01x11 - Reducing Two to One

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THE APOTHECARY DIARIES

THIS STORY IS A WORK OF FICTION.THE NAMES OF ALL OF THE CHARACTERS,ORGANIZATIONS, AND SO ON ARE IMAGINARY.

EPISODE : REDUCING TWO TO ONE

A letter from Concubine Gyokuyou?

Yes. I was ordered to deliver it directly.

Lady Ah-Duo is away on a tea party.

There's something I would like todiscuss with you, Lady Fengming.

I understand.

The luggage is all packed up.That must mean, as I thought...

Please.

So, what did you need today?

We've finished cleaning this place.

When are you moving out?

You're a smart one.

The big clean-up was an excuse.

In order to welcome a new high-rankedconcubine during the new year's celebration,

Concubine Ah-Duo must leave this palace.

Concubine Ah-Duo can't havechildren anymore, can she?

What happened when she gave birth?

I fail to see how that's any of your business.

It is my business.

The doctor who attendedthat birth was my father.

My guess is the misfortune wasthat Concubine Ah-Duo,

the prince's concubine at the time,

gave birth at the same timeas the empress dowager.

When is the doctor coming back?!

He's still at the empress dowager's.

Lady Ah-Duo!

Lady Ah-Duo, it's all right!Fengming is by your side!

The empress dowager was given higher priority,

and Concubine Ah-Duo's childbirth had to wait.

Lady Ah-Duo.

That must have been whenConcubine Ah-Duo lost her uterus.

The child that was born to ConcubineAh-Duo then passed away soon after.

Lady Fengming, are youblaming yourself for that?

You must have been the one taking care ofthe baby instead of Concubine Ah-Duo.

You've figured it all out,

despite being the daughter of the quackwho couldn't help Lady Ah-Duo.

You're right.

...LUOMEN, EXPELLED...

It's thought that the causeof the baby's death was

the same toxic make-upfrom the other incidents,

but that's not the case, is it?

That doctor you call a quackmust have banned that powder.

You're a wise person. You wouldn'thave let the baby die from that.

The real cause of death was this.

Many flowers have poison in them,

like aconite or azalea.

Their nectar can be poisonous, too.

I am aware.

But back then...

you weren't.

You didn't realize regularhoney with no poison,

the medicine you thought was good for health,

can be harmful to a newborn baby.

Thank you for your help as always, Fengming.

It's no trouble at all, Lady Ah-Duo.

Please rest and recover soon.

And thus, Concubine Ah-Duo's child passed away.

The cause was treated as a mystery.

My father Luomen, the attendingdoctor at the time,

was blamed for the repeated mistakes,including the one at childbirth.

He was expelled from the rear palace.

But later on, you accidentally learnedthe true cause of the baby's death.

Someone taught you that honey can bepoisonous to infants, didn't they?

You had to make sureConcubine Ah-Duo didn't find out.

She couldn't know you werethe one who k*lled her only child.

So, you tried to eliminate them.

That person is...

Concubine Lishu.

During the previous emperor's reign,

Concubine Lishu was close toConcubine Ah-Duo, who was her elder.

Concubine Ah-Duo was alsofond of Concubine Lishu.

A young girl, taken from her parents,

and a woman who could no longer give birth.

There may have been a type ofcodependency developing.

During that time, you learnedfrom Concubine Lishu

that she almost d*ed eating honey as a baby.

To make sure Concubine Ah-Duonever heard that story,

you started to chase Concubine Lishuaway from the Garnet Pavilion.

Later, the previous emperor passed away,

and Concubine Lishu was forced to leave therear palace, unaware of why she was chased out.

You must have felt quite relieved.

But Concubine Lishu, who youthought you'd never see again,

returned to the rear palace.

As another high-ranking concubine.

As a thr*at to Concubine Ah-Duo's status.

That insolent child tried to visitConcubine Ah-Duo many times,

as if trying to be with her mother.

To protect Concubine Ah-Duo,who is incapable of childbirth,

and to hide the issue with the honey...

You poisoned Concubine Lishu's soup.

What do you want?

There's nothing.

Anything. Just ask.

You must know that's meaningless.

Hey. Do you know what's most preciousto the person most precious to you?

The moment I met Lady Ah-Duo,

I knew I would never serve anyone else again.

Despite being a woman,

she had a strong will, and the abilityto speak on even grounds with the prince.

I had nothing but the deepestrespect for Lady Ah-Duo.

Compared to me, who just followed myparents' orders to become a lady-in-waiting,

she was such an astonishing person.

Despite that, I...

I took what was most preciousto her with my own hands...

I took him away!

The baby that Lady Ah-Duo loved so dearly!

With these hands!

Back then...

Lady Ah-Duo told us this.

Do not blame yourselves for this.

Babies can die for anyreason until they're seven.

Even the slightest illnesscan easily k*ll them.

My baby simply followedthe will of the heavens.

And yet, I knew she criedherself to sleep every night!

What was her mental state like, as she servedLady Ah-Duo for the past sixteen years?

Without having her own partner,sacrificing everything for Concubine Ah-Duo...

I can't relate.

I don't have it in my heartto keep someone so close.

If he hears my story, Master Jinshiwill surely apprehend Fengming.

There's no way she'descape capital punishment.

She's a smart woman. She knows all of that.

I have a suggestion.

The only thing I can do is to takeyour two motives and make it one.

It won't change the results.

But if that's still preferableto you, please hear me out.

So tired...

A bath... No, it's too late for that.

Guess I can at least get changed.

I wore layers of stiffenedoil paper, just in case.

Glad I didn't need it.

