Week 7: 薬屋のひとりごと

Japanese Language Book Clubs
1

Join the Advanced Book Club here!

薬屋のひとりごと Home Thread

Week 7

image

Previous Part: Week 6
Next Part: Week 8

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Names Page Count
Week 7 Apr 9th 「園遊会 其の参」「祭の後」 26

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m behind but still reading
  • I’m dropping this book
  • I’m an hyperkinetic durtle thing, I need to click on polls :durtle_yellow_rodent:

0 voters

Proper Noun Readings

Name Reading Notes Proof
猫猫 まおまお Main character furigana
玉葉 ギョクヨウ One of the four (main) wives (title: 貴妃) furigana
梨花 リファ One of the four (main) wives (title: 賢妃) furigana
小蘭 シャオラン furigana
鈴麗 リンリ Daughter of 玉葉; nickname: 小鈴 (シャオリン) furigana
壬氏 ジンシ 天女を思わせる宦官 furigana
紅娘 ホンニャン head of the maids of 玉葉 furigana
芙蓉 フヨウ 中級妃 furigana
高順 ガオシュン aid of 壬氏 furigana
桜花 インファ maid of 玉葉 furigana
貴園 グイエン maid of 玉葉 furigana
愛藍 アイラン maid of 玉葉 furigana
里樹 リーシュl One of the four (main) wives (title: 徳妃) furigana
李白 リハク mid-ranking 武官 furigana
1 Like
2

Nice, only two chapters this week. I gotta post my Qs for the last chapter still, thinking of.

Also wanted to give a shout-out for the name chart, especially as more maids are named. :\

5 Likes
3

@Naphthalene I hereby urge thee… please reread the two chapters!

Bonus meme for extra motivation:

thisisfine

4 Likes
4
「園遊会 其の参」Ch. 18: a summary

There’s a new named character, a 宦官 called 李白 (りはく).

So there’s a pause from the main event at the garden party/banquet and people (女官, 武官, 文官) are mingling for a bit. Everyone is holding/wearing an ornament with a mark/symbol on it (? 印), and people are exchanging ornaments (if I understood correctly). 桜花 is mentioning that there can be a different meaning to the gesture too :eyes:

Maomao receives a hairpin from both 李白 (as a 参加賞) and 梨花, as well as the one from 壬氏 from earlier, so three hairpins in total. 梨花’s maids and 玉葉’s maids are making the pikachu face watching Maomao and 梨花’s interaction, lol. (Random Honzuki spoiler: Thanks for teaching me 簪, I’ll definitely never forget this kanji, even if I wanted to :P ).

And then the banquet moves on to dinner time. The appearance of 河豚! (good thing I never gave up on wk or I wouldn’t have known this word :P). Maomao is just chilling doing her job as a poison taster, while the other fellow girls are shivering like dry autumn leaves in the wind, scared of being poisoned. And then there’s a change in point of view. Maomao’s vivid expressions are showing us “oh how delicious that soup must be”, but turns out she was mainly getting excited over finding poison in the soup (spoiler for ch. 19 I think: and I guess partly because the poison itself was pretty delicious too, hehe).

4 Likes
5
Summary

The mark is there to show who it came from. Basically, men are giving those to women, as a mark of interest (but it can be just to be polite, too).

Honestly, I feel like that’s unreliable narration. While 李白 does seem like he is going to give one to literally every girl in sight, I feel like he wouldn’t mind if 猫猫 (as she looks right now at least) was interested.

Well, 猫猫 does love poison :eyes:

3 Likes
6
Summary

Hehe, I was also thinking that might be the case.

Certified mad scientist :rofl:

1 Like
7
Ch. 19: a summary + thoughts/questions

Maomao, our hero, makes sure no one at the banquet gets poisoned, well, except for this one 大臣 who for some reason couldn’t keep away from the soup.

壬氏 arrives at the scene and drags our hero Maomao to the infirmary? office? kind of place so she can rid her body of the poison she tasted. Meanwhile, Maomao would rather have more of the sweet sweet soup. Also, she notices that something about 壬氏 is different from usual. He’s not being a sparkly fairy anymore.

Maomao, internally: “So the sparkles can be cured?! Gotta make sure to tell 高順 to only bring him over in this kind of non-sparkly state.” And then she notices how he seems to be tired and the hem of one (1) of his arms is disheveled, so she’s very sure he did something 不埒 while not attending the cold banquet :eyes: She’s probably reading too much into it xD

At the office/infirmary room, something about allergies and 里樹 (リーシュ) getting rashes whenever she eats seafoods. (I thought this was going to be about the previous rash incident, not allergies, lol.)

One of her maids seem to be a bit sus (maybe I’m reading too much into it? the part where Maomao is thinking 連れてきた侍女は毒見の女だった。あの笑っている女である。Along with the part where 壬氏 is asking なんで、わざわざ毒見の侍女を同室させたんだ？ but Maomao’s answer is not really confirming anything.)

I feel like I’m missing some vital information, but maybe it is supposed to be like that? :thinking: #languagebarrier

4 Likes
8
Answer?

She is absolutely sus. As 毒見, she has to know about the allergies AND she had to notice the food contained stuff 里樹 can’t eat. But instead of saying it’s inappropriate (which was her job), she gave the green light (while laughing about it).

1 Like
9

oho, that’s super sus! :eyes:

I’m glad I’m taking some time to reflect and go through the content I’ve read. Easier to notice what I know and what I don’t know :grin: Haven’t been too active in the book clubs I’ve joined so far.

2 Likes
10

Just here to say that I enjoyed the banquet and post-banquet chapters. Still took me forever to get around to reading them, but at least they were interesting. I love how Maomao enjoys the poison to the point that someone else got poisoned for thinking she wasn’t serious and then later wants to try someone else’s medicine so badly that she’s willing to deal with (perhaps even enjoying) the effects such as they are. She’s one interesting character.

4 Likes
11

Yes! That part of the story is my favorite in the first book and actually sold me on 猫猫 and the series as a whole. I wanted to mention it before, but I know you hate spoilers, so I (mostly, I guess?) refrained. At least I’m pretty sure I didn’t give any details :joy:
I’m glad you liked it too.

3 Likes