Maomao doesn’t expect that the bizarre cases happen frequently in the palace. She finds the consort’s dead body in The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 Episode 3. She just attended the consort’s funeral. Jinshi begins to look into it after knowing Consort Jin is dead.
Jinshi is told that Consort Jin died of poisoning. Consort Gyokuyou knows Consort Jin is dead as well. Although she heard the lady had been bedridden, the accident makes her feel uneasy. She was poisoned when she was pregnant last time. She thinks someone will have evil intention. The maid reports to Consort Gyokuyou that Jinshi visited her.
Quack Doctor tells Maomao that the maid Tao is missing. The kid worked hard and a high official had feelings for her. She goes missing before she gets married. Maomao doesn’t know what to do. She had an easy life recently. She almost forgets that she’s in the swirl. There’re two thousand ambitious women in the bustling palace.
She sees Jinshi who’s talking with Consort Gyokuyou. Jinshi takes Maomao away because he doesn’t wish Consort Gyokuyou to know the secret. The novel which was released by Emperor spreads in the palace. The maids who cannot read had a plan to learn to read. Jinshi decides to set up a school for letting the maids study. Maomao agrees to Jinshi’s plan. It stuns him.
But she thinks it’s not a good idea to set up the school in the south courtyard. Because there’re many consorts appearing there. They think they’re superior and they will be unhappy if they see the maids receiving an education. Maomao suggests Jinshi sets up the school in the north. He needs to claim that it’s just a vocational training. Most of the maids will be interested in it if they know it will help them find a job.
Jinshi mentions the goal he called Maomao there. He asks her to help him distinguish all mushrooms in the palace. He does it for avoiding maids to pass away from eating poisonous mushrooms. Maomao doesn’t understand it. She thinks she doesn’t have to stop all jobs for it.
Maomao goes to the place to pick mushrooms. She’s very happy after she saw the wild herbs. She won’t miss the chance because she thinks the wild herbs belong to her. But she smells weird smell. It’s same as Shisui mentioned. She thinks the mushrooms are lush because of the sewage. She doesn’t know the strange smell comes from a dead body.
Maomao returns home. She’s very dirty. The maid scolds Maomao. But Maomao feels fulfilled because she got a basket of wild herbs. She takes a bath. Hongniang asks Maomao to attend someone else’s funeral. Consort Gyokuyou wears a black belt around her wrist.
Maomao is told that the dead is a middle level consort Consort Jin. Hongniang and Maomao are on the way to the funeral. Hongniang reveals Consort Jin hated most of the consorts because she didn’t sleep with Emperor. She hurt Consort Gyokuyou who was pregnant.
But Consort Jin stayed in her room because she had skin ulcers. Hongniang heard that the consort passed away because of food poisoning. There’re many consorts coming to be condolence of Consort Jin. Maomao realizes that Jinshi asked her to distinguish poisonous mushrooms because of it. She guesses that he thought the people of Jade Pavilion did it because of the resentment of Consort Gyokuyou and Consort Jin.
Consort Gyokuyou wouldn’t do that because she was pregnant. Other maids didn’t have the ability to poison. It’s Maomao’s turn to do her condolence. She notes that the maid gets a rash on her hand. Consort Jin lies in the coffin. Maomao cannot see anything wrong.
A disfigured consort opens the coffin. Consort Jin and the consort have same symptom. They all have skin ulcers. Maomao realizes that Jinshi wished her to find the mastermind. But she almost knows the truth. The mad consort is the low rank consort Consort Son. Emperor went to her room many times because she’s pretty. But she had a weird disease one day. She had a massive rash on her face. She lost her position and she was locked up in the cold palace.
She brought trouble to Consort Jin’s funeral because she thought Consort Jin poisoned her. She’s mad after she found out that Consort Jin is like her.
The next day, Maomao goes to the wasteland in the north again. The difference is that she wore a mask. Because the mushroom is highly toxic. She will feel uncomfortable if she touches it. Maomao finds the highly toxic stuff soon. A red mushroom. Maomao packs it up and she brings it to Jinshi.
Maomao is hurt by the mushroom even if she’s full armed. Jinshi worries that Maomao’s face is changed. Maomao feels speechless because she thinks the point is to look into Consort Jin’s cause of death. Jinshi tells Maomao what he knew.
Two years ago, Consort Son had a disease suddenly. There was a rumor that Consort Jin poisoned Consort Son. But the evidence couldn’t be found. One year later, Consort Jin had same symptom. She couldn’t speak. She was suspected to hurt herself when she poisoned someone. Consort Jin killed herself with poison because she couldn’t take it, according to what her maid said.
The words are reasonable. But Maomao sees flaws. Consort Jin’s death is abnormal. The red mushroom is poisonous substance. The person who eats it will pass away instantly. But Consort Jin’s body doesn’t have symptoms of poisoning.
Maomao heard the mushroom can cause inflammation. But she never heard it will reach face. She makes a judgement that the inflammation appeared recently. It looks like that it was caused by cloth applying on the face. But there’s no inflammation on the hands.
Jinshi cannot stand it because Maomao didn’t mention the point. Although she guessed the truth, she needs to confirm it. She doesn’t tell him the answer and she asks him for some loyal officials. He knows she’s going to go to collect evidence.
Maomao visits the palace for gathering the information. She takes the offices to the north. She finds the source of the weird smell. Although Gaoshun doesn’t understand it, he listens to Maomao. The people find a skeleton. They report it to Jinshi.
Jinshi confirms that it’s Consort Jin’s dead body after he looked into it. Maomao speaks out her inference. Consort Jin passed away one year ago. The dead who pretended Consort Jin was the missing maid Tao. Because Tao is like Consort Jin.
The mastermind knew it. So she let Tao pretend to be Consort Jin. She knew Tao will leave palace one day. She killed Tao. Maomao thinks the mastermind is Consort Jin’s personal maid. Because she took care of Consort Jin everyday so that she should recognize her.
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There’s another possibility. Consort Jin was jealous of Tao because Tao is like her. So she bullied her. Tao killed Consort Jin after she got angry. She pretended to be Consort Jin. But it’s very unlikely. Why did she disfigure herself and become a dead? Maomao suspects the first possibility.
The episode ends with Maomao thinking there was someone behind it. Jinshi wonders how did Maomao know the location of the dead body? She takes out the mushrooms she picked. She’s very happy and she has a long talk. But she says something wrong. Jinshi suspects the mushrooms. She realizes that she made a mistake. But it’s too late. He takes away her mushrooms.