Getting slashed would hurt.

And so, Fengming turned herself in.

Do you know anything about it?

What do you mean?

I heard you had Gaoshuncollect some information.

Yes. I'd hoped to figure somethingout, but it was all for naught.

Fengming's motive, as you said,was to try to make sure

Concubine Ah-Duo could stay in theposition of one of the four concubines.

I see.

But Concubine Ah-Duo has already beendetermined to leave the rear palace.

She'll live in the detachedpalace to the south.

Does this incident haveanything to do with that?

No, the decision was made a while ago.

It was the emperor's call.

I see.

This flower.

Hongniang came by earlier to put it on display.

Yes, it's out of season.

It's sweet.

Poisonous, though.

It's not lethal. Don't worry.

My suggestion to Fengming, back then...

The poisoning of Concubine Lishu.The cause of death for the baby.

If these two motives become one,

she could hide the cause of the baby'sdeath from Concubine Ah-Duo.

Even if her own death is inevitable...

That was the best I could do,as a girl with no power.

I can't sleep.

Maybe I'll take a walk.

Fengming was ex*cuted.

Concubine Ah-Duo is set to leavethe rear palace tomorrow.

Oh, someone b*at me here?

You're that girl who cameto help clean the other day.

I'll leave right away.

No.

Care to join me for a drink?

Whoa! Booze!

Thank you very much.

Pretty masculine, aren't I?

I feel like you're givingthat impression on purpose.

You're an honest one.

After my son left me, I becamethe emperor's friend, not his concubine.

Or rather, I returned to being his friend.

I never thought I'd become a concubine.

I was a concubine in name only,given the role out of pity.

I wanted to hand it off to someoneelse as soon as possible.

Why cling to it for so long...?

She probably would have said the samethings to whoever she'd met up here.

It must have been cold in that water.

It must have been painful.

You're probably right.

Stupid, don't you think?

Perhaps she was.

We're all stupid.

Perhaps we are.

I think I get it now.

That servant was indeed a su1c1de.

Concubine Ah-Duo noticed that.

Maybe Fengming helped set it up.

To take suspicion away from Concubine Ah-Duo,

the servant chose to sink downinto the cold water.

To keep her secret hidden,

Fengming chose to step up to the gallows.

Regardless of ConcubineAh-Duo's own wishes,

there are those whosacrifice their lives for her.

I should go now, too.

What are you doing?

Ow... Who's that? You startled me.

My bad.

Master Jinshi? Why are you here?

I should ask the same of you.

I'm sorry. I'll get up now—

Could you let go?

Let go, please.

Don't wanna. It's too cold.

You'll catch a cold without a coat.Please go back to your room.

Are you drunk?

I had to. I was sharing a drink with someone.

Sharing, huh?

The host invited me to drink,

loaded me up full of booze,

then just took off.

When she finally came back,

she told me she was satisfiednow, and threw me out.

I didn't know anyone in this rearpalace could treat this guy like that.

But that's not related to this right now.

I don't want to put up with a clingy drunk.

Wait... Come to think of it,he did catch me as I fell.

Maybe it's rude to just make him let goof me without even thanking him.

Master Jinshi—

Just a little longer.

Keep me warm, just a little longer.

Neither of them seem hungover.

Concubine Ah-Duo, in orderto leave the rear palace,

returns the crown signifyingher as Pure Concubine.

That crown will be bestowed on another girlwho will join the rear palace later.

Ah, I see.

I knew she resembled someone.

It's Master Jinshi.

Those two might as well swap outfits...

Swap...

After my son left me...

"Left me," she said. Not "d*ed"?

I can almost interpret thatto mean he's still alive.

Concubine Ah-Duo's child andthe then-empress dowager's child...

What if the two babies were swapped?

It must have been clear to Concubine Ah-Duo,through her experience in childbirth.

What are you doing?! I musttend to Concubine Ah-Duo...

The empress dowager takes priority!

N-No!

After all, she was just a nurse's daughter,a childhood friend of the prince.

Her son would live a better lifeas the empress dowager's son.

Maybe she wasn't in a stateto decide what was right or wrong.

But if the decision resultedin her son surviving...

That would have been all thatConcubine Ah-Duo could have wished for.

What if people found outthe babies were swapped later?

If that was after the one baby had d*ed,

that would explain why my dad would bephysically punished for not noticing.

And if that were the case,

it would explain why the emperor's youngerbrother is in a delicate position,

and why Concubine Ah-Duo,who's supposed to be a realist,

stayed in the rear palace for so long...

Complete nonsense.An idiotic delusion of a story.

Please, wait!

Lady Lishu!

As always.

As a lonely concubine, to havea lady-in-waiting she can trust...

How reassuring that must be.

Lady Lishu!

At that moment, her masculine, noble facesuddenly took on the expression of a mother.

Here is the list of Fengming's familyand those connected to them.

I heard she was kidnapped and sold off, but...

JADE PAVILIONMAOMAO

Not just some superficial sweetness

I want more warmth than I can even use, oh

Having these selfish idealistic thoughts

I swallowed them again todaybefore putting them into words

Still in my memories,the scent of fragrant olive

The color of twilight in the city

We were laughing...

Filled with sadness,the tears welled up in my eyes

I found a glow during those days

I guess I took everything for granted

The wind was so loud I covered my ears

I gotta stop being like that

Even if I stumble over the words of love

NEXT TIME

NEXT TIMEEPISODE : THE EUNUCH AND THE COURTESAN- Next time: "The Eunuch and the Courtesan."

NEXT TIMEEPISODE : THE EUNUCH AND THE COURTESAN