Sweet baby girls.
What They Say:
Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she’s sold as a lowly servant to the emperor’s palace. But she wasn’t meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she’s making a name for herself solving medical mysteries!
E38 – The Dancing Ghost
Concubine Lishu reports sightings of a ghost in the baths in her pavilion. Maomao goes to investigate.
E39 – Ice
Xiaolan accidentally ruins an expensive block of ice. Maomao comes up with a delicious backup plan.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I still don’t like the new opening animation and the weird CG mask. Oh well, what can you do?
Maomao can’t just offer her help to Lishu. She is, after all, in the service of a rival consort. So she instead suggests that Lishu approaches Jinshi for assistance, who arrives to request the help of Maomao. (With much teasing from all sides. Sometimes doing the right thing requires sacrifice.) The group investigates Lishu’s private bath and discovers several disturbing things.
For one, her new pavilion was shoddily made and has mold issues which haven’t been reported. Gross. For another, her ladies-in-waiting are still mean girls and are now led by a particularly ugly and extremely mean girl. At least Lishu’s former taster is now a firm confidant after she inadvertently saved her from death while attempting to poison her.
The ghost haunting the bath is straight out of a haunted house, and by that I mean it was an illusion. A very interesting illusion but a disturbing one. More disturbing is just how young Lishu looks when she is all dolled up and bawling. It is so extremely fucked up that she has been forced into this position as a political ploy by her family. At least she has Maomao and Jinshi looking out for her in ways that only they can. I wish Maomao could have found an excuse to smack the ugly bitch around some though.
After a short interlude of Jinshi agonizing over bringing Maomao into his inner political circle, we learn that Maomao doesn’t know how to admit she has friends. When Xiaolan crashes into a servant transporting ice to deliver to consort Loulan. Xiaolan figures her life is over and Maomao knows that could be a very literal threat. Thus begins a race against time to somehow salvage the situation.
I must admit it was easy to see the solution that Maomao adopts coming from a mile away. However, watching her rescue her friend with ice cream was delightful. Plus, the girls got to lick the bowl when they were done. Crisis deliciously adverted!
The real crisis is that in casual conversation Maomao learns that the soon due Gyokuyou’s baby in utero hasn’t turned yet. An exam later confirms it. This results in Maomao making a direct plea and suggestion for her father (actually great-uncle) to return to the palace to make sure the child is born safely. The situation of his return plays out far more calmly and less dramatically than I expected. I appreciate the very real discussion about the dangers of the pregnancy and the possible need for a c-section.
In Summary:
Maomao to the rescue once again. This time she’s taking point on rescuing some of her juniors from threats both real and imaginary. Just when I thought things were getting better for Lishu we learn that she is still being treated with a massive amount of disrespect. Likewise, Xiaolan almost ruins her chances of a future by spilling a precious resource. Add to that the stress of being forced to keep Jinshi’s secret and I can’t say that I envy Maomao right now. Especially since there is clearly a nefarious plot afoot in the background against the consorts. Man, I love this show.
Episode Grades: B+, B+
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
