stated that a respectable brothel won't allow customers to retain one of the apprentices until she's later in her teens, noting this is for her longevity/health. Despite that, Maomao knows that child trafficking happens, and when the pedophile is the emperor himself, the systems will warp to suit his preferences so they can continue to enjoy that patronage, just as Shishou has now sent his daughter because the current emperor doesn't like him as much as the previous one did. This kind of practice can't come without some kind of ramifications down the line, like-

actually to avoid spoilers I'm going to cut off these thoughts and be grateful that Maomao enjoys a much gentler form of patronage than we've seen through the series, though she didn't always

[void-lioness]

I really wanted to see Lihua deck this bitch.

You go, Lihua. 👏🏾

[coldinternetllama]

Maomao lecturing Shisui about societal norms and harassment when harassment is exactly what she does to Lihua's ladies in waiting whenever she steps her foot in the Crystal Pavilion is so damn hypocritical, love her for it

[celestial14]

what lihua did was rather merciful compared to what could've happened. instead of letting shin be executed for the attempted murder of the emperor's child, she accused shin of angering her and fired her because of that, allowing shin to leave the rear palace humiliated, but alive.

AHHHHH THAT ENTIRE EP WAS SO GOOD AND I LOVE TO SEE MAOMAO GETTING ANGRY, LIHUA STANDING UP FOR HERSELF, and dam lihua really needs to recheck all her servant girls...

[fangirlingpuggle]

Yet another Apothecary diaries AU/Fic prompt where Maomao is raised by Lakan and Fengxian (Like in other AUs here and here)

Only she never kidnapped, Lakan and Lahan heard rumors about the consorts children being sick Maomao instantly starts putting pieces together and wants to check is it could be face powder.

Lahan: Sorry sis can't just walk in the rear palace and check men aren't allowed

Moamao:...

Lahan:...

Lahan:I am not helping you sneak into the rear palace

Maomao: I will let you start selling some of my antidotes

Lahan:... Ok so how are we sneaking you in to rear palace?

Maoamao sneaks in confirms suspicions and leaves notes then sneaks back out. Jinshi is very confused why he can't see the servant he saw before she seems to have disappeared.

Only they aren't as sneaky as they think emperor puts two and two together because he has heard Lakan bragging about his amazing daughter many many many times before. He actually doesn't mind because Lakan is the only person who will talk about their daughter without trying to convince him to make them a consort.

So when Lihua gets sick he asks Maomao to help. Jinshi is so confused when he sees her and just starts getting to know her more.

She keeps disappearing then reappearing to solve mysteries (In disguise every time she uses same disguise when visiting her uncle/her sisters)

The thing is Maomao is still going to formal events with her family and Jinishi is sometimes there and he has not figured out who she is.

Maomao thinks he's already figured it out and there are so many misunderstanding and miscommunication.

The emperor and all the consorts know who she is and the consorts call her other for problems/ to just talk and because they are all enjoying with fucking with Jinshi (At least Gyokuyou and she has dragged Lihua into her favorite pass time of watching this chaos)

Bonus Loulan and Maomao have met before in both formal and non-formal settings and just a very awkward moments when they recognize each other.

Extra bonus: Lakan busting into the emperors office

'WHY DID YOU TAKE MY DEAR DAUGHTER TO THE SHRINE OF CHOOSING!??'

[allen1-4scale]

Fanart de Lihua The apothecary diaries