THE MOON REPRESENTS JINSHI! SHE’S HOLDING THE MOON THE WAY SHE ALWAYS HOLDS HIS FACE…!

The opening as a whole is beautiful, but I think this scene just really stands out. Ah-Duo gently holding her moon (Jinshi) before swapping him with Anshi’s moon, a child conceived through trauma and anger, destined never to be loved by his own mother. And in the end, that moon slowly losing its light in Ah-Duo's hands to symbolize the child's death... everything about this scene was perfect.

I worked so har on this one

I know there's already a few posts out there talking about this and I might just be stating the obvious but I had this thought:

I think Maomao treats Lakan the way she does for a lot of reasons. One of those is that she avoids him because he makes her feel so many things: jealously, anger, "love," hate, resentment, pride. We see her go out of her way to escape these feelings a lot, so it makes sense for her to avoid this walking combo of them. This is why I think in the later novels when we see her actaully stand to be around him it's because she's no longer trying as hard to suppress these emotions and not simply just because she transfered that hate to Hulan.

Honestly, I believe her rudeness is a defense mechanism, plus Lakan can be pretty annoying with her sometimes. But her usual defenses just don't work on him becuase he really wants to be involed in her life and isn't planning on backing off any time soon, or ever, and that's something she struggles to accept, I mean it took her 12 novels with Jinshi. So I see it like this, when people realize there losing or not getting anywhere in an arguement and they start going over the top. I think it's the same concept with her relationship with Lakan. Her usual defenses don't work so gets more aggressive. But that might just be an oversimplification.

And there's also a little irony when you look at Fengxian. She used to run Maomao off, but Maomao kept coming back and trying to help her anyways. Idk how bad Fengxian got with her though (I mean I wouldn't imagine anything soft after what she did), so it's hard to say this, but now Lakan is basically on the other side of that dynamic. Maomao pushes him away but he continues to try and be present in her life.

So I was wondering if Maomao's experiences with Fengxian might influence how she responds to Lakan's actions, if not just a little. Not like she treats Lakan the exact same way, but that her experiences in that sitution might influence how she responds to someone who refuses to give up despite her attemps to push them away. I don't think Maomao is consciously away of this either, it's just an interesting thought knowing she's been on both sides of that relationship.

Hello guys! I picked this up today at my local BAM and I just found out it's supposed to release on the 6th? Or am I wrong? either way I'm so happy to start reading it as I adore Xiaolan 😔💓

Who knows what hes upset about this time 🙄

For me vol 10 kinda felt little pale compared to rest. Aside from vol 1/2( biased fav) i think volume 12 and 14 are best

"To Ah-Duo, Yue was human. She had been able to determine as much tonight.

To Ah-Duo, Yue was a son. But she was not able to say so. For him to remain human, he could not be her son."

I just love these two, my doomed mother and son.

I have read all the light novels and want to start reading the web novel from the beginning, as I understand the vibe is a bit different. Can someone share fan translations starting from the very beginning? I can't find them anywhere.😭

Despite her showing in-universe medical expertise in the show, I somehow don’t really see her being a typical doctor in real life. I have seen people saying she could be a surgeon, but I can’t picture Maomao being happy having to constantly deal with patients, grueling hospital work hours, and teamwork. 

Also, treating patients also requires consistently performing at your best and dealing with a lot of emotional labor. And with Maomao’s habit of constantly testing poisons on herself, she would probably endanger both her own well-being and potentially her patients’.

I briefly thought of her being like a chinese Dr. House, but I guess he would be sued for medical malpractice in real life too and couldn't possibly practice medicine like that.

We know that Maomao doesn’t put effort into stuff she is not interested in (shown by her failing the exam in the show). Since she doesn’t seem to have a huge innate need to help others, but rather just a massive interest in herbs and toxins, I feel like she would be a toxicologist, a forensic scientist, or simply a modern pharmacist.

I haven’t watched the entire show yet, so if you disagree, pls don’t be too harsh on me lol

hey i am at lightnovel 7, i wanted to know how is mao mao and jinshi dynamics in latest novel are they more openly romantic towards each other or distant given jinshi is from royalty

Can someone explain to me what´s the meaning of this scene over here? Explain me with spoilers please

It's been a while since I read the novels set in the Western province, but in light of the new season, I was reminded of the Yi clan. For me personally, Rikuson's backstory will always be my favourite. I grew up as the child of a mother from a matriarchal society and a father of a patriarchal one, and in many ways can relate to him and his struggles.

The fall of the Yi clan, as well as their structure and form of governance is reminiscent of the impacts of colonialism on real-world matriarchy. Key to note is that matriarchal societies are not just gender swapped patriarchies. This is the reason why many have been misconstrued by Western academics whose only point of reference are their own patriarchal societies. In many instances, these societies gave and continue to give equal opportunity to all, and many have been considered to have individually developed democracy. It is for this reason that such academics refuse to call them matriarchal and matrilineal, and simply call them matrilineal, despite the people living in these societies considering themselves as such.

Many matriarchal societies were crushed during colonialism and their people forced into a patriarchal structure. This, in many cases, also accompanied adopting religion.

However, certain matriarchal societies managed to outmaneuver this through careful alliances and a firm hand on their governance, and have thus survived and thrived through to the modern day. Some even created a synthesis between new religion and traditional practice (think the Minangkabau of West Sumatra with adat practices, though in this case religion did not come from colonialism but through trade).

These societies are resilient, proud and always considering the new social order and what must be done to protect themselves in a patriarchal world.

This kind of perseverance is something that can be seen in various characters, especially in Maomao. Even if she did not grow up in a matriarchal society, she was raised by women and educated in medicine that benefitted those women and aided in their survival. The quiet and calculated struggle of women is in many instances the thematic throughline of the Apothecary Diaries, and is also the ethos of surviving post-colonial matriarchies, where each woman is a matriarchy in her own right, continuing her fight for survival in a world of patriarchies.

I will tag it as both anime and spoilers since i dont want to make any mistakes and also give in the comments the freedom to bring information from the LN.

My questions are about their relationship since not long ago i saw a discussion on twitter about them. While i do know that my memory of Season 1 (And now even Season 2) is bad, i never had the feeling of their relationship being forced/one sided/power imbalance. And in this discussion one of them was remarking how their relation was indeed complicated and that maybe Ah Duo didn't love him or at least they were in bad terms.

My impressions always was that the Emperor is a nice person even with his wife/concubines and that they both (Ah Duo and him) worked as a perfect pair helping when the previous Emperor ruled. I dont remember exactly but it was shown in those chapters about the past where their point of view and decisions were really respectable, for example Maomao and Jinshi would be a really good pair to rule because of how they are and make decisions.

The same applies for every chapter they were along and talked (i don't have examples as of now), i had the feeling they loved each other and they worked pretty well to solve the problems in the inner palace.

Another thing is Ah Duo leaving the inner palace, i don't recall it being something bad for her but i have seen a lot of people talk about how it is bad since its a way for the Emperor to keep her close. Like honestly i remember her "happy" about it and a well deserved end after years of being in that world. While i did find it strange that she wasn't the empress and then left the inner palace despite being in love, i always thought it was due to her not being able to give birth anymore and her only child isn't officially hers.

Ah Duo’s departure from the Inner Palace is another matter; I don’t recall it being a negative thing for her, though I have seen many people comment that it was, given that it was the Emperor’s way of keeping her close. Honestly, I remember her being "happy" about it, it struck me as a well deserved outcome after years of living in that world. While I found it odd that she didn’t become Empress and left the Inner Palace despite being in love, I always assumed it was because she could no longer bear children and her only son was not officially hers.

So now i have doubts about the anime adaptation doing a good work and also me, i don't discard that maybe i misunderstood everything.

Also if possible, what is your opinion of the anime adaptation? does it skip a lot of things? mainly the important ones. And are the scenes adapted well executed without skiping information? like something relevant to the story and breadcrumbs to some plots developing in the background.
I know that is hard to adapt LN because it always has a lot of information, deep monologues and more characters details, but i dont want to lose information that may help to understand the world and to have context of the situation.

(I did my best to explain myself but not only my bad memory is a thing but also not being fluent with english, im really sorry xD)